Israel Confirms The Covenant

Transcript

GRS 2-25
6/26/2005
Israel Confirms The Covenant
Exodus 23-24
Gil Rugh

Exodus chapter 15. You know we are in the midst of a very awesome portion of the word of God when you consider that what is being recorded here is that a point in time in history when Almighty God chose to reveal Himself and manifest Himself and His presence on a mountain in a desolate region in a portion of the Middle East. Here we know it as Mount Sinai. It is an awesome time and here is a danger that after the passing of many years and many centuries we lose the impact of what took place that happened to the nation Israel in this event is of utmost importance to the nation Israel, but for all of us who have come to believe the Bible as the word of God, it is an awesome event. It is the reminder of the sovereignty of God. All the nations on the earth and there were some powerful nations in existence and here God has taken again as we have talked about a group of nobodies and that’s what God says Israel was when He choose them they were nothing, they were nobody. He selected Abraham and his wife Sarah, a barren couple who had no children and sovereignly choose that their physical descendants would become of the nation of nations and in all the history of the world they would be the only nation that God would ever choose to be His special people and that’s true right down to our day. It will be true as we move on into the kingdom that Christ will reign over and it will be true as move out into the true dimension of that kingdom.

So, the events were considering picking up in chapter 19 and following, take place as God meets personally with the representatives of Israel on Mount Sinai and particularly Moses is the key individual and God started out in Chapter 20 by giving the ten words or the Ten Commandments and now He has proceeded to unfold and elaborate on those commands and the Jews broke it down and they come up with a total of 613 total commandments given in the Mosaic Law. The ten were simply a concise summary of all that is contained there. We pick up with chapter 23 and note chapter 22 ended verse 31, “You shall be holy men to me, and that concept persuades that all that God is giving and these will be the instructions for Israel as an earthly nation and how they are to conduct themselves. What is to be expected of them morally, what is their civil government to be like and how is it to function? What about their social relationships? There religious responsibilities as an earthly people all of this has to be laid out for them and even though we do not live under the authority of the Mosaic Law, it is part of what the New Testament says “All scripture is God breathed and profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction and for instruction in righteousness so that the Man of God might be perfect, thoroughly furnished for every good work. All that God wants him to be and His holiness and the requirement of all that belong to Him to manifest that holiness pervades these instructions.

So chapter 23 continues the miscellaneous commands. Through chapter 23, we will have laws relating to Honesty first 3 verses, justice laws verse 4 to 9, Sabbath laws verse 10 to 13, feast laws verses 14 to 19, conquest laws relating to when they are going to the land that God has promised them even though sadly that’s forty years away because of their rebellion. Chapter opens up the first nine verses, the honesty laws, the justice laws really expand the command in chapter 20 verse 16, “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.” So, He picks up here in verse 1, you shall not bear a false report. He is picking up again out of Ten Commandments as to elaborate what I mean by that and how you implement that. Do not join your hand with a wicked man to be a malicious witness. You shall not follow the masses in doing evil. In other words it is not an acceptable response everybody was doing it. We tell our children that don’t we, they come and you say why did you that, why would you do that. What you are thinking, well everybody are doing it. Is that an acceptable excuse in your house. I don’t think so. So, it wasn’t to be for God's people. You shall not follow the masses in doing evil nor you shall testify in the dispute so as to turn aside after a multitude in order to pervert justice. You must do what is right. When it comes to the matters of court issues of testimony against someone, you must be faithful and even when the many are perverting the justice and doing the wrong thing, you will be required to stand, nor shall you be partial to a poor man in his dispute.

