Exodus 25:8-22
"And let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them.
According to all that I show you, that is, the pattern of the tabernacle and the pat tern of all its furnishings, just so you shall make it.
And they shall make an ark of acacia wood: two and a half cubits shall be its length, a cubit and a half its height.
And you shall overlay it with pure gold, in side and out you shall overlay it, and shall make on it a molding of gold all around.
You shall cast four rings of gold for it, and put them in its four corners; two rings shall be on one side, and two rings on the other side.
And you shall make poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold.
You shall put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark, that the ark may be carried by them.
The poles shall be in the rings of the ark; that shall not be taken from it.
And you shall put into the ark the Testimony which I will give you.
You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold; two and a half cubits shall be its length and a cubit and a half its width.
And you shall make two cherubim of gold; of hammered work you shall make them at the two ends of the mercy-seat.
Make one cherub at one end, and the other cherub at the other end; you shall make the cherubim at the two ends of it of one piece with the mercy seat.
And the cherubim shall stretch out their wings above, covering the mercy seat with their wings, and they shall face one another; the faces of the cherubim shall be toward the mercy seat.
You shall put the mercy seat on top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the Testimony that I will give you.
And there I will meet with you, and I will speak with you from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are on the ark of the Testimony, about everything which I will give you in commandment to the children of Israel."

We have come to the closing lesson in our study of the ancient Tabernacle in the Wilderness. We have suggested that this place of worship in the Old Testament times is a picture of our spiritual journey of faith. We started at the only gate into the enclosure

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and suggested that this only entrance into God's dwelling place was a type of the Lord Jesus Christ, the only way to God. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. "There is no other name under heaven given unto men whereby we must be saved." (Acts 4:12) As soon as we entered the sacred enclosure we were confronted with the Brazen Altar upon which burned the sacrifices of the worshipper. God had laid down a divine law which stated that without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. Therefore the ancient worshipper brought his sacrifice to be burned on the altar to atone for his sins. That altar represents the Cross. Between the Brazen Altar and the tent-like structure which contained the sacred Holy Place and the Holy of Holies, there was placed the Laver filled with water in which the ancient priests would wash their hands and feet before entering The Holy Place.
We stated that this Laver is a type of water baptism which each believer is commanded to participate in according to the directions given by Christ.
Leaving the Laver, we approached the Holy Place and entered the tent-like structure. The first compartment contained three pieces of furniture: the Lampstand, the Table of Shewbread, and the Altar of Incense. We suggested this Holy Place was a type of the Church. The Lampstand, which burned before the Lord fueled by the oil supplied daily by the priests, represented the Holy Spirit. Oil is a type of the Holy Spirit.
The Church was birthed by the Holy Spirit, believers are drawn to Christ by the work of the Holy Spirit, and the Church is energized and empowered by the Holy Spirit. We turned to consider the Table of Shewbread and suggested that it represented the worship and fellowship enjoyed by believers in the Body of Christ. The other piece of furniture, the Altar of Incense represented prayer. Incense was burned morning and evening on that table and throughout the Bible incense is associated with the prayers of the saints.
So thus far on our spiritual journey, we have placed our faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, trusting in His sacrifice at Calvary as the atonement for our sins. Obediently, we have followed in the waters of baptism and have become a member of His Body, the Church. As members of His Body, the Holy Spirit has drawn us unto the Savior, opened our blind hearts and minds to spiritual truths, brought us into the fellowship and worship of the Church, and given us the great privilege of coming into the very throne room of God in prayer!

