David’s
Tabernacle Restored, Part 9
Reprint: January 26, 2024
I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again. Few
people in this age and generation really understand what it is to be joined
together by the Lord in a union that is more than physical. People
often get married because they “fall in love.” The problem is that
in a few months or years, they “fall out of love.” Their
relationship really wasn’t based on love but on a physical attraction to one
another or because of seeming parallel interests.
The concept of “counterpart” and “other self” is mostly lost in
today’s society. The idea that the Lord joins people together
because of what He sees, knows, and purposes for the future is something that
the majority of Christians really don’t know or understand. We were
created for God’s pleasure. Because of that, He has created a
distinct husband and distinct wife for each other who will likewise bring
pleasure to each other, but also bring pleasure to Him. We will
continue to elaborate and amplify this picture in this series as we progress.
As already noted, we were created for the express purpose
of bringing delight and pleasure to the Lord. Of course we were to
be His family. We were created in His likeness and image. But we were created to
bring the kind of praise and worship that only He could develop within us.
I’ve shared with you in the past my experience of being in the
Garden and being transported there by the Spirit. I was there when
the temptation took place. The expression on Adam’s face was one of
horror, shock, astonishment — words don’t do justice to what I saw — when he
saw Eve take a bite of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and
Evil. When you realize how she was created, when you realize that she
was created as that counterpart, that “other self” of Adam, that neged, it makes
you appreciate Adam’s reaction. Eve’s partaking of the fruit was not
only disobedience to the Word of the Lord, it was a
betrayal of her relationship to him.
Eve, therefore, had to become the prototype of the overcoming
Bride. The Lord promised that it would be her seed that would crush
the serpent’s head. That promise, that prophecy was fulfilled in
Jesus.
From Jesus’ side as He hung on the Cross came blood and water
when the centurion pierced His side. With that blood and water came the birth of the Bride who would be the overcomer.
Consider the first place that this overcoming Bride
faced. We see it in the letter to Ephesus. The promise to
the overcomer (this is those who have lost their
first love) is the restoration of access to the Tree of Life in the midst of
the Garden. Each of the successive letters takes the Bride through
overcoming all of the things that the curse brought on the human
race. It represents overcoming each of the three families of
fear.
We come to the sixth letter, addressed to Philadelphia, and we
see the Key of David.
The seventh letter to Laodicea is a warning to all those who
have made it through the sixth area of overcoming, and because of the power,
the authority, the presence of the Lord they’ve experienced, they become
complacent. They cease to press on and maintain the overcoming
mindset. They don’t give up exactly, they
just become wearied in the continual press and settle back believing that
they’ve reached the pinnacle of success. It doesn’t work that way.
Revelation 21:7: He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God,
and he shall be my son.
The picture of overcoming occurs eight times in
Revelation. John uses this word three other times in I John 5.
I John 5:4: For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.
The ability to overcome, and be that overcoming Bride, is
predicated in faith. Simply put, our ability to continue the
overcoming process is based in the fact that faith comes by hearing and hearing
by the Word of God. When we are sensitive to hearing the voice of
the Lord, He speaks. That speaking generates a driving force within
us that enables us to keep on overcoming and acting on His Word.
We come back to the letter to Laodicea as the example of this
failure. They became desensitized to hearing the Word of the Lord,
and as a result, failed to continue in the overcoming process.
The entire book of Revelation is built upon an overcoming
people. We have picture after picture after picture of events that
will come in this transitional age prior to the thousand year reign — events
that require the Bride of Christ to live a constant overcoming
life. What was it that John wrote in Revelation 12?
Revelation 12:10-11: And I heard a
loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the
kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our
brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.
And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb,
and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the
death.
We’ve really gone around a 40-acre field today with this study,
but if you see what is happening, it is absolutely revelatory. What began as a
promise to Eve and was fulfilled in Jesus Christ when He hung on the Cross with
his side pierced through and blood and water pouring forth, is now being
fulfilled in us as the overcoming Bride.
We began the overcoming process in the letter to Ephesus, and took
it through all seven letters to the picture in Revelation 12 where we have cast
down the accuser of the brethren. That brings us to Revelation 19.
Revelation 19:5-8: And a voice
came out of the throne, saying, Praise our God, all ye his servants, and ye
that fear him, both small and great. And I heard
as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and
as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.
Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour
to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come,
and his wife hath made herself ready. And to her
was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the
fine linen is the righteousness of saints.
How was it that “His wife hath made herself ready?” How was it
that she could not be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white?
Simple.
She overcame EVERYTHING. She
persisted. She didn’t quit. She didn’t fade under the
constant persecution, the attacks of the Enemy, the accusations pointed against
her. She stood fast.
That, my friends, is exactly what the Lord has been looking for
in a people that will surround Him, a people that will surround the Throne, a
people who KNOW what it means to praise and worship.
Now, do you understand the Tabernacle of David? Do
you see what David saw? Do you see what God is looking for in praisers and worshipers? We have a destiny for
eternity that involves being before and around the Throne of
God. The Key of David was in knowing the heart and heart’s desire of
the Lord for a people who would minister to Him in worship!
