Shadows In the Desert

True to His Word with Pastor Brian Larson
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Chapter-by-chapter audio and print release of Pastor Brian Larson's book "Shadows In the Desert: Christ's Tabernacle Blueprint for Living the Abundant Life." Listen to or read the entire book here as it is released in the weeks ahead. tthw.substack.com

Episodes

  1. 1d ago

    Chapter 5: The Altar

    Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. Hebrews 9:22 Standing at the Foot of the Cross If you were to diagram the six pieces of furniture in the tabernacle, a startling truth becomes evident. Just inside the entrance was the bronze altar. Also in the courtyard was the laver (the washing basin for the priests). The remaining four furnishings were kept inside the tent. In the first of two rooms, on the left side, was the golden lampstand. On the right side was the golden table of the bread of the Presence. In the center, in front of the veil, was the golden altar of incense. Finally, in the last partitioned room, behind the veil, was the Holy of Holies where the ark of the covenant was kept. Diagram these items and you’ll see that these items in the tabernacle literally formed the shape of a cross. Therefore, anyone who would walk through that gate would, in this beautiful tabernacle picture drawn as only God could, be standing at the foot of the cross. The Sacrificial Purpose of the Tabernacle It’s important to realize that Israelites went through that one and only gate into the tabernacle for only one purpose. They came to make a sacrifice to God. No one walked through the tabernacle just to take a tour. There were no tabernacle tour guides. Israelites did not go to the tabernacle grounds just to “hang out.” Every person who entered the tabernacle had to bring a sacrifice with him, and once the sacrifice was made, he left. Did you know this tabernacle is more significant to us than it was to the Israelites who lived around it? Today, there is no temple or tabernacle, and there is absolutely, positively no reason for one. It is interesting that the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed within the generation that Jesus was crucified, having fulfilled its purpose. The Jewish people have not had a temple since then. And every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins … (Hebrews 10:11) In that passage, the writer of Hebrews is stating that the tabernacle and the temple did not work. They just did not do the job. Why? Because all those things were simply a shadow, a form, a picture of the good things that were to come, all of which were fulfilled in Christ Jesus. The point is: the Old Testament tabernacle and the temple were shadows of the reality of Jesus. When you see a shadow, you know there is some object causing light to be blocked. For instance, it seems the road crews are always doing repair on the freeways in California. The other day, I was driving and, because of repair work being done on the freeway, we were down to one moving lane. We were going about twenty miles per hour on the freeway. I thought perhaps there must be a big truck going slowly and holding up traffic. I looked at the shadows along the road and saw by the shadow that it was a car in front of the line of traffic moving so slowly. I knew something was causing the shadow, and I knew from the shadow, it was a car. The tabernacle was simply the shadow of our salvation. The reality is Jesus Christ and our personal relationship with Him through the Holy Spirit. Jesus is the real structure. The shadow is nothing. As Christians, we live in the reality. Jesus, Our Sacrifice Jesus Christ is our sacrifice. He is why Christians do not need a tabernacle or a temple. He is why we do not have to take a lamb, go to an altar somewhere and make a sacrifice like they did in the Old Testament. Jesus is the fulfillment of that need of a sacrifice to be reconciled to God. The things that happened at the tabernacle prepared Israel to understand what had to happen for sin to be forgiven. Get the picture the Lord painted with that tabernacle: there was a separation between the Israelites and God, and something had to happen