The Torah Series: Introduction – God’s Plan to Dwell with Man

I am going to begin a new series today. I'm calling it the Torah series. Now, the reason for that is the first five books of the Bible in Greek, they're called the Penetuk, which means five scrolls. In the Hebrew, they're called the Torah, which means the law or instruction. Here we are coming up to Passover, the days of unleven bread.

And so I want to I want to do this series in which I do today will be an introductory message and then over the next weeks I'll cover I'm going to do these books one at a time. The book of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. I'll do those. So this is both a pre-passover and postpass message because it's relevant throughout the entire season.

I want to I want to go through I want to slow down and walk through why these books, why this order, why this placement. There's there's been some opportunity for me recently to to have some conversations with people in which it becomes obvious to me that most people know the they know the big rocks of of the books, but maybe the batting order or authority within those books might be confused.

What comes first? Which one trumps which? If it's written here one way, but it's written here a different way, which one trumps which? Which one has the authority? Which one do I look at and say, "Oh, this is the this is the one that this is the way we do it. This isn't the way we do it." Or, "This is only a partial description and this is the actual full description.

" Be nice to know how our Bible is laid out and why God laid it out the way that he did. And I think that's going to help us. It's going to lay a good foundation for us as we go into Passover in the days of unleavened bread. Uh I won't be able to get through all of that because on the 21st, I just agreed with Mr. Ston. He'll be in town.

So he'll be speaking here on the 21st of March. And then Mr. Corbett will will bring us into Passover on the week after that. But then after that, I'm going to be back. So I'll be able to cover the introductory message, Genesis, and Exodus. And then immediately after the days of unleven bread, I'm going to come back and I'm going to cover Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

I'm going tie all that together and we're going to understand what each of these books has to say, why they're there, why they're important and so forth. Now, I want to begin this series today to help us to understand. Look, when you begin a series, you need to introduce, well, why are we going to go through this series? And and look, I want to answer a few questions.

Why does Genesis begin where it exactly does? Why does Exodus move from slavery to sanctuary? Why does Leviticus devote so much space to priesthood and sacrifice? Why does Numbers record rebellion and wandering? Why does Deuteronomy repeat and restate the law? There's lots of questions. I want to walk through why about a lot of things, but each of those are going to need their own message if we're going to do some kind of credible job with answering those questions.

So, that's what I want to do for you. So, today I want to step back and I want to see the entire arc. So in in the literary world at the an arc of a story is its beginning its curvature from from all of the things that contained within the story to its ending. And so you have a beginning, you have a middle of some kind. And you have an end.

And we call that literary in a literary term. You call that the arc of the story. In this case, you could consider that God's grand plan. And isn't it wonderful the idea that I could stand up here and give you God's entire plan in one message? Like it's just that simple. Well, actually there I want to cover a thread of this arc today.

It begins in the Torah, the law, the first five books. It's a thread that carries throughout the entire Bible. It begins in Genesis chapter 1. It ends in Revelation chapter 22. It's consistent. And you know what? It does tell us the plan of God. It's beautiful in its simplicity and so it's an overarching theme, but it's one that we can pick up the thread.

We can see how God begins with this thread, how he moves throughout the arc of his plan all the way to the end of time, the end of the Revelation chapter 22 and how the beginning and the end simply come back together. A nice neat little bow is presented for God's plan having been taught to us, culminated exactly how he said it would be.

So I'll begin today then in Revelation chapter 21 and verse three. The whole point is to lay a foundation for why the Torah. What does the book, what do these first five books do for us? Well, they lay the foundation for the rest of scripture. Revelation chapter 21 and verse three says, "And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people.

God himself will be with them and be their God." The Greek word here that you see translated as tabernacle. If you're a notetaker, the the word is s ke. And it means tent or dwelling. Tent or dwelling. It's the same word used in the Greek translation of Exodus for the tabernacle in the wilderness. The final chapters of Revelation bring us back to the language of Moses in the Torah, the book of the law, the first five books of the Bible.

