Grant 00:00:00 Welcome to Torah Today Ministries. My name is Grant Luton.
Robin 00:00:11 And I’m Robin.
Grant 00:00:12 And we are here to finish up our discussion on the tabernacle. Not that there’s not a lot more to say, but we’ve decided this is a good place to bring this to a close.
Robin 00:00:24 It is an endless subject, and it’s been a while, hasn’t it?
Grant 00:00:28 It has been way too long since we’ve done a Breadcrumbs, but we’ve been busy people.
Robin 00:00:33 We have, and probably no busier than a lot of others, but we are really happy to have a day that we can sit and hopefully have a conversation that’s encouraging.
Grant 00:00:44 Right.
Robin 00:00:44 You know, when we came up with a name for this series, Breadcrumbs, there were a few thoughts, and I think the main one is that we hope that we can just drop some breadcrumbs that create a path, Grant, a path that would lead to the bread of life, to the master himself. And really, that is our hope. We’re not trying to cover the subject. There’s no way. Just maybe whet the appetite.
Grant 00:01:09 If it doesn’t draw us closer to him, we’re wasting our time.
Robin 00:01:12 We are. So let’s get to it.
Grant 00:01:15 Right. So the final part of the tabernacle we want to discuss are the four coverings, the curtains and the coverings that make the ceiling of the tabernacle.
Robin 00:01:27 And you know, honestly, at a glance, it seems like that would be a very bland subject. Like, who cares?
Grant 00:01:35 But it is filled with profound insights and meaning.
Robin 00:01:40 As always.
Grant 00:01:41 Everything about the tabernacle is just replete with information and insights and inspiration for the person who really wants to know God and know what he’s trying to communicate to us.
Robin 00:01:53 So we see this description in Exodus 26.
Grant 00:01:57 Right. The first portion of that text. Now, it’s going to describe these four layers, starting with the innermost and ending with the outermost.
Robin 00:02:09 So we’re getting a description as if we’re inside.
Grant 00:02:14 The holy place or holy of holies. So God works from the inside out. So he’s going to start with the first layer of coverings for the tabernacle. In fact, these coverings are basically referred to as the tabernacle. So this is what it says.
Grant 00:02:28 Exodus 26, verse 1,
You shall make the tabernacle of ten curtains. — Exodus 26:1
Now, we think of curtains as hanging vertically, but these are panels. It might be a better word for this. Ten panels that are going to be laying flat to make the ceiling of this structure.
Robin 00:02:49 They stretch over the top.
Grant 00:02:51 Exactly. Twisted linen with turquoise, purple, and scarlet wool. Now, turquoise is blue, scarlet is red. And what happens when you mix blue and red? You get purple. So turquoise, purple, and scarlet wool. With a woven design of cherubim (כְּרוּבִים) shall you make them. The cherubim (כְּרוּבִים) are the angels you can think of as the guardian angels of God’s throne. They surround his throne. They are the ones who are his attendees, his heavenly attendees.
Robin 00:03:22 And we’ve talked about it before. Somehow cherubim (כְּרוּבִים) have gotten a reputation of being chubby little babies with rosy cheeks. That is not the case.
Grant 00:03:32 Further from the truth. Sometimes cherubim (כְּרוּבִים) are depicted with the heads of lions.
Robin 00:03:38 So they represent warriors.
Grant 00:03:40 Yes.
Robin 00:03:40 Protectors.
Grant 00:03:41 Absolutely.
Robin 00:03:42 Okay.
Grant 00:03:42 You don’t want to mess with a cherub. Got it. And so if you were in the holy place or holy of holies and you looked up, you’d see these red, purple, and blue embroidered panels overhead with cherubim (כְּרוּבִים) embroidered into them. So you’re looking up into the heavenlies, so to speak.
Robin 00:04:04 Well, can we take a minute here, because I already have a thought about the colors. What’s the significance of the blue and the red and then combining them to make the purple?
Grant 00:04:16 Well, when you think of blue, what’s blue?
Robin 00:04:19 It’s the celestial.
