Most Biblical topics have their roots in Genesis 1-3. In the first chapter, the Spirit of God moves, creating order out of chaos and sacred space in a garden on a mountain, the Garden of Eden. After separating, setting in order, and filling the spaces with life, God resided on His throne of victory with the humans in the Garden on the seventh day. Heaven and earth were united. In the Garden, God planted all kinds of trees good for food. But He told the humans that there was one tree they should not eat of yet, for if they did, they would die. God is good and only does what is holy and just. He is the sum of all wisdom and knowledge and is quite willing to teach humans and share wisdom with those who seek Him. He knows a way of living that will not cause chaos and death but will produce life without end, without destruction and disorder. Knowing Him is life. When humans chose not to know Him but took knowledge and use it without understanding and wisdom, they chose death. God’s good world was now contaminated by the defilement of “ra” (evil), that which would not allow humans to achieve their created purpose of ruling in God’s image. The result was separation and exile from the Presence of God. Cherubim guarded the gate into the Garden with a flaming sword.

But God did not leave Adam and Eve without hope but promised a human One who would come and conquer the power of ra, opening a way for humans to once again dwell with God and know His wisdom. How and by what means God would deal with sin is the story of the Bible. As a sign of how the Savior would rescue them, He made them clothing from animal skins to cover their nakedness. While all creation groaned under the burden of evil, a blameless, innocent creature gave up its life.

Revolving cycles of evil persisted from humankind’s unbelief. After Adam and Eve’s failure to trust God, Cain murdered Abel, followed by the violence of Lameck and Genesis 6:1- 6, followed by the Noachian flood and covenant. And again, the violence of Noah’s grandson Canaan and Nimrod’s Babel resulted in the dividing and scattering of the nations. God called Abram out of Ur of the Chaldeans and Haran, places marked by death, to walk through the Land of Canaan. Since Canaanites lived in the land God showed Him, God covenanted with Avram that his descendants would inherit His land. However, they would be afflicted in the land and become slaves to a foreign nation. YHWH promised them deliverance in the four hundredth year, the fourth generation, and brought Avram’s children back to Canaan (led by the cloud and fire pillars), where He dwelt with them. He overpowered the giants in the land and drove their enemies out. His nation of priests was to showcase YHWH’s way of life to the world and give hope to stop the cycle of violence.

YHWH brought Israel to His holy mountain in Arabia, an image of Jerusalem north of Sinai. At Mount Sinai, YHWH came down upon the mountain in fiery glory and made a covenant with Israel, giving them His laws and blueprints to build a tabernacle where He would dwell and travel with them. But Israel was overtaken by unbelief, worshiping a golden calf while Moses was on the mountain. Israel built the tent of meeting, but when YHWH moved in with His glory cloud, no one could enter. To resolve the conflict, animals were sacrificed to make atonement. Then, Aaron’s two sons defiled the dwelling place of God with death by making up their own rules on how to approach a holy God. An atoning ritual purified the defiled tabernacle and nation. Once Israel entered the land and King David conquered the enemies all around, his son Solomon built a temple in Jerusalem where God came to dwell with His glory cloud 917 years after YHWH made the covenant with Abram and 480 years after Israel’s exodus. Still, Israel worshiped other gods, and YHWH’s glory throne left the temple at Jerusalem. His people were exiled to Babylon, and the temple burned. Yet from Ezekiel, there remained a promise of a perfect temple built without human hands in the city of God.

Continuing through biblical history, YHWH came in the flesh and tabernacled with humans, working signs that manifested His glory. Yeshua was the new temple where humans could behold God’s glory and communicate with Him. Like the consuming fire on the Mountain and in the tabernacle, the signs revealing His fiery glory pointed to the Feasts of YHWH, the times He commanded His people to meet with Him at the tent of meeting, basking in His glorious light. He was Jacob’s ladder for His people. He was the promised human One who died, and through His sacrifice, His life blood poured out, His people were purified and entered the holy Presence of YHWH safely. YHWH became human Yeshua in order to become a merciful and faithful high priest who made atonement for the sins of the people and their land. Because God judged Israel and poured out His vengeance against their idolatry, yet atoned for their disloyalty, He also does the same for the nations, who become “His people” praising His name. Embodying the wisdom of God, Yeshua was His Feasts, the meeting place showcasing His salvation plan for all humanity.

After His resurrection and ascension, ten days later, on Pentecost, the glory of God rested on Yeshua’s disciples as tongues of fire, showing that each of them was a temple of His Presence, a microcosm of the new creation uniting heaven and earth. At appointed times, YHWH met with His people at the temple and taught them the Torah, the Tree of Life. John wrote the signs of the Feasts of YHWH so that we may believe that Yeshua is the Anointed One, the Son of God, and that by believing, we may access the Tree of Life in His name, children of the second Adam who fulfill the Torah. We no longer have our identity in the first Adam’s cycles of violence and non-life but live the law’s wisdom in and through the human One who loved us and gave His life as a ransom for us. 

Takeaway:
Humans were created to live in the Presence of the life-giving God. Human history demanded a resolution to humanity’s choosing to live apart from God, “ra,” apart from His wisdom and knowledge, defeating His purpose of creating humans in His image. God has no part in those things that cause death, yet He died for us, taking our sins and death upon Himself so that we might live again in the Light of His Presence. His burning bush of fiery glory against evil ultimately comes to live in us, the new temples where heaven and earth are united, ruled by His images who have overcome “ra” through His indwelling presence, tabernacling with and in us. YHWH’s eternal design for creation succeeds through atonement and produces the outcome He intended according to His holiness (Deu. 32:43, Heb. 2:17).

In the Old Testament, the tabernacle and temple were signs of God dwelling with us, the place of the new creation of humans. Just as the Sabbath is a sign, John gave us signs that mark the meeting times and show the glory of God’s new creation. John’s signs are His holy Feasts, the appointed times of coming before Him to His renewing holiness. Year by year, we rehearse His salvation plan: His wisdom, His knowledge, and understanding of living in the fullness of who we were created to be, images of God uniting heaven’s rule on the earth, the glory of God’s dwelling.