025: Matthew Blewett - Making the Ark

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

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   Welcome to the Good Christadelphian Talks podcast. I'm Levi. And I'm Chris. Thank you so much for joining us this week. On this podcast, we select one talk a week to help each one of us get the Bible in our daily news feed. We post at the start of each week for you to listen with a short intro beforehand to kind of set the stage for the talk you're about to hear. And now let's hear more about this week's talk. This week's talk is by Brother Matthew Blewett from Westville Ecclesia in South Africa. He presents this class at the Shippensburg Bible School in 2005. This individual class is titled Making the Ark. It's the second class in a series that he gave there on the Ark of the Covenant and found it really great. This class is really full of kind of individual study nuggets, I would call them, in kind of the types and meanings of the actual parts and making of the Ark of the Covenant.

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   He really, this whole series was so good. And he uses these first two classes to, I think, set up what the meaning of the Ark was. And then there's four other classes on kind of individual stories of the Ark of the Covenant. And now when we understand more of what the deeper meaning of the Ark was, how those are kind of opened up more for us with that information. I found this class to be just super encouraging. It's worth saying that in the first class, because he mentions it a few times in this second class. In the first class, he goes into some detail on the importance of symbology in the Bible and how the believers at that time, you know, the children of Israel, would be forced or almost, you know, invited to think on a spiritual plane when they would see these details that we kind of cover here in this class on the making of the Ark. He repeats that through the whole series, just the importance of thinking spiritually, you know, in regular kind of day-to-day things, kind of, you know, raising our thinking onto the spiritual plane, which is always so true for me that trying to find a deeper meaning in things, in the symbology, is definitely how I find a better connection in my faith. So this class fit right in with that. Like I said, the whole series is great.

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   If you want to find it on Christophinbibletalks.com, we will eventually load it onto the extended podcast. But yeah, this is a great one by Matthew Bluett. Matthew is so easy to listen to, such a great accent, very dynamic speaker. Actually, in Shippensburg in 2005, there was a young teenage boy traveling from California who listened to Matthew Bluett's teen classes. That was me.

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   Matthew and Mark Giordano and Roger Lewis, this was a great year to be at Shippensburg for classes, especially. So I remember this time very well, but I was in a different room when these classes were presented. So I really enjoyed going back and giving this series a listen. Thank you so much for listening. We really appreciate your support. Like Chris said, we're nearing 10,000 downloads, which we're excited about. It's just such a blessing that this idea has been so helpful for so many as it has been helpful for Chris and I.

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   Please let us know about any suggestions. We really live off those that you have. Contact us by email or any of the social channels. So here we are. This is class two on Making the Ark by Matthew Bluett. Well, good morning, brothers and sisters. It's good to be with you again. Brother... Yes, you can say good morning.

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   Brother Mark said, if there's one thing I do this morning, I can't finish five minutes earlier because he would be upset with me not fulfilling the full time so that he could be in good company. Having said that, we actually do have quite a bit to cover this morning because we're going to be looking specifically at the components of the Ark. And hopefully what you gathered from yesterday, what I was trying to say was that in my view, the Ark represented God as a Savior.

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   Savior. So it was a manifestation of God, but a manifestation of God as a Savior of his people. And what we're going to see as we now, with this spiritual perspective as I call it, come and have a look with this perspective at the Ark. We're going to see how God through this Ark of the Covenant was teaching the people some of the most unbelievable principles and detail about how he is going to save.

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   And when I see what we're going to see this morning and consider the intricacy contained in the Word of God, it really makes me begin to understand how much was possible to be known by those who were living in those times. I myself have been criticized on the odd occasion by our brethren and sisters, I guess, for perhaps thinking that men of the Old Testament knew more than they did.

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   We often perhaps can, with our hindsight, think that they did. But I really believe that when we look at some of the patterns that they received, that given the spiritual mind that many of them had, as we know Abraham had, that they would have been able to see a great deal of what God's plan of salvation was all about.

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    When Jesus said, Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it, I think he meant that in every aspect of the Word, that Abraham had an intimate understanding of this Messiah, who was going to be central to God's plan for salvation. The other point I want to make at the outset is that we were speaking about how this plan, this master plan of God is being revealed through the Ark of the Covenant.

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    And of course, it's been revealed through the whole tabernacle. In fact, the tabernacle was known as the tent of meeting. That same word. But here's the interesting point, and we're going to hopefully see that intensity this morning. When you walk through the tabernacle, and look at the various aspects of the tabernacle, it's almost like there are pieces of the salvation plan being given to you, in the laver, in the altar of burnt offering, in the altar of incense, in the showbread.