Grant 00:04:20 Yeah, the sky. And when you think of red, you think of blood or earth. And different words for red, but adom (אָדֹם) means red because it comes from the word adamah (אֲדָמָה), which is earth. And blood is red and we’re made out of the dirt. So you have the heavenly and you have the dirt. And the purple’s the mixture of the two. That’s what a human being is.
Robin 00:04:45 And that’s what is so significant about the tabernacle. It’s where heaven and earth kiss. It’s where they meet. And it’s where God and man can connect.
Grant 00:04:57 That’s right.
Robin 00:04:58 That’s the theme.
Grant 00:05:00 And purple, what’s interesting, is in the scriptures a color of royalty.
Robin 00:05:05 It is.
Grant 00:05:05 Because a king would be given a purple robe. And I think we too often forget that we are sons and daughters of Adam and Eve. That’s royal. That’s a royal line. This was the perfect couple, the perfect human beings that God made. Yeah, they fell and we suffer the consequences of their fall. But God is in the business over human history to restore his image to Adam and Eve.
Robin 00:05:33 And we belong to a royal line. And of course, the priesthood of the tribe. So it’s essential to remember who we are.
Grant 00:05:45 That’s so true. Well, let’s move on. We got through the first verse. Now, verse 2, the length of a single curtain or panel is 28 cubits, and the width, 4 cubits for each curtain or panel. So there’s going to be 10 of these, 28 cubits long and 4 cubits wide. The same measure for all the curtains, or again, for all the panels. Now, 5 panels shall be attached to one another, and five panels attached to one another. So these 10 panels are going to be sewn together in two sets of five.
Robin 00:06:27 Wow. That immediately calls to mind. Five and five. We have the tablets. We have the five commandments. And five of those commandments on the one stone really relate to how we deal with mankind and with others in our earthly business, like our feet on the ground. And the other five are more about our relationship with God. So even that harkens back to right living in both worlds simultaneously.
Grant 00:06:59 And how did God create us in his image? So we have these arms. At the end of each arm is a hand made of five fingers. Five and five. We can think of the five commandments and the other five commandments as being the fingers by which we engage with God and man. This is how we walk in the world and do things in the world. So this five and five is really interesting and significant.
Robin 00:07:23 It’s also fascinating that everything is in pairs here.
Grant 00:07:27 Yes, everything’s in pairs.
Robin 00:07:28 They’re connected and they’re paired together, like two becoming one.
Grant 00:07:31 So how did they connect? Well, it tells us in verse 4. Well, we’ll start with verse three. Five curtains shall be attached to one another, and five curtains attached to one another. You shall make loops of turquoise wool at the edge of the single curtain or panel at the end of one set. So you’ve got these five panels sewn together. Along the edge of one of them, you’ve got loops of turquoise wool. And you shall make the same on the edge of the outermost panel on the second set. Fifty loops shall you make on the first curtain, and fifty loops shall you make on the end of the curtain that is on the second set. The loops shall correspond to one another.
Now, the word for “correspond to one another” here is ishah el achotah (אִשָּׁה אֶל אֲחֹתָהּ), a woman to her sister.
Robin 00:08:22 Well, we heard similar language before. Isn’t it with the cherubim (כְּרוּבִים)?
Grant 00:08:28 Yes. There it’s “a man with his brother.” But here it’s “a woman to her sister.” It’s a feminine form. So you have the cherubim (כְּרוּבִים), which are these guardian angels of God’s throne.
Robin 00:08:42 On the cover.
Grant 00:08:43 Yes, they’re made out of gold, they’re made out of metal, they’re hard. So it’s a masculine thing. But now the coverings, this is a feminine thing. It’s softer. And it makes, it encloses this place for the man.
Robin 00:08:57 You know, biblically, I’ve discovered over the years that the very essence of the word for woman means to surround and to encircle. I mean, after all, the womb that is, you know, part of being the feminine encircles life and protects. There is something so significant about the role of the feminine to encircle and to guard what is sacred. And it seems we hear a message that it’s not as important as being the tough, the — I don’t know what you would even say to describe — the message of feminism wants to displace the beautiful idea of protecting and encircling and guarding what matters.
