We are walking in today: Creating A Dwelling Place For The Most High!!
Witness dwelling throughout the Bible: H4186 mowshab--seat, assembly, dwelling-place, dwelling, dwellers; situation, location
Lev 23:3 Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the sabbath of rest, an holy convocation; ye shall do no work therein: it is the sabbath of the LORD in all your dwellings. H4186
The Torah testifies...............
Lev 23:21 And ye shall proclaim on the selfsame day, that it may be an holy convocation unto you: ye shall do no servile work therein: it shall be a statute for ever in all your dwellings H4186 throughout your generations.
The prophets proclaim..................
Eze 37:23 Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions: but I will save them out of all their dwellingplaces, H4186 wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them: so shall they be my people, and I will be their God.
The writings bear witness...........................
1 Ch 6:54 Now these are their dwelling places H4186 throughout their castles in their coasts, of the sons of Aaron, of the families of the Kohathites: for theirs was the lot.
Num 35:29 So these things shall be for a statute of judgment unto you throughout your generations in all your dwellings. H4186
The Most High’s goal throughout history has been to get man back into His presence.
The Most High is in the restoration business, and the Bible is a record of His efforts to get us back into His presence. Therefore, the stories in the Old Testament are not primarily about the patriarchs,
judges, kings, and prophets, or about the victories and defeats of The Most High’s people. Rather, the Bible can be summed up as an account of The Most High’s acts to get man back into His ideal environment. It tells of The Most High’s basic desire: “I want a place on earth where I can put My presence again because I need to rescue this malfunctioning machine called ‘man.’ ”
This work of The Most High to get man back into His ideal environment reached its climax in the life, death, and resurrection of Yeshua, The Most High’s Son. Everything Yeshua did was to get The Most High’s presence back into man’s experience. This is why He had to shed His blood.
The Most High’s temple, namely us, had become unholy, so The Most High had to cleanse us and make us holy again through the sacrificial death and the poured-out blood of His Son. Truly, we cannot be qualified to receive the presence of The Most High into our life until the blood of Yeshua cleanses us and makes way for the return of The Most High’s Spirit to our human temples. Therefore, the key to the continuing work of Yeshua in each of us is the Holy Spirit. When the Spirit is alive and well in us, He restores the presence of The Most High to our life and leads us into the holiness that was our birthright at creation.
However, long before The Most High sent Yeshua and the Holy Spirit, man attempted to bridge the gap that his sin had created between him and The Most High. These early attempts at worship begin in the Book of Genesis.
Altars for The Most High
Man’s first act of worship is recorded in Genesis chapter 4, right after the story in Genesis 3 of man’s sin and his fall from The Most High’s presence.
In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock (Genesis 4:3-4).
What were Cain and Abel doing here? They were trying to get back into touch with The Most High. They evidently knew they needed to be in communication with The Most High. This effort to get The Most High’s presence back into man’s life is evident throughout the Old Testament.
Repeatedly, The Most High’s people built altars to prepare a place for the presence of The Most High to come and offered sacrifices either to invite The Most High to come or to commemorate a time and a place where He had come.
Altars prepare a place for the presence of The Most High to come.
After the offerings given by Cain and Abel, the next record in the Bible of man’s attempt to communicate with The Most High through sacrifices and offerings is found in the story of Noah. After the flood, when Noah, his family, and all the animals had emerged from the ark, Noah built an altar and offered burnt offerings unto The Most High.
The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in His heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done. As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.” Then The Most High blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth” (Genesis 8:21-9:1).
Please notice that The Most High is pleased with Noah’s attempts to communicate with Him. Hence, The Most High blesses Noah and his sons. Nonetheless, Noah is still a malfunctioning man. This is, perhaps, most evident in the blessing that The Most High gives to Noah, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth.” This blessing is very similar to The Most High’s blessing of the first man and the first woman (see Gen. 1:28), but an important element is missing. The Most High does not command Noah to subdue the earth and to rule over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and over every living creature. Why? Through his sin, man has lost both his right and his power to dominate the earth. He gave that right to satan, whom Yeshua refers to as the “prince of this world” (see Jn. 14:30). Therefore, although man is again communicating with The Most High, this relationship does not have the moment-by-moment intimacy of the garden fellowship that The Most High and man had enjoyed.
