|
Moses
Salutations and Hallucinations to you! Oops.. not hallucinations. That was supposed to be Elucidations! Wouldn't want to get off on the wrong track, here! Hehehehehe....
Let's do something different for today's Coffee Break. Let me take you on a rather different adventure. We're going to go back in time and watch some of what Moses went through after He led Israel out of the Wilderness. This is going to be a two-three-maybe-four-parter as we look at a three-dimensional photograph he and his later successors - David and Solomon - put together to demonstrate the heart of the Lord God to the nation of Israel.
Ready? Then grab your coffee, your tea, or whatever you're ready to imbibe and let's go.
There came a day when Moses, having led Israel out of Egypt, stood atop Mount Sinai. Moses, you see, was an oddity for his generation. Israel had been held in slavery for roughly four centuries, subservient to pharaohs and cruel taskmasters. Until, that is......Moses showed up on the scene.
Reared in the courts of Seti I, who was Pharaoh at that time, Moses was one of those characters who always tried to take things on his shoulders. Raised as an Egyptian, a first cousin to Rameses, and a nephew of the Pharaoh, Moses learned one day that he was a Jew: he was of the house of Israel. Everything was hunky dunky for Moses until that realization dawned on him and he made the mistake of deciding to take matters into his own hands.
Trained and educated in the courts of Pharaoh, he was taught absolute authority. He was, after all, a possible successor to the throne as the grandson of Pharaoh. That made it easy to take things into his own hands when he realized that his people, the children of Israel, were being held against their will under barbarous conditions. Seeing a fight one day between and Egyptian and an Israelite, he did what he was educated to do -- kill! The Egyptian, that is.
No problem.
Until a similar situation arose between two Israelites. He stepped into the middle of the brouhaha......and got the shock of his life.
"Are you going to kill us the same way you killed the Egyptian?"
And Moses ran for his life.
You understand that he stopped to consider things carefully and rationally. After weighing all the possibilities, he made a thoughtful decision.
Uh huh! Riiiigghht! Especially after Pharaoh found out that this...this...this interloper in his household... was supposed to be one of the kids he had commanded to be put to death some forty years before. So after carefully weighing the circumstances, he did what any intelligent, rational, wise person would do: he scrammed!
And Moses ran for his life.
Right into the desert.
For forty years.
In those forty years, he experienced thlipsis. He got married to the daughter of an Arab Sheik, had two kids -- and didn't settle down. Well....maybe he
did.. sort of...but when you are being processed by the Lord, and having to re-learn relationship, and rulership, in the midst of having to un-learn forty years of training in the royal courts of Egypt..... ummmm .....you sort of get the idea. It's called heat! Fire! Pressure! The desert! Thlipsis!
Just what everyone wants to experience.
Uh huhh. Suuuuurre.
(You know what thlipsis is, don't you? That's what the Greeks used for "tribulation" or "affliction.")
Moses! You think it's hot now! Just wait until you try leading six million stubborn hardheads who've been trapped in slavery for hundreds of years. You'll find out what thlipsis is really all about. This is just kindergarten stuff, now.
And Moses learned how to lead -- in the hot desert sands.
And Moses learned how to rule -- in the wilderness.
And Moses learned the nature of sheep -- leading the flocks of his father-in-law.
Yup! He got a graphic lesson in human nature.
And when the Lord called Moses after forty years of this "kindergarten," and said,
"Go back into Egypt and tell Pharaoh, let my people
go," Moses feet were in the air. But not until he got into an argument with God. When God said, "frog," Moses knew his feet ought to be in the air --
now!
There was a problem, though. Even though Moses had grown up in the courts of Pharaoh, been a part of a cruel dictatorship regime and an authority figure in that regime as potential heir to the throne, anyone less than Pharaoh himself was subjected to continual belittlement and verbal abuse. It was synonymous with the era and the nature of Seti's rule.