Grant 00:09:51 We’ve abandoned it.
Robin 00:09:53 I think it’s been abandoned and we’ve tried to step into a different place.
Grant 00:10:00 And we’ve displaced the masculine, and nobody’s doing what becomes feminine.
So, I mean, that is definitely a rabbit trail, but I couldn’t help but mention the beauty of this picture of where God dwells and he allows the feminine to encircle and to protect and to cover.
Robin 00:10:20 That’s a lot to think about.
Grant 00:10:23 That is, truly it is, a beautiful picture. So, you’ve got five panels sewn together of this red, blue, and purple embroidered fabric with cherubim (כְּרוּבִים). Then you’ve got another five panels sewn together. And then along the edge of each set, there are 50 loops. And then it says in verse 6, you shall make 50 hooks of gold. Now, these hooks are like rings almost. You’d think of almost a complete circle, but there’s an opening to where they can hook into the loop on one set and then hook into the loop of its corresponding loop on the other set.
Fifty hooks of gold, and you shall attach the curtains to one another with the hooks, so that the tabernacle shall become one. — Exodus 26:6
And again, this covering is what is referred specifically as the tabernacle.
Robin 00:11:19 Yeah, I’m not even sure how to interpret that completely.
Grant 00:11:24 Here’s one of the things, we’ll give you a heads up. As we look at these four layers of material, the one that represents the highest and most heavenly is on the inside.
Robin 00:11:39 Wow.
Grant 00:11:39 And the one that represents the lowliest and the least important is on the outside. And so the inside is the heavenly. The outside is purely earthly. So the inside, spiritually speaking, is much bigger than the outside.
Robin 00:11:57 I can’t help but think about how we’re told that we are a sanctuary and a tabernacle. And truly, the inside of a human is much bigger than the outside.
Grant 00:12:11 I mean, think of Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ). If you just measure him by his physicality, he was a man that could fit through a doorway and sit in a chair. But can you measure the inside?
Robin 00:12:27 It says that we are all in him.
Grant 00:12:30 So the inside is so much bigger than the outside.
Robin 00:12:33 Well, you know, people, I don’t hear people say, “I’m going to grow physically. I want to get bigger physically and get taller and wider.” In fact, most people, we’re always trying to shrink, right? But I hear people say, “I’m going to grow spiritually. I want to grow spiritually.” In other words, when it comes to physical growth, there’s a limit, and beyond that, it becomes abnormal.
Grant 00:12:55 You know, spiritually, the enemy’s camp is where things are constricted. Where we dwell with God is a place where there is no boundary. There’s a verse in Psalm chapter 18 in verse 19, around there, it says,
He brought me forth also into a broad place. He rescued me because he delighted in me. — Psalm 18:19
So the place he brings us to, if we cooperate and follow him and dwell with him, it’s the opposite of a place of constriction.
Robin 00:13:38 And I was just reading last week a book that helps me understand what prompts anger and fear. It’s a book called Real Power. We can put a link to it online if we want. But it describes how when we experience fear and anger, it’s a place of constricted consciousness. And that’s the external world. That’s what happens when we look and live according to what our senses in the external world are telling us. It’s a hard thing to articulate, but when we flip that and we hear what he says is true and we trust what he says is true with our ears, without questioning it, he brings us to a broad place.
Grant 00:14:25 Well, what you described is Mitzrayim (מִצְרַיִם). It’s Egypt. Mitzrayim (מִצְרַיִם) comes from the word tzar (צַר), which means to constrict. And so living in that constricted world is a place of slavery and death. It’s just a place where you make bricks. But God wants to bring us from death to life, from slavery to freedom, into a broad place, and a place where we can breathe and we can grow and we can become what he wants us to be.
Robin 00:14:55 The life that we’ve chosen to live, try to live according to what he says in his word, from a glance at the outside of things, from a person looking at a distance, may appear to be a small life.
Grant 00:15:09 That’s right.
