Rabbi Schneider - The Tabernacle: How to Be Close to God?
The Hebrew word for tabernacle is called mishkan. On last week's broadcast, we began in the Book of Exodus chapter number 25, verse 8 and 9. Let me read verse 8 and 9 of that book once again, beginning in verse number 8: Hear the word of God and let them construct a sanctuary or a mishkan for me, the Lord says, that I might dwell among them. We talked a lot about that last week, how the purpose of the tabernacle is that God, beloved, desires to be intimate with us. He says build me this mishkan that I may dwell with you. And I spoke last week about the heart of God, and we miss this sometimes, we think of God as El Shaddai, as God Almighty. But we don't realize beloved, is that not only is God, Almighty, but he also is the most sensitive person, he is more sensitive than his entire creation, and he gets pleasure beloved, out of us loving him, out of us wanting fellowship with him. It brings him joy.
That's why the Bible says that when one sinner repents, all the angels of heaven rejoice. And so we tried to really drive that home on last week's broadcast, that the Lord, beloved, gets pleasure when we say God, I love you, I wanna obey you, I wanna put you first. The Lord says draw near to me and I'm gonna draw near to you, and I'm gonna begin to share with you, the, the desires of my heart. You see the Lord said about Moses, he said I don't speak to Moses like I do other people. He says I speak to Moses like a man speaks to his friend; I speak with him face to face. Why did the Lord speak with Moses face to face? Because the Bible says Moses was the most humble man on all the earth. He loved God and God could trust him then to share the depths of who he is with Moses. The Lord says I don't speak to Moses like I do the other prophets, he said I reveal myself to the other prophets in a vision or in a dream, but not so with Moses. With Moshe, the Lord said, with him I speak face to face, even as a man speaks to his friend.
Why did the Lord speak differently to Moses? Well it was all the grace of God, but it was because beloved, the Lord could trust Moses, he could trust Moses with revealing more to, to him. And so it's the same thing with us; God desires to give us more. But the Bible says of God's gonna give us more, we have to first of all beloved, love him enough that he knows he can trust us. That's where the Bible says to us in Jeremiah: you shall search for me, and you shall find me, if you search for me, listen now, with all your heart. God says you're gonna find me, but you've got a search for me with all your heart. See, God desires for us to find him, he desires to have fellowship with us. He desires beloved, to reveal himself to us, but he's not gonna cast his pearls before swine, and he's not gonna give what's holy to dogs. He's only gonna give more of himself beloved, to us when we give, listen now, more of our self to him.
The Lord says in Exodus 25 verse 8: Build me this mishkan, build me this tabernacle. Follow the principles that are in it, because I desire to be close to you. And by following the principles beloved, that we can see are prophetically revealed in the mishkan, in the tabernacle, by applying the spiritual principles that are connected with each piece of furniture in the mishkan, to our own lives spiritually, what's gonna happen beloved is we're gonna be cleansed, we're gonna be separated unto God, we're gonna be brought closer to him, listen now, and he's gonna reveal more of himself to us, cause remember: he said I want you to build this for me.
Once again, Exodus 25 verse 8: that I might dwell with you. I want you to know that when you go down to lay down tonight in your bed, when you go to sleep tonight and lay down in your bed, I want you to know Yadid, God the Lord wants to be closer to you. When you lay your head on your pillow tonight and your lying in your bed, I want you to know that God; he's looking at you, he loves you more than you could know, and he wants to be closer to you. And as you turn your life over to him, as you turn your heart over to him, as you open up your heart to him more and more beloved, he's gonna come closer and closer to you and you're gonna experience him as a reality more, and more, and more in your life as you age. This doesn't happen in a moment, it doesn't happen in a day, it doesn't happen in a week, it doesn't happen in a month; it's a lifetime, but it's real. And as we follow beloved, the prophetic applications that you're gonna see revealed in the tabernacle, you're gonna continue to ascend into the Lord's presence and into intimacy with him.
