Jerusalem of Gold
I will meet you there - a place of holy betrothal
I’d like to encourage and build up my biblical brothers and sisters in Christ, by sharing something beautiful the LORD God showed me in His Holy Scriptures. It’s hidden away in Exodus 25. This chapter includes the LORD giving instructions to Moses for the Israelites, on how to build the Tabernacle, including; the offerings of the Sanctuary, the Ark of the Covenant, the Mercy Seat and the Table of Bread – all very prophetic foreshadows of the Messiah giving us The Way to come near a beyond-words Holy God.
“And you are to construct a mercy seat of pure gold, two and a half cubits long and a cubit and a half wide. Make two cherubim of hammered gold at the ends of the mercy seat, one cherub on one end and one on the other, all made from one piece of gold. And the cherubim are to have wings that spread upward, overshadowing the mercy seat. The cherubim are to face each other, (and it’s faces each toward it’s brother) looking toward the mercy seat. Set the mercy seat atop the ark, and put the Testimony that I will give you into the ark. And I will meet (with) you there above the mercy seat, between the two cherubim that are over the ark of the Testimony; I will speak with you about all that I command you regarding the Israelites.” (Exodus 25:17-22)
Isn’t that beautiful? The LORD God says “I will meet you there”. Here it is in the original Hebrew:
וְנוֹעַדְתִּי לְךָ, שָׁם
“And I will meet you there.” In the original Hebrew there is no word “with”, that’s been added in the translation, so the original sounds even more intimate. The word for “you” in Hebrew here is in the masculine singular. Meaning the LORD God is speaking not to all the Israelites but to Moses, or Moseh (מֹשֶׁ֣ה) in Hebrew. His name is from the verb mashah (מָשָׁה) which means “to draw out”. As a child, he was drawn out of the waters, which is why he is named Moseh (Exodus 2:10 – “because out of the water I drew him.”) I think this foreshadows both the baptism of repentance of a believer (a mikvah in the Jewish Messianic faith, a cleansing bath before events such as marriage), and God “drawing out to safety” His own children by His Holy Spirit from every nation (waters often represent nations in the Bible). So, this verse is a beautiful foreshadowing – to those baptised in the Holy Spirit and drawn out of the worldliness of their nations - that God wants to meet them in a special place.
This would make sense Biblically, because let me show you what this verb “to meet” here means! For this I’ll use biblehub.com which I highly recommend. *
So, “to meet”, in Exodus 25, means agreeing to meet at an appointed place to acquire a wife. It’s a betrothal setting. And how does Yeshua, as our Bridegroom, prepare His bride? “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church (gathering of believers) and gave Himself up for her, to sanctify her, cleansing her by the washing with water through the Word, and to present her to Himself as a glorious gathering of believers, without stain or wrinkle or any such blemish, but holy and blameless.” (Ephesians 5:26-27)
He’s very romantic, he wants to meet His bride-to-be under His angels’ wings, like being under a heavenly golden chuppah (wedding canopy). No pictures can do it justice, but this “meeting place” above the “mercy seat” is this place here:
So, what is the mercy seat? Because the “mercy seat” isn’t a seat, nor is it a separate covering, of say cloth, over the ark. It is the pure gold lid over the ark of the covenant and the angels are wrought from the same continuous solid piece of gold. Very heavenly. In the original Hebrew the mercy seat is the “Kapporet”:
כַּפֹּרֶת
It’s root is: כָּפַר - which means: to pardon, release, forgive, to allow for atonement, covering over, forgetting sins, make reconciliation, to pay the price of a life, to ransom. This kapporet is a perfect picture of the LORD Yeshua on the cross, making reconciliation to a Holy God for my sins by the sacrifice of His Precious Blood, so that the One True God of Israel can release me from my sentence for sin. He covers me with Himself. It is the same root used in the phrase, The Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur). I’ll share a link in the description on Yeshua Hidden in Yom Kippur if you’re interested. Lots of hidden jewels in the Hebrew of the Jewish Messiah hidden in plain sight.
We hopefully already know that we can only meet with this Holy God, by trusting in His Atonement alone, paid for us by Yeshua. But it is the exact place the LORD says “I will meet you there” that makes me cry. Because it is a place I cannot touch on my own or I would die (2 Samuel 6). It is a place so holy I cannot even begin to imagine being able to meet my Beloved there, EXCEPT for His paying the price for my life, for my soul, with His Blood. Because the place the Father-King wants to meet with me, to make an appointment with me, in order to betroth me to His Perfect Pure Holy Beloved Son Yeshua, is on top of the Ark of the Covenant!!!
