Participants: Pr. Shawn Boonstra
Series Code: TPR
Program Code: TPR000001
|
01:09 Good evening everyone, and welcome to "The Presence",
01:12 here with Pastor Shawn Boonstra of the internationally acclaimed 01:16 "It is Written" TV program. I don't know if you know this 01:18 or not, but in 1956 a man by the name of George Vandeman 01:24 began a single TV program out of Fresno, California. 01:28 This year internationally, all over the world, 01:31 the "It is Written" telecast is celebrating their 01:33 50th anniversary, and we are very proud to be able 01:37 to bring to you tonight "The Presence", and I'd like 01:40 for you right now to please welcome Pastor Shawn Boonstra. 01:44 [Audience Claps] 01:53 Thank you so much 01:56 for coming to The Presence, and those of you who are joining 01:59 us by satellite TV around the world tonight, 02:02 I'm so glad that you've joined us for this special 02:05 5 night presentation. For 5 nights we are going 02:09 to unfold some of the most profound mysteries 02:12 of the ancient world, and night by night we're going to build 02:15 on the night that came before, you're going to want to come 02:18 to all 5 nights. I'm going to show you things 02:21 that many people may not have noticed, and I'm going to show 02:24 you things that a lot of the world today has missed 02:27 as they latch on to theories that are very popular 02:31 about the ancient world. In particular, I'm thinking 02:33 of things like the Da Vinci Code phenomenon, 02:36 and other popular movements that are afoot today. 02:40 We're going to open some of the most ancient documents 02:42 in the world together, and look at the truth about the roots 02:46 of the Christian movement, we're going to look at the truth 02:50 about a lot of things that a lot of people have simply 02:52 stopped talking about in recent years. 02:55 Each night we're going to delve a little bit deeper, 02:57 and you're going to want to save your lessons and study them 03:00 so that you'll be ready for the next nights meeting. 03:03 Now, tonight, because I represent "It is Written", 03:07 a Bible based program, and because I believe the Bible, 03:11 personally, to be the very word of God to the human race, 03:14 I always like to have a prayer before I examine 03:17 what it says, so I would invite you here, in the studio audience 03:21 and around the world tonight, to join me by bowing your heads 03:25 for just a moment. 03:27 Father in heaven, tonight we're delighted 03:29 with the opportunity of opening the Bible. 03:32 We believe in our hearts that when we read the Bible 03:35 we hear the voice of God, so it's my prayer tonight 03:39 that not only would we hear Your voice, that You 03:41 would bless me also so the things I say would be 03:45 a fitting representation of what You would have us know. 03:48 Bless our study, I ask in Jesus' name, amen. 03:54 You know, over the years the spade of the archeologist 03:58 has often turned up as many questions as it has answered. 04:02 Every time we find something about ancient civilizations, 04:06 it turns out the more we learn about that civilization, 04:09 the less we actually know about them. 04:12 Let me give you some examples of things that people 04:14 have discovered over the last century that nobody 04:17 has an explanation for. For example, since 1927 04:23 13 crystal skulls have been unearthed, ranging from 04:27 Central America down to the southern tip of South America. 04:32 Nobody knows who made these crystal skulls, 04:35 they are accurate in size, they are actually just like 04:39 a human skull, and they are so finely crafted that one of them 04:43 even has a moving jawbone that moves the way 04:46 an actual human jaw moves. Nobody knows who made these, 04:51 13 have been discovered, nobody knows why they were made, 04:54 were they a religious object? We don't know. 04:57 Were they used as decorations in people's homes 05:00 thousands of years ago? We don't know that either. 05:03 Or were they used in a classroom somewhere in the ancient world 05:06 as a science study for students studying 05:09 human anatomy; the truth is we haven't got a clue. 05:12 We don't know who made them, we don't know why 05:15 they made them, but that's not the only mystery that's come 05:18 to us from the ancient world, there are more. 05:21 In the 1920's, when airplanes started to go over the high 05:25 deserts of Peru, the passengers of the plane started to look 05:29 out of the windows down at the desert, and they noticed 05:32 something interesting: carved into the sands of the desert, 05:35 in a place that doesn't have much wind or rain, so things 05:38 stick around for a very long time, people look out 05:41 the windows and they saw these giant pictures etched 05:44 in the sand, some as big as 900 ft across. 05:49 There are giant spiders etched in the sand, giant birds 05:52 etched in the sand, lizards, monkeys, human hands, 05:57 900 ft across. The only place you can see 06:01 these drawing in the sand is from the air, 06:04 they're that big. Now, scientists have studied 06:07 these things and they've noted as far as they can tell, 06:09 that they were probably created between the years 06:12 200 B.C. and 600 A.D, I'm not sure how they determined that's 06:17 when they were made, but there's one thing they haven't 06:19 determined: who made them? They've discovered 06:22 a city nearby, but that city appears to have been 06:25 empty for the last 2000 years, so who are these people? 06:30 Why did they draw these giant pictures out in the desert? 06:34 Were they religious symbols? Was it just art? 06:37 Why were they so big? Why is it that you can only 06:40 see them from the air? Another giant mystery. 