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Well, we are going to review hour five of our Learn the Bible in 24 Hours.

And in this session, we're going to talk about the birth of a nation, and we're going to

attempt to cover the remainder of the Torah.

We covered Genesis in the previous sessions, but we're going to summarize in this session

Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

The next four are to make up the five books of Moses, which are known in Hebrews, the Torah,

sometimes called in the Greek version, the Pentateuch.

And so the book of Genesis, of course, is the book of beginnings.

Book of Exodus, of course, is the birth of the nation.

This is the time where the nation Israel is literally begun.

You can argue that it began when God declared war on Satan in Genesis 3.15.

The woman there, Eve, is profiled all the way through Israel to the woman in Revelation

12, which we'll deal with, of course, when we get there.

But the birth of the nation.

Leviticus is the book on holiness.

It's the law of the nation, but it also serves to give us insight on what kinds of things

please God in terms of worship.

We use that term so glibly, but study of Leviticus is really the groundwork for all

of that.

The book of Numbers is a strange name, but it's basically the wodeness wanderings.

And then of course Deuteronomy is the wrap-up.

It's actually three sermons by Moses and the record of his death.

So those are the five books of Moses.

And of course, we're in hour five to try to get a perspective of the last four.

I want to comment on something some people will speak of dispensations.

There's a tradition here that you take the history of man and you can divide it, you

can parse it into segments from the Bible.

The first segment being the Age of Innocence, starting of course in Genesis.

The Age of Conscience in chapter 3 on human government after Moses' flood and so forth.

Then the promise that was given to Abraham launches a whole other dispensation.

And of course the giving of the law, which we're going to experience here in the book

of Exodus.

And then of course the church period, which is the New Testament period if you will.

And finally the kingdom when it's finally set up.

These are segments that are sometimes called dispensations.

Don't get confused by sometimes the sixth of these is called the Age of Grace, but that's

the misleading because the grace is always the premise in all seven of these.

Each one has its distinctives in terms of the visibility they had and what the ground

rules were and so forth.

If you look at that in terms of our timeline that we've had on our system so far, Innocence

of course, Conscience, Human Government, Promise, then the law, which is the nation.

And then the church, which is sort of a parenthesis that we'll deal with when we get the amplified

woman in the book of Daniel.

And then when the church is gathered and Christ returns the set up, we have the kingdom then.

These are sometimes called dispensations and they're sometimes parsed slightly differently.

This is the classic way you'll find it in many commentaries.

However, there's another way to view it and that is to take the promise and the law together,

which that's the history of Israel in a sense.

It starts there and the church is in a sense a parenthesis because there is a segment remaining,

the 70th week of Daniel, the 77s.

We'll talk about that when we get to the book of Daniel and then of course the kingdom

finally.

But so those are perspectives that we'll elaborate as we go.

But there are three major promises in the Scripture.

And God's covenant with Abraham, we talked about when we, Genesis 12 and amplified in

Genesis 15 and 17, we're now going to experience God's covenant with the nation Israel.

It's going to surface in several forms here.

But basically the covenant is very simple.

If they faithfully served him, they'd prosper.

If they forsook him, they would be destroyed.

Take it out of the land, whatever.

And that has been their history from the beginning.

Their ups and downs are profiled throughout the Bible and their future ones also.

And the history of Israel is one of the incredible miracles.

And God has not through with Israel yet.

Their role in the is very, very, going to be increasingly conspicuous as we get to

the final climax.

There will also be a covenant with David that we'll talk about that his family would produce

the Messiah who will reign over God's people forever.

And we'll get to that when we get into Samuel.

But his panorama of history, it's been sort of our backbone of our presentations.

We're going to be now moving from the call of Abraham forward.

We're going to go through the Exodus all the way, Exodus up to the monarchy in the next

two sessions.

So we're going to talk about the wanderings and the conquest of Canaan and so on.

The book of Exodus actually means the name of the Hebrew means the outgoing, the Exodus.

And the entire race will be shedding the shackles of generation long servitude.

We finished Genesis when the whole family had been maneuvered by God down to Egypt for

their well-being.

But as time goes on, a pharaoh that knew not Joseph comes to power and they are made slaves

for 400 years.

And we're going to see them in Exodus be delivered from that.

They're going to migrate then to a new country and emerge from this whole experience as a

nation.

In other words, they'll have a corporate life in addition to their family and tribal life.

They entered Egypt as a family and they emerged from Egypt as a nation.

It's an incredible, incredible saga, if you will.

And in fact, is there any more amazing national spectacle in all of history?

A family going down their slavery and coming out as a nation and a nation that has endured

despite repeated organized global attempts to wipe it out.

That's been a pattern.

It's not just the Nazi Holocaust that we're so familiar with in recent times, but from

the beginning there's been an attempt after attempt after attempt of the Egyptians, of

course, literally killing all the babies and so forth, all the way through.

And again and again and again, and in the Persian Empire, or Haman, again organized attempt

to wipe out all Jews in the planet Earth.

And we get to the New Testament period, same thing.

So it's really astonishing to see the focus of the world at large on this peculiar people

that God has separated for his own purposes.

And it continues and it's going to be increasingly evident as we watch the news as we go.

There are three main subjects.

The Exodus itself, which will be the first 18 chapters of this book, and we're going

to see that God sends ten plagues to accomplish this separation.

And then of course the Passover, which is celebrated to this day, and is also prophetic in some

surprising ways to many.

And of course that involved the crossing of the Red Sea, that very spectacular thing

that was among other places celebrated in Cecil B. DeMille's famous movie on that subject.

And the law is given, and the Ten Commandments and a lot of other things.

And the Mosaic Covenant is collectively the label for all of that.

And then we have a very strange thing also before the book closes.

If I was doing the Ten Commandments movie, I would have had Charlton Heston come down

from the mountain, not just with two tables of stone, but a group of blueprints under

the other arm.

Because what he came down with was not just the Ten Commandments, which of course we

know and celebrate, but the specifications, very detailed specifications for a portable

sanctuary that is a, the mechanism by which the ruler of the universe engineered so that

he could dwell among his people.

Bizarre idea.

God is everywhere.

Yes he is in one sense.

But he also very specifically dwelt with these people on this portable sanctuary called

the Tabernacle, occupies a good portion.

In fact, there's more said about it than any other single subject in the Bible.

And that of course associated with that is the priesthood, which is also ordained.

So, so actually it's a little background here.

It seems to be necessitated because as these Hebrew, this Hebrew family down there over

those four centuries multiplied, it expanded and expanded and expanded.

And there is, it may surprise you to know that the Pharaoh in Egypt was an Egyptian.

And I'll get back to that, I'll get that in a minute.

But that's one reason he was probably insecure as this ethnic constituency grew.

And so they oppressed the made slaves of them and that was the ordeal that lasted 400.

They were down there for 130 years, but they were oppressed for 400.

And it's interesting that their rescue, their exodus from Egypt was anticipated long

before.

Moses, you may recall, was exiled.

He was heir to the throne, murdered in Egyptian and was in exile for 40 years in Midian.

Midian, that's northeastern Arabia, is where they will spend as a nation 40 years wandering.

So that was ground he knew in a sense.

He was a shepherd there with Yvonne DiCarlo for you know, 40 years.

And so, so he was, that was God's, God prepared him in Egypt because he's trained for the

crown.

He was educated as Pharaoh's own adopted son until he was separate.

He chose, he chose to be separated as he discovered who he really was and so forth.

And then his preparation in Midian is, so there's 80 years of preparation before we

get to the exodus.

