Life Matters

a. The Desolating Effects of the Serpent’s Lie

In Chapter 8 we noticed the devastating impacts of the lie of inherent life source on individuals and families. The breaking of the channel of blessing exposes the human heart to fear, worthlessness, pride and selfishness on a wide scale. The only way to survive this continual wave of emotions is to encase the heart with a protective wall. After a time, this is still not enough and we have to toughen ourselves even further. This process causes the heart to harden.

From the innocent, trusting heart of a child, life’s experiences creates doubt, suspicion, fear, pain, guilt and regret. The ability to trust people is eroded and many people find the only way to survive is to isolate their emotions, keep their feelings to themselves and avoid the danger of being vulnerable. Through the lie of the serpent, the human soul wanders from the life giving river into the desolating desert of heat, sand and salt bush.

As our Father in heaven looks down upon His children wandering in the soul deserts of life, His heart is touched with pity. He observes the abominable desolating impacts of the serpent’s lie and reaches out to us to bring us back to the life giving river.

The journey of coming back to the river is carefully described in the worship system that God gave to Israel. During their time in Egypt, the Israelites had their hearts desolated by the abominable Egyptian power that enslaved them. Even though their bodies were now free, their minds were still enslaved to the lie of the serpent; their hearts were still bruised and hardened by the sorrows and suffering of fear, worthlessness and pride.

At a later time in Israel’s history, God expressed this process of changing the hearts of His people – a heart transplant if you will.

Eze 36:26-27 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.

God promised to send His life giving spirit to Israel. Like a stream of pure crystal water flowing from the throne, the Spirit of God immerses the human heart in blessing, love, forgiveness and acceptance and slowly the heart softens, warms, strengthens and in turn learns to love and live again.

King David describes this process as a tree like a river:

Psa 1:1-3 Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. 2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. 3 And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

Notice again, the role of the law of God in this process. The law is the protection of this river of life coming into the soul. As we noticed in the last chapter, it enables us to discern the source of the river and by revealing who we are and who God is, we become like the submissive ship to the lighthouse; willing to receive the wise counsel and instruction the lighthouse offers us.

With all this in mind, it becomes clear that restoring the channel of blessing involves a writing of the principles of God’s law in our hearts and mind.

b. The Sanctuary System

Let us now look closely at the system of worship that God gave to Israel and observe the journey that is outlined in it.

Exo 25:8 And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them. According to all that I shew thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it.

There are many details in the Israelite Sanctuary system and it is not the purpose of this book to explore them all. Our main aim it to look at the main sections and the progression from one side of the Sanctuary to the other.

The outline of the Sanctuary is essentially two squares joined together. At the centre of the first square is the altar of burnt offering. At the center of the second square is the Ark of the Covenant containing the law of Ten Commandments.

Notice the following outline:

Both boxes are about the restoration of life. At the centre of box one is the symbol of the death of the lamb. The slain lamb is a symbol of the giving of God’s Son so that we might continue to have life.

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

When Adam and Eve cut the life source to God by sin, the Son of God immediately placed Himself where the break occurred; joined the two broken pieces together and kept the life flowing to the human race. This break in the life source w as now carried in the heart of the Son of God. The only way to rid the universe of this break in the line was to take it to the grave to destroy it and then rise again without it. There was no other way to fix the problem other than letting the entire human race be obliterated.

At the centre of the second box was contained the Ten Commandment Law of God.

Exo 25:10-21 And they shall make an ark of shittim wood: two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof, and a cubit and a half the height thereof. 11 And thou shalt overlay it with pure gold, within and without shalt thou overlay it, and shalt make upon it a crown of gold round about. 12 And thou shalt cast four rings of gold for it, and put them in the four corners thereof; and two rings shall be in the one side of it, and two rings in the other side of it. … 16 And thou shalt put into the ark the testimony which I shall give thee.

Exo 31:18 And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God.

Arriving at the centre of this square is the ultimate destination of the journey from a heart of stone to a heart of flesh. The writing of this law in the heart and mind would permanently connect the human soul to the channel of blessing and protect them for being exposed to the curse. It also symbolized the most intimate point, for this is where the presence of God dwelt. This is the point where we as God’s children experience the height of blessing as sons and daughters of God.

It would be nice to think that this was a simple journey from point 1 to 2 but the lie of the serpent in our hearts makes this journey extremely difficult. The constant temptation to doubt God along the way or constant attempts to try and use the law as a means of proving our love and devotion constantly get in the way and take us off the path to life.

Let us add the next layer of detail to this Sanctuary system. We remember from the comparison of Abraham and Nimrod that the focus of Abraham’s worship was relational and invisible, but Nimrod’s worship focused on the visible and tangible. The Sanctuary journey moves from visible to invisible. It trains us to focus on the unseen rather than the seen.