06:43 Nobody has an answer, and again, it's not the only mystery 06:46 from the ancient world. What about the giant stone balls 06:51 of Costa Rica. In the 1940's 06:54 the United Fruit Company, as they were digging 06:56 in the earth, stumbled across these perfect spherical 06:58 stone balls, some of them only 2 ft across, some of them 07:02 as big as 6 ft across. Who made them? 07:05 There's hundreds of them, why did they make them? 07:08 Were they just decoration? 07:09 Did they serve a religious purpose? 07:11 We're they a scientific experiment? 07:13 We haven't got a clue who made them or why, 07:16 it's just another big mystery, and again, it's not 07:19 the only one. What about Easter Island? 07:23 Here's this little island out in the Pacific Ocean, 07:26 it's 2300 miles from the nearest land, 07:30 it's closest neighbor is South America, and this island 07:33 isn't very big across, to find it on purpose is a hard thing 07:36 to do if you don't have navigational equipment. 07:39 You have to go a long way, 2300 miles in a canoe 07:43 in the ancient world, and land on a little island our there 07:46 just a couple of miles across. Yet in 1772 some sailors 07:50 did land there, and when they got there they discovered 07:53 something remarkable on this barren island: 07:55 somebody had erected giant human head statues 07:59 all around the perimeter of this island, some of them 08:02 as big as 10 tones of stone. Then they discovered 08:06 they had been cut out of a rock quarry in the middle 08:09 of the island. Somebody had cut these stones 08:12 in the middle of the island, there were still some stones 08:15 half carved in this quarry, they had taken these 10 ton 08:18 statues, somehow moved them to the edge of the island 08:22 and set them up. Who did that 08:25 out in the middle of nowhere? How did they do it? 08:27 How did they move 10 ton stones without any tools 08:30 or equipment to the edge of the island, and then set them up? 08:34 And furthermore, why would they do it? 08:36 Were they a religious symbol? Was this something that they 08:39 set up to scare off evil spirits? 08:42 Or was it there to discourage their enemies? 08:44 We haven't a clue. We don't know what 08:48 they are, or why they were put up, 08:50 it's another mystery from the ancient world, 08:51 but it's not the only one. 08:54 What about the the Piri Reis map? 08:57 How many of you have ever heard of the Piri Reis map? 08:59 There's one or 2 of you. 09:00 This is really strange. It's a map that's been painted 09:03 on a piece of gazelle skin, and we discovered it in 1929. 09:09 What's really strange about this map is that it's a map 09:13 that includes Antarctica. 09:16 Not only does it include Antarctica, this map 09:19 of Antarctica is Antarctica as it is without any ice on it. 09:23 Somehow, whoever painted this map knew what Antarctica 09:26 looked like underneath the ice, and tests that have been run 09:30 since reveal that they were completely accurate. 09:34 We've done hydro-sounding or whatever....don't take my 09:38 word for that, there's no such thing as hydro-sounding, 09:41 whatever it is that we've got down, we have seen 09:43 the stone under the ice. This map is entirely accurate. 09:47 We've dug into its history, we know that it was 09:49 composed by a Turkish admiral in 1513. 09:54 When somebody asked him where he got that map he said 09:56 "I compiled it from different sources." 09:59 So let me ask you, in 1513 how did he get a hold 10:02 of maps of Antarctica without any ice on it? 10:05 Where did he get it? In 1953 the US Navy 10:09 Hydrographic Bureau took a look at this map, and they said 10:13 it was absolutely accurate, and more than that, 10:16 the only way you could come up with a map like this 10:20 was through aerial surveillance. 10:22 How did they have that back in 1513? 10:25 It's a giant mystery, but it's not the only one. 10:28 What about the Mayan Calendar? We might want to think 10:31 of the ancients as very simple. primitive people, 10:34 and yet the Mayans composed calendars carved in stone 10:38 that accurately predicted the orbit of the planet Venus, 10:41 and also revealed when the planet Venus 10:44 would be in eclipse. How did they do that 10:46 all those thousands of years ago? 10:48 Who taught them that? Who made this stuff? 10:51 It's a huge mystery, and it seems to me that every time 10:54 we dig into the soil we come up with something else 10:58 we didn't know. 11:00 But you know what's more interesting than stuff we find 11:03 and can't explain? It's stuff we can explain, 11:07 but we can't find. Stuff like one of the biggest 11:11 mysteries of the ancient world - where is 11:15 the Ark of the Covenant? This was the most sacred 11:19 object that the ancient Jewish people had. 11:22 It was so sacred that they kept it inside their temple, 11:25 inside their sanctuary, in their innermost compartment, 11:28 known as the Most Holy Place, where few mortal eyes 11:32 would ever see it, and no human fingers would ever touch it. 11:36 It was just a simple wooden box overlaid with gold. 11:40 It had a pure gold lid on it, and then 2 angels on top 11:44 out of beaten gold, whose wings touched above 11:46 the Ark of the Covenant. 11:48 This item was so sacred that even the priests themselves 11:53 would not touch it. The Israelites had this item 11:57 in their possession for century after century, 12:01 and then all of a sudden it disappears. 12:05 It is absolutely gone, vanished without a trace. 12:09 The most important artifact in the ancient world, 12:11 and today we haven't got a clue where it is. 12:15 How does that happen? The last we hear 12:19 of the Ark of the Covenant is just before the Babylonian 12:23 invasion of Israel about 600 years before Christ. 