Robin 00:15:10 But from in here, it’s eternal and endless and beautiful. You can’t see the ceiling. You can’t see the walls. You’re surrounded by beauty and space and more to explore and to discover. Am I explaining that in a way that makes sense?
Grant 00:15:27 Try, if our listeners can try to picture themselves inside the tabernacle. So there you are. You’re dressed in the clothing of a priest, which means you have nothing on your feet. You’re totally barefoot, and there’s no floor in the tabernacle.
Robin 00:15:40 So you’re standing in dirt?
Grant 00:15:41 Your feet are in the dirt. They’re in direct contact with the earth. But when you look up, you see the cherubim (כְּרוּבִים). You see God’s throne. This is the place of the ultimate spiritual expression. And in that place is where the priest would do his work. And we could picture ourselves working, doing what God has given us to do, because we’re to be a kingdom of priests, but our feet are in the dirt, but our heads should be in the heavenlies. And with that tension, we can do what we’re supposed to do.
You know, we’ll get to it in a bit, but what held up the ceiling were the planks and the walls. So they’re defying gravity. They’re working against gravity to hold up the ceiling.
Robin 00:16:28 Right.
Grant 00:16:29 But the outer coverings had ropes attached to them that went into stakes into the ground. So they’re pulling down.
Robin 00:16:36 So there’s this tension between going up and pulling down.
Grant 00:16:40 The walls are holding up while the ropes are holding down. That’s where we live.
Robin 00:16:43 That’s where we live. It is.
Grant 00:16:46 So I’ve got gravity holding my body to the earth where I walk around and work and do the things physically. But spiritually, internally, my mind, my eyes should be on the heavenly because I’m also spiritual.
Robin 00:17:00 And you know, it’s a skill to develop the ability to hold that tension.
Grant 00:17:05 It sure is.
Robin 00:17:06 It really is. It doesn’t mean that you live in a place of agitation and stress and striving. There’s a way to live in a place of spiritual rest, but not overly relaxed.
Grant 00:17:21 Of course.
Robin 00:17:22 Because when you just let go and seek leisure and quit thinking about the reality of this, it’s a slippery slope.
Grant 00:17:32 Oh, it is. We are, as C.S. Lewis — I often quote — he said, we’re amphibians. We’re spiritual. We’re physical. We live in these two realms at the same time. And that’s pictured by so many things in the Word, where there are two things attached. Two things come together to become one.
Robin 00:17:52 You know, we just got back from a visit with our kids in Texas, and we spent a few days down at an island off the coast of Texas. And I went for an early morning walk, Grant, and I saw there — it’s one of my favorite things to do when I go to the ocean, is to just take those walks along the edge. And I saw where the water, which can represent that spiritual realm and the depths, and the land come together. And I intentionally put one foot in the water and one foot on the sand. And I walked as far as I could like that, constantly just thinking about how spiritually, that’s how I have to be.
Grant 00:18:36 That’s how we are.
Robin 00:18:37 I have to put one foot in the realm of the heavenlies and what’s eternal. But he’s called us to be human and to walk in this world in a way that is always mindful that this isn’t all there is.
Grant 00:18:51 That’s right. Well, you know, throughout the scriptures, wherever you see the word left, it’s the physical. When you see the word right, it’s the spiritual. That’s why in Ecclesiastes it says,
The heart of the fool is to the left. The heart of the wise is to the right. — Ecclesiastes 10:2
And this is consistent throughout Genesis to Revelation, left and right, physical, spiritual. And that’s how we walk. Left, right, left, right.
Robin 00:19:13 And it seems to me too that another theme as we read about these coverings is how two are paired for unity, to become one. What a theme. We’ve talked about that before. Two things have I heard. One thing he speaks, but two things we hear. And he separates in order to bring together.
Grant 00:19:33 That’s right. Well, we’re going to see that theme played out here as we get to the second layer, the next layer. In verse 7, it says,
You shall make curtains or panels of goat hair for a tent over the tabernacle. — Exodus 26:7
So you’ve got the first layer with the red, blue, purple embroidered cherubim (כְּרוּבִים), put together these panels. That’s what you see.
Robin 00:19:59 Right.
