Outside the City

Jesus prophesied that he would be handed over the Gentiles and killed (Luke 18:32). If he had to die to satisfy God’s anger, he would have been arrested and killed by the priests on the altar in the temple in Jerusalem. That did not happen, because God did not need to be appeased.

Jesus was handed over to the Gentiles and killed outside Jerusalem, where the spiritual powers of evil were in control, because they were the ones that demanded his death. They needed to be propitiated, because humans had given them authority on earth and they demanded death and blood to be satisfied.

Sacrifice (9) Moses and David

Moses and David were able to go close to the covenant box and hear God speak.

The Lord would speak to Moses face to face as to a friend.

The LORD would speak with Moses face to face, just as a man speaks with his friend (Ex 33:11).

This happened before any sacrifices had been offered.

David was able to draw near to the covenant box once it had been placed in a tent in Jerusalem (Ps 84:1; Ps 15:1).

Let us go into His tabernacle;
Let us worship at His footstool.
Arise, O LORD, to Your resting place,
You and the box of your strength (Ps 132:7-8).

David was able to be close to the covenant box, even though no sacrifices had been offered. How was this possible.

David answers this question in a couple of his Psalms. He explained that God did not really need the sacrifices.

You do not delight in sacrifice and offering;
you open my ears to listen.
You do not ask for a whole burnt offering or a sin offering…
I delight to do your will, my God,
and your law is within my heart (Ps 40:6-8).

God does not delight in sacrifices. He looks for the person who delights to do his will.

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit,
A broken and a contrite heart—
These, O God, You will not despise (Ps 51:17).

A broken and contrite heart is more pleasing to God than sacrifices.

Moses had a broken spirit. He had grown up in the palace of Pharaoh and was educated to be a leader. His mother and sister had taught him that he was put in a privileged place so he could rescue his people. His dreams collapsed when he killed a man, and the people threatened to report him. He fled to another land and spent forty years watching the sheep of his father-in-law. Moses thought he was someone special, but his spirit was broken as his talents were wasted on ungrateful sheep. When God came to the burning bush, Moses was able to draw near, because the had a humble and contrite heart. He was not harmed in the presence of God.

This continued in the wilderness. Moses was able to continue meeting with God in the tabernacle of meeting.

As Moses went into the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and stay at the entrance, while the LORD spoke with Moses (Ex 33:9).

This was possible because Moses remained humble.

Moses was a very humble man, more so than anyone on the face of the earth (Num 12:3).

A humble heart does not need sacrifice.

As a young man, David had an amazing trust in God. He had been put down by the harsh treatment of his older brothers. He became overconfident when bringing the covenant box to Jerusalem and did not follow God’s instruction for moving it (1 Chron 15:13). As a consequence, Uzzah was killed by Wrath. A man died, but David humbled himself and got an answer from God. He took responsibility and admitted that he had was the cause of the accident.

David made many mistakes during his life, but he knew that God was merciful. He relied on God’s mercy because he knew that he needed it.

Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
blot out my transgressions.
Wash away all my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin (Ps 51:1-2).

God’s mercy can cleanse a humble heart.

Moses and David were men with humble and contrite hearts. Both were broken by their failings, but they had discovered the mercy of God. They received the forgiveness of God. Because they were forgiven, they also gained spiritual protection. The spirit of Wrath was not able to attack them. They were safe in the presence of God at the entrance of his Tabernacle because their spirits were broken and they had discovered God’s mercy. God’s mercy is the safest place in the world.

God does not need sacrifices. He is able to forgive those who are humble and contrite

• Sacrifices were needed to satisfy the demands of the Accuser and the other spiritual powers of evil. They demanded blood for sin, so the sacrifices silenced their accusations and condemnation.
• Sacrifices were necessary for human guilt. Guilt causes shame, which makes it is impossible for us to relate to god. We cannot hear God speak when we are weighed down with guilt and shame.

Moses and David had experienced God’s mercy.

• God’s mercy wiped away their guilt and shame. This allowed them to stand in his presence and hear him speak.
• God’s mercy silenced the accuser, so the spirit of Wrath could not attack them. Their spiritual protection was strong.

