This will be a 2 part post about the mishkan. This information was taught to me by my friend JJ. This post is me writing it in my own words. In this post I would like to cover the first few pieces of the mishkan in an overview, and then spend more time on each one of the pieces of furniture in their own posts. In another post I would also like to go over the dimensions for the tabernacle in greater depth as there is a pretty amazing story being told that we look over and or completely ignore. This section of scripture has so many amazing thematic, and implied meanings that we will just scratch the surface in this post!
With that being said, I have included a picture courtesy of google that shows the layout of the tabernacle.
As you can see the path that you would take through the tabernacle is as follows. You come through the East gate, brazen altar, and bronze basin. Then you go inside the veil to the menorah, table of show-bread, and altar of incense. Next you enter the holy of holies through the veil and end with the ark of the covenant.
This is an incredible picture of how our lives are supposed to work on a spiritual level. This is not changed or anything taken away once we recognize messiah, its magnified and given an even deeper understanding. This tabernacle is a perfect representation of what is going on in heaven. This is how Yah wants to be worshiped and approached by us. We have been told for far too long that this all has been done away with! If they only knew what it was that they were trying to do away with! Let's see what we can learn from this amazing structure that can only have been designed in advance by an all knowing God!
Heading in the right direction?
Ok, so the first thing we need to do is establish a sense of direction. Exodus 26-27 gives us the layout of how things are supposed to be. But why does it face East? I mean does it matter that it is supposed to face the East? Let's look at a few examples in Torah about the east.
Gen 3:23-24 YHVH Elohim sent him away from the Garden of Eden, to work the ground from which he had been taken. 24 And He expelled the man; and at the east of the Garden of Eden He had cherubim dwell along, with the whirling sword of flame, to guard the way to the Tree of Life.
Here is the first mention that I know of that man is traveling East, and "coincidentally" they are leaving the presence of God. Here's another example, read Gen chapter 11. one of the things you will notice in the second verse is that all of mankind traveled East to Shinar. They settled and decided to build a tower to make their names great rather than make Yah's name great. And the pattern continues.
From these examples we can see that when you travel East you are going away from God's presence. So, it is logical to conclude that the way back to God is traveling from the east to the west. This makes the first part of our journey interesting as we read from the Brit Chadasha.
John 10:7-9 So Yeshua said again, “Amen, amen I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All those who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. 9 I am the gate! If anyone comes in through Me, he will be saved. He will come and go and find pasture.
There is only one door into Yah's presence. I firmly believe that Yeshua is that door. The first step on our journey is entering into the gate provided for us through the blood of Messiah. Once you enter that gate you are no longer among the Nations. You have (crossed over="Hebrewed") from death into life.
The Brazen Altar
Next on our journey is the brazen altar. Any time you see bronze mentioned in scripture it is linked with God's judgement. This altar is made using bronze, so we should be thinking that this altar is a way for us to repent from our sins and ask Yah to forgive us. We see that this is exactly what this altar is used for in Leviticus chapters 1-5. These chapters lay out how to use the altar in all circumstances. So thematically in our journey through the mishkan we have entered the gate (messiah) and confessed our sins to Yah. We will need to revisit this altar from time to time as we sin to repent to God and to give offerings of praise.
Wash basin
Next we have the basin of water for washing. This one is really important! (Not that the others have not been) This is the only way that you can enter the tent. Let's read exodus 30:17-21
17 YHVH spoke to Moses saying,
18“You will also make a basin of bronze with a bronze stand for washing. You are to place it between the Tent of Meeting and the altar and put water in it.
19 Aaron and his sons are to wash their hands and their feet there.
20 Whenever they go into the Tent of Meeting or come near to the altar to minister, to present an offering made by fire in smoke to YHVH, they are to wash with water so that they do not die.
21 They are to wash their hands and their feet, so that they do not die. It is to be an eternal statute for them, to him and to his offspring throughout their generations.”
So, here we see that in order to enter the mishkan they have to wash. The consequence is death for this one. What does this mean thematically? If we have first accepted Yeshua, repented of our sins, the next step is a mikva (baptism- not a NT idea!) This is where we wash off the filth of the nations that we were a part of and become Hebrews (crossed over ones). Usually the Christian Church does the immersion, but they are not required to wash off any of their pagan identity. leaving someone who was immersed but not washed.... and after this point almost no one goes any further in their walk. Yah will not bless what you are doing if you are still doing all of the things that the pagan nations are doing around you. (christmas, easter, valentines, Halloween, unclean food, etc...)
Deu 12:29-31 29“When YHVH your God cuts off before you the nations that you are going in to dispossess, when you have dispossessed them and settled in their land,30 be careful not to be trapped into imitating them after they have been destroyed before you. Do not inquire about their gods, saying, ‘How do these nations serve their gods? I will do the same.’31 You are not to act like this toward YHVH your God! For every abomination of YHVH, which He hates, they have done to their gods—they even burn their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods.
Menorah
However, The next piece of furniture is well suited to address this issue. Because the next piece of furniture is the Menorah! Now, how does the Menorah help us deal with the issue of our pagan ways and traditions? The menorah is a symbol of Torah. The Hebrew word for light is "Or" or "Orah". The menorah is the only item in the entire tabernacle that produces light. Fire is also represented in scripture as the Ruach, Yah's presence, purifying, judgement, etc. So essentially the menorah represents the word and spirit of Yah. Lets read these few verses with this in mind.
psalms 119:105 Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
Proverbs 6:23 For the mitzvah (command) is a lamp, Torah a light, and corrective discipline the way of life
John 8:12 Yeshua spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. The one who follows Me will no longer walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
and....
John 14:6 Yeshua said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life! No one comes to the Father except through Me.
I defined "the way, the truth, and the life" HERE so I wont waste space here. The basis is Yeshua is the Torah! "and the word became flesh" does this sound familiar?
With all of this being said, the menorah sheds light on what Babylon is. How else are we going to know what we are supposed to wash off?!! How else are we supposed to learn how Yah wants to be worshiped? The Torah is our Wedding Vows to YHVH. That is what was happening at the base of mount Sinai! We were getting Married to Yah! If we find anything in our lives that doesn't line up to the Torah we are supposed to make our way back to the altar and repent. Only after we are lined up with the Torah can we proceed on this journey through the temple. This is the reason we can't get anywhere in the christian church. We threw away our vows with Yah! (likely at the altar! sorry bad joke) The lie that this has all been done away with is a tool for Hasatan to use against us. Without this step you cannot draw closer to Yah, and you are effectively spiritually dead. When you throw out the Torah you have thrown out the Messiah! Because He is the Torah! We would have no idea who or what He represents if it were not for the Torah. If He didn't line up with Torah he would be rightfully killed because he would have need a false prophet. (Devarim 13)
Just the Beginning
Our journey so far is as follows. We accept Messiah Yeshua, repent of our sins, mikva (wash off Babylon), and learn the Torah (wedding vows). This is sounding familiar right? This is starting to sound an awful lot like something Rabbi Shaul would write!
That is going to wrap this post up as it is getting long. I will continue this subject in part 2. I hope that you have been blessed through this post. Shalom