Grant 00:20:00 But over top of that now, we have panels of goat hair woven together. It’d almost be like a thick flannel. The length of a single curtain, 30 cubits. Now before, the lengths were 28 cubits. This is 30 cubits each. And the width of a single curtain, 4 cubits. So the width is the same, but the length is 2 cubits longer. The same measure for the 11 curtains. Instead of 10, this time there are 11 panels. You shall attach five of the panels separately and six of the panels separately. And you shall double, you shall fold the sixth curtain over the front of the tent. So the outer edge towards the front of the tabernacle would be doubled.
And that word for doubled is kafal (כָּפַל). And if you ever wondered why the name of the cave where Abraham and Sarah are buried, what it means — it’s Machpelah (מַכְפֵּלָה), from the word kafal (כָּפַל), doubled. And you start thinking, why were they buried in a place called “doubled” or “double”? Well, you think about when Abraham and Sarah came together in old age and God supernaturally blessed them with a child, Isaac. Isaac became the father of Jacob. Jacob the father of the 12 tribes and the entire nation of Israel, into which we are grafted.
Robin 00:21:29 All of us.
Grant 00:21:30 Because of these two becoming one. And there’s also an interesting verse. And you mentioned Psalm 62:11. One thing is God has spoken, two things have I heard. Well, there’s another verse in Job 11.
Robin 00:21:47 Oh, I love this.
Grant 00:21:48 Verse 6. And it says,
And show you the secrets of wisdom, for sound wisdom has two sides. — Job 11:6
Isn’t that amazing? And that word “two sides” is kafal (כָּפַל). Again, it’s a doubled thing. So wisdom has this symmetry to it.
Robin 00:22:06 So even that little detail of how this curtain in the second layer from the inside of the tabernacle is folded over and doubled is so significant.
Grant 00:22:18 Yeah. And it completely covered and hid from view.
Robin 00:22:23 Yeah, but it’s there.
Grant 00:22:24 The layer that was below it.
Robin 00:22:24 But it’s there.
Grant 00:22:25 Yeah. The lower level, you could only see from the inside. You could not see it from the outside. But it describes us as we go on here.
So anyways, you have five panels and six panels sewn together. You shall make 50 loops, verse 10, you shall make 50 loops on the edge of the first panel at the end of one set and 50 loops on the edge of the panel of the second set. You shall make 50 hooks of copper. Now before it was gold, but for this level it’s copper, which is a much inferior metal, much less expensive, less precious.
You shall bring the hooks into the loops and attach the tent so that it shall become one — echad (אֶחָד). — Exodus 26:11
As for the extra overhang of the curtains of the tent, because these are, after all, two cubits longer than the ones under them, it says, half of the extra curtain shall hang over the back of the tabernacle and the cubit on one side and the cubit on the other side that are extra in length of the curtains of the tent shall hang over the sides of the tabernacle on one side and the other to cover it. So there’s an extra cubit length on each side of the tabernacle completely covering the first layer.
So when you go in, you look up, you’ve got the red, blue, and purple, the embroidered cherubim (כְּרוּבִים), you’re looking up into the heavenly realm. Above that is animal hair.
Robin 00:23:46 Right.
Grant 00:23:47 Okay. 11 panels, two of them are doubled over.
Grant 00:23:50 And then it quickly finishes up with the third and fourth layers.
You shall make a cover for the tent of red-dyed rams’ skins, and a cover of tachash (תַּחַשׁ) skins above. — Exodus 26:14
And you’re done. So the outer two hardly get a mention. They’re both put into one verse together.
Robin 00:24:14 Right.
Grant 00:24:14 So what’s going on with these four layers? The red, blue, purple, which are the heavenlies, then the hair, then the skin, and then the tachash (תַּחַשׁ) skins.
Robin 00:24:26 So four layers above. What does this tell us?
Grant 00:24:30 Well, people always wonder, what are these tachash (תַּחַשׁ) skins? If you look at translations, some will say they’re badger skins, some will say porpoise skins. King James says unicorn skins. May I suggest it really doesn’t make any difference what kind of skin they were. What we do know is that in Ezekiel, the only other place where tachash (תַּחַשׁ) skins are mentioned, in Ezekiel, they are the material out of which Messiah makes shoes for his bride.