Here’s the grand finale!
Revelation 22:1-5: And he showed
me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the
throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either
side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare
twelve manner of fruits, and yielded
her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the
healing of the nations.
And there shall be no more curse: but
the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants
shall serve him: And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in
their foreheads.
And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle,
neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth
them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.
Do you see where the Tabernacle of David leads us
to? We SHALL serve Him! We SHALL see His
face! His onoma, His character, His
personality, the essence of Who He is will be written
in our minds, our thoughts, our whole personality! We worship Him!
We continue dealing with the relationship of the Bride to the
Bridegroom. How that plays into our creation as worshipers is a
subject that still has a ways to go. I thought that I had covered it
fairly well but Holy Spirit, as usual, began unfolding more of it to me even
while I was still sharing. That said, I won’t
make any assumptions of how far we will take this topic. We’ll just
keep moving along until Holy Spirit indicates that we’ve covered it
sufficiently.
Proverbs 18:22: “[Whoso] findeth a
wife findeth a good
[thing], and obtaineth favour
of the LORD.”
Anybody who has attended a wedding has — in all probability —
heard this verse quoted. The problem is that we hear this with our
natural ears and don’t understand the context of what Holy Spirit is actually.
What I am saying is that the English word, “wife,” is going
through changes as with any language. This next generation coming up
will hear something much different when they hear the word wife than what our
generation thought when we heard the word wife. My point being that
just because your lexicons and Bible dictionaries are written over a hundred
years ago call the word, ishah, a wife does not mean that what
we view as a wife is what the ancients viewed as a wife.
Let me ask you this. One must find a
wife. That fits today but even a hundred years ago and even today in
certain cultures men do not
find a wife, their marriages are arranged, somebody else finds the wife for them.
Strangely enough, there are eleven words in Hebrew that are
rendered “wife.” We have the picture of Jacob who married both Leah
and Rachel. Both are referred to as “wives.” There is a
catch here. Both are rendered as “ishah”
because they were viewed in Jacob’s eyes as his wives. The problem
is that God created man and woman to have one mate. In God’s eyes,
only one could be Jacob’s wife. That was Rachel. She
loved and adored Jacob, and he loved and adored her.
Leah was forced upon Jacob as part of a contract, and while
Jacob came to love her, the relationship was far from the same. It
was not the same kind of love, nor did their relationship have the same kind of
trust and intimacy that Jacob had with Rachel.
So, in God’s eyes, when is someone married? When are you officially married or betrothed to Jesus? Jesus has
given you an offer of marriage, a proposal if you prefer. Just as that
young man holds out a ring and says “Will you?” and she wilts. So is
marriage for life? Well, is our salvation for eternity?
Why does Jesus offer this relationship to us in the first
place? What is it all about? Because the true wife
surrounds the husband with her love, her protection — everything that is in
her.
Remember this illustration?
The word for “meet” (as in help meet) is, neged. While
one of the meanings of this word is “counterpart” or “other self,” it goes well
beyond that. Neged is used as a military
term. It represents: a front, a defense, over
against, before. In other words, this is someone who will be
your defense, someone who will die for you if necessary, someone who opposes
your enemies, someone who provides every kind of
assistance necessary. In another sense, this is
someone who will become the praise of your existence.
I quote once again from the scholar, Chaim
BenTorah:
My point is, in the eyes of God a wife not one who signs a legal
contract and makes a vow. A wife is one whom the man loves and she
loves him in return and a vow is made in love. So within the proper
and emotional context Proverbs 18:22 should read:
“Find a woman who loves you and is committed to you and you have found a good thing.”
Ouch, that good thing hurts. For one thing, the word
thing is not in the Hebrew text, it is only the word, tov, which means good. I check
26 modern translations and 18 say good thing. Translated by
men obviously. The rest say simply good. Adequate,
acceptable, ok. Not great, not excellent, just good. The Living Bible
renders it as finding a treasure.
That, folks, is what God intended in the first
place. The word, tov, is more
than “good.” It literally means: to be in harmony. Hence, he who
finds a loving, committed wife — one who literally
becomes his counterpart, his “other self,” finds someone who can bring him into
harmony with God. The end result is that he/they will find favor
with God.
Before I continue, let me insert something that some may see as
controversial. On second thought, let’s save it for next
week. Sorry to leave you hanging, but it would launch a part of this
discussion that would make today’s Coffee Break a bit too lengthy, so……See you
next week!
In case you are missing out on real fellowship in an environment
of Ekklesia, our Sunday worship gatherings are
available by conference call – usually at about 10:45AM
Pacific. That conference number is (712) 770-4160, and the
access code is 308640#. We are now making
these gatherings available by Skype. If you wish to participate by
video on Skype, my Skype ID is regner.capener. If
you miss the live voice call, you can dial (712) 770-4169, enter the
same access code and listen in later. The video call, of course, is
not recorded – not yet, anyway.
Blessings on you!
Regner
A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES
RIVER WORSHIP CENTER
Temple, Texas 76504
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