Chapter 3 of When We AwakeWITHDRAWN FROM THE BREASTS
{9} Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts. (Isa 28:9 KJV)
"Need you ask?" said the King with one of his great laughs, jerking his thumb in my direction. "Do you think I want my queen frightened out of her senses? Veils of course. And good thick veils too." One of the other girls tittered, and I think that was the first time I clearly understood that I am ugly. Faces, 11Then there was a time (for in this book I must hide none of my shames or follies) when I believed, as girls do ... that I could make it more tolerable by this or that done to my clothes or my hair. Now, I chose to be veiled. Faces, 181
Orual, the main character of Till We Have Faces, was extremely ugly. Everyone thought so. Even her own father called her such wicked names as "goblin" and made her veil her face when she sang at his and his new Queen’s wedding. When Orual became an adult she kept her face forever hidden behind a shroud. In time she became known as a mysterious queen and, later, even as a beautiful, mysterious queen. She found a strange power over others by keeping herself masked from their view. Handsome princes finally begged to see her face, but she never let them.
Similarly do men mask their true identity from others, from God, and even from themselves. We pretend to be someone we are not. And why? So people will "beg," or want, to be with us, or lavishly praise us in the presence of others, or for some other vain reason. To achieve this glory we might want others to think that we are rich, popular, or well versed in the world’s latest fashions, styles, music, or movies. We want other Christians to believe that we live perfect lives, never sinning. Thus, we "veil" our true selves with "fig" leaves, just as Adam did when he disobeyed God. But, unless we take care to remove our own mask of fig leaves, we will forget what we look like inside. Thus we may not even know or recognize our own true faces. We can’t see them because we so successfully hide ourselves behind so many facades. We will never be prepared to meet God so long as these shrouds cover us.
The truth is that a shroud, or mask, prevents true communion with man and God. The veil over our soul precludes fellowship with one another, with a husband and his wife, and with a believer and his God. This is the truth that Paul sets out to explain in 1 Corinthians 8, but couches in the mystery called "food sacrificed to idols." Paul sets forth several doctrinal examples of food sacrificed to idols in chapters 8 through 11 here. We will not examine each one in detail in this book. Instead, we will spend most of our time dealing with the mystery of communion.
Have you ever thought of the doctrine of communion as a mystery? True communion, or fellowship with man and God, prepares us to see God’s face, that is, it prepares us for what we call "the rapture." We clearly see that food sacrificed to idols directly relates to communion in 1 Corinthians 10:21, "You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the Lord’s table and of the table of demons." Previous verses in chapters 8 through 10 show the relationship between food sacrificed to idols and the table of demons.
Now it certainly is true and a matter of history that particular cultures did offer natural food to idols on pagan altars. It is also true that Israel itself at one time offered "food" to God in the form of its sacrifices at the Tabernacle and the Temple. Of course, God mandated these animal sacrifices, but these offerings were not meant for God’s literal consumption as in some pagan worship. They symbolized religious and prophetic truth. Today it may be that some cultures still do offer actual meat to their god (idol) because they remain ignorant of the one true God and His ways. In Biblical times food sacrificed to God (or a "god") was eaten by both Israelite and heathen priests. Sometimes it was sold in the market. Paul’s teaching, on the natural level, clearly deals with the obvious, literal aspect of such offerings. He was following God’s established order with mankind of presenting things first in the natural, and then in the spiritual. It is very fitting, then, that C. S. Lewis in Till We Have Faces chose to illustrate the doctrine of food sacrificed to idols by telling the story of a primitive, idol-worshiping culture that offered literal animal and human sacrifices to their gods. He used the natural to portray a spiritual truth.
Let’s Wean Ourselves From the Milk
{7} But they also have erred through wine, And through intoxicating drink are out of the way; The priest and the prophet have erred through intoxicating drink, They are swallowed up by wine, They are out of the way through intoxicating drink; They err in vision, they stumble in judgment. {8} For all tables are full of vomit and filth; No place is clean. {9} "Whom will he teach knowledge? And whom will he make to understand the message? Those just weaned from milk? Those just drawn from the breasts? (Isa 28:7-9 NKJV)
The things of God are understood by "first the natural, then the spiritual." (1 Cor. 15:46) This means that God first teaches us by natural means in order to prepare us for spiritual realities. We must build upon the foundation of Jesus Christ and His apostles and prophets a little at a time, as God gives growth. Like the drunken prophets and priests of Isaiah’s day, we ourselves are stubborn and rebellious children who like to hide behind our masks. We Christians often respond to God’s Word the very same way that these drunkards did in Isaiah 28:9 when they mocked the prophet. The question we now face is this, will we "go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken," as Isaiah warned the Israelite leaders of his day? (Is. 28:13b)
So, who may receive the spiritual and secret knowledge of God’s Word? To whom will He teach knowledge? To whom will He make to understand His message? It is strange and serious how God may speak through those who mock and disbelieve him. Sometimes he even uses a donkey to get His word across as he did with Balaam’s ass. But, God will teach and make to understand only those weaned from the milk (of the simple things of God’s Word) and drawn from the breasts (of ministers of Christ who only teach the milk of the Word).