to take care of sin. It involved death. It involved the shedding of blood. It involved an innocent victim. It involved a vicarious sacrifice in our place. It all pictured Christ. It is no coincidence that within the generation that crucified Christ, the temple in Jerusalem, which replaced the tent tabernacle, was burned to the ground and dismembered stone by stone. Ever since that time, the Jews have not had a temple in which to make their sacrifices to God. So an Orthodox Jew today might wring his hands and worry, saying, “I hope synagogue will suffice, because I haven’t got a temple in which to present a sacrifice for my sins.” But Christ has fulfilled that for us. He is that sacrifice for us. So now we are, in a very real sense, surrounded and robed in that white linen, which is the righteousness of Jesus Christ. The moment an Israelite stepped through that tabernacle gate, he was confronted with a huge bronze altar directly in front of him, and he was staring, as it were, at what pictured the very cross of Jesus Christ. Our Tour Continues at the Bronze Altar With this in mind, our tour of the tabernacle picks up at the bronze altar standing just inside the courtyard to the tabernacle tent. There is no need to look to the right or to the left; the bronze altar is “in your face” as soon as you walk through the gate. That altar, the place of sacrifice, is an interesting piece of furniture. Look at what God said to Moses about the altar in Exodus 27:1-8: “And you shall make the altar of acacia wood, five cubits long and five cubits wide; the altar shall be square, and its height shall be three cubits. You shall make its horns on its four corners; its horns shall be of one piece with it, and you shall overlay it with bronze. You shall make its pails for removing its ashes, and its shovels and its basins and its forks and its firepans; you shall make all its utensils of bronze. You shall make for it a grating of network of bronze, and on the net you shall make four bronze rings at its four corners. You shall put it beneath, under the ledge of the altar, so that the net will reach halfway up the altar. You shall make poles for the altar, poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with bronze. Its poles shall be inserted into the rings, so that the poles shall be on the two sides of the altar when it is carried. You shall make it hollow with planks; as it was shown to you in the mountain, so they shall make it.” The essence of what God said there is: Make it just like I showed you on Mt. Sinai. We are not exactly sure what a cubit was. Most scholars believe it was approximately 18 inches. A cubit was basically the distance from one’s elbow to the tip of his finger. The Israelites, of course, had a standard measurement for it. So, if a cubit were 18 inches, which is probably fairly close, the altar would have been about 7.5 feet square. It would be about 4.5 feet high. The altar was completely overlaid with bronze. Notice that everything associated with the altar was also made of bronze. The sinner went through the gate and made his sacrifice at the altar. Making this sacrifice was the sole purpose for his being there. For the common Israelite man, that is where his access to the tabernacle ended, right there at the sacrificial altar. God commanded five offerings for that particular altar. One was called the burnt offering. It is interesting that when the Holy Spirit refers to this altar in Exodus 38:1, He uses the term “the altar of the burnt offering.” Then he made the altar of burnt offering of acacia wood, five cubits long, and five cubits wide, square, and three cubits high. (Exodus 38:1) The burnt offering might be considered the main sacrifice. We will study all five of those offerings in detail in the next two chapters. Look at what the writer of Hebrews has to say to Jewish Christians about that altar: We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat. For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high priest as an offering for sin, are burned outside the camp. Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood,… This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tthw.substack.com

