The Temple – Entering Eden

Automated transcript, lightly edited for readability. Scripture appears as spoken; the video is the authoritative teaching.

Did you guys enjoy last week's information? Did you learn something? I learned some stuff too, and that's why I'm so excited about the topic, because the topic is a bigger topic than what we realize. The topic is much bigger topic it's been neglected for so long because you know the temple was destroyed in 70 AD and because we have no temple we we don't really go to you know Jerusalem for the feasts because we can't I mean we can show up but you know you try to carry a little love on the temple mountain see what happens it's just not going to work for political reasons The topic of the temple gets widely neglected, and when the temple gets neglected, the sacrifices get neglected, and the reasoning behind the sacrifices get neglected, and the feast days get neglected because we're not speaking about how they were actually done. We're just focusing on what we can do to try to memorialize them today.

We don't speak about holiness, Kedusha. We don't speak about the sacredness of God's presence. which we're going to speak a little bit about today. How many of you guys know that you could not simply demand the presence of God to show before you? That's a problem that we have with our Western society is we're a we-get-it-all generation society here in the States. We demand things, we feel entitled to everything, whether you like it or not, and whether you think so or not, you feel entitled about one thing or another. And sometimes we feel entitled to the presence of God. We feel like, okay, God, I want you to show up right here before me.

Now, I'm not talking about prayer. I'm talking about your glory needs to walk with me. You walked with Noah. Why don't you walk with me? Yes. That's not how it works. And so when we talk about the temple, I want you guys to pick up on a lot of things. And last week, we didn't really talk about the temple structure. And this week, we're not really going to talk about the temple structure. I'm trying to lay a foundation so that when we do talk about the temple structure, it will mean more to you. Is that okay? Yeah. Fantastic. Two people are okay with that. When one thinks about the temple, what do we imagine?

What do we think about? Talk about great walls, maybe, the big stone walls that surrounded it. Crowds of people going to and fro. Some commentaries make the assertion that the priests were silent during the sacrifices. And that it was coined as a service of silence because the pagan temples would be shouting all types of magical incantations. And the priest of Yah, we don't need to do that. So it was a silent service. It's commentary, but it's interesting. I imagine that. I imagine the sacredness of coming in and and someone who's offering a sin offering or a purgation offering, putting his hand on the animal and then slitting his throat, and the priest just silently catching the blood and manipulating the blood on the altar, just silence.

That's what I think about. Some of us think about the blood. I mean, there was a lot of blood. You know, you've got to purge God's altar somehow, and the prescription, according to Leviticus, is blood. Some think of worship. Some think of tears. Some think of joy. How about the Garden of Eden? Not many people think about the Garden of Eden when they picture the temple. Should we? And that's what we're going to talk about today. As I begin the message, I wanted to go over a few sources. I forgot my book. I left it at home. Some of the sources are the same as last week. A book by Joshua Berman. A fantastic book called The Temple.

Symbolism in meeting then and now. Highly recommend this book. It's take from it what you can glean, but it is extremely well written from a Jewish perspective, and I agree with most of it. We also have Joseph Goode, again, a man that I look up to. When I think of temple studies, I think of this man. I consider him the leading expert on the topic, and he's a believer, which is rare. It's It's crippled some relationships with other scholars of the temple when they find out that, oh wait, you're a believer in Yeshua? Just messes with them. He's been on Discovery Channel, on Naked Archaeology. He's met with Temple Institute multiple times in Jerusalem, just wrote a new book.

Definitely check out his website, JerusalemTempleStudy.com if you are serious about studying this topic. And also another book that I found very, very, very insightful this week was by Dr. Dina Dai. And the name of her book, it's a fairly new book, it's called The Temple Revealed in Creation. Have you guys heard of Dr. Dina Dai? So this is a woman who was raised Jewish and she's a believer We talked, there was a march, the women's march,the other week, and I don't know much about that aspect of gender equality in politics. I've been very blessed at a lot of my workplaces, such as the hospital and such, a It wasn't that evident that there was a shift in rights of women versus men.

Just talking a little bit. And so I didn't fully understand the full scope of everything that happened during that Women's March. I know there was a lot of controversy, but apparently it was about the division of rights between genders. Did I get it kind of right? Just blanket statement? Just blanket statement? Partial? Yeah, partial. I know there was a lot of stuff, but blanket statement, that's what it was. And I don't know a whole lot about that, and I'm not going to pretend to. What I do have insight in is within the movement, the clear, stark contrast between the respect that is offered to men versus the respect and honor that is due to women, especially the women that God is using to teach and edify the body.

