FEBRUARY 7
Exodus 26-27
It is probably
a good idea to have a diagram of the tabernacle. In the Bible Knowledge
Commentary-OT, p. 147, you can find one.
By the way,
have you figured out how long a cubit was?
Exodus 26
Vs. 1-29 The
tabernacle was actually the inner tent. The area around the tabernacle was the
courtyard of the tabernacle. God has already described the ark and mercy seat
that go in the Most Holy Place (see the BKC diagram) and the table for the
bread of the Presence and the lampstand which were in the Holy Place. In
chapter 26 God gives Moses the plan for the inner tent, the tabernacle, where
they stood.
Notice the
directions on the diagram. The entrance faced east, so if you were looking at
the entrance to the courtyard or the tabernacle, you were facing west.
V. 30 This
gives you the idea that God also showed Moses visually what it would look like.
Vs. 31-34 This
is the veil that separated the Most Holy Place from the Holy Place. This is the
veil that was torn when Jesus died, showing that mankind could now have full
and unhindered access to the throne of grace, or in this case, the seat of
mercy.
Vs. 35-37
Looking in the Holy Place you would be looking west. On the left (south) was
the lampstand and on the right (north) was the table for the bread of the
Presence. Looking straight ahead you would have seen the veil to the Most Holy
Place. Missing at this point would be the altar of incense that stood in the
middle just in front of the veil. That incense would represent the prayers of
God's people rising up the veil and coming into His presence.
Notice how much
detail and “art” God is putting into the tabernacle. This would be a major
project for the people. They would give all of the jewels and precious metals
and their best craftsmen. The skins had to be cured, cut, dyed and sewn.
Interestingly, God had prepared the people to build this center of worship.
These are the people who built the cities for the Egyptians, so I’ll bet they
had skills. Finding good drawings of the tabernacle, the ark, and the lampstand
will help in your appreciation of the art.
My bent is not
to go overboard when building buildings for churches, but the people who
criticize churches for doing a good job and making the inside and outside look
nice have never spent time reading how God designed His “tent of meeting.”
The tabernacle
would prepare Israel for its national identity. In addition to worshipping only
Yahweh, they would worship Him in only one place, not all over, under every
tree and on every high place, as Israel will do later in idolatry.
By the way,
you’re in for a surprise in your “Tabernacle Construction” reading in a couple
of days.
Exodus 27
Now that the
Holy Place and the Most Holy Place have been described, God describes the altar
and the courtyard. God's presence was in the Most Holy Place. The courtyard
protected the people from approaching God to their own destruction. God was to
be approached through the entrance to the courtyard and then through sacrifice
expressing thanks, repentance and worship. All of this would be symbolic of
what God would provide for mankind in the death and resurrection of His Son.
Vs. 1-8 This is
the making of the altar for sacrifices.
Vs. 9-19 This
is the court of the tabernacle.
Vs. 20-21 You
can see the conditional nature of this covenant with Israel. God promised to be
with them if they obeyed. The lampstand was to burn perpetually. You can see
the symbolism in that, yet the people had to bring the oil. I'm sure they
didn't always bring it, and at different times in their history I'll bet the
light went out.
Yet, God's
promise to save mankind and fulfill the promise to Abraham was without
condition. What the old covenant couldn't do because of the power of sin, the
new covenant has made possible because of Jesus. He has provided forgiveness
and has broken the power of sin for all who are reborn in Him.
Matthew 25:1-30
Yesterday I
mentioned that I thought the “unfaithful” servant could be a believer. I do,
but to be fair to the text and to a normal interpretation, “the weeping and
gnashing of teeth” club would put him into the unbelieving category. Jesus
often told His parables in different situations and to different groups. When
they are applied directly to the Twelve and to those who believed, the impact
was more of a warning for reward and punishment. If you want to see what I
mean, look at Luke 12:35-48. This teaching was for the Twelve, and although
treating a disciple like the unfaithful and dispensing severe punishment was
warned, I don't see that as damnation.
I think
believers in the western world play too much with grace. We fall asleep in the
light. Yes, we are loved and totally accepted and don’t have to do anything to
be absolutely accepted and welcomed into the arms of God, yet God wants us to
work in the harvest with the passion of our Savior.
Both of these
parables are directed to the religiously half-hearted, not to the Twelve. In
Luke 13:23-30 someone, probably one of the many who followed Jesus, asked Him a
similar question. This would have been a couple months earlier. You can see by
Jesus' answer that He was challenging the unsaved followers to become fully
serious as quickly as possible.
Vs. 1-13 This
is the parable of the 10 virgins and has to do with a person's readiness for
the return of Christ. What I’ve appreciated about the Plymouth Brethren is the
healthy biblical emphasis they put on looking for the return of our Savior “for
His own.” Hardly anyone today mentions our expectant waiting, but Jesus taught
it and it is all through Paul’s writing. The first Awana verse I memorized as a
new Awana leader was Titus 2:11-13, For
the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us
to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled,
upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the
appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.