And he's going to be leading them for 40 years more through the wilderness.

And it's going to have some surprising results.

And so the exit of course is precipitated by a message from God, the famous burning

bush incident and Moses gets his mission.

So Israel's expansion in Egypt, they were given by the Pharaoh that was, that was favored

by Joseph and vice versa.

They were given the choicest part of the land right next to the delta, the land of Goshen.

But then this Pharaoh that knew not Joseph raises to power and he was an Assyrian.

We learned that from Isaiah 52 verse 4.

It's interesting when you get to Acts chapter 7, we'll do that of course when we get there,

but Stephen, the young guy, young boy is giving a lecture, a history lesson to the most august

body in Hebrew circles, namely the Sanhedrin.

And Acts 7 is a very interesting summary of his speech there.

It's a summary of Israel's history.

And it's interesting there are a number of things we discover in that presentation that

you wouldn't get by just reading the Old Testament.

One of which is, he mentions that there was another Pharaoh that knew not Joseph, but

he in the Greek there are two words for another, allos and heteros.

If you want another of the same kind, you use allos.

If you want another, it's totally different, use the word heteros.

And he uses the word heteros, which is very strange, which means this Pharaoh was of a

different background, so forth, not just another Pharaoh, but a different kind.

And it's Isaiah that tips us off, that he was an Assyrian.

Now you won't find this amplified in any Egyptology, but Egyptology has got some problems anyway,

which we'll get to when we start talking about Pharaoh and Echo and some other things.

But anyway, this Pharaoh of course oppresses them.

And there's also a whole background as a vassal of the Hixos and so forth, I won't get into

here, but there's a lot of study worth doing there because the early history of Egypt is

a key part of all of this.

But in any case, it's very likely that since he was an Egyptian, he was insecure in his

throne, especially with the increase of this other ethnic group called the Hebrews.

So the oppression and the enslavement of them was his response to that.

And so Moses stands out, of course, as probably next to Christ, of course, the most outstanding

individual certainly in the Old Testament, some would say in the Bible at large.

And he was born during this oppression, but delivered from this government-ordained genocide

that Pharaoh had ordered.

And so God in his own miraculous way set this all up.

And he ends up growing up, educated, realizing who he is, choosing his sides, ended up murdering

an Egyptian.

So he's on the lamb in Midian.

But he will be called by God and go back and he will take this race of slaves and he's

going to lead them.

He's going to mold them into a powerful nation that altered the entire course of history,

everyone's history.

And so it's an exciting time.

And of course we have this burning bush issue.

I think all of you are familiar with the story.

But there's some interesting symbolism that many people may not be aware of.

The book was the Akasha book, a book.

And Akasha is the thorn bush of the desert.

And it's interesting that we have a thorn bush there and it's fired and it's being the bush.

A lot of bushes in the desert can catch fire by lightning and so forth.

What makes this peculiar and caused him to take note of it and go investigate is because

it was burning but not consumed.

It was burning but not consumed.

And so it's judged but not consumed.

Now if you're in the Levitical symbolism here, the thorn bush symbolizes the curse.

And the burning of course is being judged.

But the fact that it's not consumed is in effect considered rabbinnically as a model

of grace.

And it's interesting that when God speaks from that burning bush, he includes among

other things his identity, his name, what name are you?

He says, I am that I am.

Ikhyakashir Ikhyak he claims.

What's important to understand is that it was Jesus Christ who was speaking to Moses.

He so declares in John chapter 8 verse 58.

And he claimed to be the voice of the burning bush.

People say, would Jesus never claim to be God?

Anyways says that heaven, read their Bible, certainly haven't even read the Gospel of

John.

That's why he was crucified because of that claim.

But with something else that I'd like to correct, when you watch the movie, the Ten Commandments

as I assume most of you have, it's surprisingly accurate in many respects but there's one

misleading aspect that deserves comment.

The script of the movie gives you the impression that the death of the firstborn of Egypt was

retribution for Pharaoh's comment of the, going after the firstborn.

And that's misleading because you'll discover when Moses is called at the burning bush,

God predicts that it's going to take the death of the firstborn for Pharaoh to let them go.

In other words, that was pre-known and declared back in Exodus 4.

That's not in Exodus 12 if you will and so on.

Anyway, and I think most of us are aware of the fact that there were ten plagues that

God sends upon the Egyptians.

What you may not realize is that each one was geared specifically after a God they worship.

The Nile was the lifeline of their economy, the waters turned to blood, and there's a

number of their gods that was associated with the Nile.

Then come the frogs, there's a specific het that they worshiped that there.

And the lice or sandflies, whatever they were depending on that translation.

And then where these scarabs, they're called swarms in the Hebrew, but it's pretty well

understood that these are these dung beetles, these little scarabs.

You know, when you buy Egyptian jewelry, sometimes have a little scarab, a little beetle, well

what's that?

That's a dung beetle.

And it symbolizes to them creation.

And scholars speculate, they wonder why, probably because when animal feces fall on

the trail, almost immediately from nowhere these dung beetles come.

And so they seem to come from, out of nothing.

And so that's one reason why some people feel they looked at them as a symbol of creation.

Amun-rah being the tops of that.

And there was some subsequent plagues with the animals, boils and ashes and the hail

and fire.

And finally the locusts and then darkness, darkness that was felt.

This isn't just the absence of light, there's something else going on here.

Each one of these, and I'm going to take you through all the detail, links specifically

to specific gods they worship.

And then of course, finally, finally the firstborn.

So Pharaoh's own dynasty, thus, is wiped out.

Which also explains why his successor probably would not be a descendant.

But in any case, I'm always reminded when I go through Egypt, we left Cairo and went

up, when you get out of the city, you drive along these roads and next to the road there

seems to be like a revet, a culvert, a cement culvert with water in it and is the very

extreme poverty of the villages.

And when you look more closely, you realize that's not concrete, it's trash.

And the water isn't, is gray, blue-gray, it's polluted water.

And you begin to realize that this, as you think about it, this country, wasn't always

a third world country, this country ruled the world at one time.

But the scripture tells us we become like the gods we worship.

And when you, and the top of the heap of their worship thing is the scarab, the dung beetle,

and they're living on that kind of environment.

And also, it's interesting that the obsession of the Egyptian heritage in terms of death,

the mummies, and the whole, the whole background is we become like the God's we worship.

So here's a country that ruled the world at one time and today has become like the God's

we worship.

And we need to remember that.

Is the world harsh, materialistic, unforgiving?

If you worship the world, you'll become harsh, materialistic, unforgiving.

You become like the God you worship.

Scripture says that, Psalm 135, verse 18 and so forth.

That's why it's important to worship Christ, because you become like the one you worship.

But obviously the Egyptian Passover was the event that they still celebrate to this day,

of course.

It's a symbol of life.

In fact, God instructs in the second verse of Exodus 12.

This month shall be the beginning of months.

That's why the Hebrews have two calendars.

The civil calendar, which is Rosh Hashanah, starts in the fall, typically our September,

October time period.

But the religious calendar starts for the month of Nesan in the spring, because that's

the month of the Passover.

And when God institutes the Passover, tells Moses, make this month the beginning of months.

So they have two months, a civil year starting in September, or our September, roughly at

that time, first of tishry.

And then the religious calendar, nice on.

And obviously Passover symbolized not only life, but also liberty, because they were

delivered from bondage.

That's the key theme there.

And it's interesting that they were delivered by blood put on the doorposts.

And if you go to your door and put blood on the top of the lintel, you'll end up doing

a cross, of course, which is subtle, but worth mentioning.