This woman, Dr. Dina Dye, when she speaks, I be quiet. I'm because I know that she speaks not only with the authority that God has given to her, But she has studied a lot more than I have. And everything she speaks is usually I can go back, I can back it up, and I can go, wow. This woman I do want you to respect. It's amazing. I've heard of fellowships where she's been invited to come speak, and the men don't show up because they feel like they can't, they feel like God cannot use a woman as a vessel to teach them. To be perfectly honest, I feel like the issue is they just don't want God to teach them.

So I highly, highly, 100% endorse this woman. She is a friend, and I consider her a mentor and a teacher, Dr. Dina Dye. In her new book, The Temple Revealed in Creation. Sorry, I had to go back a slide to talk about my sources there. When we take a second look at the narrative of Scripture and the imagery used in Genesis chapter 2 and chapter 3, which is, of course, the story of the garden, It permeates throughout all of the references in the tabernacle and the temple. You guys ever notice that before? Maybe some of you. I'll give you an example. Cherubim. Cherubim. You guys know what cherubim are?

Little angel, you know, wing things, right? Sometimes they're little babies. Sometimes they're depicted as men with six wings or four wings or two wings. Sometimes they're depicted as lions with a bunch of wings. Just winged angels, if you will, in the illustrations. And in the garden, there were some cherubim. Typically depicted as two, but it's just a plural world. There were multiple, more than one cherubim. And they were placed at the front of the garden, at the eastern gate, if you will, of the garden, to protect the garden from man entering back into it. You guys are familiar with the story, right?

Let's see here. There we go. After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim with a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way of the Tree of Life. I'd like to see that depicted in a movie. That would be cool. Within the entire Torah, whole first five books of the Bible, there is only one other context in which the cherubim appear. That's in the sanctuary of God. Now the fact that there are only two contexts in Scripture, one guarding the holy place known as the Garden of Eden and one guarding the holy place and the holiest of holies, as we'll see, in God's temple, creates a parallel, if you will.

What is this connection between the temple of God and the Garden of Eden? Is there a connection? And that's what we're going to explore today. What is the story of the Garden of Eden trying to portray to the readers? It's the very first story in the Bible, which on its own carries its own weight. You have creation and then a garden appears. In the garden, it's the very first time that man enters into a relationship with God, an intimate relationship with God. It is here when man gets up, he's given some commands, and he goes forth in obedience to God. It's here that we see that God cares so much about man that he gives him sustenance throughout the garden.

Everything that God does is for the blessing of man. Even though the story of the garden is short... It has ramifications that are mirrored throughout the entire biblical narrative. We sometimes have a misconception about living in the West. As I was talking earlier, we believe that we can commune with a holy God on our own terms and that he must accommodate it. The Bible clearly illustrates that it is his terms that matter for the goal of intimate communion, not ours. It's interesting because sometimes we let our mindset get the best of us, and maybe this can relate, and this is probably the takeaway from this message.

Sometimes we like to go a certain way in our life. Sometimes we like to live a certain way in our life. Sometimes we like to go a certain direction in our life. And we feel that, you know, just because it's the way we want to go, That God should be able to accommodate us in that. And that God should still be able to show us his glory in that. And that God should, you know, I want to see God here, so God's glory must appear before me. Do you know what that makes you when you demand God to accommodate you? It makes you God over God, or at least attempt. That's not what scripture illustrates. We see that man can only intimately relate or commune with God through delicately orchestrated circumstances.

Man cannot encounter God by simply willing it to happen. Man is expected to fortify his spiritual being by entering into an environment that promotes true communion with God. In other words, you can't just will God's intimate glory show before you. And I'm not talking about prayer. You can pray, you should pray, you should pray every day, and God hears your prayers and God can answer your prayers. I'm talking about the glory of God appearing before you and walking with you. You know, Enoch walked with God. Noah walked walked with God. Elijah heard the voice of God in the big old cave when he was having that meltdown, elders of Israel, through the carefully orchestrated steps of Kedusha, went up on the mountain and saw God and underneath his feet was that sapphire.

That's experiencing the glory of God. This is why the psalmist in Psalms 27, 4 says, one thing I ask from the Lord. This only do I seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all of the days of my life. For what purpose? To gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek Him in His temple. The psalmist states that he wants to dwell in the house of the Lord all of his days. Why? It's a pretty nice place to live. What are you saying? Why? So that he can experience the glory of God every day. It wasn't necessarily about taking up a residence in God's holy place. It's not like you pull this off. Oh, I just want to get a sleeping bag and sleep beside the menorah on the showbread.