12:28 Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian king, marches on Jerusalem, 12:31 he destroys the temple, he sacks it, he takes the Israelite 12:35 people captive, and he marches them some 1500 miles 12:39 back to Babylon, and at the same time 12:44 the Ark of Covenant simply disappears, and nobody says 12:48 a word about it; there is no record, not even in the Bible, 12:51 of where it went, or why it's gone. 12:54 The Bible simply stops talking about it, and you don't see it 12:58 again after the Babylonian invasion of Israel. 13:02 It's just gone. 13:05 And today, we haven't got a clue where it is. 13:10 That doesn't mean that people haven't come up 13:12 with some theories about where the Ark went. 13:14 Some people say that the Ark was destroyed or taken 13:18 away by the Babylonians when they marched back 13:20 to Babylon. This theory isn't very common, 13:23 and it's not very common because it's frankly 13:25 not very likely. The problem with the theory 13:28 is this: if the Babylonians actually had 13:31 the Ark of the Covenant, they would have told the whole world 13:34 about it. In the ancient world 13:36 if you captured a religious relic from your enemy, 13:39 you bragged about it day and night. 13:42 I can think of several examples: in the Bible there was 13:45 an occasion where the tribe of the Philistines 13:48 actually captures the Ark of the Covenant, the Israelites 13:51 had foolishly taken it into battle, and they'd done it 13:55 for the wrong reasons, and the Philistines captured it 13:58 and they were so delighted, they brought it back 14:00 to their own temple to the Pagan god, Dagon. 14:05 Dagon was the fish god. They believed, 14:08 some of the ancient tribes, that when the sun set at night, 14:11 the sun became a giant fish and it swam under the earth, 14:14 came up again in the morning and became the sun. 14:17 Dagon was the fish God, and they were so enamored 14:20 with the fact that they had captured the Ark of the Covenant 14:23 they brought it into the temple of Dagon 14:25 and presented it to their god. They bragged about the fact 14:29 that they had actually captured the Ark of the Covenant. 14:31 Anybody who captured something that valuable would brag 14:34 about it. Another example: the romans. 14:37 The Romans destroyed the temple in 70 A.D. in the city 14:42 of Jerusalem, and they bragged about the fact that they 14:45 did that, in fact, today when you go to the city of Rome 14:49 and you visit the old Roman Forum, the ancient city 14:52 of Rome, over on the edge nearest to the Colosseum 14:56 is an arch built by Titus, the man who conquered Jerusalem 15:00 in 70 A.D. And as you step inside that arch 15:03 you look up over your left shoulder, you see a fresco 15:07 carved into the stone of a bunch of people carring a 7 branched 15:11 candle stick away. Why is it there? 15:14 They're bragging about the fact that they had conquered 15:16 the temple and they were leaving with some of the furniture 15:19 out of the temple. Everybody that caught 15:21 anything that is significant in a battle, bragged about it 15:25 to the whole world. They wanted the world to know 15:28 that their gods were greater than the God of Israel, 15:30 or so they thought. So, if the Babylonians had 15:34 actually captured the Ark of the Covenant they would have 15:37 told the whole world about it. We would have heard no end 15:40 of bragging about the fact that Nebuchadnezzar had the Ark. 15:43 But there's nothing, there's absolute silence in the Bible 15:47 about the Ark of the Covenant, even in Daniel 5 where 15:51 the Babylonian king, Belshazzar, throws a party showing 15:55 how powerful Babylon is, he sends for all the vessels 15:58 and furniture and things that have been taken 16:00 out of the Israelite temple, and he brings them into the party, 16:04 and it tells you what be brought into the party: 16:06 the vessels, the dishes, and so on, but there's absolutely 16:09 no mention of the Ark of the Covenant. 16:12 You can be sure that if the Babylonians had it 16:15 they would have bragged about it. 16:17 Theory #1 - the Babylonians took it or destroyed it: 16:20 probably false. Theory #2: 16:23 a book came out some years ago called "The Sign and The Seal" 16:26 by a man by the name of Graham Hancock. 16:29 He tells the story about how some years ago 16:32 as we explored in the region of Africa, and we went 16:35 into Ethiopia, we discovered a group of people 16:38 who lived the Jewish religion. More so, they lived in ancient 16:42 form of the Jewish religion with all of its holidays 16:45 and customs, they're known as the Felashas. 16:49 Now, the Felashas claim that they have the Ark 16:52 of the Covenant in their possession in Ethiopia, 16:55 and how do they say they got the Ark of the Covenant? 16:59 Very simple. The Bible tells a story 17:01 in 1 Kings 10 of Solomon, King of Israel, 17:05 meeting the Queen of Sheba, from Ethiopia, 17:08 a beautiful woman. That's where the Bible 17:11 leaves us with the story. The Felashas fill in the details 17:14 for us, or what they consider to be the details. 17:17 They say that Solomon and the Queen of Sheba had 17:20 a son together, and the son went back from Israel 17:23 to live in Ethiopia, and because he was leaving 17:26 Solomon had a replica of the Ark of the Covenant 17:29 made for him as a gift so he could take it back 17:31 to Ethiopia. The priests knew what Solomon 17:34 had done, and because they were worried how the Israelites 17:38 were degrading in their moral standards and becoming 17:41 more desperately wicked with each passing year, 17:43 they, at a secret time, switched the real Ark with the replica, 17:48 so that the Israelites had the fake Ark, and the real one 17:51 went to Ethiopia. Today, the Felashas will tell 17:54 you that the Ark is in Ethiopia in a certain building, 17:58 the question is: do they really have it? 18:01 We don't know. 18:03 On occasion, I've seen the old black and white photos, 18:05 they don't do it any more, on occasion they will parade 18:08 something, or used to parade something through the streets 18:11 and claim it was the Ark of the Covenant, 18:13 but it's always under some big blanket so you can't see 18:16 what's underneath, and I suspect there's a good reason 18:19 it's under a blanket so that you can't see what's underneath. 