Leviticus 9:6-7 KJV And Moses said, This is the thing which
the LORD commanded that ye should do: and the glory of the LORD shall
appear unto you. (7) And Moses said unto Aaron, Go unto the
altar, and offer thy sin offering, and thy burnt offering, and make an
atonement for thyself, and for the people: and offer the offering of
the people, and make an atonement for them; as the LORD commanded.
Leviticus 9:22-24 KJV And Aaron lifted up his hand toward the
people, and blessed them, and came down from offering of the sin
offering, and the burnt offering, and peace offerings. (23)
And Moses and Aaron went into the tabernacle of the congregation, and
came out, and blessed the people: and the glory of the LORD appeared
unto all the people. (24) And there came a fire out from
before the LORD, and consumed upon the altar the burnt offering and the
fat: which when all the people saw, they shouted, and fell on their
faces.
Fire came from God and burnt the offering after the priest went
into the most holy place and offered sacrificial blood for atonement.
Atonement was made once every year by the high priest.
- To indicate that God accepted the sacrifice, a supernatural cause
of fire occurred and burned the sacrifice to ashes.
- Some think it fell from heaven, and Josephus, a Jewish historian
in the first century, said it sparked from inside the sacrifice,
itself, burning it to ashes.
This fire was preserved and never allowed to burn out.
- They took the fire from the altar that God sent, and lit the
candlesticks with it in the holy place. And kept that fire
burning.
- They did this until Solomon built the temple and fire came from
God once again!
This fire was considered to be like salt in the sacrifice that seasoned
it for God.
Mark 9:49 KJV For every one shall
be salted with fire,
and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt.
After this was done in Leviticus 9, Aaron's two sons ventured into the
most holy place with fire that was not from the altar.
Leviticus 10:1-2 KJV And Nadab
and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put
fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before
the LORD, which he commanded them not. (2) And there went
out fire from the LORD, and devoured them, and they died before the
LORD.
Notice it was STRANGE FIRE they used.
- That is fire that did not come from the altar where God sent the
fire.
- The altar is where sacrifice was made.
- So not taking fire from the altar where an acceptable sacrifice
occurred that moved God to send fire into it, is actually not
considering that a sacrifice must be acceptable to God before we
venture into the most holy place.
- Since a sacrifice was acceptable to God, God sent fire to burn it
up.
- But if one took fire from elsewhere, one did not realize it must
be fire from a sacrifice that was acceptable to God.
- Since it is only due to a sacrifice that was acceptable to God
that one could enter the most holy presence of God, taking fire from
something other than the sacrifice God accepted is entering into the
holiest place without the concept that sacrifice alone can get us there.
- This a perfect illustration of the fact that if we do not have
the proper sacrifice for our sins, then the death that the sacrifice is
supposed to take instead of us is not taken, and we die the death
penalties, ourselves.
After the death of these two sons, we read information given to Moses
about HOW and WHEN to enter the most holy place.
Leviticus 16:1-2 KJV And the LORD
spake unto Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they
offered before the LORD, and died; (2) And the LORD said
unto Moses, Speak unto Aaron thy brother, that he come not at all
times into the holy place within the vail before the mercy seat,
which is upon the ark; that he die not: for I will appear in the cloud
upon the mercy seat.
They learned this could only be done once a year.
Leviticus 16:14 KJV And he shall
take of the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it with his finger upon
the mercy seat eastward; and before the mercy seat shall he sprinkle of
the blood with his finger seven times.
And the blood was put on the mercy seat, the lid of the Ark of the
covenant when they did go in.
For a whole year, Israel's sins were removed.
Hebrews 10:1-2 KJV For the law
having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the
things, can never with those sacrifices
which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto
perfect. (2) For then would they not have ceased to be
offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no
more conscience of sins.
But this had to occur every year.
Hebrews 10:12-14 KJV But this
man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on
the right hand of God; (13) From henceforth expecting till
his enemies be made his footstool. (14) For by one offering
he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.
Jesus' was done ONCE and not every year.
His offering COMPLETES us.
And that blood that was taken from the sacrificial altar where the
sacrifice died, and brought into the most holy place onto the mercyseat
that stood as God's throne in the earth, was all considered A
SUBSTITUTIONARY DEATH for the offerer.
- You and I are considered the offerers when we CONSCIOUSLY believe
Jesus' death was for the purpose of standing in our places to take each
of our death penalties.
- And a union of our lives with His death occurred when He
died due to that offerer faith we had.
- And when Jesus ascended into Heaven as High Priest, He presented
not someone else's blood as proof the sacrifice was made, but HIS OWN
BLOOD making him both high priest and sacrifice all in one individual!
Numbers 19:2 KJV This is the
ordinance of the law which the LORD hath commanded, saying, Speak unto
the children of Israel, that they bring thee a red heifer without spot,
wherein is no blemish, and upon which never came yoke:
Hebrews 9:14 KJV How much more shall the blood of Christ, who
through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your
conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
Ephesians 5:25-27 KJV Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ
also loved the church, and gave himself for it; (26) That
he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the
word, (27) That he might present it to himself a glorious
church, not having spot,
or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without
blemish.
Acts 22:16 KJV And now why tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized,
and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord.
Washing away sins is not done by the water on your flesh in baptism by
the blood of Jesus in your soul in baptism.
- Baptism is specifically immersing us into the DEATH or SACRIFICE
of Jesus.
- This is why we experience a change from sinfulness to being
without spot.
- Paul said it washes sins away.
- The actual water does not do the washing, but our faith in God's
sacrifice of Christ for our atonement from sin is what causes a washing.