Robin 00:25:03 Isn’t that amazing?
Grant 00:25:04 It’s shoe leather. It’s shoe leather. So you think about it, shoe leather, that’s the lowest kind of leather there is. That’s the leather that’s in the dirt. Then what goes into the shoe?
Robin 00:25:14 A foot.
Grant 00:25:15 Well, my foot. What’s on my feet? What’s on our skin? Hair. So you’ve got this outer protection layer, then you’ve got the skin, then you’ve got the hair, and then you’ve got the heavenlies. It’s the exact opposite order. You’d think the right order would be up above are the heavenlies, and then there’s my hair, under my hair is my skin, and then finally I put my body into my shoes.
Robin 00:25:40 Right.
Grant 00:25:40 It’s all turned inside out.
Robin 00:25:42 Why?
Grant 00:25:43 The outside is on the inside, and the inside is on the outside. And it’s because, what you were saying earlier, the inside’s bigger than the outside. The inside is the spiritual. That’s the holy. That’s the heavenly.
And I think we’ve mentioned before that these walls of the tabernacle were all covered with gold.
Robin 00:26:04 Right.
Grant 00:26:04 All gold-plated, which is very reflective. So when you go into the holy place, if I look to the left, I see myself. If I look to the right, I see myself. But then I also see a reflection of the left wall, so I see myself again, which reflects again the right wall, so I see myself again. It’d be like one of these endless hall of mirrors, where I see an infinite number of myself. You go into the Holy of Holies, you see it again. But now I’ve got another wall in front of me where I see myself face to face. I look up and there’s God’s presence. It’s so big. It’s so endless. It’s enormous. It’s eternal.
Robin 00:26:41 So would I be going too far to go outside of this structure and see these tachash (תַּחַשׁ) skins, which kind of represent the shoe leather, and know that it is the outside leather of what is eternal? It’s almost like God is saying, this is my footprint in the world. I’m putting my foot here. But what it holds and what it represents is something that you cannot even describe.
Grant 00:27:09 Well, you know, in John 1, it says,
The Word became flesh and tabernacled with us. — John 1:14
So you can always think of Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ). Yeshua’s (יֵשׁוּעַ) body is God’s shoe, where he walked in the world. But we are also to be tabernacles of God’s spirit. We should also be his footwear in the world. And we should be leaving an impression in the world.
Robin 00:27:31 Well, how lovely are the feet of those who bring good news. Right.
Robin 00:27:41 So much here, Grant. But I did want to make a mention of the four, the four layers. This is very, very important.
Grant 00:27:50 Yeah. Now, this is my own insight. If you don’t like it, you don’t have to accept it. You can reject it entirely.
Robin 00:27:58 You can throw that breadcrumb right out the window.
Grant 00:28:00 You can take this crumb and toss it.
Robin 00:28:02 That’s right. I particularly like this one, though.
Grant 00:28:06 But in 2 Corinthians 12, Paul shares something that’s really unusual, very unique. And you could tell he didn’t want to talk about it because it sounds boastful. But since his apostleship is being so doubted and being so demeaned, he felt it necessary.
Robin 00:28:29 He felt it necessary to justify.
Grant 00:28:31 So in 2 Corinthians 12:1, he says,
Boasting is necessary, though it is not profitable. But I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. I know a man in Messiah who, 14 years ago, whether in the body I do not know, or out of the body I do not know, God knows — such a man was caught up to the third heaven. — 2 Corinthians 12:1–2
So you think of the earth, then above us a first heaven, then a second heaven, then a third heaven.
Robin 00:29:01 Which would add up to four.
Grant 00:29:04 Well, four levels altogether.
And I know how such a man, whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, God knows, was caught up into paradise and heard inexpressible words, which a man is not permitted to speak. — 2 Corinthians 12:3–4
And now this man that Paul is talking about, and he’s trying to distance himself from pride, this man is Paul.
