Welcome to another Exodus study. This is number 50, and we're more than halfway through most likely, but I haven't laid out the whole plan, so we'll just see how many it takes. We're not going to just go fast to get through this, but I'm also not going to spin my wheels. We tell you all the time, this is just a springboard to get you to know more about your Bible so that you can learn more. And we just taught a message, occultism versus Christianity, where we discussed that. So go look that up, Luke 8, 16 through 18. And no matter what time you see this, you can see it years down the road, that Luke message should be available free of charge. We make all of our studies available free of charge. As long as we can, we will. And we do appreciate those of you who help out our ministry financially. But that's why we don't beg for money, because we're God guides, God provides, and He has provided for this ministry. We're going to start our study in Exodus 25. We're going to begin in verse 23, after we give our hillbilly holler out to a South African brother. I think it's Estevez. and he allows people to call him Stephen, which is nice, very considerate. I've often wondered if I went to other countries, if everybody could just call me Greg. But, because there are some places where the R is, you know what I mean? So Stephen, or Estevez, if that's how you pronounce it, I hope I got that right, of South Africa. We just wanted to give you a hillbilly holler. And if you're a long time listener or viewer of these studies, you know what that means. That's our way of saying howdy to our listeners that we appreciate, who've contacted this ministry one way or another. And so with that, let's get into our study with a word of prayer. Father, we thank you, Lord, for this time in your word we thank you for every single person into the thousands now who've listened to our Genesis and Exodus studies here in this office setting in addition to the many thousands listening to our uploaded studies from our Bible Believers Fellowship meetings and we just are so humbled and privileged to be used by you. There are so many more that we would like to reach in a nation here in America of 350 million, a world with, I think, around 7.5 billion people. We're only reaching a small number, but we're doing our part and we're going to continue to reach as many as possible with your help. And we ask, no matter when they hear this study, that you, with your Holy Spirit, will help them to hear and understand. Meet them where they are and use us to help get them where they ought to be. In Jesus' name, Amen. Amen. Alright, we're going to pick up with some important and additional comments about the text we covered last time. I just ran out of time before I could mention these things, but I'm not going to repeat the previous study. Go back and watch the previous studies and then catch up with us here. But we're going to talk about types or typology for a minute, or a few minutes maybe. The biblical term would be shadow or foreshadowing. In other words, there are things in the Old Testament that picture something in the New Testament. The overall message or study key is to understand that that which is in the Old Testament concealed is in the New Testament revealed. And that's why it's important whole denominations ignore the Old Testament. It's ridiculous. There's so much of the Old Testament quoted in the New Testament. So many types and shadows and things and prophecies that you will not understand. The book of Revelation is just, you can't understand it if you don't go and understand what's in the Old Testament. And part of understanding and having these concealed truths revealed to you is to understand types and shadows. Now, the Ark and the Mercy Seat, which we talked about in our previous study, They serve as types, and understand the reason why I'm saving the type discussion for last is because you must first understand the literal, practical, and immediate purpose of what we're studying first. And a lot of people get into the Old Testament and go crazy on typology and they don't even understand what the original purpose was and the practical, meaning practice. What did they do with this object or this prophecy? How did it apply to them in that day? Then once you get that down, you can move on to the dual fulfillment of prophecies and things like types. so we've already covered uh... when it comes to the ark in the mercy seat we we laid out the uh... truth of the fact that it's based on what's in heaven we talked about it's the fact it's going to be in the tabernacle and later in the temple and various temples you have uh... solomon's temple it's destroyed then you have herod's temple it's destroyed in seventy a d and then you're going to have a millennial temple and in that temple uh... you'll have jesus physically sitting on the throne, the mercy seat. But they played this role leading up to the coming of Christ and now since Jesus has come, the church, looking back, can see these things more clearly with the help of the Holy Spirit. We have a Bible. At the time that the New Testament was being written, very few people had Bibles at all, even books of the Bible, in their own possession. And the New Testament obviously wasn't written yet. We have 66 books, and we have the help of the Holy Spirit, and we can look back and see these things a lot more clearly. And that ark, if you