That's not going to happen, number one. But the reason why this narrative is used is because God's glory dwells in his residence. And so what the psalmist is stating is that, man, wouldn't it be great to experience God's glory every single day? Psalm 92. 12 through 13. Fascinating verse with tons of iconography, symbolism. The righteous will flourish like a palm tree. They grow like a cedar of Lebanon, evergreen tree, because it always stays fruitful and bright. These trees planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God. Who gets to do this? The righteous. What makes someone righteous?

Probably another topic, but... Those who are seeking the will of the Father are the ones who get to be like a tree in God's living room, who get to experience God's glory. You know, we know Paul talks about in 2 Corinthians 5.21, he says, For the sake he was made to be sin, who knew no sin, that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Not necessarily the righteous, I mean, that's a part of it, but we will be a symbol of the righteousness of God. We will be the ambassadors of the message of reconciliation. We will be the new creation that is stepping out from the corrupted world into the new.

We will be the ones that facilitate the kingdom bringing in the new heaven and new earth. It's a great book I'm reading by N.T. Wright, and something he stated in it, and it was so bold. N.T. Wright is possibly one of the leading scholars of the New Testament in modern Christian academia. He's a very brilliant man. And one of the things he states is he talks about that the original gospel was never about being saved and going to heaven. The original gospel was about coming in covenant with the Father through the Son, and and being a part of bringing heaven to earth or new heaven and new earth looking forward to the new heaven and new earth and that's why we are a new creation in christ the righteous are the ones that turn their back to idolatry and sin the righteous are the ones that are walking towards the father the righteous are the ones that understand that all right i am going to approach the father And if I need to put restrictions on my life to accommodate the holiness that I need, the Kedushah like we discussed last week, to enter in, then I will do that.

But I'm seeking the Father with my heart, soul, and might. That's the righteous. And they will flourish like a palm tree, evergreen tree in the house of the Lord. Whenever we see an instance where man cultivates his relationship with God, we should expect to see the model of Eden. either in the language that's used or the thematic narrative in the scriptures. So let's look at some pillars and principles of the Eden theme. Okay, you ready? Moving on? Everybody still with me? All right, we're good. Number one, the garden was never meant to ensure a life of leisure that was devoured of responsibility.

Remember, the substance of Adam's relationship with God was based on obedience of the commandments. That's evident. Just as God gave the Torah to Israel, to obey and to guard, he gave a type of Torah to Adam, except for instead of like 613 commandments to Israel, Adam got two. Adam got two. He got a positive commandment and a negative commandment. Okay? First commandment, let's see here. In Genesis 2.16, the very first thing, And the Lord God commanded the man, You are free to eat from any tree of the garden. Positive commandment. But you must not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. For when you eat of it, you will certainly die.

Negative. Negative. It's funny, that word, I was looking at it, I'm like, that doesn't sound like a positive commandment. You're free to eat. It just sounds like an unrestricted mandate. Free to eat. So that word free, free to eat in Hebrew is akol takol. Akol, right? Eat, eat is basically in Hebrew. It means to eat. You are eat, eat the trees that are available to you. It's a commandment to eat that's emphasized. You're free to eat. You need to eat everything in the garden. Eat, eat. But don't touch that one tree. Can you do that? Could you do it? Well, yeah, of course we could do it. Yeah, you don't know.

You don't know. Just one tree. I mean, it's a little fruit, fig, apple, whatever. Number two, the benefit of living in God's presence was something that Adam would have to continually merit. It was not simply a grant. Okay? Not simply a grant. You get a loan from the bank. Horrible example, all I can think of. You deal with it. It'll be okay. You get a loan from the bank, right? If you stop paying the loan, it's not a gift. You stop paying the loan, what happens? You go to collections and your credit goes down. Something gets taken away from you. And then if you want another loan, what's the bank going to say?

You have to continually merit the relationship with the bank. Adam had to continually obey, do whatever it takes To seek out the Father with his heart and his soul. Keeping the commandments. That's all I want from you, Adam. Keep this garden up. Eat of the trees. Right? I'm going to make it so the lions don't even want to eat you. You can pet them any day you want. It'll be great. All you got to do, I'm going to give you water, rivers. You can swim in them. Waterfall. Give you everything. I'm even going to give you a soulmate. Two commandments. Eat this, don't eat this. Didn't take long for us to blow that one.

That part looks good. If Adam disobeyed, what happened? Genesis 2, 17, death, death. Disobedience would also disrupt the harmony of the natural order that was ordained upon creation. What was the penalty for this? Eve, it's going to hurt now when you give birth. Lots of pain. I've never experienced that. Anybody experience that? Does it hurt? Can't hurt that bad. I mean, is it really that bad? Like, is it really? Yeah, product of disobedience. And Adam, when you go to work... You're going to work hard, hard, hard. And you're going to work really hard. And then you're going to work some more and you're going to pull some overtime.