18:22 I suspect it's because they don't have 18:26 the Ark of the Covenant. 18:28 Theory #3 - this one is the most likely one. 18:33 Some people say that Jeremiah the Prophet took the Ark 18:36 and hid it on a mountain, probably Mount Nebo, 18:40 which is the place that Moses climbed to look 18:42 at the Promised Land that he was about to inherit, 18:46 along with the children of Israel. 18:47 Of course, we known that Moses himself didn't inherit that. 18:50 Mount Nebo; Jeremiah takes the Ark, he hides it 18:53 on Mount Nebo. Some people say 18:55 "No, not Mount Nebo, he hid it under the temple mount", 18:58 the place where the Dome of the Rock is today. 19:01 Other people say "No, it's not the temple mount," 19:03 "it's hidden underneath Mount Calvary." 19:06 Now, this theory that it was hidden in a cave in a mountain 19:09 is probably the most likely, and it's the story 19:14 that Jewish history actually substantiates. 19:18 We have a record of this event in the old historical 19:21 Jewish book of the Maccabees. The Maccabees, these books 19:25 are not Scripture, they are what some people call 19:28 the deuterocanonical books, and other call the Apocrypha books, 19:32 and they give us a fairly reliable history 19:35 of the Jewish people. Here's what they say 19:38 in 2 Maccabees 2, here's what it says happened 19:41 to the Ark of the Covenant. [text on screen] 20:36 That's the most likely theory. 20:37 Jeremiah hides the Ark in a mountain, his friends try 20:41 to mark the way to the mountain and he says: 20:43 "Nobody makes a note of where we hid this thing," 20:46 "it stays hidden until God chooses to bring it back" 20:49 "out of hiding." 20:51 This is the most likely theory, but you want to know 20:56 the truth? We haven't got a clue 21:01 where the Ark of the Covenant is. 21:03 We don't know anything for sure, and that's because frankly, 21:07 nobody has ever found it. Would it be nice to find it? 21:13 Yes, it would be very nice to find it. 21:16 But you know, the question that worries me more tonight 21:18 is not where it the Ark? The question I want you 21:21 to think about tonight is this one: why is it so important? 21:26 Why do so many people want to find the Ark? 21:29 What's so special about this piece of furniture? 21:32 Are those who are looking for it looking for it because 21:34 of all the gold on it? Probably not because it would 21:38 cost you more to mount an expedition to find 21:41 the Ark of the Covenant than the gold itself on it 21:44 would be worth. It's not just about the gold. 21:47 It's not just about its antique value. 21:50 There is something about the Ark that makes it very special. 21:54 People are fascinated by it. What is so special 21:59 about the Ark? What exactly was this piece 22:02 of furniture? Over the years a lot of people 22:06 have tried to explain what the Ark of the Covenant is, 22:09 and I have seen some of the goofiest, whackiest theories 22:12 in the world about what the Ark of the Covenant was. 22:15 Let me show you some of those theories. 22:18 In the 1960's this book came out called: [text on screen] 22:23 by Erich Von Daniken, anyone ever heard 22:25 of the "Chariots of the Gods"? You don't want to admit it 22:27 in front of all your friends, but you read, didn't you? 22:30 I read this book when I was a kid. 22:32 I found it in a used book pile and I snuck it home, 22:35 and unbeknownst to my parents I read this book. 22:37 I discovered that he had an interesting premise. 22:39 He said we are not the product of creation, human beings, 22:43 he also said we're not exactly the product of evolution either, 22:46 do you know what he said? He said that we are 22:49 the product of alien experimentation thousands 22:52 of years ago, where UFOs came down to this earth 22:55 and made human beings as a genetic experiment. 22:58 Now, I took that book to school, I had the good fortune 23:01 of going to a Christian school as a boy, 23:02 and I waved it around on time in show and tell: 23:04 "Teacher", I said, "guess what I discovered: we're all aliens." 23:08 [Audience laughs] 23:10 Now, knowing me, she believed it. 23:13 "We're all aliens teacher, you know that flying saucer" 23:15 "in Ezekiel, that wheel within a wheel..." 23:17 The teacher said: "What did you call it?" 23:19 I said: "A flying saucer, and it had eyes on it," 23:21 "those were the landing lights." I spent the whole afternoon 23:24 writing on the chalk board: "I will not doubt" 23:26 "the book of Ezekiel. I will not doubt the book of Ezekiel." 23:30 And I haven't doubted it since, she made me write it out 23:32 500 times. Now, in this book, 23:35 Eric Von Daniken, with his theory that we're all 23:37 the product of alien experimentation said this 23:40 about the Ark of the Covenant, page 40: [text on screen] 24:21 That's good advice, he tells people "why don't you" 24:23 "check the Bible to see how it was built", then notice 24:26 what he says: [text on screen] 24:38 He tells us "go check the Bible" but at the same time 24:41 he says "I haven't actually read what the Bible says," 24:43 "but it was a 2 way radio for Moses to communicate" 24:46 "with aliens." Well, that's 1 theory. 24:50 Another theory came out in the 1980s that, fortunately, 24:52 not a lot of people took seriously because it was just 24:54 done in fun, there was a movie that came out in the 1980s 24:56 by Steven Spielberg called: [text on screen] 25:00 And he said that the Ark was a mysterious power generator 25:03 that the Nazis were after to help them win World War II, 25:07 and at the end of that film somebody foolishly 25:09 opens the Ark and a bunch of demons come out, 25:11 and there's this great big nuclear type explosion. 