Exodus (Program #110) – The Court of the Tabernacle (1)

In ancient time, the tabernacle was God’s dwelling place on earth among His people. God’s House must always be in a sphere of righteousness.  The tabernacle was surrounded by curtains of white linen and linen in the Bible always signifies righteousness.  Stay with us today as we get another view of God’s House.

Our words today brings us to the outward appearance of the tabernacle.   Around the whole perimeter of the tabernacle was essentially a fence that was made of curtains or hangings of white linen attached to bronze pillars.  Exodus 27:9-10 “And you shall make the court of the tabernacle. On the south side southward there shall be hangings for the court of fine twined linen, one hundred cubits long for one side; And its twenty pillars and their twenty sockets shall be of bronze; the hooks of the pillars and their connecting rods shall be of silver.”  Mainly two things made up the outward appearance of the tabernacle; white linen and bronze.  What are these two materials signify in typology in the Bible?

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Haggai (Program #1) – The Building of the House of Jehovah in Relation to Israel’s Welfare and Messiah’s Coming

Some of the most penetrating words in all of Scriptures are found in the Old Testament Prophet, Haggai. They are penetrating because they have immediate relevant to every believer. And they touch us in some of the most carefully guarded places in our hearts.

“Is it time for you yourself to dwell in your paneled-up houses?” he writes, “while this house,” God’s House “lies waste?..Consider your ways, you sown much but you bring in little, you eat but there is no satisfaction.”

Haggai was a prophet raised up by the Lord to accompany His people on their return to Judah and Jerusalem following the 70 long years of captivity in Babylon. And when they returned they faced the temple, God’s house in ruin and in desperate need of rebuilding. But they like so many of us today have become completely preoccupied and engrossed with their own needs and situations. And the result as imply by Haggai probing questions is that, in spit of all of their effort and dedication without God’s hand of blessing in their lives, they and we would never be satisfied regardless of how much material wealth or possession we acquired. These are questions that must be asked again and again among God’s people.

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Ezekiel (Program #24) – The River Flowing from the House

An outstanding feature that appears again and again throughout the pages of the Bible both in the Old Testament and the New is a river. The river was prominent in Genesis and the river appears in the books of history and the books of the prophets in the Old Testament. This river is still flowing in the gospels especially in the Gospel of John where the river flows out of the pierced side of the Lord Jesus. And it continues to flow right through the final chapters of Revelation where it is seen proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb in the New Jerusalem. In all of these mentions the river is a very positive factor, very much related to the matter of the divine eternal life. One of the more striking appearances that this river makes is in Ezekiel 47 where it’s seen flowing out of the house of God. In this chapter it becomes a deep river – too deep and too wide to be passed over. The one that we have no choice but to abandon ourselves to and swim in.

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Ezekiel (Program #23) – The Priests and the Offerings

The Lord revealed to Ezekiel that above all, He desires a place on the earth where He can put the soles of His feet that would also be the place of His throne. In other words, God desires to have a dwelling place, a place of rest and satisfaction; and, a place where He can administrate His heavenly rule and His divine move over the entire earth. This is the real significance of the house of God as revealed to Ezekiel and as revealed to us, the church, which is the reality of the house of God in the New Testament. But after we receive such a high revelation concerning the significance of God’s building, we need a further realization as to the kind of persons that are qualified to serve Him in His house.

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Ezekiel (Program #22) – The Return of God’s Glory to the House

Early in his ministry as recorded in chapters 9 and 10, the prophet Ezekiel had seen the glory of Jehovah depart from the temple and even from the earth. It was the gross sin of the people, the abominations, the whoredom, the carcasses and the degradation that caused the Lord’s glory to depart. But after receiving the vision of the completion of the building of the temple in chapter 43, Ezekiel saw another vision. This time a vision of the glory of Jehovah returning to the earth and filling the temple. This is Ezekiel 43:1-5, “Then He brought me to the gate, that is, the gate that faces toward the east. And the glory of the God of Israel was there … and His voice was like the sound of many waters, and the earth was illuminated with His glory. And it was like the appearance of the vision which I saw, that is, like the vision that I had seen when He came to destroy the city; and the visions were like the vision that I had seen by the river Chebar. And I fell on my face. And the glory of Jehovah came into the house through the gate which faced toward the east. And the Spirit took me up and brought me into the inner court, and just then the glory of Jehovah filled the house.”

Following the vision of the glory of the Lord filling the house, the Lord had many things to say to Ezekiel as He also does to us concerning His house. Question is, do we have ears to hear and eyes to see the house of God?

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Ezekiel (Program #20) – The Temple and Side Chambers

The gospel of John gives us the unforgettable picture of Jesus coming into the temple in Jerusalem. And in the display of the most righteous anger, the sight of God’s house being turned into a place of merchandise and commerce, He cleanses the temple – overturning the tables and chasing the peddlers away. Immediately following this comes a profound exchange between the Lord Jesus and the religionists. In John 2:18-21, “The Jews then answered and said to Him, What sign do you show us, seeing that you do these things? Jesus answered and said to them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then the Jews said, This temple was built in forty-six years, and You will raise it up in three days? But He spoke of the a temple of His body.” What makes this word so meaningful is that John clearly identifies Jesus as the real temple, the real house of God. This means even as we consider the temple in the Old Testament such as in Ezekiel’s great vision in chapters 40 to 48, we must realize that this is a type of the Lord Jesus Himself and of the church, the New Testament, the enlargement of God’s house.

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Isaiah (Program #38) – The Servant of Jehovah as Typified by Cyrus, Israel and Isaiah

On one hand, Christ and the church of God are uniquely New Testament.  The term and historical placement of Christ and His church fall beyond the scope of the Old Testament Scriptures.  Yet as surely as God is in Christ, Christ and the church are clearly seen in passage after passage of the Old Testament as well.  If not directly then how do we see Him and how do we know the church?  We have delighted in bringing you the Christ found in the writings of Isaiah.  We look forward to bringing you to another revelation from Isaiah today and that of His church, His House on this life study of the Bible.

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1 Peter (Program #14) -Growth in Life and Its Results (4)

The Bible in both the Old Testament and New tells us that man was formed of the dust of the ground and even as living creatures, we all are but clay in the hands of God. Yet the apostle Peter in his epistles boldly declares that we have become living stones useful in building up God’s house.  Chapter 2:5 of his first epistle says “You yourselves also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house into a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”  I think we can all easily relate to being lumps of clay but it may be more difficult for us to relate to being living stones, useful for God’s building and precious.   How is it that such a transformation from clay to precious stone is possible?  Peter in both his words and by example of his own spiritual progress gives us a marvelous pattern.

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1 Peter (Program #12) -Growth in Life and Its Results (2)

At times the apostle Peter’s way of writing in his New Testament epistles seems very strange.  Though his content is quite high, he breaks many rules of composition by mixing metaphors and awkward use of grammar.   For example in chapter 2 of 1 Peter he describes the spiritual nourishment in the word of God by comparing it to the nourishing milk of a nursing mother for her new born babe.  But then without any apparent transition the metaphor changes to Christ being a stone for the building up of God’s house.  As a work of literature we might have a ground to criticize Peter, but as a conveyor of rich spiritual content, we will see today that Peter’s writing is full of the divine thought and deep experiential enlightenment.

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