Preparation For Praise

When we were on our way here this morning in the car my wife asked me what I was going to preach about. I told her what I thought I was going to preach about. I felt as I stood on the platform and we worshiped the Lord that the Lord changed my subject. He gave me a revelation and I feel He wants me to talk about this this morning. I’m rather reluctant to do so, actually, because it’s a very difficult subject. Unless you’re in some measure familiar with the tabernacle of Moses I don’t see how you can possibly get anything out of it. But I want to be obedient. I feel the Lord laid it on my heart to speak about this subject this morning. It’s very much in line with what I’m going to deal with in the morning teaching session. In fact, I can turn to my outline because I have on one of the pages a diagram of the tabernacle, a very simple outline diagram.

Let me give you what I believe the Lord gave me as a title for my message which is “Preparation for Praise.” Charismatics tend to have the idea that if we want anything from God we just press a button and something happens. If you want God to move, you just praise Him. There’s a great deal of truth in that. As Brother Chapman said, “When you minister to the Lord invariably He will minister to you.” One of the great ways in which we do minister to the Lord is praise and worship.

But God seemed to me to instruct me this morning that praise is something that requires preparation. Let me say something that’s a little bit off and yet it’s in line. Do you put on a special way of behaving when you come to church? Do you talk in a different tone of voice? Does your face set in a sort of certain rigid pious look? That shouldn’t be. You should be just as natural in church as you are out. If you have to change when you come to church, either there’s something wrong with you in church or there’s something wrong with you when you’re out of church. You’ll find the majority of religious people definitely put on a religious act when they come to church. Many preachers, their tone of voice changes. Many people, when they pray they put on a pious, praying tone of voice. I will say this also with regard to the control of children. You will never succeed in controlling children in church if you don’t control them out of church. It is not something you can turn on for an hour and a half on Sunday morning and turn off the rest of the week. Shall I tell you something about bringing up children? It’s a 24-hour-a-day job. There is never a moment when a parent can afford to ignore the conduct of his child. Children require total supervision. Not in the sense of being always on their tail saying, “Do this and don’t do that.” There are many more subtle and effective ways of controlling children than that. But if you only try to control your children in church it will be a failure.

I want to speak to you this morning on the basis of the tabernacle. Some of you probably didn’t even know there was a tabernacle. If you knew there was a tabernacle you wouldn’t know its dimensions, you wouldn’t know its shape, you wouldn’t know its furniture, you wouldn’t know much about it. I’m sorry. But you start with two strikes against you, as the Americans say, this morning. I don’t quite know what it means to have two strikes against you, but I know it means to start with a disadvantage.

Many preachers, and I’ve been one of them, have preached on this theme that God brought Israel out of Egypt that He might bring them into Canaan. He brought them out that He might bring them in. I’ve preached that theme many times. I’ve heard some of my fellow preachers preach it. It’s true. But again, the Lord seemed to correct me this morning and say, “That wasn’t My primary purpose.” I find that Israel almost completely missed God’s purpose and I find the majority of Christians today probably still miss God’s purpose.

In Exodus 19 when God began to appear to Israel on Mount Sinai and was ready to give them the covenant of the law and the tables of stone and the pattern of the tabernacle He said, “I bear you on eagle’s wings and I brought you unto myself.” That’s primary. The Promised Land is secondary. As I read the history of Israel, it seems to me they were more preoccupied with the Promised Land than they were with the Lord. I think multitudes of Charismatics today are the same. They want to get into what God is doing, but God says first and foremost, “I’ve brought you to Myself.” I think it’s one of the unnoticed tragedies of Scripture that Israel almost ignored this fact that God’s primary purpose in bringing them out of Egypt was to bring them unto Himself. God’s primary purpose in all His dealings with you is to bring you to Himself. Not into blessings, not into healings, not into victory, not into being super-spiritual, but unto Himself. If you miss that, you really don’t see the purpose of God in your life.