  2. Season 1, Episode 5 Trailer

    Chapter 4: The Gate

    “I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved … ” Jesus in John 10:9 The Only Way Inside The tabernacle wall which we have seen, representing a believer’s witness to an unbelieving world, led those on the outside to the only way inside, to the only way to communion with God. The wall led people to the gate of the tabernacle, the one and only entrance. There were no back doors and no windows; there was no other way to sneak inside. The only way in was through the door that faced the east. This fits perfectly with the gospel of Jesus Christ. In John 14:6, Jesus said: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” Jesus could not have put it any more clearly when He said “but through Me.” I love the gate of this tabernacle because it represents Jesus. As people would walk into the tabernacle, which was the dwelling place of God, they went through the gate. Jesus said, “I am the way.” You cannot get to the Father except through Jesus. For the gate of the court there shall be a screen of twenty cubits, of blue and purple and scarlet material and fine twisted linen, the work of a weaver, with their four pillars and their four sockets. (Exodus 27:16) There was a multi-colored screen in front of the gate that was held up by four pillars. Like the wall, the screen was made of white twisted linen, but there was more to it than that. The white linen of the gate was adorned with blue, purple, and scarlet which are scripturally significant colors. The Colors of Jesus Blue Just as the sky is blue, blue speaks of that which is heavenly. Jesus is the only man who came directly from heaven to dwell on earth. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. … And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:1 & 14) “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.” (John 6:38) Purple Purple speaks of royalty. Descended from the line of David, Jesus is the nation of Israel’s promised Messiah and King, and He is King of kings and Lord of lords. Scarlet The scarlet threads interwoven throughout the screen, of course, speak of the blood of Jesus who came to die and to shed His blood for our redemption. So, the Son of God, who is the King of kings, the Messiah, came to shed His blood for us. White The gate was also made of fine white linen. The white speaks of His righteousness. Jesus could die for us because He was perfectly righteous Himself. If I wanted to die for you to reconcile you to God, I could not do it because I am under the death sentence myself. I would have to die for me. Because Jesus is righteous and pure Himself, He has no judgment upon Himself. So He could take our place; He could die for us. This scene, foretold in Revelation 5:9-10, takes place in heaven: And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth.” Jesus came from heaven as God manifested in the flesh (blue). He came as king (purple). He was perfectly pure (white). His blood was shed for our redemption (scarlet). So what we have in that screen is a beautiful picture of our Lord and Savior, of Jesus Christ. You could not pick, scripturally, four other colors that picture the work of Christ and who He is any better than those four colors. Jesus said: “I am the door ... ” (John 10:9) The Four Pillars of the Gospels The screen was held up by how many pillars? Four. This is interesting because Christ is revealed to us in the four gospels. They tell us what He was like, who He was, and what He accomplished on the cross. These pillars represent the gospels, which reveal to us the person of Jesus Christ. So in the screen of that gate are four colors which picture Christ. That screen is held up by the four pillars representing the four gospels. Did you ever wonder why there are four gospels in your Bible and not just one? Why did God want four separate accounts? Why didn’t He just put them all together and give us one account? By giving us the story of Jesus encased in four different gospels, we get a more complete view of who He is and why He came because each gospel looks at Jesus from a slightly different perspective. You know how it is. If four people were asked to describe any person at all, say their Aunt Sally, and then were asked to sit down and write about her, the result would be four different descriptions of Aunt Sally. One niece who burns water might be impressed by Sally’s cooking skill; a nephew who can’t remember a joke for more than thirty seconds might admire her humor; another nephew who grew up in a comparative pigsty might take note of the cleanliness of Sally’s home; and yet another niece, who also happens to be a couch potato, might marvel at the fact that Aunt Sally is also very athletic. Each description happens to be a true, but a very different slant on the same person. By considering them all, we learn a great deal about Aunt Sally, much more than we would by reading only one description of her. Likewise, the gospels offer four God-inspired perspectives on the Savior of the world, Jesus Christ, the Messiah of Israel. Matthew presents Jesus as the King of Israel. There are more cross-references to the Old Testament in Matthew than the other three gospels put together. At the beginning of the book, Matthew is meticulous in pointing out that Jesus descended from the line of David. He is the King. Mark, the shortest gospel, presents Jesus as the perfect servant, the one who laid down His life for us. In Luke, Jesus is presented as the perfect man. Luke often referred to Jesus as the “Son of Man.” Jesus was perfectly human. He was fully man. In John, of course, Jesus is deity, God manifested in the flesh. There is no doubt about it: He is the Son of the Living God. Jesus is presented as wholly man in Luke and wholly God in John. So when you read John, you come to realize that Jesus was and is the Living God. When you study Luke, you understand that He was also wholly human. With all this in mind, look at the beginning of Revelation chapter 4 where John is translated into heaven. He sees the very throne room of God Himself in heaven. He sees the multitude of angels. He sees the twenty-four elders who represent the body of Christ, the church. Then he sees these characters, called the “four living creatures,” which are actually angelic beings who are situated in the closest proximity of all to God Himself at His throne. Look at how they are described. … and before the throne there was something like a sea of glass, like crystal; and in the center and around the throne, four living creatures full of eyes in front and behind. The first creature was like a lion, and the second creature like a calf, and the third creature had a face like that of a man, and the fourth creature was like a flying eagle. (Revelation 4:6-7) Notice, the first creature was like a lion. Jesus is shown in the gospel of Matthew as the lion of the tribe of Judah, the King of Israel. (Matthew depicted Him as the perfect king.) The second creature was like a calf. A calf is an animal of servitude that was slain in the tabernacle for sins. (Mark depicted Him as the perfect servant.) The third creature had a face like a man. (Luke depicted Him as the perfect man.) The fourth creature was the flying eagle, which is a picture of that which is heavenly, His deity. (John depicts Him as the Son of God.) In what order are these creatures presented in Revelation? First Matthew, then Mark, Luke and John, in the same order as the gospels appear in your Bible and mine. I believe that the Lord designed it that way on purpose. These beings described in John’s vision a… This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tthw.substack.com