The rest of their people were not broken in the same way, so they did not understand the depth of God’s mercy. They continued to be afraid of him.

• The people had to rely on sacrifices to deal with their guilt. Even then, they were mostly afraid to go into his presence, and they rarely heard him speak.
• The people had to rely on sacrifices for spiritual protection.

This full series can be found at Kingdom Watcher.

Sacrifice (8) Dangerous Place

The spirit called Wrath made tabernacle of God a dangerous place to be.

The Levites shall camp around the tabernacle of the testimony, so that there will be no Wrath on the Israelite community. So the Levites shall keep charge of the tabernacle of the testimony (Num 1:53).

God dwelt in the Holy of Holies because the Covenant with Moses gave him the right to be there.

The spiritual powers of evil hated this intrusion because they thought the earth belonged to them. They didn’t want the children of Israel being close to God, so they gathered there and did their best to harm those who went near. These evil powers were led by a spirit called Wrath.
God had put spiritual protection in place for the Priests and Levites, by specific sacrifices and keeping them away from activities that could open them up to spiritual attack. They camped around the tabernacle, because they were the only ones who were safe in this dangerous place. They put up their standards to mark the safe area (Num 1:52).

The time when the tabernacle was being packed up was a dangerous time because the boundaries and safe places were less clear.

Whenever the tabernacle is to move, the Levites are to take it down, and whenever the tabernacle is to be set up, the Levites shall do it. Anyone else who approaches it is put to death (Num 1:51).

It is usually assumed that God would put them to death, but that is wrong. Wrath and his evil angels would put people to death, if they got caught in the wrong place.

When Samuel was a boy, the Philistines captured the covenant box, but they experienced terrible sickness. People in the vicinity came out with awful tumours (1 Sam 5:1-10). They had been attacked by the Spirit of Wrath, so the sent the covenant box back to Israel. At Beth Shemesh some men looked into the covenant box, but many were killed.

Then he struck the men of Beth Shemesh, because they had looked into the covenant box of the Lord (1 Sam 6:19).

They thought it was God, but they were most likely struck down by the spirit called Wrath. This spirit hated people drawing near to God’s presence.

When David was taking the covenant box back to Jerusalem, he forgot to involve the Levites. Uzzah touched the covenant box, when the oxen stumbled, and he died beside it. Most English translations imply that God struck him down, but that is misleading. The Hebrew text says that Wrath of God struck him, because he was careless with the things of God. David had failed to follow the instructions that God had given Moses, so the powers of evil got at one of his men.

The spiritual powers of evil hated the covenant box, because it was the place where God met with his people. They wanted to make the people fear it and be unwilling to meet with God.

This raises an interesting question. If the covenant box was so dangerous, how were Moses and David able to draw near to it without being harmed. I will answer that question in my next post.

Sacrifice (7) Davids Tabernacle

During the time of Samuel, the Philistines conquered Israel and stole the covenant box and took it to Ekron, because they thought that it was a god. However, tumours broke out amongst them, so they wanted to get rid of it (1 Sam 5). They place it on a wagon and hitched up two cows that had just calved (1 Sam 6). The carried it to Beth Shemesh in Israel. Later it was taken Kiriath Jearim, a town in Judah where Caleb had settled. It remained there for twenty years (1 Sam 7:1-2).

When David became King, he brought the covenant box to Jerusalem and placed it in a tent there.

They brought the covenant box of God and placed it inside the tent David had pitched for it. Then they offered burnt offerings and fellowship offerings in God’s presence (1 Chron 16:1).

The tabernacle of the Lord remained at Gibeon, where it had been since the victories of Joshua.

David left Asaph and his associates before the covenant box of the LORD to minister there regularly, according to each day’s requirements...
David left Zadok the priest and his fellow priests before the tabernacle of the LORD at the high place in Gibeon (1 Chron 16:37-39).

God does not seem to have told David to take this action, but he split the tabernacle role. The covenant box was in Jerusalem. The Holy of Holies and the altars remained in Gibeon.