remember, it said it was wood and overlaid with gold, and that's because the wood represents the humanity of Christ, the gold represents the deity of Christ. And just as the ark was wood and gold, Jesus was the God-man. The gold represented his deity, God. The wood represented his humanity, man. Now, types aren't perfect pictures. And they're shadows. I think that's why the Bible term has to be used interchangeably constantly. The types are shadows. Because Jesus wasn't partly wood, or 50% wood, 50% man, and he wasn't 50% gold. He was 100% human and 100% Divine that's called the mystery of the incarnation and we'll talk about that obviously many times in our studies So this arc that represent the the dual nature of Jesus Christ in his incarnation contained Three items as you see the arc represents the incarnation it also represents the offices of Jesus Christ and What do I mean by that? Well, you have the tablets of the law. Now, first of all, the law is fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ, and that shows him as lawgiver and king. So there's his office as king. Then Aaron's budding rod was inside the ark. That points to his resurrection bodily, physically, resurrecting. and that then also shows him in his office of priest. Then you have the golden pot of manna and Jesus is the word and the word is bread and Jesus himself is the bread of life and so this shows his office as priest. So there you have Jesus represented by what's inside the Ark. And it's fitting, the Ark represents Him, Man, and God. And inside that Ark, inside Jesus, you have King, Priest, and Prophet. A lot of times you hear, for some reason it sounds better to say Prophet, Priest, and King. But those three offices. And so that typology should not be lost on you as you study these things and I cannot remember for sure, so I'm going to mention it now, that I used this book when I took a college course back in the 90s. It's called The Tabernacle. M.R. Dahan is the author. I'm sure there's other good books on The Tabernacle, at least I would hope, but I recommend you get a hold of this one if you can. I don't even know if it's still in print, but there's used copies out there. And I learned a lot of this back then, and so some of this is review for me. Some of it may be review, but I don't remember it, so it's brand new to me. It's the beauty of getting old. You forget things. And that's why Paul said, to be a good minister, you put your hearers in memory of These things that you have in scripture. That's why we will never stop reading the bible. We will never stop learning the bible I'm not sitting here having learned it all and now teaching you that'll never happen And if anybody pretends to know all there is to know about the bible, they don't know a thing. They know nothing as paul said But let's cover this and then move on that um the ark then containing these three things that Show the three offices of Christ. It's covered by the mercy seat throne and I you I call I like to call it that just because people forget that it's a throne It's a mercy seat, but it's a mercy seat throne and that pictures Jesus as an eternal King He came as a king Isaiah 9 6 & 7 says unto us a child is born unto us a son is given his name shall be called Wonderful counselor mighty God the everlasting father prince of peace and then verse 7 speaks of his government that would be upon his shoulders That's talking about him ruling as king. He came to be king. He was rejected therefore having come as a king he died as a king and It was written on his uh... the placard the king of the jews and then having died he rose again and is seated on his throne in heaven and when he returns he will conquer the antichrist establish his millennial kingdom and rule as king so that serves as a basically like a type and a prophecy when you look at the mercy seat And we'll continue to note the, as I said, the literal, practical, and immediate purposes first and foremost, and then we'll discuss the typology. And the reason, another reason why I save it for last, is because typology is a bit more subjective. Not all Bible teachers, even good ones, Not all of them agree on everything. And that's why, you know, you can't push a type too hard. Types aren't perfect. There are shadows, and there's some disagreement and differences. We'll get up in the Eternal Bible Institute with Jesus, and He'll set us straight on these things. Until then, we do our best with the help of the Holy Spirit. So jumping in now, verse 23, again, these are blueprints for the building of the tabernacle and all the furniture and artifacts and things that go into tabernacle worship and eventually temple worship. And verse 23 says, Thou shalt also make a table of shittum wood, two cubits shall be the length thereof, and a cubit the breadth thereof, and a cubit and a half the height thereof. Now again, There's a debate also about how big a cube it is. We talked about that before. And it runs between 18 and 24 inches for most people I've read. So we'll say, just to give you an idea though, it's somewhere around three feet long, this table. It's two foot three inches high and about a foot and a half across. And the reason it's not, well, I suppose the reason it's not taller or shorter is because it's not meant to serve as a table like a kitchen table or anything like that. This is where you would lay the bread. Verse 24 says, And thou shalt