  3. Oct 28

    Chapter 3: The Wall of Witness

    It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. Revelation 19:8 If you were to visit the tabernacle during the time of Moses, the first thing you would come to is that high curtained wall that surrounded the tabernacle and enclosed its courtyard. In Exodus 27:9-15 and 17-18 we read what God said about that wall around the court. “You shall make the court of the tabernacle. On the south side there shall be hangings for the court of fine twisted linen one hundred cubits long for one side; and its pillars shall be twenty, with their twenty sockets of bronze; the hooks of the pillars and their bands shall be of silver. Likewise for the north side in length there shall be hangings one hundred cubits long, and its twenty pillars with their twenty sockets of bronze; the hooks of the pillars and their bands shall be of silver. For the width of the court on the west side shall be hangings of fifty cubits with their ten pillars and their ten sockets. The width of the court on the east side shall be fifty cubits. The hangings for the one side of the gate shall be fifteen cubits with their three pillars and their three sockets. And for the other side shall be hangings of fifteen cubits with their three pillars and their three sockets. … All the pillars around the court shall be furnished with silver bands with their hooks of silver and their sockets of bronze. The length of the court shall be one hundred cubits, and the width fifty throughout, and the height five cubits of fine twisted linen, and their sockets of bronze.” What is described here is basically a large wall that was made of fine white twisted linen. To put it in terms that a modern architect can understand, the wall was 7.5 feet high, 150 feet long, and 75 feet wide. To put it in terms that I can understand, the wall encompassed a long and narrow area that today would cover about one-fourth of a football field, approximately from the goal line to the 50-yard line, from the side-line to mid-field. The poles that held the wall up were made of acacia wood and sat in big bronze sockets. The poles were dropped into the sockets so they would stand upright. Silver bands were wrapped around the poles with silver hooks that pulled the linen cloth taut around the tabernacle. The wall itself formed an outward picture, in a small way, of what the inside of the tabernacle was really all about. It’s significant that the wall would have been all one could see from the outside. It was high enough that one could not look over and see inside. To really know what was happening on the other side of that linen wall, a person would have to go through the one and only gate. The Spiritual Meaning of the Wall One of the interesting things about the study of the Old Testament is that materials often symbolize something spiritual. The materials of this linen wall and what they represent to us create a picture, in this case, of how a Christian is a witness of Jesus Christ to the world. This wall was all that those in the camp would see of the tabernacle; likewise believers today are the only visible representation of the reality of Jesus Christ—we are all they see. Thus, the tabernacle wall provides a picture of a believer’s witness to an unbelieving world. First of all, just as the tabernacle was situated in the very center of the camp, so believers are in the midst of the world. We are not of the world, nor should we be; but we are in the world. That is exactly how the tabernacle related to its surroundings—it was in the midst of the camp, but it definitely was not of the camp. It was completely separate. The tabernacle belonged to God. It was God’s abode. Likewise, as believers, we have been purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ, and so we belong to God. Indwelt by the Holy Spirit, the believer himself is God’s dwelling place, one that is surrounded by the world and non-believers. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20) In the Old Testament, the tabernacle was the place God designed for His dwelling place among His people. By Solomon’s time, the Israelites had built a stone temple that represented exactly the same thing as the tent tabernacle; it was built with the same concepts in mind. It was simply a stone version of the wilderness tabernacle. As a believer, your body is the tabernacle of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God. You are a flesh and blood tabernacle of the Living God, surrounded by an unbelieving world. You do not belong to yourself. You, believer, belong to God. So what exactly is our testimony to people who are of the world? Our testimony is of Jesus Christ. We are not here to promote ourselves, to represent ourselves, or to put ourselves forward. We are here to reflect Jesus Christ. That is our goal and our job. We are to reflect Him, just as the wall of the tabernacle reflected and represented what the tabernacle inside was all about. Wooden Poles of Humanity The tabernacle wall was held up by wooden poles. Wood in the Old Testament symbolizes humanity. Do you know what is exciting about the wood that was used? It was the old desert acacia wood, which is a weathered, gnarled, tough, scrub wood. What a picture of humanity, and an encouragement to us! God chose to use old desert scrub wood for His tabernacle, just as He uses these frail earthen vessels of flesh as the dwelling place of His Spirit today. The poles of wood supported the fine white linen. Both the linen and the color white symbolize the righteousness and the purity of God. Jesus Christ is the very manifestation of the righteousness and purity of God. But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction ... (Romans 3:21-22) And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14) Bronze in the Old Testament always symbolizes judgment. Notice the sockets were made of bronze and sat right down on the earth. The purpose of Jesus Christ being on the earth was to endure the judgment of sin upon Himself, to bear the judgment of sin. “… the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” (Jesus in Matthew 20:28) But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him. (Isaiah 53:5-6) The reason Jesus came to earth was to bear the judgment for the sin of the world upon Himself. The Man who was the very purity of God bore the sin of the world. That is why He walked this planet. Silver Bands and Hooks of Redemption The more you study the Old Testament and look for the materials used in the tabernacle in other parts of Scripture, the more fully you will realize what God is saying to us through the materials He chose to build His tabernacle. If you take the time to study this symbolism, the Old Testament becomes even more exciting to read. Notice that the bands on the poles and the hooks which attached the linen to the poles were made of silver. The Old Testament consistently uses silver as a symbol of redemption. Every male adult in that Israeli camp in the wilderness was required to give a half-shekel to the treasury for his own redemption. God had redeemed them from Egyptian slavery. This was the price each was to pay to the tabernacle for his redemption, his freedom. Every male gave his half-shekel, regardles… This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tthw.substack.com

