Salvation Foreshadowed In The Tabernacle

Christ Foreshadowed In The Tabernacle

Please stand with me as we go over our current memory Scripture:

Job 19:25-27

“I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end He will stand on the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see Him with my own eyes - I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!”

And our memory Scripture “refresher” verse(s) is(are):

Philippians 4:8

“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things.”

Today we will be reading from 1 Samuel 2:1-11

For the last couple of weeks we have taken a look at the terrible spiritual condition that had invaded the ranks of the priesthood during the time of Eli and his sons, Hophni and Phinehas.

The name of Yahweh has been dragged through the mud by the actions of those who are supposed to be honoring the Lord and this has pretty much been going on for the past 150 years since the passing of Joshua.

Now, things are about to change …

OK. So, try to imagine this …

- An Israelite woman named Hannah had no children

- One year Hannah is praying at the Tabernacle in Shiloh, and she is praying so earnestly that Eli the priest thinks

she is drunk

- When Eli finds out that Hannah is NOT drunk but overwhelmed with grief, he blesses Hannah and her prayer

even though she never tells him what she is praying for

- Hannah goes home, conceives, bears a child and raises him until he is weaned

- Hannah takes the child to the Tabernacle at approximately the age of three

- Hannah tells Eli, “I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of Him. So now I give him to

the LORD. For his whole life he will be given over to the LORD.” (1 Samuel 1:27-28)

- Listen to the rejoicing of Samuel’s mother, Hannah, after she has presented Samuel to the LORD …

Please join me in your Bibles as we read: 1 Samuel 2:1-11

(Prayer for help)

1 Samuel 3:1-3 says,

“The boy Samuel ministered before the LORD under Eli. In those days the word of the Lord was rare; there were not many visions.

“One night Eli, whose eyes were becoming so weak that he could barely see, was lying down in his usual place. The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the house of the LORD, where the Ark of God was.”

“The boy Samuel …”

We see some pretty odd things going on here … the Jewish historian, Josephus, tells us that he believes Samuel was about the age of 12 at this time. This comes from Jewish traditions and from other, more ancient Jewish historians.

This is weird because according to Numbers chapter 8 the minimum age of a priest would be 30 years old. But, we see that Samuel was ministering before the LORD UNDER Eli; that is, under Eli’s oversight and direction.

What else do we see that is kind of weird? It says in verse 3 that, “Samuel was lying down in the house of the LORD, where the Ark of God was.”

Now, the Ark of God or the Ark of the Covenant was the most holy object there was in all of Israel and it was in a part of the Tabernacle called the Holy of Holies or The Most Holy Place.

Is this saying that Samuel was using the Most Holy Place as his bedroom? No, it is not saying that at all.

The entire Tabernacle was called the “house of the LORD” which included the Holy Place AND the Most Holy Place. And, it does not even say that Samuel was sleeping there it just says that, “Samuel was lying down in the house of the LORD …”

So, why would Samuel be spending the night in the Holy Place?

One of the fixtures in the Holy Place in the Tabernacle was a lampstand with seven oil lamps. We might call it a menorah.

In Exodus 27:21-22 it says,

“In the tent of meeting, outside the curtain that shields the Ark of the Covenant, Aaron and his sons are to keep the lamps burning before the LORD from evening till morning. This is to be a lasting ordinance among the Israelites for the generations to come.”

That is why Samuel was in the Holy Place of the Tabernacle. He was there to be sure that the light of the lampstand was kept lit from evening until morning.