Now the book of Genesis tells us the beginning, and shows that God made man, male and female, that is mankind, after His own image, after His own likeness. And the rest of the story of the Bible, as I’ve said many times, is how we are going to be after the God kind. Originally, after creating Adam and Eve God dwelt in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve. Apparently God had a certain section in the Garden of Eden which was His. Adam and Eve had their section. God was with them. God talked with them. God taught them. And I’m sure they kept the Sabbath. God taught them. And that’s the important thing concerning the Sabbath – that God is fellowshipping directly with His people even today through the power of His Holy Spirit. And that is for those who want to yield to God and have the Holy Spirit of God. Now on the Sabbath in the world, God is not dwelling with them. They’re trampling all over His holy time. But with those of us God has made that possible.

Now in creating Adam and Eve, God made them perfect physical specimens. He blessed them. He married them. He said, “Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth”, and He gave them dominion over the whole earth. From Adam clear on down to our time we have dominion over the whole earth. And that is a fact. That is God’s blessing.

Now then, one thing that God always does, which He will do even during the millennium, which is this: God gives us choices. He set before Adam and Eve the choices as symbolized by the tree of life, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And you know the story. You know what happened. You know that they chose the wrong way. And so therefore they sinned. They were expelled from the Garden of Eden, and then God put two cherubim at the east entrance of the Garden of Eden, and as we have seen that’s the beginning of part of the elements that went into the tabernacle and went into the temple later. Now we won’t dwell on that at this time. We’ve covered that at other times. But nevertheless, this shows this: you cannot dwell with God and live contrary to His Word. You cannot break His laws and expect to be in good standing with God. And there is a penalty to pay. And the penalty that mankind has paid from that day till this is that God does not dwell on earth.

Now all during the time, from the time of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, clear up to the time of Noah, apparently God lived right there, or dwelt right there in the Garden of Eden. And when anyone wanted to come to God He would meet them at the entrance to the Garden of Eden. And that’s where the altar of burnt offering was, and that’s where Abel made his sacrifice, and that’s where Cain brought his sacrifice. And the important lesson in the story of Cain and Abel is this: is that you cannot decide for yourself what you are going to do for God. Now all of you out there in Protestant-land, please listen up. Because you are doing like Cain. You are deciding what you’re going to do, even accepting some of God’s laws, and going to God and asking Him to accept what you decide you’re going to accept. And you’re coming under the same delusion and the same problem that Adam and Eve, and Cain had – that is, that they expected God to accept their way while they still reject God’s way. Well, that’s why God told Cain, “Sin lies at the door.” Now then he got jealous and he killed Abel. And it says that the blood of Abel cries out to him from out of the ground. And people say that is a symbolic way, because blood doesn’t cry. Well now to God, blood does cry. To God, He knows when blood is shed. So it’s not symbolic language. God knew. Just like when Adam and Eve sinned, God knew. And so because of the sin of Adam and Eve they were expelled out of the garden. The sin of Cain, he was further expelled later. We’ll talk about that when we come to the Last Great Day.

And then the whole account. We come down…everything built up from that time coming right on down to the days of Noah. And men were wicked and their thoughts were evil. They rejected God’s way. The earth was filled with violence and God destroyed them with the flood except Noah. And after Noah, God’s administration changed. God now no longer lived in the Garden of Eden. God gave to Noah, and the covenant that He gave, which is still true today, all the way down to this day, that He gave man the administration of death over those who kill men. And He gave men the administration over other men. Because God was not wanted God said, “Alright, I will deal with those that I will deal with and the rest, you’re on your own.” The covenant with Noah is a basic overarching covenant that God made with all people and with the earth. And He’s fulfilled it, and it’s still in active force today, and will be until Christ returns.

So then God, since He wasn’t wanted…and this is the thing. People say they want God, but when God shows, “Ok, here’s what you need to do”, they don’t want God. And we’re going to see that’s the difficulty, and that’s why the Feast of Tabernacles, because no one is going to dwell with God unless it’s on His terms and in His ways because He is God, and He is Creator.

So then because men were still bound to do the things that they wanted to do, you know the whole account of the tower of Babel. Right after the flood men hadn’t learned any of the lessons. They said, “Oh boy. Let’s go to. Let’s build us a tower”, and everything like that. And we don’t know how much modern technology they had at that time because it is not known today. So then God confounded their languages and spread them into all the earth.