God's stated purpose is to dwell with mankind. We just read that the tabernacle of God is with men. This is after all things have been made new. and he will dwell with them and they shall be his people. He shall dwell with them is the key. It wraps up the story. It ends the ark. It completes the journey. A journey that begins all the way back in Genesis chapter 1.

Genesis chapter 1 verse 26. Verse 26 says, "Then God said, let us make man in our image, according to our likeness." The Hebrew word for image is defined as likeness or resemblance. So from the first chapter of the Bible, man is created to reflect God and to live in his presence. So we see at the very beginning God has created mankind.

He created him for a reason to be in his presence. And we see at the very end of the story the culmination of that plan is God with the people he created forever in his presence. So I'm going to show you this arc which begins here in Genesis. Turn over with me to uh Genesis chapter 2 and verse 8. Let's begin over here to see how this ark unfolds.

Genesis chapter 2 and verse 8. The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden. And there he put the man whom he had formed. So what is Eden on earth? It's the place where God walked. It was his sacred place. a garden he built to dwell in. And notice who he put there. Man whom he created the very beginning. He created Adam.

He added to Adam Eve. Both of them lived in the garden where God was. Chapter 3. After the fall, after they'd eaten of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, in Genesis 3 and:e 8, Adam and Eve, it says here, they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. This was God's dwelling place on earth.

That's a very important thought to consider. So God creates man. He puts him in the very place that he had created for his own dwelling on this earth. He walked this garden. It was his sacred place. And he put the man that he created in that garden to be with him. This from the beginning is what God intended to be with his creation to be their God.

That is what he intended from the beginning. Everything that happened after that was not what God intended to happen. It is what happened, but it was never what he intended to happen. He shows us what he intended to be with his creation in his sacred place as their God. So as we review this scripture here, it says, "And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking.

" The Hebrew word for walk or to walk means to move about. It describes real movement. So the text presents the proximity or closeness of God directly with his creation. He wasn't a remote creator to his creation. He brought them to his sacred place. That's an important thought I want you to consider. So from the beginning, mankind was created for nearness to God.

Adam was placed in a garden where God's presence was active and he was given responsibility. Let's turn back to Exodus or Genesis 2 and verse 15. Genesis 2:15. And it says, "Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it." To tend and keep it. Now, these are important words. If if you're taking notes, the word tend is the Hebrew word abad. Aba D. Abad.

I forgive my pronunciation. Ab- A D. The word for keep is the Hebrew word shamar. S h a m a r shamar. These are important words. The words for tend abad means to serve or to work. The word here shamar which is is uh translated as keep means to guard or protect. Okay. Now later on let's go over here to numbers chapter 3.

I want you to see these words used again. Numbers chapter 3 because this is going to be important for us to understand. God did not create Adam to be a lazy Xbox playing basement dwelling kid the rest of his life. I don't have anybody in mind. I'm just bringing up a random example. So, Exodus or excuse me, we're in Numbers. Numbers chapter.

He actually gave, notice that he gave Adam instructions. He put him in the garden to tend and keep it. He gave him responsibilities. So, it wasn't like I created you to just loaf around. You have responsibilities. Tend and keep. Now, let's go over here to Numbers chapter 3. I'm going to begin in verse 5. We'll read through verse 8.

So, so Numbers 3 5-8. Verse 5 says, "And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 'Bring the tribe of Levi near, and present them before Aaron the priest, that they may serve him, and they shall attend to his needs and the needs of the whole congregation before the tabernacle of meeting, to do the work of the tabernacle. and also they shall attend to all the furnishings of the tabernacle of meeting and to the needs of the children of Israel to do the work of the tabernacle.

Now, I want to I'm going to use I'm actually going to switch over here and I'm going to read verses 7 and 8 in the King James version. So, if you have the King James version, the wording is slightly different and it's easier to pick out the same two words that are provided for us in Genesis, which we just read.

In the King James version, it says, "And they shall keep his charge and the charge of the whole congregation before the tabernacle of the congregation to do the service of the tabernacle. And they shall keep all the instruments of the tabernacle of the congregation and the charge of the children of Israel to do the service of the tabernacle.