The five
unprepared virgins don’t get in and their condemnation is similar to those
religious persons we found in Matthew 7 who did mighty miracles in His name,
but to whom Jesus said, I never knew you.
Vs. 14-30 The
parable of the talents is interesting because it is told in two different
places. In Luke, Jesus tells it at Zacchaeus’ house, before He enters
Jerusalem. The point is the same; God expects us to invest the truth He has
given us to gain interest, or we would say, to bear fruit. Fruitlessness, by
not expecting the master's return and therefore hiding the truth, signifies a
lack of love and faith in the master.
Applied to that
generation of Israel, they had the truth of God, but did not bring Him the
fruit of a believing nation nor of many nations coming to worship in Jerusalem.
If an
unbeliever is in view, he goes to eternal punishment.
I would still
make some application to us as disciples who are commissioned to follow Jesus
in the harvest. The life of Christ in us is meant to bear fruit. John 15:8 is
important. One sows, another reaps, all work together; but to slide through
without trying is not living in accordance to the love and grace we have been
shown. Making disciples, who make disciples, is not our hobby; it is our
business here on earth.
Our punishment
as believers, if we live in disobedience and do not prepare for His return, is
that we will stand before His judgment seat and see our life’s work burned
away. We will stand in shame before the One who endured the scourging and
spitting of men and the wrath of His Father to bear our sin and give us His
righteousness and life. (Heb. 12:1-13)
Psalm 31:1-8
What a powerful
psalm this is. You feel David's desperation and great faith struggling side by
side.
Vs. 1-2 In all
of the years David was a shepherd, living on the hills with the sheep, he had
no refuge. Now after the couple of years of fame after he killed Goliath, David
is living on the move, in the mountains and in the wilderness, again, without shelter
or refuge. What a brilliant way for the Lord to engineer the need for refuge
into David's heart. This seeking of refuge in the Lord became one of David's
passions and favorite expressions.
Vs. 3-5 While
the first two verses were David's cry for help, these verses express what David
knows to be true about God. David experienced salvation and knew he could
entrust himself to God's care.
V. 5 Notice
that Jesus says the first part of this verse as He dies. Not all of the words
of this psalm can be attributed to what Jesus thought or felt on the cross, but
many of these thoughts would have been what Jesus experienced. Read this psalm
from Jesus' perspective as He is nailed to, hanging from, and taking His final
breath, on the cross.
Vs. 6-8 Verse 6
could be looked at as saying that trusting in anything but God involves some
sort of inappropriate trust in something else. David knew that God's steadfast love was directed toward him. God
not only knew of his suffering, but God kept David 10 minutes ahead of the
hounds.
Proverbs 8:1-11
When I read
this every year, I wonder if my striving to follow, understand, gain wisdom and
hear the Spirit is increasing. I know it is, but if I would have known how much
grief it would have saved me, and how much more enjoyable it is to follow after
God like this now, I would have made a bigger point of it back when I was
twenty. Passion is great, but it can get you into a lot of trouble without the
wisdom the Spirit gives. The trouble is, even with the Word sitting in your lap
and the Spirit living in your heart, you have to want to dig, hear and submit.
If you’re reading along and don’t have a One Year
Bible, click on this link http://www.esvbible.org/devotions/every-day-in-the-word/. If that doesn't work, go to http://www.esvbible.org/devotions/ and click on “Every Day in the Word.”
I'm writing these comments to and for those who are
following a One Year Bible and interested in growing deeper as a disciple,
following Jesus in the harvest. My hope is to see the growth of a discipleship
culture in the church. Groups of 3-4 disciples, meeting weekly, encouraging
each other to follow Christ and work to reach out and make disciples who make
disciples. The Bible itself is the most universal manual we have and key to our
growth and service in Christ. Nothing keeps us more focused on why we are here
or what we are to be doing. My comments are only meant to provide some
explanation of the events or to show the flow of God's plan of redemption. My
comments are in no way exhaustive, but are designed to keep us focused on
Christ and our role in His harvest. My hope is that the people in these groups
will grow in Christ and be willing, after a year, to find 3 others to meet with
and encourage in their growth as disciples, disciples making disciples in the
harvest.
If you would like a complete description of this model
of being and making disciples you can find it in my book: Simply
Disciples*Making Disciples. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B011WJIDQA?*Version*=1&*entries*=0
If you would like a more descriptive commentary that is
still readable and concise, I'd recommend the Bible Knowledge Commentary. It's
keyed to the NIV, so the result is the commentators are constantly telling you
what the Greek or Hebrew is. That never hurts.
I am not endorsing any particular One Year Bible; in
fact, I read something you don't, die revidierte Lutherbibel 1984.
Anyone reading along with us is welcome to do so and is
encouraged to take their own notes and make their own observations. If the
comments made do not agree with your particular tradition or understanding,
that's OK. Nothing I've written is meant to criticize any point of view, but
only to express the truth of what God has written to us, as I understand it.
Send comments or feedback to dgkachikis@gmail.com.
If you would like documents containing an entire month
of the Reading Notes, go to https://sites.google.com/site/dlkachikis/reading-notes. You can download these to use on your computer or to
print.
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