The Tabernacle Tour #3

Anchor scripture: Hebrews 9:1-10

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hebrews%209%3A1-10&version=ESV

Lesson 3

To enter the first part of the Tabernacle - The Holy Place - we must pass through a beautifully ornate veil of blue, purple and scarlet…laced with gold!

There are actually 2 curtains - or veils - within the Tabernacle;

We will not focus on this first one, but on the second one, into the Holy of Holies…because of what is behind it: the Ark of the Covenant.

Only the priests are allowed beyond this point…but we’re going to go in because - 1Peter2:9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

As we go in you’ll see a transfer

From bronze - judgement 

To silver and gold

i)  Silver - Redemption . A standard currency of payment for goods, services…and slaves. (Genesis 37:28; Matthew 26:14-16) Symbolic of our redemption by God, in a temporary state: As born again believers, in corruptible bodies, at war with our sin natures, we eagerly await…

ii)  Gold: Our permanent adoption to sonship and our new heavenly bodies. (Romans 8:23) made pure and perfect in Christ.

Silver = Redemption 

Gold = Sanctification 

Silver is pure but will corode faster then gold, which is a representation of the fulfillment of our salvation in Heaven. 

The Lamp Stand (Menorah)

“That they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” (John17:21)

Behind this first curtain, on the South side of the Holy Place, we see what looks like a golden tree with lamps: This design is deliberate..because like a tree, these lamps get their light from One central source. 

We are drawn to its light, which illuminates everything else in this room. 

Read:

Exodus 25:31-40; https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus%2025%3A31-40&version=ESV

Exodus 27:20-21 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus%2027%3A20-21&version=ESV

John 15.                 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%2015&version=ESV

The Menorah is a beautiful and effective picture of Christ and His Church…how the  body of Christ is supposed to function in this world…

As One New Man, with Christ at the center - who is the source for the Light. 

(Jeremiah 17:5-8)

We see seven lamp stands, which are just like this one, in Revelation ch. 2 & 3.

It is the only source of light within the Holy Place…just as our Light through abiding in Jesus, will be the only source of Light in this dark world where we live…remember John 17

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%2017&version=ESV

Note: There are many different takes on the design of the lamp stand: This is just mine. As with all my Bible studies, I invite the reader to prayerfully do the research for themselves and see what the Lord will do! Enjoy!

3 cups on 6 stems: 

6 = The number of man (humanity)

3 = The threefold Godhead, which is the source of life for redeemed humanity - 2Corinthians13:14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

4 cups on the center (seventh) stem = completion … “It is finished” (John 19:30; Revelation 21:6) And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment.

Symbolizing the perfect union between The Threefold Godhead and redeemed man: 

~A beautiful picture of the end of times - Revelation 21:3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God - 

~A total Sabbath Rest! - Genesis 2:2 And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done.

***The four cups could also symbolize the 4th Commandment…which happens to be: “Honor the Sabbath…

Or the Light of the Gospel to the four corners of the Earth…

Or Jesus the four faced man (Ezekiel 1:6)…which is a Bible study all on it’s own!***

The lamp stand is modeled off the almond tree…symbolic of resurrection: It would be the first tree to blossom, as early as late winter…and when it did so, everyone knew that spring…the resurrection of things that were dead…was near…right at the door.

In the same way as Jesus used the fig tree (Matthew 24:32-33) to tell us “the end is near - right at the door”, the first of the almond blossoms tell us that our new life, through redemption has come.

It is through the early budding of the almond, that we see Jesus Christ, who is the First-Fruit of all creation…the first of all who will rise from the dead - 

1Corinthians 15:20-23…But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.

and the firstborn of many brothers -

Colossians 1:18…And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.

Aaron and his sons would tend the lamps from evening until morning (24/7) so that the light did not go out - a picture of how Jesus, through the Holy Spirit tends to us. 

This is why the warning that Jesus gave to the Church in Ephesus was so serious (Revelation  2:1-7)…we must remain in Christ…with him as our first love - our ONLY source.

(See also Matthew 25:1-13) https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2025%3A1-13&version=ESV

Unlike other objects in the Holy Place, the lamp stand is solid, hammered gold, implying not only the refining of our faith, but the pressure that Jesus Christ Himself has gone through to bring us to this place of oneness with Him (1Peter 1:3-7). The hammered gold, bringing us back to the place where Jesus’s hands and feet would be hammered into the wood of the altar - the Cross.

And we too, in order for our lamps to continually burn, must be refined as gold in a furnace (1Peter1:3-7); forsaking our love for this world and our lives within it. (Read Matthew 25:1-13)

See Lesson 4 @

https://sarahshalom777.blogspot.com/2021/09/tabernacle-tours-4.html?m=1&mibextid=Zxz2cZ