Now then, God still looks down upon the earth. And so God looked down upon the earth and there was one man, Abram. So God began dealing with him. And in the case now, God deals in talking directly as He would appear as a man, and also in dreams in visions. And so God is going to see – how does Abraham choose? It’s like with all of us. God wants to know. How are we going to choose? Are we going to do as Abraham? And let’s look at that.

Let’s begin here in Genesis 12:1, because you see the life of Abraham, as we’re going to see, has an awful lot to do with dwelling in booths and tabernacles, and temporary existence of human life as well. Now we’re not going to go into all of it. I have sermons covering the covenants of God with Abraham, and so forth, and I have it written in the Passover book, and some of it in The Harmony Of The Gospels.

So let’s pick it up here in Genesis 12:1. “Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee:…” Now you have to choose to do that. And this is the choice that is set before every one of us. Just like Jesus said, “If anyone come to Me and hate not his father, his mother, his brother, his sister, his children, lands, and his own life also.” Since God is Creator, you’ve got to love Him more than any of those. And of course you know the story of the rich man who said, “What should I do that I may inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said, “Go sell all that you have.” So what Abraham did here follows the requirements of the covenant that we find in the New Testament, or the New Covenant, and this is why Abraham is the father of the faithful.

Now let’s read it. He was told to go. Get up and leave. “And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great;…” And it certainly is because it’s still down to this very day is one of the very foundational stones of the faith, isn’t it? And one of the very examples, which set the precedent for the New Testament, as we find in Romans 4. “…And thou shalt be a blessing:…” That’s why we have the Word of God, and through him came Jesus Christ the Son of God. “…And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee…” One man – only one man was willing. “…Shall all families of the earth be blessed. So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him;…” (vs. 2-4). And of course then Lot went with him. Now we come to the story of his son Isaac, and then his grandson Jacob. And of course, Abraham never inherited the land. But we are told in Genesis 15 that Abraham believed in the LORD and it was counted unto him for righteousness.

Let’s come to Hebrews 11 and let’s see something very important. Hebrews 11, because this ties in with the theme of the Feast of Tabernacles. So here we are with Abraham, and then Isaac, and then Jacob. And we’ll come back to the children of Israel a little bit later. But let’s come to the book of Hebrews please. Hebrews 11, and it talks about those who walked with God in faith beginning back with Abel and then Enoch. And then a very important and profound scripture…let’s begin right here in Hebrews 11:6. “But without faith it is impossible to please Him [you’ve got to believe God]: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is,…” And that means all that He is. Creator, Redeemer, our Father, Christ our Lord and Master and Savior. “…And that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.” God will always bless you. Now He may let you go through some trials and difficulties, but the final blessing is going to be eternal life. What greater blessing could you get?

So then he talks about Noah, which we’ve covered. Now let’s pick it up here in verse 8 concerning Abraham. Because Abraham is the father of the faithful, and if you be Christ’s then are you Abrahams seed and heirs according to the promise. “By faith, Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed [so belief and obedience go hand in hand, don’t they?]; and he went out, not knowing whither he [was going] went” (vs. 8). Same way with us. When we’re called, we answer the call, we repent, we’re baptized, we receive the Holy Spirit of God. Where does our life go from there? Well we don’t know, but we walk by faith, and however it comes we do it.

Now let’s continue on here. “By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country,…” Now he never inherited it. And we are going to see, well I’ll just mention Romans 4 says that in the final analysis Abraham understood that he was going to inherit the world, not just a little piece of land there, which is the unholy land of Palestine, called Israel today. So he sojourned, “…dwelling in tabernacles [now notice] with Isaac and Jacob,…” So they were all in the land there. And it’s important to understand that Jacob was born two years before the death of Abraham. So he was able to see God’s promise fulfilled in Isaac and in Jacob. Dwelling in tabernacles – temporary dwellings. They had no sure place and they wandered, see. “…The heirs with him of the same promise:…” Now here’s why, and this tells us that God told Abraham of His plan even far more than what we find in the brief summary in the book of Genesis. “For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (vs. 9-10). So God told him about His plan. He understood a great deal concerning the plan of God and he was looking for New Jerusalem. So therefore he could count all the physical things of the world, and just part of those things that are necessary for physical life, and he was looking for something greater. And that’s what we’re doing. We are looking for something greater. And that’s why Jesus came.