The Bread of Faces
It turns out that all of Isaiah 28 reveals much concerning food sacrificed to idols and communion, but we must begin our study well before this. We must go all the way back to the Bible’s first mention of the word "table." We first find the word in Exodus 25:23 where the Hebrew word "shulchan" is translated "table." Here we see the description of the "table of showbread" that Moses placed in the holy place of the tabernacle. The word "showbread" literally means "bread of faces." We see the first use of the table in Exodus 25:30, which may be literally translated, "And you are to put on the table the Bread of Faces, before My face, continually." The spiritual significance of this first table is profound. To attempt to understand it, we will explore the symbolism of the Tabernacle, including its furnishings and its sacrifices.
The Tabernacle of the Congregation
The last sixteen chapters of the Book of Exodus detail God’s instructions for building the Tabernacle. This comprises about forty percent of that entire book, showing the Divine importance of this structure and its furnishings. Practically the entire Book of Leviticus centers around the sacrifices offered there. The tabernacle itself consisted of three parts: an Outer Court, a sanctuary or Holy Place, and an inner sanctuary or Most Holy Place. In type, these three components depict the three aspects of man: body (the Outer Court), soul (the Holy Place), and spirit (the Most Holy Place). They also correspond to the three major feasts of God, Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles in the same order.
The study of the Tabernacle shows that God begins His salvation work with us in the Most Holy Place. Salvation begins in our spirits when we receive the earnest of the Holy Spirit by faith in Jesus Christ. This is our spiritual salvation and corresponds to our Passover experience. By God’s design, this salvation progresses out to the Holy Place (our soul) with the sanctification of our mind, will, and emotions. This corresponds to our Pentecost experience when we allow God to write His Law on our hearts, just as He wrote the Law on tablets of stone at the first Pentecost. Salvation ends in the Outer Court (body), with the glorification or resurrection of our bodies. This corresponds to the fulfillment of the Feast of Tabernacles.
Man experiences God, however, in the opposite direction. After we believe in Jesus Christ and are begotten of God, we first relate to God in spiritual experiences prophesied by the Outer Court sacrifices. As we are enabled by the Holy Spirit within to obey in the Outer Court, in the realm of the flesh, we begin to see our souls conform to the image of Christ. Each of the Outer Court sacrifices reveals specific aspects of walking in faith with God. Our obedience proceeds from our relationship to Christ; it does not create or establish our relationship.
The second part of the Tabernacle, the Holy Place, speaks of our sanctification or "salvation of our souls." The Holy Spirit effects this sanctification. We find that for this sanctification to take place, we must come into agreement with Jesus and willingly obey Him in our outer court experiences of life. A wise teacher often says, "We must become an amen people."1 He means that we must learn to say "yes" instead of "no" to God. We must come into agreement with Him. Finally, we will find that God writes His laws on our hearts as we come more and more into accord with His ways. Our Holy Place, our heart, will one day come into perfect unity in sweet communion and union with Him. This will occur at the resurrection, or glorification, of our bodies at Christ’s second coming. The glorification rends the veil between our soul and our spirit. Then the Holy Place becomes one with the Most Holy Place. Thus, concerning God, His work in us is from the inside out, from our spirit to our soul to our body. Concerning our work for Him, it is from the outside in. This will become very clear as we study the prophetic meaning of the Tabernacle sacrifices and furnishings.
God’s Sovereign Approach to Man
God deals with us according to His will for us, i.e., by His sovereign design. Ephesians 2:8-9 says, "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast." (KJV) This reveals that a man has utterly nothing to do with his own spiritual salvation. The presence and rule of God fills the Most Holy Place, just as it does saved man’s spirit. This is why Jesus said, "The kingdom of God is within you." (Luke 17:21) It is to this place that one’s salvation first comes. God’s Kingdom truly dwells there, but it will not stay there. In the Scripture, whenever we see salvation in the past tense, the context deals with one’s spiritual salvation. This is a salvation that can never be lost or forfeit. It is totally by grace and has nothing to do with ourselves, nothing to do with that concept we call "free will." Even though our salvation is by faith in the Son of God, that faith itself is the gift of God and is not produced by our own wisdom or decision. This means that man does not enjoy a free will with respect to his salvation. God sovereignly saves him from his sins. God Himself moves a man to choose His salvation. The grace and the faith that bring one into spiritual life come utterly and only from God. We see these truths clearly in the Biblical portrayal of the first Passover in Exodus 12.