Robin 00:29:29 He’s talking like in the third person.
Grant 00:29:32 Yes, he’s talking in the third person. But what’s interesting is that the rabbis over the centuries have talked about these three heavens and they have names for them.
Robin 00:29:44 I love this.
Grant 00:29:45 They have names for them. They call this world in which we live here the world of Asiyah (עֲשִׂיָּה). Asiyah (עֲשִׂיָּה) means the world where we asah (עָשָׂה), we do things.
Robin 00:29:55 Like the world of action.
Grant 00:29:56 World of action. It’s very physical, solid. It’s a place of realization and of doing and making.
Robin 00:30:04 And so unfortunately, many believe that this is all there is. This is all of reality.
Grant 00:30:11 Oh, wouldn’t that be sad?
Robin 00:30:12 Wouldn’t it just?
Grant 00:30:13 Now, the heaven above this, the first heaven, is called Yetzirah (יְצִירָה). Yetzirah (יְצִירָה). This is the word that means formation. And I’m not going to go into details of this. That’s not the purpose of our Breadcrumbs. But then above it, the second heaven is called the world of Beriah (בְּרִיאָה), from the word bara (בָּרָא), creation. And then above that, the third heaven, the one we can’t even quite talk about, is called Atzilut (אֲצִילוּת).
Robin 00:30:43 Because it’s so beyond what we can even imagine.
Grant 00:30:46 They say that there everything is one, everything is light, and there’s nothing there to really look at, but you hear — that you hear God’s words being spoken.
So at the very top is Atzilut (אֲצִילוּת), and then below that is Beriah (בְּרִיאָה), below that is Yetzirah (יְצִירָה), and then here in this world is Asiyah (עֲשִׂיָּה).
Robin 00:31:05 But we know that in this world of action and separation, that the goal of — the story tells us that the goal is for unity and oneness.
Grant 00:31:20 Yes, it is.
Robin 00:31:21 And all the division and separation is done away with.
Grant 00:31:24 Right.
Robin 00:31:25 Returned to how it was in the garden before everything became separated.
Grant 00:31:30 Right, exactly. Now, these words, by the way, people think, “Oh, this sounds very Kabbalistic or whatever.” Well, these are words that are used in scripture. And in fact, in Isaiah 43:7, God speaks and says,
Everyone who is called by my name, and whom I have bara (בָּרָא) — created — for my glory, whom I have yatzar (יָצַר) — formed — and even whom I have asah (עָשָׂה) — made. — Isaiah 43:7
So he uses these three terms: created, formed, made — Beriah (בְּרִיאָה), Yetzirah (יְצִירָה), Asah (עָשָׂה). And where does God dwell? Up at the very top.
Robin 00:32:11 Of course.
Grant 00:32:12 Atzilut (אֲצִילוּת).
Robin 00:32:12 Yes.
Grant 00:32:13 Now, it’s interesting that the rabbis say in Atzilut (אֲצִילוּת), our eyeball circuits are blown. We can’t see, but we can hear. And then Paul says here, he doesn’t talk about what he saw there. He says, “But I heard inexpressible words which a man is not permitted to speak.”
Grant 00:32:32 Now let’s go back to the tabernacle for a moment. Here, it’s all turned inside out.
Robin 00:32:38 Right.
Grant 00:32:38 The inside, where you see the red, blue, purple, the cherubim (כְּרוּבִים), that’s the world of Atzilut (אֲצִילוּת). Then outside of that, the next one is Beriah (בְּרִיאָה), Yetzirah (יְצִירָה). Then on the very outside, Asiyah (עֲשִׂיָּה), the shoe leather world.
But what did the high priest do on Yom Kippur (יוֹם כִּפּוּר)? He went into the Holy of Holies. And he went in, first of all, with incense. So a cloud of incense would completely fill the Holy of Holies, and he wouldn’t be able to see a thing.
Robin 00:33:07 Right.
Grant 00:33:08 But that is where he would hear God speak. He would experience on earth a little bit of what Paul experienced, that world of emanation, where God’s very essence dwells.