Then God said, “I’ve brought them out that I might dwell among them.” Again, this has precedence over entering into the Promised Land. The primary purpose of God was to dwell among His people, to make for Himself a people amongst whom He could dwell. Then, when you begin to read the instructions for the tabernacle, the priesthood, worship, offerings and all these things you’ll find out that for God to dwell amongst His people a great many conditions have to be understood and have to be met. It’s not a chance or trivial thing for God to dwell among us. You’ll find that the whole of the pattern and instructions of the tabernacle that God then gave to Moses were given with the primary purpose that this might be the way that God might dwell among His people.

The tabernacle cannot be unimportant because there are about 16 chapters of the Bible devoted almost exclusively to the tabernacle and almost all the things in the tabernacle are specified twice. Almost every dimension, almost every piece of material is specified twice, not just once. Once God gives the instructions, the second time we’re told how the workmen executed those instructions. It’s the most elaborate, careful revelation. It must be important. God would not devote 16 chapters of the Bible to this and many other passages of the Bible that refer directly or indirectly to the tabernacle.

This morning I’m going to try to give it to you in very brief outline. The tabernacle represents many different things. The most important fact, I think, that I can stress this morning is that it was triune, it was three in one. In this it reflects immediately the nature of God Himself and the nature of man. The Scripture says that God made man in His likeness. A triune God—God who is one and yet three—made man one and yet three. We are told in the Scripture that the total man consists of spirit, soul and body. Three related areas. God is Father, Son and Spirit.

There are many, many other applications of the tabernacle. It relates to the three heavens. It relates to Eden: the land, the garden, the mountain. There are many, many applications. It relates to spiritual progress: Jesus, the way, the truth and then the life.

So, what I want to do this morning is just open your mind to this tremendous area of revelation. The tabernacle depicts man’s approach to the very presence of Almighty God. It depicts how the presence of Almighty God comes down to meet with man. There is a definite pattern laid down for man’s approach to God.

Let me try to give you briefly the three areas of the tabernacle and then show you the pattern of approach because this is what I’m speaking about, preparation for praise. God showed me very clear here this morning that we cannot bypass any of these steps and offer praise and worship that is truly acceptable to God.

I also believe (though I’m not teaching this as a means of getting things from God) that when we approach God on the accepted basis with acceptable praise and worship, truly there is no limit to what God will do for us.

The first area of the tabernacle was what was called the Outer Court. This was 100 cubits long and 50 cubits wide. It was a rectangle. A cubit is about one and a half feet. Actually, it’s the length from the tip of your elbow to the tip of your finger. In the book of Revelation it speaks about the cubit that was the measure of an angel. I suppose an angel’s arm may be slightly different in measurement from a man’s. But you can say, basically, it’s one and a half feet, 18 inches.

So, it was 100 cubits long, that’s 150 feet and 50 cubits wide, 75 feet, a rectangle. It was surrounded by a linen fence on brazen posts and the linen fence was 5 cubits high (which is seven and a half feet). In other words, no person of normal stature could look inside. It was, in a sense, exclusive. You were either inside or outside.

This is true about God, you’re either inside or you’re outside. You’re either related to God or you’re not related to God. And in between there is nothing. God is not the father of all men. And all men are not brothers. God is the father of those who come to Him through Jesus Christ. By nature, we are the children of wrath, not the children of God. There is a linen fence—linen signifies purity and righteousness—separating the area that belongs to God and is under His control from the area that does not belong to God. Every person here this morning is in one or other of those two areas. There is no third possibility. Jesus said it very specifically, “He that is not with me is against me.” There is no neutrality. You cannot be half in one and half in the other. You are either in or out. You cannot peek over the fence. Lots of people want to know what it would be like to get saved before they get saved. You cannot find out except by getting saved. There’s only one way to find out what it’s like inside the fence and that’s to come inside.

