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The Heavenly Temple of God
Posted : 29 Aug, 2014 01:32 AM
When Moses entered the tabernacle, that the pillar of cloud descended and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses.
All the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the tabernacle door, and all the people rose and worshiped, each man in his tent door.
So the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend.
Exodus 33:9-11
The Mishkan (dwelling place) of the God of Israel was originally the portable shrine called the Ark of the Covenant, which was placed in the Tabernacle tent after God saved Jews from their slavery in Egypt.
King David, brought the Ark to his new capital, Jerusalem, intending to build there a Temple in order to house the Ark in a permanent place. God told him that he would not be permitted to build a Temple. The task of building therefore passed to David's son and successor Solomon.
Soon God will literally dwell with us if our names will be written in the BOOK of LIFE and if we will ENTER His Dwelling Place....
Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ��8 And let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them. 9 According to all that I show you, that is, the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all its furnishings, just so you shall make it.� Exodus 25
31 �You shall make a veil woven of blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and fine woven linen. It shall be woven with an artistic design of cherubim. 32 You shall hang it upon the four pillars of acacia wood overlaid with gold. Their hooks shall be gold, upon four sockets of silver. 33 And you shall hang the veil from the clasps. Then you shall bring the ark of the Testimony in there, behind the veil. The veil shall be a divider for you between the holy place and the Most Holy. 34 You shall put the mercy seat upon the ark of the Testimony in the Most Holy. 35 You shall set the table outside the veil, and the lampstand across from the table on the side of the tabernacle toward the south; and you shall put the table on the north side. Exodus 26
Jesus Dies on the Cross
45 Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour there was darkness over all the land. 46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, �Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?� that is, �My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?�
47 Some of those who stood there, when they heard that, said, �This Man is calling for Elijah!� 48 Immediately one of them ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed, and offered it to Him to drink.
49 The rest said, �Let Him alone; let us see if Elijah will come to save Him.�
50 And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit.
51 Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split, 52 and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; 53 and coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many.
54 So when the centurion and those with him, who were guarding Jesus, saw the earthquake and the things that had happened, they feared greatly, saying, �Truly this was the Son of God!�
Matthew 27:45-54
And WHY the veil was torn?
One Christian said:
�The veil represented the FLESH.
Man's separation from God due to sin and flesh. It was torn when Christ finished His work on the cross. Jesus destroyed the works of the devil and the power of sin when the veil was torn and now through Christ, man had the opportunity to be reconciled back to God and be in fellowship with Him and have the ABILITY to live holy. . Jesus broke through the flesh barrier and condemned sin in the flesh for us. Now, by the power of His Spirit in us we too have broken thru the flesh barrier and we are no longer held captive to flesh and sin. Glory to God!
THIS IS THE GRACE OF GOD! By the infilling of the Spirit, we are no longer debtors to the flesh. We have the grace of God in our walk daily.�
RIGHT.
The veil is the symbol of the flesh of the SON of GOD! The Veil was torn to enable you to APPROACH the God of Israel in His Dwelling Place!
19 Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way which He consecrated for us,
through the VEIL, that is, His FLESH,
21 and having a High Priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, 25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching. Hebrews 10:19-25
What is the Holiest?
And why the Jewish priests cold die when they approached the Holiest?
What is the Holiest/the Holy of Holies?
This is a term in the Hebrew Bible which refers to the inner sanctuary of the Tabernacle and later the Temple in Jerusalem where the Ark of the Covenant was kept during the First Temple, which could be entered only by the High Priest on Yom Kippur/the Day of Atonement in Israel.
The Ark of the Covenant is said to have contained the Ten Commandments, which were given by God to Moses and the Israelites at Mount Sinai.
The "Holy of Holies" is always translated as "Most Holy Place". But why? Because the God of Israel LITERALLY dwelt among the Jews! In the Holy of Holies was the dwelling place of God among the Israelites!
The Holy of Holies was hidden by a VEIL, and no one was permitted to enter except the Jewish High Priest and even he could only enter once a year on the Day of Atonement, to offer the blood of sacrifice and incense before the Mercy Seat.
The Mercy Seat....What is that?
In the wilderness, on the day that the tabernacle was first raised up, after God saved Jews from their slavery in Egypt, the CLOUD of the Lord covered the tabernacle and God talked to people through Moses. This tabernacle was a prototype of the Jewish Temple where God also dwelt among Jews.
In the tabernacle the instructions were given that the Lord would appear in the CLOUD upon the mercy seat (kapporet), and at that time the priests should not enter into the tabernacle (Leviticus 16:2).
Let's consider the Mercy Seat. What is that?
According to the Bible, the cover or Mercy Seat (Hebrew: Kapporet "atonement piece") was an object which rested upon the Ark of the Covenant.
Exodus 25:17 And thou shalt make an ark-cover of pure gold: two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof.
The Ark and the cover were kept inside the Holy of Holies- the Temple's innermost sanctuary, which was separated from the remainder of the Temple by a thick curtain (parochet), because the Ark and Mercy Seat were associated with the presence of YHWH/the God of Israel.