Moses had lived through this and as a consequence - despite what he had unlearned, and relearned in the presence of the Lord God - was still stuck with an Egypt mentality. As a consequence, he had little confidence in his ability to speak and argued that God ought to take his brother, Aaron, who was more eloquent and use him as the speaker. That would turn into a mistake, but God said, "Sure, Moses!"
God had built more in those forty years with Moses, however, than an Egyptian obedience mentality. God and Moses were friends! They had a relationship together, such as the world had not seen since the days of Adam and Eve.
Moses was an oddity for that generation. Not since the days of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, had there been a man who could speak face to face with the Lord -- and live to tell about it.
So, God spoke; Moses obeyed; God directed; Moses performed. It was a symphony that staggered the ears -- and minds -- of all Israel........and Egypt!
In the midst of the greatest miracles ever seen on the face of the earth, Moses broke the chains which had held his people, Israel -- God's people, Israel -- in servitude. And he led them out of Egypt, at God's direction, through the Red Sea, in the midst of parted waters standing high on either side, to the mountain of the Lord, Mount Sinai.
And Moses is standing atop Mount Sinai. (I think this was where we first began this episode.) The Lord has opened a view for him into Heaven. As revelation is taking place, the Lord says to Moses, "I want you to build a tabernacle -- a portable visual after the pattern I have shown you. This will be a prophetic picture in Israel to show the way to all mankind, how they can escape from the bondage of servitude to that old serpent, Satan. It will present a visual demonstration of how they can once again enter into an intimate relationship with me -- step by step."
What a visual! What a picture! Never before in history had the Lord taken such measures to demonstrate His heart's desire for relationship with, and to, a species of being, who with rare exceptions, couldn't seem to care less. For reasons that were probably lost in the minds of the people, they had forgotten that they were specifically created for Him and for His pleasure. And they had been created in such a manner as to have a choice -- to have a say as to whether they would enter into this relationship or not.
Although they were not created to be God -- that is, to usurp
His place of being and authority -- they had been created to be
like Him, with creative power far beyond the scope of their understanding. They had been given the ability to choose -- or reject -- Him. This is as it should be. The Lord was not looking for a bunch of robots. He was not looking for puppets. And -- He was not looking for more angels to run around to do His bidding. He was after a species of being who would choose Him of their own free will; a people who would, of their own volition, love Him in their entire beings with every breath of their existence.
That meant loving Him in their bodies, their souls, and their spirits. Now this expresses it in reverse manner, but that's O.K. Men had long since ceased to understand, or even perceive, the fact that they were, first and foremost, spiritual beings -- designed to have union with the Lord God, who was also a spirit: in fact, the Spirit of spirits. Thus, the visual set before them likewise established the path through the physical, or fleshly realm as the first step.
It came about, therefore, that Moses built a tabernacle constructed with three realms, or areas, each representing an area of human existence. The Outer Court would represent the flesh, or the body; and there would be sacrifices associated with this realm to demonstrate the laying aside of the flesh and its desires in order to come into the next step of relationship: the soul.
The Holy Place would represent the realm of the soul, the will, the intellect. There would be a different set of sacrifices associated with this dimension which would demonstrate the setting aside of the will, and the intellect. In addition, there would be a revelation -- again, in the form of visuals -- of the nature of the relationship the Lord desired to have with His people. This revelation would take the form of a table, called the Table of Shewbread, with which the Lord would demonstrate His constant care and provision for those who would enter into a love-relationship with Him. There would also be a golden candlestick with a center, and three branches on each side. This would signify several things for those with eyes to see.
It would, of course, be a candlestick with seven flames burning continually, day and night. The flames would represent an undying love on the part of a people whom He would later refer to as His betrothed Bride. The fact that there were seven flames would demonstrate several things: first, that there were seven Spirits of God which represented the totality of His nature; secondly, that He desired a response in each of those seven dimensions; thirdly, that the seven flames would represent the totality of His Bride-to-be; and, finally, that each of the flames would burn, being fed by an oil which was derived through a process of intense pressure and crushing -- thus signifying the path by which true relationship would come.
