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Home » (Through The Bible) – Exodus – Part 2: Zac Poonen (Transcript)

(Through The Bible) – Exodus – Part 2: Zac Poonen (Transcript)

Full text and audio of Zac Poonen’s teaching on the Book of Exodus (Part 2) which is part of the popular series called Through The Bible.

Listen to the MP3 Audio here: 

TRANSCRIPT:

Zac Poonen – Bible Teacher

We’re going to continue our study in Exodus. You know that a major part of Exodus deals with the construction of the Tabernacle.

Now when we studied Genesis, I told you that from the time of Cain, there were these two streams that started: false religion and true religion. Cain and Abel, that finally ends up in Revelation in Babylon and Jerusalem, in Nimrod and Abraham… they followed in that stream. You find it in the Pharisees and Jesus.

There’re always these two streams, and they are flowing today, and we need to make sure that we get into the right stream.

And the Tabernacle is something that was the seed from which the Temple came, and was a picture of the ultimate Jerusalem, the church, the dwelling place of God.

In John 1:14, it says: “the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us…” and the literal translation of that would be: tabernacled among us. God tabernacled among us.

So the Tabernacle is a picture of Jesus, first of all, and then of His body… the church, the dwelling place of God, because when God gave the instructions for the Tabernacle, He said in Exodus 25:8: “let them construct a sanctuary for Me, that I may dwell among them.” The purpose of God is that He must dwell in the midst of His people.

Tabernacle symbolizes TEMPLE

So the Tabernacle was a sanctuary in which God has to dwell. Our home must be a sanctuary for God to dwell; our church must be a sanctuary for God to dwell. It’s not just a place for meetings and for evangelism. That’s what we understand.

I am supposed to be a sanctuary… temple for God to dwell. My home is to be a temple for God to dwell. My church must be a temple for God to dwell. Everything else is secondary. Bible teaching a secondary; evangelism a secondary; good works are secondary; helping the poor is secondary.

Primary reason is GOD MUST DWELL THERE. That’s the first lesson we learned from the tabernacle. And if you lose sight of this, what happens is you get into so many good things: Social work is a good thing, and vandalism is a good thing, Bible teaching is a good thing, special meetings is a good thing. God must dwell.

Does God dwell in your church? Does God dwell in your home? Does God dwell in your life? That’s the main thing. It’s no use saying I live a good life. So please remember that right from the beginning.

And I want you to notice another thing about the tabernacle. And that is, when God gave the instructions for the Tabernacle… now supposing somebody were making a plan for building this compound here, he will not start with this pulpit. No, no architect will start spending a long time, let’s start with the pulpit. No, they will start with the dimensions of the compound, and with the major buildings; that’s how they’d go.

But when God gave the plan for the tabernacle, do you know what He started with? He didn’t tell them first the dimensions of it, or even about the tent. He started with the ark (Exodus 25:10). This is the first thing you need to do is construct an ark.

And the ark was in the most holy place and God dwelt there. In other words, He started from Himself: In the beginning God…

God’s ways are not man’s ways. And in every church, this is where we must begin, not with activity, not with any type of activity, but with God. With the most holy place, the things that are most holy in the Christian life: the ark that’s where we must begin.

You see, and I’ll come to the Tabernacle in a moment. God begins from Himself. And in our dealings with God, like with Adam, we saw that in Genesis: First, spend one day in fellowship with God, then you can go and work in the garden, whether your calling is evangelism, or teaching, or social work, or anything, whatever it is, begin with God. And you see that principle in the Tabernacle too.

See, these are things which are there in Scripture; you read them but sometimes you don’t notice them. ‘It’s the glory of God to conceal a matter; it’s the glory of kings to search it out.’ (Proverbs 25:2)

OK, when Jesus taught us to pray the Lord’s Prayer, what did He teach us to begin with? Not even forgiveness of our sins, which is such an important thing. He said, when you pray, pray: our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done. This is the Ark.

In the beginning God

You know if I could show you one thing, that throughout Scripture: God has always backed the man who will put Him in the beginning, give Him the first place in his life, in his home, in his church. God can do amazing things, that’s what He wants, that’s the place He wants to have in your life.

Tabernacle symbolizes our BODY

This Tabernacle is also a picture of our body. You know, our body is a trinity. The tabernacle has three parts: I’ll just come to that: spirit, soul, and body. That’s what man is: (1 Thessalonians 5:23) and, because man was made in the image of God who’s a Trinity, we are also a trinity; each of us is a trinity: spirit, soul, and body.

In another sense, God is three persons: we are one person but with three parts. The Tabernacle also has three parts, and there’s many spiritual truths we can from that for our body.

God dwells in our spirit, the deepest part. If you think of our human being as three concentric circles, outer circle is the body, inside that is the soul, inside that is the spirit.