Well, we are going to review Hour Five of
our Learn the Bible in 24 Hours. And in this session, we’re going to
talk about the Birth of the Nation and we’re going to attempt to cover the remainder of
the Torah. We covered Genesis in the previous sessions
but we’re … we’re going to summarize in this session Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers
and Deuteronomy, the remainder ... the next four to make up the five books of Moses
which are known in Hebrew as the Torah, sometimes called, in the Greek version, the Pentateuch. So, the Book … the Book of Genesis
of course is the Book of Beginnings. Book of Exodus, of course, is the Birth of
the Nation. This is the time where the nation Israel is
literally begun. You can argue that it began with a … when
God declared war on Satan. In Genesis 3:15, the woman there,
Eve, is profiled all the way through Israel to the woman in Revelation 12 which we’ll
deal with of course when we get there, but the Birth of the Nation. Leviticus is the Book on Holiness. It’s the Law of the
Nation, but it also serves to give us insight on what kinds of things please God in terms of worship. We use that term so glibly,
but the study of Leviticus is really the groundwork for all of that. The Book of Numbers is a strange name but
it’s basically the wilderness wanderings. And then of course, Deuteronomy is the wrap up. It’s actually three sermons by Moses and
the record of his death. So, those are the five books of Moses. And, of course, we’re in Hour Five to
try to get a perspective of the last four. I want to comment on something some people
will speak of dispensations and there’s a tradition here, that you take the history
of man and you can divide it, you can parse it into segments from the Bible. The first segment being the Age of Innocence
starting of course in Genesis, the Age of Conscience in chapter three and on, Human Government after Moses’ flood, and so forth. Then the promise that was given to Abraham
launches a whole 'nother dispensation. And of course, the giving of the Law, which
we’re going to experience here in the Book of Exodus. And then, of course, the Church period
is the New Testament period, if you will. And finally, the Kingdom - when it’s finally
set up. These are segments that are sometimes called
dispensations. Don’t get confused by ... sometimes the sixth
of these is called the Age of Grace, but that’s misleading, because grace is always the premise
in all seven of these. But, they are … Each one
has its distinctives in terms of the visibility they had and what the ground rules were and
so forth. If you look at that in terms of our timeline
that we’ve had on our system so far, Innocence, of course, Conscience, Human
Government, Promise, then the Law which is the Nation and then, the Church,
which is sort of a parenthesis that we’ll deal with when we get … We’ll get
that amplified when we’re in the Book of Daniel. And then, when the Church is gathered, and
Christ returns to set up His ... … We have the Kingdom then. These are sometimes called dispensations, and
they’re sometimes parsed slightly differently. This is the classic way you’ll find it in
many commentaries. However, there’s another way to view it,
and that is, take the Promise and the Law together - that’s the history of
Israel, in a sense. It starts there, and the Church is, in a sense,
a parenthesis, because there is a segment remaining - the 70th week of Daniel, the 70 7s. And we’ll talk about that when we get to
… the Book of Daniel, and then, of course, the Kingdom, finally. So those are perspectives that we'll
elaborate as we go. But, there are Three Major Promises in
the scripture, and God’s Covenant with Abraham we talked about when we … in Genesis
12 and amplified in Genesis 15 and 17. And we’re now going to experience God’s
Covenant with the Nation Israel and it’s going to surface in several forms here. But basically, the Covenant is very simple. If they faithfully served Him, they'd prosper. If they forsook Him, they would be destroyed,
taken out of the land, whatever. That has been their history from the beginning,
their ups and downs, their profile throughout the Bible and their future ones also. And the history of Israel is one of incredible miracles. And God is not through with Israel yet. Their role in the … is very, very … and
going to be, increasingly conspicuous, as we get to the final climax. There’ll also be a Covenant with David that
we’ll talk about, that his family would produce the Messiah who will reign over God’s
people forever. And we’ll get to that when we get into Samuel. But this Panorama of History - it’s been
sort of our backbone of our presentations. We’re going to now be moving from the Call
of Abraham forward. We’re going to go through the Exodus all
the way up to the Monarchy in the next two sessions. So, we’re going to talk about The Wanderings
and The Conquest of Canaan and so on. The Book of Exodus actually, … The name in the Hebrew means the outgoing, the Exodus. And the entire race will be shedding the
shackles of generations-long servitude. We finished Genesis when they … when
the whole family had been maneuvered by God down to Egypt for their wellbeing, but
as time goes on a pharaoh that knew not Joseph comes to power, and they are made slaves
for 400 years. And we’re going to see them in Exodus
be delivered from that. They’re going to migrate then
to a new country and emerge from this whole experience as a nation. In other words, they’ll have a corporate
life in addition to their family and tribal life. They entered Egypt as a family and they emerged
from Egypt as a nation. It’s an incredible, incredible saga,
if you will. And, in fact, is there any more amazing
national spectacle in all of history? A family going down there in slavery and coming
out as a nation and a nation that has endured despite repeated organized global attempts
to wipe it out. That’s been a pattern. It’s not just the … Nazi holocaust
that we’re so familiar with in recent times. But from the beginning, there’s been attempt
after attempt after attempt of the Egyptians of course, literally killing all the
babies and so forth, all the way through. Again and again and again. And in the
Persian Empire under Haman. Again, an organized attempt to wipe out all
Jews in the planet earth. And we get to the New Testament period -
the same thing. It’s really astonishing
to see the focus of the world at large on this peculiar people that God has separated
for His own purposes. And it continues, and it is going
to be increasingly evident as we watch … the news as we go. There are three main subjects. The Exodus itself, which will be the first
18 chapters of this Book. And we’re going to see that God sends 10 plagues to accomplish
this separation. And then of course, the Passover which is
celebrated to this day. And it’s also prophetic in some surprising
ways to many. And, of course, that involved the crossing
of the Red Sea, that very spectacular thing that was, among other places, celebrated
in ... Cecil B. DeMill's famous movie on that subject. Then the Law is given and the Ten Commandments
and a lot of other things. The Mosaic Covenant is collectively
the label for all of that. And then we have a very strange thing, also,
before the Book closes. If I was doing the Ten Commandments movie,
I would have had Charlton Heston come down from the mountain not just with two tables
of stone, but a group of blueprints under the other arm because what he came down with, was
not just the 10 Commandments, which of course, we know and celebrate, but the specifications,
very detailed specifications, for a portable sanctuary that is … the mechanism by which
the ruler of the universe engineered so that He could dwell among His people. Bizarre idea. God is everywhere. Yes, He is in one sense but He also very
specifically dwelt with His people on this … this portable sanctuary called the Tabernacle. Occupies a good portion. In fact, there’s more said about it than
any other single subject in the Bible. And then, of course, associated with that is
the priesthood which is also ordained. So, that’s just a little background here. It seems to be … necessitated
because as ... this Hebrew family down there over those four centuries multiplied, it expanded and expanded and expanded
and there is … It may surprise you to know that the Pharaoh in Egypt wasn’t Egyptian. And I’ll get back to that, I’ll get that
in a minute, but that’s one reason he was probably insecure as this ethnic constituency
grew and so they oppressed them, made slaves of them and that was the ordeal that lasted
400. They were down there for 430 years but they
were oppressed for 400. It’s interesting that their rescue, their exodus from Egypt was anticipated long before. Moses, you may recall, was exiled. He was heir to the throne, murdered an Egyptian, and ... was in exile for 40 years in Midian. Midian, that’s Northeastern Arabia, is where
they will spend as a nation 40 years wandering. So that was ground he knew in a sense. He was a shepherd there with
Yvonne De Carlo for you know, 40 years. And so he was … That was God’s
… God prepared him in Egypt because he’s trained for the crown. He was educated as Pharaoh’s
own adopted son until he was separated. He chose to be separated as he discovered
who he really was and so forth. And then his preparation in Midian. So
there’s 80 years of preparation before we get to the Exodus and he’s going to be leading
them for 40 years more through the wilderness. And it’s going to have some surprising results. And so, the … Actually of course, it’s
precipitated by a message from God, the famous burning bush incident. And Moses gets his mission. So, Israel’s expansion in Egypt. They
were given by the … the Pharaoh that was … that was favored by Joseph and vice-versa. They were given the choicest part of the land -
right next to the Delta, the Land of Goshen. But then this Pharaoh that knew not Joseph
rises to power and he was an Assyrian. We learn that from Isaiah 52:4. It’s interesting when you get to Acts 7
and we’ll do that, of course, when we get there, but Steven, the young guy, young
boy ... is giving a lecture, a history lesson to the most august body in Hebrew circles
namely the Sanhedrin. And Acts 7 is a very interesting summary of
that … of his speech there. It’s a summary of Israel’s history. And it’s interesting, there are a number
of things we discover in that presentation that you wouldn’t get by just reading the