Then inside this Outer Court was the actual tabernacle or tent, which was 30 cubits long and 10 cubits wide. It was divided into two compartments. The first, which was called the Holy Place, and the second which was called the Most Holy Place. The first compartment was 20 cubits long and 10 cubits wide; the second compartment, logically and mathematically, must have been, and was, 10 cubits long, 10 cubits wide and 10 cubits high. It was a perfect cube. This represents the place of communion and encounter between God and man.

It’s very interesting, the closer you get to God the narrower and the smaller it gets. It is a straight and a narrow way. The natural attitude of man is to object to these restrictions. Every step you take closer to God, something in you has to die. The old rebel, the old ego, the old I, my way, my thoughts, my attitudes. There’s less and less room for the ego the nearer you get to God. That’s why lots of people never get very near to God.

There were three veils. The veil that admitted you through the linen fence. Then there was the veil that admitted you into the Holy Place. Then there was the veil that separated between the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place.

Under the Mosaic law, the Levitical priesthood, only one man ever went into the Most Holy Place. He only went once every year on the Day of Atonement. He went, the Scripture says, “not without blood.” He carried into the Most Holy Place the blood of the sin offering which he offered for his own sins and the sins of the people. He wore garments which were outstanding for glory and beauty and on the bottom of his robe embroidered around it were pomegranates and golden bells. A bell and a pomegranate, a bell and a pomegranate. He had the bells on so that as long as he moved, the robe would swing and the bells would tinkle. This was of tremendous importance because the whole nation of Israel depended for their standing with God on the acceptance by God of the high priest on their behalf when he went every year into the Most Holy Place. Only if the offering was acceptable and all God’s requirements were met could the high priest live in that Most Holy Place. The evidence that he was alive was that the bells continued to tinkle. Every Israelite who feared God listened for the sound of those bells.

Of course, the high priest is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ who has entered in, not into the tabernacle made with hands, but into the true tabernacle of heaven. Not through the veil that hung in the tabernacle, but through the veil which is His flesh, now to appear in the presence of God for us. Every true believer hears in his spirit the tinkle of the bells that tells him Jesus is alive. The fact that He’s alive means we’re accepted. Our High Priest has made it through into the presence of God on our behalf. If you don’t know that Jesus is alive, you don’t know that you’re accepted with God. You have no claim on God apart from the offering that’s been brought by your High Priest into the presence of God.

The objective of all this is the Most Holy Place. In the New Testament, in Hebrews 10:19 and following it says:

“Having then, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way ... let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our bodies sprinkled with clean water, and our hearts washed from an evil conscience.”

The Scripture teaches that because of what Jesus has done on our behalf we, under the New Covenant, do not have to have a representative that goes merely on our behalf, we do not have to wait every year for one day but we have boldness, we have absolute authority granted us by God through Jesus Christ to come into the holiest at any time.

If you are spiritually minded, that is a most tremendous statement. If you take it casually or for granted you have no conception of what God is telling you when He tells you that you have boldness to enter into the holiest. If you read through all the ordinances that had to be fulfilled for Israel’s high priest to have access to God into that holy place you would tremble to understand that God is inviting you there. You would go with care and with reverence and with a sense of awe.

Let us just briefly consider the main items of furniture that typify the progress into the holiest place. This is the essence of what I’m going to bring you. When you go in through the first veil or curtain inside the Outer Court within the linen fence, the first thing that meets you is a great big altar of brass. Three cubits high (that’s four-foot six high), 5 cubits square (seven and a half feet square). Just about the level of your eye the first thing you see is this great altar of brass, which tells you you’re a sinner. It tells you the wages of sin is death. It tells you that you cannot have access to God with your sins unforgiven and your old nature still in its rebellious attitude. The altar of brass speaks about the sin offering, the atonement, the shed blood of Jesus, that there is no access to God, you cannot bypass the altar. It’s a great big thing seven and a half feet square right in front of the gates. Let no one ever deceive himself, you cannot have access to God till you accept and acknowledge that Jesus, your sin offering, died in your place, that your guilt and condemnation was laid upon Him, and further, that your old man, the rebellious Adam in you, died when He died. Our old man was crucified with Him that the body of sin, the sinful nature, might be put out of operation and henceforth, we should not be the slaves to sin. God so designed the tabernacle that not one person could ever come to Him until they’d acknowledged the reality of sin, the penalty of sin, and the fact of the sin substitutionary offering. That’s how it stands with God today.