But it's interesting, it was not a basis of nationality.

If you were in Egyptian and happened to be in a Jewish home that night, you were spared.

If you were Jewish and didn't put blood on the doorposts, the death angel would take

the firstborn of your house.

It was a basis of the blood, not their nationality, important issue.

And of course Passover also speaks to fellowship, because it memorializes a feast to this very

day.

In the Jewish home, the peak of their year, in many respects, is the Passover celebration.

In the month of 9th sign, there's actually three feasts.

The feast of Passover, feast of unleavened bread, and feast of first fruits.

But they're usually collectively spoken of as Passover.

And it's also prophetic.

It's very important, we're going to talk a lot about this as we go forward, that each

of the feasts of Moses are not only commemorative of some historical issue in the Euchar, but

it's also prophetic.

And Jesus Christ is called our Passover Lamb.

In fact, when John the Baptist first introduces Jesus publicly, twice, he introduces him, very

strange title.

Behold the Lamb of God that takeeth away the sin of the world.

Now it's familiar to us to our years, let's not lose the fact that that's a strange title.

But it's of course a Passover allusion, because the Lamb of God, he was given as an offering

for our sin.

And then John won, of course, twice.

Egypt now is also viewed as a type of the world, a symbol of material wealth and power.

We probably have a hard time imagining the dominance of Egypt in that era.

It was of course ruled by a despotic prince.

Pharaoh was a despot.

Again, though, it's another way that it's idiomatic, if you will, of the world.

It's a type or a model or a metaphor of the world.

And Pharaoh, of course, becomes in a sense a type of Satan, the adversary of God's people.

Egypt also represented fleshly wisdom and false religion.

They worshiped all these various gods, of course, rather than the living God.

And we're going to talk more about the wisdom of the Egyptians later on.

But Egypt was organized on a basis of force, ambition, and pleasure.

The world as we know it is also organized under Satan and on a basis of force, ambition,

and pleasure.

Egypt persecuted the people of God and so does the world.

You need to recognize that the world at large is anti-Bible.

The whole tension in the Middle East is the world's challenge to the Abrahamic covenant

and recognize too that Jesus promised you, as a Christian, as a follower of Christ, that

you would have persecution.

And living in America, we've been immune to most of that.

But we need to recognize that we shouldn't have the arrogance as Christians in America

to presume that we're going to be exempt from what most of the body of Christ in most of

the world for most of the last 1900 years have had to endure.

It's called persecution.

So more of that's coming.

But Egypt was overthrown by divine judgment, and this world will also be, and that's what's

profiled in the book of Revelation, when the one who purchased the world, namely the Lamb

of God, takes title to that which he purchased.

And of course, we'll get to that when time comes.

They crossed the Red Sea.

Israel was cornered against the sea.

But then the Shikina, this fiery pillar, cloud by day and fire by night, blocked the

Egyptian army as the sea parted to allow Israel to cross.

All very much dramatized in the famous movie, but familiar to all of us, I'm sure.

But initially, as the Egyptians who attempted to follow them, they were drowned.

I'm always amused by these people that have these theories that, well, the Red Sea was

really the Red Sea, and actually it was only about three foot deep.

And I always think that's interesting, and that's the biggest miracle in the Bible,

then, is the entire Egyptian army drowned in three feet of water.

And of course, that's all utter nonsense.

It's interesting, you should be aware of the fact that a submerged land bridge has been

discovered across the Strait of Tehran, supporting an Arabian site of Mount Sinai.

The Sinai Peninsula is a location of a traditional site.

It's St.

Caffin's there, what they call Mount Sinai in the back of your Bible, you probably have

a map.

I think most scholars today recognize that that's an error.

First of all, in over a century of searching, they found absolutely no trace of any indication

there have been a million people camp there in the past.

It's an arid desert with none of the features that the Bible describes.

And in contrast to that, Paul tells us in Galatians that Mount Sinai is an Arabia.

If you're looking, there is a mountain, all laws, which when you see it is astonishing

because the top part of it is burnt from the outside in.

It's been made molten by external heat, the whole top of the mountain.

And it's very conspicuous.

And as you investigate there, they find, anyway, to make a long story short, there's

a lot of evidence accumulating that that is the real Mount Sinai.

And that would fit the biblical record.

But it's also interesting then to take a look at where the land here.

Now, if you look at a map up near the Nile up there, you have the land of Goshen, which

was the rich land.

But if you come down the western edge of what's called the Sinai Peninsula and you cross it

the straight terrain, there is a land bridge just under the waters.

Now it's not really shallow now, but it wasn't one time.

Anyway, and Jabbalah all laws, you find the springs of Mara, you find a very conspicuous

rock cleft where there's evidence of erosion.

And all kind of, you find altars, it appears to have been the altar, the main altar and

other things.

So there's a lot of books out now and so forth and I encourage you to recognize that

the evidence seems to be supporting the Arabian location of Mount Sinai.

But this whole event of the Red Sea parting and the Exodus and so forth turns out throughout

the Bible to be almost a measurement standard of other things.

And in Micah 7, according to the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt, I will

show them marvelous things.

In other words, again and again you find the Lord making reference to the coming out of

the land of Egypt as a milestone against which other things are compared.

A milestone of judgment because of the plagues that were given.

A milestone of grace because the blood covering took care of that.

A milestone of might because the Red Sea, that was God showing off if I can use a, what

might be a little, somewhat irreverent phrase.

God was really setting us up to flex his muscles if you will because it becomes obviously

a event that the nations take note of.

Later on, 40 years now, when you get to Jericho, certain people there would tremble because

of the advent of the, they've heard the stories, they know what happened.

There's also a measurement standard of guidance because the Shekana, the guidance of the Holy

Spirit and also a provision because manna and water and so forth are provided over million

people in the desert by the God that called them there in miraculous ways.

And it's also a measurement standard of faithfulness of the Abrahamic Covenant.

It's also a measurement standard of condescension, condescension, excuse me.

The senility is a humbling thing.

Condency.

Where God himself dains to dwell with his people, and that's what the tabernacle we all

about.

Now our exit in Christ is parallel to this.

Our emancipation from bondage is spiritual, not physical so far.

We're delivered also by the shedding of blood just as they were, his blood, not an animal.

The animals are just anticipatory emblems that we'll see, that offerings and so forth.

Our exit is as universal, not national because the Scripture says, who so ever believeth

on him shall not perish, but ever lasting life.

John 3 16.

So the law is also a big part of Exodus.

The law is given in chapters 9, 3, and 2, 20.

The terms, God's terms, the parties and the altar, the remedy for having broken the law

are all included as part of the package.

We also have the judgments, social judgments, others, rights and practices and so forth.

And then the ordinance, that is the religious ordinances, the Sabbaths and the feasts are

all spelled out.

10 commandments you're pretty familiar with, I trust.

Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

Thou shalt not worship any graven image.

These are all familiar to us, I think.

Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.

This is widely misunderstood.

I believe this has nothing to do with vocabulary.

It has to do with ambassadorship.

If you take the name of the king, you have a responsibility to represent him accurately.

That's what it's really talking about.

So many people just assume I saw it about swearing or something, no, it goes far beyond

that.

Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.

This does not ordain the Sabbath day.

It was ordained in Eden on the seventh day when God rested from his creation.

But he's calling in his 10 commandments for these people, his chosen people to remember

that day to keep it holy.

And the Sabbath is indeed the seventh day, not the first day.

I'm not a seventh day Adventist, so go down that path.

At the same time, we do need to understand that the Sabbath was a day that God did set

aside.

Honor thy father and thy mother, that that day is maybe long.