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Today, we enter behind the veil separating the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies, the dwelling place of the Ark of the Covenant and the Mercy Seat. It was a small enclosure measuring fifteen feet by fifteen feet by fifteen feet.
Before entering the Holy of Holies, we are confronted by a very serious problem, for the way is barred completely by a heavy veil, or curtain, which forbids anyone to enter except the High Priest once a year on the day of Atonement with the precious blood taken from the altar of burnt offering. This veil remained a barrier unto the day of the Cross. Matthew tells us: "Jesus, when He had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. And behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent." (Matthew 27:50-51) The veil that barred the way to God was the body of Christ. Hebrews tells us that we can now come, "by a new and living way, which He hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh." (Hebrews 10:20)
Behind that veil in the ancient Tabernacle was the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark of the Covenant was the most important piece of furniture in the entire Tabernacle. It was an oblong box or chest three and three-fourths feet long, two and one-fourth feet wide, and two and one-fourth feet high. It was made of wood, covered with pure gold. Inside, this small chest was placed Aaron's Rod that budded, a Pot of Manna, and the tablets of the Ten Commandments. On the top of the Ark of the Covenant was the Mercy-seat. It was made of a solid sheet or slab of pure gold. Though a separate and distinct article in itself, it formed the lid of the Ark, being placed above the sacred chest. At either end of it was a cherub, not fastened thereto, but beaten out of the same one piece of gold of the Mercy-seat. These symbolic figures had their wings outstretched, thus over-shadowing the Mercy-seat, with their faces looking down upon it.
The Ark was to represent the throne and presence of God Himself. "And David arose and went with all the people who were with him from Baale Judah to bring up from there the ark of God, whose name is called by the Name, the Lord of Hosts, who dwells between the cherubim." (2 Samuel 6:2)
Nothing could be any more important to the people of Israel than the Ark of God. Why? Because it was to be the very place where God Himself was to meet with them.
The Ark of God was to become the most precious meeting place between God and His people. It was to be hallowed and holy ground!

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We have noted that the top of the Ark was the Mercy-seat. It consisted of a slab of pure gold with cherubim (angels) hammered into design according the plans given to Moses. These cherubim were placed at each end of the Mercy-seat.
The Hebrew word for "Mercy-seat" (kapporeth) means covering or atonement. The idea is that of the covering of sins, of atonement or reconciliation being made possible by the mercy of God. Forgiveness and reconciliation were made possible because the blood of the sacrifice (propitiation) was sprinkled upon the Mercy-seat once a year on the Day of Atonement.
Maxie Dunnam, Bible scholar, writes: "The rendered "mercy-seat" really means covering. This makes special reference to the forgiveness and covering of transgression and sin by the slain blood of the lamb. The same word occurs in the Greek in the New Testament, where we are told by the apostle Paul that the Father sent Christ to be a propitiation through faith, by His blood and in the passing over of sin. "But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God sent forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed." (Romans 3:21-25).
We might translate that 25th verse in this fashion: "The redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God set forth to be a mercy-seat." "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation [atonement] for our sins." (1 John 4:10)
There were to be two cherubim at the two ends of the Mercy-seat. The cherubim symbolized God’s justice. Stephen Olford says this: "We meet them first in the very early chapters of the Bible, placed at the east of the Garden of Eden with a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life." (Genesis 3:24) It is true that the progressive revelation gives us more light on them, as we see them appearing again in such books as the prophecy of Ezekiel and later the Revelation, but essentially they are messengers of judgment. Here on the Mercy-seat they stand poised to strike were it not for the blood-sprinkled Mercy-

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seat.
The Tabernacle presented a graphic, vivid picture of God’s Holy presence and, no doubt, aroused a deep, deep sense of God’s presence within the believers who truly believed and loved God.
In our journey of faith, the goal is to live forever in the presence of God. That will truly be heaven! We came to Jesus Christ and received Him as Savior and Lord. Because of our trust in His finished work at Calvary, our sins were forgiven and we identified with Jesus, our Lord, by going to waters of baptism. He made us a part of His Body, the Church through the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. But Paul tells us: "For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified." (Romans 8:29-30)
God’s ultimate purpose for every believer is his glorification. Glorification is the final step in the journey of faith. When Christ redeemed us He did not just redeem our spirits (or souls)--He redeemed us as whole persons, and this includes the redemption of our bodies. Therefore the application of Christ’s work of redemption to us will not be complete until our bodies are entirely set free from the effects of the fall and brought to that state of perfection for which God created them.
In our study of the Tabernacle, we suggested The Holy Place was a type of the Church. May I suggest that the Holy of Holies could speak to us of Heaven, for therein and for eternity, we will be forever in the presence of our God. And in His presence, this mortal shall have taken on immortality. "Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is." (1 John 3) One Bible scholar states that the Holy City is the Holy of Holies of the future. Our hope as Christians is to enjoy God’s presence and the heaven He has prepared for us for all eternity in our resurrected bodies. Let’s talk about heaven.
Jesus said: "Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also." (John 14:1-3)