Now the tabernacle, we're gonna be showing some slides throughout the presentation, the tabernacle beloved; was surrounded by a white fence. This fence was approximately 75 feet wide, and 150 feet long, and it was about 7½ feet high. Let me say it again: the white fence that surrounded the perimeter of the tabernacle was 75 feet wide, 100, 150 feet long and 7½ feet high. Now why did the Lord build a fence around the tabernacle? He's showing us beloved, remember, every piece has spiritual application. Listen what the Lord says in verse number 9 of Exodus 25, where the Lord starts to reveal to us the tabernacle. He said I want you to build me this mishkan, I want you to build me this tabernacle that I might dwell with you, and listen what he says in Exodus 25:9: According to all that I'm going to show you as the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all this furniture, just so you shall construct it. And so the Lord instructed that there needs to be this fence around it. God told us exactly how long the fence should be 150 feet long, how wide it should be 75 feet wide, how high it should be. Every part of it's precise; every part of it has application.
Now of it came into being beloved, for no reason; it's all very, very specific. God is putting a fence around his tabernacle, and the tabernacle beloved, is the place, listen now, of his presence. Remember, you're gonna see that, that over the tabernacle for forty years in the wilderness, there was a pillar of fire by night, representing the manifestation of God's presence, and there was a glory cloud by day hovering over the tabernacle for forty years, as long as it was in the wilderness. And in the holy of holies in the tabernacle, between the two gold cherubim that were on top of the Ark of the Covenant, the literal physical manifestation of the Lord dwelt. You could literally see his glory inside the tabernacle, in the Holy of Holies, ushering out of beloved, that place between the two cherubim that were over the Ark of the Covenant.
So the tabernacle beloved, listen now: was the place of God's presence in ancient Israel. We know he's no longer abiding in buildings, but remember in the Hebrew Bible, it was a shadow, it was a copy, the Book of Hebrews tells us in chapter 9. Now the Lord is no longer abiding in a, in a building called a mishkan or a tabernacle, because now he's come to us in the person of his Son. And the Bible says what? Unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given and you shall call him what? Emmanuel. God is now with us in the spirit. But before the Spirit was poured out, remember Yeshua said, after he had risen from the grave, before he had ascended into heaven; one of the women came to touch him and Yeshua said don't touch me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. And then later we know that on Pentecost, he had ascended to the Father previously, and at Pentecost, he poured out his Spirit.
And so beloved, now, now we are walking in the Spirit, because the Spirit of God has been poured out upon all flesh. But before the Lord poured out his Spirit on the day of Shavuot or Pentecost 2000 years ago, God's Spirit wasn't poured out on everybody. If you wanted to come to, to be with God, you couldn't just sit in your living room and just say: thank you Lord that you're here, that you're with me, that you're in me; you couldn't do that then. There was a few priests and a few kings that had the abiding principles of the Holy Spirit with them. But in general, if you wanted to meet with God, you had to go someplace. It was this tabernacle, so the tabernacle represented beloved, listen now, the dwelling place, listen now, of God.
And so what we're looking here is, well what, what are all these different pieces of furniture, and what is it with this pattern, what are these dimensions mean beloved about, Lord about how it is that you're able to dwell with us today? And so the Lord says: I want you to follow this pattern, cause it speaks of mysteries to you of how I can have fellowship with you; I'm no longer requiring you to go to a building, but the spiritual application that I'm gonna show you, works for you, it corresponds to your walk with me today. And so there's this fence; the Lord is showing beloved, that people can't just approach God on their own terms. If you wanted to enter in, listen now, to the tabernacle, which is where the Lord literally dwelt; if you wanted to draw near to the Lord beloved, you came to the tabernacle, cause that's where his literal presence dwelt, and you couldn't just wander into the tabernacle. There was only one entrance beloved, through this fence. Only one entrance in; and people today think they can just wander up to God, and they can, they can basically have a relationship with God on their own terms.
Even in the Christian church today, beloved, so much of the gospel, which is not the real gospel that's being preached today, isn't really the truth, because many sermons beloved, that seem to being preached today, are more man centered than God centered. People are just approaching God, you know any way they wanna, wanna approach God. They're basically wanting to use God to make them wealthy, and successful, and to be all they can be. And you know what? There's nothing wrong with becoming all we can be in the Lord, we desire this. But beloved, I want you to know that when people came to the tabernacle of ancient Israel to dwell with God; they didn't come there just so they could become all they could be. They came there to worship a holy God. Jesus said unless you lose your life for my sake, you'll not find it.