You know the things haven’t changed. Mosaic Law was given around 1445 BC and here we are 2000 AD, 3500 years about gone by and still you say you must not be partial to those poor man, easy to say, well the rich they deserve it. I am going to side with him. He doesn’t have anything and be good of that person who has so much but lose some of it and they go in right, now wait a minute what is the issue here, what is truly justice, so they won’t be partial to a poor man in dispute that doesn’t mean that you should be partial to a rich man, these kind of things are covered in the law as well, but that danger you know our heart goes out to the poor so there is that kind of dispute between a rich man and a poor man, you might think Oh! My heart goes out to the poor man and the rich man can afford to pay if he has to and so on. So, that’s not the issue. The issue is what is right. You don’t show partiality. You exercise true justice. You represent the living God. If you meet your enemy's ox or his donkey, you return it to him. If you see the donkey of one who hates you that’s is fallen down under a load and then you help it. You shall not say well he is my enemy I don’t do anything for him. Verse 6, “You shall not pervert the justice due to your needy brother in his dispute.” All those things were come down. You have to be careful to be fair and keep far from a false charge. Don’t kill the innocent or righteous, I will not acquit the guilty. You know we face this difficulty in the degeneration of our system of government where it can be easily be come again you know of not finding out, true guilt or true innocence, but all the technicalities gone and that can become the loopholes and so on. In Israel they were to be careful to function fairly and do justice.

You don’ take a bribe because the bribe corrupts you. I mean the bribe is given to win you over to that position. Well a bribe can affect me, so I shouldn’t take because I am not allowed to be influenced by those kind of things. You shall not oppress a stranger since you know the feelings of a stranger, you were strangers in Egypt. Verse 10, you shall sow your land for six years and gather it its yield, but on the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, so that the needy of your people may eat; and whatever they leave the beast of the field may eat. You are to do the same with your vineyard and your olive grove. There is Sabbath year. There is series of different kind of Sabbaths. We are going to some others in a moment. Your have the general weekly Sabbath Saturday, the seventh day. But, you also have the seventh year and every seventh year you didn’t plant your crops. You let the land lie fallow and the poor will be free to through the land and take what they need it and anything that is left over when they were done, the animals could go through that included grain, grapes, olives and that’s all matter and now what God promised because they have to be practical here. We are not going to do anything with the land, we are not going plant anything every seventh year and if we plant nothing in the seventh year, then we will have nothing to harvest in the eighth year and we are going to be in trouble. Well God promises in Leviticus chapter 25 verses 20 to 22. He says I will make the harvest fruitful enough that it will last you for three years. So, you won’t lose anything by letting the ground lie fallow in the Sabbath year. You know sometimes God says something and here it is said in these two verses and we move on then to another Sabbath matter.

For 490 years, the Jews will ignore this requirement. That’s a long-time, think back and where we are go back almost five hundred years, 490 years. You know when you don’t do something and God doesn’t intervene you think well it is not that important. I know he said ii, but look we haven’t done that for a long-time and nothing has happened. There is something is going to happen. God is keeping a record. You know what happened after 490 years, he said divide 7 into 490 and that will be 70. There are seventy years that you owe me that you didn’t observe that year of letting the land by unprepared, unused, unplanted whatever. So, I will take them all at once. So, we have Babylonian captivity that will last seven years. What a tremendous price to pay. When God promised it won’t cost you anything. Look at Leviticus 25. Leviticus 25, verse 20. Verse 18, it says you shall observe my statutes, keep my judgments, carry them out that you may live securely on the land, then the land will yield its produce so that you can eat your fill and live securely on it, but if you say what are we going to eat on the seventh year if we do not sow or gather in our crops. Then I will so order my blessings that in the sixth year it will bring forth crop for three years. You are going to say they are not using the crop in the seventh year and they didn’t plant in the seventh year, so nothing comes in the eighth year, I will give you enough overflowing blessing in your crops in the sixth year that it will last you for three years. So, when you are sowing in the eighth year, you can still eat all things from the crop eating the old until the ninth till the crop comes in. There is no risk. Why wouldn’t they do it? Isn’t it interesting, it always amazes me how I can read the Old Testament and shake my head and wonder why Israel just didn’t do what God said. Then I find myself looking at my life and say why do I have such a hard time just doing what God says. It is so easy to see in someone else, isn’t it why don’t they do it what the Lord said why didn’t they do it the scripture tells. But, if we are honest and we look at our own lives we find that there are areas of our life that we do the same things, we just sort of ignore it and act like it is not that important.