The Holy of Holies could only be entered on the Day of Atonement/Yom Kipur, and even then could only be entered by the Jewish High Priest, who was covenanted to do so in order to sprinkle the BLOOD of a sacrificial bull onto the MERCY SEAT, as an atonement for himself and his family, the other priests, the Tabernacle, and the Jewish people of Israel.
The directions specify that incense was first burnt in the Holy of Holies so that a CLOUD rose up and appeared above the cover of the Ark!
This is a symbolic representation of God!
In rabbinical tradition the original kaporet in the Tabernacle and Temple in Jerusalem is identified as a lid of pure gold on top of the Ark, and the name kaporet given since it served to "atone" (kaper) for the sins of the people.
The Yom Kippur ritual was merely a shadow of things to come! That was a PREDICTION of DEATH of the Son of God given by God in such a symbolic representation to forgive our sins through HIS BLOOD/sacrifice! (Hebrews 10:1).
Is the Temple of God in Heaven too? Did God give us a description of His heavenly Temple to construct our earthly Jewish Temple on our planet?
Greatness of Christ's Sacrifice
23 Therefore it was necessary that the copies of the things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. 24 For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; 25 not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood of another? 26 He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. 27 And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, 28 so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.
Hebrews 9
Let's now consider what is incense.
The Incense Offering. What is that?
The Incense offering was related to perfumed offerings on the Altar of Incense in the time of the Tabernacle and the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem.
There was the Altar of Incense (mizbach haketoros) (Exodus 30:1-10) in the Jewish Temple, called also the Golden Altar/the Inner Altar which stood inside, in the Holy Place "before the Veil that is by the Ark of the Covenant."
The coals from the Altar of Incense were taken behind the veil on the Day of Atonement (Hebrews 9:34) to create the smoke, described by me above. This smoke/ cloud is a reference to the prayers of believers as incense (Revelation 8:4).
"And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, ascended before God from the angel's hand." The smoke of incense in the tabernacle typically signifies offered prayer.
The burning of the incense was symbolic of the prayer of the people rising up to God (Psalm 141:2; Revelation 5:8; 8:3-4).
The offering of incense had to take place after the sacrifice, because only after the atonement could communion with God take place!
The coals used on the Altar of Incense had to be taken from the Altar of Burnt Offerings!
After the offering of incense, the Kohenim (priests) pronounced the Priestly Blessing upon the people.
Now let's look at the Heavenly Temple again:
Revelation 4
The Heavenly Temple
The Throne Room of Heaven
1 After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, "Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this.
2 Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne set in heaven, and One sat on the throne. 3 And He who sat there was like a jasper and a sardius stone in appearance; and there was a rainbow around the throne, in appearance like an emerald. 4 Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and on the thrones I saw twenty-four elders sitting, clothed in white robes; and they had crowns of gold on their heads. 5 And from the throne proceeded lightnings, thunderings, and voices. Seven lamps of fire were burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God (angels of God)......
...The mystery of the seven golden lampstands are the seven churches....Rev.1
*******
\12 Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands, 13 and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man 9the SON of God), clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band. 14 His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire; 15 His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters; 16 He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength. 17 And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid His right hand on me, saying to me, "Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last. 18 I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I (the SON of God) am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death.... Rev 1
*******
6 Before the throne there was a sea of glass, like crystal. And in the midst of the throne, and around the throne, were four living creatures full of eyes in front and in back. 7 The first living creature was like a lion, the second living creature like a calf, the third living creature had a face like a man, and the fourth living creature was like a flying eagle. 8 The four living creatures, each having six wings, were full of eyes around and within. And they do not rest day or night, saying:
"Holy, holy, holy,
Lord God Almighty,
Who was and is and is to come!"
9 Whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, who lives forever and ever, 10 the twenty-four elders fall down before Him who sits on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying:
11 "You are worthy, O Lord,
To receive glory and honor and power;
For You created all things,
And by Your will they exist and were created."
Now let�s look into far future...
What will happen after the Millennium Kingdom of the Son of God on our planet?
We most probably will be on another planet created by God for us:
Revelation 21
All Things Made New! The NEW Jerusalem!
1 Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. 2 Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, �Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. 4 And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.�
5 Then He who sat on the throne said, �Behold, I make all things new.� And He said to me, �Write, for these words are true and faithful.�6 And He said to me, �It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. 7 He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son. 8 But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.�
The New Jerusalem
But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.23 The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light. 24 And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it. 25 Its gates shall not be shut at all by day (there shall be no night there). 26 And they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it. 27 But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb�s Book of Life.
Revelation 21
Soon God will literally dwell with us if our names will be written in the BOOK of LIFE and if we will ENTER His Dwelling Place....
May the God of Israel save you all through your FAITH in His beloved Son, who created the universe and died instead of you to make you FREE of your sin, and lead you into the Dwelling Place of God. Amen.
:angel:
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