The reason for this is given in Chronicles. David had sinned by counting his “fighting men”. He was given a choice of judgment and had chosen a plague. When it struck, he realised that he deserved the judgment, not the people, and pleaded with God to stop it. David saw an angel with a sword standing over Jerusalem. When the angel sheathed his sword, David knew that God had heard his prayer.

The tabernacle of the LORD, which Moses had made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt offering were at that time on the high place at Gibeon. But David could not go before it to inquire of God, because he was afraid of the sword of the angel of the LORD (1 Chron 21:29-30).

It seems that David kept the tabernacle of the Lord in Gibeon, because he was afraid of the angel of judgment..

Interestingly, God continue to meet with people in the Tent of the Meeting at Gibeon.

Now David had brought up the covenant box of God from Kiriath Jearim to the place he had prepared for it, because he had pitched a tent for it in Jerusalem. But the bronze altar that Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, had made was in Gibeon in front of the tabernacle of the LORD; so Solomon and the assembly inquired of him there. Solomon went up to the bronze altar before the LORD in the tent of meeting and offered a thousand burnt offerings on it. That night God appeared to Solomon and said to him, “Ask for whatever you want me to give you (2 Chron 1:4-7).

The bronze altar was still at Gibeon. Solomon went there when he became king and God spoke to him about his role. Solomon chose the gift of wisdom. It seems that God still wanted to meet with people in the Tent of the Meeting.

I wonder if David got it wrong. He had a marvellous relationship with God and loved to worship, but towards the end of his life, things turned sour. God never told him to build a temple, because he was happy living in a tent, but David decided to do it anyway. The temple was built in a way that supported worship and the offering of sacrifices. It was not specifically designed to make it easy to meet with God and hear him speak.

Before:

the tabernacle of Moses was designed for meeting with God. Offering sacrifices was a secondary purpose.

After:

The Jerusalem temple was designed for offering sacrifices. Meeting with God became less practical.

Sacrifice (5) Trick

One of the worst tricks of the enemy is to make people believe that God hates them and is out to get them. The spiritual powers of evil stir up guilt, because they can use it to make us afraid of God. They prefer that people run away from God, because that gives them more control on earth. The truth is that God loves all people on earth and wants to be friends with them. He is always seeking out those who have run away from him.

The Jews had misunderstood God completely. They thought that God hated sinners, that he could not come and meet with people until they kept all the rules. They were totally confused when Jesus went and sat amongst known sinners. They saw it as proof that he was not from God.

But they had got God wrong. Jesus came to correct their misunderstanding. Jesus demonstrated that God loves the world, that he sent his son to sit among sinners and speak to them. To help us understand God’s attitude to the people he had created, Jesus told the parable of the lost coins.

What woman who has ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? When she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbours together, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, because I have found the silver coin I lost!’ I tell you, in the same way, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels over one sinner who repents (Luke 15:8-10).

This parable is not about Jesus. It’s purpose is to help people understand God. He is always seeking out those who have hidden away from him because they are guilty. God is delighted when people have their guilt washed away by Jesus death on the cross and are able to be friends with him again.

God is not the problem. The problem has always been with us. Human guilt keeps us from God. We always flee from his presence. He is gracious and has always been reaching out to us. We cannot see his love until we understand that Jesus had dealt with our guilt.

Sacrifice (4) Jesus and the Spirit

Jesus was God’s ultimate plan for restoring his work on earth. Jesus offered himself as a perfect sacrifice that cleansed our consciences from sin.

When this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool. For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.

The Holy Spirit also testifies… I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds (Heb 10:12-16).

Jesus offered a perfect sacrifice. It offered a complete cleansing from sin, inside and out, for past, present and future sins. This means that those who are united with him by faith are holy and free from guilt. Because we are holy, we can accept the Holy Spirit living within us. Jesus perfect sacrifice means that nothing can force the Holy Spirit out, provide we remain united with Jesus.

Jesus perfect sacrifice sets those who trust them free from guilt. This restores their ability to communicate with God. But Jesus does more. He sent the Holy Spirit to live within all those who trust him. This is better than the garden of Eden. We don’t just have God wandering among us. We have his Spirit living, speaking and listening within us.

With guilt gone, our ability to relate to God is restored. The Holy Spirit can full our lives and communicate to us. He can empower us to go out and restore his authority over the earth and establish his Kingdom.