Turn over to second Chronicles chapter 36. I have to go through the books of the law, then first and second Samuel, first and second Kings, first and second Chronicles and we are going to chapter 36, the end of second Chronicles and we are coming to the beginning of the Babylonian captivity. Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon has marched his armies and the southern kingdom had already been taken into captivity by the Assyrians. Now, the Babylonians come and take the Southern Kingdom into captivity. Verse 15 of chapter 36, “The Lord the God of their fathers sent word to them. They sent the prophets to Israel again and again by his messengers because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place in the temple that was at Jerusalem, but they continually mocked the messengers of God, despised His words, scoffed at His prophets until the wrath of the Lord rose against the people until there was no remedy. Therefore, he brought up against them the king of Chaldeans who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary. He had no compassion on young men or virgin, old men or infant, and God gave them all into his hand. All the articles of the house of God, all the treasures were taken to Babylon. Verse 19, they burned the house of God, broke down the wall of Jerusalem, destroyed all its fortified building as fire destroyed all its valuable articles. Those who escaped from the sword, he carried away to Babylon. They were servants and slaves to him until his sons and until the rule of the rule of the King of Persia. Why? Verse 21, “To fulfil the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah until the land had enjoyed its Sabbaths. All the days of its desolation, it kept Sabbath until seventy years were completed, you know what there is nobody there to plant. There is nobody there to harvest. So, for seventy years as Jeremiah had prophesied in Jeremiah chapter 29 verse 10, captivity would last. What a harsh lesson. What a price to pay? When all you could have done was relaxed in the seventh year. Man you don’t have to harvest, you don’t have to plant. Relax and enjoy the bounty of the Lord in His additional prosperity in the sixth year and honour Him with your obedience. So serious matter Israel pays a great price for their rebellion. In Leviticus chapter 25 verse 23, Israel is told by God, the land belongs to me.

You might want to go back to Leviticus 25. This has ramifications in a variety of ways in Israel. Leviticus chapter 25 verse 23, “The land moreover shall not be so permanently for the land is mine.” God is speaking, “For you are but aliens and sojourners with me.” So then the Jews were not allowed to permanently sell their land. They had been given certain pieces of land. Remember Naboth vineyard in the days of infamous Jezebel and Naboth would not sell his inheritance and so Jezebel arranges for him to be unjustly murdered after false charges. So, #, Israel forgot this is not our land. This is God's land. So, we have to do with God's land what God tells us to do and He told every seventh year you observe a Sabbath of the land, and let it lie unused. Back to Exodus 23. Keep in mind with passing of time our rebellions, our unfaithfulness will just look as inexcusable and now they are just as inexcusable when we are doing them, but they are not always that clear to us, but you look back our will be just as glaring as Israel’s were. Chapter 23 of Exodus, verse 12 talks about the weekly Sabbath, after having talked about the seventh year Sabbath, He reminds them of the weekly Sabbath and verse 13, “Now concerning everything which I have said to you, be on your guard; and do not mention the name of other gods, nor let them be heard from your mouth. “ You have to have complete devotion and faithfulness to me. Now we have some feast Sabbaths and there are some major feasts designated for Israel and they promote national, spiritual and social unity in the nation. Remember they are a physical nation, they are also a spiritual people and thus it binds them together nationally, spiritually and socially as a people. Three feasts that require these are the major feasts three times a year. All the males were required if possible to come to Jerusalem to observe these feasts. They were to stop what they do and become part of the observance of these major feasts. There will be other feasts, these major feasts that require the attendance of all the males in Jerusalem.