Old Testament. One of which is, he mentions that there was
another Pharaoh that knew not Joseph, but he … In the Greek, there are two words for
another — Allos and Heteros. If you want another of the same kind, you
use Allos. If you want another who’s totally different,
use the word Heteros. And he uses the word Heteros which is very
strange which means this Pharaoh was of a different background and so forth, and
not just another Pharaoh but a different kind. And it’s … It’s Isaiah that tips
us off, that he was an Assyrian. Now, you won’t find this amplified in any
… in any Egyptology, but Egyptology’s got some problems anyway, which we’ll
get to when we start talking about the Pharaoh Necho and some other things. But anyway, this Pharaoh, of course, oppresses
them. There’s also a whole
background as a vassal of the Hyksos and so forth. I won’t get into here, but there’s a lot
of study worth doing there because the early history of Egypt is … is a key part
of all of this. But in any case, it’s very likely that since
he wasn’t Egyptian, he was insecure in his throne especially with the increase of this
other ethnic group called the Hebrews. So that’s the … the oppression was, and
the enslavement of them was … It was … His response to that. So Moses stands out, of course, as
probably next to Christ, of course, the most outstanding individual in the ... certainly
in the Old Testament. Some would say in the Bible ... at large. And he was born … he was born during this oppression but delivered from this government-ordained genocide that the Pharaoh had ordered. And so God, in his own miraculous way, set
this all up. And he ends up growing up, educated, realizing
who he is, choosing his sides, ended up murdering an Egyptian, and so he’s on a … he’s
on the lamb in ... in Midian. But he will be called by God, and go
back, and he will take this race of slaves and he’s going to lead them. He’s going to mold them into a powerful
nation that altered the entire course of history, everyone’s history. So it’s an exciting time. And, of course, we have this burning bush issue. I think all of you ... are familiar with
the story. But there’s some interesting symbolism
that many people may … may not be aware of. An Acacia is a … is the thorn-bush of the
desert, and it’s interesting that we have a thorn-bush and it’s fired. A lot of bushes in the desert can catch fire
by lightning and so forth. What makes this peculiar and caused him to
take note of it and go investigate it, is because it was burning but not consumed. It was burning but not consumed. So it’s judged but not consumed. Now, if you … In the Levitical
symbolism here, the thorn-bush symbolizes the curse, and the burning of course is being
judged. But the fact that it’s not consumed is in
effect considered rabbinically as a model of grace. And it’s interesting, that when God speaks
from that burning bush, He includes among other things, His identity, His name, “What
name are you?” He says, “I am that I am,” [foreign language], He claims. What’s important to understand is that, it was Jesus Christ Who was speaking to Moses. He so declares in John 8:58. He … He claimed to be the Voice
of the Burning Bush. People say, “Well, Jesus never claimed to
be God.” Anyone who says that hasn’t read their
Bible, or certainly hasn’t read the Gospel of John. That’s why He was crucified -
because of that claim. But something else that I’d like to
correct. When you watch the movie, The Ten Commandments,
as I assume most of you have, it’s surprisingly accurate in many respects, but there’s one
misleading aspect that deserves comment. The … script of the movie gives you
the impression that the death of the firstborn of Egypt was a … was retribution for
Pharaoh’s comment of the … going after the first born. And that’s misleading, because you’ll discover
when Moses is called at the burning bush, God predicts that it’s going to take the
death of the first born for Pharaoh to let them go. In other words, that was pre-known and pre-declared back in Exodus 4, not in Exodus 12, if you will, and so on. So, anyway, I think most of us are
aware of the fact that there were 10 plagues that God sends upon the Egyptians. What you may not realize, is that each one
was geared specifically after a god they worshipped. The Nile was the lifeline of their economy. The water was turned to blood and there’s a number of their gods that were associated with the Nile. Then come the frogs. There’s a specific hekt that they worshipped
at there. Then the lice or sandflies, whatever they
were, depending on the translation. and then were these scarabs. They’re called swarms in the Hebrew,
but it’s pretty well understood that these are these dung beetles, these little scarabs. You know, when you buy Egyptian jeweleries,
sometimes with a little scarab, a little beetle. What that is? That’s a dung beetle. And it symbolizes to them ... creation. Scholars speculate, they wonder why. Probably because when animal feces fall on the trail, almost immediately from
nowhere, these dung beetles come. And so, they seem to come from out of nothing,
and so that’s one reason that some people feel they … they looked at them as a symbol
of creation. Amon-Ra being the … top of that. Then there were some plagues with the animals, boils and ... ashes and hail and fire and … and finally
the locusts and then darkness, darkness that was felt. This isn’t just the absence of light. There’s something else going on here. Each one of these, and I’m not going to take
you through all the details, links specifically to the specific gods they worship. And then of course, finally, finally, the
first born. So Pharaoh’s own dynasty thus, is
wiped out, which also explains why his successor probably would not be a descendant. But in any case, the … I’m
always reminded when I go through Egypt, we left Cairo and went up … When you get
out … out of the city, you drive … You drive along these roads and next to the road
there seems to be like a ... a culvert, a cement culvert, uh, with water in it and these
very extreme poverty villages. And when you look more closely, you realize
it’s not concrete; it’s trash. And the water isn’t … is gray, blue-gray. It’s polluted water. And you begin to realize, that this … As
you think about it, this country wasn’t always a third-world country. This country ruled the world at one time. But the scripture tells us we become like
the gods we worship. And when you … and
the top of heap of their worship thing is the scarab, the dung beetle and they’re
living on … on that kind of environment. … It’s interesting that the obsession of the Egyptian heritage in terms of death, the mummies
and the … the whole background is ... we become like that, because we worship it. So, here’s a country that ruled the world
at one time, and today has become like the gods we worship. We need to remember that. Is the world harsh, materialistic, unforgiving? … If you worship the world, you’ll
become harsh, materialistic, unforgiving. You’ll become like the gods you worship. Scripture says it at Psalm 135:18 and so forth. That’s why it’s important to worship
Christ, because you become like the One you worship. But obviously, the Egyptian Passover was the
event that they celebrate to this day, of course. It’s a symbol of life. In fact, God instructs in the second verse of Exodus 12, “This month shall be the beginning of months.” That’s why Hebrews have two calendars—the
civil calendar which is Rosh Hashanah starts in the fall, typically our September-October
time period. But the … the religious calendar starts
with the month of Nisan in the spring because that’s the month of the … the Passover
and when God institutes the Passover, He tells Moses make this month the beginning of months. So they have two months. … A civil year starting in … September or … our September roughly that time, first of Tishri, and then, the ... religious … calendar, Nisan. And, obviously, Passover ... symbolizes not only life, but also liberty because they were delivered from bondage. That’s the key theme there. It’s interesting that they were
delivered by blood put on the doorpost. And if you go to your door and
put blood on the top, in the lentel, you’ll end up doing a cross, of course, which is subtle
but worth mentioning. But it’s interesting, it was not a basis
of nationality. If you were an Egyptian and happened to be in
a Jewish home that night, you were spared. If you’re a Jewish, and didn’t put blood
on the doorpost, the death angel would take the firstborn of your house. It was the basis of the blood, not their nationality. Important issue. And, of course, it also ... Passover also speaks
of fellowship because it memorializes a feast to this very day. ... In the Jewish home …
the peak of their year in many respects. Is the Passover celebration. And actually, in the month of Nisan, there’s
actually three feasts — the Feast of Passover, Feast of Unleavened Bread, and the Feast of
First Fruits — but they’re usually collectively spoken of as Passover. It’s also prophetic, and it’s very
important. We’re going to talk a lot about this as
we go forward. That each of the feasts of Moses are not only commemorative of some historical
issue, and they each are, but it’s also prophetic. And Jesus Christ is called our Passover Lamb. In fact, when John the Baptist first introduces
Jesus publicly, twice, he introduces Him with a very strange title. “Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away
the sin of the world.” Now, it’s familiar to us, to our ears, let’s
not … lose the fact that that’s a strange title, but it’s, of course, a Passover illusion
because the … the Lamb of God, He was … He was given as an offering for our sin. And in John 1 of course, twice. Egypt now, is also viewed as a type of the
world, a symbol of material wealth and power. We probably have a hard time imagining the
dominance of Egypt in that era. It was of course ruled by a despotic prince,
Pharaoh was a despot. Again though, it’s another way that it’s
… it’s idiomatic, if you will, of the world. It’s a type or a model or a … a metaphor of the world. And Pharaoh, of course, becomes in a sense,
a type of Satan, the adversary of God’s people. Egypt also represented fleshly wisdom
and false religion. They worshipped all these various gods, of course, rather than the
living God. And we’re going to talk more about the wisdom of the Egyptians ... later on. But ... Egypt was organized on a basis of force, ambition and pleasure.