And still, you might be able to pay your bills. When you work out in the field, all that will come up, sprout up. Weeds and thorns. It's going to be hard. Before, it's that grass, tree. Now you're going to have to work hard, hard, hard and nothing's really even going to come from it. Three, the most significant pillar of the garden scope is defiance against God would result in banishment from the garden. This is synonymous with banishment from the privilege of living in an imminent intimacy with God, banished from the glory of God. Following the flood in Genesis 6-7, the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11, God chooses to limit his intimacy with a specific people, the descendants of Abraham.

We know this story. When reading the account of God interacting with Abraham, we come across Genesis 17, and that's when circumcision is introduced. And we begin to see a reemergence of... eden type imagery when we see this you ever notice that i sure didn't what do you mean circumcision has to do with eden genesis 17 7 through 8 i will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come to be your god and the god of your descendants after you the whole land of canaan the whole what of canaan The scope of Genesis 17 is that the land of Israel will be suited also as an environment in which the descendants of Abraham can establish a relationship with God. I know everyone's looking at me, Matt, that's kind of a stretch, don't you think? I mean, just a little bit, you know, you're kind of taking those.

I know. When I was first reading over, at the time, I was like, that's a great theory, you know, what a bold assertion. Whatever. The parallel becomes clearer when we look at the stipulations in which God gives Israel about them residing in the promised land in the book of Leviticus. So can we turn to Leviticus? We're going to turn to Leviticus 26. You still with me? I know I'm going over a lot of information. The temple and the land of Israel has Eden. That's the scope. Leviticus 26, verses 3 through 12. And you will eat all the food you want and live in the safety of your land. I will grant peace in the land and you will lie down and no one will make you afraid.

I will remove wild beasts from the land and the sword will not pass through your country. You will pursue your enemies and they will fall by the sword before you. Five of you will chase a hundred and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand and your enemies will fall on the sword before you. I will look on you with favor and make you fruitful and increase your numbers and I will keep my covenant with you. Seems a lot like the garden, doesn't it? Predicated first and foremost by observing the commandments that God has given in verse 3. Just like Adam. See, in Hebrew, God's voice was moving in the garden in Genesis 3.8.

Remember that verse? I don't think I put it in the... It doesn't matter anyway. You know, I heard the voice of the Lord, of God, walking in the garden. So the root word there is kalech. And in Genesis 3, it says mithelech, mithelech, to walk. It's interesting because in the same way in verse 12, it states v'hithelech ti. I will walk with you. Same word used in both instances. When you go into the land, God is going to walk with you just like he walked in the cool of the day in the garden. In the garden, God's concern was for the sake of man. He planted the garden, the trees, made the rivers, and created a mate for Adam.

In the narrative here in Leviticus 26, God states what his involvement will be. He lists over 12 separate actions that he's going to do for Israel if they observe the commandments. I'm going to give you land. I'm going to grant rains. I'll be favorable towards you. This conception of Eden being a place that Israel will dwell is confirmed and fueled by the prophet Isaiah in the very next verse. Isaiah 51, 3. is where we're going to be turning to next. The Lord will surely comfort Zion and will look with compassion on all her ruins. What's that verse? He will make her deserts like Eden, her wastelands like the garden of the Lord.

Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the sound of singing. Just as Eden was not unconditional, neither was the land of Israel.

When Adam defied God's commandments, Remember that? We were just talking about it. That's funny because in Leviticus 26, if we keep running, we see a confirmation of this very same parallel. I was going to click the button. Leviticus 26, 14 and 20. Verse 20. Now these parallels between the land of Israel and the Garden of Eden are starting to come into play. If you obey the commandments of God, just like he told Adam, then you will have rain, then you will have blessing, then you will have favor. You will have everything you need. All the fruit will just start falling off the trees and hopping in your storehouse.

You won't even have to carry it. I mean, it's just going to be great. But if you disobey, just as the case of Adam, you can rake, fertilize, or miracle grow all you want. It'll be spent in vain. But wait, Matt, Adam was kicked out of the garden for disobedience, wasn't he? Yeah, he was. Leviticus 26, 33. I will scatter you among all the nations and will draw out my sword and pursue you. Why? For your disobedience. Same effect, same mirror. Yes! No! This confirms what scripture is trying to tell us. A Garden of Eden type of intimacy with God is available only when we establish a society according to his will, not our own.