Verse 14, “Three times a year you shall celebrate a feast to Me. You shall observe first the Feast of Unleavened Bread; for seven days you are to eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the appointed time in the month Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt and none shall appear before Me empty-handed. Feast of unleavened bread, remember it begins with observance of Passover, which is followed by a seven-day feast. So, they become joined together as one event because you observe Passover and that follows if you will right into the feast of unleavened bread. The last seven days and it marked the redemption of Israel from Egypt and so it will occur in our calendar March-April at Passover time. The second feast to be observed, you shall observe the feast of the harvest of the first fruits of your labours from which you serve in the field. The feast of harvest is also called the feast of weeks. It is a terminology referred in chapter 34 verse 22 because it is kept following a 7-week period after the feast of unleavened bread. So, it is called feast of weeks because it happens seven weeks after the feast of unleavened bread is over. You have some references, Leviticus 23:15-16, Deuteronomy 16:19. We know this feast well because it is also called the feast of Pentecost, fifty, because it is observed fifty days after. So, you have the 49 days and then you have the feast of harvest or the feast of weeks or the feast of Pentecost and that becomes significant because it was on this feast day that God choose to establish the church in Acts chapter 2. It will be a time when men from all over Israel would be gathered in Jerusalem because this is one of feast that required their attendance.

Then there is a feast of the Ingathering. In verse 16, “At the end of the year when you gather in the fruit of your labours from the field.” This is also called the feast of Booths. I am getting to the stage with my hearing that lot of these things run together and so I don’t trust anybody and when you are going out say Gill was talking about feast of Booths, does anybody know of that. It also called feast of Booths or the feast of Ingathering because they lived in a grass hut that they constructed. It reminded them that when they had come of Egypt they had to build these temporary structures to live in. So, it is connected with the coming in of the harvest and it is a reminder that this is what they had to do. They had to live in these thatch kind of places made out of the straw and grasses as they left Egypt because they didn’t have a permanent place to stay. That would have been held in October and November, time to offer thanksgiving to God for the harvest. So, verse 17, “Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord God. You shall not offer the blood of My sacrifice with leavened bread; nor the fat of My feast to remain overnight until morning. You shall bring the choice first fruits of your soil into the house of the Lord your God.” It has to be the best and you have strange enigmatic kind of statement I say that because we don’t know quite what its significance is "You are not to boil a young goat in the milk of its mother,” and we don’t know for sure what the explanation is perhaps the most common is that this was the practice of the Canaanites that was associated in their worship system and there is some evidence for that as I read some of the commentaries offered, then you read other commentaries that tries to refute the other explanations offered. The fact is we are not sure, but for Israel the instruction is clear and down to today this has an observance in Israel and among the orthodox. That is why they don’t mix dairy products and meat products.

Many years ago when we were in Israel, and staying in the hotel there, we had breakfast in a different room then they served in and even used the same room because on breakfast they would have dairy products, no meat and for dinner they would have meat products, but no dairy and they don’t use the same utensils, they don’t use the same dishes and they wouldn’t even use the same room for the meal. So, it showed how they developed that. This is where that practice comes from down to today among many in Israel, but I don’t have a good explanation for you, it might have come out because it was involved in Canaanite worship, I just don’t know. The remainder of the chapter has to do with the instructions for when they will enter into the land of promise, the conquest of Canaan. "Behold, I am going to send an angel before you to guard you along the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. "Be on your guard before him and obey his voice; do not be rebellious toward him, for he will not pardon your transgression, since My name is in him.” And this is God's angel, God's messenger who will lead them and this may be a reference to the angel of Lord who is the preincarnate Christ. I think that is a very real possibility. It says in the end of verse 21, “He will not pardon your transgressions since My name is in him.” My name referring to my very nature as I have revealed it and so he is representing Me and I thing there is a good reason to believe this is the angel of the Lord who is leading them and the New Testament refers to role the Christ played in that. They have to be very careful to obey Him, to follow Him, and do all that they are told to do. If you do that, you couldn’t ask for anything more. If you truly obey verse 22, His voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries. For My angel will go before you and bring you in to the land and that’s the land of the Canaanites, and it will become yours. I will completely destroy them, the end of verse 23. I warn you, “You shall not worship their gods, nor serve them, nor do according to their deeds; but you shall utterly overthrow them, destroy all the remnant of their worship, you shall serve the Lord your God, and He will bless your bread and your water; and I will remove sickness from your midst. There shall be no one miscarrying or barren in your land; I will fulfill the number of your days. I will send My terror ahead of you, and throw into confusion all the people.” I mean is this a good bargain. I mean obey me and I will do it all and you don’t have to deal with barley sickness, you don’t have to worry about food, and your enemies won’t be a problem, I will take care of it all. All, you have to do is obey me. I will send my terror ahead of you, throw confusion into the people, make your enemies turn their backs to you in other words they are going to turn and run.