That our … The world as we know it, is also organized under Satan, and on a basis
of force, ambition and pleasure. Egypt persecuted the people of God and so
does the world. You need to recognize that the world at large is anti-Bible. The whole
tension in the Middle East is … is the world’s challenge to the Abrahamic Covenant. And recognize
too, that Jesus promised you as a Christian, as a follower of Christ, that you would have
persecution. And living in America, we’ve been immune
to most of that. But we need to recognize that we don’t … We shouldn’t have the
arrogance as Christians in America to presume that we’re going to be exempt from what
most of the body of Christ and most of the world for most of the last 1900 years have had
to endure. It’s called persecution. And so more of that's coming.
But Egypt was overthrown by divine judgment and this world will also be. And that’s what’s
profiled in the Book of Revelation. When the One who purchased the world, namely the Lamb of God, takes title to that which He purchased. And, of course, we’ll get to that when the
time comes. They crossed the Red Sea. Israel was cornered
against the sea. But then the Shekinah, this firey pillar. Cloud by day and a fire by night,
blocked the Egyptian army as the sea parted to allow Israel to cross. All very much dramatized
in the famous movie, but familiar to all of us, I’m sure. But interestingly, as the Egyptians attempted to follow them, they were drowned. I’m always amused by these people who have these theories that, “Well, the … the Red Sea was really,” the Reed Sea and actually was only about three-foot deep. And I always think that’s interesting, and that’s the biggest miracle in the Bible as the entire Egyptian army drowned in three-feet of water. And, of course, that’s all … utter nonsense.
It’s interesting, you should be aware of the fact that a submerged land bridge has
been discovered across the Strait of Tiran supporting an Arabian site of Mount Sinai.
The Sinai Peninsula is the location of a traditional site at Saint Catherine’s. They are what
they called Mount Sinai. In the back of your Bible you probably have a map. I think most
scholars today recognize that that’s an error. First of all, in … in over a century of searching, they found absolutely no trace of any indication that there have been a million people camp there in the past. You know, it’s an arrid desert with none of the features that the Bible describes. In … in contrast to that, there is a … Paul tells us in Galatians that Mount Sinai is in Arabia. And if you look in Arabia, there you have Mountain Jabal al-Lawz which when you see it, is astonishing because the top part of it is scorched ... … is burnt from the outside in. It’s … It’s been made molten by external heat - the whole top of the mountain.
And it’s very conspicuous. And as you investigate, there … They find … Anyway, to make a
long story short, there’s lot of evidence accumulating that that is the real Mount Sinai.
And that … that would fit the Biblical record. But it’s also interesting, then, to take a
look at where is the … the land here. Now, if you look at a map, up near the Nile
up there, you have the Land of Goshen which is a rich land, but if you come down, the western
edge of the … what’s called the Sinai Peninsula and you cross at the Strait of Tiran,
there is a land bridge just under the water. Now, it’s … you
find the springs of Marah, you find a ... a very conspicuous rock cleft where there’s
evidence of erosion, and all kinds ... … and then … and then you find altars
... what appears to have been the altar, the main altar and other things. So there’s
a … There's a lot of books out now and so forth. I encourage you to recognize that
… the evidence seems to be supporting the Arabian location of Mount Sinai.
But this whole event of the Red Sea parting and the … Exodus and so forth, turns out throughout the Bible, to be almost a measurement standard of other things, and in Micah 7, “According to the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt, I will show unto him marvelous things.” In other words, again and again you find the Lord making reference to the ... coming out of the land of Egypt as a milestone against which other things are compared. A milestone of judgment because of the plagues that were given. A milestone of grace because the blood covering took care of that. A … a milestone of might because
the Red Sea that, you know, that was ... God showing off, if I’m going to … if I can use ... what might be a little … somewhat irreverent phrase. God was really setting this up to … to flex His muscles, if you will, because it becomes obviously, a … an event that ... the nations take note of later on, 40 years from now. When you get to Jericho, certain people there would tremble because of the advent of this … They’ve heard the stories. They know what happened. It’s also a measurement standard
of guidance because the Shekinah, the guidance of the Holy Spirit and also a provision because
Manna and water and so forth are provided over a million people in the desert by the God
that called them there. In … in miraculous ways. And it’s also a measurement standard of faithfulness of the Abrahamic Covenant. It’s
also a measurement standard of condescension, where God Himself deigns to dwell with His people and that’s what the Tabernacle will be all about. Now, our exodus in Christ is parallel to this,
our emancipation from bondage. It’s spiritual, not physical, so far. We’re delivered also
by the shedding of blood - just as they were. His blood, not an animal. The animals are
just anticipatory emblems that we’ll see in the offerings and so forth. Our exodus
is universal, not national, because the scripture says, “Whosoever believeth on Him shall
not perish but have everlasting life,” John 3:16. So the Law is also a big part of Exodus. The Law is given in chapters 19 through 20. The terms, God’s terms, the parties and the altar, the remedy for having broken the Law
are all included as part of the package. We also have the judgments, social judgments
and there’s rights and ... the practices and so forth.
And then the ordinance, that is the religious ordinances. The Sabbaths and the Feasts
are all spelled out. Ten Commandments, you’re pretty familiar with I … I trust. "Thou shalt
have no other Gods before Me. Thou shalt not worship any graven image." These are all
familiar to us, I think. "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain." This
is widely misunderstood. I believe this has nothing to do with vocabulary. It has to do
with ambassadorship. If you take the name of the king, you have
a responsibility to represent Him accurately. That’s what it’s really talking about.
But many people just assume it’s talking about swearing or something. No, it goes far beyond that. "Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy."
This does not ordain the Sabbath Day; it was ordained in Eden on the seventh day when God
rested from His creation. But He’s calling in these Ten Commandments for these people,
His chosen people to remember that day to keep it holy. The Sabbath is indeed the seventh
day, not the first day. I’m not a Seventh Day Adventist, so don't go down that path, but at
the same time, we do need to understand that the Sabbath was a day that God did set aside.
"Honor thy father and thy mother that thy days may be long." This is the one command
that has a promise attached to it. "Thou shalt not murder." And ... when you start talking
about murder, you start talking about abortion. Just remember when John the Baptist
began his ministry - when he was nine-inches long, weighed a pound and a half, and he was
still in the womb, he jumped for joy and was spirit-filled. "Thou shalt not murder. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal." Interesting command that ordains
private ownership. Private ownership is protected in the … in the Ten Commandments, interestingly
enough. You can’t steal. You know, stealing implies someone owns something, right? "Thou shalt not bare false witness. Thou shalt not covet". Boy, Madison Avenue, I think, tried
to get rid of that one. Okay. Why was the Law given? This may surprise you. When we
get to Romans 7, you’re ... in for some real shocks because why was the Law given?