Only if we establish a culture, a lifestyle, a community according to his will, not our own. Man, a Garden of Eden type of intimacy with God is available, but only when we establish a society according to his will, not our own. Jason, this morning we're talking about it. We're going to the gym, Jason and I. And it's awesome. He hates it. I'm having a blast because I never... I think the last time I lifted weights was CrossFit like two years ago. That was a funny... Walking to the gym, I'm doing stuff I never thought I could do. Bench press, you know. We're doing squats. Right? Working hard. Really, really, really, really hard.

But no matter how much I try to stand up straight and do this, I can only hold my breath for so long and then... Fitness is dependent on working out and exercising, but it's also dependent on what? Eating. What you eat. A whole experience with God can be derailed over refusing to comply with one important rule or commandment. Last week we discussed how the commandments are how the holiness of God's people is defined, right? There are also the pillars that maintain the blessing within the scope of holiness for the people of God. Holiness is defined by what? Restriction. Yes. If the commandments are concerning living in the land of Israel and they're designed to facilitate an intimate encounter with God, then the temple, this is why I'm talking about all this, the temple is the climax of an intimate encounter with God.

It's the apex of it all. When man, and I have a quote, I'd love to throw it up, a quote from Joshua Berman from his book, and this quote really hit me hard, so I want you to listen and walk away with everything, nothing else but this. When man enters the domain of the divine... Genesis 3.22, familiar with this verse. What does the tree of life give? That's an easy answer. Open book question, right? Gives life. What else gives life? See, Deuteronomy chapter 30, verse 15. See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience with him, and to keep his commandments, decrees, and laws.

Then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess. But if your heart turns away, and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, Verse 18, I declare you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. Kind of seems like Torah here and the tree of life have some of the same properties, right? Maybe. Proverbs 3.18 is an interesting verse because it equates God's wisdom to the tree of life. Proverbs 3.18 states, she is the tree of life to those who take hold of her.

Those who hold her fast will be blessed. Is the Torah God's wisdom? Is the Torah the tree of life? I can't find a scripture that says the Torah is the tree of life. I just see what God's wisdom is the tree of life. So I wanted to show you guys something here. And it was a section of the Midrash. So it's rabbinic commentary on Genesis. And, you know, it's commentary. It is what it is. I'm not dogmatic about it. But they have an idea. And in this commentary, they connect Proverbs 3.18... the Torah being the tree of life. In Midrash Haggadol Bereshit 324, this commentary, it states this, God hid the tree that granted eternal life to all who ate from it, and in its place he gave us his Torah.

This is the tree of life, for it says she is the tree of life for those who grasp her. When a man beholds it and sees in it God's wisdom and his righteous and just laws and statutes, He is immediately induced to adopt a new mind. Let me read that again. They're not saying the Torah is the tree of life. They're saying that the Torah contains the wisdom, which is the tree of life, right? Which is very important, and when we do the series that's coming after this one about new creation, it will have a lot to play, and you'll understand why I'm saying that. When a man beholds the wisdom of God in the Torah and sees it in God's wisdom and his righteous and just laws and statutes, rabbinic commentary, immediately induced to him to adopt a new mind.

Where have we heard that before? New mind? Renewing of a mind? Romans 12, 2. When Paul's speaking, he says, "...do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is. Why? Because you already have the scriptures to tell you what God's will is. Do not mistake me. Simply following some of the commandments in Torah is not the completeness of God's will. It is not the completeness. You want to know why Yeshua said some really hard things sometimes about the Torah to the Pharisees and Sadducees that just don't make any sense?

Because Yeshua was talking about the will of God. He was talking about the will of God and he was confusing the Pharisees because the Pharisees were so bent up on making, on manipulating the wisdom of God through the form of Torah to benefit them. That's what Yeshua was coming to correct. Anyone in Christ is a new creation, right? Because they're pursuing the wisdom of God. They're pursuing the will of God. Commentary continues. So are they right? Is God's wisdom found in the Torah and thus the Torah is fueled by the tree of life, is synonymous with the tree of life because it emits God's will. Let's take a closer look.

So the tree stood at the conceptual center of the Garden of Eden, right? And if we say the Torah is likened unto the Garden of Eden or the Tree of Life, an example for us of the Tree of Life, where should the commandments be in the temple? In other words, if the Torah is the Tree of Life, if the Torah is the Tree of Life, and the Torah is to be found in the Garden, in the center of the Garden, the conceptual center, the Tree of Life, where should the Tree of Life stand? be found in the temple? Holy of Holies. What guarded the Tree of Life with flaming swords? Cherubim. And where are the cherubim found in the temple specifically?

On top of the top of the ark, right? What was inside the ark? The commandments. The tablets of stone containing the commandments and ordinances of God. The Tree of Life. It's in a place known as the Kedosh Kodeshim. Not only were the cherubim molded to the top of the ark, they were also embroidered on the curtain of division separating the Holies of Holies from the Holy Place. I had a nice little picture here. But we get to do an illustration instead. All right. We're going to do volunteers. Ah, so fun. All right. I need one, two, three volunteers. Don't everybody jump up at once. Come on. One, two, three.