I will send hornets ahead of you. The hornets they are referred to two other times, Deuteronomy 7:20 and Joshua 24:12, they may be literal hornets, but it seems probably in the context of which it is used since there is no description of the hornets doing. Yes it is possible that if refers to the dread and terror. One Jewish commentator has said concerning this that this maybe saying the same thing as verse 27, I will send my terror ahead of you and throw confusion into all the people. So there is nothing but unreasoning dread panic and he notes Arabs this day call panic resulting in mass flight by a word signifying hornet, that comes from Cosuto, a Jewish commentator, but he says the Arab word for signifying panic that results in a mass fleeing that would be the word hornet. Either way what God is offering and promising here is clear and settled and we won’t take the time, you can go through the passages as Israel goes into the land, there is a panic, a fear of Israel on the people of the land that came you remember when Joshua came to Jericho, the terror of these people was on them. They were afraid and so God takes care of the enemies. Down to verse 31, “I will fix your boundary from the Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines,“ and so on. Under Solomon, Israel did gain at least some control over that total area, but never complete control and that is yet to be fully realized.

Alright, you come to chapter 24, the ratification of this covenant really. It is an awesome chapter. One of the great Theophanies unfolder here in the Old Testament. “Then He said to Moses, "Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu and seventy of the elders of Israel, and you shall worship at a distance. Moses alone, however, shall come near to the Lord, you shall not come near.” So, they are going to leave the people and come up to the mountain, but up in the mountain only Moses can come into the very presence of God. It is awesome to me that Nadab and Abihu are included here. They go up on the mountain, a privilege afforded to Moses, Aaron, Nadab and Abihu and seventy elders. The other millions have to stay down away from the base of the mountain and yet Nadab and Abihu are going to be destroyed of the Lord because of their unfaithfulness. There great privileges did not result in their great faithfulness to the Lord and Moses came and recounted to the people all the words of the Lord and all the ordinances; and all the people answered with one voice and said, "All the words which the Lord has spoken we will do!" Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord and he arose early in the morning, and built an altar at the foot of the mountain with twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel, gathers the sacrifices, gathers the blood from the sacrifices that had been offered. Verse 6, then he took the book of covenant read it in the hearing of the people. They said, “All that the Lord had spoken, we will do, we will be obedient, repeat basically what was said in the end of verse 3, they commit themselves to obedience. Again at the end of verse 7, Moses ‘applies the blood of the sacrifices to them and said behold in verse 8, the blood of the covenant which the Lord had made with you and so after the blood was sprinkled on the altar, then the people are sprinkled with the remaining blood and the covenant is joined between Israel and God and it has to be joined by blood because there has to be a sacrifice that is offered. Remember we say at the communion service repeating the words of Christ. This cup is the New Covenant in my blood. It takes my blood to establish the New Covenant. It takes the blood of these animal sacrifices to establish the Mosaic covenant and reminder of the sin, of the holiness of God and the requirement of shedding of blood in order for a relationship with God to be established. All of this anticipating the ultimate sacrifice that God would make.