Sacrifice (3) External Cleansing

The tabernacle sacrifices covered the guilt of the people sufficiently for them to cope with God living in their midst without fear of being destroyed by his holiness. Of course, these sacrifices were only a partial solution.

The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. Otherwise, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins (Heb 10:1-3).

Unfortunately, the regular sacrifices also reminded them of their sin, which increased their guilt. The guilt problem needed a deeper solution.

The tabernacle was real, but it foreshadowed the place in the heavenly realms where Jesus sat down at the right hand of God having made the perfect sacrifice. However, the tabernacle sacrifices only provided an external cleansing, which was enough to allow the people to draw closer to God.

The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God (Heb 9:13-14).

The blood of animals provided and external cleanliness (cleanliness of the flesh). They still needed to be cleansed inside (a cleansing of the spirit). Only Jesus could do that.

Sacrifice (2) Tabernacle

The first big step in God’s plan to restore the earth was calling the descendants of Abraham and Jacob into the promised land. He wanted to establish a place on earth where he had authority to speak and act. He rescued the Israelites from Egypt and led him through the desert to Mount Sinai. God wanted to meet with his people on the mountain.

The Lord said to Moses, “I am going to come to you in a dense cloud, so that the people will hear me speaking” (Ex 19:9).

God still loved his people and had rescued them. He still wanted to share with them, but guilty people could not bear to be close to him. The elders came and spoke to Moses.

Today we have seen that a person can live even if God speaks with them. But now, why should we die? This great fire will consume us, and we will die if we hear the voice of the LORD our God any longer. Go near and listen to all that the LORD our God says. Then tell us whatever the LORD our God tells you. We will listen and obey (Deut 5:24-27).

The people heard God speak, but they were scared. They asked Moses to represent them before God and listen to what he is saying. Just like in the garden, God wanted to speak to his people, but they were scared and hid from him. Guilt made it impossible for them to be close to God.

God told Moses how to build the Tabernacle and establish a pattern of sacrifices. God came and dwelt in the Holy of Holies of the tabernacle in the midst of the people. Most of the people were still scared of him, but Moses was able to talk to him and hear his responses. God was able to give Moses the wisdom needed for the people to live in peace in the land.

The tabernacle sacrifices dealt with the guilt problem sufficiently for the people to be able to cope with God dwelling in their midst of them. Although most only drew near to God, when they were bringing a sacrifice (Lev 1:3). Most still relied on Moses to speak with God on their behalf.

The spiritual powers of evil hated the tabernacle because they did not want God living in the midst of his people. They did not want the people to speak with God. The spiritual powers of evil knew that if God was present, they would lose out. They hung around the tabernacle in an attempt to destroy anyone who came near to God. They did not want God getting near to his people.

The primary purpose of the offerings on the bronze altar outside the tabernacle was to appease the spiritual powers of evil, who demanded blood for every sin. The sacrifices were offered to keep them at bay. They were not entirely happy, but they had no choice but to accept them, because God said they must be satisfied with the blood of animals, because the animals belonged to humans.

God dwelt in the Holy of Holies. He did not demand blood. The only blood in the Holy of Holies was a little was dabbed on the horns of the altar, once a year on the day of Atonement (Exodus 30:1-10). God is easy to please and a pleasant aroma was all he required.

The tabernacle was not the centre of ceremonial religion, or a type to teach us mysteries. It was the site of an intense spiritual battle, in which God won and enforced a strategic victory that foreshadowed a much greater victory of Jesus cross and resurrection.

Sacrifice (1) Guilt

The fall created a third serious problem for humans. God was present in the Garden of Eden. Humans could see the spiritual as well as the physical world. They could receive the wisdom of God by listening to the Holy Spirit speaking. Life on earth was amazing.

When humans rejected God’s wisdom and aligned themselves with the deceiver, they created a huge problem. God is holy, so their guilt caused them to withdraw from his presence. They still needed his wisdom, but choosing the wrong side of the battle created a barrier between them and their creator. They could not come near God, because their sinfulness made them scared that his holiness would overwhelm and destroy them.

