THE ARK of the Covenant- GOD'S PRESENCE in the Tabernacle (dwelling place of the Holy Spirit)   

The Mosaic Law - One of the concepts that has been taught throughout the years is that Moses was handed down the law from the mountain by God directly. Normally when we think of Law we think of legalistic way of rule being one or the Law being over all, mainly because of what has happened in history. For example, it all started with the concept of love God and love thy neighbor as thyself. Then it went to the ten laws or commandments and when Jesus arrived on the scene man had increased the number of laws to about 627. Today in all of our wisdom there are more than 327,000 laws on the books. Now the humorous part of all of this is we have a tendency to look back on the Pharisees as they were into the law not understanding that we today are more than 1,0000 times worse than they ever were, all in an effort to make things better. The law throughout history has become rather overbearing and lost much of the original reason why the commandments were given to the people to begin with. 

In looking at the ten commandments we can see that the commandments were about respecting God and His ways and how to respect God, which was for the good of the people so they would not fall into the hands of oppressors and be in captivity as they once were with Egypt again in respecting God's ways and statutes. The basic point was respect God, each other and yourself and He will take care of things. The rest of the commandments were designed so we would not hurt each other. So when we look to the law and the commandments it is important to keep in mind why Israel was given the law to begin with. Another perhaps humorous thing the we look at in scripture is that while Moses was communing with God the people at the base of the mountain were building a golden calf and worshiping it. Mind you when looking back one does think it rather humorous to worship something like that if we do not look at how we view our jobs and how we make money today. The point of the lesson was and is if we are His people that He would care for us like a good Father. He is the supplier of all needs if we seek Him, His ways and desire to walk with Him, El Shaddai. Not jobs or golden calves. It does take an effort to learn to trust and usually we do not trust because we are not real trustworthy or we sin so we begin not to trust God or others. 

It was never God's desire and still is today, for His people to be in captivity by anyone or anything and we will not be if we walk closely with God. Moses received a revelation that there was one true God and if His people would follow the would be led out of Egypt, where at the time they were slaves because they had not walked with God before. Today as then if we do not learn to stand on His ways and His ordinances we all can fall into captivity and not realize often until it is too late. This is what happened to Israel again before Jesus arrived on the scene. Israel was the most powerful nation on earth as they did have God and found themselves surrounded by Rome little by little over a period of time to the point when Jesus was to be put to death there were to courts the Sanhedrin and the court controlled by Rome and after a short time after His transfiguration Israel had most of its power taken away by Rome and became persecuted. During the time of Jesus, Herod was King of Israel. Herod was not placed in authority by God but by Rome. Herod also had a temple built out of stone, which was also not of God. The point is, that God has always and will always dwell with His people daily, if His people walk with Him in His ways, not in a temple or church building.  

If you take a look at the sequence of events in God leading the people out of Egypt we can see that God was gracious and took care of them all of the way. It is true for us today. He shows His love and mercy and care and somewhere wants us to grow up and get the point that He is still there taking care of us even though we may not see Him or feel like He is there. He wants a people that will walk with Him in the good and the bad or whether we feel His presence or not. His commandments and promises are not based on us but based on Him and His Words to us. He is faithful even if we are not. Humans for some reason have a tendency to cross the line, even though we know we should not. If we do not cross the line we often like to go right up to the edge of the line. It is because of a lack of love and trust in Him because of the sin or iniquity in our own lives and because of that sin we are not trustworthy and think or believe He will do the same as we often do. He did make the promise of the promised land as He does with us today, however we all have to enter the promised land here by faith so we can enter the promised land at the end. 

Each of us either enter the promised land and walk with God or we come up with reasons why we can't. For example the mountains too big or too hard or perhaps the giants are too big. We are here and placed by Him to build the kingdom of God here on earth by faith and how that is done is the body working together as one body, but can only be done in His ministry which is the five fold gift ministry. When Israel did not move in faith God showed Israel that He is still faithful and that we as they were very dependent on God. They did have a spirit of community, that Spirit is still present today for those that focus on Him. As we all know only Joshua and Caleb and their families made it to the promised land because they stood on God's promise. While in the desert God gave Moses instruction in how to build the Tabernacle and the only way into the Tabernacle and be in the presence of God which is type cast in what Jesus did for us in showing us the way, but instead of just the high priest in Moses time that could entire into the Holy of Holies, all can entire into the Holy of Holies today because of what Jesus did for us in His death, burial and resurrection if we give our lives to Him. 

There Were 3 Basic Elements in the Mosaic Law - the commandments, the priesthood, and the Tabernacle and sacrifice for sin and instruction in how to build the Tabernacle (outer and inner courts). This was the approved way to God, and it was the way that He honored. Inside the Tabernacle was the Holy of Holies. The people were to learn and follow the pattern as the priests ministered inside the outer courts, only priests were allowed to enter.