The Law was given to expose our sin nature. We can’t keep it if we tried. It’s there
to expose our nature. It may shock you that one of the reasons and
... we’ll cover this when we get there but it’s … The Law was given to incite the
sin nature to sin more. That’s a shock. See, the sin nature has not … itself has
not been ... reformed. This is all out of Romans … Romans 7 if you … if … I’m hoping
you don’t … You’re uncomfortable with some of these because then you go and, you’ll
… You’ll study Romans 7 to see what I’m talking about here.
It’s to drive us to the despair of self-effort. You … You cannot repair your sin nature.
Adam and Eve tried by covering themselves with coats of skin. No, by the shedding of
blood, God was teaching that by the shed of blood … shedding of blood they’d be covered.
The law is given there to drive … to get us to understand we can’t cut it on our
own. God’s holiness is higher than we can reach to. And so, He’s trying to drive us
to dependence upon the Holy Spirit which … That’s what Romans 8, the following
chapter was what’s it’s all about. The gospel supersedes the Law. The commandments
were fulfilled by Jesus Christ. And that great discovery is really the good news.
That’s astonishing but it really is. For Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness
to everyone that believeth, according to Romans 10. The ordinance is given to … to present shadows that are now superseded by Jesus Christ himself.
Shadows are anticipatory glimpses. And we are in a new dispensation. We are … We … The
contrast is outward command in Exodus and inward power of the Holy Spirit. An objective code versus subject of change. A condemning ethic versus a transforming dynamic. And obviously,
in each case this is the … the … We walk not after the flesh but after the spirit.
And that’s what the whole New Testament is all about.
Romans 8 nails this. “For what the law could not do that in that it was weak through the
flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin
in the flesh. That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not
after the flesh but after the spirit.” So keep this in mind as we deal with God’s
Law on the one hand but recognize that God has given us something better than a Law.
Well, let’s get to the Tabernacle. The last part of the Book of Exodus deals with this
very strange construction more is said about the tabernacle than any other single thing in
the scripture. So, in addition, you … As I say, these two tablets of stone - Moses
received the set of engineering specifications for this portable sanctuary. And there’s
more … more space to this description than any other single subject in the Bible.
It has a structure. It has furniture within the structure. There’s a priesthood that
deals with it. And that’s all in the Book of Exodus. In the Book of Leviticus, we’ll
have a detailed ... listing of offerings and procedures to exercise these things. And there’s
material symbolism here. Things that … Brass is the metal that could sustain fire. So it
speaks of judgment. Gold, of course, speaks of deity.
And silver speaks of blood all through the scripture. ... Jesus betrayed for 30 pieces of silver, and Judas says, “I betrayed innocent blood,” when he throws them back on the temple
floor. Silver always … speaks of blood and we’ll see that the entire … and it was a silver coin, by the way, that was the redemption coin in the temple. And ... we’re going to see that the whole, the … the tabernacle rests on sockets of silver. It
rests on the blood. It … It’s the imagery here. Now, the tabernacle, first thing you saw if you approach it, was a linen fence. All you
could see is the white fence higher than eye level and ... it was ... about rough …
usually a foot and a half is a cubit. It's about 75 feet wide, about 150 feet long. By
the way, that makes its perimeter the same as the length of the ark by the way. Not that
… that you can make something of that if you like. And of course, we’re entering eastward. ... and the first thing you encounter is the
Brazen Altar. First step you need is to … to take care of this, the altar of sacrifice.
And then you have the laver for the washing. And then you have the tabernacle proper, this
very strange portable building. And ... as we look at it, it had two rooms. ... The Holy Place was like two cubes in length and ... then you had an inner sanctum,
so to speak. The Holy of Holies, a Holy Place and the Holy of Holies.
And ... as you enter the door on the left side was this seven-branched candlestick,
the Menorah. And ... again, it’s the only … the source of light in … in
the place. Across from it on the right side was a table of shewbread, 12 loaves, one
loaf for each of the 12 tribes, changed every Shabbat. And then you … In this room but
associated with the … Holy of Holies was the Golden Altar.
It’s always associated with the Holy of Holies, but it’s outside the veil because
it had to be tended to day and night. And you could never go in the Holy of Holies.
Only the high priest could go in the Holy of Holies only once … one day
a year after a great ceremonial preparation. So that was the Holy of Holies.
And, of course, in the Holy of Holies we have the Ark of the Covenant. Inside of which were
the tables of stones and some other things. And then on top of that, we have this
separate entity called the Mercy Seat. Most of us fall in the trap of assuming that the
Mercy Seat is the lid of the Ark of the Covenant. We use the word the Ark of the Covenant connotatively to refer to both of them. Actually, it’s very instructive to keep
in mind that the Mercy Seat is a separate item. The Ark of Covenant is … was wood
covered with gold leaf. The Mercy Seat was hammered gold and ... we believe the Mercy
Seat has a destiny. And it’s very possible that both of these items are presently being
guarded by the Ethiopians at Axum and they know their destiny is to deliver whatever
it is they’ve got to the Messiah when He rules in Zion.
But what’s overlooked by many scholars is ... the issue isn’t the Ark of the Covenant,
it’s the Mercy Seat. It may be the … It may be the throne from which Christ rules.
And so those are all topics that you can get into. But the main idea is this whole tabernacle
speaks of Jesus Christ. Every detail, every dimension, every material.
You can make quite a study there and I encourage you to do so because the word was made flesh
and tabernacled among John tells us … in that phrase in John 1, the Word is the title of Jesus Christ. You’ll discover every detail of the tabernacle
speaks of Jesus Christ in a very elegant way. He makes a claim to this part, “I am the
door. Anyone who comes not in by Me is a thief and a robber. I am the light of the world,”
He claims. “I am the bread of life.” He of course, is our intercessor and of course,
He’s our sin bearer and He’s also our propitiation for our sins, and how appropriate
it would be to … if He rules from the very throne that makes His kingdom possible.
But ... the coverings, the whole tabernacle, this portable building which was wood - covered
with gold, panels that were made ... wood, but covered with gold. So the whole thing
had an elegant appearance. ... But first thing you did, you … you covered it with embroidered
linen, embroidered with cherubim, gold, purple, blue and scarlet - gorgeous tapestry.
And that’s what … if you looked up, because that was covering the building. That’s what
you see from the inside. You wouldn’t see it from the outside, because
on top of that, they covered it with goat’s hair, speaking of the sin bearer and the scapegoat
and all of that. And that, in turn then, is covered with ram skins that were dyed red,
speaking of the shed blood. Again, the … the blood emphasis here. And so ... from the outside,
there’s no … You couldn’t tell how attractive it was. It isn’t until you get inside that
you realize the elegance and the beauty of it. And then all this is then covered with porpoise skins, or badger skins, depending on your translation.
So it had no form or comeliness that you would desire it. And yet, if you enter, you discover
what it’s really all about. So ... there it is. … There’s an Outer
Area, the Inner Court, and the Holy Place. And many people make the note that the Outer Area
corresponds to the body, and, the Inner Court, the soul and the inner part, the spirit. The body,
soul and spirit is the trinity of man, if you will. When you get to ... the monarchy, God is going to add some things to this to make the temple. And it's going to be very instructive to see what He adds. And ... we’ll deal with that when we get there. The Breastplate of the High Priest is also dealt
with in Exodus, the 12 stones for the 12 tribes. Each of the names of the 12 tribes is a three-letter
root ... Hebrew root that’s embroidered on each of the stones. And ... some people suspect
that it was the glimmer of the light from the … menorah on those that gave
the High Priest his instructions but that’s speculation. Then we get to the Book of Leviticus. We’ll spend a lot of time there. But it’s a book that should be studied rather than just read. It talks about the requirements for fellowship,
the holiness, the precepts of His Law, His standards of conduct. It also deals with the
penalties that are attached to the violations thereof. And ... the grounds for this fellowship
then, is sacrifice, and this, of course, all the sacrifices, all these minute technical
things, all point to Jesus Christ. We have detailed commentary on that for those
... who want to get into that, but you’ll discover every detail is anticipatory of the
ultimate sacrifice, not sacrifice of bulls and goats, but of Jesus Christ on the cross.