Perfect. All right. It's an honor. Come here. Come here. Right here. Right here. Right here. Right here. All right. All right. So who wants to be the most holy? You're going to stand right here. You're going to be the least of the three. All right. Pick a number between 1 and 5. Pick a number between 1 and 5. 3 it is. So 3, you're going to stand right here and you're going to stand right here. No, you're going to back, back, back, back, back, back, back, right there. And you're going to stand right here. And you spread your arms out. Fantastic. Look at this illustration. I present to you the model of the temple.

You have three main areas. Two main areas inside the temple. You have the outer court, south yonder, right? And you have the outer court, south yonder, right? Holy, you have the altar out there, you know. It's the Azara. Standard Israelites are not allowed in here except for special circumstances to bring us an offering. It was cool. They had a little passageway for, you know, when the leper and the Nazarite had to put his hair in and also had to be anointed with oil on his toe and his ear. There was a threshold that they came to and they would stick their toe over it. And that's another part. It was really cool.

So that's out there in the Azara. And then you enter into the... Holy place. Holy place. And over here you have the menorah, if you guys are familiar with it. And over there you have the showbread, where the 12 loaves of bread were. And then you have the altar of incense standing about right here. And this is the holy place. Back here is the Kedosh Kodeshim, the holiest of holies. Inside here, that's right, inside here is the most restricted place, which means it is the most Fantastic. And inside here was also in the first temple in the tabernacle the Ark of the Covenant, right? With the angels, the cherubim on top of it.

And then Solomon actually built like these 24-foot ones to go inside there as well. It was really cool. Anyway, what is he? This is the curtain of division. You're the curtain. It's pretty important. Pretty important. So the curtain of division in the second temple we know actually were two curtains. There was one that came out and almost connected to the wall, a little passageway. And then there was another one right here that came out and almost connected to the wall here. So it created a passageway. The priest would enter in, turn right, turn right. He knew he tripped the trip wire at that point, you know.

He'd turn right and enter in and then turn left into the holiest of holies. Okay? And then he would go back and back out the same way. On the front of the curtain here, when the priest would come in, every Friday evening or Friday afternoon after they baked the bread, they would replace the showbread. They would come in and they would tend to the... Tend to the oil in the menorah and make sure the wicks were in the menorah. They would come in every day. Oh man, the most sacred sought after ceremony that the priest could only perform once in his life. Only once in his life. And that was the offer of incense right here.

When they looked up at this curtain, they saw also cherubim embroidered all over the curtain. Why? As a reminder, the tree of life stands here. and the cherubim are guarding the tree of life. You cannot go past here. You don't have the level of Kedusha to go past here. Only one man, the most restricted man, the high priest of Israel, has the Kedusha. And not just any time he wants, only on one day a year. And not just dressed any way he wants, man, he better take that crown off. Take the bells off, he's going to wear all white linen. Almost like a lay priest. Only at that point, those restrictions...

Can he enter in one day a year, three times in the day, past the cherubim? Constant reminder of the cherubim guarding the tree of life. Thank you, guys. Any luck? We're working. We're almost there. We're almost done. I got to catch up there. That will work just fine. Oh, it's PowerPoint. That works, too. Oh, you found it. Nice job. All right. So, yeah, the holy place, altar of incense, right? We had the showbread, and you saw all that. Genesis states that Adam went which direction out of the garden? East, right? East. Which direction did the front of the temple, the entrance of the temple face? East.

When people start, they typically show an illustration like this when you're studying the temple, right? And they talk about, all right, now, north and south, and you'll see over on the east side here, and we look at it, you know, well, north is up and south is down, and, you know, east and west, and you get all confused. This is north, this is south, west, east, and this is the entrance into the temple. When you leave the temple, when you go east, is when you're going away from the presence of God. You would turn west to enter into the courts of Israel and the women's court. You would go west to enter into the Azara.

You would go west and enter into the holy place, holiest of holies, west. Man migrated east until they came to a place known as Shinar in Genesis. That's where they came together and said, hey, let's make some bricks. Let's make a big old tower. Called the Tower of Babel. They went east. Esau went eastward in the land of Canaan. In Ezekiel chapter 8, heartbreaking chapter 8 and 9, the priests of Israel were out in the courts of the temple facing east, worshiping the sun. You cannot face east with the direction of your life and expect God to move his house, his presence, his glory to accommodate the direction that you want to go in your life.