God was not the problem. The problem was with humans. We were created with a capacity to communicate with God. We could see spiritually and hear the voice of the Holy Spirit. Once sin corrupted that ability, humans cannot bear to be near to God. Guilt shuts down our ability to communicate with him.

When the humans heard God coming into the garden they ran away and hid.

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden (Gen 3:8).

They could not bear to be close God any more. God knew that they had obeyed the serpent, but he still came to spend time with them. He was still happy to relate to them, but they could not. Their guilt meant that they could not bear to be close to God.

God did not have a problem. He was happy to communicate with them.

But the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you? (Gen 3:9).

There is no anger in this question. God was looking for his friends to share with them. He realised they were lost and wanted to find them.

Later, he explained the curse they had placed themselves under by submitting the spiritual powers of evil (Gen 3:14-19). Even then, there is no anger, only sadness at what his friends had lost and the pain they would experience. God knew better than they did what life would be like for his people once they rejected him.

Guilt separated humans from the God who had created them. This was a huge problem. Humans needed God’s wisdom to care for the world. They had submitted to the spiritual powers of evil, so they needed him to rescue them, but they could not come close to him. God had given them authority over the earth, so he could not intervene without their permission. But because of their guilt, they could not bear to let God into the earth. Guilt left humans isolated from God, when they needed him the most. Worse still it shut God out of his creation, at the moment when the powers of evil had gained control.

Once God was shut of his creation by the ugliness of human sin, the powers of evil went to work and expanded their evil empire. For more than a millennium, they wreaked havoc on earth, as humans rejected God’s call to return to him.

Old Covenant Sacrifice

The sacrifices offered in the tabernacle were not just meaningless ceremonies. They actually worked; not as well as the cross, as they could not remove a sinful nature and allow people to receive the Holy Spirit, but what they did, they did well. The sacrifices offered in the temple provided expiation for guilt and sin (Heb 9:13).

Once the sins of the Israelites were covered by these sacrifices, the powers of evil lost the right to attack. The sacrifices provided real spiritual protection for the ordinary people.

When the temple was destroyed, the sacrifices ended. Those who refused Jesus sacrifice had no sacrifice for sin so they lost their spiritual protection from evil. The death of the Jewish state, broke the power of the principalities and powers that had controlled the nation since the time of Jeroboam (2 Kings 24:9), but the lost their personal protection. God scattered Israel throughout the world to keep them safe (Rev 12:16).

Establishing a nation state in Palestine in 1948 was spiritually risky, because once political power was put in place, the same principalities and power of power and violence were able to move back in and seize control of them. The temple was destroyed, so there was still have no sacrifice for sin. This leaves the nation of Israel in a very dangerous position. They are stuck under the old covenant, so they still have no spiritual protection from evil. At the same time, by establishing a political hierarchy, they leave themselves in the grip of the principalities and powers that dominated Jeroboam, Ahab and Herod.

Since the Israel was established, a huge multitude of evil spirits have converged on the nation of Israel. A few have attacked the Palestinian people, but most are power-seekers, so they go for the structures of power. Their goal is to destroy Israel from the inside out. They can do this because Israel has no protection against spiritual principalities and powers. Christians who go to Israel and travel with a group bring their own spiritual protection with them, so they do not recognise the spiritual desolation that surrounds them.

Many Christians are praying for Israel, but they do not have any authority in the nation, so their prayers are ineffective. Many of those who do pray, are compromised by loyalty to political and military power, so they do not have authority to deal with the principalities and powers that control nations.

Why Did Christians Die (4) - Sacrifice

During a disaster, some Christians will put their lives at risk to rescue others. Some may stand back or let other people escape first. If they lose their lives, they have taken up the cross and followed Jesus to their death.

Jesus commissioned his followers take the gospel into all nations, including those that area mess. If Christians covenant with a city they are called to live in, they will share in the poverty and problems that emerge in the city. God cannot protect them from the fate of their chosen home.

God wants his people to living in places with problems, so they can be salt and light to bring blessing and peace. This will often be tough and some will lose their lives for their faith. A Christian martyr may experience an awful death, but they have died at the right time and place.

The full series is at Why Did Christians Die?