For This Cause
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Wilderness Wanderings
The journey to Egypt through the Sinai Peninsula would have been a difficult one…for
the Sinai is hot, rocky, sandy, and barren. Centuries earlier Israel had wandered 40 years
in the same desolate country.
It was in the southern part of Sinai that Moses was given the Ten Commandments. At the
same time, he was given very detailed instructions for building of the Tabernacle. In this
simple structure, through the priests and animal sacrifices, Israel worshipped their God.
However, the significance of the Tabernacle arrangement was not limited to Israel. The
Apostle Paul assures us in Hebrews 10:1 that the Tabernacle with its sacrifices was a
shadow (or picture) of things to come.
God, being the architect of this Tabernacle, was very specific as to size, colors, material,
location, furniture, etc. Israel had to follow these instructions in minute detail. Why?
What was so important about all this?
Because God used this Tabernacle arrangement to again point to the “promised seed of
Abraham” – the Messiah, the Ransom. Each detailed element was part of a beautiful
picture of the sacrifice of Jesus, and showing the path of a Christian.
Briefly, the Tabernacle was a rectangular building placed within a large fenced courtyard.
The building was separated into two compartments: The Holy and Most Holy.
Within the Holy, or larger compartment, were three pieces of furniture: Candlestick,
Table of Shewbread, and Golden Incense Alter. The Most Holy contained one piece of
furniture, a Golden Ark, with a lid or cover called the “mercy seat.”
In the courtyard was a laver, or container, for water and a large altar. It was on this altar
that the vital parts of the animal sacrifices were burned.
Each year Israel, who pictured all mankind, had a Day of Atonement. One of the
sacrifices on this day was an unblemished bullock, which typically cleansed them from
sin. The unblemished bullock represents Jesus the perfect man, who would suffer and die
to provide a ransom for Adam.
To cancel the death sentence, God’s law of Justice required a ransom, or corresponding
price – an exact equivalent for the one perfect man Adam, who sinned.
The High Priest sprinkling the blood of the bullock on the mercy seat in the form of a
cross pictured the satisfaction of God’s justice through the shed blood of Jesus.
This same lesson was taught by Paul, when he said, “For in Adam all die, even so in
Christ shall all be made alive.” (1 Corinthians 15:22) Jesus became a ransom for Adam
to satisfy Justice and thus cancel the death sentence that passed down through Adam to
all mankind.
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And so Joseph, Mary and Jesus found their way through the bleak wilderness of Sinai,
they passed the scene where our Lord’s sacrifice had been portrayed many centuries
before.