Everything points to that. And that, of course, leads to the walk of fellowship which is one
of separation. Which was a preparation for the coming Messiah.
So, … the offerings are in two groups. There are voluntary offerings,
sometimes called sweet savor. Those are to God. A burnt offering, meal offering, a peace
offering - being three categories. There’s also a group of offerings that are not voluntary;
they’re compulsory, non-sweet savor. That’s for us, for our benefit. A sin offering, a
trespass offering. And all the different offerings are in one of those five categories, if you
study the Book of Leviticus. But there’s something else about Leviticus
I want to touch on as we get into this here, and that is the ... appointed times.
In Hebrews … In Leviticus 23 ... Rabbi Samson Hirsch said many years ago, “The Jew's catechism
is his calendar.” You know, most denominations have a catechism, a statement of belief. “The
Jew's catechism is their calendar.” … The more you study their calendar, the
more you understand their whole ... situation. It’s a Heptadic Calendar. It’s a sevenfold
... type thing. There’s a week of days. We're all familiar with that. We have weeks
of days. Seventh day being Shabbat. They also have a week of weeks. ... Which leads
to the Feast of Shavuot. They also have a week of months, the religious year from Nisan
to Tishri, Tishri being the seventh month of the religious year.
They have a week of years. It was called the Sabbatical year. Six years, you can plow the
ground; the seventh you have to let it rest. The Sabbath … The land, there’s a Sabbath
for the land as well. And if you take seven of those and add one, you have the Jubilee
year in which ... It’s a very interesting thing. All the land in those days
reverted to its owners. You didn’t sell land in Israel. You … You really indulge
in what you and I would call the lease, because in the Jubilee year, it would return to its
original tribal ... inheritance and so forth. ... In the Jubilee year, all these … all slaves would go free. If you’d indentured yourself to servitude, you could look to the Jubilee years, a … a year that
it … all bets are off. It’s sort of like a bankruptcy today. All debts are forgiven
… in the Jubilee year. So … So that’s ... an interesting ... issue … in the Jewish structure. But what’s interesting, what makes this even
more profound, when you get to Acts 3 in Peter’s second sermon, he makes reference to the second
coming of Christ as the time of the restitution of all things. He seems to link the second
coming of Christ to the same events that ... typify the Jubilee year. Land goes back to
its owners, slaves go free, debts forgiven, and so on.
So, we begin to realize that in these … these patterns that God sets down in the Old Testament,
lies our understanding for the New. The Old Testament is in the New Testament revealed. The
New Testament is the Old Testament concealed. But this term appointed times, you may recall
in … in our earlier session in Genesis 1 “God said, “Let there be lights
in the firmament of heaven to divide the day from the night and let them be for signs and
for seasons and for days and for years.” This word for seasons is actually Hamoadim.
It’s the appointed times. What’s very peculiar is that ... we understand there are
70 appointed times. There are 52 Sabbaths, seven days of Passover including its related
feasts. There’s one ... there’s a Feast of Shavuot, a Feast of Yom Teruah, a Feast
of Trumpets that is, Feast of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, seven days of Sukkot,
Feast of Tabernacles and ... Shemini Atzeret. So when you add those all up, there’s 70
appointed times in the Jewish calendar. Well, what’s rather bizarre, you take this
word appointed - Hamoadim - "appointed times" and put it on a computer, you … First of
all, in the book … in the 78,000 letters of Genesis, you would think statistically
those letters would come up in that order five different … at least five
times on some interval. Try all the different intervals and you … Statistically, there’s
… your expectation would be to find it five times. It turns out you only find it once.
As an equidistant letter sequence, it appears only once in Genesis. It appears at an interval
of 70 and it’s centered on Genesis 1:14. Now, the question is, “Gee, that’s kind
of curious.” In other words, you get the sense that God is manipulating the very letters,
you follow me, as a form of authentication. And … the odds of this happening
just by randomness are … have been estimated greater than ... one in 70 million,
one in 70 million. So ... interesting. These are one of these examples of what we call an equidistant letter sequence. It’s relevant because it’s statistically
significant on one hand, and, secondly, it’s clustered around the plain text. It’s clustered
where it makes sense. On the very verse on which the … the word has significance.
Let’s go on with the feasts of Israel. There are three spring feasts—Passover, Feast
of Unleavened Bread and Feast of First Fruits. And there are also three feasts in the fall—Feast
of Trumpets, Yom Kippur, Feast of Tabernacles. And ... Feast of Passover is on the 14th of
Nisan. The Feast of Unleavened Bread starts the next day. Feast of First Fruits is the
morning after Shabbat, after Passover. Passover can be any day of the week depending
on what year it is. But the … Shabbat, is the Saturday after that. The next morning
is the Feast of First Fruits. It’s always on a Sunday. And of course, when … there
was a time when ... the smoke was curling up from the temple on the Feast of First Fruits, one Sunday morning, and some women were discovering an empty tomb. Because Jesus Christ was our
First Fruits. That was where it was being fulfilled. Now ... there’s also a feast between these. You got three in the first month, three
in the seventh month, and you got this weird one in the middle called the Feast of Shavuot,
the Feast of Weeks. And there’s some very strange peculiarities about it.
Passover, of course, four days in advance, the
lamb is … is inspected. That’s exactly the day that Jesus was riding the donkey into
Jerusalem to be inspected. It’s offered between the evenings of 14th. And ... bear
in mind, the Jewish day starts in the evening. So the … the evening of the 14th is the
… is the Friday the 13th on the Gentile calendar which is unlucky.
See … the Egyptian side of the Passover. The scripture says of the Passover, “Not a bone was to be broken,” and it’s interesting
that a Roman soldier disobeyed his orders. You know, to have that … I don’t think
he knew what he was making ... fulfilling prophecy, but he obviously was.
And, of course, Jesus is our Passover. John … introduces him that way and Paul in
many places speaks of Jesus as our Passover. So you … you want to … The more you study
Passover, the more it’ll … put significance into the details that’s
going on in the New Testament. Well, following that is the Feast of Unleavened
Bread. Leaven, of course, is always a symbol of sin in the Old Testament and the New Testament.
And ... the Feast of Unleavened Bread, Hag HaMatzah. And there are three Matzahs
always. It’s kind of interesting, three Matzahs. Christ was crucified between three
or two thieves, right? There are three of them at that hill.
One is taken, broken and hidden. How interesting. They do that today. They don’t know why.
The explanation, of course is in the New Testament. Remember back in the days of Joseph, we had
the baker and the wine steward. You have the bread and the wine introduced way back in Joseph
with … and in fact, back to Melchizedek, but then, also Joseph.
In the ... Passover feast, you have four cups. There’s four specific cups in the
procedure—the bringing out, the delivering, the blessing and the taking out. It’s the
cup of blessing that Jesus blesses to give the Lord’s Supper and they don’t finish
that meal. He’s not going to taste the fruit of the vine until He tastes it with us at the marriage supper of the lamb. So there’s all study you can get into on that.
The Feast of First Fruits is an interesting one. It’s the morrow after the Sabbath, after
Passover. And … the morning of the ultimate First Fruits is, of course,
when Jesus Christ was resurrected. And one interesting question is, when did the flood of Noah end? Genesis 8:4 says, “The ark rested in the seventh month of the 17th day
of the month upon the mountains of Ararat.” Notice the word mountains is plural, by the
way. And we talked about that ... when we talked about the flood, but keep in mind that
Ararat is yet to be discovered. But ... when did the New Beginning under Noah
begin? When the ark came to rest on the 17th day of the seventh month. And you have
to understand that ... the Jews have two calendars, Rosh Hashanah in the fall. But then in Exodus
12:2, “This month shall be unto you the beginning of months.” It shall be the first month
of the year to you. That is the month of Nisan because that’s when Passover takes place
so the first Nisan is the beginning of the religious year.