Keep his charge comes from the root word or the Greek or the Hebrew word sorry shamar to guard to keep watch to protect. Okay, that's what that means. They shall keep his charge to guard to keep watch to protect. To do the service which we read to do the service is abad a d to perform the assigned work. When those words describe priestly duty, they do not mean protection from physical violence.

The temple did not need bodyguards. The Garden of Eden didn't need Adam to dawn his weapon and to patrol it as a security guard. That's not what God was saying by guard and protect. What was he saying then? The priest's job was to guard the boundary that God set through obedience. Their job was to ensure obedience, to teach the law, to exercise the functions of the priesthood, to ensure the people understood what they were supposed to do, to help them to do it, to guard them with God through their obedience.

And so they carried out the work God assigned. And in doing that, they protected the people spiritually by doing their duty. So if holy things were handled, let's say carelessly, the result was not just disorder. The result is guilt. If you don't handle what God tells you to handle the way he says to handle it, then you are guilty of disobedience.

What happened to the sons of Aaron when all they did was profane fire? Guilty of disobedience. They died instantly. God made a point. Obedience is required. If you want to remain in the presence of God, obedience is required. But what does God want? From the beginning, he wanted to be in the presence of his creation.

So this is the connection that we see then between Adam and Eve in the garden. And the role and responsibility specifically given to Adam to tend and to keep mirrors the same role given to the Levitical priesthood to tend and to keep and for the same reasons obedience for protection. And so both exist so that God can dwell with man without sin destroying access.

This is the protection of obedience. Sin destroys access to God. We've read that before in Isaiah. Your sins have separated you from God. And of course, this is what happened in the Garden of Eden. After the fall, after they ate of the wrong tree, they are expelled from the garden. Back to Genesis chapter 3.

Verse 22, I'll read through 24. It says, "Then the Lord God said, behold, the man has become like one of us to know good and evil." Remember, it isn't that's a mis that's that's not a very accurate translation. Better translated to decide for themselves what is good and evil because that's what they did when they ate of that tree.

They made the decision that I will be the boss of who and what is right and wrong. No longer is God the boss of that. I will choose for myself. That is the choice that they made. And so scripture simply records the result of that. And now lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life. Now he's already made his decision.

Unless he take of the tree of life and eat and live forever. Therefore, the Lord God sent him out of the Garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. So he drove out the man, and he placed carob at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

Adam is expelled from the presence of God. Access to God was therefore removed. And of course, that moment sets the trajectory for everything that follows throughout the Torah, the law of God, and the rest of our Bible all the way through Revelation. So the question as we move forward from here is Adam and Eve separated man from God.

How would man be restored to a proper relationship with God after that? Well, that's the foundation laid by the Torah, by those first five books. A path is laid out. A course is set in motion that would give man a path to redemption. From the fall, an arc is created towards redemption, fulfilled ultimately when we see Revelation 22.

So we go here from God in the garden of Eden with Adam and Eve in their presence in his sacred place to a sacred place where they are removed. Access to God is now withdrawn and through the flood that garden is destroyed. There is no place on earth for God that he has set up for himself. So now we move forward through the scriptures and we see that God has a desire to be with his creation.

Now God wants to dwell with his people. It began by dwelling with Adam. Now it is God choosing to dwell with a people. Generations have passed and humanity has spread. Violence has increased. Idolatry fills the earth. God calls Abraham. He builds a family and eventually forms a people called the children of Israel.

Those people end up in slavery in Egypt. God does not deliver Israel merely to free them from hard labor. He brings them out for a purpose. Exodus 25. Exodus chapter 25. Verse 8 says, I'm in verse 8 here. Exodus 25. And let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them. God had a sanctuary called Eden.

That sanctuary was destroyed. Here he tells Israel, the children, the promised children, tells them, "I want a sanctuary built so that I may dwell with my people." This is the ark. God wants to dwell with his people. How? Well, that's how the ark unfolds, isn't it? Here he says, "Will me a tabernacle, a sanctuary.

