By Dick Ruben
The Showbread – You can go into the Outer Court and stay there – Priesting is not a clean thing – that outer court smelled – things died there!
The Brazen altar was made of copper, not bronze – bronze is an impure metal – they proved in WWII that copper is one of the greatest forms of protection – they covered their doors with copper. The Altar – the first thing you come to upon coming through the door was made of wood and copper.
This is a reminder that no one comes to the presence of God but through the Lamb of God. We set apart our life with the laver – When you go to the laver, we need to judge ourselves – then we can look into the Word of God to see if our lives are lining up with the image of the Word – the mirrors. It was the looking glass that made up the laver.
The metals change – we have copper in the outer court – there was brass, there was gold. Brass means judgment. Everything in the tabernacle are patterns, all for us. Everything connected to Moses was all for our learning, for which the ends of the earth will come. We are looking for the glory of God, we have to be in the pattern of God for the glory to fall.
The tabernacle is for today. God has a pattern – Follow the pattern and the glory will fall. It is for the Jew and the gentile, also.
The principles of the Tabernacle are inexhaustible.
Leviticus 1 – God spoke to Moses out of the Tabernacle – God is still speaking to us out of the Tabernacle.
At the door, all the metals change – they change to gold. It is about us coming to God and God coming to us. The inner court is a pattern to continue in our walk towards God.
I John 5:5 – This is he that came by water and by blood and is the Spirit that is our witness – 3 bear witness in heaven – the Father, the Word, and Holy Spirit. The Altar is the blood – the laver is the water – water and blood flowed out of Yeshua – represents the outer court.
There are five rods in the inner court – we also have 5 rods that hold us up – apostles, prophets, evangelists, teachers, and pastors.
I Peter 2:5 – you also, as living stones, have built up a spiritual house – The Tabernacle is the spiritual house.
Exodus 25 – God asked Moses to build him a place to dwell among them – God wants habitation. Patterns never change.
Atonement means covering – the high priest would put blood over the altar – he was covering the sins of the people – the blood covered. But John the Immerser told us the Lamb would take AWAY SIN – The blood of Jesus doesn’t cover our sin – it takes it away as if it never existed. Sin was eradicated by Jesus.
We are in a commanding position over the devil – we do not plead the blood, we declare the blood.
Exodus 40 – He gave a time period in verse 2 – 1st day of the 1st month – go to Exodus 12 – time of Pesach – The Lord spoke to Moses in Egypt – this month shall be the 1st month – then Numbers 9:1 – God spoke to them in the 1st month of the 2nd year – this is a 12 month period, not 24 months.
Exodus 19:1 – In the 3rd month – It took 3 mos to get to Mt Sinai to get the law to build the tabernacle – the tabernacle was built by the 12th month – 3 mos from 12 mos = 9 mos – it took 9 months to create a habitation for God to dwell in. It takes 9 mos to bring forth a baby – Jesus – God’s dwelling place is in Jesus – 9 months is the dwelling place for God – 9 months Jesus is born –
John 14:17 – Jesus says, “You have seen the spirit of truth – he dwells in you and shall be with you. So on Pentecost – Acts 2 – The apostles hung out in Jerusalem per Jesus’ instructions – it was the 50th day – they were in the temple at sunrise – it was Pentecost – they celebrated Pentecost – it was at the temple site where the Holy Spirit fell. Up until that day, the H.S. had only been upon them, not IN them. They became the habitation of the fire, the anointing of the H.S. – it took 9 months for me to become a dwelling place for God’s glory! Halleluia!
In the inner court – At the lampstand, they had the Word of God. When we look at the lampstand, we have 66 books of the Bible; they prayed (represents the golden altar) and they fellowshipped – they broke bread (represented by the shewbread).
The 3rd piece made – the lampstand – a place of light – menorah means “a place of light”. It is a lampstand, not a candle. Candles are self-sufficient – a candle stands alone – it has its own wick – but the menorah had to be filled with oil to work – they used the “used” priestly garments and shredded them and rolled them, and shaped them into wicks. When you look at the lampstand, the fullness of God’s word – the oil represents the HS. And the garments of the priesthood represent us as believers, because we are priests, and we are to bring forth the brilliant light to illuminate a darkened world. Oil is always a type of the H.S. – When you look at the menorah – 7 lamps – the Shammus is the highest point of the menorah. We need revelation.
The lampstand represents anointing – each stem consist of a knot, a flower and a bud – there are 9 on each branch – 3 x 9 = 27 – 27 is on each side – but in the center – there are 12 ornaments on the center branch – 27 + 12 = 39: there are 27 books in the N.T. and there are 39 books in O.T. – you have to have the whole word of God in order to see the full light of what God is saying. There are 66 books in the Bible.
9 also speaks of the gifts of the spirit – 9 portions of the fruit of the spirit – all parts tie into another part.
But there are 3 extra knots – representing the Father, Son, and H.S. – We cannot understand God without the light of revelation – it takes all seven to understand the whole. Without the lampstand, you are not going to be able to minister at the altar or the table of showbread. All 7 lamps need to be burning – God intended the full light of His word to illuminate our hearts!
