revival: tabernacle - day 2 (pm)

I remembered to bring my frantically scribbled notes from the revival meetings this morning to work.

So here a bit more detailed introductory comment Pastor Kim gave in the beginning of her message the first night.

The Tabernacle teaches us about the progression of Spirit-filled and led prayer by showing us how to:

1. ...encounter God
2. ...receive forgiveness
3. ...worship God
4. ...enter into the presence of God
5. ...have peace with God

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Last night (Thurs., 9/7), Lee MSN spoke about the Altar of Burnt Offering taking the passage from Exodus 27:1-8.



The altar is symbolic of three things: Jesus who paid the ultimate price as the sacrificial Lamb on the cross, the Church, and believers like you and me. And she taught focusing on the last two representation: the Church and the beliver.

(Notice verse 8 in which God reminds Moses again that it is to be done precisely as He had commanded and shown him.)

First of all, the material for constructing the Altar was shittim wood, or also called acacia wood (not the same acacia tree with flowers that we are familiar with today). Shittim is a tree indigenous to desert regions, consequently very unappealing having grown in sandy soil, enduring years of harsh desert weathers which results in crooked, gnarly and bent branches. It is, basically, a very insignificant type of lumber and far removed from the beauty of oaks we appreciate today.

So why did God instruct Moses to use such lumber? For practicality, obviously, since shittim wood was in abundant supply in the desert. But on the spiritual level, God was showing the children of Israel and us that we are useless on our own. We are not chosen (like the shittim wood) because we are special and so good; we are chosen because He has chosen us.

Hence, Jesus exhorts us in John 15 to abide in Him, for without Him, we are nothing.

Second, God instructed the Altar be made hollow: "Make the altar hollow, out of boards. It is to be made just as you were shown on the mountain." (27:8)

Jesus said in Matthew 5:3 - Blessed are the poor in spirit; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

We need to be "emptied" just like the Altar if God is to do what He wants and needs to do so in our lives: emptied of ambitions, greed, personal aspirations, anxieties, etc.

... to be continued...