25:14 Now, there's not a stitch of truth to that, 25:16 that's just fantasy and nobody really believed it, 25:19 and yet it tells me something: people were fascinated 25:21 with the movie because somewhere in our heart we know 25:24 there's something important about that Ark of the Covenant. 25:28 Another theory came out a couple of years ago, you find it 25:30 in Dan Brown's book, "The Da Vinci Code". 25:33 Dan Brown says that the Ark of the Covenant was this 25:36 mysterious place where ancient Pagan fertility rituals 25:40 were carried out, where ancient Pagan male gods 25:43 and female gods met and you can put together what happened 25:47 after that. He made that up in its entirety, 25:50 there is no basis in history whatsoever for that theory, 25:54 and yet, the sad thing is thousands upon thousands 25:58 of people are reading the book and they're believing 26:00 what he says, even though he doesn't have a scrap of ancient 26:02 evidence to back up any of it. 26:05 So, if all these whacky theories about the Ark of the Covenant 26:09 aren't true, what is the truth? 26:12 What was the ancient Ark of the Covenant? 26:15 This is easy to piece together because the Bible 26:18 is crystal clear about what the Ark of the Covenant was. 26:22 According to the pages of the Bible, God told Moses 26:25 to build the Ark, Exodus 25:10: [text on screen] 26:35 A cubit's about 18 inches. [continues to read text] 26:41 So it's about 3' 9" long, it's about 27" high, 26:46 and about 27" deep, [continues to read] 26:59 "...the Testimony" - that's another name for 27:01 the 10 commandments, God's moral law. [continues to read] 27:10 This is the lid that goes on top of the Ark, [continues to read] 27:33 It was must have been stunning, absolutely beautiful. 27:36 A wooden box overlaid with gold, think about this: 27:39 it's a perishable substance mixed with an imperishable 27:44 substance, and that will prove important was me move on 27:46 night by night. 27:47 It's a wooden box overlaid with gold, a pure gold lid on top, 27:52 and then angels of beaten gold on top. 27:55 Absolutely stunning. 27:57 So, why did God have Moses make it? 28:02 Was it just decoration? Absolutely not! 28:06 It was a powerful object and you find it showing up 28:09 all over the place in the ancient Biblical record. 28:13 For example, as the Israelites are about to go into 28:16 the Promised Land, the priests carry the Ark of the Covenant 28:19 down into the Jordan River, and as they step into the river 28:24 the water dries up and creates a land bridge, pure dry land, 28:27 for the Israelites to cross on, you read about it 28:29 in Joshua 3. 28:31 Then in Joshua 6 you discover the Israelites took 28:35 the Ark of the Covenant on a march each day. 28:38 Every day, once a day, they went around the city 28:40 of Jericho carrying the Ark of the Covenant. 28:43 On the 7th day they went around 7 times, blew their trumpets, 28:47 and the Bible tells us the walls of Jericho fell down. 28:51 Today, archeology proves beyond a shadow of a doubt 28:54 that the walls of Jericho really were there, and something 28:57 really did knock down those walls. 28:59 Why was the Ark of the Covenant there? 29:02 Then there's that story I told you about a moment ago 29:04 where the Philistines stole the Ark of the Covenant 29:06 in battle, they brought it back to their own Pagan temple, 29:09 and put it in front of the god Dagon. 29:12 In the morning Dagon had fallen over, so they put him back up, 29:15 and put the Ark there again, and the next day 29:17 Dagon had fallen over an smashed into pieces 29:20 and they thought "this is bad news, let's get rid" 29:22 "of the Ark of the Covenant." And they started sending it 29:25 from town to town, and as they sent it from town to town 29:27 people got sick and they got tumors, and finally they said 29:30 "this is it, we don't want the Ark of the Covenant," 29:33 "let's send it back to Israel." 29:34 So they put it on an ox cart and with 2 cows pulling this cart, 29:39 cows that had calves, why? Because they knew those cows 29:42 would want to go home to their calves, and if it was 29:45 really something from God, this Ark of the Covenant, 29:48 they would go to Israel instead of going to their calves. 29:51 They load the Ark onto the cart, they cross their fingers: 29:54 "Oh, please go home, we don't want this thing any more", 29:57 and they watch with one eye open as the cows head down 30:01 the road and take that Ark all the way to Israel. 30:05 The sad part of the story is when it gets back to Israel 30:07 in a place called Bethshemesh, the Israelites get so excited 30:11 they drop their tools in the field, they run over 30:13 and they touch and open the Ark of the Covenant, 30:15 and start dropping dead. Which is what always happened 30:18 if somebody touched the Ark of the Covenant. 30:21 Years later as they were moving it from that place 30:24 to a more permanent home, there were great festivities 30:26 going on, they were singing and dancing and leading the Ark 30:29 as it was in another ox cart, and then the oxen stumbled 30:33 and the cart wobbled, and a guy named Uzzah reaches out 30:36 and touches the Ark of the Covenant just to make it stable, 30:40 and the Bible says in 1 Chronicles 13:10: 30:43 [text on screen] 30:53 The question is: why? Doesn't it seem just a little 30:59 bit severe? 31:01 Why is it when Uzzah reaches out and touches the Ark, 31:04 all he's trying to do is stabilize it, why is it 31:07 that he drops dead for touching it? 31:10 It happened because of what the Ark of the Covenant represented. 