And if you look at the old calendar, Tishri was the first month and Nisan was the seventh.
But on the new calendar, as ordained in Exodus, ... Nisan is the first month, that makes
Tishri the seventh. It was the way they … And so, and we … then we have this strange thing,
the Feast of Shavuot. They count 49 days from the Feast of First Fruits.
What’s strange about this feast, it’s the only feast in the Bible that ordains the
use of leavened bread. That gives it a Gentile complexion. Many people recognize it's prophetic.
It was the birth of the church. We call it the Feast of Pentecost. And of course, it’s
in Acts 2 at the Feast of Pentecost that the Holy Spirit is given, and we have the birth
of the church. But there’s some other things about that,
... some mysteries behind this a little bit. The oldest prophecy in the Bible was (happens
to be) uttered by Enoch, the father of Methuselah way, way back. The prophecy of the second
coming of Jesus Christ, astonishingly enough. But Enoch, … there’s something interesting.
He was … He’s regarded by the rabbis as having been born on the day that they observed
the Feast of Shavuot, obviously much earlier but on the same day on the calendar. But also,
it’s interesting that he was removed prior to the judgment of the flood. And it’s also
interesting that they believe he was raptured on his birthday and that’s in a non-biblical
book called the Secrets of Enoch which is an ancient rabbinical source, not
Biblical but interesting. It may account at least
for why the rabbis have this peculiar view. It would be interesting then, that the Jewish clock that stopped when the church was born may be restarted on the same day
that it was stopped when the rapture takes place. That would imply the rapture takes
place on the Feast of Shavuot which is usually in the June time period.
And I say, “Chuck, you’re setting days.” No, no, I’m not, because Jesus said, “That
in such a day as you think not the son of man cometh.” Of course, if that’s the
day you think not then maybe that’s the day He'll come. All right. Okay. So, we’ll
go ahead here. The Feast of Trumpets. Many people think the
Feast of Trumpets is a big deal. It's coincident with Rosh Hashanah. Rosh Hashanah is a civil
new year but the Feast of ... Trumpets is consistent with ... they're both on first of Tishri.
And that’s when they have a great blowing of trumpets and some people try to tie that
to the last trump remarks Paul makes which for some reasons I won’t get into here,
I don’t think fit. And also, don’t confuse it with the seventh
trumpet judgment on the Book of Revelations. Those are all three different things. But,
it is followed by Yom Noraim which is the Days of Affliction which prepare them
of course for the big one for them ... each year ... Yom Kippur, the Day of National
Repentance. A high priest enters the Holy of Holies. It’s only on this day throughout
the year after great ceremonial preparation. This is the day they have the scapegoat and
they put the sins on the scapegoat and lead him into wilderness and so forth. Then this
is followed five days later with Sukkot, the Feast of Booths. And ... this presumably … It
was called the Feast Tabernacles. It’s very possible that this was the day … this was
the season that ... Matthew 17 takes place the ... transfiguration, Mount of Transfiguration.
Because Peter’s preoccupied about making three booths.
These booths are interesting because of … and you go to Israel or in even ... among
observant Jews, you’ll discover they actually still do this today. They’ll build a booth
in the backyard. The specifications require that you can see the sky through the ceiling
and the wind can blow through the walls. The idea is to ... typify, represent the
temporary dwellings they endured while wandering in the wilderness.
And the Feast of Booths climaxes when they leave that for their permanent dwellings.
And that’s why some people feel that this is the setting up of Christ’s Kingdom and
so forth. And ... anyway, let’s get on to the ... other books here to wrap up the Torah.
Book of Numbers deals with the Wilderness Wanderings. And, in fact, the Hebrew term
for the Book isn’t Numbers. It’s ... Bemidbar which is … it’s in the wilderness.
And ... the Greek called it Arithmoi or in the Latin Numeri because it happens to include
two censuses. So that’s why you call the numbering of the people which isn’t the most relevant
part of the book but that’s where it gets its title within the Greek translation, and
thus, our English translation. That’s not the Hebrew term.
But anyway, Numbers continues where Exodus left off. We paused Exodus to do Leviticus,
get all that background, but then we jump in and pick up where Exodus left off. And Numbers
is a Book about arrested progress. They blew it. It took only 40 hours … to
get the Israel out of Egypt. It took 40 years to get Egypt out of Israel, 40 years of Wilderness
Wandering. Very strange thing. There’s place called Kadesh-Barneʿa,
and after 40 days getting there, Moses sends out 12 spies, they’re at the border to enter
the land that’s been promised, the Promised Land. Ten of the 12 come back terrified. And
don’t knock it, they had reason to be terrified. "And there we saw the Nephilim and we were in
our own sight as grasshoppers. So we were in their sight."
There were giants in the land. These strange hybrids very similar to the ones that we encountered
before the flood. Different occasion but same kind of thing. Nephilim, the fallen ones,
giants is the way it’s translated, but they’re more than just giants; they were hybrids.
Apparently ... mischief by the fallen angels again.
So these 10 were justifiably frightened but two of them, Joshua and Caleb, were
unimpressed. They said, “Let us go up at once and possess it for we are … well-able to overcome it.” Why? Because God’s with them. If God’s on your side,
you’re a majority, plus. So remember Joshua and Caleb were the two of the 12 that came
back with a good report. The other 10 had their knees ... knocking.
So we have a lost opportunity. And the people - Children of Israel murmured against Moses and against
Aaron and the whole congregation said to them, “Would God that we had died in the land
of Egypt or would God that we had died in this wilderness?” The people are shook by
the report of the 10 spies. And they said, “Gee, it would have been better off if we
died.” And God says, “Good idea. Funny you should mention.”
So God threatens to wipe out everybody, but Moses intercedes. Prayer is always God’s
way of enlisting you in what He wants to do, by the way. Keep that in mind. So God says,
“Your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness and all that were numbered of you according
to your whole number of 20 years old and upward which you have murmured against me.”
In other words, those adults that were murmuring are going to pass on. He didn’t wipe them
all out. He let them live their natural lives. They’re going to wander until that whole
generation’s gone. Their children who weren’t accountable to … murmur, they’re
the ones that are going to hear it. There’s only two exceptions made. Joshua
and Caleb; they had the good report. They become the leaders that will then endure
after those 40 years to lead the conquest of the land. So, Joshua and Caleb and the
children of the murmurers entered the land. The others passed away.
Forty years, actually 38 but who’s … who’s quibbling? God prepared Moses, of course, for
the 40 years. He had … Remember, he’d married Zipporah, the daughter of Jethro,
the priest of Midian on the East Shore of the Aqaba. The Midianites by the way,
descended from Keturah. So they’re not even … They’re not ... descendant from Sarah
but we won't get into that here. And the real Mount Sinai of course is Midian. So it’s
… it’s a Midian thing. So … Now, why is all this going on? The New Testament
tells us all these things happened unto them for examples. And they are written for our
admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come. In other words, 1 Corinthians 10,
Paul in his letter makes the point that all these details, all these stories in the Old
Testament are there for our understanding and learning.
The tragedy in most Christian churches is they’ve abandoned the Old Testament. Well, the
New Testament and fulfilled the Old, so they don’t bother with the Old. And as … As
a result, they don’t really understand the New Testament. And so … This word
examples, by the way, is actually the word tupos which means - it’s the word from which we
get - type or prototype, a figure, an image, a prefiguring. And the Bible is full of those.
They’re most … They’re … Some of the most exciting discoveries is when you begin to
… The Holy Spirit leads you to see some of these types or models that we’ll also
look at. Let me give you one of those - Manna, remember in Manna, they were … They needed
food, so God gave them the supernatural bread fell every night, the Manna.