" The san the word sanctuary means a holy place, a set aart location. Just as Eden was set apart on the earth as the sanctuary or place of God where he walked, so this sanctuary would also be a place for God, a set aart location. His purpose is clear that I may dwell among them. So he wants to be in the midst of his people.

So the sanctuary becomes the next step. It's the answer to what happened to Eden. Where now does God want to dwell? Where and how would he dwell with his people? This sanctuary becomes that. Exodus chapter 40, we notice God taking his place in the tabernacle. Exodus chapter 40 uh verses 34 and 35 describe God descending into the sanctuary into the tabernacle. Verse 34 of Exodus 40.

Then the cloud covered the tabernacle of meeting and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the tabernacle of meeting because the cloud rested above it and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. God entering his dwelling place. No different than descending to walk in the Garden of Eden.

God descends to take up residence in the tabernacle. The difference here though is in in Genesis, Adam had direct access to God. So this is the beginning of the ark. God walking with man face to face. Eden is the sanctuary. There's no temple there. There's no tabernacle there. It is his sanctuary on earth. And God is with his people. There's no holy of holies.

There's no separation. He's walking with Adam and Eve directly there. They separated and created a problem that God resolved in a different way. Here he says,"I still want to be with my people. I create a place to be able to do that. You will build me a tabernacle and it will be in the midst of the people.

" And God would be in that tabernacle. But in the holy of holies behind a veil through whom who had access? The high priest. When did the high priest have access? only on the day of atonement. So it isn't that God is now walking am in the midst of his people. He dwells in their midst, but he is in the holy of holies behind a veil now representing the separation Adam and Eve created between man and God.

That hasn't been resolved. Sin entered the world. There was no sin before that. And so man has been separated from God. Here is a path back for a people God called out of this world, the children of Israel. So, what have we learned so far? Closeness to God requires holiness. You know, if we walk through the book of Leviticus, we're going to see that God is dwelling in the midst of the camp.

It explains how offerings are brought, how priests serve, how uncleanness is removed. These rules protect the dwelling place of God and the people that he would dwell with. Numbers records what happens when the people refuse to guard what is holy. Look at the horrible things that are recorded in Exodus.

from the rebellion of Kora to the people trying to go into the promised land without God's help and support. Rebellion upon rebellion and disobedience, a failure to obey, which obviously results in wandering for 40 years instead of entering the promised land. So that we see that God's books all have purpose in laying out and laying the foundation for our understanding of what he is doing with man, what his purpose is.

So here's the pattern. We've seen a dwelling place constructed according to God's instruction and God filling it with his presence from one man in the Garden of Eden to a people camped around a tabernacle. But the purpose does not change. God intends to dwell with his creation. This is what he wants. But the boundaries remind the people of something important. Sin exists.

Access to what is holy has to be guarded. It's behind a veil. Available only to the high priest and only once a year to atone for the people and for himself. So holiness has to be maintained. The Torah, the first five books of the law, records this this next stage very carefully. It shows bondage in Egypt.

It shows redemption from slavery. It shows construction of a sacred place. It shows instructions for service to God in the tabernacle. It shows consequences when obedience fails. All of that is the foundation for our understanding of what righteousness is when we're taught the spiritual application of what we read in the pages of the Torah, the first five books.

So, the movement from Eden to the tabernacle teaches us that God has not abandoned his plan. He's still building a dwelling among men. So, it's no longer one man in a garden. It's a people gathered around a sanctuary in the wilderness. But God's plan moves forward. The people enter the promised land.

They dwell in the wilderness with a tent as God's sanctuary. But when they get to the promised land, they move from being a people to becoming a kingdom. They have their own land now, their own territory, a requirement for a kingdom. They have the law given to them by God at Mount Si. They have a ruler whom ultimately they rejected but which was the Lord and they have a people.

This is what constitutes a kingdom. Ultimately they beg God to give them an actual king. He gives them Saul. Saul and David are also a picture for us, a contrast for us of Satan and Jesus Christ. Very different roles, very obvious in the roles they fulfilled in Israel. But Israel was never intended to dwell in tents forever.

