COME AS A CHILD LESSON 155 - BUILDING THE TABLE FOR THE SANCTUARY

GOD WANTS A TABLE IN HIS SANCTUARY

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

Moses is still listening to God up on the Mountain, and God is telling him to make a table for His Sanctuary.  

This table must be made of acacia wood and overlaid with pure gold and it is to have gold molding around it.  This sounds very similar in nature to the pattern for the ark.   Moses must follow God’s specific measurements in building this table.  The table needs to have four gold rings on all four corners and poles are to be made to carry the table as they travel through the wilderness.  Then the plates and dishes for the table are to be made of gold.  They should be pure gold, and include pitchers and bowls for the pouring out of offerings. 

God told Moses when everything was complete that he was to put The Bread of The Presence on this table and it was to remain before God at all times.  

Thus Moses was to build a table to go inside the Sanctuary.

The word “sanctuary” has been thrown around a lot lately.  Sometimes God's definition and man's definition can be different.  Be careful how you use God's words and be careful how you use His Name.  He knows and He cares.   

In this Sanctuary that Moses was to build, even though at certain times it might have felt like a place of refuge from the world; it was not.  It was NOT a place to escape.  It was actually a place to be found by God.  It was the dwelling place of The LORD. If one followed God’s requirements for going there, one would  find God’s Presence inside. If not; one would die.  

So in this dwelling place of the LORD is found the Table of Shewbread.  The actual table itself, before the bread and the vessels are placed upon it, is insignificant.  Once this happens though; the table takes on the significance and symbolism of Christ.  The major significance of what is set upon the table and what is performed at the table gives us the true meaning of the table and it becomes very, very special. 

The table is made of acacia wood which is symbolic of the humanity of Christ.  The gold overlay is symbolic of the divinity of Christ.  Upon this table continuous, everlasting shewbread is placed before God in golden vessels.  By these things being placed upon the table we see the entire purpose of the whole tabernacle come into fruition.  It is there to unfold redemption for God’s people in the form of the very Presence of God.  The word “shewbread” translates to mean “Bread of Faces” and it points to the Presence of God in front of which the Bread stands.  There are twelve loaves, or cakes, stacked in two rows of six.  There are twelve tribes of Israel and twelve stones on the breastplate of the priests.  This is all symbolic of the people standing before God.  

But how can that be?  They are not holy enough to stand before God.  

This happens because the bread is mixed from “fine flour.”  This fine flour is symbolic of the LORD Jesus Christ identifying Himself with His people, the church, the elect of God.  The bread made of fine flour stands in the Holy Presence of God because it stands in Christ.  

Because of Christ, God sees the people not standing in their sins, but standing as representatives of His Son, Jesus Christ.  Because of Christ, The Bread of Life, we the people, covered in the blood of Jesus, can come into the very Presence of God. We can gather around God's table and be fed from His plenty.

But in telling you the meaning of the symbolism of the table and the Bread of Presence I’m getting a few thousand years ahead of myself in our story.  

For now, Moses is being instructed to set up the shadows of these things.  He will also be instructed by God about how the loaves are to change from Sabbath to Sabbath.  I can't help but be reminded here of the bread that Sarah made in the tents of Abraham.  Her bread stayed fresh for seven days, from Sabbath till Sabbath and they always had plenty.  

God told Moses how the very first stack of bread should be placed upon the table on The Sabbath Day and it was to remain in front of God for seven days and then it should be replaced with new bread and the old bread was then eaten by the priests who served in the tabernacle.  

Every seven days the old is exchanged for the new.  Here again God gives the people a way to KNOW the day that He has called the true Sabbath.  Here again, God puts emphasis on the fact that it DOES matter to Him.   Though the old bread is exchanged for the new bread, it is still happening from Sabbath to Sabbath, every seven days.  This has been God's pattern from the beginning of time. 

When we keep Sabbath our old is exchanged for new.  From week to week as we walk in God's ways; He makes us into the living bread of his kingdom.  Every Sabbath as we come before Him; we learn new ways to live before Him and with our fellow man.  After working for six days and toiling for survival; we come before His glory and find rest and restoration and He makes us new again.  

Every seven days the priests received their bread.  God provides for and takes care of those who serve Him.  Those who had dedicated their time and energies to the work of the tabernacle were rewarded with bread at the end of every week.  

The table was NEVER empty!  