Now notice verse 11, “Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged Him faithful Who had promised.” Even though she laughed, the laughter was not in disbelief, the laughter was what a…how shall I say, it’s a marvelous thing indeed that God would do it, but what a silly thing to think that a woman ninety years old would bear a child. And that’s why she laughed. She understood the facts of life. But nevertheless she believed. “Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead [that is Isaac, the child by promise], so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable” (vs. 11-12). Now God fulfilled it. He said He would.

And one of the greatest events that’s going to take place at the resurrection is this, I believe… Now it says all these died in faith not having received the promise. Likewise it’s going to happen to many of us. Our temporary dwelling, this body, is going to come to an end, and we have yet to receive the promise because God is going to do it in one day at the resurrection, as we have seen. But I’ve often wondered this: what is it going to be when God resurrects Abraham and calls him up to Himself, and here we are all standing on the sea of glass, and God says to Abraham, “Behold your children that I promised you.” Now you see, that’s the kind of thing that we need to look to, rather than just here and now, which is temporary and fleeting, and passing, and is going to wear out, it is going to be gone. We’re looking for that eternal city, that new Jerusalem, where we are going to dwell with God, and that’s the whole theme and purpose of the Feast of Tabernacles to teach us that – that we come from just a little pinprick of life to being a very son or daughter of God.

Now he continues here. “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off [God gave them the understanding of that], and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.” Likewise so are we. Even though we may live in one location today, we have no certain place to live, do we? For the simple reason circumstances can change and God may require of us things that we do not yet understand. But whatever they come we must be willing for it, you see, just like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. “For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out [or, from where they came], they might have had opportunity to have returned” (vs. 13-15). Likewise when you are called and are in the Church of God, if you do not have the same total commitment that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had, and if you do not love God with all your heart, and mind, and soul, and being, keep His commandments, and seek to do the things that please Him, and you look out in the world and you say, “Well that’s pretty good. That’s pretty interesting. Oh God, let me have a little of the world.” You know, it’s kind of like…go back and read the account of Lot. Now Lot was counted as a righteous man, but it was a terrible fight to get him out of Sodom. And even after he left, he was told to go in the wilderness, and he told the angel, “Oh no, let me go to the little city of Zoar.” “Alright, go but be gone because destruction is coming.” And even his wife who wanted to take the remembrance of Sodom with her, she turned back and looked against the commandment of the angel – turned to a pillar of salt. See, because she hadn’t made that commitment to God. The opportunity is always there to go back. See, if you want to return and you make that choice, which God lays out to you, then you can do it.

Now God will try and wake you up with different trials and difficulties to try and bring you back, but unless you let God with His Spirit set your will, and set your course, and you remain true and faithful you can have opportunity to return to the world and we’ve see that many who are supposedly in the Church of God did that. And we hope and pray that God will be merciful, that they’ll repent, and in the end though they may lose a great portion of their reward, will still be in the kingdom of God. Now what do we do with that kind of faith? What is this bespeaking of us, and what is it bespeaking of God? Verse 16, “But now they desire a better country, [even] that is, an heavenly [one]: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for He hath prepared for them a city.” And that shows the whole burning thing that we need to have in understanding God’s way.

Now then, from Jacob came the twelve patriarchs and the children of Israel. And then according to the prophecy of God the children of Israel were in the land of Egypt and oppressed by them under slavery for four hundred some odd years from the time that the promise was given to Abraham. So the children of Israel moaned and groaned and cried and said, “Oh, this terrible slavery. God relieve us.” So God, according to His promise, He did that. You can go back and read the whole account there in the book of Exodus, and how that the final thing happened on the Passover night, the first Passover with the children of Israel. He judged all the gods of Egypt. And that should have told the children of Israel not to go back to Egypt because those gods are dead. So then He led them out, led them in the wilderness and brought them to Mt. Sinai. Now they were dwelling at that time in booths, weren’t they? They were living in tents. Temporary dwellings. And they were to always remember that. So then God said, “Alright, I’m going to make you a proposition. This is why I brought you out here. I’m fulfilling My promise to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.”