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    Aspects of God's plan for salvation. But when you come into the Holy of Holies, there is so much. There is the fullness of this plan revealed. All of this partial detail brought together in one item, the Ark. Makes me think of a passage. Are you there? Hebrews chapter 1. Let's have a look at it very briefly.

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    Hebrews 1. Hebrews 1. God, who had sundry times and in diverse manners, spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, who beath the appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds, who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high.

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    So Hebrews 1 is saying that throughout the Old Testament, we would have been given different aspects of God's plan, of God's heavenly reality, in different ways. Much like if you were walking through the tabernacle, you would see aspects of God's plan. But when we come to Jesus, it's all there in one person.

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    The radiance of his glory. The brightness of his image. And so as we come and we open the veil, we shouldn't be surprised that when we look into the detail of the Ark of the Covenant, all of these principles of salvation are coming out and being taught to us. So that's what we want to do.

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    We want to look at the making of the Ark. And I'm sure many of you have taken some time to do this before, and some of this territory will be area that you've covered. But hopefully there will be a few new ideas or perspectives coming into looking at the Ark with this particular idea of salvation in mind.

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    So that's our title tonight, this morning, The Making of the Ark. So what I thought I'd do to start with is let the technology do some work. And we're going to look at a little video clip, which hopefully will come through okay for all of you. The image is not the full screen, so hopefully you can see.

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    And really this is going to save us reading this passage, but just so that you get an idea of what were the components of the Ark of the Covenant. And we're going to hope that technology works for us on this.

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    Make an Ark of Acacia Wood, a sacred chest, three and three-quarter feet long, two and a quarter feet wide, and two and a quarter feet high. Overlay it inside and outside with pure gold, and put a molding of gold all around it. Cast four rings of gold for it, and attach them to its four feet, two rings on each side.

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    Make poles from Acacia Wood, and overlay them with gold. Fit the poles into the rings at the sides of the Ark to carry it. These carrying poles must never be taken from the rings. They are to be left there permanently. When the Ark is finished, place inside it the stone tablets inscribed with the terms of the covenant which I will give to you.

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    Then make the Ark's cover, the place of atonement, out of pure gold. It must be three and three-quarter feet long, and two and a quarter feet wide. Then use hammered gold to make two cherubim, and place them at the two ends of the atonement cover. Attach the cherubim to each end of the atonement cover, making it all one piece.

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    The cherubim will face each other, looking down on the atonement cover with their wings spread out above it. Place inside the Ark the stone tablets inscribed with the terms of the covenant which I will give to you. Then put the atonement cover on top of the Ark. I will meet with you there and talk to you from above the atonement cover between the gold cherubim that hover over the Ark of the Covenant.

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    From there, I will give you my commands for the people of Israel. I hope that gives you some idea of the components of the Ark and reminds you of these various aspects. So what we're going to do now is we want to take each of these aspects and say, what spiritual reality was being taught through that component of the Ark that would have been a lesson for the people of that day and still a lesson for us about how God works in salvation.

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    Well, the first was a point that we had alluded to earlier and it really came out very well, I think, in that image where you saw this wooden chest that had been made almost looking like a coffin and suddenly this gold that encompassed this wooden chest. And of course, as far as gold is concerned, there are two ideas that I want you to think of that were being taught to the children of Israel through the concept of gold.

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    The first, I guess, comes through the natural representation of gold as being something in our experience at least that represents permanence. And of course, even from a spiritual perspective, Jesus says in Revelation 3, I counsel thee to buy of me gold. So gold is, in a sense, representative for us of immortality, as we spoke of yesterday.

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    And that the plan of salvation is to take this mortality and to cover it with immortality. Now, I want to show you how patterns work with spiritual reality. And the word of God is full of these and we're going to see some of these coming out. Look at this. Before I do that, that's another representation of the ark that I found that I thought was probably maybe a bit more realistic, only because it wasn't as smooth, perhaps.

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    And I think if you listen carefully to the text, the rings were at the feet of the ark. So it's more likely that these stays were further down. But not that that really matters too much in what we're going to be considering specifically this morning. But, look at this. 1 Corinthians 15. Now I want you to think about the ark and listen to these words.

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    For this corruptible must put on incorruption. This mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?