Within the folds of God’s church, yesterday, today and tomorrow which includes always and forever; Christ and His people will stand before God, in every generation throughout every age, like the shewbread on the table.  It all began with Israel.  They were the original pattern.  

That is why the shewbread is often referred to in the scriptures as “the continual” bread.  The bread is symbolic of The Church in Christ.  Because of our Beloved we are accepted and have a continuous place in God’s Presence.  

The table that stood for nothing by itself now takes on a whole new and special meaning because of Christ.  It is forever useful in the distribution of The Bread of Life to God’s Church.  As long as there is bread upon the table, Christ is there!  As long as Christ is there, the people are saved in the eyes of God.  This is the way that God communes with His people.

Once mixed together, the fine flour and the rest of the bread cannot be separated.  They are One.  As long as Christ lives within the members of God’s church the church will be one with God, because Christ and The Father are One. This is the shadow and type that God was having Moses to set up in this holy place. 

In a sense we all have holy places, even in our ordinary lives.  Is your table in your home dedicated to the service of the LORD? 

 Do you gather with your family as God gathers with His? 

 Do you share your love for one another in a meal where you all can come together as one family often?  

This is the pattern that God set for families.  He didn't set a pattern where everyone grabbed something from the microwave and scoffed it down in front of a box called a television where no one talked or said a word to each other.  The table of God was sacred, carefully set in solid gold with flickers of candlelight from across the room.  The food was made from the finest flour and served in an orderly manner.   The table is essential to a happy home, both in God's house, and your family home.  If we are not careful the world will pull us away from this pattern that God gave us and try to make us think it isn't important.  It is VERY important.  Do not neglect this aspect of your family life.  Make your table central to your communion together as a family.  God will meet you there.

These ordinary things of life; like a table and some bread, become extraordinary in the place of the Presence of God.  Simple bread becomes salvation.  Simple serving utensils are now covered in gold and their service becomes precious and honorable and useful for God's Kingdom, as long as Christ is the reason, and it all happens in the Presence of God; everything else about the care of God's house falls into place.  He is happy to dwell there and the people are happy to be dwelling in communion with God.  

And so today, many, many years after the times of Moses we sing those words from communion songs.  The one that comes to mind with me is called “Come To The Table.”  The Table that started out with this holy task of saving the people and bringing them into God’s Presence now symbolizes so many things in God’s Kingdom.  The table is where we are fed.  We are fed The Manna From Heaven, The Bread of Life, the very essence of Christ’s saving love for each of us.  The Table is where we commune with God and one another in love.  With these meals, we want for nothing more.  We are satisfied and we are whole.  We feast!  Our Beloved has provided all that we need at the table of His Father.  The beloved Carpenter has made a table that is strong and sturdy, one that will endure for eternity.  Our desire for worldly things simply disappears in His Presence.    

The people of Israel wondering through the wilderness could have had no concept of the significance of the patterns they were allowed to set in the building of this Sanctuary for God to dwell among them. 

This is why when I think of the word Sanctuary, I think of life.  How could it be that the people of the earth would dare to twist this word and make it be useful for what it was never intended to be?  

It is a word that speaks about life, and not about death.  

It is a word that speaks about holiness and not blasphemy.  

It is a word that speaks about purity and not filth.  

It is a word that speaks about love and not hate.

It is a word that speaks of reverence and respect and love.  

You can change any words and make them sound righteous to men's ears; but the true definition of  "sanctuary" is only true if it is the one that Our Heavenly Father gave to Moses when He said "build me a Sanctuary."  To build anything else would be blasphemy to God.  

It was a sanctuary for salvation; not abortion.  

It was a sanctuary for the holiness and sacredness such as that of marriage between one man and one woman; not homosexuality, or any other kind of sexuality besides what God created and ordained at creation.  

It is about what God created; not what men twisted into whatever they wanted it to be.  

True Sanctuary displays God's definition of holy; not mankind's made-up definitions.

True Sanctuary is based on the ways of God; not the ways of man.  It is about men conforming to the image of God; not God conforming to the image of man.  This is the one major place where our modern world has missed the boat.  We cannot have TRUE Sanctuary until we open our eyes and see that it means keeping the laws of God on this earth.     

On the throne directly in front of this part of the tabernacle/sanctuary inside the Holy of Holies sits the Ark which represents God’s throne in Heaven.  Inside that golden box protected by two cherubim who are covering God's Presence above it with their wings; are two tablets of beautiful blue stone (lapis-lazuli) that have ten commandments carved upon them.  