No one had a real choice to participate in the first Passover. If a father did not want the first born in his house to die that night, then he would indeed sacrifice a lamb and place its blood on his doorposts. He had already seen nine profound miracles of God. He did not need to see his son die in order to believe that God would kill the firstborn of his home unless he obeyed. God moved in such a way as to bring the grace and faith necessary for the Israelites to believe upon Him for their salvation from the death angel. We could say they exercised "free will," but did they really have a choice?
God required all of Israel, His chosen people at that time, to make the Passover sacrifice before they could leave Egypt, a type of world here. Thus we find that the Passover sacrifice brings us into a living relationship with God. Any man who refused to keep Passover would bear his own sin and be cut off from his people. (Numbers 9:13) To refuse to partake of Passover meant that one could not be part of God’s Kingdom on earth. If he would not offer the Passover sacrifice, then he did not stand in a "saved" relationship to God. In fact, during the first Passover, if he happened to be a firstborn, he would die.
In the same way each one of us must believe that Jesus shed his blood for our sins in order for the death angel to "pass over" us and allow us to begin a relationship with God. If we do not believe in Jesus we will bear our own sins and will likewise be "cut off." This Passover typology demonstrates that all of Israel that participated in Passover stood on the same ground of salvation as a believing Christian. In this sense, an Israelite who offered the Passover sacrifice "by faith" can be considered a Christian, or believer. The salvation that comes through Passover, though, concerns our spirits, not our souls. We will see this more clearly later when we examine chapter 10 of 1 Corinthians which shows that Israel, although believers in God, did not work out their soul’s salvation in fear and trembling.
Man can only begin to relate to God after he partakes of the ultimate sacrifice, that of God’s Son on the cross for his sins. Jesus’ death and resurrection first bring us life in the spirit. The Hebrew Passover as originally ordained by God painted a picture of Jesus’ impending crucifixion. A perfect, unblemished male lamb was slaughtered for each firstborn in the nation. The lamb’s blood was spread upon each house’s doorpost and lintel, thus making the sign of the cross, or the eighth Hebrew letter, the ח, pronounced "chet." This Hebrew letter means "life." Thus began and begins each man’s walk with God in spiritual life. This Passover sacrifice is mandatory. Without it we cannot even "see the Kingdom of God." (John 3:3) Unless and until we each personally make the Passover sacrifice, we will be cut off from God’s people and God’s life.
The Passover sacrifice, then, represents the beginning of spiritual life. We make that sacrifice externally, or in the flesh, by confessing Jesus Christ as our Savior. With our confession we apply Jesus’ blood to the doorposts of our hearts. Yet, we can only confess Jesus as Lord by grace and faith and these are gifts of God. We know that we have begun to walk with God when we make this external profession of faith, but God begins his sovereign work internally, in our Most Holy Place, in our very spirits.
What About After Salvation? - The Holy Place
Although man may not choose his spiritual condition, he does have a choice, or free will, when it comes to obeying laws or doing right and wrong. This free will continues and becomes even more important after one’s spiritual salvation. This is when we can either obey or reject the Gospel. Sadly, many Christians do reject the goodness of God to their own hurt. Most of Scripture deals with what one does after he believes in Jesus for the forgiveness of sin. Very little actually concerns getting someone to "make a profession of faith." Paul declares that the choices we make after knowing God have profound consequences. He says,
{12} Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. {13} For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. {14} Do all things without murmurings and disputings: {15} That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; {16} Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain. (Phil 2:12-16 KJV)
Likewise, the writer of Hebrews extends five severe warnings to those Christians who would reject the upward call of Christ. One such grave warning ends thus:
{36} For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. {37} For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. {38} Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. {39} But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul. (Heb 10:36-39 KJV)
Here we clearly see a salvation different from the one of which we have known and been taught in the past. We see that a Christian may "believe to the saving of the soul." On the other hand we also learn that a Christian may not so believe and that one could actually "draw back unto perdition (destruction)" and, hence, lose his (soul) salvation. This explains why this salvation has to be worked out "in fear and trembling." We must not presume upon God and take our salvation lightly. This salvation corresponds to the sanctuary of the Tabernacle, the Holy Place. The articles within that room correspond to the salvation of the soul.
