God's Pathway

James 1:2-4
Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

 

In the sanctuary service established by God for the children of Israelwhen He brought them out of Egypt's slavery, there is a pathway of instruction that is very beautiful and significant for us today. Do you see the cross in the layout of God's emblems?

 
That is no accident.  In the order of these you find the experience of the children of Israel.  Beginning God's pathway is the altar of sacrifice with the offering of the Passover Lamb.  This stands between our slavery and God's pathway to freedom!

The next part of the pathway is modeled with the experience of the Red Sea.  Here is God's laver in symbolic baptism.  You pass through the water leaving the old behind and embracing a new path.

The next part of the journey was the giving of manna...the table of shewbread.

The menorah is full of meaning, and I see it as being given emphasis in Exodus 19:3-7 where God is given them light about His plans for Israel.   If Jesus pictographs, the word menorah translates to: the mighty Son first revealed. 

The altar of incense is pictured in Exodus 19:9 where God says to Moses that He will come in a thick cloud so that the people can hear God talk to Moses.  When the incense (essential oils) was put on the altar, it made a white cloud of smoke that symbolically represented the righteousness of Christ...the white robe.  Verse 14: Moses sanctifies the people.  The altar of incense is a place of intercession.  Moses is definitely fulfilling that role for Israel.

 

Ark of the Covenant: the rest of Exodus 19 and Exodus 20 is the Shekinah glory come down and the giving of the law.  The law was put into the Ark of the Covenant,  The Ark of the Covenant is symbolic of God's throne, and the law is the foundation of that throne.  In Exodus 24:9-12, we are told that Moses and three priests and seventy elders went up on the mountain and they saw the God of Israel...and under His feet was a foundation of sapphire (blue) stone.  In the Bible blue represents obedience.  The ten commandment stones were from this sapphire foundation of God's throne.   

The Bible is so amazing.  There is nothing insignificant in the information that we are give in God's word. 

Our text today is given new light when we can see that what looks like to us a trial (and indeed it may be) is a part of that same wilderness journey that Israel took.  We have the same lessons of trust to learn.  We may be able to view that from a different perspective when we overlay the sanctuary process on it.   

Proverbs 77:13:  Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary: who is so great a God as our God?  I just love discovering more and more truth from the beautiful emblems in the sanctuary.  I guess it is our visual for the first chapel, and our God is still speaking to us with this pathway.