And also, there’s a strange incident of the brazen serpent ... where … they’re
getting bit by snakes and … God had … Moses make a brass serpent,
put it on a hill and those that look at the hill ... get healed. What a strange way to
do a healing. Then, waters from a rock. How many times you ever struck a rock and had a waterfall come out of it? But it happens twice. And there’s something about the order of
the camp I want to show you. I’m just … There’s dozens of these things in Numbers. I’ve
just picked a few to give you a flavor of it. The Manna, they were in need of food, so God
provided a daily provision of Manna, a miracle bread from heaven, right? And it’s interesting
that, it was to be provided six days, on the seventh day it wouldn’t come. So on
the sixth day, you’re supposed to pick up twice as much.
Normally, you didn’t take more than you need for a day. It would spoil and …
But that one day, if you took twice as much for the day that it wouldn’t fall, you’re
all set. You got a double portion on the sixth to prevent you gathering any on Shabbat, on
the Sabbath day. And by the way, I want you to notice something.
This was before the Law was given. This isn’t … This happens to be in Exodus 16. The Law
was given in Exodus 20. So, this is in advance. They were observing the Shabbat before
the Law was given. Very important idea. Then we’ve got the brazen serpent, and, by
the … Uh, I’ll come back. Each one of these is … is … points to Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ says, “I am the bread of life.” The brazen serpent, weird deal. In response
to murmuring, … God sent fiery serpents which bit the people and they
died. Moses intercedes. And then he’s instructed to place a brass serpent on a pole on a high
hill, all that will look toward it would be spared.
Now, if you’re in the Book of Numbers 21 and you read this, that’s weird. What a strange way to heal people, but that’s the way God chose. And, you don’t understand this if you read … You go through the whole Old Testament, this comes up later in Hezekiah,
this brass serpent is still around; people are worshipping it. So he destroys it, because it’s
become an idol. But still you have no explanation, what’s
going on here? Brass serpent. A serpent is a type of sin. You put sin up on a … on
a hill? What’s going on here? Jesus explains it to you in John 3. You see, “As Moses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness even so shall the Son of man be lifted up that
whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
In other words, this … this serpent remedy in Numbers 21 was deliberately designed by
God to anticipate the ultimate remedy we have in Jesus Christ. That’s called a Macro
Code. That’s a Macro Code. It’s an anticipatory code of structure. On a Word Processor, if
you’re doing your Word Processor and you’re going to send a fax or … or make an e-mail
or a letter, often you can hit one key that will format it for you and you go and put
your stuff in it and it becomes a file. You know, it’s an anticipatory code, a macro,
a macro code in computer parlance. A code that anticipates subsequent content.
That’s exactly what the … the brazen serpent thing does. But it means that the … the
designer of that code is outside the dimensionality of time because He knows what’s coming
and He models it to anticipate what’s coming. It’s one of the subtle demonstrations that
the Bible had its origin outside the … the space time domain. … And it’s interesting
that this comment by Jesus Christ in John 14 is the set up for the most famous verse
in the entire Bible, John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten
Son and whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” What
a verse that is! Justifiably the best-known verse in the Bible.
Well, we get to the Waters of Meribah. Now, this is a strange one. At Rephidim, they were
out … without water. God says to Moses, “Take your staff, strike the rock and water
will come,” and it did. That’s in Exodus 17 and they get their water. Incredible. Incredible miracle. Many years later, they’re at Meribah, another
location. They’re again without water. This time, Moses is just frustrated with the people.
And God tells Moses, “Take you … Go to that rock and speak to it, it will give you
water.” Moses goes out there and he takes his staff like he did before, and strikes the
rock with his staff, the water came, the people got their water but God says, “Moses,”
and He puts him in the penalty box. He said, “See, because you misrepresented
Me to the people. I wasn’t mad at them. You were mad at them. You gave the impression
to them that I was mad at them. I wasn’t. You’ve misrepresented me.” You get the
picture? But what happens as a result is a shock. Get the picture here. Moses was ... 40 years in training at Egypt, goes 40 years to Midian to get in the wilderness to
get prepped for the Exodus, comes and … and is leading these people,
therefore, he’s 120 years old. And his dream through these 120 years was
to be able to lead the people into the Promised Land. God says, “Hey, Moses. You didn’t
do what I told you to do. You didn’t follow directions. So you’re not going to go in
the Promised Land. Your people will go, but you’re not going to go. You could see it
from the hill. We’ll let you up hill and get you to look at it but ... you didn’t
make it.” So gets a chance to see it from a land. He
passes away. God Himself buries Moses which is weird. That’s interesting. What’s even
weirder is that Satan and Michael fight over his body. It’s not mentioned in the Bible there,
but it’s alluded to in the Book of Jude. We’ll deal that when we get there.
But when you study this, there is something kind of interesting here. If Moses had done
what God told him to do, the two water from the rock events would profile the first and
second coming of Christ. He was smitten the first time, not the second time. You follow
me, you could … It could have been a model and that could be one of the reasons God was
frustrated with Moses because he didn’t do what he was told. If he had, we’d enjoy
another one of these very profound types but uh, the type …
We do know that the rock, Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 10, the rock was Jesus Christ.
He’s the source of our living water. And He got … We got it first time because
He was struck, He was smitten. Second time for the asking and that's the way it would have been if
Moses had … had done it the way God told him to. And because of his failure to follow
directions, Moses is denied entry in the Promised Land.
That should chill us. Here’s ... here’s Moses, His faithful servant but he did blow
it and he takes the penalty here. But I want to show you something else that may come as
a surprise, because, obviously, everything in the scriptures is there by design, and some people challenge me, “What about Numbers 2?” It’s a boring chapter, a lot of numbers
and stuff.” Is every detail there by design? What might be hidden behind the
details of the camp of Israel? Jesus said in Psalm 40:7 also in Hebrews 10:7
is quoted, “The volume of the book is written of me.” Every detail in the Bible points
to Jesus Christ. Let’s challenge this here. If you wade through Numbers 2, you’ll discover
they number each of the tribes. Judah’s 74,600. Issachar 54,400, et cetera, et cetera. They’re
all on the screen here. Uh, and these numbers are the men older than 20 able to go to war.
So it doesn’t include … It does not include the children or women. It doesn’t include
the aged. Follow me? So, to find out what the real population is
you probably have to multiply each one of these by some factor two or three, pick a
number to … to count for the wife and the children … You know, some … But these
are … So these are core populations. And you go through all of these. Say, "Gee, Chuck,
That’s exciting. What do I do with all that information?” But bear with me. Something
else you’ll learn in Numbers is that these 12 tribes are to muster into four camps.
There’s the camp of Judah where Issachar and Zebulum muster with him and under his
ensign. And then there’s a camp of Reuben where Simeon and Gad muster under his ensign. Judah, of course had a lion - lion of tribe of Judah. It was on his ensign. Need
all ... Each one had a symbol on their ensign comes from the 12 … 12 signs, the Mazzuroth.
But, Judah’s is the lead of the … of the camp, of what they called the Camp of
Judah. Reuben, Simeon and Gad become the Camp of Reuben.
His … his symbol is a man, and, his ensign and they rally around that. Ephraim
is … has a symbol of an ox, strength, beast of burden. And, Ephraim, Manasseh and
Benjamin rally around that which figures because Benjamin and Joseph were … Ephraim and Manasseh
were sons of Joseph, right? And Joseph and … and, Benjamin were the children of
Rachel. They were in a very privileged group. And then we've got Dan, Asher and Naphtali.
Dan was originally a serpent, but Hezer, the head of tribe of Dan didn’t like that
so he switched it to an eagle with a serpent in its mouth, by the way. And that’s
recorded in the … and so the Bible but anyway, you see. So there
… there you go. That’s … That’s really thrilling that you gave us that information.
What do I do with it? Well, notice that these camps then, are slightly
different sizes. Okay? In the center of the camp is the Tribe of Levi, the tabernacle
and it’s always faced on the … on the east side is where the door is, and the
Levites take care of this. The three families of the Levites, the Gershonites, Kohathites
and the Merarites have all kinds of duties to … to deal with this moving portable.