This is the one command that has a promise attached to it.

Thou shalt not murder.

And when you start talking about murder, you start talking about abortion, just remember

when John the Baptist began his ministry.

When he was nine inches long, weighed a pound and a half, and he was still in the womb,

he jumped for joy and was spirit filled.

Thou shalt not murder.

Thou shalt not commit adultery.

Thou shalt not steal.

Interesting command that ordains private ownership.

Private ownership is protected in the 10 commandments, interestingly enough.

You can't steal.

Stealing implies someone owns something.

Thou shalt not bear false witness.

Thou shalt not covet.

Boy, Madison Avenue, I think God tried to get rid of that one.

Okay.

Why was the law given?

This may surprise you.

When we get to Romans 7, you're going to end for some real shocks because why was the

law given?

The law was given to expose our sin nature.

We can't keep it if we tried.

It's there to expose our nature.

It may shock you that one of the reasons, and we'll cover this when we get there, but

the law was given to incite the sin nature to sin more.

That's a shock.

The sin nature itself has not been reformed.

There's a lot of Romans 7.

I'm hoping you're uncomfortable on some of this because then you'll study Romans 7 to

see what I'm talking about here.

It's to drive us to the spare of self-ethic.

You cannot repair your sin nature.

Adam and Eve tried by covering themselves with coats of skin, no, by the shedding of

blood.

God was teaching them by the shedding of blood they'd be covered.

The law is given there to get us to understand we can't cut it on our own.

God's holiness is higher than we can reach to.

So He's trying to drive us to dependence upon the Holy Spirit.

That's what Romans 8, the following chapter in Romans is all about.

The gospel supersedes the law.

The commandments were fulfilled by Jesus Christ.

That great discovery is really the good news.

That's astonishing.

For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth.

According to Romans 10, the ordinances are given to present shadows that are now superseded

by Jesus Christ Himself.

Shadows of anticipatory glimpses.

And we are in a new dispensation.

The contrast is outward command and exodus and inward power of the Holy Spirit.

An objective code versus subjective change.

A condemning ethic versus a transforming dynamic.

And obviously in each case, this is the view we walk not after the flesh, but after the

Spirit.

And that's what the whole New Testament is all about.

Romans 8 nails this.

For what the law could not do, that in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending

His own Son of the likeness of sin to a flesh and force in, condemns sin in the flesh.

That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh,

but after the Spirit.

So keep this in mind as we deal with God's law on the one hand, but recognize that God

has given us something better than the law.

Well, let's get to the tabernacle.

The last part of the book of Exodus deals with this very strange construction.

More is said about the tabernacle than any other single thing in the Scripture.

So in addition, as I say, these two tablets of stone Moses received a set of engineering

specifications for this portable sanctuary.

And there's more space to this description than any other single subject in the Bible.

It has a structure.

It has furniture within that structure.

There's a priesthood that deals with it.

And that's all in the book of Exodus.

In the book of Leviticus, we'll have a detailed listing of offerings and procedures to exercise

these things.

And there's material symbolism here, things that brass is the metal that could sustain

fire.

So it speaks of judgment.

Gold, of course, speaks of deity.

And silver speaks of blood all through the Scripture.

Jesus betrayed for 30 pieces of silver.

And Judah says, I betrayed innocent blood when He throws them back on the temple floor.

Silver speaks of blood and we'll see that the entire, it was a silver coin by the way

that was the redemption coin in the temple.

And we're going to see that the tabernacle rests on sockets of silver.

It rests on the blood.

It is the imagery here.

Now the tabernacle, first thing you saw if you approached it was a linen fence.

All you could see is a white fence higher than eye level.

And it was about, usually a foot and a half is a cubit.

It's about 75 feet wide, about 150 feet long.

By the way, that makes its perimeter the same as the length of the ark, by the way.

You can make something of that if you like.

And of course, we're entering eastward.

And the first thing you encounter is the brazen altar.

First step you need is to take care of the altar of sacrifice.

And then you have the labor for the washing.

And then you have the tabernacle proper, this very strange portable building.

And as we look at it, it had two rooms.

The holy place was like two cubes in length.

And then you had a inner sanctum, so to speak, the holy of holies.

Holy place and the holy of holies.

And as you entered the door on the left side was this seven branch candlestick, the menorah.

And it was the only source of light in the place.

Across from it on the right side was the table of showbread.

Twelve lobes, one low for each tray of the twelve tribes changed every shabbat.

And then in this room, but associated with the holy of holies was the golden altar.

It's always associated with the holy of holies, but it's outside the veil because it had to be tended to day and night.

And you could never go in the holy of holies.

Only the high priest could go in the holy of holies.

Only once, one day a year after great ceremonial preparation.

So that was the holy of holies.

And of course, in the holy of holies, we have the ark of the covenant inside of which were the tables of stone and some other things.

And then on top of that, we have this separate entity called the mercy seat.

Most of us fall into the trap of assuming that the mercy seat is the lid of the ark of the covenant.

We used the word the ark of the covenant connotated, we refer to both of them.

Actually, it's very instructive to keep in mind that the mercy seat is a separate item.

The ark of covenant was wood covered with gold leaf.

The mercy seat was hammered gold.

And we believe the mercy seat has a destiny.

And it's very possible that both of these items are presently being guarded by the Ethiopians at Axum.

And they know their destinies to deliver whatever it is they've got to the Messiah when he rules in Zion.

But what's overlooked by many scholars is what the issue isn't the ark of the covenant, it's the mercy seat.

It may be the throne from which Christ rules.

And so those are all topics that you can get into.

But the main idea is this whole tabernacle speaks of Jesus Christ.

Every detail, every dimension, every material, you can make quite a study there and I encourage you to do so.

Because the word was made flesh and a tabernacle among us, John tells us.

And in that phrase in John 1, the word is the title of Jesus Christ.

You'll discover every detail of the tabernacle speaks of Jesus Christ in a very eloquent way.

He makes a claim to his part.

I am the door.

Anyone that comes in by me is a thief and a robber.

I am the light of the world he claims.

I am the bread of life.

He, of course, is our intercessor.

And of course, he's our sin bearer and he's also our propitiation for our sins and how appropriate it would be

to, if he rules from the very throne that makes his kingdom possible.

But the coverings, the whole tabernacle is portable building, which was wood covered with gold panels that were

made wood but covered with gold so the whole thing had a elegant appearance.

But first thing you did, you covered it with embroidered linen, embroidered with cherry beam,

gold, purple, blue, and scarlet, gorgeous tapestry.

And that's what you looked up because that was covering the building.

That's what you see from the inside.

You wouldn't see it from the outside because on top of that, they covered it with goat's hair,

speaking of the sin bearer and the scapegoat and all of that.

And that in turn then is covered with ramskins that were dyed red, speaking of the shed blood.

Again, the blood emphasis here.

And so from the outside, you couldn't tell how attractive it was.

It isn't until you get inside that you realize the elegance and the beauty of it.

And then all this is then covered with porpoise skins or badger skins depending on your translation.

So it had no form or comeliness that you would desire it.

And yet, if you enter, you discover what it's really all about.

So there it is.

And there's an outer area, the inner court and the holy place.

And many people make the note that the outer area corresponds to the body, the inner court,

the soul, and the inner part, the spirit, the body, soul, and spirit is the trinity of man, if you will.

When you get to the monarchy, God is going to add some things to this to make the temple.

It's going to be very instructive to see what he adds and we'll deal with that when we get there.