31:16 This was not just a piece of furniture, I want you to notice 31:19 very carefully what the Bible says about the role 31:23 the Ark of the Covenant played in the lives of the children 31:26 of Israel; look at what the Bible says in Exodus 25, 31:30 God speaking with Moses says: [text on screen] 31:37 "mercy seat" - that's the lid on the Ark, [continues to read] 31:40 "cherubim" - the angels, [continues to read] 31:45 The spot above the Ark of the Covenant was actually the spot 31:49 that God Himself would manifest Himself among the Israelites. 31:54 The Bible tells us as the Israelites were in journey 31:57 from Egypt to the land of Canaan a cloud led them, 32:02 a pillar of fire by night, and a pillar of cloud by day. 32:05 The presence of God, we are told, was in that cloud. 32:08 And when the cloud stopped they would set up camp, 32:11 put up the travelling Tabernacle, 32:14 the one that was a tent that could be easily taken down 32:17 and put back up, they would set it up, 32:20 and after they set it up the very presence of God would 32:22 come down out of the cloud into the innermost chamber 32:25 of the Tabernacle, the Most Holy Place, and God would 32:29 manifest His very presence above the Ark of the Covenant. 32:34 Why? 32:36 Why there above the Ark of the Covenant? 32:38 It's because the Ark of the Covenant is a symbol 32:42 of God's throne in heaven. There are several verses 32:46 in the Bible where people are talking about where God exists 32:49 in the courts of heaven, and it's very interesting 32:52 how they talk about God. In Psalm 80:1 we read 32:56 about God in the second part of this verse: [text on screen] 33:03 Where does God dwell in heaven? The Bible says: 33:05 "between the cherubim". In Psalm 99:1 it says it again: 33:09 [text on screen] 33:14 And again in the prayer of Hezekiah in Isaiah 37. 33:18 [text on screen] 33:22 Again and again and again the Bible describes God 33:25 as the one who dwells between the Cherubim, the angels. 33:29 It describes God's throne in heaven as being between 33:33 2 cherubim. 33:35 Here's something even more interesting: the Bible also says 33:38 that the fallen angel, Lucifer, used to be one of those cherubim 33:43 by the throne of God, Ezekiel 28, speaking to Lucifer 33:47 it says: [text on screen] 33:57 There is a description of God's throne in heaven 34:00 as being between the 2 cherubim. Is it possible that 34:05 the Ark of the Covenant on earth was a picture of God's throne 34:08 in heaven? Absolutely. 34:11 That's why you weren't allowed to touch it. 34:14 It was a symbol of God's throne. 34:17 Look at this carefully, Hebrews 8:5 [text on screen], 34:22 "tabernacle" - that's that portable sanctuary in the desert 34:26 [continues to read] 34:33 How did Moses make the Ark of the Covenant, along with 34:37 everything else on the Old Testament sanctuary. 34:40 How did he do it? He followed a pattern 34:42 that God showed him, and what was that pattern? 34:46 God's own throne in the courts of heaven. 34:49 God gives Moses a glimpse of His throne room in heaven, 34:52 and says to Moses: "build something that looks like this." 34:58 Let's review everything that we've gathered so far, 35:01 all of the evidence, and look at what we've got. 35:03 We have studied that: [text on screen] 35:09 ...of the Tabernacle, when they pitched camp. 35:11 His presence would come down and dwell above the mercy seat 35:15 of the Ark of the Covenant between the angels. 35:17 We read that He: [text on screen] 35:34 So gathering the evidence, what conclusion do we come to? 35:39 [text on screen] 35:46 Now how can that be? 35:48 The entire Old Testament sanctuary, we are told, 35:52 was a picture of something in heaven. 35:55 Notice what the Bible says in the book of Hebrews 8:2, 35:59 it speaks of: [text on screen] 36:05 The true Tabernacle that who erected? 36:08 The Lord built. The Bible shows us there was 36:11 a sanctuary on earth with an Ark of the Covenant 36:14 that Moses and the Israelites built, but it also tells us 36:17 that there is a true tabernacle, a true sanctuary, 36:21 that God himself built and, in fact, the Bible shows us 36:24 that even that one in heaven had an Ark of the Covenant 36:27 and still does. 36:29 In the book of Revelation 11, John the Prophet sees into 36:33 the temple in heaven and he sees something interesting. 36:36 Revelation 11:19 says: [text on screen] 36:42 "covenant" - another word for testament, [continues to read] 36:48 Where is this temple? Is it on earth folks? 36:51 No, it's in heaven and there's an Ark of the Covenant there. 36:55 It is the very throne of God, Moses built a replica, 37:01 a duplicate of it, and that, by studying it, 37:04 will give us information about what God is like. 37:07 If it's His throne, it tells us something about who He is. 37:11 We know the 10 commandments were kept inside it, 37:14 so we know that God is an entirely fair God. 37:17 He rules by law and you can count on Him to stick 37:21 to His law no matter what. "Thou shalt no kill"." 37:23 "Thou shalt not steal." "Thou shalt not bear" 37:26 "false witness"; it tells us something about what God is like 37:30 It also creates a problem for us because the Bible says 37:33 that sin is the transgression of God's moral law, 37:36 and it says that all of sin, and it says the wages of sin 37:39 is death. Now, "sin" today is not a very 37:42 popular word, but the throne of God, the Ark of the Covenant, 37:46 teaches us how serious our transgression of God's law is. 37:51 We have been separated from God because we broke His law, 37:54 and the wages of sin, the Bible says, is death, 37:57 and that makes sense, we've cut ourselves off 38:00 from the Creator, we can no longer step right into His 38:03 holy presence any more because we have sinned. 