So here’s what He told Moses. Let’s begin here, Exodus 19, and we’re going to see one of the difficulties and problems that human beings have living in this world and with the nature that we have without the Spirit of God. It always runs in cycles of wanting to do God’s way but wanting their own way. Of wanting to live for God, and wanting to live for self and Satan. Nevertheless, God made this choice. God gave this choice and laid it out to them. And He said, “Now here is what I’m going to do for you.” And it’s just like with us, when God first calls us He doesn’t give us all the details, does He? He says, “Repent, be baptized, receive the Holy Spirit. Walk in My commandments and keep them.” So likewise we have the same thing here.

Exodus 19:3, “And Moses went up unto God,…” See now God came down from heaven to Mt. Sinai. God is no longer living and walking among His people as it originally started out with Adam and Eve. “…And the LORD called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel; Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians,…” And that was quite a marvelous deliverance, wasn’t it? “…And how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto Myself.” Quite a marvelous thing for God to do, isn’t it? To bring the people to Him. “Now therefore, if…” I want you to circle that “if”. Here’s the key: the same thing that God wants with all of us today. “…If ye will obey My voice…” (Ex. 19:3-5). That’s a key thing. What we have here are the words of the voice of God.

Now hold your place here and come back to Genesis 26:5, and why Abraham was counted faithful. And this is why the blessing was passed on from Abraham to Isaac. Verse 5, “Because that Abraham [notice] obeyed My voice, and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.” Which then were the very same ones that He gave to the children of Israel. For anyone to say that these were different, they don’t know anything about God. He doesn’t have to state what they are there because He states it a little on.

Now back to Exodus 19:5. “Now therefore, if ye will obey My voice indeed,…” Now that means “truly”. So as we’re going through here let’s ask ourselves the questions: are we doing this? Because this is important because we are going to see that this is the only way that we’re ever going to dwell with God. “…If ye will obey My voice indeed, and keep My covenant,…” Now a covenant are the words which God would speak. And covenant then is the overall parameter of which He fit in everything else. Now we have the new commandment don’t we? And are we keeping the new commandment as Christ has said? So let’s apply these things to ourselves. “…And keep My covenant, then…” So it is “if” and “then”, conditional, choices. Same thing. “I set before you life and death, and blessing and cursing. Choose life that you may live and you may love the Lord your God. Go and possess the land which I have given you for an inheritance.” And that applies to us to go into the kingdom of God, which is the inheritance that God has given to us. “…Then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me above all people: for all the earth is Mine: and ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel” (vs. 5-6).

So sure enough, Moses went down and he says, “Now here’s what God says. Will you do it?” And all the people said, “Yes, we’ll do it.” Now you see just like with us, when we are called and we repent and are baptized and receive the Holy Spirit, we’re just starting. All the rest of it is to be given later, isn’t it? And all of the understanding that we have comes later, doesn’t it? So just like with the children of Israel, they agreed to the proposition that God outlined for them. And after they said, “Yes, we agree to the preliminary outline that You’ve given to us...(I’m just paraphrasing this)…Yes God, we will.” So then He said, “Ok, you be ready the third day because I’m going to come down and talk to the people.” Which He did. God came down, and the sight at Mt. Sinai was something. We’ve already covered that so I’m not going to go back and rehearse that again. But just like Adam and Eve, they don’t want to abide directly with the words of God. So after they heard God give the Ten Commandments, and the power, and the lightning, and the thunder, and the whirlwind, as Paul writes in the book of Hebrews, they backed away from God rather than say, “Oh this is fantastic, look at all this power. If God is on our side no one can be against us. Yes God, we want to hear more.”

No, no, no. People chose…they wanted someone else to do the speaking. So they said, “And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lighnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off. And they said unto Moses, [You] Speak thou with us, and we will hear:…” So they modified what they agreed to because over here God said, “If you will obey My voice indeed.” So they chose to modify it just a little bit and remove God one step further from them. “Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die.” And yet they said, “Yes, we’ll obey His voice.” “And Moses said unto the people, Fear not: for God is come to prove you, and that His fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not” (Ex. 20:18-20). So they didn’t understand. See, the thing to realize is this: under the covenant that God gave with Israel, they didn’t receive the Holy Spirit. They were well intentioned in all that they did. They were well intentioned in what they would do. They desired all the blessings of God, but they didn’t want to have the obedience that God required.