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    The sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. And can you see as you saw that image that we saw on the ark of the covenant of immortality engulfing, swallowing up death. Here God was giving a pattern of this spiritual reality.

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    In a sense 1 Corinthians 15 verse 53 to 57 was written in the ark of the covenant. And this is the point that I'm trying to make that so many of the spiritual realities that are revealed to us perhaps more overtly in the New Testament were clearly there in pattern in the Old Testament here with the ark of the covenant.

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    And so the first lesson of God's master plan is that it begins with the fact that we are mortal. And we teach this in our first principle classes. How many of us use the pattern of the ark to teach our friends who believe in immortal souls that it begins with a casey wood and a coffin.

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    It begins with death that must be covered. We go to 1 Corinthians 15 maybe we can bring them the pattern. If God thought the pattern was good to teach the Jewish people perhaps it's good to teach our friends to remind them that our condition begins with immortality and then moves on to immortality.

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    But what's the other aspect of gold? The one that perhaps the word of God uses gold more often in the context of. Come with me to 1 Peter chapter 1 also a well known passage but worth looking at carefully here. 1 Peter chapter 1 Here gold is described in a different way. Verse 7 of 1 Peter That says Peter the trial of your faith being more precious than of gold that perishes though it be tried with fire might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.

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    So here is a second principle that is being taught in just this first aspect of the ark. Not only do we have to in salvation put on incorruption put on immortality the way we're going to do that is by being putting on according to Peter tried faith. Is it true that the pattern of the ark was already teaching the children of Israel that it would be by faith faith in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ that we would find salvation?

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    This is the point that I believe is being taught very clearly here that we need to cover ourselves with faith. Why faith? Because it's by faith that we take on the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Philippians 3 verse 9 says And if I be found in him not having mine own righteousness which is of the law but that which is through the faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God by faith.

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    So here's the point we are covered by this faith covering which is essentially the covering provided by the Lord Jesus Christ which is the covering that we take on in baptism when we are baptized into Christ and have put on Christ. Look at these ideas that come out quite clearly the complete covering of righteousness.

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    Did you notice that it made one point very clear and we'll come back to look at this in a moment as well. It said that when the ark was to be covered with gold it was to be covered on the outside and the inside. Now think about that from a practical point of view.

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    I mean this needed to be a beautiful instrument. Why cover it on the inside? The atonement cover was always on. Nobody could see in the inside of the ark. To me that's a waste much like those who saw the woman with the perfume jar thought it was a waste but didn't understand the pattern.

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    Naturally it was a waste. Why cover the inside with gold? But the pattern meant it had to be covered with gold. It's a complete covering we require. The covering that is ours is one that needs to be complete. Come with me to a number of passages that I think are just so beautiful in this context.

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    Romans chapter 13. Romans 13. Talking about the covering that we need that needs to be complete. Brother Mark had us at this passage and we are going to be taking a verse after the verse that he spoke of about writing and drunkenness and chambering and wantonness strife and envying and the opposite of that the fellowship we need to be sharing in is in verse 14.

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    And put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof. Isn't that a wonderful principle? What he's saying is when you put on Jesus you've got to be completely covered. There's no part of the flesh that can be revealed because the flesh just needs the smallest place to get through.

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    When you cover this ark cover it completely gold inside outside everywhere because if you leave just the smallest part for flesh it will take the gap. It will destroy you. so the ark was covered on the outside and the inside as well. We've been to the Philippians passage we've been to Galatians or we've mentioned Galatians what about Colossians 3 verse 10 let's have a look at Colossians 3 verse 10 again looking at this idea of the complete covering that we require Colossians 3 verse 10 and having put on the new man which is renewed in the knowledge after the image of him that created him where there is neither Greek nor Jew uncircumcision nor circumcision nor uncircumcision barbarian Scythian bond nor free but Christ is all and in all isn't that another marvelous reality of the pattern we've just seen this gold must be everywhere and here he's saying put on Jesus so that Christ may be all and in all there's no part of you that I can see that isn't Christ and I'm thinking of one other reference that seems to be so relevant to this particular pattern you remember the story of the marriage feast when they came into that marriage it's in Matthew 22 if you want to go and have a look at the record Matthew 22 when they were invited and many didn't want to come and eventually they went out into the streets to fetch anyone who would come to be a part of God's holy of holies of God's celebration and of course when all of them had gathered the king came out when the king came