The Israelite worshipper could enter the first square and offer his sacrifice. This area was called the court. He could see everything in this square. The death of Christ on the cross, which is the focus of the altar, was a recorded event on the earth that was seen. The vision of the cross and the gift of life given to us is the beginning of our journey. God meets us where we are, He comes near to us.

In our human existence with our focus on the visible and tangible, God meets us and confronts us with His gift of life. But the ultimate aim is to shift our thinking to the spiritual-relational world, the world of the mind. This is the real place where the work of transformation must take place and so the second square contained a Sanctuary that the worshipper could not enter. He could not see inside except by the eye of faith. Only the priest could enter this area and do a work for the worshipper. He could not do this for himself.

The invisibility of the second square is a symbol of the work that is done in heaven for us. We cannot now enter heaven and see what is happening on our behalf. God is working to transform our hearts and write His law within us, but we have no outward evidence of this work; neither in heaven, nor in our hearts – we can’t see what is taking place with the human eye.

Let us add another layer of detail for the second square.

The tabernacle that the Israelites were instructed to build was made up of three squares. The Holy Place occupied two squares and the Most Holy occupied one square. The entrance of the Holy Place contained a curtain and the entrance of the Most Holy Place contained a curtain. In the first half of the Holy Place was contained a table (1) with unleavened bread called shew bread and on the other side a candle stick (2) with seven lamps. This candle stick lighted the Holy Place. At the other end of the Holy Place was the Altar of Incense where prayer was offered.

c. The Journey is a Love Story

Each piece of furniture was symbolic in some way of the work and character of Christ.

The most important principle to learn about the Sanctuary is that the writing of the law in the heart means essentially that we become like Christ. The reason we become like Christ is because He is the divine example of submission to the Father. By becoming like the Son of God, we also will learn the lessons of submission and be permanently connected to the channel of blessing.

As we look at the furniture of the Sanctuary, we see that each piece tell us something about Jesus.

 

Furniture	Symbol of Christ
Altar of Sacrifice	John 1:29 “The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”
The Laver of Water	Eph 5:26 (John 1:1) “That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word.” Jesus is called the Word of God.
The Shew Bread	John 6:35 “And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.”
The Candlesticks	John 8:12 “Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”
The Altar of Incense	John 14:6 “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” – We pray to the Father through Christ.
The Ark	Mat 5:17 “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.”

These articles of furniture can be laid out in a line to represent the journey. This journey is called the Way. As each piece of furniture refers to Jesus and Jesus is the one who is the divine example of how to stay connected to the Father – Jesus is referred to as the Way, which is the truth that brings us life. Notice what Jesus says:

John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

The way to come to the Father is symbolized by the Sanctuary system. As the Bible states:

Psa 77:13 Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary: who is so great a God as our God?

So let’s line up the pieces of furniture:

The row that refers to Christ reveals the work that Jesus does on our behalf in the journey from hearts of stone to hearts of flesh. The second row is our experience as we embrace an understanding of the work of Christ. For us this journey is a story of love, courtship and marriage. We move from the lies of isolation to a deeply intimate relationship with love overflowing in our hearts for our Saviour and in our love for Him we learn the true meaning of submission to the Father – the great source of all.

As we come in contact with Jesus through the story of the cross, we are struck by the incredible sense of love He has for us. His selfless act of giving His life acts like a cleansing agent of water and drives the first great crack into our hard hearts. His wooing love draws us into courtship with Him.

When we are convinced of the love of Christ and see good evidence for it in the Word of God, we wish to live with Him forever and we respond to His invitation to be married and so the engagement begins. Engagement is about learning more deeply the character of our prospective partner. Everywhere we go; we speak of our beloved and share our love and admiration of Him. For the Christian this process occurs through prayer, Bible study and sharing our faith. The more we study and share and pray, the more our love grows and the more eagerly we anticipate the marriage.

The marriage is where full revelation takes place. We see the character of Christ in all His glory in the Most Holy, we are captivated by the power of His love and we yield ourselves fully to Him. We remove everything from our lives that blocks our view of our wonderful husband/Saviour.

If you are not already on this journey, I invite you to begin. The writing of the law on your heart is painful at times as the hammer of the Word breaks open the encrusted heart. As the stones are removed and your heart is softened by the oil of God’s Spirit – it feels so good to love and live again – to live without fear.

We have described the loving journey of the Sanctuary system, but we have not addressed the issue of how we get to the starting point of this journey. Once bitten by the serpent and under his influence, the human race was not free to just walk away. We were enslaved to the system of the serpent. We did not even know there was a way of escape, neither were we interested in one. As the Bible states:

Rom 3:11 There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.

Rom 8:7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

In the next chapter we will learn how God broke the power of the serpent and awoke within us the seeds of our true identity, which in turn drew our hearts to the door of the Sanctuary so that we could begin the journey.