People today beloved, they wanna make the Christian God a God that exists just to bless them. And the reality of what they're teaching, and what they're understanding is not that God is holy, and we need to lose our lives to find him, and that he himself is the great reward. But instead what's being preached today, even in many Christian circles is: here is this God, and he wants you to be all you can be, and he just wants to bless you, and he just wants to make you successful, and he just wants to fulfill your destiny; all those things are true, but beloved, the problem with that message is it's not first about God, it's first about us. It's a man centered gospel. People are coming to God on their own terms. They're using God. They're thinking you know what; I wanna be more successful, so therefore I'll come to God and I'll be successful. In the end, what they want is not God; they wanna be successful and they're just using the Lord as a means to an end, and that's not the real gospel.
Yeshua said many will come in my name; he said and will mislead many. Beloved, it's deep in the church today, it's a gospel beloved, of success, rather than beloved, the gospel of a holy God whose called us to himself and said: unless you pick up your cross, deny yourself and follow me, you cannot be my disciple. It's not a gospel beloved that teaches us how we can just be the best we can be; it's a gospel that teaches us to pick up our cross and die to our self that we can receive more of Jesus, and that the power of God could be more manifest through our life. It's in dying beloved, that we live. The Apostle Paul said I die daily that the power of his resurrection might be released in me. So I'm saying here that this tabernacle beloved, that was surrounded by the white fence, had only one way in. It's a straight and narrow way.
Yeshua said straight and narrow is the way that leads to life, and few there'll be that find it. Broad and wide is the way that leads to destruction and many there'll be to take it. So for example today, if you ask people if they believe in Jesus, many will say yes. But when you ask them about the Jesus they believe in, they begin to explain the Jesus they believe in, you begin to understand that the Jesus that they believe in, listen now, it's not the Jesus, hallelujah beloved, of the Bible. It's a different Jesus. They call him Jesus, they think it's the Jesus of the Bible, but it's not the Jesus beloved, that's revealed in the word of God. The Jesus that's revealed in the word of God beloved, calls us into one way. Jesus said I am the Way, I am the door, I am the gate; he that enters through me shall be saved. It's the way of picking up the cross beloved, denying our self, denying our own ambitions, denying our own pleasures, denying our own flesh to do the will of God.
And so we see then once again as we study the pattern of the tabernacle, which the Lord showed us as the pattern for how to be intimate with him, the pattern as to how he could come close to us and dwell with us. We see beloved, it wasn't a broad way, you couldn't just wander in from this direction, and wander in from that direction, and come any time you wanted, and, and do, you know. No, we came, beloved they came on God's terms and they entered in through the one door and the one way. It's interesting that not only was this fence beloved, 75 feet wide and 150 feet long; it was also approximately 7½ feet tall. And archeologists tell us that the average height of the ancient Israelites was only about five feet. I'm only about 5'6", so I guess compared to ancient Israel, I'm, I'm tall.
You know when people call me short I just say well; I just think I'm just built more in the image of Jesus, because the average again, Jewish person of his day was just about five feet, at least that's what he archeologists tell us. The reason I bring it up is because think about it: if the fence was 7½ feet tall, and the average Israelite was only about five feet, the average Israelite wouldn't have been able to see what was going on inside of the fence. He couldn't see over the fence, which was 2 ½ feet taller than he was. And what the Lord is teaching us there beloved, is that there is a separation between he, between the Lord and a people beloved, that are dead in their transgressions and sins.
The book of, the Bible tells us, the Book of Ephesians chapter 2, that outside of Jesus, we're dead in transgressions and sins, we're unable to perceive the, the things of God. The Bible says they're foolishness to the unredeemed men. We don't see in the spirit, we think like the world, led by the world, so there's this fence. And the Lord is showing that you know what? If you don't enter in through Jesus, the one door through that fence; you're gonna be like those that couldn't see what I was doing that were outside of that fence in ancient Israel where the tabernacle was standing. You might think you understand, but you'll be understanding beloved, a gospel that isn't the real gospel.
And so again, the fence and one door in through the fence. Now remember, Yeshua's very specific. He said I am the door; he that enters through me shall be saved. Those that try to come in another way the Lord said, are thieves and robbers, and I just made some very specific applications about that. People today that are naming the name of Jesus, but they're coming in a different way. It's not the way of the Cross beloved. And so Jesus beloved, is the only way in to this place, where the physical, literal, manifest presence of the Lord dwelt. Do you know today that Christian people, they're more connected, listen; they're more connected to human beings, than they are beloved, listen now, to the revelation that's contained in the word of God. What do I mean by that?