You know, when they get into the promised land, they get settled into cities, they cultivate fields, they harvest, they have crops, they plant, they go through seasons, they have livestock, they have homes, they build cities. These are permanent structures for a people in their homeland, the promised land. Yet God still intended to dwell in the midst of his people.

During the the reign of David, a shift becomes obvious. Let's turn over here to 2 Samuel. Uh 2 Samuel chapter 7. David recognized that God had put them in the promised land. Yet something was lacking. 2 Samuel 7 verse one here it says now it came to pass when the king that is David was dwelling in his house and the Lord had given him rest from all his enemies all around that the king said to Nathan the prophet see now I dwell in a house of cedar but the ark of God dwells inside tent curtains so David could clearly see the contrast

I have a home. I no longer dwell in a tent. Why does God's tabernacle still exist as a tent? Why is God's home still a tent, a temporary dwelling? Well, the tabernacle had clearly served its purpose in the wilderness. It was built to move when the people mo moved. But the kingdom now is marked by stability. They're in the promised land.

The dwelling place of God would now reflect that stability. So under Solomon, the temple is constructed. It was not a new idea, but an enlargement of the same pattern. Remember the tabernacle was built on the pattern God had given them of those things in heaven. Build these things precisely as I instruct you to.

And he gives his spirit to the artisans to ensure that that's what happens. And after the temple is built, we see God moving into his new home. First Kings chapter 8. First Kings 8:es 10 and 11 verse 10. And it came to pass when the priests came out of the holy place that the cloud filled the house of the Lord so that the priests could not continue ministering because of the cloud.

For the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord. God takes up his residence. This is where God would dwell once again. No longer in a temporary structure called a tent or tabernacle, now in a building called a temple. still a holy of holies behind a veil. Still regulations and requirements and separation and reconciliation.

All of those elements are still in place. But clearly the language mirrors what we read in Exodus when he was moving into the tabernacle and now we see him moving into the temple. So the form of the structure changed but the purpose was the same. God dwelt among his people. Now obviously the temple signals a certain maturity in the kingdom itself.

The nation of Israel having borders a capital city now centralized worship. A tabernacle was central within the midst of the people who were by camps surrounding the tabernacle. Now, now the temple is built in Jerusalem and the people are spread out through all of the territory of the promised land. They would now have to come to the temple where God's presence was because it was fixed in Jerusalem.

But the same requirement continued. Holiness guarded access. The building itself did not guarantee favor. Obedience remained what was essential. obedience. Now, over time, the people began to trust in the structure itself rather than the divine ruler of the structure and of the people. And of course, Jeremiah confronts this directly in Jeremiah chapter 7.

Jeremiah chapter 7 where he tells the people he says do not trust in these lying words saying the temple of the Lord the temple of the Lord the temple of the Lord are these. What do you think they mean? Jeremiah has been telling them to leave and go to Babylon. What were the prophets, the priests telling the rulers? No, no, no.

God's going to bless us right here. Why? We have the temple. The temple of the Lord. The temple of the Lord. God is in our pocket. As long as we've got the temple, we've got God. It's a it's a way of viewing God as a hostage to his own temple. We have the temple. We have God. And God says, "Don't listen to them." In fact, in a vision, God takes Ezekiel, who was a contemporary of Jeremiah.

Jeremiah gets the rough end of this deal. He's in Jerusalem. He's being mistreated. He's not in any favor. The prophets and the rulers refuse to listen to him. He gets incarcerated multiple times. It's quite horrible what he has to go through. and he describes it. There is Ezekiel living the life of luxury over in Babylon and yet called out as a prophet.

God wants to reveal some things through him. So he gives him a vision. He wants to show him how feeble and how the the the fallacy of what we just read in Jeremiah 7:4. We go over here and we see that God has left. He and we see him leaving in a progression. Okay, so Ezekiel chapter 10 we saw how he came in. We read that. Okay, in first kings we read God came in and he and the glory of the Lord filled the temple.

