These are pictures of the Betty Luken Tabernacle Felt Set

THE SANCTUARY
A Shared Study by Joan LaCelle

      During family worship we had been studying about how Jesus died for our sins.  My son, Joshua, asked, “Mommy, How could Jesus have died for our sins, because the people killed Him.”  I could see just what he meant.  Joshua was referring to how a lamb was brought to the altar and sacrificed.  He saw Jesus death on the cross as ‘murder’.  And it was.  But it was much much more than that.  I tried to explain in a few minutes what has taken me years to fully grasp.  God cannot be killed.  Jesus had to allow or give Himself up to be killed. Just as a lamb was led to his slaughter/sacrifice.  Jesus is powerful enough to have called a billion times a billion angels to rescue Him.  But His love for us - no His love for me (for you) - that “God” Love that we really so little understand - led Him to allow Himself to be condemned, mocked, spit on, beaten, betrayed, abused, unloved and yes ‘murdered’ but really sacrificed so that His blood would cover our sins and we could be where His is forever. 

   This study is not written in stone.  It is just my study that has been ongoing (off and on) for years.  It is what I have come to see and understand.  And yet each time I read more on this subject, I am challenged even deeper and led more closely to Jesus.  Because there is no end to this study.  There are depth and riches to be gleaned that we can’t even fathom because the Love of God is so deep.   You may study this and come to even more ideas or maybe not see it quite as I have.  That is okay.  I just long to come to know my Jesus ever deeper - ever sweeter. I long to know Him till I am known no more and Jesus is perfectly mirrored in my life.

    This study while yes, revealing the Sanctuary Service of Ancient Israel, is really about Jesus.  It’s not about rules, regulations, legalism, or a God that needed to be appeased by killing animals.  It is about a God whose love is like that of “Lover” deeply longing to come into close intimate relationship with me. He is seeking ways to woo me to Himself.  The Sanctuary was/is a beautiful lesson book.  Peel away the layers and see God for who He really is.  The Sanctuary Service meaning became lost through the years - even while Israel was still conducting the services.  These services became “Old hat” and people lost touch with what they stood for.  Yet in the beginning of the institution of the Sanctuary in desert, they were a beautiful revelation of a God who longed to come and “Dwell Among Us”.   

   It is my prayer that this study draws you to the Lord as never before. I pray you see the Son of God and God the Father as they really are!  I pray you find in them everything.  I pray this study reveals this and more to you.  If you come away with knowledge but not with really seeing Jesus, I believe I have not truly shared what God has blessed me with - that Jesus truly is Everything!!  That He isn’t looking for appeasement, for people to be cookie cutter shapes (all dressed alike, all eating alike etc ) but instead is longing so deeply for what He came here on this wicked world to accomplish – to show us Our Heavenly Father in His very life – to show us that God loves us more deeply, more intimately, more longingly, than we can ever even begin to imagine. He isn’t mad at us – He loves us!!  He came to this world to Give . . . and He did Give us the Father in Himself. He did Give us Life by His death.  He gave what we didn’t deserve because He is so in love with us.  Please see this in this study.  Please see Him as He is with arms stretched open wide.  

   I didn’t understand God growing up.  Even as I got older I still was afraid that I was constantly displeasing Him.  And satan is there every moment we fail to make us believe that.  But instead, over time, God patiently taught me that He has waiting for me to just allow Him to come in and be All to me.  He knew that I was blinded by bad religion, bad theology and traditions of men.  He just longed for me to “See with New Eyes” (as Ty Gibson’s wonderful book shares).  As God gently, slowly peeled away the lies of satan, I started to see that God is my friend, my companion, my comfort, my answers for everything and the deepest most intimate lover.  When I consider that God knew me (all about me, all my failures and selfishness) and still sought me out before I even looked for Him, that He wanted me -  I am truly awed.  I am loved by the God of the Universe, not because I have done anything to deserve it – but because He couldn’t stand to live all of eternity without me . . . so He gave Himself in Jesus for me.  How can I not respond to that love? 

   May you find Him as He truly is . . . and see that He is more than you could have ever hoped for and everything you will ever need.  He will do all He says.  He will transform us – because He IS – the Great I Am!!

    Now let’s study the Sanctuary and “See Jesus with New Eyes”. 

This is a six part study - you are free to copy and use as God directs you.  Again, this is not the final word on this study.  Please open God's Word and learn for yourself. 

Go to Part 2