Remember, one way into the tabernacle, only one small entrance in; Jesus also said I am the way; he that enters through me shall be saved. He that tries to come in another way is a thief and a robber. Jesus said straight and narrow is the way that leads to life. The Bible says there's no other name under heaven by which men can be saved. Jesus is the only way to God. Jesus said I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, no man, He said, comes to God, but through me. But what do many people do today that call themselves Christians? Beloved, they, they, they say that you know a person can be saved without knowing Jesus. Beloved, you can't back that up with the Bible. Straight and narrow is the way, few there be that find it, there's no name under heaven by which men can be saved, but the name of Jesus.
Beloved, there is no way into heaven, there's no way into the presence of God, except through Jesus. Just as there was no way into the tabernacle, except through, listen now, the one gate. We have people today beloved, that you know how many times for example have you been to a funeral? Let's think about this for a second, let's get real for a second; how many times have you been to a funeral where the preacher didn't put the person that had just passed away in heaven? Have you ever been to a funeral where the preacher didn't put the person that just passed away in heaven? And yet you know the person that just passed away. They didn't love God, they didn't profess to love God, they never read the Bible, they never read, they never went to church. In no way, shape or form did they identify them self as a Christian, and yet here comes the preacher, putting that person in heaven and saying that they're in a better place.
Beloved, let's get real, let's not be more concerned about offending others than we are beloved, on standing beloved, on the truth of God's word. No beloved, everybody doesn't go to heaven. It doesn't matter if someone was a good person. If they didn't honor Jesus, if they didn't love Jesus, if they didn't pick up their cross through their life seeking to grow in his grace, to put their self to death to obey him; beloved, they don't belong to him. Unless you pick up your cross and deny yourself Yeshua said, you cannot be my disciple. Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, Yeshua said, it remains alone. No, I've preached funerals before beloved, where people, you know and I told the person that asked me to preach, I said listen, I cannot put, I'm sorry, I cannot put your loved one in heaven.
Now I'm not gonna put em in hell, that's not my job, praise God, to do that, but I'm not gonna put somebody in heaven beloved, that didn't follow the Lord from the best, at least I could tell, just because it made people feel good. So there's one door in it, it's a narrow way, and its Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. Let's put him first beloved, let's be more concerned about honoring God, than we are about offending or hurting somebody else's feelings. Let's tell people the truth. And getting back to this funeral situation; does that really further the cause of the Gospel when every body; you have a hundred, two hundred people, however many it is, sitting in a funeral; everybody knows the person that just passed away.
Everybody that knows that person, know the person, knows the person wasn't a passionate lover of Jesus. Maybe they were even antagonistic towards the things of God. Everybody that's sitting there knows it, and yet here's the preacher putting that person in heaven; how does that help the other two hundred people that are sitting there? It doesn't help em, it hurts em, because the two hundred people that are sitting there are thinking you know what, I don't love Jesus, but I'm gonna go to heaven too, cause that preacher just put so and so in heaven. We know he never read his Bible, we know he never went to church; we know he never talked about Jesus, so if the preacher just put him in heaven, than I guess I'm okay too they think. Even though they're also beloved, dead in their transgressions and sins, need to be redeemed by the blood of the Lamb.
No, we'd be better off in saying this: I don't know where John is, I don't know where Mary is today, what I do know beloved, is that no one goes to heaven, except through Jesus. And what that means is we need to lose our life for his sake, in order that we might find it. You see there's a straight and narrow way into that tabernacle, one door, and there's still only one door for you today. One door for your family today, one door in for your parents today, one entrance in for your children today, for your neighbors, your coworkers, and those you care about.
And that way beloved, is Jesus. There was one entrance into that tabernacle and there's one entrance into the Father's presence today, it's through his Son, Yeshua HaMashiach: that lived, and died, and rose again in our behalf. Let's stop compromising, let's stop being so afraid of hurting people's feelings that we're not willing to tell them the truth. Let's lift up Yeshua HaMashiach beloved, and let's be true witnesses, and preach the Gospel, and do what Paul did who said: there's no other name under heaven by which men can be saved, but the name of Yeshua HaMashiach, Jesus alone, the Messiah.