GOING BEYOND THE VEIL
So the Ark is being carried on the shoulders of the Levites into the City of David, and there's a huge street-fair and celebration happening as THE PRESENCE OF YAHUAH RETURNS to His people. And in the midst of all the joy and gladness, we get to see another side of the picture. Here in the given references we have a person whose character represents the very opposite to all the joy that is going on over the return of the Ark. Instead of being down with the multitude rejoicing, Michal, the daughter of Saul, looks out of her palace window up above everyone and despises all that is going on. After all the inspiration, preparing, the hit-and-miss and sacrificing by David - now he's confronted with this miserable wet-blanket of a person!!
1. "Michal" means "Who is like Alahim?” or "Who is perfect?"
2. She was a Princess, the daughter of King Saul, of the Tribe of Benjamin.
3. She was bought by David with the blood of circumcision, to be his Bride.
4. She saved David, her husband, from death by the hand of her father, Saul.
5. She was taken from David and given to another man to be his wife.
6. She was restored to David in due time and he loved her.
7. She despised her husband in her heart, and then rebuked her husband and King for his joy and dancing over the Ark coming to Zion. What a tragedy!
Here Michal could have lived up in measure to her name, as she was partaker of the Name of Yahuah. She was a King's Daughter, bought with the price of blood, and she became the Bride of a King of the Tribe of Judah. After a time of separation from him, her Bridegroom King, she is restored to him. But what happens? As her Bridegroom King is shouting and rejoicing before the Ark of Yahuah, as leader and commander in Yisharal, Michal looks out of the window and despises him in her heart.
What was she doing at home? Looking out of the wrong side of the window? She could have been down in the procession, rejoicing and praising Yahuah along with the women in Yisharal. What does she see? All she sees is "flesh." She does not see the Ark of Yahuah. She despises David. What was in the heart now comes out, for "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (MATT 12).
She sarcastically mocks her husband's behaviour, charging him with indecency in his hilarious and vigorous playing and dancing before Yahuah. She did not see the Ark of Yahuah and the return of Yahuah's presence. She missed the whole significance of what Yahuah was doing. Her attitudes were totally wrong and disgusting.
WHAT A WARNING FOR US!
How many 'Michals' are among Yahusha's people today? Bought with blood, children of royalty, to be joined to the King of Kings, yet because of despising the free-flowing `wind-like' spontenaity of Yahusha's Spirit (when He speaks to us to do something) or despising expressions of praise and emotion and joy of the Spirit, they are smitten with spiritual barrenness until the day of their death! Such a thing may happen individually as well as corporately!
Yahuah set forth David to be a witness, leader and commander of His people (IS 55). The role that David takes here in the establishing of the Tent called by his own name shows that David actually touched something in Yahuah after the Order of the Melchizedek Priesthood, for Melchizedek was King-Priest of the Most High Yahuah, serving bread and wine to Abraham and blessing him in the Name of Yahuah, possessor of heaven and earth (GEN 14, HEB 7, PS 110). David foreshadowed the service of his greatest Son, Yahusha Messiah, serving after the Order of Melchizedek.
Yahusha is our King-Priest, "King of Righteousness and King of Peace." He offered Himself as the sacrifice for sin before He established His Royal Tent, the New Covenant Bride. It is He who serves the new bread and wine (His broken flesh and shed blood) and blesses His people in the Name of Yahuah. He is our Melchizedek, our King-Priest forever, living in the power of an endless life, and unchangeable Priesthood.
1 CHRON 16: And they brought the ark of Yahuah and set it in the midst of the Tent that David had pitched for it. And they brought burnt offerings and peace offerings before Yahuah ... then he blessed the people in the Name of Yahuah and gave a portion to everyone of Yisharal, both man and woman, to everyone a loaf of bread, a measure, and a cake of raisins.
The Ark had been taken out of the Tabernacle of Moses at Shiloh under the corrupt Priesthood of Eli and his sons. It had been through the great ordeal in the land of the Philistines, bringing death, plagues, and destruction in its journeyings. Even when it was returned to the land of Judah, death followed in its train. None dare to touch it or to presume upon Yahuah's Order. And now after all this period of time, David had received revelation from Yahuah and has set up another Tent, called by his name, for the Ark of Yahuah. This would have been great presumption indeed if David was not in the will of Yahuah.