He took his place in the holy of holies. That was his home. The Jews thought so long as we have the temple, we have God. Except God says to Ezekiel, um, let me show you something by vision. So Ezekiel 10:4, "And the glory of the Lord went up from the carob and paused over the threshold of the temple, and the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was full of the brightness of the Lord's glory.

" God goes from the inner sanctuary, the holy of holies, to the threshold of that. It's essentially view him as he comes out, he's standing at the door that goes in. So here God is, he's leaving, he's just left. Now, the Holy of Holies, I'm not there anymore. His glory now fills the outer area. It doesn't end there. We go down to verse 18.

Verse 18, he takes his second step. Then the glory of the Lord departed from the threshold of the temple and stood over the caravan. So God goes now to the threshold of the temple itself. Just one more step on his way out. And then over in Ezekiel 11:23, God finally departs. Ezekiel 11:23. And the glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the city and stood on the mountain which is on the east side of the city. He leaves completely.

He moves over and the glory rests on the Mount of Olives to the east of Jerusalem. He is no longer in the temple the Jews point to and say the temple of the Lord. the temple of the Lord. We have God. God shows Ezekiel, I'm not bound by the temple. That was my place to dwell with my people, those disobedient people.

So, the structure remained, but God's presence didn't. This stage in the plan teaches us an important lesson. So the dwelling can grow in size. It can become more permanent. But access still depends on obedience. That's the point of God leaving. Disobedience ruled in Jerusalem. So God left. So we go from garden to tabernacle to temple.

And in each case we have the same problem, disobedience. man separating himself from God. So here's the pattern we've seen. God prepares a place. He fills it with his presence. He gives instruction to guard what is holy. And when that instruction is honored, God remains in the dwelling. And when it's ignored, access gets removed.

The kingdom period enlarges the temple structure itself. It's much bigger. It's much better. It's much stronger. It's more durable than the tabernacle. The problem wasn't the building. The problem was the people. And in fact, that has always been the problem. So we move then from physical structures to a new temple as we follow this ark out of the Torah all the way now down through the end of time.

God now as we move into the New Testament period changes where he will dwell with his people. The ambition hasn't changed. He still wants to dwell with his people. It's location that changes. So over in John chapter 1 and verse 14, let's grab this up here. John 1 and verse 14. Now, we know that John begins in verse one describing the word who was with God and who was God.

This is the creator being God that we see as the creator of all the things that have ever been created. And we get down to verse 14 and it tells us that the word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld his glory, the glory as of the one as of the only begotten of the father, full of grace and truth in the garden of Eden, in the tabernacle, and in the temple.

It is the God of the Old Testament, the word who dwells among the people. in spirit. Here we see that word born as a man to walk among the people in the flesh. The word translated here as dwelt comes from the Greek verb s ken o. It's directly connected to the word we read earlier in Revelation 21. The Greek word s ke.

This word, that word is a noun. This word is a verb. It means to tabernacle, to pitch a tent. And the word became flesh and dwelt. He pitched his physical tent on this earth to tabernacle to dwell with. That's what that means. It's deliberate language because the dwelling place or the dwelling presence of God is no longer confined to a tent or to a stone building. It appears now in a person.

The presence that once filled the tabernacle and later filled the temple now walked among men. But the shift didn't stop there. After the resurrection and ascension of Christ, something happens in Acts chapter 2. Let's read the first four verses together. Acts two. And when the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.

And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind. And it filled the whole house where they were sitting. That echoes all the way back to the tabernacle and temple. God coming in the cloud and him filling the whole tabernacle and then filling the whole temple. This is the same language mirroring that same event only it's the Holy Spirit.

Then there appeared to them divided tongues as of fire and one sat upon each of them and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the spirit gave them utterance. So in Exodus that same glory fills the tent. In first kings it fills the temple.

In Acts the spirit filled the people. This is the difference. God doesn't dwell in us except through his spirit. But notice Paul says God hasn't left the temple idea. A dwelling place idea. Paul gives us in 1 Corinthians chapter 3:16 the connection 1 Corinthians 3:16 it says, "Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the spirit of God dwells in you?" He's stating that as a fact.