38:07 We're not even allowed to look at God's face. 38:09 Isaiah 59:2: [text on screen] 38:22 We've been separated from God by our sins. 38:27 Now think about this: this is why God's throne had to be 38:30 hidden inside the tabernacle, this is why no sinful human 38:33 being could touch it, it was a symbol of God's 38:35 perfect, holy throne, and we are not allowed in the presence 38:39 of God as sinners. It tells us God is perfectly 38:43 just, He lives by law, He rules by law, 38:48 but it not only tells us that God is perfectly just, 38:53 the lid on the Ark is called the mercy seat. 38:58 Not only is God fair, He's also merciful. 39:04 He covers His law, He covers our sins, He dispenses mercy, 39:09 He forgives us. 39:12 Does that mean God just sweeps our little mistakes 39:14 under the rug and just ignores it? 39:16 Not at all. Leviticus 16:14 says 39:21 that in that Old Testament sanctuary they would sacrifice 39:24 animals and they would: [text on screen] 39:34 The Bible says the wages of sin is death, 39:38 it also says that without the shedding of blood 39:41 there can be no remission of sin, no forgiveness, 39:43 sin is very serious, and yet in the Old Testament sanctuary 39:49 they would sprinkle blood on the mercy seat, 39:52 telling us that one day somebody would die in our place. 39:59 Somebody would stand in for us, and pay the wages of sin for us 40:03 so that we could be again in the presence of God. 40:07 What is the Ark of the Covenant telling us? 40:09 It is telling us that no matter how dark our life gets, 40:13 God's face is always turned our way. 40:16 Even though God's throne had to be shielded from people 40:19 inside the tabernacle, you'll notice that He still placed it 40:22 right there in the center of the camp of Israel, 40:24 He wanted to be with His people. 40:26 The Ark of the Covenant tells us something about God: 40:29 in the darkest moments of our lives He is still with us. 40:34 A little girl was forced to spend a night 40:36 in an air raid shelter, it was World War II, 40:38 she was terribly frightened, she couldn't sleep. 40:41 "Daddy" she called out in the shelter, "Daddy! Are you there?" 40:45 "Yes honey, I'm here." She tried to be brave 40:48 for a few more minutes... "Daddy! Please, are you there?" 40:52 "Yes, I'm here, get some sleep honey." 40:56 "But daddy, is your face still turned my way?" 41:03 "Yes honey, it is." And she fell completely asleep. 41:08 The Ark of the Covenant tells us that no matter how dark 41:11 your life gets, God desires to place His presence near you. 41:17 Even though, because of sin, He's behind a veil, 41:20 His face is still turned your way. 41:55 Those of you who are watching from a location somewhere else 42:00 in the world tonight, welcome, we're glad that you're here. 42:03 We're going to be going down through, and going to start 42:04 with question 1: [text on screen] 42:16 Exodus 25:10-11, we're going to just right to that: 42:21 [text on screen] 42:25 Okay, acacia wood. I want to talk about acacia wood 42:28 for just a moment: a friend of mine where I live 42:30 in Southern California, has a lot of very large, old trees. 42:36 Several years ago he was out and had a crew come in 42:38 and do some trimming of those trees 42:41 and they were beautiful when they were all trimmed up, 42:43 and they were nice, but he had a big pile of wood. 42:47 Well, one of the trees that he was trimming was acacia wood 42:52 and I was very fascinated because I hadn't connected 42:55 the fact that it was an acacia tree with what the Bible said, 42:59 but when I came and saw the wood pile there, 43:01 I was amazed because it looked like that wood that had 43:05 just been cut was bleeding. I was astounded to learn 43:10 that acacia wood has a sap that runs red 43:14 and looks like blood being shed, I said isn't that something, 43:18 even down to the little detail of telling Moses 43:22 what kind of wood to make that out of, He made it out of wood, 43:26 acacia wood, specifically, and gold. 43:29 You want to write that down under 1(a) in your lesson. 43:34 [text on screen] 43:46 We're going to go to Exodus 25:18: [text on screen] 43:58 Okay, notice what it says: "at the 2 ends" 44:01 "of the mercy seat", so you want to write down 1(b), 44:06 [text on screen] 44:12 I don't know about you, but I'm sure glad to know 44:15 that the place of God's presence is called the mercy seat. 44:20 [text on screen] 44:27 Exodus 25:18-21: [text on screen] 45:00 So what is the answer to 1(c)? [text on screen] 45:06 Question 2 in your lesson: [text on screen] 45:13 You know, you can't create something beautiful like this 45:16 and just have it sit in the living room. 45:18 This has got to be kept in a very special place. 45:21 Hebrews 9:3,4, this is talking about the temple, 45:27 the sanctuary that was created there in the desert 45:30 [text on screen] 45:58 Question 3: [text on screen] 46:02 There's 3 texts we're going to look up, and we want 46:04 to look at each one of these, Psalm 80:1: [text on screen] 46:18 Notice, dwelling between the cherubim. 46:23 Alright, I want to go to the next one, Psalm 99:1: 46:27 [text on screen] 46:35 Again, the second passage of scripture telling us 46:37 He dwells between the Cherubim, okay, our last text 46:41 in this series, Isaiah 37:16: [text on screen] 46:56 The Creator, God, wants to be with His people 46:59 and He sets up the mercy seat, the Ark of the Covenant, 47:04 between the cherubim. 47:07 Question 3, what's the answer? [text on screen] 47:13 Symbolically on this earth, on the Ark of the Covenant 47:17 that was made here, but that is only a representation 47:21 of the true that is in heaven, where He dwells, His throne. 