  4. Oct 22

    Chapter 2: An Overview of the Tabernacle

    Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? 1 Corinthians 3:16 Providing for the Building of the Tabernacle When Moses walked down Mt. Sinai with the Ten Commandments, he may have been leaning dramatically to one side. As we’ve said, under one arm he carried the tablets containing the Ten Commandments. Under the other arm must have been God’s building plans for the tabernacle, which were probably much bulkier than the tablets of law. The tabernacle instructions certainly take up a lot more space in your Bible than do the Ten Commandments. Have you ever wondered how the Israelites were able to construct and furnish this impressive, yet portable structure? They had been slaves after all, and slaves who left Egypt quickly once the way was made. Exodus chapter 25 describes the process of preparing to construct the tabernacle. Read verses 1 and 2: Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Tell the sons of Israel to raise a contribution for Me; from every man whose heart moves him you shall raise My contribution.” I love that! Notice that God called for this contribution from “every man whose heart moves him.” There were no forced donations, no pressure at all to give. It was not a matter of you will give so much of what you have for this contribution. It was purely voluntary. As each heart was touched, so he gave. Exodus 25:3-9 says: “This is the contribution which you are to raise from them: gold, silver and bronze, blue, purple and scarlet material, fine linen, goat hair, rams’ skins dyed red, porpoise skins, acacia wood, oil for lighting, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense, onyx stones and setting stones for the ephod and for the breastpiece. Let them construct a sanctuary for Me, that I may dwell among them. According to all that I am going to show you, as the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all its furniture, just so you shall construct it.” So where in the world did these former slaves come up with all the gold, silver, bronze, and other precious stones, and the blue, purple, and scarlet material for the construction of the tabernacle? Just before they left Egypt, God had provided that for them. In Exodus 3:21-22 we read: “And I will grant this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians; and it shall be that when you go, you will not go empty-handed. But every woman shall ask of her neighbor and the woman who lives in her house, articles of silver and articles of gold, and clothing; and you will put them on your sons and daughters. Thus you will plunder the Egyptians.” And so it was. Now the sons of Israel had done according to the word of Moses, for they had requested from the Egyptians articles of silver and articles of gold, and clothing; and the LORD had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they let them have their request. Thus they plundered the Egyptians (Exodus 12:35-36). God never asks anything of His children that He doesn’t also provide the means to do it. Where God guides, God provides. God had seen to it that the Israelites were given the materials for the construction of the tabernacle, but even then, God only asked in return what was in their own hearts to give for His work. We can see two wonderful spiritual principles in operation right here. First of all, our Heavenly Father will faithfully provide whatever is necessary for us to do that which He calls us to do. All we have to do is be willing. Secondly, our part is always of our own free will. He doesn’t demand our giving and serving, He simply gives us the opportunity. The choice is always ours. For God loves a cheerful giver. (2 Corinthians 9:7) The Israelites were simply offered the opportunity to contribute to, and be a part of, this work of God’s. And everyone whose heart stirred him and everyone whose spirit moved him came and brought the LORD’S contribution for the work of the tent of meeting and for all its