The question is, do you not know it? This is a fact. You should know it. You are the temple of God. Who's he writing to? Not one person. He's writing to the church at Corenth. The people of God. They are part of the foundation of his temple. A spiritual temple now, not a physical structure anymore. God's still dwelling in his temple.

It's just not a building. It is now his people, the church. So this development answers the weakness that was exposed in the kingdom period. The weakness exposed during the tabernacle period. The weakness exposed in Adam and Eve. They lacked the spirit of God. Ezekiel is the one who makes it plain back in Ezekiel 36 verses 26 and 27 speaking of this future time and the reunification of Israel with Judah.

He says, "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and you will keep my judgments and do them. Obedience now made possible through the spirit.

That oneness that God has been desiring to dwell with his people who keep separating themselves from him through disobedience is resolved in only one way. What's led to the disobedience? The heart. I'm going to fix the heart. I'm going to put my spirit in there and I'm going to fix that heart. Then they will be able to obey. No longer separated through obedience.

We are now reconciled to God. So the solution to the failure of the temple was not a better building. It was a renewed heart and the spirit placed within the people. So this pattern holds steady. This is the ark we've been following. God wants to dwell with his creation. He's still preparing a dwelling. He still fills it with his presence.

He still requires holiness. The difference is location. The dwelling now exists wherever God's spirit is placed within his obedient people. So this stage deepens the plan. We go from one man in the garden to a people around a tabernacle to a kingdom with a temple. The structure kept changing. It was never about the structure.

It could never resolve the problem with the people. That could only be resolved when God changed the location through his spirit into a new a new temple called the church. Yet the requirement remains unchanged. Just as Adam was told to guard what was holy. And just as the priests were commanded to serve and protect the tabernacle, those in whom God's spirit dwells are called to guard their conduct and walk in obedience.

The great plan of God continues forward along this ark. Now the dwelling has moved from the garden to a tent to the temple and now the church. But that's not the final stage. There's one big movement left. God's purpose for man is not satisfied with the resurrection of the first fruits. That's just the next step in the plan.

Remember God's desires for all men to be saved. All men to the extent that it is possible. He still wants to dwell with his creation. All of his creation. Not a segment, a portion, a piece. All of it. Everyone who would be willing. Let's turn over back here to Revelation 21 again. I want to pick this story up in verse one.

Now, Revelation 21, we'll read 1 through3. Verse one says, "Now I saw new a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Everything has been resolved." If you think about what has happened for this statement to be true, it means that Christ has returned. There's been a resurrection.

Satan has been deposed as the go of the go as the god of this age was incarcerated for a thousand years. A resurrection of the first truce happens where we serve and reign with Christ for a thousand years. We call the millennium. Gog and Magog 1.0 0 happens at the beginning of the millennium where those people who did not know God come up against the land of unwalled villages to pillillage the land.

That rebellion is put down. The millennium carries forward. We get to the end of the millennium. Satan is loosed. He'd been incarcerated. Now he's loosed. Gog and Magog 2.0. God destroys those people. Satan is once again captured. Only this time he is destroyed. We don't know what that means, but what we know is eternally removed from the presence of man. However, God does that.

No longer will he be allowed to influence and deceive the nations, which is why he was let go before the second resurrection. Now that his work is complete, every human being who's ever lived and died under the rule of Satan, which is exactly what that means, they've already been tested by Satan. They've lived his world.

Now he's eternally removed and God now has a second resurrection for everyone else. They get their chance. Now we have a an earth governed by God's government, ruled by his people. These people get introduced to that world. And they get their time to be judged. The books are opened and the book of life and they're judged.

And those found written in the book are given salvation. Those not join those who rebelled in Gog and Magog 1.0, those who were there at Armageddon. Every encouraable human being who has ever said, "I refuse to follow God," comes up in that third resurrection where they are ultimately destroyed for all eternity.