You can't do it. I know what it means for me to face the will of God. I know what it means for me to walk into the will of God. I know what it means that when he says don't do this or do do this, that's what is commanded because of the level of holiness that as a covenant believer I am endowed with. You can't face east with your back towards God. and go along your life and be like, yeah, I'm a good person. God loves me. He knows I'm a good person. It's cool, but I'm not doing all these things. Ah, but that's all right. God will still be with me. I'm a believer. I believe in God, but you're facing away from God.

Your life is going in opposite direction. The direction is not towards God's heart. Yeah, but he understands. Anybody ever know someone or ever been there? God understands. We trap ourselves, man. We do. We don't even know we're in that place. Until usually much later after we've been there for a while and we stand there and all going goodness I would have just struck me dead the grace and the mercy of the Father God's not gonna pick up his house and his glory and move it in front of you based on the direction that you're late you're living that's a hard lesson to learn and If that's you what the word - shuva means change direction turn around repent means repent means to turn around That means say you're sorry Sorry is a part of it.

Repentance is a part of it, but repentance in its root means to not simply turn around, but to turn towards God. True repentance will always have you facing west, towards the Father, towards His glory, towards His heart. Does that make sense? I know it's easy to hear, and it's easy to say even, and it's easy to tell others. It's hard to implement because we've got to overcome something called the flesh. I want to do a quick comparison of Eden and then the commandments of the building of the tabernacle in Exodus. Can we do that? Can we run through these real quick? Everybody still with me? Fantastic.

Genesis, Genesis 131. And God saw all that he had made and behold, it was very good. It was very what? Very good. You guys realize that everything was very good, all of creation when it was completion. But you guys realize that the second day of the week, Monday, was the only day of the week he didn't call good? You go look it up. Apparently even God had a case of the Mondays. I mean, good gracious, look it up. He didn't, it was the only day he did not call good in the Bible. I don't know. I can't, I don't know. Sometimes I feel like I know waking up Monday morning. I know it's a deeper spiritual level than just that.

I'm not just trying to make a joke about it. But I do find it, I'm just like, good gracious. Has Monday always been this, that day, like throughout all of history? I mean, good gracious. Good gracious. There's a lot of weird Jewish commentaries on why, and they're really far out there. Like the day he created demons, or the day he did this, or the day, we don't know. It is simply absent in the text. And so it's a good campfire talk. I wonder why God didn't call Monday good. But when it was all finished, he saw that all that he had made, and behold, it was very good. We see in Exodus 39, 46, Moses saw all the skilled work and behold, they had done it as God commanded they had done when it was completed.

He saw everything that was done and it was beautiful. Genesis 2, 1, and the heavens and the earth, all of their array were completed. Exodus 39, 32, all of the work of the tabernacle of the tent of meeting was completed. We start to see a thematic parallel here when going through. And God completed all the work that he had done in Genesis 2-2. And Moses completed all the work, the tabernacle, from the will of God. Genesis 2-3, and God blessed the Sabbath. Exodus 39-43, and Moses blessed. He was the one who said the blessing and sanctified it. The Sabbath day, the one day of creation that... like the temple, resembles the Kedusha, the level of Kedusha and holiness that God had put into it.

Exodus 49, and you shall sanctify it and all of its vessels. What was the decree to Adam if he eats the tree of knowledge and good and evil? What's going to happen to him? Death, right? You don't get to play video games for a week. You're grounded. No, it was death. Adam's life was cut short, and because of this, He was not allowed to partake in the fullness of intimacy in a relationship with God. He was barred from the garden. So too, in the temple, death was banned. No direct or indirect connection with death could appear in God's holy place. Death is a reflection of spiritual failure, how it came to pass.

It is the result of it, actually. If that is the case, then there's no place for death within any of the precincts of God's temple. This is why folks who were deemed unclean could not enter the temple complex. Almost all the things that render a person unclean are associated with death in one way or another. If anyone had contact with a carcass, according to Leviticus 11, 24-31 or 39-45, or even a corpse, you couldn't just walk up in the temple. You'd been in contact with death. A leper may not enter the temple. He's alive. Yeah, but his skin was considered dead according to Leviticus 13.45. The death.

Turned white as a dead man. Not allowed up here. Priests and officiants of the temple could not come in contact with the dead except for relatives in Leviticus 21.14 or 21.1-4. And the high priest? High priest couldn't even bury his relatives. Holiness is defined by? High priest couldn't even bury his relatives. Couldn't come in contact with his dead relatives. A woman with an unnatural flow of blood? Far from the temple. Sickness always leads to death in one form or another. Far from the temple. You know, it makes you wonder, is that why Yeshua seemed to almost always target the dead, the lepers, the sick, the ill, the dying?