service and for the holy garments. (Exodus 35:21) Just Follow the Instructions! If you have read Exodus chapters 25 through 40, you realize that God was very specific about wanting every detail of His instructions regarding the tabernacle to be followed precisely. The details are really incredible. For the Israelites, it was an exercise in humble, simple, blind obedience to the God who had delivered them from Egypt. They had no idea what this meant or why they were doing it. They just knew that God said, Do it this way and do it exactly this way. It was simply their job to do it, and to do it His way. We, as Christians, can often get a little irked when God comes along and says, Do this for Me, if we do not get a satisfactory explanation of why He wants it done. With a complete Bible in our hands and the Holy Spirit living within us, we are told much more about the “whys” in our lives than these people ever were, yet they went to incredible effort to build this tabernacle just the way God said. They obeyed without having a clue as to why they were doing it. The result was that God blessed them with the presence of His Shekinah glory hovering over the ark of the covenant in the “Holy of Holies” of the tabernacle. So when the Lord says, Here is what I am doing in your life, quit asking why and just trust Him. There is precedence in God’s Word for saying, “Yes, Lord,” and simply trusting Him that some day the reason will be unveiled, and meanwhile you will be blessed with His presence. Why this minute detail regarding the tabernacle? Look at what the writer of Hebrews says in chapter 8, verses 1-2, and 5, regarding the tabernacle: Now the main point in what has been said is this: we have such a high priest, who has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a minister in the sanctuary and in the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man. … who serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, just as Moses was warned by God when he was about to erect the tabernacle; for, “See,” He says, “that you make all things according to the pattern which was shown you on the mountain.” One reason for this attention to detail is that the tabernacle was a pattern or a picture of the very throne room of God Himself. It is, in design, a shadow of God’s throne room in heaven. But, as we are going to see, and as the writer of Hebrews points out so vividly, it is also a detailed picture of what it means to be a Christian, and to come to God and enter into fellowship with Him through faith in Jesus Christ. Every little detail lends itself to that picture. What we have in the tabernacle is a picture of Jesus Christ and Him crucified 1,500 years before the event took place. This tabernacle gives us a richer and fuller understanding of what Christ accomplished for us at the cross and what a privilege we have as believer-priests (1 Peter 2:9), to be daily living in fellowship with the Living God. Strategic Positioning This tabernacle sat in the center of the Israelite wilderness camp. The camp was divided with the various tribes on each side of the tabernacle. The huge tribe of Judah, the biggest tribe, faced the door on the east. The smallest tribe was on the opposite side, to the west. The tribes on the north and the south of the tabernacle were nearly equal in size. Consequently, the camp itself formed a giant cross with the tabernacle at the center. Let them construct a sanctuary for Me, that I may dwell among them. (Exodus 25:8) God was stating His desire to dwell in fellowship with His people. Here, we see through the tabernacle the way given by God of spiritual restoration to Him. It is the way to live in fellowship with our Creator and Redeemer God. The New Testament tells us these things were actually for our benefit. For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. (Romans 15:4) Tent of Testimony In Numbers 17:7, Moses calls the tabernac… This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tthw.substack.com

