Coffee and Conversations

Defining Circumstances

Shadow defined is a function of—and constitutes irrefutable evidence of—the presence of light.
Thesis Statement

The real, substantive, and eternal view of a shadow is found in the light of knowing God intimately through the eternal picture of the earthly tabernacle.

What I Can Tell You Upfront
What I can tell you upfront is that I’m sorry that my knowledge of the Father is only finitely descriptive of an infinite reality. With sure notions of gratitude in my heart I come humbly now to script out a picture of what only the Holy Spirit can reveal internally. I often wonder if there is a particular science to writing about word pictures without it sounding East Texan to the reader; however, it’s what I are. I’ve been reading the Torah and have found great delight in reading these wonderful word pictures of Christ. I wrote a few weeks back about listening to the voice of God even when it calls for the strange, and cuzz, business is booming. What I can also tell you upfront is this, the earthly tabernacle no longer exist or the contents thereof, so be sure to mark this down in the imprint of your heart; everything written down about the tabernacle is a shadow of the real, substantive, and eternal relationship found in Jesus Christ.
The Real
About the time that Moses was stomping towards the wedding ceremony at Mount Sinai, the Holy One spoke to us (Israel – Chosen People which includes we grafted in gentiles) about two million in all face to face and guess what happened? We couldn’t handle the level of intimacy that our Divine Bridegroom was offering. We trembled at the sound of His voice. We shook in our boots (sandals, more like Chaco’s, and definitely not flip flops) at the majestic manifestation of His presence. We hid humbly (supposedly) in false modesty. We ran in immature fear. The real of this situation is that we could not handle the fact that God would dare to stoop to our level and actually want to have a face to face relationship with us. We instead insisted that Moses be our spokes person, because we feared that if God spoke we would die. It is funny how man wants to rely upon another man to hear from God.
God obliges us by showing Moses and Aaron (who by the way were eager to walk in to the presence of God boldly) on that mountain during a period of forty days and nights the exact details of what this earthly tabernacle was going to look like. The Holy One is prepared to reveal the glory of living in intimacy with His chosen people and to nurture this relationship, but since our fear caused us to pause; He gives Moses instructions on building a tabernacle that is to be a shadow of the real. God then could have rebuked us or even disciplined us; however, His response to our immaturity gives us a glimpse into His goodness and grace. The Holy One is the patience bridegroom who patiently demonstrates His infinite love for us; now that is real.

Substantive
Moses has a substantive experience on top of Mount Sinai by engaging in an intimate relationship God, who gives specific instructions on the earthly tabernacle. Much has been made by what actually happen on the mount that day; I’m not sure what it looked like, but it was much more than we can humanly imagine. God gives detailed words on what is to be the means by which God and man can experience intimacy in “show” form. The Tabernacle is a replica of an actual intimate experience that is available to us through Jesus. The tabernacle was never meant to be anything other than a replica! A replica of what though? The tabernacle is a replica of the real and substantive Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the tabernacle. Let’s look at the substance contained within.
The most famous substance in play is the Ark of the Covenant, John wrote in Revelation 4:2, ‘a throne, and someone sitting upon it’. The ark is the throne of the holy of holies which we have access because of the blood of Jesus. To boldly enter the throne with confidence the writer of Hebrew says in 4:16. It is atop this mercy seat that we find the holy one who sits eternally and is by this calling us in to his wedding chamber to experience a substantive face to face relationship with Him.
We are however, left to our flesh, still in fear that the Holy one would not allow this. The ark is not just a piece of religious art work awaiting for the person to first make themselves right and then enter in to the throne room. The ark is the center of gravity of the Kingdom of God; it is where we run to find mercy and grace in our time of need. The ark given to Moses to build was a shadow of what we have now in the present reality of Kingdom living. The substance of the ark is that God is drawing us into himself so that we may rest our lives in His presence.



Eternal
Moses step into an eternal state when he first gazed upon the father and received the instructions given to build this earthly replica of a real relationship. The eternal is not wrapped up in our concept of time. If we could measure eternity in what we know as time, then it would not be eternal. We live in a box of time, eternity is transcends time to where it does not exist. The present reality of the tabernacle is an eternal reality because Moses saw it on the mountain. Not only did he receive instructions and details about the tabernacle but he saw it in its eternal reality. What God asked Moses to build on earth was just a shadow of that reality; Moses gazed upon the eternal view of a shadow.
We can muster up all kinds of theology here to give credence to a denominational viewpoint but we all know that would be messy at best. That is why we in our flesh are finite, measured by time; we have a beginning and an end. The eternal make up of who we are is in the spirit. We must understand that we are eternal beings that our make-up is in Christ and not in this flesh we walk around in. The eternal reality is that the flesh has been crucified, and we are living eternal beings in the eternal Kingdom. The reality of eternity is life in Christ; it’s no longer just a shadow for us in time, but an eternal reality now.
What I Can Tell At the End
What I can tell you at the end of this article is that we tend to live in a here and now perspective and forget that the eternal view is a reality now. The replica of the temple is a reality in Jesus Christ. Jesus as led us into the bridal chamber through His blood and we have access to His throne. If you are living outside of resting in his lap, then you are living in the groan of the flesh, you are living in the shadows of what is temporal and doesn’t last. Resting in the lap of Christ gives us as John did (who placed his head upon his breast) the intimate reality of a lasting relationship. Crawling into the lap of God now is living in the real, substantive, eternal view of what the tabernacle plays out, which is just a shadow of us being drawn into the bridal chamber to experience intimacy with God.