Mondays With Pastor Ryan Ryan Campbell

In the Bible, brass represents judgment. As we continue to more deeply study the Tabernacle, we will see that it is not just the sockets that are made of brass. The sin altar is also made of brass. We will also come to know that the water laver is made of brass. Each item of the Tabernacle up until the entrance of the Most Holy Place was brass. When we pass the Holy Place and go deeper into the Most Holy Place, the items are made of gold and silver.
A person who is early on in his or her spiritual life must often deal with brass. Just as the altar and water laver are brass, Jesus Christ received all of our sufferings, carried it to the cross, and was crucified. When you frequently recall Jesus Christ, who received God’s judgment instead of you, you realize your sins are dead because they have all received God’s judgment already. You have to be free from sin and have freedom in your heart.

God has laid out specifications for every material used for every part of the Tabernacle, except for the pillars used to set up the hangings outside the Tabernacle—God did not specify those materials. You are not used as a pillar when you possess high-level, humanistic conditions. You are filled with the things of God when everything inside of you is completely emptied out. That is when it is possible. Whether you have learned a lot or a little; whether you are from a good family or not; whether you have a lot of money or not…God trains people the way He wants. He makes them into the pillars of the Tabernacle. The pillars are unable to say, “I was used because I’m made out of gold,” or, “I was used because I’m made out of silver.”
We are not used because we are soft people or strong people. You are only used when you are held by the hand of God. God makes us into the precious pillars of the Tabernacle according to the image that He wants and that pleases His will. Therefore, it is arrogant to think, “I became a pillar of the Tabernacle because I’m well-educated.”
On the other hand, it is arrogant to think, “I can’t be used by God because I’m uneducated.” If God chooses us and uses us, then everything we possess is useless. The people God uses are not used because they meet certain conditions. When their hearts become emptied and upheld by God, God trims them, trains them, and uses them as precious workers, gathering His glory through them.

Within the innermost part of the Tabernacle lies the Most Holy Place. Right outside of that is the Holy Place. Then, just outside of that is the court. The court is made by setting up a perimeter of pillars in the sandy ground and then hanging the hangings of the court. The south side of the court is 100 cubits long. The north side is 100 cubits long. The east side is 50 cubits long. And the west side is 50 cubits. The hangings, which wrap around the entire court, are made of fine white linen. Every part of the Tabernacle portrays Jesus Christ. The hangings of the court represent the white, clean, and righteous character of Jesus Christ.

Even though people today say that they believe that Jesus died on the cross, they are unable to believe that He made them righteous through His death on the cross. They fear proclaiming their righteousness in front of God. What the Bible wants to tell us is that because Jesus achieved righteousness for us through dying on the cross, we must come boldly before God by believing the fact that Jesus has made us righteous. People who have the righteousness of Christ no longer labor to build their own righteousness. The same way the linen is used for both the hangings of the court that wrap the entire Tabernacle and the garments of the priests, the righteousness of Jesus is the same as the righteousness we now have through Him—that is why God can joyfully accept us.

In Exodus, the words about the Tabernacle were written twice. This is because the Law was given twice in order to make man realize sin. When the Law was given to the world the first time through Moses, all of the people of Israel sinned, and that made Moses shatter the tablets of stone. That is why God established the Law again through Moses. Because the Law was established twice, the words of the Tabernacle and the redemption of our sins (so we could approach God) also had to be written twice. Writing the same thing twice in Exodus allows us to better know the heart of God. We can better know the heart of God that wants to open the way for us to be freed from the law since we are tied down to it.
The real reason the Tabernacle was built was to deliver people from the pain they had from realizing their sin through the Law. The Tabernacle in the Old Testament teaches us how sinners can wash their sins away. Likewise, Jesus Christ has the power of God to wash away the sins of those who could never come boldly to God because of them.

God did not just want a constructed building of the Tabernacle. He gave His son, Jesus Christ, a human body and sent Him to Earth. He wanted to reveal Himself through Jesus’s body. His work was completed through Jesus Christ, who was the image of God; the word of God that became flesh and dwelt among us.

As it is written in 1 Corinthians, Jesus Christ was the one who kept the holiness, righteousness, and redemption of God. While on this earth, He always revealed the perfect will of God whenever He faced the scribes and Pharisees. These scribes and the Pharisees did not fit with Jesus very well. As a result, they became jealous of Jesus and turned Him away. Doing so was actually defying God.

God's Dwelling Place.

There are many people who say they believe in God, but tremble in fear and suffering because they cannot receive the help of God in the face of problems and hardships. They are suffering alone with no faith to believe in God and with no heart to entrust their problems to God. If God is truly alive and abides in your heart, no matter what problems you face, they are not your problems; they are God’s. You cannot live for God through your labor. The God alive inside of you ignites the heart to live spiritual life.