Robin 00:33:22 No wonder the Shema (שְׁמַע) is central to the prayers. Hear, O Israel. Hear, my people. The Lord our God, the Lord is one.
Grant 00:33:32 You know, we’re to walk by faith and not by sight because our eyes always lead us astray. And when you think about it, if you go back to the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve heard two things. First, they heard what God told them. Eat of any tree you want, but not that one.
Robin 00:33:50 Right.
Grant 00:33:50 They heard. It was simple. It was direct. And then the enemy came along, and then he spoke, and they heard him. “Well, what day you eat of that tree, you’ll be like God, knowing good and evil.” So, they heard two things. If they kept their eyes closed, I think they wouldn’t have sinned. They would have done what God said. But when they looked and they saw that the tree was good for food, desired to make one wise, when they began to use their eyes to see, and they doubted, then they fell into disobedience.
Robin 00:34:22 They doubted what God said was true.
Grant 00:34:24 That’s what we do.
Robin 00:34:26 That’s what we do.
Grant 00:34:26 So we’ll hear what God says, and then the enemy comes along and gives his opinion, and then we see things with our eyes. We rely on our eyesight instead of closing our eyes and saying, and hearing God’s words — Hear, O Israel, Adonai (אֲדֹנָי) our God, Adonai (אֲדֹנָי) is one. Here, close your eyes and listen to me. God is one means he infuses the universe with his presence, himself. There’s nowhere you can go where he’s not there. And he runs the world. He created the world. He runs the world. And it’s in him we live and move and have our being.
But when we look and open our eyes, it doesn’t look that way. When we hear, we hear God say, “The whole earth is filled with his glory.” But we open our eyes, well, I don’t see it.
Robin 00:35:15 Right.
Grant 00:35:16 And so our eyes can really lead us astray, and we need to make them subordinate to our hearing and to what he says.
Robin 00:35:24 Because we mustn’t listen to the voices that are contradicting what he has already said is true. And when I think of the tabernacle, I remember that beautiful saying that what God was doing when he established the tabernacle in the wilderness was invading creation once again with Eden, to kind of set us back and give us a way back to him. I don’t want to forget that.
Grant 00:35:55 Yeah, that’s right. He wants to restore his image in us, and he wants to restore us to our home, which is in him.
Robin 00:36:03 Yeah.
Grant 00:36:04 And he’s going to do it. By goodness, he’s going to do it.
Robin 00:36:08 And you know, I asked you earlier this morning as we were getting ready to sit down and have this conversation, I said, “How do we experience his sanctuary, his holy place, his holy of holies here and now in this world?” And the answer is given to us.
He who has clean hands and a pure heart. — Psalm 24:4
And those are the first things we encounter in the outer court as we enter the sanctuary, as we enter and come close to the tabernacle.
Grant 00:36:40 That’s right. The laver and the altar. The altar is where we give ourselves to God.
Robin 00:36:42 And that’s where our hearts are dealt with.
Grant 00:36:45 The laver, wash our hands and feet.
Robin 00:36:47 And then we can prepare to encounter him in the sanctuary.
Grant 00:36:51 So we need to make sure our hearts are pure and our hands are clean.
Robin 00:36:55 And these are internal experiences.
Grant 00:36:58 They are. Well, I have to tell everybody, Robin, and I don’t want to embarrass you, but we’ve talked about doing this discussion for a long time. You thought, “I don’t have anything to say about these curtains and these coverings.” But we sat down and talked for about five minutes before recording, and all of a sudden it’s like, how are we going to squeeze all this in?
Robin 00:37:19 I know. Well, there’s the — the inside’s bigger than the outside, that’s for sure. All right.
Grant 00:37:27 Yeah. I don’t know what we’ll discuss next, but you all will know when we find out.
Robin 00:37:32 And hopefully it won’t be as long.
Grant 00:37:34 That’s right. So, our travels are over for a while, and July is now over, and we can get back to the business of daily life. So, until next time, shalom (שָׁלוֹם) everyone.
Robin 00:37:42 Shalom (שָׁלוֹם) and God bless.
Open All Scripture in Bible Gateway