overlay it with pure gold, and make thereto a crown of gold round about. It's pretty obviously clear what it means by overlaying it with pure gold. By the way, what they would do is they would have these sheets of gold. They would put it around the thing. That's actually what they also did with idols. Jeremiah 10 that isn't about a Christmas tree and they take and they carve using an axe They cut down and carve out this Idol and you can see that on YouTube you can go and look up axe carvings and it's a skill and they do that they didn't have a lot of tools back then they couldn't just run down to Lowe's and buy more tools and They used the axe and they got good at it. And they would make this thing look like whatever it was supposed to look like, a man, a woman, or they worshipped the sun and animals, you name it. Then they would take a sheet of gold and they would wrap it around this thing and heat it. And then it would just take shape and take the shape of the little idol. And then it would be a golden idol. But they couldn't afford solid gold idols. And they would use gold if they didn't have the money. They'd use silver if they didn't have enough money to do that. They would use brass. They would use whatever they could afford. But that's how this worked. I always taught the young people how they would take an apple and you'd buy those caramel circle things and you'd wrap it around the apple and then you'd put it in the oven and heat it up and then you'd have a caramel apple. That's how they did with these idols. Now, for whatever reason, many Bible dictionaries, Bible handbooks, commentaries, whatever you're using, you'll find that they fail to address the use of the word crown in this sense, and that causes a little bit of... I guess just, not confusion, but just a question, Margo, what exactly does that mean? Well, I did find, I use a lot of the older materials. They're not copyrighted. I get them on SwordSearcher, and sometimes, though, I just find old copies available. And the International Bible Encyclopedia of 1939 helps out and says that this particular use of the word crown is describing, quote, something spread around the table as a molding, M-O-U-L-D-I-N-G, molding around, about the border. because of its wreath-like appearance, then it was called a crown. Let's say you'd have a round table. You'd put an edging around it. It'd be actually shaped in a circle like a crown. But you could do that with anything, like this table that was square. But still, if you put it around the edge, you have a crown. And again, this is embellishing the typology of Jesus as King with a crown. It's the same idea. So verse 26 continues and says, And thou shalt make for it four rings of gold, and put the rings in the four corners that are on the four feet thereof. And in verse 27, go ahead and read that, over against the border shall the rings be for places of the staves to bear the table. So you'd have these four rings on each end of the table and you put the staves through the rings and they would carry it. Now, it's interesting what that basically means and what you constantly see is that God doesn't want human paws all over the table. It represents Christ in his glory and he didn't want that symbolism damaged by the idea that humans would just be picking this stuff and moving it around. So a lot of these things had these staves with the rings so that they could carry them and they'd only touch the staves. And we talked about what happened if you didn't do that. in a previous study, but it reminds me of how that when Jesus, He was crucified, buried, and rose again, and yet before He had descended to the Father, and we're not talking about the ascension in Acts 1, there are two ascensions, And Jesus in John 20, 17 is approached by Mary Magdalene and he stops her. It says in the text again, John 20, 17, Jesus saith unto her, touch me not for I am not yet ascended to my father, but go to my brethren and say unto them, I ascend unto my father and your father and to my God and your God. he didn't want to be made unclean and that's what this is picturing here in the uh... tabernacle these things picture jesus and you want to touch these things and jesus paid for the sins of the world had not yet gone to the father well later that day jesus had returned And at that point, he's willing to be touched. In John 20, 27, it says, it's later in the day, and he saith to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands, and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side, and be not faithless, but believing. So, between verse 17 and 27, somewhere in between those two verses in John 20, Jesus did ascend to the Father and had come back. Now, what had changed? Well, Scripture with Scripture. The best commentary on the Bible is the Bible itself. You go over to Hebrews 9.12, where it says, "...neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place..." See? "...having obtained eternal redemption for us." What happened was in between his resurrection and his appearance there where he offers to be touched by Thomas, he ascended to heaven and by his own blood entered in once into the holy place. I don't know why, but I've heard a number of teachers through the years have a real hang-up about Jesus taking his blood to heaven. but exit absolutely what the bible indicates he did it says by his own blood he entered in uh... once into the holy place now he