The breastplate of the high priest is also dealt with an exodus, the 12 stones for the 12 tribes,

each of the names of the 12 tribes is a three-letter root or a Hebrew root that's embroidered on each

of the stones. And some people suspect that it was the glimmer of the light from the

menorah on those that gave the high priest's instructions, but that's speculation.

Then we get to the book of Leviticus, we'll spend a lot of time there, but it's a book that should

be studied rather than just read. It talks about the requirements for fellowship, the holiness,

the precepts of his law, his standards of conduct.

It also deals with the penalties that are attached to the violations thereof.

And the ground for this fellowship then is sacrificed, and this, of course, all the sacrifices,

all these minute technical things, all point to Jesus Christ. We have a detailed commentary on that

for those who want to get into that, but you'll discover every detail is anticipatory of the

ultimate sacrifice, not sacrifice of bulls and goats, but of Jesus Christ and the cross.

Everything points to that. And that, of course, leads to the walk of fellowship, which was one

of separation, which was in preparation for the coming Messiah.

So let's quickly look at the offerings are in two groups. There are voluntary offerings,

sometimes called sweet saver, that those are to God, a burnt offering, meal offering,

peace offering, being three categories. There's also a group of offerings that are not voluntary,

they're compulsory, non-sweet saving. That's for us, for our benefit, a sin offering, a trespass

offering. And all the different offerings are in one of those five categories, if you say the book

Leviticus. But there's something else about Leviticus I want to touch on as we get into this here,

and that is the appointed times in Leviticus 23. Rabbi Samson Hirsch said many years ago,

the Jews' catechism is this calendar. Most denominations have a catechism, a statement of belief.

The Jews' catechism is their calendar. If you more study the calendar, the more you

understand their whole situation. It's a heptanic calendar. It's a sevenfold type thing. There's

a week of days. We are familiar with that. We all have weeks of days, seventh day being Shabbat.

They also have a week of weeks, which leads to the Feast of Shavot. They also have a week of months,

the religious year, from Naisan to Tishri, Tishri being the seventh month of the religious year.

They have a week of years, what's called the sabbatical year. Six years you can plow the ground,

the seventh you have to let it rest. There's a Sabbath for the land as well.

And if you take seven of those and add one, you have the Jubilee year in which it's a very

interesting thing. All the land in those days reverted to its owners. You didn't sell land in Israel.

You really indulge what you and I would call the lease because in this Jubilee year,

it would return to its original tribal inheritance and so forth. And in the Jubilee year, all slaves

would go free. If you'd indentured yourself to servitude, you could look to the Jubilee year

that all bets are off. It's sort of all bankruptcy today. All debts are forgiven in the Jubilee year.

So that's an interesting issue in the Jewish structure, but what's interesting, what makes

us even more profound, we get to Acts chapter three in Peter's second sermon. He makes reference to

the second coming of Christ as the time of the restitution of all things. He seems to link the

second coming of Christ to the same events that typify the Jubilee year. Land goes back to its

owners, slaves go free, deaths forgiven and so on. So we begin to realize that in these patterns

that God sits down in the Old Testament lies our understanding for the new. The Old Testament

is the New Testament revealed. The New Testament is the Old Testament concealed. But this term

appointed times, you may recall in our earlier session in Genesis chapter one,

said, God said, let there be lights in the perimeter of heaven to divide the day from the night and

let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and for years. This word for seasons is

actually homo edim. It's the appointed times. What's very peculiar is that you understand there are

70 appointed times. There are 52 Sabbaths, seven days of Passover, including this related feast.

There's one, there's a feast of Chavot, a feast of Yom Turoa, a feast of Trumpets, that is,

feast of Yom Kippur, St. David, Tomah, seven days of Sukkot, a feast of Tabernacles,

and Shimini, that's the right. So when you add those all up, there's 70 appointed times in the

Jewish counter. Well, what's rather bizarre, you take this word homo edim, appointed times,

and put it on a computer, you, first of all, in the book, in the 78,000 letters of Genesis,

you would think statistically those letters would come up in that order

five different, at least five times on some interval to try all the different intervals

and you'd expect statistically, your expectation would be defined at five times. Turns out you only

find it once. As an equidistant letter sequence, it appears only once in Genesis, it appears at

an interval of 70 and it's centered on Genesis 114. Now the question is, gee, that's kind of

curious. In other words, you get the sense that God is manipulating the very letters, you follow

me, as a form of authentication. And the odds of this happening just by randomness

have been estimated greater than one and seven, 70 million, one and 70 million. So,

interesting. These are one of these examples of what we call an equidistant letter sequence

and it's relevant because it's statistically significant. On one hand and secondly,

it's clustered around the plain text. It's clustered where it makes sense, on the very verse on which

the word has significance. What's going on with the Feast of Israel, there are three spring feasts,

Passover, Feast of Unleavened and Bread and Feast of First Roots, and there are also three feasts

in the fall, Feast of Trumpets, Yom Kippur, Feast of Tabernacles, and Feast of Passovers on the 14th

in the Son. The Feast of Unleavened Bread starts the next day. Feast of First Roots is the morning

after Shabbat, after Passover. Passover can be any day of the week, depending on what year it is,

but the Shabbat is the Saturday after that. The next morning is the Feast of First Roots,

which is always on a Sunday. And of course, when there was a time when the smoke was curling up from

the temple on the Feast of First Roots, one Sunday morning, and some women were discovering an empty

tomb, because Jesus Christ was our first roots. That was where it was being fulfilled.

Now, there's also a feast between these. You've got three in the first month,

three in the seventh month, and you've got this weird one in the middle,

called the Feast of Shavot, the Feast of Weeks, and there's some very strange peculiarities about

it. Passover, of course, is on the 10th day, four days in advance, the lamb is inspected.

That's exactly the day that Jesus was riding the donkey into Jerusalem and being inspected.

It's offered between the evenings of 14th. And bear in mind, the Jewish day starts in the evening.

So the evening of the 14th is Friday the 13th on the Gentile calendar, which is unlucky. See,

the Egyptian side of the Passover. Not a bone to be broken. The Scripture says that the Passover,

not a bone was to be broken. And it's interesting that a Roman soldier disobeyed his orders.

You know, to have that, he, I don't think he knew where he was making

fulfilling prophecy, but he obviously was. And of course, Jesus is our Passover. John introduces

him that way, and Paul, many places, speaks of Jesus as our Passover. So you want to,

the more you study Passover, the more you'll put significance into the details that's going on

in the New Testament. Well, follow that as the Feast of Unleavened Brad. Eleven, of course,

is always a symbol of sin in the Old Testament and the New Testament and the Feast of Unleavened

Brad, Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ma-sa. And there are three mothsas always. It's kind of interesting. Three

mothsas. Christ was crucified between two thieves, right? There are three on that hill.

One is taken, broken and hidden. How interesting. They do that today. They don't know why.

The explanation, of course, is in the New Testament. Remember back in the days of Joseph,

we had the Baker and the Wine Stew. Do you have the bread and the wine introduced way back in

Joseph? In fact, back to Melchizedek, but then also Joseph. In the Passover feast, you have four

cups. There's four specific cups in the procedure. The bringing out, the delivering, the blessing,

and the taking out. It's the cup of blessing that Jesus blesses to give the Lord's Supper,

and they don't finish that meal. He's not going to taste the fruit of the vine until he tastes

it with us at the Mary's Supper of the Lamb. So there's a whole study you can get into on that.

The Feast of First Fruits is at interesting ones. The moral after the Sabbath, after Passover.

And the morning of the ultimate firstfruits is, of course, when Jesus Christ was resurrected.