But Moses and his brother Aaron and the priests are on the east side. Not all Levites are
priests. Sons of Aaron are priests, okay. And so, I want you to be … respect rabbinical
… You need to think like a rabbi here. They tried. Give them credit. They tried very hard
to be precise in doing what God said. The camp of Judah was to camp east of the Levites,
okay. The camp of Reuben south of the Levites and to be strict obedient to these, that denies
the area that’s southeast. Either east or south you can’t be southeast because then
you’re neither south nor east. In other words, only the cardinal directions—north,
south, east, west—are ordained in the Torah. And only the width of the Levites camp would be
allowed. And the length would be proportional. So here you have the Levites in the middle,
and when you number those, they’re about 22,000 there. And however … I don’t know
how wide they were, whether it’s 100 yards or 100 miles ... whatever, but its width as
a unit we’re going to deal with. So Judah, with the … under the tribal, the
standard of a lion would camp as wide as Levites and then take as much space as they needed
eastward, right? And uh, Reuben uh, was to the south. He had a symbol of a man and they
would camp there and take the … as wide as the Levites were there … because they’re
… as long as they’re … they can be south as long as they’re no wider than
the Levites and out they go. And that leaves a question, “What about here?
What about between these two?” Well, that’s southeast. It’s neither south nor east,
so that wouldn’t be rabbinically comfortable, right? And so likewise, we’ve got southwest,
northwest, northeast as … as areas that are not specified for any of the tribes. Ephraim
with the symbol of the ox would go to the west, and Dan with his eagle, having substitute
for the serpent, all … These come from the prophecies of Jacob in Genesis 49 but
in any case, there’s Dan with the eagle … So there we have it.
Now, the question is, “Okay. We’ve got … We’ve got the arrangement but these
populations of those camps are different.” The largest was Judah, the smallest was Ephraim,
and the other two are about the same. So what I want to do here, is imagine that we have
a helicopter out here that we’re going to take a trip. And the helicopter have arranged
for us a very unusual one because it’s also a time machine.
And so as we get in this, collectively, imagination get in this helicopter, we’re
going to fly over to Israel. And we’re going to have it also go backwards in time
to the time of the wilderness wanderings. And uh, as it goes there, we’re going to
approach from the east and we will see right in the middle of the camp of course, the Levite
area with the tabernacle. And then we’ll see these four arms.
But as we get there, we’ll also see the arms in proportion. And so as we approach
in our imaginary helicopter, what do we see? A what?
Audience: A cross. A cross, exactly. Exactly. Judah’s
186 … 186 units and … Ephraim only 108 and the other two roughly
150. So yes, it’s a … it’s a scale drawing of a … of a cross. I think it’s very interesting.
Here’s … Here’s a sketch from the air of the camp of Israel not hidden away in Numbers 2, if you know how to look. And, I think that’s kind of fun. And of course that, needless
to say, is a model of the throne of God.
We have God sitting in the middle with His throne and the rest of it, and He’s surrounded
by an ox, a man, an eagle and a lion and if you’ve done your Bible homework, you know
that from Isaiah 6 and Ezekiel 1 and 10 and Revelation, there’s always cherubim
around guarding the throne of God that have faces, right, four faces, an ox, a man, an
eagle and lion which also profiled the four gospels, but we’re get … we’re getting
ahead of ourselves. Last Book in the Torah is Deuteronomy
where the Laws are reviewed. And, it’s sort of a bridge between the first four books
of the Torah, outside the land and the next seven books which will be in the land. So
it’s like a bridge in that sense. It’s actually three sermons by Moses and the record
of his death. It includes some great things. the Shema, of course, the great commandment.
There are more … This is probably Jesus’ favorite book. He quotes from the Book of
Deuteronomy more than he does any other book in the Bible. The song of Moses which is a
prophecy over the 12 tribes has some surprising little tidbits hidden away in it. The Book, of course, concludes with the death of Moses, obviously added by a scribe, but ... it has …
We know that Michael fights with Satan over his body as the Book of Jude talks about.
There’s also the transfiguration appearance. Moses will show up on … in Matthew 17 along
with Elijah at the transfiguration. That’s a strange thing. And it’s my personal suspicion
that he is one of the two witnesses that show up in Revelation 11. Scholars have different
views that happens to be mine. I have some reasons we’ll deal with when we get there.
But you should know the Shema. “Hear, O Israel, the Lord is one Lord and thou shalt
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy might.”
This obviously is on every doorpost of every Jewish dwelling. Typically, they have a little
Mezuzah with a scripture and the scripture is usually the Shema that’s in there. It’s also the very verse that Jesus quotes as the greatest commandment. So at
Deuteronomy 6:4 & 5, the Shema. Now, and … and it goes on then
to say, “These words which I command thee this day shall be in thy heart. Thou shalt
teach them diligently to thy children and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thy
house and when thou walkest by the way and thou liest down and thou risest up. And thou
shalt bind them for a sign upon thy hand and they shall be as frontlets between thy eyes
and thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house and upon thy gates.” So that’s
why they do that. That’s why they often will celebrate
with little leather pouches on their wrists and on their forehead which carry a scripture.
They … the phylacteries as they call them. And, it's interesting … a Jewish
home will always have that on the … doorpost. Now, it’s interesting that
there’s only one form of Biblical schooling in the Bible. It’s called homeschooling.
Just thought I’d throw that out to offend any teachers that are here.
But, the Shema also says, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord.” The
word one there in the Hebrew is Echad. It means compound unity, a collective sense.
It’s plurality and unity; like one cluster of grapes is … would be appropriate. It
is not the word Yachid which would be absolute unity like one singular which is never used
of Jehovah or Yahweh or however you want to pronounce it. The word … that's translated Lord, Yahweh, is … appears three times just in this verse. But the book also … Numbers concludes with the dangers of compromise because there’s
two and a half tribes, Gad, Reuben and half the tribe of Manasseh that really like the ground
up there in the place called Bashan, good cattle ground. That’s the land they want,
but they haven’t conquered the land yet, but they ask Moses, that’s what they want
for the land. And, it’s a compromise of sight, sort of like
Lot had done, by the way, but Moses agrees that they can have it after they conquer the
land. They want the tribes to be with them as they march in and conquer the land of Canaan.
When they finished the conquest, yes, they can go back and that will be their allotment.
And, so they ... and they will. They’ll return. And the region that they’re talking
about is the region we call the Golan Heights. This region was the first to fall to idolatry.
It was the first to go into captivity. And it remains to this day, the vulnerable
buffer zone of Israel. Well, that concludes … This concludes a
rather hurried, quick snapshot of the remainder of the Torah. In the next session, it’s
a military session with some real surprises, Joshua. The first thing you should be alert to Yahoshua
is the Hebrew which would be translated into Greek would be Jesus. So we have Jesus on
a name of the book of the Old Testament. That should get your attention. It’s a military
thing, a military conquest of Canaan. And we’re going to talk about the long day
of Joshua that many Christians have trouble with. We’ll deal with that very directly.
Then we’ll get to the Book of Judges, 350 years of doing what was right in their own
eyes. It’s going to tell you what value relativism will lead to. And then we have
the … the dessert for the whole evening will be the Book of Ruth. A little four-chapter
book that’s probably my favorite book. I can’t say it because they’re all favorites,
I guess, but Ruth is a treasure and you’ll be surprised what little treasures are hidden
away in the book. You will not understand the Book of Revelation unless you understand
the Book of Ruth. And so, with that, let’s stand for a closing word of prayer. Father, we just thank you for Your word. We stand in awe of Your word and the extremes You've gone to, that we might have Your illumination. We thank You, Father, for these little treasures You've hidden around every corner. But we do pray, Father, through Your Holy Spirit, You would illuminate all of this to put it in perspective for our lives that we might understand what it is You would have of us in the days that remain. We do pray, Father, that You would just re-ignite in each of us a new passion, a new hunger for Your word. That we might grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior and that we might be more fruitful stewards of the opportunities before us. We do pray, Father, that you would just open our hearts and lives to Your word. As we commit ourselves into Your hands without any reservation in the name of Yeshua, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, Amen.