The next item beyond the brazen altar was the brazen laver. Let me say that brass typifies judgment, it typifies God’s minute, exact scrutiny of every area of our life. And of judgment on everything that is unpleasing to Him. When you come in, the first items that you meet are all of brass. Brass, brass, brass. Everything is telling you God is the judge, God sees you, there’s nothing hidden, all things are naked and open unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight.

The laver was made, interestingly enough, out of the looking glasses or mirrors of the women of Israel. Because, of course, they didn’t have glass in those days so the very finest mirror was made of highly polished, smooth brass. How many of you ladies acknowledge that it’s a sacrifice to give up your mirror? And men, too, if it comes to that. God asked the sacrifice of the women and not of the men. They had to sacrifice the thing upon which they depended for external beauty. This became the counterpart of the place of the Word of God in our lives. James 1 tells us that God’s Word is a mirror. But, it doesn’t show you your outward appearance, it shows you what you look like inside to God. That’s a solemn thought, too. Somebody said, “Remember, when you read your Bible, your Bible is reading you.” How many of you know that?

I remember when I started to read the Bible as a philosopher and unbeliever, a skeptic, and I started to read this book, it just didn’t make sense to me. I couldn’t make head or tail of it. It was wearisome, remote, baffling. But I couldn’t let it down because I made up my mind I was going to read it right through. I determined no book would beat me. But as I went on reading it, something started to happen inside me. I became a little less satisfied with myself, a little less sure, a little less confident that my mind could analyze and solve all life’s problems. I wondered if I was getting old before my time, I wondered what was going wrong with me that I was no longer quite so self-confident. What was happening was I was beginning to see another view of Derek Prince. It was very different from my opinion of Derek Prince. It was not at all flattering. My eyes were being opened to begin to see a little in the mirror.

When you’re really born again, then the mirror becomes very clear and it shows you the way you are spiritually, morally within. James warns us there are two ways you can react to the mirror. You can say, “Well, that’s bad,” and walk away and forget about it, do nothing about it. Or, when you see the mirror and it shows you things in your life that need to be changed, you immediately act upon them and change them. The mirror is of no use to the first kind of person. They might as well not have looked in it. All it brings them is condemnation because they’re made aware of their faults but do nothing about them.

Then, these brazen mirrors of the women of Israel were taken by Bezaleel, the brass was melted down, and it was made into a great big container for pure water. This is the second aspect of the Word of God—it is like clear, pure water. It washes, cleanses and sanctifies. First you look in the mirror and see that you’re not clean. Then you wash in the laver and you’re cleansed.

The ordinance of the tabernacle was this: that every priest that moved from the brazen altar into the tabernacle and back again had to pause every time he passed the laver to wash his hands and his feet. If he did not do that, he would die. So, this is the place of the Word of God in our lives. It’s the mirror, it’s the means of cleansing. Every time we pass it, we’re to look in it and wash in it. If we do not do that, we die.

See, the Word of God is as essential as the blood of Jesus in your salvation. Jesus redeemed the church by His blood that He might thereafter sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word. No one has right of access to God who has not first been redeemed by the blood and, second, been sanctified by the Word. That’s what the laver tells us.

We’re still in the Outer Court; we’re still in the area of the physical, the body. We haven’t moved into the realm of the Holy Place, the soul; nor beyond that into the realm of the Holy of Holies, the spirit. Body, soul, spirit.