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    verse 11 to see the guests he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment ! an unclothed one someone the righteousness garment over him he said friend how did you come in here not having a wedding garment and he was speechless then said the king to the servants bind him hand and foot take him away and cast him into outer darkness you see to be in the holy of holies you have to have the wedding garment on and if you think you can get in there without the wedding garment it

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    where there is no fellowship coming back to what brother Mark has been saying and this is the destiny for those who do not have this covering of faith that we are encouraged to have one final reference on this Isaiah 61 Isaiah 61 and at verse 10 talking about this covering we are to have and this is specifically relevant to this marriage garment and relevant to the message of salvation in the ark of the covenant verse 10 of Isaiah 61 I will greatly rejoice in Yahweh my soul shall be joyful in my God why for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation he has covered me with the robe of righteousness as a bridegroom decks herself with ornaments and as a bride adorns herself with jewels for as the earth bringeth forth her bud and cause the things that are sown to spring forth so Yahweh will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations we have this garment given to us it's almost a beautiful garment of righteousness of salvation and here it was being taught to those who were able to see this pattern of the covering of gold one last point on this very first issue with respect to the ark

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    with gold within and without and I think the order again in the detail is extremely relevant you see when you seek for the covering of faith the message of the new covenant is it has to begin within faith as a covering begins within now to all of us sitting in the room that was an insight given to the people of those days but it's an insight for us isn't it because for many of us living in the natural world we often perhaps fall into the trap of thinking that if we can deal with the without the within will take care of itself the word of God doesn't say that does it it says you need to begin with the within you need to begin with your mind and your thinking and your relationship with God don't think that if you begin to do a whole bunch of good works that the inside will also be clean that's what the Pharisees thought they thought if they managed to achieve all the things on the outside the inside would take care of itself Jesus said this well unto you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites for you may clean the outside of the cup and of the platter but within you are full of extortion and excess you blind Pharisees cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter then the outside may also be clean woe unto you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites for you are like unto whited sepulchers which indeed appear beautiful on the outside that's what the ark could have been like but are within full of dead men's bones and of all uncleanness were

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    no bones in the ark just gold outside these are marvelous principles of salvation that we grapple with being taught in the pattern of the ark of the covenant well let's have a look now at the next aspect of the ark we've looked at the chest and the covering of gold and then we read this in verse 25 of Exodus 25 if you want to make your way there Exodus 25 verse 25 and you shall make unto

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    the border thereof round about now in doing this study I have confessions to make and when I make those confessions I show you the limitation of my understanding of this passage and I'm sure others out there can then come and give me the gaps so that next time I'm able by God's grace to deliver this we can fill those gaps in so on this particular occasion my confession is

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    the normal word for crown used by a king in the Old Testament however if you look at the Hebrew word and I'm not going to give it to you the Hebrew word means a border molding for ornamental purposes the word doesn't appear too often it appears very often in terms of all the borders and ornaments that were used in the tabernacle I want to suggest to you that although

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    what God was saying is that this object was to be glorified was to be made beautiful and in a sense this had a link back to royalty why do kings wear crowns they wear them so that people can understand that the authority and the glory is due to them and so in a sense perhaps this crown is a symbol of royalty we know that certainly the mercy seat was a symbol and so it would not seem inappropriate that in this border that God had on the ark of the covenant he was teaching another principle of salvation another principle of his master plan and that is that I am going to save you that my plan centers around a king and a kingdom that's unique that's something that obviously had been taught through the promises but that is a unique aspect of God's master plan I am saving through a king through a kingdom we teach this to our friends and to our children as the central aspect of our faith this idea of kingdom and of course in this sense the Lord Jesus Christ came as that king in Luke 1 we read that he was to be the king who would sit on the throne of his father David and in this sense Jesus as Yah shall save was bringing out this point that God was going to save through a king who would at last establish a kingdom and I'm thinking of these matters a brother came to me in fact yesterday and said when you spoke of a particular aspect of the crown I thought of the crown of thorns that was

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    put at the head of the Lord Jesus Christ and that got my mind going and so thank you for that point and let's go to John 19 if you will John 19 you never finished writing a talk John chapter !

