16/12/12

Causing God to appear

2 Chronicle 1:5 - Moreover the brasen altar, that Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, had made, he put before the tabernacle of the LORD: and Solomon and the congregation sought unto it.


We read 2 Chronicles 1:3-7 we see Solomon did 3 things which caused the Lord to appear to him. In today's message the Lord is telling us about these 3 things, which if we too do will cause the presence of the Lord to be manifested or the glory of God to be experienced in our lives.

The 3 things that Solomon did were:-
1) He placed the Ark of God in the Tent of Congregation
2) He placed the brasen altar before the Tent of Congregation
3) He made a great sacrifice on the brazen altar

You may say brother we do not have the Ark of Covenant / God or the brazen altar today. Nor are we to offer a sacrifice of blood for Christ is our eternal sacrifice, so how are we to do this.

We need to understand everything thing that the Lord asked Moses to do was a shadow of the things in Christ. Without going deep into explaining things I would briefly put what they represent.

1) The Ark of Covenant symbolizes The Cross or the Cause of Christ. People think the wooden crucifix on which Jesus was crucified is the Cross which Jesus asked us to carry (they symbolize it suffering). This started with Catholic Church; they put a symbol in our hands and took away its true understanding. This understanding of Cross symbolizing suffering goes against all scriptures. The Lord said we will have problem coming in our lives but when He is in our lives He will carry us over them and as Psalms 91 puts it, He will not let even our feet stumble even against a stone. Paul puts the Cross symbolizing victory and that which has power.
When we are really in the Lord, the problems which we go through in our lives are those which the Lord allows to mould us, build us and make us better. In short it is the pruning which He does in us.
Suffering us not what a Christian is supposes to carry, but every Christian is called to sacrifice the desires of the flesh as part of process of becoming an overcomer. So the suffering is of our carnal self. Jesus tells us to take His burden but also says that His burden is light for His Spirit helps us carry it. Note Paul and the others used the word 'tree' for the wooden crucifix on which Jesus was crucified in many places and purposely avoided to mention the shape. Bible also says our bodies are tents (temporary houses).

2) The brasen altar symbolizes repentance.
This altar was made of Shittim wood and the corners were laid with brass (instead of gold used in making of the Ark, the Hebrew word 'nachosheth' used for brass comes from the root 'nachash' meaning 'to learn by experience').
On this altar was made a daily sacrifice. Most of the sacrifices concerning sin were made on this altar, also made on it was the sacrifice of guilt wherein a person has sinned out of ignorance.

3) Doing a great sacrifice does not mean we need to give God anything. God is the giver of all things and to Him there is nothing that is our which we can give. What He desires of us is to come closer to Him and to come closer to Him we need to be more like Him and to be more like Him we need to lose all that in us which keeps us far from Him.
Our greatest sacrifice is to lose a part of our worldly self and gain in our goodly self.

In short putting all 3 together we need to bring the purpose of Christ into our lives making it the most important purpose of our lives. At the entrance of our new lives in Christ, is the altar of repentance. At this table we are to daily sacrifice a part of our worldly self.

Jesus said unless we do not eat His flesh and drink of His blood we will not have life in us. Flesh symbolizes desires. Jesus was not carnal, for He overcame the world. His desires were the desires of the Father and He fulfilled them. Blood symbolizes righteousness. When we eat the desires of Jesus making it a part of us and live a life like Christ, we experience more of Christ in us and see the glory of God in our lives. That is the reason Paul warns not to receive the unleavened bread (symbolizing Body / Flesh of Christ) and the cup of wine (unfermented grape juice) in an unworthy manner (without repentance).


[ Prayer Starter ]
Lord, You have made ways for man to come to You but all of them is only through Christ. Unless we do not be more and more like Christ, becoming a part of Christ the Vine we will not have life or salvation. Lord, we pray we realize the importance to live a life surrendered unto You and a life that pleases You...

This prayer we make in Jesus' Name, Amen.


[ Reference Scriptures ]
2 Chronicle 1:3-7
3 So Solomon, and all the congregation with him, went to the high place that was at Gibeon; for there was the tabernacle of the congregation of God, which Moses the servant of the LORD had made in the wilderness.
4 But the ark of God had David brought up from Kirjathjearim to the place which David had prepared for it: for he had pitched a tent for it at Jerusalem.
5 Moreover the brasen altar, that Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, had made, he put before the tabernacle of the LORD: and Solomon and the congregation sought unto it.
6 And Solomon went up thither to the brasen altar before the LORD, which was at the tabernacle of the congregation, and offered a thousand burnt offerings upon it.
7 In that night did God appear unto Solomon, and said unto him, Ask what I shall give thee.

Exodus 38:1-7
1 And he made the altar of burnt offering of shittim wood: five cubits was the length thereof, and five cubits the breadth thereof; it was foursquare; and three cubits the height thereof.
2 And he made the horns thereof on the four corners of it; the horns thereof were of the same: and he overlaid it with brass.
3 And he made all the vessels of the altar, the pots, and the shovels, and the basons, and the fleshhooks, and the firepans: all the vessels thereof made he of brass.
4 And he made for the altar a brasen grate of network under the compass thereof beneath unto the midst of it.
5 And he cast four rings for the four ends of the grate of brass, to be places for the staves.
6 And he made the staves of shittim wood, and overlaid them with brass.
7 And he put the staves into the rings on the sides of the altar, to bear it withal; he made the altar hollow with boards.

Exodus 29:9-18
9 And thou shalt gird them with girdles, Aaron and his sons, and put the bonnets on them: and the priest's office shall be theirs for a perpetual statute: and thou shalt consecrate Aaron and his sons.
10 And thou shalt cause a bullock to be brought before the tabernacle of the congregation: and Aaron and his sons shall put their hands upon the head of the bullock.
11 And thou shalt kill the bullock before the LORD, by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.
12 And thou shalt take of the blood of the bullock, and put it upon the horns of the altar with thy finger, and pour all the blood beside the bottom of the altar.
13 And thou shalt take all the fat that covereth the inwards, and the caul that is above the liver, and the two kidneys, and the fat that is upon them, and burn them upon the altar.
14 But the flesh of the bullock, and his skin, and his dung, shalt thou burn with fire without the camp: it is a sin offering.
15 Thou shalt also take one ram; and Aaron and his sons shall put their hands upon the head of the ram.
16 And thou shalt slay the ram, and thou shalt take his blood, and sprinkle it round about upon the altar.
17 And thou shalt cut the ram in pieces, and wash the inwards of him, and his legs, and put them unto his pieces, and unto his head.
18 And thou shalt burn the whole ram upon the altar: it is a burnt offering unto the LORD: it is a sweet savour, an offering made by fire unto the LORD.

Leviticus 4 - (the kind of sacrifices made on the brasen altar)

Acts 5:30 - The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew, hanging him on a tree.

Acts 10:39 - And we are witnesses of all things which he did both in the country of the Jews, and in Jerusalem; whom also they slew, hanging him on a tree.

Acts 13:29 - And when they had fulfilled all things that were written of him, they took him down from the tree, and laid him in a tomb.

Galatians 3:13 - Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us; for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:

1 Peter 2:24 - who his own self bare our sins in his body upon the tree, that we, having died unto sins, might live unto righteousness; by whose stripes ye were healed.

1 Corinthians 1:18 - For the word of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us who are saved it is the power of God.

John 6:53 - Jesus therefore said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, ye have not life in yourselves.

Galatians 6:14 - But far be it from me to glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world hath been crucified unto me, and I unto the world.



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