Those commandments tell us to love God and to love one another.  We are to love one another in the context of what God spelled out in those commandments.  

There is no perversity; no matter how you want to try to label it.  There is only purity and righteousness.  No man can change these words or rearrange them.  They are continually before God on His Throne in Heaven.  They are there forever in God’s Presence.  

We all fall short, like the bread without the fine flour, and the only One who can give us mercy is Jesus Christ; the One who died to defend those words in that Ark.  They belong to Him; and if you belong to Him; you better learn how to live by them; because He is coming again and any new commandments that you might have tried to re-write yourself will be null and void.   The truth will always prevail; and the truth will always set you free.  Embrace it now; before the time is too late.   

The only thing that will count on that coming day will be the blood of Christ covering that box that contains those commandments underneath the Mercy Seat in Heaven.   You can listen to them and live; or you can let the ways of the world lead you astray and face the burning fires of hell.  The thing I know for sure is that God loves you and as long as you have breath you have a choice. 

Please chose life!

         

COME AS A CHILD – LESSON 150 – LEARNING TO BE CONTENT

THOU SHALT NOT COVET

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

Have you ever been envious of something that belonged to your neighbor? 

Maybe you love the style of their home, or maybe you enjoy the way their car drives, or maybe you think your neighbor’s husband is the BEST catch of the whole neighborhood, or perhaps you wish you had a job that was as much fun as your best friend’s. 

All of the above feelings are what we call envy; and full blown envy breaks the tenth commandment that God spoke to Moses about up on the Mountain. 

Isn’t a little envy perfectly harmless though? 

What possible harm could it do when usually no one even knows your feelings but you anyway? 

Envy is one of those self-inflicted types of sins.  The damage doesn’t usually hurt anyone but the person who is being envious. 

When you begin to dwell on those things that belong to others and covet them for your own you can actually bring damage to your own soul. 

It all starts with such simple little thoughts, and then it grows and grows until the thoughts of what you desire consume you and then begins to plague you with a constant form of unhappiness because you are lacking that thing; and now nothing but the thing you covet brings you satisfaction. 

When this feeling grows and escalates you might even commit some other sins in order to fulfill your desire for something that belongs to someone else. 

If you enjoy someone’s car, or house or even their clothes or furniture you are tempted to go into debt to buy the same things for yourself; and then you eventually suffer from financial disaster which your own lusts provoked. 

If you envy someone else’s mate you might catch yourself being flattered by their attention and spending just a little too much time talking with them.  You might catch yourself having visions of an adulterous affair with them; and sooner or later sin comes from that wrong desire of envy and covetousness that started out so very small and innocent and then grew and grew until it became bigger than you. 

Perhaps you wish to be as wealthy as the people you read about in magazines; and you long for the freedom that money can bring to you and you begin to feel that you will do almost anything to achieve more financial freedom.  You might just catch yourself scheming and planning to rob someone of their wealth in order to furnish your own selfish desires.

The little covetous feeling grows and grows until you have committed a crime; and you find yourself in the snares of robbery, adultery, debt, etc.; somewhere you never imagined you would go. 

The very freedom that you sought after by obtaining the wealth you coveted through illegal means now just feels like a horrible trap!  You begin to turn on yourself in anger and you inflict your guilt upon yourself day after day and you feel trapped.  You are always afraid of when the truth may become public and everyone will see you for the thief that you have become because of your original covetousness. 

It all starts with just one little thought; one little sliver of discontent; one little longing to be like someone else or to have what someone else has.  

Our very wise God knew the danger of these traps, so He had Moses to chisel those very important words in stone:  Thou shalt not covet (Exodus 20:17.) 

God spelled it out for us right from the beginning, so we would know when to stop and put on the breaks and protect ourselves from wrong temptations.  

This one little commandment, if followed correctly, can keep you from breaking all the rest of them!  These are four very important little words!

God’s word is infallible. 

If you keep this commandment you will have so much more joy and happiness in your days.

 

It is a very good commandment; but it isn’t an easy one!  It sort of sneaks up on you and presents itself when you aren’t paying attention.  It will catch you totally off guard.  This is why God so clearly spelled it out for us. 

So how do we avoid covetousness in our daily lives?

We must start by guarding our hearts. 

The heart is where we must learn how to respond to the things of life.  There is a constant war going on between the flesh and the spirit and the heart is the main force that can guard against that war; or give in to it.  Not one heart can make it without the reinforcement of the love of Christ living inside. 

