The Exposition of the Tabernacle: The Culture Exchange
Copyright © 2013 Javon Rahman Bertrand
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be copied or reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher.
Cover art design: Paul Ellis/Ellis and Ellis Consulting Group, LLC
Scripture quotations, unless otherwise noted are taken from King James Version Zondervan, 2002. Grand Rapids, MI.
Scriptures marked (AMP) are taken from The Amplified Bible, Zondervan, 1987 Grand Rapids, MI.
All Greek and Hebrew definitions from Strong, James. The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible: With Main Concordance, Appendix to the Main Concordance, Topical Index to the Bible, Dictionary of the Greek Testament. Nashville: T. Nelson, 1990
ISBN 978-1-937400-31-6
ISBN 978-1-937400-32-3 (ebook)
Printed in the United States of America
Manifold Grace Publishing House, LLC
Southfield, Michigan 48033
www.manifoldgracepublishinghouse.com
The Exposition of the Tabernacle is dedicated to Real Prayze of Greater Southern Baptist Church. It is because of this ministry that I engulfed myself in the study of the tabernacle. I honor every session we had going through every instrument of the tabernacle as it was linked to praise and worship. I will never forget the opportunity afforded to me to teach these awesome vessels about the meeting place of our Lord.
The Exposition of the Tabernacle is also dedicated to Restoration of Love Deliverance Center (ROLDC)! I am honored to serve as your leader. Thank you for the apostolic and prophetic intercession during the process of teaching The Tabernacle! Our Senior Prophet, Prophetess Deprieshia Speller, spoke the prophetic word that this teaching would be my next book. Thank you Prophetess Speller for the transcription you did for me, all the interceding and the pushing—thank you. I honor each of you and I thank you for your willingness to believe against all odds that the Lord set you in this house. ROLDC, you rock! NMW X 2!
Several years ago Elder Hugh Lake, of Greater Southern Baptist Church in Detroit, asked me to teach a class about the tabernacle to a praise team he oversaw. The class was to be about the tabernacle of God as given to Moses. I studied from Wednesday morning prayer with Prophetess Juanita Bynum, here in the city of Detroit. This was a newly revealed concept to me. God began to deal with me about the tabernacle as the process of praise and worship. The class was explosive and there were tangible manifestations. Real Prayze, the praise team I taught, even carried a new sound, a fresh sound, the sound of heaven.
Fast forward to 2013. I am the senior leader of a local church ministry and the Lord instructs me to teach the tabernacle series. This is on the foundation of the earlier teaching, but it is elevated and upgraded with more detail, knowledge, and revelation. This teaching is coming forth and one of the house prophets, Prophetess Deprieshia Speller, releases a word that this series needs to become a book. Honestly, I heard the words come from her lips but I was unsure of how that would happen. Then, one night after one of the teaching sessions, I heard the Lord say, “You are to write a book about the tabernacle.” There it was; a prophetic word and direct instruction from the Lord.
The Exposition? What does that mean? A simple definition of exposition is to display, to teach, to put on exhibit, or to expose. I am here to do all of those things concerning the tabernacle of God. I am going to practically and prophetically unveil the tabernacle to you. We are going to take a journey unto the glory of the Lord. Buckle your revelation belts; we are getting ready to take an exciting ride through the word of God.
Dedication
Introduction
Chapter 1: The Culture of Sin ∼ Dying in Sin
The Culture of Egypt
What is Sin?
The World ∼ Where Sin Dwells
Metamorphosis
Chapter 2: The Paradigm Shift ∼ The Gate
The Gate
What is Repentance?
He Will Forgive You
Chapter 3: The Self Sacrifice ∼ The Brazen Altar
How Do I Sacrifice Myself?
The Construction of the Altar
The Sacrifice of Praise
Chapter 4: The Rising ∼ The Brazen Laver
The Work of Cleansing
The Construction of the Brazen Laver
Chapter 5: The Identity Deposit ∼ The Priesthood
The Priesthood of the Believers
The Garments of the Priesthood
The Construction of the Priests
Chapter 6: The Revelation of God ∼ The Holy Place
The Table of Shewbread
Golden Candlestick
Golden Altar of Incense
The Presence of the Lord
Chapter 7: The Supernatural Encounter ∼ The Most Holy Place
The Veil
The Most Holy Place
The Ark of the Covenant
What Are Cherubim?