So here David brings the Ark on this dedication day, amidst the thousands of Yisharal, placing it - not in the Tabernacle of Moses but in the Tent of David. It is called "His place." Moses' Tabernacle, used to be "His place" but no longer is this to be. THERE IS TO BE A TRANSFERENCE OF THE ARK FROM THE TABERNACLE OF MOSES TO THE TENT OF DAVID. So Yahuah went from tent to tent and from one tabernacle to another. The Ark finds its place in a new setting now, a new Tent, A NEW ORDER! No longer in the most Set-Apart Place in Moses' Tabernacle, but set in the open Tent of David.
It's significant to see that once the Ark of the Blood-Covenant was taken out of the Tabernacle of Moses, it never ever returned to it! The Esteem, the presence of Yahuah had departed from that Tabernacle never to return to it again. Yahuah had moved on. The final step would be that it would be taken from the Tent of David into the Temple of Solomon.
This act of David foreshadowed the transference of the Esteem, symbolised in the Ark, from the Old Covenant Tabernacle (Temple) to the New Covenant Tent of the New Covenant Bride herself (our bodies). The Scripture is silent as to whether the Ark was covered in this journey to David's Tent. It was possibly left hanging upon its four pillars at the Tabernacle of Moses in Gibeon, as Yahuah was indeed doing a “NEW THING” here, foreshadowing the rending of the veil of Moses’ economy which was to take place under New Covenant times.
The spiritual fulfilment here is so rich, for what was the point of a functioning Priesthood at Moses Tent in Gibeah, if the Ark of Yahuah's Presence was not in its proper place? The fact must not be ignored that Yahuah did bless that which attended the Tabernacle of Moses. But Yahuah did have something else in mind through the function of David's Tent. Moses` Order was never to be forgotten, but instead transformed and behaved very differently through the liberty of all people willing to approach and engraft.
David's Tent was pitched in Mt. Zion and here David placed a company of Priests and Levites who had been taken from the "Old Order" that they had known for years as in Moses' Tabernacle, and in David's Tent, these Priests came into a "New Order" as pertaining to Revolutionary Praise Behaviour. Now music was not foreign to the old priesthood or the nation, however such open access to the Ark
and the Priesthood by all was never done or heard of before, and certainly not in such grandeur or volume, therefore revolutionary!
In contrast to the Tabernacle of Moses and the Priests at Mt. Gibeon, these Priests in the Tent at Zion did not have to offer animal sacrifices anymore, but instead offered sacrifices of praise and joy and thanksgiving. HERE THE SERVICE OF THE SINGERS AND MUSICIANS WAS IN FULL OPERATION. They were to offer up "spiritual sacrifices" in Mt. Zion in the Tent of David.
Again, David's Tent had no Outer Court and no Set-Apart Place with its attending furniture, in contrast to the Tabernacle of Moses at Gibeon. These Priest and Levites simply had the Most Set-Apart Place and in it the Ark of the Blood-Covenant. One wonders what went through the minds of these two companies of Priests, at two different Dwelling Places in two different places? How Amazing!
The questions we need to ask are, "Why did Yahuah allow this to be? What did Yahuah have in mind? What was being foreshadowed here?"
David had transferred the Ark from the Tabernacle of Moses to the Tent of David, so there was simply a transference of the Most Set-Apart Place, where the Priests in David's Tent could simply and BOLDLY ENTER IN to the Most Set-Apart Place. They had DIRECT ACCESS before the Ark of Yahuah. There was no standing veil between them and the Ark, as there had been for centuries in the Tabernacle of Moses. They had BOLDNESS (typically) to enter in "within the veil" because that veil belonged to the Tabernacle of Moses, NOT to the Tent of David. Once the dedicatory sacrifices had been offered, no more animal sacrifices were offered in David's Tabernacle, only spiritual sacrifices. What joy and praise must have been in the hearts and on the lips of those Priests and Levites who had been transferred from the old form of Moses' laborious Tabernacle to the freedom and esteem of David's Tent!