Friends With The Most High
Abraham
Abraham (Abram) is the next man whom the Scriptures tell us built an altar to the Lord. This follows The Most High’s appearance to him when The Most High promised Abraham that He would give the land of
Canaan to Abraham’s offspring (see Gen. 12:7). This is but the first of many altars that Abraham built to The Most High. Perhaps the most well-known altar Abraham built was the one on Mount Moriah when The Most High commanded him to offer his son Isaac as a burnt offering (see Gen. 22). This story shows why Abraham was regarded by The Most High as His friend. Not only was Abraham a worshiper (as is evidenced by the number of altars he built), but so great was Abraham’s commitment to, passion for, and trust in The Most High that he gave Him even his son, the son of promise. Believing that The Most High would provide a lamb for the sacrifice, yet not knowing that at the very last minute The Most High would provide a ram to take the son’s place, Abraham bound Isaac on the altar and raised his hand to kill him. Only The Most High’s voice stopped him from giving The Most High what He had asked for.
David
As is often true in the Bible, the place of one sacrifice becomes the place of another. This time the worshiper is David. He has sinned by counting the fighting men of Israel and The Most High has shown His displeasure by sending a plague on the people. When David sees the carnage among his people, he entreats The Most High to punish him, not them, because he is the one who has sinned. The Most High, through the prophet Gad, then tells David to build an altar on the threshing floor of Araunah (later associated with Mt. Moriah where Abraham offered up Isaac; see 2 Chron. 3:1) so that the plague may stop.
This was certainly not the only time David built an altar to the Lord. As a youth tending his father’s sheep, he had learned to seek the presence of the Most High. These early experiences with The Most High influenced him so much that when faced with the choice of three years of famine, three months of fleeing from his enemies, or three days of plague, David chose the plague.
I am in deep distress. Let us fall into the hands of the Lord, for His mercy is great; but do not let me fall into the hands of men (2 Samuel 24:14).
Do you see why David chose the third option? He preferred to fall into the hands of The Most High rather than the hands of men. Why would David choose The Most High over man? David knew the The Most High he had
sung to as a shepherd boy playing his harp. Now, when he is king and is faced with a difficult decision that means suffering not only for him but for his people, David draws on what he had learned during those years of private worship before he entered the public eye. He knows that The Most High is good and His mercy endures forever, so he entrusts himself and his kingdom to The Most High.
David’s lasting relationship with The Most High is also seen when he takes Bathsheba, another man’s wife, to his bed and tries to cover his sin. When the prophet Nathan confronts him, David immediately responds, “I have sinned against the Lord” (2 Sam. 12:13).
He doesn’t argue or make excuses. He accepts the truth of Nathan’s words and the justice of The Most High’s punishment.
The Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die. But because by doing this you have made the enemies of the Lord show utter contempt, the son born to you will die (2 Samuel 12:13-14).
Psalm 51, written during this time in David’s life, shows just how much he valued the presence of the Lord. Although he interceded for his son’s life while the child still lived, David didn’t criticize The Most High for taking him. In truth, Psalm 51 shows that David thought of a punishment far worse than the loss of his son:
Create in me a pure heart, O The Most High, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me not from Your presence or praise must be learned in private before it is exhibited in public.
take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me (Psalm 51:10-12).
You see, David was used to having his own private worship services. He knew the joy and power of living with The Most High. He also knew what happens to a man when sin takes the presence of The Most High from his life.
As a young man, David had played his harp for King Saul when an evil spirit tormented him.This spirit came to Saul after the Lord had departed from his life because of his failure to obey The Most High. The memories of those hours with Saul surely contributed to David’s own plea that The Most High not take His Spirit from him. He knew the misery man endures when faced with the absence of The Most High. Losing the Holy Spirit and the presence of The Most High would therefore have been a punishment far greater than the death of his son.
Shema Selah will you forget about yourself and magnify HIS name and worship HIM?? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gr6Rksr9Yms
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