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    perhaps we might be reading a bit too much into this I wonder John 19 then Pilate therefore took Jesus scourged him the soldiers planted a crown of thorns why because they were going to mock him as a king they put it on his head and they put on him a purple robe they said hail king of the Jews and they smote him with their hands Pilate therefore went forth again and said unto then behold I bring forth to you that you may know that I find no fault in him then came Jesus forth look at this in verse 5 wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe Pilate said behold the man is this a picture of the ark the crown of thorns the purple robe when the children of Israel saw the ark do you think they saw what we saw in the picture there they didn't see that did they when the ark was to be transported they took the veil and they covered the ark with the veil and then they covered it with badger skin and finally they covered it with what the authorized version says with a blue covering blue purple the Greek word for purple is a mixture of blue and red I'll leave the rest for you to consider the reality of the pattern before the people behold the man God saviour you saw him in the wilderness it was the center of all that you were and here he is before you in whom there is no fault pure gold an amazing reality of a spiritual pattern and you know what the hope is that all

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    the time when we looking at the ark because it is a demonstration of the salvation plan of God we're seeing Jesus as the one who is saved and we're seeing ourselves and of course our hope is to be kings and priests our hope is to be those who receive crowns couple couple couple

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    It is given unto them to have rulership, to be amongst those who will rule in the kingdom of God. Was this being taught in pattern, in this simple symbol of the Ark of the Covenant? Well, then we come to verse 26. And we read that there were four rings of gold. Four rings of gold.

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    What can we make of four rings of gold? And put the rings on the four corners of the four feet. Over against the border shall the rings be for the places of the staves to bear the table. The Hebrew word for rings, I think we might have that up here, is the word tabahath.

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    And it means this. A seal. A signet. The ring of a king. You see, in those days, a ring was used by a king to represent his authority. When he made a promise, you knew it was going to happen because it had the seal of the king. And the Word of God has a number of passages that prove that point, but maybe I can just refer you to one in the interest of time.

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    And that's Esther 3. Esther 3. The significance of a ring. Esther 3. And at verse 10. And the king took his ring from his hand. And of course, this is the story of Haman. When the king was giving authority to Haman, the son of Hamadatha, the Agagath, the Jew's enemy. And Haman took the ring to make sure that the decree that he was making concerning the Jews who would need to be destroyed would take place.

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    And it says at the end of verse 12, In the name of King Ahasuerus was it written, and it was sealed with the king's ring. In other words, people knew that this was a promise. It was a royal promise and it would happen because it had the seal of the king. Even today, we use rings in the same way.

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    Take my ring off, so that's pretty good. We have our rings. And perhaps there is a scriptural basis, sometimes we wonder, because it represents the promise we make. And the ring is round, so it has no end. It's an eternal promise that we make. A covenant. Four rings. The story of salvation. The promises of God.

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    The royal promises of God are the foundation of God's master plan. That's the insight that we have as a community that is lost on most of the world. And there it is. In the ark of the covenant. The four promises. Four promises. Abraham received promises directly. Isaac did. Jacob did. And of course David.

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    Four promises. Four rings. The promise of a land. Of a people. Of a king. And a law. There was a great deal being taught to the people here. That my plan will be revealed to you through a covenant. A royal covenant that you can take part in. And look again at, like we saw before, the pattern and the spiritual reality.

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    Look at these words. Here's the spiritual reality. We know them well in 2 Peter 1. Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. 2 Peter's telling us the way you become gold, the way you become incorruptible is by participating in these promises.

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    Is by linking into the promises. And here we have the ark of the covenant. The symbol of incorruption. And their promises. Waiting to link people. Wow. The pattern and the reality that was being taught to the children of Israel at this time. So that brings me then to the staves. A personal favorite.

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    Verse 13. And you shall make staves of shittim wood and overlay them with gold. And you shall put the staves into the rings by the sides of the ark and the ark may be born with them. And the staves shall be in the rings of the ark and they shall not be taken from it.

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    Notice immediately that whatever we understand by these staves there is a link to the rings. The covenant. What do we learn from these verses about the staves? They were made up of a case of wooden gold. So they're made up of the same components as the chest. They are placed in the rings.

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    They are used to bear the ark. And they were never to be taken from the ark. I'm afraid we are doing a bit of Hebrew today but it does help us to understand. And the Hebrew word for a stave is an easy one to remember and hopefully you'll never forget. In Hebrew it's spelled B-A-D bad.

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    And that's not a bad English word for the Hebrew word given what I'm going to suggest. the Hebrew word actually means so we can remember that in the English as being bad. Right. What does bad mean? Well when I turned up in my concordance it told me this. A part of a body.

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    A only besides branch strength staff. Some of those words didn't quite make sense to me so I looked more carefully and thought why are these words being used in respect of a stave. Well of course it made sense because what a stave really was was it was a branch of a tree. It was something that when you saw a tree you could clearly see oh there's a nice branch that I can take off and I can use as a stave.