Then in verse 9, “Moses went up with Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel.” and the next statement is shocking and they saw the God of Israel; remarkable. They saw the God of Israel, and under His feet there appeared to be a pavement of sapphire, as clear as the sky itself. Yet He did not stretch out His hand against the nobles of the sons of Israel; and they saw God, and they ate and drank. What we call a Theophany, just two Greek words, the word for God, the word for manifestation. It is manifestation of God, a God revealing Himself, manifesting His presence in a visible way for them to see. There are several of these in the Old Testament and often John Wolver being one says, I believe his words are there is something effective without doubt. For it is safe to assume that all the Theophanies in the Old Testament are Christophanies. In generally I have no problem with that, but there are some areas that I think do have to be addressed. They could have seen the preincarnate Christ here. We are not told whether it is God the father or God the son, God the son seem to be the normal person of the Godhead who manifests Himself. There is no description of His appearance. Under His feet there is a pavement and what they could tell it appeared to be a pavement of sapphire and purity although it makes clear like sky and it is repeated again in verse 11, they saw God. So whether it is the father or the son, they saw God. Some of other Theophanies. Look at Isaiah chapter 6 verse 5. Chapter 6 verson1, “In the year of King Uzziah’s death, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted with a train of His robe filling the temple. The Seraphim are there crying Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory. Now we know this is a Christophany because in John’s gospel chapter 12 and verse 41, John quotes from this section of Isaiah and says that Isaiah wrote this when he saw the glory of Christ. Let me tell you something of the Theophanies in Old Testament. Here something you have glory of Christ manifest enthroned in heaven before His incarnation at Bethlehem.

Look at Ezekiel. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel. We were in Ezekiel chapter 2 in our study of Corinthians. Ezekiel chapter 1, one of the great Theophanies in the Old Testament. Every Theophany in Old Testament is a great one, but this is a rather extensive presentation of the events associated with the manifestation of the presence of God in a visible way so that he could be seen by the servants of the Lord. The end of verse 1 just for time, “The heavens were opened and I saw visions of God. In the visions, and in that he is going to see God in these visions. We don’t have time to go through all the descriptions here. We come down to verse 26, “Now above the expanse that was over their heads,” and these are the living beings, their wings spread out and so on. Something resembling a throne. On that which resembled a throne, high up, was a figure with the appearance of a man. I noticed from the appearance of His loins and upward something like glowing metal that looked like fire all around within it, and from the appearance of His loins and downward I saw something like fire; and there was a radiance around Him. Rainbow in the clouds so was the
appearance of the surrounding radiance and such was the appearance of the likeness
of the glory of the Lord And when I saw it, I fell on my face. What did I Isaiah say, we didn’t go in chapter 6, “Owe is me,” I mean how can you see the glory of the and not overwhelmed. When John sees the glory of resurrected Christ, he falls over like a dead man Revelation chapter 1. So, here you see the Lord on a throne with blazing glory and there is the appearance like a man as something of a human form in this manifestation.

Now you are in Ezekiel, just continue on to Daniel just after. This is perhaps most remarkable of all of what we looked at. In Daniel chapter 7, because in Daniel chapter 7, in his dreams and visions, Daniel sees both the Father and the Son. So there is clear manifestation of both Theophany and Christophany. Look at verse 9, “I kept looking until thrones were set up, And the Ancient of Days took His seat,” this is God the Father, “His vesture was like white snow, the hair of His head like pure wool, His throne was ablaze with flames, Its wheels were a burning fire, a river of fire was flowing and coming out from before Him; Thousands upon thousands were attending Him, and myriads upon myriads were standing before Him; The court sat, and he books were opened.” And we know that is the God the Father because verse 13, "I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, and He came up to the Ancient of Day and was presented before Him. And to Him was given kingdom that is eternal.”