And one interesting question is, when did the flood of Noah end?

Genesis 8, 4 says, the ark rested in the seventh month of the seventeenth day of the month upon

the mountains of Ararat. Notice the word mountains is plural, by the way. We talked about that,

we talked about it in the flood, but you keep in mind that the arach yet to be discovered.

But when did the new beginning under Noah begin? When the ark came to rest? The seventeenth day

of the seventh month. And you have to understand that the Jews have two calendars. Rosh Hashan in

the fall, but then in Exodus 12, verse two, this month shall be unto the beginning of months. It

shall be the first month of the year to you. That is the month of Nizan, because that's when Passover

takes place. So the first Nizan is the beginning of the religious year. And if you look at the old

calendar, Tishri was the first month. Nizan was the seventh. But on the new calendar, as ordained in

Exodus, the Nizan is the first month. That makes Tishri the seventh, which is the way they...

Then we have this strange thing, the Feast of Shavot. They count 49 days from the Feast of

Firstfruits. What's strange about those feasts is the only feast in the Bible that ordains the

use of leavened bread. That gives us the Gentile complexion. Many people recognize that prophetic

it was the birth of the church. We call it the Feast of Pentecost. And of course it's Acts 2 at the

Feast of Pentecost that the Holy Spirit's given and we have the birth of the church.

But there's some other things about that. There's some mysteries behind this a little bit.

The oldest prophecy in the Bible was happened to be uttered by Enoch, the father of Methuselah,

way, way back. The prophecy of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, astonishingly enough.

But Enoch, there's something interesting. He's regarded by the rabbis as having been born on the

day that they observed the Feast of Shavot, obviously much earlier, but on the same day in the calendar.

But also it's interesting that he was removed prior to the judgment of the flood. And it's also

interesting that they believe he was raptured on his birthday. And that's in a non-biblical book

called the Secrets of Enoch, which is an ancient rabbinical source, not biblical but interesting.

And it may account at least for why the rabbis have the peculiar view. But it would be interesting

then that the Jewish clock that stopped when the church was born may be restarted on the same day

that it was stopped when the rapture takes place. That would imply that rapture takes place on

the Feast of Shavot, which is usually in the June time period. I say, Chuck, you're setting dates.

No, no, I'm not because Jesus said that what such a day is you think not the Son of Man cometh.

Of course, if that's the day, you think not, then maybe that's the day he'll come. Okay, so we'll go

ahead here. The Feast of Trumpets, many people think the Feast of Trumpets is the big deal.

Let's go into it with Rosh Hashan. Rosh Hashan is a civil new year, but the Feast of Trumpets is

consistent with the book on First of History. And that's when they have a great blowing of

trumpets. And some people try to tie that to the last Trump remarks Paul makes, which for some

reasons I won't get into here. I don't think fit. And also don't confuse it with the Seventh

Trumpet Judgment Book of Revelation. Those are all three different things. But it is followed by

Yom Noreem, which is the Days of Affliction, which prepared them, of course, for the big one for them

each year as the Yom Kippur, the Day of National Repentance. The High Priest enters the Holy of

Holies. This is only on this day throughout the year after great ceremonial preparation.

This is the day they have the scapegoat, and they put the sins in the scapegoat and lead them

into wilderness, and so forth. Then this is followed five days later with Shukkah, the Feast of Boots.

And this presumably, or call the Feast of Tabernacles, it's very possible that this was the season that

Matthew 17 takes place, the Transfiguration, Mount Transfiguration, because Peter is preoccupied

about making free booths. These booths are interesting because, and you go to Israel, or even among

observant Jews, you'll discover they actually still do this today. They'll build their booths in the

backyard. The specifications require that you can see the sky through the ceiling, and the wind

can blow through the walls. The idea is to typify, represent the temporary dwellings they endured

while wandering the wilderness. The Feast of Boots climaxes when they leave that for their

permit dwellings. That's why some people feel that this is the setting up Christ's kingdom and so

forth. Anyway, let's get on to the other books here to wrap up the Torah. Book of Numbers deals

with the wilderness wanderings. In fact, the Hebrew term for the book isn't numbers, it's

Beimidar, which is in the wilderness. The Greek called it Erethmoy in the Latin numeri,

because it happens to include two senses. That's why they call it the numbering of the people,

which isn't the most relevant part of the book, but that's where it gets its title

within the Greek translation, and thus, the English translation. That's not the Hebrew term.

But anyway, Numbers continues where Exodus left off. We paused Exodus to do Leviticus,

get all that background, but then we jump in and pick up where Exodus left off. Numbers is a book

about arrested progress. They blew it. It took only 40 hours to get Egypt, to get the Israel out

of Egypt. It took 40 years to get Egypt out of Israel. 40 years of wilderness wandering, very

strange thing. There's a place called Kedash Barnia, and after 40 days getting there,

Moses sends out 12 spies. They're at the border to enter the land that's been promised land.

Ten of the twelve come back terrified, and don't knock it. They had reason to be terrified.

So there we saw the Nephilim, and we were in our own side as grasshoppers, so we were in their

sight. There were giants in the land. These strange hybrids, very similar to the ones that we encountered

before the flood, different occasion, but same kind of thing. Nephilim, the fallen ones, giants,

is the way it's translated. But they're more than just giants. They were hybrids,

apparently, mischievous by the fallen angels again. So these ten were justifiably frightened,

but two of them, Joshua and Caleb, were unimpressed. They said, let us go up at once and possess it,

for we will are well able to overcome it. Why? Because God's with them. If God's on your side,

you're a majority. Plus. So remember, Joshua and Caleb were the two of the twelve that came

back with a good report. The other ten had their knees knocking. So we have a lost opportunity.

And the people of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron, and the whole congregation said

of them, would God that we had died in the land of Egypt, or would God that we had died in this

wilderness? The people are shook by the report of the ten spies, and they say, gee, it'd been

better off if we'd died. And God says, good idea. Funny you should mention. So God threatens

to wipe out everybody. But Moses intercedes. Prayer is always God's way of enlisting you

in what he wants to do, by the way. Keep that in mind. So God says, your carcasses shall fall

in this wilderness, and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number of 20 years

old and upward, which you have murmured against me. In other words, those adults that were murmuring

are going to pass on. He didn't wipe them all out. He let them live their natural lives. They're

going to wander until that whole generation's gone. Their children, who weren't accountable to

murder, remember, they're the ones that are going to inherit. There's only two exceptions made.

Joshua and Caleb, they had the good report. They become the leaders that will then endure

after those 40 years to lead the conquest of the land. So Joshua and Caleb and the children of

the murmurs enter the land. The others passed away. 40 years, actually 38, but who's quibbling.

God prepared Moses, of course, for the 40 years. He had, remember, he'd married Zippara, the daughter

of the Jethro, the priest of Midian on the east shore of the Akaba. The Midianites, by the way,

descended from Katura. So they're not even, they're not a descendant from Sarah, but we'll get into

that here. And the real Mount Sinai, of course, is Midian. So it's a Midian thing. So now, why is

all this going on? The New Testament tells us all these things happen unto them, for examples.

And they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come. In other words,

1 Corinthians 10, Paul and his letter makes the point that all these details, all these stories

in the Old Testament, are there for our understanding and learning. The tragedy in most Christian

churches, they've abandoned the Old Testament. They, well, with New Testament fulfilled the old,

so they don't bother with the old. And as a result, they don't really understand the New Testament.

And so, this word examples, by the way, is actually the word Tupos, which means it's a word from

which we have type or prototype, a figure, an image, a prefiguring. And the Bible is full of

those. They're most, they're, some of the most exciting discoveries is when you begin to,

the Holy Spirit leads you to see some of these types or models that we'll look at.