It is Christ living in us that opens our eyes to the danger of covetousness, and it is God’s Holy Spirit that protects us from caving and giving in to this battle. 

If you are doing battle with this sin; the best thing you can do is to go to God and make a clean confession.  Do it out loud and be as thorough as you can.  Get the whole story out on the table and ask God to help you to learn how to avoid whatever it is that you struggle with the most.  You can’t do it on your own; but with God’s help all things become possible. 

The Apostle Paul had a very good way of avoiding covetousness in his life.  He practiced contentment.  

Paul explains in Philippians 4:12:  “I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty.  I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed of hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.”

 

About thirty years ago I was a very unhappy woman.  There were many things that I had wanted in life that did not turn out the way that I had hoped.  I was always coveting the things that I did not get in the past and hoping that there was something that I could do that would change that situation and turn it around so that I could have all the things that had slipped right through my fingers. 

As I prayed about this, God showed me that verse from Philippians.  I had read it many times before and heard it repeated by others often; but it suddenly took on a whole new meaning for me.  I began to apply that verse to all of those situations where I was discontent.  The more I thought about it and faced the ghosts of my past mistakes and gave them to God and asked Him to replace the desires of my heart with the things He desired for me; the better I began to feel about everything. 

Soon a person who had been continuously moping and sad became a person with a quick smile and a joyful heart.  

I can truthfully say the laughter quotient in my days doubled!  

After several years of carefully applying Paul’s theory about contentment to my daily life I realized something very important:  The things that made me sad, the things I had longed for with all my heart in the past, were not the things that brought me joy.  Those things had only made me sad in actuality.  When I gave my will over to God and began to live in total contentment with just the things that He provided for me; my days began to fill up and run over with joyful living.  I realized that God had known what I needed all along and it wasn’t until I let Him furnish the things of my life in His way and in His time that I truly found contentment and I truly came to know who I was and what God had created me to do with my life. 

Had I obtained all those things that my heart so longed for before I became content and accepted God’s way; I would never have achieved total happiness. 

This isn’t the only commandment that works out that way; they all do in some form, shape or fashion. 

If you have gained nothing at all from this study of Moses on the Mountain receiving the Ten Commandments; I hope that you remember that each and every commandment that God gave; He gave out of a Father’s pure love. 

He wasn’t trying to create complications for us; He actually wanted to make things simpler for us. 

He wasn’t trying to withhold blessings from us; He wanted the blessings that we received to be REAL. 

Each commandment given to Moses on that day was another way for God to help us to find out just how unique we are in His eyes.  That is the only way to ever experience complete joy in this life. 

Not another person on this earth has been created just exactly like you!  God wants you to see that, and to know that you are who you are because He has planned a very special purpose and life out just for you.  He loves everything about every design that He put into each of us; and He has our backs, and knows exactly what is best for us.  We must trust that His commandments are to encourage us to believe and follow Him.

By avoiding covetousness in our lives we avoid so many other evils. 

Often covetousness brings that green-eyed monster called jealousy. If you want to find out how bad that can get; go read the story of Sarah in Genesis.  She had a bad case of jealousy; until God taught her what it was like to be content with the things that He provided whenever He decided to provide them.  That was when Sarah began to experience true joy. As humans operating in our own power and intellect, we get too competitive and this seeps into our relationships and we lose focus on God’s plan for our lives.   

If you have fallen victim to coveting simply stop right now and confess your sin to God. 

As you ponder your sin in your prayer just stop and take a little inventory of all the areas of discontent that you are experiencing.  Determine what you can do to be content in these areas and visualize yourself going through the correct motions instead of the wrong ones of the past.  Think through how you will handle the situation the next time it arises.  Accept God’s will in your life and begin to move forward as the person that God has truly made you to be.  Whenever you fill the discontentment raising it’s ugly head again; determine to be grateful for what God has designed specifically for you. 

Give God thanks for the things that He provides constantly.  Let go of the things you don’t really need and begin to live in the abundance of a grateful heart.  You will ace the requirements of this commandment and receive abundance and joy as a bonus! 

May God lead and direct each and every one of us as we remember all the commandments He gave to Moses on the mountain. 

May these ten best ways to live bring a new strength and hope into our days and make our lives full and abundant as we carry out God’s will within our own little part of the world through the course of every day living.