As stated, there has always been music by singing and instruments in Yisharal, but it seems that there was something seeded in the days of the prophet Samuel with music and prophecy in the "school of the prophets". Then it developed into a fulness in the time of David, especially after Samuel's anointing David to be King over Yisharal in Yahuah's appointed time. David himself was very musical and called the Sweet Psalmist and Singer in Yisharal.
The contrast and comparisons of the two Dwelling Places surely portray that which would find its fulfilment in the New Blood-Covenant. However, before seeing the shadow fulfilment there, the experience of King Solomon should be considered, for he experienced a progressive relationship with Yahuah in three typical structures. The Tabernacle of Moses, the Tent of David, and then the Temple. Consider his experience with Yahuah in relation to these two Tabernacles.
Later on we'll see that Solomon met Yahuah in the Tabernacle of Moses at Gibeah, and after he had experienced the Brazen Altar, he came to the Ark of Yahuah in the Tabernacle of David in Zion.
FIRST THE ALTAR, THEN THE ARK, FOR THIS IS YAHUAH'S ORDER!
In due time he would bring the Ark of Yahuah from David's Tent to the Temple in Mt Moriah, place it within the veil, and drawing out the staves from it. The pilgrimage would be over.
The setting of these two Dwelling Places, on two different mountains with their different companies of Priests certainly was a foreshadowing of Yahusha Messiah, foreshadowing the Old and the New Blood-Covenants. It should be remembered that the substance is always more marvellous than the shadow, the fulfilment always greater than the promise, spiritual realities greater than the natural and material outline.
The Gospels show us the closing years of the Old Covenant with Moses` Order and the Aaronic Priesthood. Animal sacrifices and Temple Ritualism were still in full operation during Yahusha's time. The Outer Court and the Set-Apart Place functions still continued. But the Ark of the Covenant was not in the Most Set-Apart Place. In fact, the Ark has never been seen since the destruction of the Temple in the days of the Prophet Jeremiah by the King of Babylon. The final mention of the Ark in the Ancient Texts is found in Jeremiah 3:16, where the prophet says it will not be remembered or sought after, nor visited any more.
The restored Temple under Ezra and Nehemiah never had the Ark of the Blood-Covenant, and for this reason the Shekinah Esteem never returned, even to this restored material Temple. And when Yahusha was here on earth, the Temple had no Ark, no Esteem, and even though they carried on in the Old Laws, no Shekinah hovered over the Most Set-Apart Place. However, the acts of Yahuah, when Yahusha died on Calvary settled forever the fact that Yahuah had finished with the Old Blood-Covenant. For, when Yahusha died on the Stake, He took all the intentional crimes of sin upon Himself, dying as the sinless, perfect, once-for-all sacrifice, He fulfilled and transformed forever all animal sacrifices, abolishing forever the Mosaic economy. It will never ever be reinstituted by Yahuah, and if the Jew reinstitutes it again, it will be the greatest abomination and insult to Yahusha ever offered.
The seal of Yahuah to His Son's sacrifice was the rending of the veil of the Temple. Probably about the time of the evening sacrifice, during the Feast of Passover, the Aaronic Priesthood stood before the veil and Yahuah rent it from top to bottom. In effect, Yahuah was saying to them that He had finished with that dead, ineffective economy, the Old Blood-Covenant, the Aaronic Priesthood and all that pertained to the Tabernacle of Moses order as carried out in the Temple of Herod. Once Yahuah rent that veil in two, He would never have it sewed up again. The way of access was now opened into the most Set-Apart Place. He'd opened the door for all nations!
The great tragedy in Jewish history is that they continued to offer up animal sacrifices, maintaining the Mosaic order and Aaronic Priesthood until A.D. 70 (about 40 years after Calvary) when Yahuah allowed Prince Titus to smash down the whole abominable set-up. Truly, the Esteem had departed, no Ark, no Esteem, a rent veil, a corrupt Priesthood, and an abolished Mosaic order.
The Letter to the Hebrews clearly confirms what took place in the Gospels. It gives us the true spiritual significance of the RENT VEIL. The Gospels record the historical account of the rent veil, but the letter to the Hebrews interprets that account for us, clearly showing us that we have access into the most Set-Apart Place, "WITHIN THE VEIL." No longer does the veil (Literally, "That which divides") stand between us and Yahuah. No longer do we need a material earthly Tabernacle, with its Outer Court and Set-Apart Place. The Most Set-Apart Place in a greater and more perfect Tent, is now open to us. And it is this that is shadowed and prophetically set forth in David’s Tent.