Let you give me one of those manna. Remember in manna? They were, they needed food. So God gave

them the supernatural bread that fell every night, the manna. He also, there was a strange

incident of the brazen serpent that, where they're getting bit by snakes and God has, those that,

has Moses make a brass serpent put it on a hill and those that look at the hill get,

get healed. What a strange way to do a healing. Then the waters from a rock.

Sometimes you ever struck a rock and had water fall come out of it, right? But it happens twice.

And there's something about the order of the camp I want to share. I'm just, I'm, there's

dozens of these things in numbers. I've just picked a few to give you a flavor of the manna.

They were needed foods. They got provided daily provision of manna, a miracle bread from heaven,

and it's interesting that it was to be provided six days on the seventh day it wouldn't come.

So on the sixth day you're supposed to pick up twice as much. Normally you didn't take more

than you need for a day. It would spoil. But that one day if you took twice as much for the day

that it wouldn't fall, you're all set. You've got a double portion of the sixth to prevent

you gathering any on Shabbat on the Sabbath day. And by the way, I want you to notice something.

This was before the law was given. This is, this happens to be in Exodus 16. The law was given in

Exodus 20. So this is in advance. They were observing the Shabbat before the law was given.

Very important idea. Then we got the brazen serpent. And by the way, I'll come back. Each one of these

is, is points to Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is, I am the bread of life. The brazen serpent. Weird

deal. In response to murmuring God sent fiery serpents which abit the people and they died.

Moses intercedes. And then he's instructed to place a brass serpent on a pole on a high

hill. All that would look toward it would be spared. Now if you're in the book of Numbers 21 and you

read this, that's weird. What a strange way to heal people. But that's what God chose. And

you don't understand this. If you read, you go through the whole Old Testament. This comes up

later in Hezekiah. This brass serpent is still around. People are worshiping it. So he destroys

it because it's become an idol. But still you have no explanation. What's going on here? Brass

serpent. A serpent is the type of sin. You put sin up on a hill. What's going on here?

Jesus explains it to you in John chapter 3. You see, as Moses lifted up the serpent and the

wilderness, even so shall the Son of man be lifted up. That whosoever believe in him should not perish

but have everlasting life. In other words, this serpent remedy in Numbers 21 was deliberately

designed by God to anticipate the ultimate remedy we have in Jesus Christ. That's called a macro code.

That's the macro code. It's an anticipatory code of structure. On a word processor, if you're

doing your word processor and you're going to send a fax or make an email or a letter, often you

can hit one key that'll format it for you and you go and put your stuff in it and becomes a

fact. It's an anticipatory code, a macro, a macro code in the computer parlance. A code that

anticipates subsequent content. That's exactly what the brazen serpent thing does. But it means

that the designer of that code is outside the dimensionality of time because he knows what's

coming and he models it to anticipate what's coming. It's one of the subtle demonstrations that

Bible had its origin outside the space-time domain. But it's interesting that this comment by Jesus

Christ in John 14 is the setup for the most famous verse in the entire Bible, John 3 16.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that he was ever believed that him

should not perish but have everlasting life. Whatever is that is justifiable, the best known verse

in the Bible. Well, we get to the waters of Mira, but now this is a strange one.

And Raphideem, they were without water. God says to Moses, take your staff, strike the rock and

water, what common it did. That's in Exodus 17. And they get their water. Incredible, incredible

miracle. Many years later, they're at Mira, another location. They're again without water.

This time, Moses is just frustrated with the people. And God tells Moses, go to that rock and

speak to it and it'll give you water. Moses goes out there and he takes a staff like he did before

and strikes the rock with the staff. The water came, the people got their water, but God says,

Moses? And he puts them in the penalty box. He says, see, because you misrepresented me to the

people, I wasn't mad at them. You were mad at them. You gave the impression to them that I was mad

at them. I wasn't. You've misrepresented me. You have the picture? But what happens to result

is a shock. Get the picture here. Moses was 40 years in training at Egypt, goes 40 years

to Midian to get in the wilderness, to get prepped for the Exodus, comes and is leading these people

to other forces. He's 120 years old. And his dream through these 120 years was to be able to lead

the people into the promised land. God says, hey, Moses, you didn't do what I told you to do. You

didn't follow directions. So you're not going to go in the promised land. Your people will go,

but you're not going to go. You can see it from the hill. Let's get you a look at it. But

he didn't make it. So he gets a chance to see it from the land. He passes away. God himself

buries Moses, which is weird. That's interesting. What's even weirder is that Satan and Michael

fight over his body. It's not mentioned in the Bible there, but it's alluded to in the book of

Jude. We'll get there. But when you study this, there is something kind of interesting here.

If Moses had done what God told him to do, the two water from the rock events would profile the

first and second coming of Christ. He was smitten the first time, not the second time. You follow me?

It could have been a model. And that could be one of the reasons God was frustrated with Moses

because he didn't do what he was told. If he had, we'd enjoy another one of these very profound

types. But the type we do know that the rock, Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 10, the rock was

Jesus Christ. He's the source of our living water. And we got first time because he was struck,

he was smitten, second time for the asking. And that's the way it would have been if Moses had

done it the way God told him to. And because of his failure to follow directions, Moses has denied

entry in the promised land. That should chill us. Here's Moses, his faithful servant, but he did

blow it and he takes the penalty of it. But I want to show you something else that may come as a surprise

because you obviously, everything in the Scriptures there by design. And some people challenge me,

say, what about Numbers 2? It's a boring chapter, a lot of numbers and stuff. Is every detailer by

design? What might be hidden behind the details of the camp of Israel? Jesus said, in Psalm 40 verse

7, and also Hebrews 10-7 is quoted, the volume of the book is written of me. Every detail in the

Bible points to Jesus Christ. Let's challenge this here. If you wade through Numbers 2, you'll discover

they number each of the tribes. Judah's 74600, Isekar 544, etc., etc., etc., they're all on the screen

here. And these numbers are the men older than 20 able to go to war. So it does not include the

children or women, it does include the aged. Follow me? So to find out what the real population is,

you probably have to multiply each one of these by some factor, two or three, pick a number,

that account for the wife, and so these are core populations. And you go through all of these,

say, do you check, that's exciting. What do I do with all that information? Well, bear with me.

Something else you'll learn in Numbers is that these 12 tribes are to muster into four camps.

There's the camp of Judah where Isekar and Zebulun muster with him and under his ensign.

And then there's a camp of Reuben where Simeon and Gad muster under his

thing. Judah, of course, had a lion, a lion of tribe of Judah. It was on his ensign. They'd

all rust, each one had a symbol on their ensign. It comes from the 12 signs of the

Maseroth. But Judah's is the lead of the camp, what they call the camp of Judah.

Reuben, Simeon, Gad, become the camp of Reuben. His symbol is a man and his ensign and they rally

around that. Ephraim has a symbol of ox strength, beast of burden. And Ephraim, a nassen, Benjamin,

rally around that, which figures because Benjamin and Joseph were, Ephraim and

Manasseh were sons of Joseph and Joseph and Benjamin were the children of Rachel. They were

in a very privileged group. Anyway, and then we've got Dan, Asher, and Ephtali. Dan was originally

a serpent, but Hezer, the head of tribe of Dan, didn't like that. So he switched it to an eagle

with a serpent, its mouth, by the way, and that's recorded in some of the Bible hand looks. But

anyway, you say, so there you go. He said, that's really thrilling that you gave us that information.

