The New Creation - The New Rest
It is clear that Israel is a new creation of God from the fall of man in Genesis 3.
After the long detailed account of the Tabernacle, God reinforces the necessity of Sabbath keeping:
Exodus 31:12–13 (ESV) And the Lord said to Moses, 13 “You are to speak to the people of Israel and say, ‘Above all you shall keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the Lord, sanctify you.
Remember what happened at the close of creation? God rested and made the Sabbath Holy. Man and God at rest together, not at odds with each other was the intention of the Creator for His creation from the beginning. Now a new nation has been created. A new tabernacle has been formed with illusions back to Eden throughout the description. God's dwelling with man once again will happen as Israel, the new people of God have a place distinct and separate from the world where they experience the life giving presence of the Creator.
Notice the strong warnings concerning the Sabbath:
Exodus 31:14 (ESV) You shall keep the Sabbath, because it is holy for you. Everyone who profanes it shall be put to death. Whoever does any work on it, that soul shall be cut off from among his people.
Death is the punishment for those who break with God's order and dominion within the new creation. If we look back to the original creation, the first Sabbath had no night time. It was perhaps to be a perpetual experience. Therefore, when Eve is tempted and sins, she does so on the Sabbath - thus disturbing the rest of man and God together. And what was Eve's plan in the action of sin? To gain wisdom and knowledge and to be like God on her own efforts. This is nothing more than works righteousness, the human tendency to think we can do goodness on our own and in our own imaginations. This is the heart of every human sin.
So God brings a people out of the mess the world is in because of sin and creates for them a tabernacle where they can meet with Him as a gift! They did not earn these things. They did not decide these things. God initiated, instructed, called, gifted and filled them with all they needed to do life together with Him once again. They were to therefore keep the Sabbath holy with absolute resolve because they would point the world back to the original intention of God - Sabbath rest with our creator! Should they sin in breaking that day - they lose all testimony of who they are and Who God is among them.
What's amazing is how the story of God keeps repeating. Creation is made for God and man to dwell together. The Nation of Israel is formed for God and man to dwell together. The tabernacle is erected for God and man to dwell together. Eventually, through Israel and into that Temple will come the God-Man who came to dwell WITH man. He is the new and final tabernacle torn down and raised to life so that we might enter in, be filled with the Holy Spirit and dwell with God on the Earth.
Christian, your faith is SO MUCH MORE than just going to church and someday hoping to go to heaven. You are the new Creation of God, the peculiar people set apart to represent what God's goodness looks like to a world full of confusion and sin. We are the entrance back to Eden with our testimony of God's grace and healing in Christ Jesus - our true Tabernacle, our final Adam, our Ultimate Israel - our Very PRESENT God.
After the long detailed account of the Tabernacle, God reinforces the necessity of Sabbath keeping:
Exodus 31:12–13 (ESV) And the Lord said to Moses, 13 “You are to speak to the people of Israel and say, ‘Above all you shall keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the Lord, sanctify you.
Remember what happened at the close of creation? God rested and made the Sabbath Holy. Man and God at rest together, not at odds with each other was the intention of the Creator for His creation from the beginning. Now a new nation has been created. A new tabernacle has been formed with illusions back to Eden throughout the description. God's dwelling with man once again will happen as Israel, the new people of God have a place distinct and separate from the world where they experience the life giving presence of the Creator.
Notice the strong warnings concerning the Sabbath:
Exodus 31:14 (ESV) You shall keep the Sabbath, because it is holy for you. Everyone who profanes it shall be put to death. Whoever does any work on it, that soul shall be cut off from among his people.
Death is the punishment for those who break with God's order and dominion within the new creation. If we look back to the original creation, the first Sabbath had no night time. It was perhaps to be a perpetual experience. Therefore, when Eve is tempted and sins, she does so on the Sabbath - thus disturbing the rest of man and God together. And what was Eve's plan in the action of sin? To gain wisdom and knowledge and to be like God on her own efforts. This is nothing more than works righteousness, the human tendency to think we can do goodness on our own and in our own imaginations. This is the heart of every human sin.
So God brings a people out of the mess the world is in because of sin and creates for them a tabernacle where they can meet with Him as a gift! They did not earn these things. They did not decide these things. God initiated, instructed, called, gifted and filled them with all they needed to do life together with Him once again. They were to therefore keep the Sabbath holy with absolute resolve because they would point the world back to the original intention of God - Sabbath rest with our creator! Should they sin in breaking that day - they lose all testimony of who they are and Who God is among them.
What's amazing is how the story of God keeps repeating. Creation is made for God and man to dwell together. The Nation of Israel is formed for God and man to dwell together. The tabernacle is erected for God and man to dwell together. Eventually, through Israel and into that Temple will come the God-Man who came to dwell WITH man. He is the new and final tabernacle torn down and raised to life so that we might enter in, be filled with the Holy Spirit and dwell with God on the Earth.
Christian, your faith is SO MUCH MORE than just going to church and someday hoping to go to heaven. You are the new Creation of God, the peculiar people set apart to represent what God's goodness looks like to a world full of confusion and sin. We are the entrance back to Eden with our testimony of God's grace and healing in Christ Jesus - our true Tabernacle, our final Adam, our Ultimate Israel - our Very PRESENT God.
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