"... The Set-Apart Spirit is signifying, that the way into the most Set-Apart Place was not yet made manifest, while as the first Tabernacle was yet standing, which was a figure for the time then present ... imposed on them until the time of restoration" (HEB 9).
"... which hope we have as an anchor of the being, both sure and steadfast, and which enters into that within the veil: where the forerunner has for us entered, even Yahusha… (HEB 6).
"Having therefore, brethren, boldness, to enter into the most Set-Apart Place by the blood of Yahusha, by a new and living way which He has established for us, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh ... let us draw near ..." (HEB 10).
Jews and Gentiles now have access to Yahuah through Yahusha (EPH 2). Access, entrance within the veil and boldness to do so is made possible by the blood of Yahusha. The Priests and Levites in David's Tent had this whole understanding but in shadow form.
No wonder the Book of Acts says, "And a great company of Priests were obedient to the belief” (ACTS 6:7). As the Gospel news spread, these Priests must have realised the futility of carrying on animal sacrifices, the Aaronic Priesthood, and the Mosaic economy in a material Temple that Yahuah had finished with. Once the veil was rent in two, it was useless to carry on the form. Yahusha Messiah was the sacrifice. He was the True Temple. He was the Priest after the Order of Melchizedek. It is through His sacrifice, His body and blood, that all may have access to Yahuah. Why then need the Priests carry on that which Yahuah Himself had finished with, in connection with His Only Begotten Son?
Yahusha Messiah is the Great High Priest, and the Torture Stake was the WHOLE OF THE SACRIFICIAL SYSTEM COMPOUNDED INTO ONE PERFECT SACRIFICE. All the sacrifices offered on the various Feast Days were compounded in that one sacrifice of Yahusha. Passover and Day of Atonement were united in His Sacrifice, as far as the body and blood offering of Yahusha was concerned. This is why He could enter "within the veil" and why we also have boldness to enter in after our firstfruit forerunner. He was both Priest and sacrifice because of the union in His person of the Divine and Human natures.
The Tabernacle of Moses was like a guardian to bring the Priests to the Tent of David, even as "the Torah is a schoolmaster to bring us to Messiah" (GAL 3). Solomon's experience shadows forth the experience of those Jews who believed in Messiah. First they experienced the Tabernacle of Moses; the Old Covenant, Aaronic Priesthood, Brazen Altar, Animal Sacrifices set out in Mt. Gibeon. Then they experience the Tent of David, the Ark as personified in Yahusha, the New Blood-Covenant, Melchizedek Priesthood, and spiritual sacrifices in Mt. Zion.
So David’s Tent finds all it’s fulfilment in Yahusha and His Bride, a Kingdom people who become an obedient, Praise and Worshipping people. The Kingdom aspect of David's Tent and the Praise/Worship aspect of David's Tent, though both separated on Zion, cannot be separated in Yahusha, for the throne of David and the Ark of Yahuah actually point to one and the same thing. There are not two different thrones for Messiah to sit on. There is only one throne and Yahusha Messiah sits on the throne of David, which is the throne of Yahuah, symbolized in the Mercy Seat of the Ark of the Blood-Covenant. All this was brought together into one since Yahusha’s New Blood was sacrificed on the Torture Stake.
The difference between the Old and New Covenants is seen in the matter of the offices of King and Priest, for (Yahuah’s) Kings came from the Tribe of Judah and the Priests came from the Tribe of Levi. But now, through Yahusha, Aaron’s Priesthood and the Levitical Order transforms and the Priestly office continues on through the order of Melchizedek, who was both King and Priest. So Yahusha is the fulfilment of Melchizedek too, as the King and Priest of the Tribe of Judah. The earthly throne of David has gone from the scene, even as the earthly Ark, but the Divine Ark of Yahuah, the Divine throne of Yahuah still remains and is now the throne of Yahusha. He's a seated King-Priest on His throne and the counsel of peace is between both of these Offices.