So, here you have the son of God coming before the throne of His father to receive from His the kingdom over which He will rule, awesome event. God the father is manifested and again His appearance has at least something associated with the figure of a ma. He is sitting on a throne. In verse 9, the hair of His head was like pure wool. So the description of Him being like a man, in that description He appears as a man. Be careful not saying God the father exists in the form of a man. God is a Spirit. But, as He manifest Himself to be visible before our eyes the God who is Omnipresent must take some kind of form. The Omnipresent God is present here now, but none of us see Him. If He was going to become visible for us to behold either in a vision or with these eyes, He would have to take some kind of form to manifest His presence in a way that we would be able to see. So, in this account clearly a vision of God is given. I am aware that the Bible says in John’s gospel that no man has seen God anytime, the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him. He has explained Him. He has manifested Him and no one has seen God in the fullness of His glory # in our physical bodies that is not a possibility, but here that does not mean that you have seen a manifestation of God's glory and God's appearance.

Come over to the Book of Revelation, and the more it is revealed the more awesome it gets and sometimes I think the less I understand. In Revelation 4 and 5, John is transported in the Spirit to heaven and there he beholds the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, remarkable. Now all this ties to what we doing in Exodus 24 because we are talking about Theophanies, God manifesting his presence for man to see. Look at Revelation chapter 4, John is called up to heaven, in verse 2, “Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne was standing in heaven, and One sitting on the throne and He who was sitting was like a jasper stone and a sardius in appearance; and there was a rainbow around the throne, like an emerald in appearance.” Remember rainbow appeared in Ezekiel’s description of God as He saw Him. This is God the Father. Chapter 5 and verse 1, “I saw on the right hand of Him who sat on the throne,” the one who is just described in verses 2 and 3 of chapter 4. A scroll sealed up with seven seals and a cry is heard “Who is worthy to open the book, to break its seals. No one in heaven, on earth or under the earth was able to open the book.” John began to weep. What a tragedy and one of the twenty four elders say to him, “Stop weeping because the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the root of David has overcome to open the Book and its seven seals and I saw between the throne and the elders, a lamb standing as if slain.” In verse 7, “He came and took the book out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne.” Now here we have the description going on in chapter 4 verses 2 and 3, “I saw one sitting on a throne.” That will the idea at least at the general form in appearance of a man and now He has a right arm extending the seven seal scroll for the lamb of God Jesus Christ to take it out of His hand. So John sees here both a manifestation of God the Father and God the Son.

Over in chapter 7 verse 10, they are crying out “Salvation to our God, who sits on the throne and to the Lamb. Again, the distinction made between the Father and the Son. Now not only the Father and the Son present in the throne remain in glory, but we have the Holy Spirit and His presence is visibly manifested as well, remarkable. In
Revelation chapter 4, verse 5, “And there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.” Look down in chapter 5 verse 6, the last part of the verse, “The Lamb has seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God, sent out into all the earth.” In Revelation chapter 1 and verse 4, refer to the seven Spirits who are before His throne and it seems there is a general agreement that these seven Spirits and the seven eyes that are representing the seven Spirits is the representation of the Holy Spirit Himself. It seems well that strange terminology, but remember there are hundreds of allusions to the Old Testament and the Book of Revelation, no direct quotes from the Book from the Old Testament and the Book of Revelation, but hundreds of references. Go back to Zachariah right at the end of your Old Testament, the next to the last Book of the Old Testament. The Book of Zachariah, and we go to chapter 3, all of this to say look at this that God has chosen to reveal Himself as the God who exists eternally in three persons, Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. He has revealed and manifested Himself to servants in Old Testament and New Testament and the indication in the Book of Revelation is when we get to glory, we will see the Father on His throne, we will see the Son and we will see the Spirit, the Holy Spirit present. It shows to manifest themselves and their presence in such a way that we will be able to behold them and I don’t claim to understand this or I will be able to put this together, but the reality of it is undeniable.