47:24 Okay, our next question, #4: [text on screen] 47:30 We have 2 Bible verse we're going to look at on this. 47:33 This first one is Exodus 25:40: [text on screen] 47:44 I want to go to the next one, Hebrews 8:5: [text on screen] 48:02 So, question 4, the answer is: [text on screen] 48:09 There is no guesswork, this was not something that... 48:12 "well, should it be this length? Should it be this height?" 48:14 It was exactly according to the pattern that Moses was shown 48:18 on the mountain. 48:19 We'll go to question 5: [text on screen] 48:25 We're going to go to Revelation 11:19: 48:29 [text on screen] 48:40 So where was the temple of God? 48:42 [text on screen] 48:49 Question 6: [text on screen] 48:55 Exodus 25:22: [text on screen] 49:13 So what was the answer to this question? [text on screen] 49:32 Sin separated the human family from God. 49:37 This is a place where God is saying: "We can reconnect" 49:41 "in this symbolic place where My presence is." 49:45 Question 7: [text on screen] 49:50 You heard Pastor Boonstra talk about that a moment ago, 49:53 there were several instances in scriptures where we see 49:56 that people casually, carelessly, coming up 50:00 and touching, or in other words, disrespecting the throne 50:06 of God, actually had a fairly rough sentence to deal with. 50:12 Let's look at 2 Samuel 6:6-7: [text on screen] 50:33 The second passage of scripture, Isaiah 59:2: [text on screen] 50:45 There's a really little, interesting nuance 50:47 to this story; you see, God had given them very specific 50:52 instructions: the Levites, the priests, were to carry that Ark 50:57 on their shoulders, 4 Levites, one on each corner 51:00 of the poles that went through. You'll see that if you read 51:02 in the book of Exodus. 51:05 They were moving it on an ox cart, they weren't following 51:08 God's directions, they were not honoring what He 51:10 had asked them to do. 51:12 Therefore, whenever you separate yourself from God 51:16 by your iniquities there is a price to pay. 51:19 So the answer to this question is: [text on screen] 51:24 As a result of that, we die, maybe not instantaneously 51:29 as it happened there, but if, even today, our sins 51:33 separating us from God will cause us ultimately 51:35 to be separated from Him. I don't know about you, 51:38 but I don't want that to happen. 51:40 I want to be at that mercy seat confessing my sins. 51:43 Question 8: [text on screen] 51:51 This is one of the most profound passages in scripture for me. 51:56 Isaiah 6:1-5, I'm going to read this and it just brings 52:01 a pathos in me when I think about it, to imagine Isaiah 52:05 as a young man being taken in vision, and actually getting 52:08 a chance to see the throne room of God: [text on screen] 52:59 When brought into the presence of God in a sinful condition, 53:03 what is it that happens to us? Our answer: [text on screen] 53:16 Being in the presence of God reminds us of how far 53:18 we are away from Him. 53:22 Question 9: [text on screen] 53:28 We're going to look at several passages of scripture, 53:30 so stay with me on this, Leviticus 16:15,16, 53:34 so that you get a feel for how God was instructing His people 53:38 because we can learn from that tonight: [text on screen] 54:12 God says: "I want to come and be in the midst of you" 54:15 "even though you are sinful, even though you've got" 54:19 "all these problems of listening to me, and wanting to do things" 54:22 "your own way, instead of wanting to do it the way" 54:24 "that I have created you to do it." 54:27 Because of that uncleanness we have a situation where God 54:32 is creating the blood, we're starting to see that blood 54:35 plays a part in this, we're going to expand on that 54:37 a little bit more with our next text, Hebrews 9:22: 54:40 [text on screen] 54:49 What does the word "remission" mean? 54:52 Forgiveness. Without the shedding of blood 54:54 there's no way to bring reconciliation, to put us back 54:59 into harmony with our God. The next text, Romans 6:23: 55:04 [text on screen] 55:13 Even though we see the very specific penalties played out, 55:18 we see what some people would say are "kind of harsh" of God, 55:25 isn't it beautiful to know that Jesus Christ came and shed 55:30 His blood; we see the blood coming in there. 55:35 [text on screen] 55:44 Question 10: [text on screen] 55:49 We're going to go to Romans 3:23-25. 55:54 [text on screen] 56:22 Can you say amen to that? [Audience replies] Amen. 56:25 God has passed over the sins that you and I have committed, 56:29 that all of humanity has committed because of the blood 56:32 of Jesus Christ. The blood of those sacrifices, 56:35 the blood of that goat that we read about a minute ago 56:38 could not cleanse anyone of sin. 56:41 It was a symbol pointing forward to what Jesus Christ 56:45 would do on Calvary's cross, but just like that blood 56:49 was sprinkled on the mercy seat, our answer 56:51 to this question: [text on screen] 57:01 It's the blood of Christ that is symbolized. 57:04 [text on screen] 57:16 Psalm 85:9-10: [text on screen] 57:29 The answer to this question is very simple: [text on screen] 57:43 Our last question: [text on screen] 57:56 Jeremiah 9:23-24: [text on screen] 58:24 So what is your personal response? 58:27 [text on screen] 58:29 Wouldn't you like to get to know him a little bit better 58:31 than maybe you do tonight? 58:34 I want to invite you while I pray, if you would like 58:37 to say I want to get just a little bit better acquainted 58:40 with this God, I'd like you to just lift your hand with me 58:43 as I pray. 58:45 Holy Father in heaven I thank you for this incredible picture 58:51 that you have presented to us in Scripture. 58:54 I pray that each one of us right now 58:56 would chose to accept this beautiful gift 58:59 that you've given to us, that you've shown us 59:00 all through Scripture. Thank You Lord 59:04 for that incredible gift, I pray in Jesus' name, amen. |
Revised 2014-12-17