Then we go in the second veil and there are three items of furniture in the Holy Place. On the right- hand side is the golden table that contained the shewbread that was placed before God. Twelve loaves of bread that were put there once every week and remained there before God seven days. It was the responsibility of the priest to take out the old bread and put in the new. It’s called in Hebrew ?Lechem ah paneen?, “the bread of God’s face.” The bread that was always before the face of God.

Opposite the golden table was the golden candlestick, a seven branched candlestick that did not contain candles but bowls of oil with wicks and that was the source of light. The seven branched candlestick, amongst other things, typifies the church of Jesus Christ filled with the Holy Spirit, the light of the world. The only object on which the candlestick was to cast its light was the table of shewbread which typifies Jesus the bread of heaven come down to this world to give us life. So, when we get inside there and our eyes are open by the revelation of the Word of God and the teaching of the Holy Spirit, we see that the true function of the church is to be the light of the world. And, we have only one thing on which we cast our light, it is Jesus. That’s why we are the light, because we reveal the light.

Then, at the far end of the holy place just before the third veil was the golden altar of incense. This is not an altar for sacrifice, nothing was killed on it. But the most beautiful, carefully compounded incense was placed upon it. When the high priest went into the Most Holy Place, he took with him the blood of the sacrifice that had been killed on the brazen altar in the Outer Court and he took with him a censer with incense that was burning from the golden altar of incense. The incense typifies praise and worship.

You’ll notice that the way into the holiest was with the blood of the sacrifice and with the incense of praise and worship. Now we are really beginning to understand access to God. God is telling us there’s no way of access but by the blood and worship. If you do not come with worship you have no access to God. You cannot get into the real presence of God.

Within the Most Holy of All there was only one item of furniture. See, the further you get, the fewer the options. And you understand that everything is coming down, narrowing down to just one thing which is what? God. You see, if you want God plus something, you really don’t want God. That’s like most believers. They want God plus this or that. God says, “I want you to want Me for Me. I want you to come to Me. Not Me plus something else.”

The natural mind doesn’t like this. There’s something that has to die in every one of us as we come into this cube, ten by ten by ten, typifying the very presence and nature of the triune God Himself. There there’s only one piece of furniture—the ark, which is always a type of Jesus Christ. Bear that in mind. The ark is always the type of Jesus. There in the Scripture there are essentially two main arks. There are more, but there are two main arks. The big ark of Noah; the little ark of Moses. The big ark is you in Christ; the little ark is Christ in you. Both relationships are there for the believer. Salvation is you going into Christ. But the Christian life is Christ living in you.

The ark was made of acacia wood, which typifies humanity, but overlaid with pure gold, which typifies divinity. This is Christ incarnate—man and God. Within the ark were three things: the tables of stone (the Ten Commandments), Aaron’s rod that budded, and the pot of manna. Over the ark was the lid and on the lid was the Mercy Seat. The Mercy Seat was exactly the same dimension as the ark. It had a crown around the edge to keep safe everything that was on it. Jesus said, “No man shall pluck them out of My hand.” The mercy of God is coextensive with the ark. In other words, only when you are in Christ are you under God’s mercy. There is no other place of mercy but the ark. The Mercy Seat exactly covers the ark.

On either end of the Mercy Seat there was a cherub of beaten gold. A cherub is a heavenly being typifying worship. I hope I won’t upset you when I tell you that the Hebrew word for cherub is kerub, which becomes cherub in English. You know, the extraordinary thing is that it’s the modern Hebrew word for a cabbage. I, when I discovered this, I said to myself, “What’s the relationship between a cabbage and a cherub?” I believe God made it very clear to me that essentially the leaves of the cabbage are like the wings of the cherub. They grow out of it like that. The Jewish people have a certain spiritual insight that is built into them from their language and their background. We Gentiles, we really need to avail ourselves of that understanding and insight which the Jewish people have into the Scriptures—even though they may not know Jesus Christ.