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The glories and blessedness of Heaven are brought before us in the New Testament under a variety of representations.
Heaven is called a "country." "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. But now they desire a better country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them." (Hebrews 11:13-16) When heaven is referred to as a country, it speaks of its vastness. You will also note that it is referred to as a "city" which speaks of its large number of inhabitants.
Heaven is also referred to as a "kingdom." "Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble, for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." (2 Peter 1:10-11) In Revelation 2:7, heaven is referred to as "paradise" which emphasizes its delights. In this passage in John, Jesus referred to heaven as "His Father’s House" which speaks of its permanency.
Jesus promised His disciples that He was going to prepare a place for them. We understand this to mean that the Lord Jesus has procured the right, by His death on the Cross, for every believing sinner to enter Heaven. He has prepared for us a place there by entering the Holy of Holies as our great High Priest, carrying our names in with Him. The fact that Christ has promised to prepare a place for us repudiates the vague and visionary ideas of those who would reduce Heaven to an intangible nebula. It guarantees that it will far surpass anything down here.
Man was not made for Heaven, but for the earth, and so placed here to till the earth and live upon it. By sinning he lost the earth and the earth shared his ruin. But by sinning he brought down the Son of God from Heaven, who by His descent, opened Heaven as the normal place for those believing on Christ, and so in Him.
Jesus said, "I will come again and receive you unto Myself." Paul tells us about that event: "But I would not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.

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For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep.
For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.
Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord." (1 Thessalonians 4:13-17)
It is amazing to me that so little has been written on the subject of Heaven when there are so many statements in the Scripture that talk about Heaven. Almost all Systematic Theologies devote infinitely more space to Hell than Heaven as, for instance, Shedd, who assigns two pages in his Dogmatic Theology to Heaven and eighty-seven pages to Eternal Punishment! In Dr. Reinhold Niebuhr’s exhaustive work, The Nature and Destiny of Man, there is no treatment of Heaven whatever and the only reference appears in a single sentence, which in itself many will think a regrettable statement: "It is unwise for Christians to claim any knowledge of either the furniture of heaven or the temperature of hell." The standard work by the late Professor Salmond, "The Christian Doctrine of Immortality", has an index extending to eight hundred subjects, but Heaven is not there! I will choose to believe my Bible and reject all the comments of the theologians.
There are some very interesting verses in our Bible that give us an insight as to the subject of Heaven that frequently we overlook. John, in his Revelation vision, writes these words: "Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea." (Revelation 21:1) Peter also makes a similar comment: "But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells." (2 Peter 3:10-13)
Isaiah, the prophet, commented on the same subject: "For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former shall not be

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remembered or come to mind." (Isaiah 65:17) During this present age, the place where God dwells is frequently called "heaven" in Scripture. The Lord says, "Heaven is My throne, (Isaiah 66:1), and Jesus teaches us to pray, "Our Father who art in heaven." (Matthew 6:9) Jesus now "has gone into heaven, and is at the right hand of God." (1 Peter 3:22)
The greatest manifestation of God's presence to bless is seen in heaven, where He makes His glory known, and where angels, other heavenly creatures, and redeemed saints all worship Him.
From the scripture passages we have just quoted, it seems to indicate that the history of the earth comes to its conclusion, then God will destroy the present world and create a new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness.
Let's consider a couple questions that are frequently asked when the subject of Heaven is discussed.
What happens to a Christian when he dies? We know that his body is placed in the grave, but what happens to his soul? Paul makes it very clear that to be absent from the body is to be present with Lord. When Paul thinks about death he says, "We would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord." (2 Corinthians 5:8) To be away from the body is to be at home with the Lord. He also says that his desire is "to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better." (Philippians 1:23) God will not leave our dead bodies in the earth forever, for when Christ returns the souls of believers will be reunited with their bodies, their bodies will be raised from the dead, and they will live with Christ eternally.
Will we know each other in heaven?
Paul wrote: "For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known." (1 Corinthians 13:12) If Christ will raise our bodies from the dead when He comes, and if our bodies will be like His resurrection body, then there must be great similarities in our present body appearance in heaven. Paul tells us that bodies will be raised a "spiritual body." The word "spiritual" never means "nonphysical" but rather "consistent with the character and activity of the Holy Spirit."
Heaven is a place prepared for those who have accepted Christ as their personal Lord and Savior. It is the eternal destiny of all believers. To miss heaven is to spend eternity in Hell, forever banished from the presence of God. Jesus warned us about Hell, and if He believed in a place of punishment for sinners, then it is an eternal reality.