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    So it was that part of a tree that was easy to see as separate that you would make a stave out of. Do you want to know where this word first appears? Another Alpha Omega theme. Genesis 2. Let's find it. There it is in Genesis 2 the word bad first time bad appears in the Bible.

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    Genesis 2 verse 18 and the Lord God said it is not good that the man should be alone I will make him a help meet for him and out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every fowl of the air and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them.

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    It's in verse 18 the word bad can you see it? stave it's the word alone alone what does that have to do with a stave? Well of course as I just described to you yes it makes sense that the word stave comes from the fact that this is a branch that is alone or apart and therefore easy to take off and to be used as a stave and the first time it occurs it is describing the condition Adam was in he was alone something was missing even at that stage in Adam I want to suggest to you brothers and sisters that when you look at the staves you are looking at us the ones who need to be joined the ones who need to be joined into this plan of salvation we are the ones who are alone we are the ones who are apart who need to be reconciled who need to be brought in to the covenant of God and how does it happen?

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    through the promises the staves it says are placed through the promises that is almost literal in the way it's described can you see what happened with Jesus his hands and his feet when the promises were brought into effect when he was crucified on the cross and as a result of that we too can be linked to the ark we can share in this incredible plan that God has for every one of us there is neither Jew nor Greek there is neither bond nor free there is neither male nor female but you are all one in Christ Jesus and if you be Christ then are you Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise this ark brought two things that were apart and joins them together and you might say why two staves well look at that reference there is neither Jew nor Greek there is neither bond nor free there is neither male nor female the bringing together of God's salvation plan brings people from clearly different groups together it's a marvel of fellowship we are considering this morning as well Jew and Greek completely separate brought together in God's plan through the Lord Jesus Christ through the promise the promise that Abraham would be the father of many nations brought together here in this incredible way as the staves join us to the Lord Jesus Christ and so it is that we need to associate with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and when we do that we read in Ephesians 2 verse 13 but now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were apart or far off are made near by the blood

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    of Jesus Christ for he is our peace who has made both one and has broken down the middle wall of partition between us he has joined us we are the olive tree which is grafted in the stave which is made a part of God's plan and it shall never be taken from the ark does that make sense now?

73. 40:38

    can you see the detail of this pattern? once joined never removed once you have committed to these things and entered into these holy things there remaineth no more forgiveness for sins you cannot remove yourself from it this is the covenant of life and we shall never separate ourselves from it having been joined and even in the temple when they placed the ark in that new holy of holies we read in 1st Kings that when you stood outside the only thing you could see do you remember that?

74. 41:18

    it says in 1st Kings 8 the only thing you could see was the staves I wonder why perhaps there was a message of what was being taught in this ark of the covenant that it is in the staves that we find ourselves joined to God's master plan a little conundrum for those who like conundrums numbers 4 5-6 the staves seem to be taken out when the ark is transported have no answer anybody can help please numbers 4 verses 5-6 but certainly in the passages we've looked at it is very clear that these staves were not to be moved and of course they were used to bear the ark to carry the ark and doesn't that make sense ultimately this plan of salvation is going to be carried by the saints that's the way it's going to be moved around and that's why God was so adamant that the ark should be carried it was to be born this message this master plan this gospel by people who had joined it that's how it was going to be spread and ultimately as brother Mark was alluding to it would be by the host of the cherubim who will fly the message forward of God's plan for salvation we have a couple more items that are really interesting in the making of the ark and I think instead of rushing through them given that it does appear that our time is up I'm going to leave it there because we still haven't spoken about one and a half by one and a half by two and a half and if the patterns are so good there has to be

75. 42:51

    an answer there to how that reflects or teaches us about our salvation and perhaps you have one you can share with me before I give mine tomorrow thank you for your attention thank you for listening to the good Christodophian talks podcast please subscribe for new episodes and leave a review on apple podcasts or whichever service you are listening from to help people find the show when they search for it if you enjoyed this talk share it on social media so other people can find it too for show notes and links to the talk that you just listened to visit our show page at anchor.fm slash gct we want to encourage everyone to share their thoughts from the talk this week on facebook or instagram where we are at good Christodophian talks or on twitter where we are at gct underscore podcast if you know of a great talk we want to know about it too send a suggestion to good Christodophian talks at gmail.com or message us on any of our social media platforms thank you for listening god bless and talk to you next week good