So, these cherubs were one on either end. The cherubs were of beaten gold, which typifies not divine nature but divine workmanship. They faced inward, the face of one looking direct into the face of the other. You know, again, I don’t know whether you’ll accept this, but it says of Satan (before he became Satan when he was Lucifer in the 28th chapter of Ezekiel) that he was the anointed cherub that covered the throne of God. The only one. And do you know why he fell? The Bible tells us very clearly because of pride in his own beauty and wisdom. My personal belief is, if I may say it reverently, that God never risked that again. There was never after that one cherub, but always two. They were exactly like each other and they looked at each other. The one thing they knew was there was another one as beautiful as he.

Their wings stretched over the Mercy Seat and met in the middle, exactly over the center of the Mercy Seat. They typified two other things. They typify fellowship face to face and they typify worship. The arched wings and the bent body meeting is a type of worship.

On that Mercy Seat and in front of that ark the high priest on the Day of Atonement sprinkled the blood of the sin offering. When the blood was sprinkled on the Mercy Seat and when the incense was swung to and fro and the cloud of incense filled the Most Holy Place, then the most wonderful thing in all of Israel’s relationship with God was manifest. Because, in the Most Holy Place there was no natural source of light at all. In the Outer Court there was natural light: the sun by day, the moon by night. In the Holy Place there was the light of the candlestick. In the Most Holy Place—and remember it’s very thickly covered with four layers of covering over it—there was nothing but darkness. Until it was illuminated by the actual presence of Almighty God coming in beneath the wings of the cherubim and over the blood sprinkled on the Mercy Seat. This glorious golden cloud filled that place. It was illuminated with the presence of God.

That’s the invitation that God gives every believer in Jesus Christ. “I will meet with you and talk with you over the Mercy Seat under the wings of the cherubim.” That’s where we’re headed. I want to warn you that many Christians never get there, they get sidetracked. There is a process of preparation to come there. When you realize what you’re coming to, you surely acknowledge it’s reasonable there must be preparation.

What God, I believe, charged me to tell you this morning is: If you’re going to praise Him and worship Him and swing that incense and come into His presence, He’s inviting you to come. But remember the steps of preparation. First of all, you’ve got to come inside the linen fence. There’s a line of separation between the people of God and those who are not the people of God. Outside is unclean, outside are dogs the Scripture says. Jesus called the Syro-Phoenician woman “a dog.” Not because He despised her, not because He abused her, but because she had no covenant relationship with God; she was unclean. Alienated, cut off. And oh, the beautiful humility of the woman. She didn’t argue, she said, “Lord, it’s true; I’m a dog. The bread doesn’t belong to me, but all I need is a crumb.” No wonder Jesus said, “Woman, great is thy faith.” She said, “What do I need with a loaf to drive the demon out of my daughter? A crumb will do that.” Jesus said, “Oh woman, great is thy faith. Be it unto thee even as thy will.” You have to acknowledge you’re a dog; you have to acknowledge you’re unclean, you have to acknowledge you’re outside before you begin to approach.

Come in through the linen fence and you meet the great brazen altar that tells you sin alienates you from God. No one unclean or unforgiven or rebellious can approach Almighty God. You accept the sacrifice of Jesus for the forgiveness of your past sins, for the cleansing of sin from your nature and for the death of the old rebellious nature within you. You move past the brazen altar to the laver that typifies the Word—first as the mirror that shows you how you are, and second, as the cleansing agent that washes every spot and stain. Jesus is coming for a church that is without spot or wrinkle, glorious and holy through the sanctifying washing of the water of the Word.

I’ve had the privilege of traveling and ministering in many different countries of the world and I’ve been in many places that the Spirit of God was moving and the Spirit of God was poured out and spiritual gifts were in operation. But I’ve been in few places where there was true, pure, anointed praise and worship offered to God. Many places where people meet and praise God and gifts of the Spirit are in operation, there are demon forces and manifestations at work at the same time. One thing I am convinced of: pure worship only comes from those who’ve been washed with the water of the Word. The regular sacrificial cleansing water of the Word enables you to offer to God a worship that is different from that of the person who just comes Sunday morning or just comes to get a blessing or have a need met.