In self-gratification, there is no ability to reproduce. We were born to reproduce a Kingdom. You have to have a love affair in order to reproduce.
Table of Showbread – there are two rows of 6 – they were round cakes of bread, and incense was placed on top of each row of bread – it is at that table that there was intimacy – Leviticus 24 – vs 4 – the offering made by fire was the incense taken to the altar – our highest service is at the golden altar – the table of showbread gives us intimacy – we have to have intimacy before we can approach the altar.
If you are not intimate with Jesus – Matthew 7:21-23 – “I never knew you” – that word knew – let’s go to Matthew 1 – last verse – “knew” – to know someone is the most intimate relationship one can have – Joseph knew Mary. Adam knew his wife – she conceived – vs 17 – and Cain knew his wife and she conceived – to KNOW SOMEONE is not to know them by name, but to know them intimately.
If the tabernacle doesn’t bring you into an intimacy with the Lord, you are never going to get to the glory.
The Book of Revelation – chapters 1-3 – the 7 churches – the church of Ephesus – they left their “first” love – first = protos = prototype – that which carries the most significant weight over and above anything else. Agape – means love feast. The last and first thing Jesus did at Passover and when he rose from the dead, he had communion.
When the church of Ephesus left their first love, they left the communion table – Jesus said that if you don’t come back to your first love, I will come and remove the lampstand – he will remove the anointing from you. The table builds unity between us and Jesus – when he prayed “that we would be One” – and Psalm 133 – “how good and how pleasant it is for us to come together in unity.” When you have unity, you will have the flow of the anointing (verse about oil going down Aaron’s beard).
If you remove the lampstand, there is no light. If the lampstand is taken from the presence by pattern, we will walk around blind. The first work Jesus did was he took the bread and the wine – he called them to come back to their first love. Intimacy = first love.
Do a fast of 7 days and feast on nothing but the bread and the fruit of the vine. When you only get to know someone when you are intimate with them.
Jesus is called the bread from heaven – Bethlehem, House of Bread – God saw fit to take the heavenly manna and have him born in the city of bread so we may never hunger again.
I am the Bread of Life – Greek for communion is Koinenia – means intercourse – how long do you think your relationship would last if you had intercourse for 5 minutes every 3 weeks? Communion has become a ritual and a custom – He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood – I Corinthians 6: Know ye not that your body….vs 15 – he that is joined to a harlot is one body or two shall be one flesh – when you are married you are two that come together and become one flesh – vs 17 – “joined” – a physical relationship – communion is becoming one with Him. We can become one – requires a point of intimacy. How does his body and blood build intimacy? The two become one – the table of the Lord is a place of intimacy.
When we come to the table, we become one with Him.
The time is coming when we are going to have to depend upon one another. The priests met at the table of showbread to eat – to break bread.
We are to become ONE! John 6:66 (the devil’s verse)– they walked away who did not believe.
Luke 24 – Jesus has been crucified – vs 13 – Road of Emmaus – their eyes were veiled so they did not recognize him – Jesus told them all about Himself from the time of Moses and then through the prophets… in ALL the scripture those things concerning Himself. We are into the 3rd day of the Feast of Unleavened bread in this story – Jesus in vs 30 and he took the bread and he blessed it… vs 31 – he blessed it, broke it, and then their eyes were open, and they “knew” him – they rose up and went to Jerusalem – and told Peter, Jesus was KNOWN to them in the breaking of the bread.
Without intimacy, there is no UNITY!
Without the anointing – the lampstand – we just have a program. People are drawn by the holy spirit BY THE ANOINTING!
In the church today, we need to put aside every program we’ve got and GET INTIMATE WITH YESHUA!
I Corinthians 11: Paul deals with the perversion of the table of the Lord – “unworthily” – let a man examine himself… “ Unworthy – means “irreverently” – I Corinthians 5:7 – purge (or cleanse) the old leaven – comes from the feast of the Passover – Don’t be afraid of the Lord’s table – We all have layers – like an onion God peels off each layer, which brings you closer to Him. Don’t just hang out at a piece of furniture – the pattern is to KNOW HIM! Don’t make a religious shrine – unless we are intimate with him, the glory will not fall. If we cannot become intimate with Him, we will not ever become intimate with each other.
Close your eyes – say – Jesus, I love you! Say it again, Jesus, I LOVE YOU! And again, Jesus, I LOVE YOU! Then ask, Jesus, do you really love me? And listen to what He says.
What is the problem with the church today? Amos 8:11 talks about a time ‘’’In that day,” there will be a great famine in that day….Not a famine of bread and water, but a famine of the hearing of the Word of God! How do we hear? He that has an ear let him hear what the Spirit saith of the Lord. Without intimacy, you cannot hear the Word of the Lord.
The Tabernacle is a process – Point A – the Brazen Altar – God’s judgment. Point B – the Laver – we are to judge ourselves with the Word (the mirrors). Point C – The Lampstand – Point D – The Table of Shewbread – Point E – The Altar of Incense.
It is time to come inside, closer to God, in the patterns of the Tabernacle.