Zachariah, chapter 3; verse 9, “For behold, the stone that I have set before Joshua; on one stone are seven eyes Behold, I will engrave an inscription on it,’ declares the Lord,” and so on. So you have the seven eyes on the stone. Now come down to chapter 4 and verse 2, an angel asks Zachariah “What do you see? and “I see behold a lampstand all of gold with its bowl on the top of it, and its seven lamps on it with seven spouts belonging to each of the lamps which are on the top of it and then two olive trees.” The angel asks him “You know what these are? And I said “No I don’t my Lord.” In verse 5. Then in verse 6, the angel said, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel saying not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, say the Lord.” So, we have the seven lamps with seven spouts, they represent the Holy Spirit, manifestation of God's working His purposes in the world through the ministry of the Spirit and we are going come down to verse 10, “For who has despised the day of small things, but these seven.” Go back to verse 2, the seven lamps with seven spouts, these seven these are the eyes of the Lord which reigns to and fro throughout the earth and we don’t have time to look at some of the references. Second Chronicles 15:3, the Lords eyes going to and fro, Lord beholding on the earth the evil and the good is the ministry of Holy Spirit. That’s why His work is accomplished. The end of verse 6, “Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit says the Lord.” These are the eyes of the Lord, the one # His work and His representation takes place as it is carried out through the earth.

So, from this background we come to the Book of Revelation and we find the seven eyes and the Lamb having seven eyes because it is the Spirit that He sends out into the world and doing His work and so what is manifested in heaven is a visible evidence of the presence of the Holy Spirit, a visible evidence and manifestation of the presence of the Father and the visible manifestation of the presence of the Son. We are probably most familiar with the concept of the manifestation of the second person of the Triune God, the Son of God because He is the one who became incarnate and received the glorified body and that body becomes a permanent part of His existence although He is no limited to that body since He is the Omnipresent God, but His presence is manifested because all creation lives with the limitations of creation. So there is no creation that is Omnipresent and so God chooses to manifest His presence to display His person in a given locale if you will that is what we call heaven and there the Father will manifest, the Son will be manifested, and the Holy Spirit will be manifested. So, we get the glory, we are going to see, then it will become clear. So, I tried to picture this. I have some pictures who someone drew that they tried to convey some of this in the Book of Revelation. You know it is just hard to put it together. What it is going to look like. You know we are going to be a strange looking group as we walk around heaven all of us with our mouths open and our bugging out. I wonder how many millions of years it will take us to close our mouth. You know put your eyes a little close, you look a little better. You know we are going to be in awe. Can you imagine? We are going to be walking around and the glory of that place and we are going to stand before His throne and there is going to be the Lamb and there is going to be the Holy Spirit. God almighty manifests for the benefit of this creation. So that we might see the evidence of His presence and so honour Him. We go back and what is taking place and don’t fully understand it and later Moses is going to be told, “No man can see My face and live,” in Exodus 33. But, Moses sees the back parts of God's glory. I don’t know what that means. Puts him in cleft in the rock and he sees something of the glory of God, but he wouldn’t be able to behold the fullness of God and I don’t know. Is the God we serve? And we are His creation, and in eternity, we will be privileged to see Him face to face as those who have been redeemed by His glory. So, I assume that it is not possible for us to behold His glory in these physical bodies, but our glorified bodies will prepare us for that and beholding a glory that we could not contain, we could not withstand in these yet unredeemed bodies. Well we will stop there and as you get that all worked out in the next week, we will be ready to move on in the Book of Exodus. I can’t wait to read your book.

Lets pray together. Thank you father for Your grace in knowing that we are but dust, you have created us. You know our weaknesses and our frailties and in mercy you have chosen to make Yourself known and these remarkable occasions where you manifested in a clear way the glory of your presence for certain of your servants, but a foretaste of glory that awaits all of the redeemed who someday will indeed be gathered before the throne that was described for us in Revelation and we shall see the manifestation of Your glorious presence, the presence of your Son, the presence of the Spirit, and in awe we join in the worship offered by the host of heaven or these truths grip our hearts, keep us from sinking into the realm of mundane or simply trafficking in things of awesome spiritual truth and the Lord may we live as those who are privileged to be the sons of the living God, destine for glory beyond description. May our service for you in the days of this week be characterized by faithfulness. We pray in Christ’s Name. Amen.