In the Book of Leviticus, God is (now) dwelling in His Tabernacle! In fact, that is how the Book of Exodus (Leviticus’ predecessor) ends … “Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the GLORY OF THE LORD (HIS VERY FACE/PRESENCE) filled the tabernacle.” Exodus 40:34, with the chapter having only 38 verses!

God tabernacling (living amidst) His people!

But the Book of Leviticus also allows the Tabernacle to be called the “tent of the congregation,” insinuating “mankind” meeting with God … in that holy environment! (“Tent of the congregation” in Hebrew literally meaning “Tent of meeting!”)

Next …

Now look at Exodus 40:35 … the third to the last verse in all of Exodus! “And Moses was NOT ABLE TO ENTER into the tent of the congregation, because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.” Wow!

The “Tent of Congregation/Meeting” but man (Moses being a representative man) cannot come in! Cannot fellowship/commune with Almighty God!

And here, in broad strokes, is the “drama” of Leviticus. The “plot” of Leviticus. The “storyline” of Leviticus!

Getting man (excluded, due to sin) back into the Presence of God!

God … Who has already descended and walked on earth, in sacred Space! As he had done in Eden, for example! As He had done in Noah’s Ark! As He had done on the Holy Mount!

But HOW is this to be accomplished?

Basically … through blood atonement!

The specifics of which the Book of Leviticus spells out … in great detail!

This is NOT just a Book of rituals and formalities … but rather a Book of Instructions … concerning both establishing and maintaining sweet Harmony with this Holy God of ours.

By the way, God made the First Move!

Psalm 15:1 well sums this thought. “LORD, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill?”

“Thy Tabernacle” … God’s Dwelling Place!

“To abide” there and “to dwell” there … who can? That is the big Question! The Question the Book of Leviticus so fully answers!

Are you excited?

I sure am!

Amen, more tomorrow morning, the Lord willing.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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Genesis 3:8 has “The LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day,” that being the Garden of Eden. And just WHY has God come to that pristine spot? To spend some time (an eternal God, mind you) with His creation, with Adam and Eve! Thus fulfilling man’s greatest need!

Then in Exodus 29:45-46 God proclaims: “And I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will be their God. And they shall know that I am the LORD their God, that brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, that I may dwell among them: I am the LORD their God.” God’s “Grand Goal” reiterated! Maybe even amplified, certainly exposited more fully.

Now (finally, some of you may be thinking) we share a Leviticus Text! One that parallels Genesis 3:8 and Exodus 29:45-46 … obviously so!

“And I (the Lord) will set my tabernacle among you: and my soul shall not abhor you. And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people.” Leviticus 26:11-12

I already have a “Bible Portion” Booklet containing Leviticus 26 (just Leviticus 26 only) to preach in an upcoming Revival Meeting. Every Sermon from one (or more) of those 46 Verses!

Look … the Bible’s first three Books!

Genesis … God with man!

Exodus … God with man!

Leviticus … in much more detail … God with man!

Oh, the New Testament as well, beginning with the Gospels … God (incarnate, Jesus Christ) with man!

And then (after Pentecost … during the Church Age) the Holy Spirit (indeed God) with man, inhabiting Believers!

It is the “Grand Goal” of all history!

It is the “Grand Goal” of all prophecy!

It is the “Grand Goal” of the Heart of God!

And … what about the Book of Revelation? Containing the Bible’s “Final Chapters?” Notice this: “And I (John) heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.” Revelation 21:3

Wow!

There’s that Grand Goal once more!

The Passion of God … Jesus expressing it to a Samaritan woman! “But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.” John 4:23

God Himself … seeking our love and adoration and loyalty and yes … worship! And rightly so. He created us! He has redeemed us! He is our “ALL!”

Oh dear Lord, HOW GREAT THOU ART!

“WORTHY IS THE LAMB!”

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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If the Book of Leviticus is about fellowship with God, a lifetime (then an eternity) of communion with the Divine … and if that is also the Theme of the Tabernacle … LOOK AT THIS INTERESTING FACT I DISCOVERED SATURDAY. (While flying home from a Revival Meeting.)

Three metals dominate the Old Testament Tabernacle, its construction. They are brass, silver and gold. (Several tons of them!)

The brass is used mostly outside the Holy Place. In the outer court. And brass is the least expensive of the three.

The silver comes into prominence next, of course more valuable than brass, but less than gold! Used in the foundation of the building (the Tent, the Holy Place) proper, for example.

Then the gold, the most precious of them all, is used in the innermost areas of the Tabernacle, where God Himself dwells!

The closer you get to his Face, His Presence … the more significant the metal becomes!

Wow!

And that is, in essence, also the “Plot” of the Book of Leviticus! Its “Trajectory,” its overall “Storyline.”

Getting nearer and nearer to Almighty God, our Creator and Redeemer! The most Valuable (much more than gold) Person (the “Godhead,” Paul says) in all Existence!

Are you satisfied with a life of “brass?” (Usually in the Bible a picture of “judgment,” under the very wrath of God.)

Or are you content even with a life of “silver?” (A picture of “redemption,” being bought by blood atonement! But still with more “God” yet to experience!)