But still you’re only in the Outer Court. Then you come into the Holy Place and there is the seven branched candlestick, the light of revelation, the truth of God’s Word illuminating the soul and the mind by the activity of the Holy Spirit and showing forth Jesus the bread of heaven. But still that’s the Holy Place. It’s wonderful to be there, but there’s the further place of direct personal communion and revelation.

I believe there are three activities of the Most Holy Place. Worship, fellowship and revelation. There’s a link between the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place. The link is provided by the golden altar. In the book of Hebrews it says that the golden altar belonged to the Most Holy Place. Yet, in the book of Exodus it’s stated that it was actually in the Holy Place. So the link, the passageway that connects the Holy Place with the Most Holy—the soul with the spirit—is the golden altar. That’s praise that becomes worship.

Do you know the difference between praise and worship? Most morning worship services in most churches, there isn’t any worship at all. There’s a certain amount of regulated praise, that’s all there is. The golden altar typifies the soul praising God and moving out into the spirit worshiping God. Jesus said the true worshippers must worship God not in soul, but in spirit, and in truth.

Then when you come to God in spiritual worship you enter into fellowship with God. Through worship and fellowship you receive revelation. You see, you have to be very, very careful about the kind of revelation you receive. There’s a soulish substitute for true revelation. Many people live in that. The revelation of the Spirit comes only when we come by worship and fellowship into revelation.

Notice—and I close with this—the three objects inside the ark. Aaron’s rod that budded, the pot of manna, and the two tables of stone. When the ark was moved into Solomon’s temple—which in my understanding typifies the transition from the church age to the glorified church of the millennium—the pot of manna and the rod were taken out. The only thing that remained in the ark was the tables of stone. To me, the tables of stone signify God’s law written in the heart of the believer. God said He would make a new covenant when He would write His laws in our hearts and in our minds. This typifies Jesus, for He said, “Lo, I come. In the volume of the book it is written of me, to do thy will, for thy law is written in my heart.” The ark with the tables of stone that were never taken out typifies Jesus the Son of God come to do the will of God with God’s law written in His heart. But when you and I come there, we come to the place where God’s law is written in our hearts. I believe it’s the understanding of the holy, inviolable, unchanging law of God that really promotes worship. Worship is man’s reaction to God’s holiness and His law.

In the functions of the Spirit it signifies conscience, the awareness of God’s holy, unvarying, requirement. Only when we come that way do we come into true fellowship, which is typified by the pot of manna and by the wings of the cherubim meeting over the Mercy Seat. Feeding upon God, the hidden manna. Jesus said to one church in the book of Revelation, “I’ll give you to eat of the hidden manna.” The manna that’s in the ark in the Most Holy Place.

And then the rod that budded typifies revelation from God. Out of revelation comes authority. The rod is the type of authority.

Let me say one more sentence and close. As we come into the Holiest of All, it’s by praise that moves into worship that acknowledges God’s law, His holiness, His unchanging nature that cannot compromise with sin or with evil in any form whatever. Worship is really the response to God’s holiness, the acknowledgment of God’s holiness. Essentially in the original languages, Hebrew and Greek, worship is not something that comes out of the mouth, it’s an attitude. It means to bow down before. Praise comes out of the mouth, but worship is the attitude. In the presence of God we bow before His holiness. Bowing before Him we enter into fellowship with Him, we feed upon Him. Feeding upon Him we receive of Him supernatural revelation. Out of the 12 rods laid out before God there was one that budded overnight and that was the rod of the man whom God had selected. It means divine approval. Stamps you with His authorization to be able to stand forth and say, “Thus says the Lord.”

The way into that—you cannot miss out one step and come to the place. The brazen altar, the brazen laver, the seven branched candlestick, the table of shewbread, the altar of incense, the blood, the incense, the mercy seat, the cherubim and then what the Hebrews call the shekinah glory. It means the glory of God’s personal indwelling presence.