This golden candlestick stood before the third realm, or partition. It was called The Most Holy Place, The Holy of Holies. The candlestick would represent the flame of love and desire for the very heart of the Lord, which was in the Holy of Holies.
Within the Holy of Holies was placed an Ark. No, it wasn't Noah's Ark, but it represented essentially the same thing: the place of quiet rest and peace that comes in within the true love which can only occur in the Spirit realm.
Within the Ark was placed the stone tablets containing the Ten Commandments, or laws, which God gave to Moses on Mount Sinai. Once again, even within these laws were contained the picture of relationship. The first three commandments related to the vertical love-relationship between the Lord and His people -- commandments which, if they were able to see it, would supersede the other seven, and cause the other seven to become an automatic function of daily living. These three commandments would say, in summation:
"I am your Lord and God, and you will worship and love only Me with your heart, your soul, and your mind."
There would also be placed within the Ark at a later date, the rod (or branch) belonging to Aaron, which budded supernaturally in order that the Lord might demonstrate where His authority was vested. The fact that it was placed within the Ark would demonstrate for all of Israel, that in this place -- that is, the Holy of Holies -- and specifically, within the Ark of the Covenant, the symbol of His marriage vows to Israel -- the place of His heart -- was where all true authority was vested.
Finally, there was a veil which would cover the Holy of Holies: a door. When it was complete,
the Lord shut the door, but not in the same way that He had shut it with Noah. This time, there was an entrance to be obtained. True, entrance was only once a year, or by specific invitation of the Lord to the High Priest only, but it meant that hope for intimate relationship was not lost to God's people.
The Holy of Holies represented the realm of the Spirit. It showed to all people that there was a place where a genuine, personal, intimate love could be experienced once again with the Lord, in the same way that Adam and Eve had experienced in the Garden, and that it would come through worship.
So! There it was! A living, three-dimensional photograph of the Garden. Not only that -- the Lord had even provided a road map for His people, along with the necessary keys to prevent the flaming sword from coming down on them should they try to enter.
Would they see it?
Would they desire that place of relationship with Him?
Would they set aside the Tree of Knowledge in favor of the Tree of Life?
Would they see the need to lay aside their reason, their intellect, their thought processes, their understanding of how things should be, in order to respond to the Lord?
Nope! Not a chance!
Have I got you guessing, yet? Figured out what that veil was for? Do you understand it as a door?
That's OK. Be patient. We'll get there.
One of the things that has often mystified me is how folks today want to separate the Old Testament from the New as if what happened in those days had little relevance to the coming of Jesus Christ, what He did, what He promised His believers and where He is taking us as a people.
Dad used to say to me that the New Testament was the revelation of the Old Testament. That didn't make sense to me many years ago, but I believe that now.
The Old Testament is a picture of the struggles of a chosen people to take advantage of an opportunity given to no other race or nation on earth: an opportunity to return to the Garden - to the intimacy, the friendship, the fellowship that Adam and Eve enjoyed for all those years before they ate of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. It is a picture of missed opportunities, a picture of God's mercy and grace portrayed to and for a people intended to be an example of His Bride in the earth. It is a picture of a cheating Bride, but one the Lord loved despite her adulteries.
It is a picture of some folks who understood what the Lord was after in his people, Israel, and sought with every fiber of their existence to make them understand.
And it is a promise that the Lord was going to reopen the path to personal, intimate relationship with Him through One who would destroy both the Tree and fruit that cost the human race its perpetual relationship.
But that's another story for another day.
Enjoy the rest of your coffee...uhhhh...tea.
Like I've said before, blessings on you! Be blessed in the city, blessed in the field, blessed coming in, and blessed going out! May the work of your hands be prosperous and fruitful today!
There! You're all set!
--Regner
Regner A. Capener
EKKLESIA HOUSE
RR-15, Box 6180
Mission, TX 78574-9589
(956) 583-5355
Chat
with Regner
This article may be reprinted, reposted, copied and re-used – in whole or in part – with proper attribution.
|