And this is the washing of water by the
word -- which
means the water baptism experience is efficacious -- or effective --
only because of our faith in the Word of what His death does for us
about our baptism or immersion into the death of Jesus Christ, where
that death counts as our own deaths.
- And as soon as we obey the gospel, that baptism indicates we are
WITHOUT SPOT AND BLEMISH and are presented to God as soon as we're
saved as a glorious, spotless, sinlesss member of the church!
- We come into union with the sacrifice of Jesus WHO WAS WITHOUT
SPOT, and we become WITHOUT SPOT.
The sacrifice had to be without physical spot or anything physically
crippling or damaged.
- These things represented SIN.
- With no sin, He could properly stand in the place of other
sinners.
- And when He was accepted by God, then since He stood for each of
us, each of us were considered to have DIED.
- And since we were considered by God to have died, that meant we
paid the death penalty we owed due to our sins.
- And that means we were freed from sin.
Romans 6:6-7 KJV Knowing this,
that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be
destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. (7) For
he that is dead is freed from sin.
We paid the death penalty for sin in a death penalty experience through
Christ's death.
- That means we're free from sin!
- It's like we went to the electric chair and died, and thereby
paid our penalty, and got up to walk and live again totally free from
sin in this world as brand new creatures in God's eyes.
And seeing we came into union with Jesus when we died with Him, and
Jesus went from the altar of sacrifice that was in the form of the
cross, to the throne of God in heaven, then we are presently ON THE
THRONE, too.
The MODEL OF THE THRONE OF GOD, the ark of the covenant, was the FOCAL
POINT for the entire atonement ritual.
- Atonement ultimately came to a fulfillment when the blood from
the sacrifice was sprinkled on the ark.
And Revelation 5:6-10 shows Jesus as a Lamb of sacrifice who died and
stood again in Heaven above.
- And in this actual most holy place in Heaven, the lamb came to
the throne when no one was worthy to come... just like the most holy
place.
- The priest could not enter the most holy place without blood.
Hebrews 9:7 KJV But into the
second went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood,
which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people:
Hebrews 9:24 KJV For Christ is not entered into the holy places
made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven
itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us:
And because GOD SPOKE from the ark which was the throne of God on earth
which was the focal point of ATONEMENT, we are going to see MESSAGES
that HAVE TO DO WITH THE KINGDOM OF GOD that are spoken from similar
pictures of God speaking in a holy place from something similar to
speaking from the ark.
- It is because of ATONEMENT that we are kings and priests.
- The blood on the real throne of God in heaven, of which the ark
of the covenant is a foreshadow, is the reason Rev 1:5-6 said we are
made kings and priest by the same blood that washed away our sins.
- Since SIN caused Adam to lose his position of dominion as king,
then washing our sins away fully restores us to the state of Adam's
dominion before the fall of man into sin.
When God spoke from the THRONE MODEL of the Ark it was from ATONEMENT
perspective.
- THRONE coupled with ATONEMENT means something powerful.
- Why is a THRONE associated with ATONEMENT?
- That means the words God spoke to help Israel were allowed to be
spoken all because they were ATONED to God - reconciled to God.
- Just as in the most holy place, God speaks to Moses that he has
entered HOLY GROUND.
- And instead of the ark, the BURNING BUSH is his origin of speech.
- And since the BURNING BUSH was where God spoke of HIMSELF USING
MOSES and delivering Israel THROUGH MOSES, we see the ATONEMENT idea.
- God can only do something THROUGH US if we are AT ONE WITH HIM.
- If sin separated us from Him, then He could not use us unless
that sin was removed.
- And once sin is removed, we are vehicles for God's KINGDOM.
- And that's what God told Moses -- He would deliver Israel,
personally, by USING MOSES.
- And the burning bush not only stood in the place of the ATONEMENT
ark of the covenant, where we see a picture of a throne of God on earth.
The branches of the burning bush show attached branches to a single
unit that does not burn out.
The emphasis of the bush not burning out right when the time God spoke
to Moses after Moses abandoned all hope of ever doing a work for God
tells us a message.
- realize your KINGDOM UNION to Jesus and let God teach you how He
can WORK THROUGH YOU IN HIS POWER, and you will NOT BURN OUT.
- What causes you to not be able to take it any more is using your
own power.
- And ATONEMENT is trying to teach us that WE ARE IN UNITY WITH HIS
POWER, but we just have to get a real revelation of that.
- We have to learn to stop using our power and burn out, and
instead let His power flow through us where we go forth in the power OF HIS MIGHT, not our own!
Ephesians 6:10 MKJV Finally, my
brothers, be strong in the Lord and in the powerof His might.
And God also spoke to JOSHUA ON HOLY GROUND from something that shows
us something else ABOUT UNION TO KINGDOM GLORY.
- Just as speaking from THE ARK THRONE shows a message about
KINGDOM UNION TO JESUS, and the burning bush that doesn't burn out
shows how we can be used by God in God's power and not burn out,
speaking from the picture Joshua saw on holy ground gives another clue
about what Kingdom UNION does for us.
Joshua 5:13-15 KJV And it came to
pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and
looked, and, behold, there stood a man over against him with his sword
drawn in his hand: and Joshua went unto him, and said unto him, Art
thou for us, or for our adversaries? (14) And he said, Nay;
but as captain of the host of the LORD am I now come. And Joshua fell
on his face to the earth, and did worship, and said unto him, What
saith my lord unto his servant? (15) And the captain of the
LORD'S host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot; for the
place whereon thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so.
An angel of the Lord appears to Joshua, just like the angel of the Lord
appeared to Moses in a burning bush that would not burn out.
- There is the idea of VICTORY OVER ENEMIES AS WARRIORS in KINGDOM
UNION that God is trying to show us.