Can you imagine the weight of watching Yeshua restore someone affected by death or being affected by death? It wasn't simply like, it wasn't just a hallelujah moment. I mean, I would have thrown a party today Just saying, it would have been a hallelujah moment, but that wasn't the full scope of everything that was going on. Lazarus raised from the dead. Oh, wow, look at this. This is awesome. God is great. That's magnificent. Can you imagine Lazarus washing himself before walking up the steps and walking past the outer perimeter of the temple and walking on the temple mount and approaching the women's courts? the court of Israel.

Can you imagine being able to go in there and bring a thanksgiving offering to God? Being back in the garden. The woman with the issue of blood. How many years? Twelve years. Lots of symbolism behind that. Twelve years that she was not allowed to ascend into the temple of God. Twelve years where she was not allowed to to bring an offering. Twelve years where she was not allowed to celebrate with her family in the women's court during Sukkot. I mean, that was, in the Mishnah, it talks about all the cool stuff they did during Sukkot. Big lanterns, the light on a hill, right? I mean, you could just see it was awesome.

After that one experience with Yeshua, I bet that was the best Sukkot of her life when it came around. Now she gets to experience intimacy with the Father. Just another witness, another witness of what happened that day When a man hung on a cross. Something revolutionary happened, guys. In the end of days, Zechariah uses Eden imagery to describe Jerusalem. Look at this. On that day, living water will flow out of Jerusalem, half of it east to the Dead Sea and half of it west to the Mediterranean Sea in summer and in winter. The Lord will be king over the whole earth and on that day there will be one Lord and his name will be the only name.

Did you see it? Talking about Eden. The question is, is this day still far off? Or are we supposed to be living in it today as believers? Like I said, I was set back by Mr. Wright's assertion that being the crucifixion and the salvation of Yeshua is less about being saved and going to heaven and more about being in covenant with God and bringing heaven to earth and bringing the kingdom of God into earth. Being the ambassadors of Christ that we're commanded to.Being the messengers of reconciliation where God reconciled man to himself. That's what our job scope is. That's our job description, right? A lot of people, guys, and I said this, and it upset a few people.

I said it at, I think it was Revive last year. I said that Torah is not our job description. Torah is the codebook of ethics that you've got to follow. Everybody gets that at their job. That's not your job description. Of course you don't kill, you don't steal, you don't destroy, you don't commit a crime. Duh. Of course you love God. Why wouldn't you? That's minimum requirements. Your job description is to be a messenger of reconciliation, an ambassador of Christ. That's a level up, right? It's one thing. I mean, yeah, you can keep Shabbat. Hallelujah. Experience the rest of the Father. Don't eat the pig.

Hallelujah. Stay clean, right? Don't commit adultery. Don't steal. Forgive. Forgive offenses that you don't want to forgive because you have been forgiven. That's a big one that we just like to ignore. There we go. I'll just keep Shabbat and I'm doing good. No, this is all Torah. This is all the reign of God. The sad thing is as believers we stop there and we don't pick up the mandate of what we're supposed to be doing. We're supposed to be spreading the message of reconciliation where God loved you so much that he made a way for you to be reconciled back to him. Can't keep Shabbat until that happens.

What's the priority? We have a job to do. This day when the whole world knows about the Father and knows his name and the rivers spring forth from Jerusalem, we're supposed to be instigating that as the messengers of what is coming. Are we doing our job as new creations, or are we just trying to polish up the old paint that we have on ourselves, maybe get some new tires, put some of that high mileage oil in our engines? I'm good as new. It's not the same. You are to be a new creation in Christ. To all who believe, that's what Paul says. You can't do that when you're facing east, away from the direction that God wants you to go.

You can't do that when you feel that God will understand all the circumstances in your life and why you're not facing the direction towards his heart and his will. You can't do that by expecting God to pick up his glory and his direction and his goals for your life and move them to what you want them to be. You can't do that as a new creation. That was an understanding in the first century. That was an understanding amongst the Judean population before Messiah was ever born. They understood some of these basic principles of what to expect, this revolution that God is going to endow upon Israel. Are we living it?

Are we seeking Eden? Are we seeking to experience the glory of the Father in our lives? Or are we just learning? There's a big difference. Learning won't get you anything. Anybody can learn. Anybody can read a book. It's all about read books. How you walk out your life How you loved before you died, those are the seeds that you're planting. Are you tilling the soil with sweat, producing weeds and thorns, or are you part of the new creation of Christ and planting seeds of love that will sprout as a testimony for who God is? Hey guys, I'm Matthew Vanderels, pastor at Founded in Truth Fellowship, and I really hope you enjoy this message.

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