How can I, with all my sin, even begin to accept that invitation to meet God there? Yet, one of the first signs of a true conversion is a detesting of sin, a repugnance of things previously done or spoken or watched, that now feel like vomit. That is the workings of the Holy Spirit working in our hearts.
I grieve and my soul is vexed by living in a time where now vast swathes of the so-called church want to meet with God, but no where near His commandments. Biblically that makes no sense to God.
God even says so in this invitation to meet to betroth: “There I will meet you; from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are on the ark of the Testimony, I will speak [intimately] with you regarding every commandment that I will give you.” (Exodus 25)
“Love” “god” “hell” “truth”. All have different definitions in this end time church (and world) than the actual Bible defines these words! This technique of deception is exactly what the devil did while trying to tempt Yeshua, he misused scripture (Luke 4). Derek Prince once said: “Different Jesus. Different spirit. Different gospel.” As did Paul in Galatians 1:7-8: “Evidently some people are troubling you and trying to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be under a curse!"
I call it the “cut and paste Jesus”. It’s very toxic, and very confusing, because churches and people who follow it use much the same language but in smaller biblical sound bites. Watch them for a while and they avoid the hard truths of the Bible. Ironically, this is not loving. It is loving to warn. Jesus warns about this in Matthew 7:21-23: “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness!’” Wanting the mercy seat. But not wanting to let His commandments get near them.
Matthew 7:14 “For small is the gate and constricted is the way leading to life, and few are those finding it.” The LORD is reminding me of a dream my daughter had about ten years ago when she was nine. It was so prescient of the time we are now in. She dreamt we were on a very narrow old wooden bridge crossing over a wide lake of muddy water. The bridge was extremely narrow, only one person wide, she was walking behind me. The bridge lead over the muddy water to the shore, where she could see a golden staircase going up into the sky. Often as we walked carefully over the bridge the wooden planks wobbled and we steadied ourselves, carefully walking forward one step at a time. She then saw most people on the bridge giving up, she heard them say, ‘this is too hard’ and they jumped off the narrow bridge into the muddy lake. It was only waist deep. So they decided for themselves to go the ‘easy’ way by walking across the muddy lake to the shore. They still wanted to get to the golden staircase. But, when they got to the other shore, she saw that they couldn’t get onto the staircase. There was no way on it, it didn’t connect. But they couldn’t see that until they got there. She saw a few turn back, cross through the lake and start again at the very beginning of the bridge but she also felt like they wouldn’t make it across in time now. This dream is such a clear picture of the false and ‘easy’ gospels being taught so widely today in so many ‘churches’.
To not be deceived, or confused, I know Yeshua is encouraging me to immerse myself more in His Bible, follow His teachings and be careful who I listen to. To detox regularly from everything but His Word. Here’s a few verses that have helped me recently:
Ephesians 5:15 “Pay careful attention, then, to how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the LORD’s will is.”
1 Timothy 6:3-4 “If anyone teaches another doctrine and disagrees with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and with Godly teaching, he is conceited and understands nothing.” **
2 Timothy 3:1-5 “But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!”
He said to me recently, “They have mistaken My silence for My absence.”
Luke 12: 43-46 “But suppose that servant says in his heart, ‘My master will be a long time in coming,’ and he begins to beat the menservants and maidservants [the ones trying to follow God’s actual commandments in the Bible], and to eat and drink and get drunk. The Master of that servant will come on a day he does not expect and at an hour he does not anticipate. Then He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the unbelievers.”
So, I wanted to encourage and build us up, Biblical brothers and sisters in Yeshua, with the Biblical specifics of “And I will meet you there”:
- how (through Yeshua’s costly atonement for our sins)
- above where (the Ark of the Covenant, the most holy holy place. God determines the place of betrothal, not mankind, not a church, but only the Word of God.)
- under where (a chuppah of His angels’ wings)
- the conversation (the God of the Bible will speak intimately with us about every commandment that He gives us)
- and the reason (our Father-King Himself is betrothing a future wife, a holy pure cleansed bride, to His Beloved Son).
Enduring to the end on the narrow path may get lonely sometimes, as people fall away. But that just pushes us deeper into the arms of our Beloved, His Holy Spirit’s Presence and more time in His Word. One day Bible brothers and sisters we will be taken Home to His Kingdom forever, with those who hated the deceit of the easy gospels and thank God for His commandments that humble, warn and crucify our flesh, our sins, our spiritual pride.
1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely, and may your entire spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The One who calls you is faithful, and He will do it.”