After all of that, Revelation 21, now I saw a new heaven and a new earth. Are there any more physical human beings? For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people. God himself will be with them and be their God." Why do you think it says men and people? Are there men and people alive here? No. There only exists spirit beings. Yet each and every one of those spirit beings he's referring to began as a human being. Not as an angel.

There is no salvation given and promised to the angels. No place of being a son or daughter in the kingdom of God was ever promised to an angel. This simply identifies who he's talking about. From the beginning, he created man. He wanted to dwell with his creation. Man rejected him. God created a path back for man to be redeemed into this same relationship.

And so we go across the ark beginning in Genesis 1 through the Torah all the way through to the end of our Bible to right here where God brings new Jerusalem here and says, "I want to dwell with my people." He has never deviated from that plan. This is what he wants. Notice something else. the connections between the Torah as the foundation for all of our understanding of all of the truth that God reveals to us.

Turn over to Revelation 22, verse one. And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river was the tree of life, which bore 12 fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and his servants shall serve him. They shall see his face and his name shall be on their foreheads. You know that's that saying right there that we just read. They shall see his face utterly inconceivable at the time of Moses who begged God to see him as he was.

And all God would allow him to see by covering his hand over him in the cleft of the rock was his backside because he said if you really saw who I am, you would die. You would not be able to handle it. These people of God see him face to face. There's no temple here. There's New Jerusalem, God's sacred place. God and Christ dwell with their people.

Yes, we know them as the sons of God. God as father, Jesus Christ is the eldest son. And those of us who've been called, converted, sanctified, set apart, and ultimately resurrected to become changed and become those spiritual sons and daughters, that's where we are with God. Now, it says they serve him.

You think that means that what God's intended purpose for all the rest of eternity is that we all just sit there bow up and down and wave our hands and say, "Praise ye, praise ye, praise ye." God has work for us to do. I don't know what that means, but God put Adam in the garden to tend and keep it.

I don't think that he has created us for all eternity to give us games to play or to just sit there and worship, worship, worship. Yes, he wants our worship. But is that all he has for us? I don't think so. I think he has work for us, service for us to do, privilege for us to be a part of that. And of course we see that the tree of life in the midst of the very garden in which God walked in which there was no temple.

There was no tabernacle. There was God himself face to face with Adam and Eve. And the tree of life was there. And we follow that same ark all the way to the end where New Jerusalem comes down. And in the midst of that city is no temple. It is God and Christ and the tree of life is there. It's a beautiful culmination of this arc, this story that we're watching unfold across the pages of our Bibles.

New Jerusalem describes itself as a city. It's not a garden anymore, but a city holds multitudes. It has structure. It has order. It has gates. It has foundations. The dimensions are vast. The dwelling has expanded to include all who were made ready. Verse 22. Notice this. I made a statement, but let's butress that statement with fact. Revelation 21:22.

But I saw no temple in it. For the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. There's no temple building because the entire city functions as God's sacred place. The tabernacle and temple that were created physically had to reconcile a problem of separation between man and God and reconciliation back through a high priest.

originally a high priest in a physical form from the tribe of Levi, ultimately replaced by the high priest of Jesus Christ. But remember what happened when Christ died. This is what makes that visual of God leaving the temple in in Ezekiel's time through that vision vivid. The the very curtain that separated the Holy of Holies from the rest of the temple was rent in two.

It's a picture. It's an image. There's no longer a separation because God gives us his spirit. It's indwelling in us like a sanctuary for God. So that's where we are in his plan now. And we see where it ends with all mankind in that relationship. Ultimately, all of us being spirit beings in that kingdom. From Genesis to Revelation, the direction has been consistent.

God created mankind in his image. Sin interrupted man's access to God. The Torah recorded the foundation for the restoration of dwelling between mankind and God. The tabernacle illustrated it. The temple enlarged it, but the spirit within the people is what advances God's plan. So with that end in view, we should be ready to go back to the beginning and walk forward in order.

So the next message I want to cover is Genesis. Let's walk through it carefully, meticulously. Let's understand it. What is it that we need to learn from it? How does it help us to understand this overarching plan of God? Where it's leading, our part in it should be a fun journey before we get to Passover.