Now because God gave the promise to Abraham, which was irrevocable, unilateral, could not be turned back, God gave allowance and said, “Alright. Moses you come and speak with Me, and you tell the children of Israel.” And the children of Israel, and all of that as we have seen, the covenant was made after Pentecost, sealed with the blood of animals, and so forth. And then Moses went back up on the mountain again, didn’t he, to get some more details. And one of the most important things that Moses went back up on the mountain for, was that God gave him the plans for the tabernacle. Because God again wanted to dwell among His people, in spite of all the handicaps, in spite of all the limitations, in spite of all the difficulties that the children of Israel brought upon themselves, God said, “Alright, I will overlook it, but I will deal with them. But My purpose is that you build Me a sanctuary.”

So chapter 25, let’s come here Exodus 25. And God said, “Let them bring an offering of all of these things.” Now verse 8, and here’s the purpose of it. And this has been the purpose of God from the very beginning of Adam and Eve – to dwell with His people. And the ultimate purpose, we’re going to see when we come to the end – so the beginning and the ending, is that God is going to dwell with His people. So He says here, verse 8, “And let them make Me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them. According to all that I shew thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it” (Ex. 25:8-9). So even the tabernacle, God did not want anyone to build anything to Him unless He gave the plans. And what He did, He gave the plans, which were of the similitude of things which were in heaven.

Now we’ve gone through all the things concerning the ark and concerning the tabernacle, now let’s come here to Exodus 40 and let’s see something that’s very important, in verse 17. All of it was done, all of it was built, the children of Israel again rebelled while Moses was up on the mountain and even Aaron got carried away with their rebellion and they went back to their old paganism and finally those who were on God’s side had to make a stand, and God killed all the rest, opened up the earth and killed them to show the importance that no one is going to add to the things that God has commanded. No one is going to go ahead and engraft in God’s way the pagan things of this world. And all of those of you who belong to Protestant or Catholic churches, you need to understand…

Let me just say this, you need to understand this: if you want to know the truth about your denomination and you think that we’re kind of being kind of unkind to them, or attacking them, or as the Catholic Defense League would say, “Speaking things contrary to the Catholic Church”, then do this: you get your Protestant Bible, or your Catholic Bible and you sit down and you read it. And you ask God to show you. And for all of those who are Catholics I suggest that you begin at Exodus 20 because the Ten Commandments there are the same way that God gave them, not what is in your catechism book. And then please learn and understand the lesson: no man is going to tinker and change God’s laws, God’s ways, or God’s Sabbath, or God’s holy days without paying a price. And that price begins with blindness and being cut off from God. We’re going to see that a little later when we get into some more of this.

Now let’s come to Exodus 40, and we’ll see that the tabernacle was set up and that God did in fact dwell in the tabernacle. Now we’re just going to review. Verse 17, “And it came to pass in the first month in the second year, on the first day of the month, that the tabernacle was reared up.” Now if you want to know a little bit more about that then you can write in for the book that we have. We’ll send it to you, no cost at all. It is called The Christian Passover, and it explains all about the tabernacle and the things that took place, and so forth.

So he raised it up. And after he got it all set and Aaron was anointed we find here in verse 33, “And he reared up the court round about the tabernacle and the altar, and set up the hanging of the court gate. So Moses finished the work.” Then a spectacular thing happened. God wanted the people to know that now, by making this tabernacle according to His instructions, by setting it up God was going to fulfill His promise and He was going to put His presence there in the tabernacle, and He was going to dwell in the tabernacle, and at least dwell with the people to that extent.

“Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation, because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.” Now that must have been an exciting thing. And that must have been a tremendous thing to see. And all the children of Israel saw that. And so God did dwell among His people. Now then it explains a little bit more about it to show how God did it. So when they’re in the desert God protected them also with the cloud. Wherever they were in the desert there was a cloud cover over them to keep them from being burned up by the intense heat. “And when the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the children of Israel went onward in all their journeys: but if the cloud were not taken up, then they journeyed not till the day that it was taken up. For the cloud of the LORD was upon the tabernacle by day, and [a] fire was on it by night,…” Now think of this: every day and night for forty years, as well as the manna, showing the power and the presence of God, even in the wilderness, even in the most difficult place to live, God provided for His people. And even though they sinned and rebelled against Him and didn’t go into the promised land when God intended and they had to be wasted in the desert for forty years, another thirty-eight and a half years, as it were, God still brought them into the promised land.

So the beginning is this: God desires to dwell with His people, and as we will see, the ending is this: God desires to dwell with His people made perfect. Come back tomorrow for some more of the rest of the story….

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