did that one dot that's why the idea of the sacrifice of the mass by the roman catholic church is so blasphemous and that's why it believing you have to be saved over and over again every time you send he's paid percent if you receive that payment once your eternally And Jesus offered His blood once to pay for sins. With that, picking up with verse 28, I want to read three verses here. 28 through 30. And thou shalt make the staves of Shittim wood, and overlay them with gold, that the table may be borne with them. And thou shalt make the dishes thereof, and spoons thereof, and covers thereof, and bowls thereof, to cover with all of pure gold shalt thou make them. Verse 30 says, And now shout, Set upon the table showbread before me always. Now I've heard some guys really try to dive in deep here, and I think they get a little lost in their opinions. We're not going to do that, but I just want to read straight from Peter Ruckman's commentary on Exodus about these passages we just read. He says, quote, the top of the table was even with the mercy seat and the altar of burnt offering. a cubit and a half the height thereof. And that's the height of these three pieces of furniture. He continues and says, instructions for the bread to be laid upon it are found in Numbers 4, 7 and Leviticus 24, 5 and 6. We'll get to that eventually if I stay alive and the rapture doesn't take place. I'm not going to run there now, but I do want to give you the references so you don't have to wait. You can at least go run those references regarding the bread to be laid upon it, upon the table of showbread. And by the way, later on this plays an important role in the story of David. when he's running from Saul. And they'll go in and they'll eat the showbread. And there's a whole lot of stuff I'm not going to be able to get into right now about that. But just keep your eyes on that prize. That's a great story to be told. So with that we pick up now in verse 31. Now this candlestick is what is called the menorah. and it would have the piece in the middle would be where one of the candlesticks would be, and then it had three shafts coming out of the center, and that's a total of seven. And you'll see this on different logos for the government of Israel. uh... you'll see it represented today on uh... synagogue property one synagogue I went by had this big huge menorah in the front it's used by jewish organizations uh... the ultra orthodox orthodox conservative reformed and the so-called messianic congregations and I say so-called because the bible never speaks of a jew being a messianic jew uh... a jew gets saved they're a christian so this whole messianic jewish thing really is regrettable, but some claim that they're able to reach unbelieving Jews better and all that. I don't believe that, but that's when man thinks he's smarter than God, sometimes he pulls that stuff. so as i said uh... this resulted in seven candlesticks read verse thirty two and six branches shall come out of the sides of it three branches of the candlestick out of the one side and three branches of the candlestick out of the other side counting the one in the middle makes seven the number of completion obviously jesus was the complete one he is the only sinless man to walk the earth, and he's divine, he's the God-man. Now, we in the church are complete in him, and that is why the Menorah finds its fulfillment in type and prophecy in the church. And if you go to Revelation 2 and 3, the seven churches, and each one has a candlestick, just like the menorah. Now, it's not the church replacing Israel, but it is fulfilling the role of Christ in the one body, where there's neither Jew nor Greek in the body of Christ. Jesus is in the midst, so he represents the Candlestick from which all other candlesticks come out of He's in the midst and and all seven are from him without him. We can do nothing the scripture says He's the head of the body. So he's the stand and then all the candlesticks come out of him and We I'm not gonna repeat what we taught on that and Go back and watch our revelation studies about that. But that's why an unregenerate membership or an apostate pastor, a guy standing up there who doesn't even believe the Bible, isn't born again, isn't even really a Christian. Or any sort of ecumenical unity between true Christians and false religions. uh... especially the war uh... wrong it's just so blasphemous we're told not to be unequally yoked together with unbelievers we are to be attached to jesus as that candlestick you can't graft in unbelievers uh... the gentiles have been grafted in and works we'll see that in our studies of romans and going into a row in chapter eleven uh... nine ten eleven if you want to get them big picture to try to graft in unregenerate people because you baptized them. That's what happens in the Protestant church. They fill their churches with unsaved people who were sprinkled before as infants and they call that baptism. And as I said, the whole ecumenical movement, it's all blasphemous. And so that's where we will stop. We'll pick up with the three bowls made like unto almonds in verse 33 next time. Meditate on what we've discussed and as I said, there's way more than what we cover But this should help you know more so that you can learn That's the whole point. God bless you testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Acts chapter 20 verse 21 King James Bible