Or do you long to live “closer” to the Almighty, under His Loving Wings? In His “Secret Place?”

Then … “come on in!”

Within the Tent proper … where “gold” (the best earth has to offer, anyway) is ubiquitous! It’s everywhere!

Living in the Presence of God!

And enjoying His Smile!

Basking in His Love and Favor!

No wonder the street of that Heavenly City (New Jerusalem) is gold! (“And the street of the City was PURE GOLD, as it were transparent glass.” Revelation 21:21, where God will abide with us eternally!)

Leviticus … here we come, eager to learn!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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Let me share with you a view of creation (the literal six-day Miracle when God made the heavens and the earth, the whole universe in fact) that is “fresh” to me. In fact, I am thrilled over it!

God creating this world (earth) as a “house” in which He and mankind can live and enjoy fellowship. Yes, God abides in Heaven … but often in the Old Testament He came down (a theophany it’s called) to spend time with man!

Earth as a … HOUSE … with a basemen, a main floor and an attic! (Three parts, three levels … if you will allow me this illustration!) Maybe better said … “the seas, the earth and the heavens.”

There are specific facts given Creation Week about God making the earth (main level), the oceans (basement) and the stars (attic) in the sky!

Then Genesis 7:11 agrees … “In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the (1) fountains of the great deep broken up, and the (3) windows of heaven were opened.”Yes, with (2) the earth being judged for its flagrant wickedness!

Job also, living/writing on (2) earth and describing our Great God … “Which alone spreadeth out (3) the heavens, and treadeth upon the (1) waves of the sea.” Job 9:8

This incisive view of habitable creation is actually prevalent throughout Scripture. Earth … as a “house.” As a dwelling place! A place for God to “visit” mankind!

Now … leaving earth and considering the Holy Mount once again, Mount Sinai. It also had (1) a “base,” then (2) a “midsection,” and yet finally (3) a “summit, peak, apex.”

It too is created as a “Dwelling Place” (a three-tiered house) for God and Moses and the people of Israel to KNOW God’s Company!

The people at the (1) base, Moses and a few leaders at the (2) mid-section … but Moses alone with God … at the (3) top!

Now … and the point of today’s Lesson … the Tabernacle in the wilderness! Help me think. Does IT perhaps have three levels, three tiers of Fellowship with God?

YES INDEED!

And “Outer Court,” a “Holy Place,” then the very “Holy of Holies!”

God dwelling with His Creation!

Three epochal Moves of God! Of His desire to be with man!

Most clearly in the “Tabernacle” as a “House.” As “God’s House,” at which He invited the Jews to come worship Him!

But nearly as clearly in the “Holy Mount” Events!

And, when closely considered and studied, in the very Creation of the “earth,” as a “House” too!

Wow!

Looks like everything God has done … has shown His Heart to be one of “Love,” and of deep “Longing” to be with His people! In Communion, in Fellowship!

1 John 1:3 accents this exciting Concept, putting it into New Testament parlance … “That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have FELLOWSHIP with us: and truly our FELLOWSHIP is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.”

Amen!

John (and the Disciples) had sweet “fellowship” with God and His Son (Jesus)! And he is (in this verse) INVITING US to join them (the Disciples) in Fellowship with both GOD THE FATHER and HIS DARLING SON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST!

The Purpose of the Tabernacle!

The Purpose of Mount Sinai!

The purpose of Earth itself!

Wow!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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I am about to suggest to you that there are correlations (quite a few) between the Mount where God came down and gave Moses the Law … where God so manifested His Presence … and the Tabernacle God planed and had the Jews build!

And be aware, the whole Book of Leviticus is consumed with that Tabernacle, how to approach it and properly worship within its august shadow!

God descended upon that holy Mount!

God descended upon that holy Tabernacle!

God dwelt on that holy Mount, His Shekinah Glory!

God dwelt on that holy Tabernacle, again in resplendent Shekinah Glory!

God spoke from that Holy Mount!

God spoke from that holy Tent/Tabernacle!

(And again, the whole Book of Leviticus is essentially God speaking from the Tabernacle, teaching and admonishing!)

God had some writing done (with His Own Finger … Exodus 31:18) from that holy Mount!

And sure enough … God had some writing done (a Lot of It) from that holy tabernacle! (The Book of Leviticus, as I just reminded you.)

There was “Fire and Smoke” (indicating God’s Presence) on that holy Mount!

There was “Fire and Smoke” in that holy Tabernacle, too! (The Altar of Incense!)

These parallels continue, many more than I’ve spotted yet, I sincerely suspect.

The point being?

GOD DEARLY WANTED TO DWELL WITH HIS PEOPLE IN EDEN … BUT SIN INTERVENED.

SO GOD MADE A WAY TO DWELL WITH HIS PEOPLE AT SINAI … THOUGH IT WAS STATIONARY.

AND WHEN IT WAS TIME FOR ISRAEL TO MARCH TO CANAAN (THE PROMISED LAND) … GOD MOVED HIS PRESENCE FROM A STATIONARY MOUNTAIN TO A MOVEABLE TABERNACLE!

And that, dear fiends, is how badly God hungers to love/fellowship/commune with His creation, His Own people!

Wow!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

Glory to his Name!

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