What do I do with it? Well, notice that these camps then are slightly different sizes. Okay.

In the center of the camp is the tribe of Levi, the tabernacle. And it's always faced through the,

on the east side is where the door is. And the Levites take care of this. The three families of

the Levites, the Gershenites, the Cauathites, and the Marirites have all kinds of duties to

deal with this moving portable. But Moses and his brother Aaron and the priests are on the east side.

Not all Levites are priests. Sons of Aaron are priests. Okay. And so,

I want you to be respectful, you need to think like a rabbi here. They tried, give them credit,

they tried very hard to be precise in doing what God said. The camp of Judah was the camp east

of the Levites. Okay. The camp of Reuben south of the Levites, and to be strict, obedient to these,

that denies the area that's southeast. You either east or south, you can't be southeast,

because then you're neither south or east. In other words, only the cardinal directions,

north-south east-west are ordained in the Torah. And only the width of Levites camp would be allowed.

And the length would be proportional. So here you have the Levites in the middle,

and when you number those, there are about 22,000 there. And however, I don't know how wide they were,

whether it's 100 yards or 100 miles, or whatever, but its width is a unit we're going to deal with.

So Judah, under the standard of a lion, would camp as wide as Levites and then take as much

spaces they needed eastward, right? And Reuben, which is the south, he had a symbol of a man,

and they would camp there and take as wide as the Levites were, because as long as they're,

they can be south as long as they're no wider than the Levites, and out they go.

And at least a question. What about here? What about in between these two?

Well, that's southeast. It's neither south nor east, so that wouldn't be rabbinnically

comfortable, right? And so likewise, we've got southwest, northwest, northeast as areas that

are not specified for any of the tribes. Ephraim, with the symbol of the ox, would go to the west,

and Dan, with the Zegel, having substituted for this serpent, these come from the prophecies of

Jacob in Genesis 49. But in any case, there's Dan with the eagle, and so there we have it.

Now the question is, okay, we've got the arrangement, but these populations of those camps are different.

The largest was Judah, the smallest was Ephraim, and the other two were about the same. So what I

want to do here is imagine that we have a helicopter out here that we're going to take a trip, and

the helicopter of range for us is a very unusual one, because it's also a time machine.

And so as we get in this collectively, in our imagination, get in this helicopter,

we're going to fly over to Israel. And we're going to have it also go backwards in time to the time

of the wilderness wanderings. And as it goes there, we're going to approach from the east,

and we will see right in the middle of the camp, of course, the Levite area with the Tabernacle,

and then we'll see these four arms. But as we get there, we'll also see the arms in proportion.

And so as we approach in our imaginary helicopter, what do we see? A what? A cross. Exactly, exactly.

Judah was 186 units, and Ephraim only 108, and the other two roughly 150. So yes, it's a scale

drawing of a cross. I think it's very interesting. Here's a sketch from the air of the camp of Israel

hidden away in Numbers chapter 2, if you know how to look. And I think that's kind of fun.

And of course, that needless to say is a model of the throne of God. We have God sitting in the

middle with His throne and the rest of it, and He's surrounded by an ox, a man, an eagle,

an lion. If you're done in your Bible homework, you know that from Isaiah 6 and Ezekiel 1 and 10

and Revelation, there's always cherry a beam around guarding the throne of God that have faces,

right? Four faces, an ox, a man, an eagle, and lion, which also profile the four gospels,

but we're getting ahead of ourselves. Last book in the Torah is Deuteronomy where the laws are

reviewed, and it's sort of a bridge between the first four books of the Torah outside the land,

and the next seven books which will be in the land. So it's like a bridge in that sense. It's

actually three sermons by Moses and the record of his death. It includes some great things,

the Shema of course, the great commandment. This is probably Jesus' favorite book. He quotes from

the book of Deuteronomy more than he does any other book of the Bible. The Song of Moses,

which is a prophecy over the 12 tribes, has some surprising little tidbits hidden away in it.

The book of course concludes with the death of Moses, obviously added by a scribe.

But we know that Michael fights with Satan over his body as the book of Jude talks about.

There's also the Transfiguration of parents. Moses will show up in Matthew 17 along with Elijah

at the Transfiguration. That's a strange thing. And it's my personal suspicion that he is one of

the two witnesses that show up in Revelation 11. Scholars have different views. That happens to

be mine. I have some reasons we'll deal with when we get there. But you should know the Shema.

Here, O Israel, the Lord is one Lord. And I shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,

with all thy soul, with all thy might. This obviously is on every doorpost of every Jewish

dwelling. Typically they have a little masseuse with a scripture in the scriptures, usually the

Shema that's in there. It's also the very verse that Jesus quotes as the greatest commandment.

And so Deuteronomy 6 verses 4 and 5, the Shema. Now, and it goes on then to say these words,

which are commandment is they shall be in thy heart. Thou shall teach them diligently to thy

children and shall talk of them when thou sitest in thy house and when thou walkest by the way and

when thou lieest down and when thy get rises down. And thou shall bind them for a sign upon the hand

and they shall be as frontlets between thy eyes. And thou shall write them upon the posts of thy

house and upon thy gates. And that's why they do that. That's why they often will celebrate with

little leather pouches on their wrists and on their forehead which carry scripture. The

phylacteries as they call them. And it's interesting that a Jewish home will always have that on the

doorpost. Now, it's interesting that there's only one form of biblical schooling in the Bible.

It's called homeschooling. Just thought I'd throw that out to a fan of any teachers that are here.

But the Shema also says, here is what the Lord our God is, one lower. The word one there in the Hebrew

is a chad. It means compound unity, a collective sense. It's plurality and unity, like one cluster

of grapes is the way it would be appropriate. It is not the word yahid which would be absolute

unity, like one singular, which is never used of Yahova or Yahweh or Harvey Wart pronounce it.

The word that's translated Lord Yahweh is, appears three times just in this verse.

But the book also, numbers are conclusion with the dangers of compromise because there's two and

a half tribes, Gad, Rubin and half the tribe of Manasseh, that really like the ground up there

in the place called Bishan, good cattle ground. That's the land they want, but they haven't conquered

the land yet. But they ask Moses, that's what they want for the land. And it's a compromise of sight,

sort of like Lothead done by the way, but Moses agrees that they can have it after they conquer

the land. They want the tribes to be with them as they march in and conquer the land of Canaan.

When they finish the conquest, yes, they can go back and that'll be their allotment. And so they

and they will, they'll return. And the region that they're talking about is a region we call the

Golan Heights. This region was the first to fall to idolatry, it was the first to go into captivity,

and it remains to this day the vulnerable buffer zone of Israel.

Well, this concludes, this concludes a rather hurried quick snapshot of the remainder of the Torah.

In the next session, it's a military session with some real surprises, Joshua. The first thing

you should be alert to, Yahoshua, is the Hebrew, which would translate in the Greek would be Jesus.

So we have Jesus on the name of the book of the Old Testament, that you could get your attention.

It's a military thing, military conquest of Canaan. And we're going to talk about the long day of

Joshua that many Christians have trouble with will deal with that very directly. Then we get to the

book of Judges, 350 years of doing what was right in their own eyes. It's going to tell you what

value relativism will lead to. And then we have the dessert for the whole evening will be the book

of Ruth, a little four chapter book that's probably my favorite book. I can't say it because

they're all favorites, I guess, but Ruth is a treasure, and you'll be surprised what little

treasures are hidden away in the book. You will not understand the book of Revelation unless you

understand the book of Ruth. And so with that, let's stand for a closing word of prayer.