BAM! Gone...


Did I mention that the Levitical offerings can be divided into two groups?  the ones that involve blood shed and the one that does not.  The continual burnt offering, the peace offering, and the sin and trespass offerings all involve the slaughter of animals.  The meat offering was the only meat-less offering.  This used to really humor me...The only meatless offering was called the meat offering.  Those of you not using a King James probably have no idea what I am taking about.  In the days of King James, when people shared a meal, they didn’t come for dinner, they came to meat. John Nelson D. simply calls the meat offering an oblation, which is an offering to be used as food.

Did I mention that the Levitical offerings can be divided into two groups? the ones that atoned sins, and the one that was primarily for food.  Each of the blood-shedding offerings made atonement for sins.  The meat offering did not include bloodshed and was for food, not atonement.  Atonement is one of those words that I would like to define.  Here again, my definition, may or may not hold true 100% of the time.

Atonement is simply a covering.  With respect to sacrifices, it is a covering of/for sin.  Offering a sacrifice was like picking up the edge of the carpet and sweeping the sin under it.  The sin is still there, just covered.  Sin again, offer another sacrifice, pick up the edge of the carpet to sweep new sin in.  The old sin is still there, and both are covered.  The process was repeated innumerable times. Atonement was an Old Testament thing.

In the beginning of the Gospel of John, John the Baptist ...sees Jesus coming to him, and says, Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29).  The people that heard this were accustomed to the tabernacle/temple system of worship.  They knew that a lamb (an innocent animal) could be offered as a sacrifice.  The ritual included the laying on of hands (signifying the transfer of sins from the guilty to the innocent); death by bloodshed; sprinkling of blood; and burning of the carcass.  They knew that there was atonement of sin with the sacrifice.  

But John is introducing two new principals, paradigm shifts (TQM, anyone? anyone?) of the ancient world: a person (not an animal) for a sacrifice and the actual removal of sin.  Peek  under the carpet and BAM!  Those sins are gone!

The author of Hebrews explains this further.  For blood of bulls and goats [is] incapable of taking away sins. Heb. 10:4.  For this reason, offerings were made continually, day by day, year after year (Heb. 10:1-2).  The priests job was never done. But when Jesus offered one himself a sacrifice, once, completed the work, and our sins and iniquities are remembered no more (Heb 10:17).  There is no more need for additional offerings (10:18). There is no need for a covering since BAM! sins are gone!

All my sins are gone,
All because of Calvary;
Life is filled with song,
All because of Calvary;
Christ my Savior lives,
Lives from sin to set me free;
Some day He’s coming,
O wondrous, blessèd day,
All, yes, all because of Calvary. -- Wen­dell P. Love­less

Abba Father

Look! A fire! Just outside the camp you spot a fire that is burning wildly with flames leaping into the air. As you approach the smoke….what is that smell? It is awful! It smells like a combination of burning carcasses and burning animal dung. An odor you won’t easily forget.

Before the smell dissipates and before you actually get to the camp, you decide to land and hide the DeLorean. After all, you don't want it to be seen. You land the craft and hide it behind some rocks. You walk away from the vehicle and gaze toward the long line of tents. You observe people going about their business. Kids playing. Men tending to animals. So many tents. You cannot help but stare. As you walk along the line of tents, you spot someone walking toward you. A young man, neatly trimmed beard dressed in a blue and white costume. He was not dressed like anyone else.

He introduces himself as Eleazar, oldest surviving son of the High Priest, Aaron. Eleazar is a priest of the Most High God. Aaron and his four sons were hand-selected by Jehovah to serve Him as priests. He explains that since the death of his older brothers, Nadab and Abihu, he is next in line to be High Priest so that makes him High Priest in Training, or H-PIT for short. He has one younger brother that also serves as a priest.

Jehovah our God is one Jehovah, Eleazar exclaims. How many gods are in your system of worship? He asks.

One, you reply.

Is it Jehovah? Is He your God also?

Yes, He is my God also, you reply. And Jesus answered him, [The] first commandment of all [is], Hear, Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord; (Mar 12:29)

What is your system of worship like?

What do you mean, what is it like?

Well, our system of worship has been dictated by Jehovah to my uncle, Moses. Uncle Moses went up on the mountain for something like 40 days. While he was there, Jehovah gave him all kinds of details, details about how we are to worship Him. Uncle was given a pattern, a pattern of a specified place of worship, the tabernacle. The tabernacle is where Jehovah dwells among us. Does Jehovah dwell with you?

You ponder without speaking… Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and [that] the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which [temple] ye are. 1Cr 3:16-17

Just as you finish, you hear someone call Eleazar’s name. Yes, Abba, Father, Eleazar replies. Abba, Father…that’s the term that Jesus used when talking to His father in the garden when He prayed Abba, Father, all things are possible to thee: take away this cup from me; but not what *I* will, but what *thou* [wilt].Mark 14:36. Abba Father… Doesn’t that have something to do with our relationship with God, the Father? For ye have not received a spirit of bondage again for fear, but ye have received a spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. Rom. 8:15. And …But because ye are sons, God has sent out the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Gal. 4:6.

The Dwelling Places of God

The number 6 reason that tabernacle study should not be neglected is because it It was the the first time God dwelt among His people: And they shall make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them. Ex. 25:8.

The second time God dwelt among His people: And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us (and we have contemplated his glory, a glory as of an only-begotten with a father), full of grace and truth. John 1:14

And what about now? Do ye not know that your body is [the] temple of the Holy Spirit which [is] in you, which ye have of God; and ye are not your own? I Cor. 6:19

Three persons of God in three different dwelling places.

The Shadow Knows

Know the Shadow

The number four reason for not studying the tabernacle is that He takes away the first that he may establish the second (Heb. 10:9). God Himself says that He replaced tabernacle/temple worship, so, why study it?

The tabernacle was a shadow of things to come…If the tabernacle was a shadow and we now have the real thing and the real thing is more excellent (Heb. 8:6), why study the shadow?

For one thing, if we are familiar with the shadow, we will recognize the real thing, and, recognize the counterfeit.

Know the shadow.