  5. Oct 17

    Chapter 1: Getting to Sinai

    Our fathers … were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ. 1 Corinthians 10:1, 4 Before getting into the particulars of the tabernacle, let’s pause for a moment and look at the context in which God commanded Moses to build this wilderness tent. In approximately 1500 B.C., a series of events unfolded that Jews have always memorialized. Those events are recorded in Scripture. They are remembered in song. They have remembered those events in the celebration of Passover each year since the God of Israel miraculously delivered approximately 1.5 million people—His people—from slavery in Egypt. You know the story of the plagues, the Passover, the parting and crossing of the Red Sea, the miraculous provision of God to more than a million people during forty years of wilderness wanderings, the establishment of the law of God, and the building of that tabernacle in the desert. Each of those provides an incredible picture of our salvation that comes through Jesus Christ. As we read those stories, like the ones about God’s provision of manna and water in the desert, we might be tempted to think, “I wish God would give us manna and show us His power that way! Wouldn’t it be great to just hit a rock and have water come gushing out of it?” Do you know how our Father in Heaven would likely respond to that? He might say, Why do you want that little picture? That is just a shadow of the real thing. You know what the real thing is? It is the water of life that is Jesus Christ. It is the bread of life that is Jesus Christ, and Jesus Himself is what you have. You have no need for manna or that water in the desert. Cheer up because you have the spiritual reality of it, which is Jesus. I was drawing a picture there, but you have the real thing. It is as if somebody came along and drew you a picture of a shiny new car and asked, “Hey, isn’t this cool?” You reply, “Sure is! I want that picture.” Then your dad comes along and says, “Look, here are the keys. The car is now yours. You don’t need the picture any longer because I have given you the real thing.” Will you take the keys and drive that car home, or will you ignore it in favor of that two-dimensional picture? The point is: when we read the Old Testament and we put it together with the New Testament, we see that Jesus Christ Himself is the answer and the “meet-er” of the greatest needs in life. He is the One to look to for everything. He is the reality of the picture that the entire Old Testament draws for us. For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea; and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and all ate the same spiritual food; and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ. (1 Corinthians 10:1-4) That was the heart of it. It was all about Jesus Christ. This detailed picture of Jesus becomes clearer to us as we look back on those events of the Old Testament. Bondage and Deliverance Exodus opens with the children of Israel in severe and bitter bondage to their Egyptian masters. Oh, how that is like the human spirit in bondage to sin, in bondage to the world, in bondage to Satan! As Jesus said in John 8:34-36: “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever. So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.” Paul said of our spiritual bondage in Romans 7:14: For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. In the case of the Hebrew slaves, it was God Himself who decided He was going to set these people free and separate them unto Himself as His people in a land chosen by Him. God is the one who decided when and how to make this deliverance. The descendants of Jacob did not vote on it. They were not even asked if they wanted to be set free. God unilaterally decided He was going to do this for them. Do you realize that in the very same way, your salvation was decided long before you were ever on the scene? God Himself chose to set you free from sin. But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth. It was for this He called you through our gospel, that you may gain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Thessalonians 2:13-14) In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (1 John 4:10) Plagues and Passover We read of the plagues God inflicted on Egypt in Exodus 7:14 through Exodus 12:30. The first nine plagues simply point out the hardness of Pharaoh’s heart and the utter impossibility of man to deliver himself. But it was that tenth plague that set the people free. On the night of Passover, the angel of death was going to pass over Egypt. God told Israel, through Moses, to take a lamb, slay it, have a Passover feast, and take the blood of that lamb and put it over the doorpost. Wherever the angel saw the blood, He passed over that household. What is interesting about that whole scenario is that the Passover was not based on race. God was not saying, “I will be careful to pass over the Israelite homes and I will just slay the firstborn of Egypt.” He said in Exodus 12:13, “when I see the blood I will pass over you.” Their salvation was based on the shed blood—not race or color. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed. (1 Corinthians 5:7) This first Passover was a picture of Christ sacrificed for us, even to the point of the blood on the lintel of the doorpost. They used the blood, as commanded by God, to make the form of a cross on either side of the door. This is not a coincidence. The connection is made as only God could make it: 1,500 years later Jesus Christ was crucified on the very day of the Passover celebration. When Jesus was crucified, the Lamb of God was sacrificed to set men free. So our human condition and our salvation through Jesus Christ is all right there, pictured in Israel’s bondage to Egypt, and in its deliverance through the Passover. Salvation Confirmed at the Red Sea The Israelites’ salvation and freedom from bondage was confirmed at the Red Sea when those great waters covered the Egyptian army that was determined to force God’s people to return to their old bondage. Once the Hebrews crossed the Red Sea, they would never again live in Egypt, which in the Bible is always a picture of the world. The Red Sea experience separated God’s people from their past. Likewise, our salvation is affirmed and confirmed in water baptism. However, our deliverance, our salvation, is accomplished when we are born again by the sovereign Spirit of God, simply through faith in Jesus Christ. In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory. (Ephesians 1:13-14) Baptism is simply a God-given way to say “amen” to the salvation God Himself effected for each of us. As we are submerged beneath the water, we say goodbye to our old life. Emerging from those baptismal waters demonstrates that we have been raised to a new, abundant life with Christ. Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. (2 Corinthians 5:17) We are free. We have absolute confirmation of our salvation in Jesus Christ pictured in water baptism. Manna and the Bread of Life We read in Exodus 16 of how God provided manna for the Israelites in the wilderness. In Hebrew “manna” literally means, “What is it?” One morning the Israelites came out of their tents to find a never-before-seen white-frosty … This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tthw.substack.com

  6. Sep 24

    Introduction—”Shadows In the Desert”