Conclusion: The Culture Exchange
The Culture Exchange
A Modern Day Culture Exchange
What is a culture? A culture is the beliefs and customs of a particular people or organization. There are thousands, maybe even millions of cultures on the earth. Music cultures, racial cultures. As we live on the earth we even live according to different cultures. We were all born into a culture, the culture of sin. When we entered the earth, the world met us. We came into what God created (earth) and began living in what Adam created (the world). What is the difference between the earth and the world? The earth was created without sin and darkness. The world is now full of sin and darkness.
The earth was created perfectly. No sin, no judgment, no punishment. It was a perfect utopia; an atmosphere of perfection. When Adam ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, sin was released into the earth creating a culture of sin. Sin is disobedience to the instruction of the Lord. Adam was instructed not to eat of the fruit; he did, and it released sin and death into the earth (Genesis 2:15-17).
Because of this release, because of this culture shock to the earth, we were born into a world, a system, and a culture of sin. Sin met us out of our mother’s womb. Sin met us, waiting to encapsulate us; waiting to weaken our faith and our willingness to obey God. This culture taught us how to disobey God without remorse or regret. This culture taught us to live by lies told by others and ourselves. This culture portrayed false appearances. We were taught to covet what others had, to try and be other people and live to gratify self while ignoring others. This culture is consumed with a false sense of love, not true, pure, and perfected love.
According to the Word, we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). What that means is that every person in the world has sinned. Every person has done something that was not pleasing in the eyesight of the Lord. We have said something that was not pleasing to the ear-gate of the Lord. However, God has a plan to exchange the culture of sin for the culture of His kingdom. Sin is the culture of the world. We are in the world, but not of the world. We must be delivered from the dominion of this culture.
The children of Israel were in captivity. They were slaves to Pharaoh and Egyptian rule. The children of Israel were under the dominion of the Egyptian culture. The culture enslaved them for over 400 years. Egyptian taskmasters dealt harshly with the Israelites (Exodus 1:11). The more they were afflicted, the more they multiplied. They continued to grow in number and it was confounding to their masters. Even in the midst of captivity and slavery, God had a plan for the freedom of the children of Israel.
Pharaoh enacted a law that all of the newborn males of the children of Israel should be killed (Exodus 1:16). Although Pharaoh made this law, the midwives feared the Lord and would not kill the newborn sons. During this time a man of the tribe of Levi, married a woman who conceived a son. This son was seen as a “goodly child”, so she hid him for three months. After three months, she made an ark and sent him down the river. The ark reached the palace of Pharaoh and his sister found it. Inside it was Moses, the prophet assigned of God to deliver the children of Israel from bondage. Moses was raised in the palace in a culture of Egyptian royalty. He did not know the slavery of his native people. However, God’s plan did not require him to know the labor of the children of Israel, but to be obedient to His instruction.
Time passed. Moses had personal experiences and trainings with the Lord. He was given specific instructions on what to say to Pharaoh and even what Pharaoh’s responses would be. Moses was obedient over and over again. And, because of the obedience of Moses, the people were delivered. They fled Egypt miraculously. They experienced the parting of the Red Sea for their deliverance. They saw the Egyptians drowned by the same sea that was parted for them. In the midst of their journey to the Promised Land, the Lord speaks to Moses about the tabernacle. The full story of the exodus of the children of Israel can be found in the Book of Exodus.
One of the reasons God instructed Moses to construct the tabernacle and gave him the blueprints was so that the culture of the people might change. The children of Israel had been in bondage for 400 years. They had been slaves to Pharaoh and Egyptian rule, and were subjected to hard labor. The Bible says in the book of Exodus that Pharaoh said:
Come on, let us deal wisely with them; lest they multiply, and it come to pass, that, when there falleth out any war, they join also unto our enemies, and fight against us, and so get them up out of the land. Exodus 1:10
It was an enslavement to keep them from becoming victorious. The mindset and the culture of the Israelites was that of bondage. That is the same as the culture of sin; sin keeps us in bondage. It binds us to false things. Sin binds us to sickness and disease. It binds us to that which is not beneficial for our lives, but because it can be pleasing to our flesh, we think we are doing what is right.