Finally, we come forth into the Outer Court. Here we deal with the third aspect of God’s salvation of men. The outer court represents the outer man, or the body. It corresponds typologically to the resurrection, or glorification, of our bodies of flesh. As Paul says,
{51} Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, {52} In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. {53} For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. {54} So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. {55} O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? (1 Cor 15:51-55 KJV)
This passage speaks of the day when the veil between our flesh and spirit will be utterly torn asunder. Then we will receive our new, spiritual bodies from God. At that time we will awaken with faces that allow us to behold the fulness of God in all His glory. But, do not mistakenly assume that this glorified body will come to everyone who calls himself a Christian or has made a confession of faith in Jesus. We cannot expect the glory of perfect communion with God when we continue in a mad pursuit of lust and sin. We must first purposefully begin to realize the salvation of our souls and learn to dwell in the holy place of God’s presence and communion. May God give us grace to learn how to approach Him.
Man’s Approach to God
We know that we can only come to God if we are cleansed of our sins by the blood of Jesus. As Hebrews teaches, "For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" (Heb 9:13-14) The basic typology of Scripture shows that the shedding of blood in all of the animal sacrifices points to Jesus’ shed blood on the cross for our sins.
Interestingly, however, man’s dealings with God are exactly the reverse of His dealings with us. We "work out" our soul salvation in "bodies of sin," the flesh. We do this by learning God’s ways and by walking in obedience to those ways. We become able to walk in His ways by the power of the Holy Spirit who lives in us. Paul calls this "living according to the Spirit." This corresponds to the prophetic application of the food sacrifices that Israel made at the first Tabernacle furnishing, the brazen altar. The Book of Leviticus details the many explicit sacrifices required by God. Each of these bronze altar sacrifices contained prophetic truth meant for us. Remember though, before the Israelites could sacrifice on the bronze altar, they had to partake of the Passover lamb. Likewise, we must partake of the blood of Jesus Christ to cover our sins before we do any works for God. Good works always come after salvation; they never bring us salvation.
God ordained five main sacrifices for the bronze altar in the courtyard of the Tabernacle: 1) the whole burnt offering, 2) the meal, or grain, offering, 3) the peace offering, 4) the sin offering, and 5) the trespass offering. These prophetically represent the believer’s approach to God after his initial faith in Christ. Remember that an Israelite was spiritually saved by his Passover sacrifice. He did not come into initial fellowship with God by his sacrifices at the bronze altar. Similarly, according to Ephesians 2:8-9, Christians are saved by faith in the atoning blood of Jesus, not by their works. The Bible also clearly shows that Jesus was the Passover lamb slain for the sins of the world. Paul, for example, specifically states this in 1 Cor. 5:7. Rather than representing spiritual salvation, these five Tabernacle sacrifices represent the good works that come after we receive the earnest of the Holy Spirit. They, therefore, prophesy concerning the believer’s spiritual walk. This the Bible calls the process of "sanctification," or the "salvation of the soul."
The altar sacrifices and the laver of water as a whole represent the good works required by God. They also correspond to the elementary truths of God’s Word revealed in Hebrews 6:1-2. These elementary truths comprise the milk of God’s Word, but as we will see, the truths revealed there are not so basic as we might think. Once we understand them we can begin to wean ourselves from always focusing on the few issues of "getting saved." Then we can press on into maturity and communion with God and one another. Indeed, we will find that it is by doing the good works required by the Outer Court sacrifices that we effect the salvation of which Paul speaks in Philippians 2:12: "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling." Paul cannot be talking here about the spiritual salvation of which Ephesians 2:8-9 speaks because that salvation is by God’s grace and faith and is not by our works at all.
The various sacrifices presented at the bronze laver and altar deal with that aspect of our flesh that still tends to reject God and His Word. All five of these sacrifices were made in order to remain in fellowship with God. Each of the five major Levitical sacrifices typifies a particular aspect of our walk with God after spiritual salvation. Thus we see that the Tabernacle sacrifices prophesy the sanctified, Spirit-led life and that none of the outer court sacrifices deals exclusively with the one-time sacrifice for sin that Jesus accomplished on the cross. The blood of each, however, was effective only because of the blood He shed on that cross. Only the Passover lamb itself typifies the sacrifice of God’s one and only Son. It is important to understand this fact before we go on to study each of the individual sacrifices. If we fail to apprehend this, we will constantly attempt to apply the sacrifices to spiritual salvation and will, therefore, miss their entire prophetic meaning. We will now begin with the fifth sacrifice, the trespass offering, and work backwards to the first, the burnt offering.