    Therefore let no one act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day, things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ. Colossians 2:16-17 Introduction Have you ever made a New Year’s resolution to read completely through the Bible in one year, only to get bogged down by all the “boring” instructions from God to Moses about how he was to construct the tabernacle in the wilderness? If so, you are not alone! Many good intentions have been derailed in that section of the Old Testament that monopolizes the latter part of Exodus and all of Leviticus. Have you ever wondered what spiritual lessons for Christians today could possibly be extracted from the nearly endless and seemingly insignificant details recounted about that ancient two-room desert tent? That question becomes even more compelling when you consider that the God of creation, the One who brought all things great and small, all things seen and unseen, into existence, only chose to write one book to reveal to us Himself and our relationship to Him. Compared to the billions upon billions of pages gathering dust on library shelves around the world, there truly are precious few pages in God’s only literary creation. Even though the quantity of words may be few, as a fifty-year-plus teacher of the Bible, I’ve always proclaimed—and heartily believe—that they are enough to lead us into the abundant life Jesus promised. I believe that every word in God’s Word is inspired by God and is life to us. Since that is the case, why, oh why, does God spend so much time and space telling us how many cubits wide and how many cubits tall each plank was to be in that tent built some 3,500 years ago? Does it really matter that each of those planks rested in sockets of silver? Why did God “waste” all that space in His book giving such excruciatingly minute details about the measurements, layout, and construction of that tent, not to mention instructions about the design and manufacturing of, and use for each piece of furniture in it? Believe it or not, there truly is a wealth of spiritual insight into the person of Jesus Christ contained in God’s blueprint for that desert tent! Because studying and teaching the Bible has been my life’s passion and ministry for so long, I have heard every imaginable reaction to God’s book. Occasionally I hear people say, “I can relate to the loving God of the New Testament, but I can’t understand the wrathful God of the Old Testament”—as if they are two different Persons! The Old Testament is more than three times the size of the New Testament and it is clear that, for many, it is equally as mysterious. At first glance, all of those details about the measurements, layout, and construction of that wilderness tent only serve to deepen the mystery. Yet in the New Testament, in Romans 15:4, the Apostle Paul says something very interesting about the Old Testament that should cause us to take another look at the tabernacle section: For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. The things that happened to those people in the Old Testament—the instructions God gave to them and the things that were recorded—are actually more important to us today as believers in Christ than they were to the people to whom they happened, to whom the instructions were actually given. Because that is so, those measurements and instructions for the tabernacle actually are more meaningful to you today than they were to the goldsmith who had to pound out an elaborate golden menorah from one piece of gold to God’s exacting specifications. The Israelite people went through everything they endured in the Old Testament, including the construction of and service in that tabernacle, for our benefit, for our instruction, and for our encouragement. Paul said to Corinthian believers in 1 Corinthians 10:11: Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. Keep in mind that when the gospel first went out to the ends of the earth via the apostles, the only Scripture those men had to take with them to proclaim Christ was the Old Testament. There was no “New” Testament. The apostles couldn’t quote Romans or Galatians, or 1 and 2 Corinthians, for example, until after Paul had written them. They used the Old Testament, exclusively, to proclaim and explain the gospel of Jesus Christ. Likewise, you can find out a lot about your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, in the pages of the Old Testament—that part of the Bible that was written between 1,500 and 400 years before He was even born. In John 5:39, Jesus Himself said to the Pharisees (who intently studied the Old Testament): “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me …” To paraphrase that, Jesus was saying, You are searching through that Old Testament because you think you will find eternal life. Guess what? It talks about Me. Do you remember the incident described in Luke 24:13-32 when, on the day of Jesus’ resurrection, He suddenly appeared next to a couple of disciples on the Emmaus road? Jesus did not allow them to recognize Him as they walked together and as He asked them all kinds of questions. They were amazed that this stranger did not know about the recent events in Jerusalem, so they started explaining to Jesus about His own life and death by crucifixion. They told Him that things had really gotten weird that very morning when a couple of ladies had come running from the tomb of this Jesus of Nazareth saying His body was gone and He had risen. Obviously, these men were perplexed about what had actually happened. After listening, Jesus gently admonished His clueless disciples in Luke 24:25-27: And He said to them, “O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?” Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures. Wouldn’t you love to have been in on that Bible study? Do you also remember the story of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch described in Acts 8:26-39? The Ethiopian was traveling down the road in his chariot reading Isaiah 53, when the Holy Spirit spoke to Philip’s heart and told him to go up to the eunuch’s chariot. Philip obeyed, approached the chariot, and basically said, I see you are reading the Word. Do you understand what you are reading? The eunuch replied with his own question, How can I understand unless someone explains it to me? After Philip climbed into the chariot to help him understand, the eunuch asked whom Isaiah was talking about in that passage. Was Isaiah talking about himself or about someone else? In reply, starting with that 700-year-old Scripture, Philip shared the good news of Jesus Christ with the Ethiopian. A few miles down the road, that eunuch was baptized in the name of Jesus Christ because of what was written about Jesus in the pages of the Old Testament. In John 5:46, Jesus said: “For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me.” In the books of law, so revered by the Jews, Moses was actually writing about Jesus. I like the way one person put it, “In the Old Testament the New Testament is contained. In the New Testament, the Old Testament is explained.” The Holy Spirit is using all of these superficially mundane details about the tent tabernacle to paint a beautiful picture of Jesus Christ and our relationship with Him as believers. The tabernacle and the system of priesthood and sacrifices established there were only shadows of a greater reality, the reality of who Jesus is as Immanuel, God with us. Every facet of that tent in the wilderness, of each piece of furni… This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tthw.substack.com

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About

Chapter-by-chapter audio and print release of Pastor Brian Larson's book "Shadows In the Desert: Christ's Tabernacle Blueprint for Living the Abundant Life." Listen to or read the entire book here as it is released in the weeks ahead. tthw.substack.com

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  • Creator
    True to His Word with Pastor Brian Larson
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    6
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © True to His Word
  • Show Website
    Shadows In the Desert