Many of us have been singing songs about Zion for a long time now, but do we truly know what we’re singing about? Mt Zion was the City of David the King and also the place of his Praise Tent. But it’s significance is all about Yahusha and His Bride also. Zion (or Tsiyon) was the Mount in Yerushalim, the highest and southernmost of the City. It was originally a Canaanite place, but then the Jebusites took it over and called it Jebus. Then later, through Moses and Joshua, the territory was given to the Tribe of Benjamin as part of their inheritance in the Promised Land. However the Jebusites never lost the actual City, for they held onto it (or part of it anyway) until the time of David, who (of course) wasn’t having that!! Upon his reign, he captured it and called it the ‘City of David,’ greatly strengthening and fortifying it.
Zion means ‘Mount, sunny, fortress, elevated, highest, lofty, monument, sepulchre, turret’ and was the ancient name of (what would become) Mt Hermon. Zion is mentioned 153 times in the Scripture and from David’s time onwards, it takes on huge spiritual significance, being used by many older prophets and poets to describe the place of Yahuah’s chosen people. For it was here that King David (Yishara’s first real, successful King after the pitiful Saul) not only ruled politically but also re-introduced the Singers, Music, Praise and awe of Yahuah again through the setting up of the Tent that bared his own name.
Therefore Zion is actually seen as the political and ecclesiastical capital city of Yisharal, where King David ruled over Yahuah’s people and where Yahuah’s eternal form of government was revealed in shadow form through David’s Reign, who was a Prophet, King and Priest of Yahuah, pointing to the New Blood-Covenant, where Yahusha the greater son of David, is revealed as the King of Zion and His government is revealed. He is King of Kings and Master of all after the Order of Melchizedek (IS 9, REV 19, 1 TIM 6).
MATTHEW 21 “Say to the Daughters of Zion, ‘See your King is coming to you, meek and sitting on a donkey, even a colt, the foal of a donkey.” These words are a fulfilment of Zech 9 and the greatest tragedy is that Yahusha came to His earthly Zion and His life fulfilled a whole lot of older prophecies concerning the earthly Zion, but they rejected Him and killed the King of Zion.
ROMANS 3 “Behold I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offence, and whoever believes on Him will not be ashamed”. Here Paul shows us how the Jewish Nation as a whole, stumbled over their own King, the foundation of their Zion. He is the stumbling stone and rock of offence to the Jew (IS 8, PS 118, IS 28, MATT 21).
HEBREWS 12 “But you have come to Mount Zion, to the City of the living Alahim in the heavenly Yerushalim (SHAMAYIM - ANOTHER DIMENSION ALTOGETHER!) Regarding the true and divine Yerushalim and Zion, Paul is showing us that we leave the earthly Temple, animal sacrifices and Aaronic Priesthood, earthly Zion and come to a spiritual Temple, to spiritual sacrifices and Priesthood of Melchizedek and Divine Zion and Yerushalim, through a flesh and blood living Temple of the human body. The shadow is temporal, whereas the fulfilment will be eternal.
1 PETER 2 “Behold I lay in Zion a chief corner stone, elect, precious and whoever believes on him will not be confounded”. Peter is quoting Isaiah 28 and of course it is fulfilled in Yahusha also, Who is the foundation and corner stone of His Assembly, the Bride.
REVELATION 14 “And I looked and saw a Lamb standing on Mount Zion and with him 144,000 who had the Father’s Name written in their foreheads”. So Yahusha does not stand in literal Mount Zion in Palestine, for that was merely where he was slain. The Mt Zion Yahusha stands on is Divine and Spiritual and only accessible through a Portal Connection.
For just as Yahusha came from the Divine Zion to the Earthly Zion and was killed, He now reigns as the Risen King and Master from His New Zion of human hearts and bodies, the foundation on which His New Blood-Covenant Bride stands … and one day all these tiny human vessels (lively stones) will be raised and transformed into immortality and fitted together, forming a grand City . . .
"Come and I will show you the Bride, the New Yerushalim, a Bride prepared for her husband".
So we see that it’s quite impossible to truly understand the real significance of Mount Zion without a proper understanding of what David did through His Praise Tent, allowing the presence of Yahuah to be available to all nations (not just Jews/Hebrews).
EVERYTHING YOU'VE GONE THROUGH FOR YOUR ENTIRE LIFE IS TO PREPARE YOU FOR WHAT'S COMING !