2 Samuel

There is a subtle prophecy regarding God’s provision, uttered by Abraham and confirmed by Moses, which really begins to take shape in the last chapter of 2 Samuel.  Moses writes that Abraham, after almost killing his own son Isaac, received a ram in his place as an offering.

Then Abraham raised his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the place of his son.  Abraham called the name of that place The LORD Will Provide, as it is said to this day, “In the mount of the LORD it will be provided.”  Genesis 22: 13 – 14

God’s provision being prophesied would occur on the “mount of the LORD”; this mount became a Jewish idiom for the temple, as the temple was built on Mount Moriah.  And how did the temple come to be built on Mount Moriah?  By the purchase of land detailed in the last chapter of 2 Samuel.

So Gad came to David that day and said to him, “Go up, erect an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.”  David went up according to the word of Gad, just as the LORD had commanded.  Araunah looked down and saw the king and his servants crossing over toward him; and Araunah went out and bowed his face to the ground before the king.  Then Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?”  And David said, “To buy the threshing floor from you in order to build an altar to the LORD, that the plague may be held back from the people.”  2 Samuel 24: 18 – 21

We know that this threshing floor was the temple location based on 2 Chronicles 3:1:

Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the LORD had appeared to his father David, at the place that David had prepared on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

The temple played a significant role in the Old Covenant, but the building of the temple was not the ultimate fulfillment of Abraham’s prophecy.  The temple was not God’s ultimate provision for His people.

Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, is the ultimate provision for God’s people.  On the day when Jesus died, the Scripture records an earthquake and another wonder:

And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit.  And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth shook and the rocks were split.  Matthew 27: 50 – 51

This temple veil was the veil separating the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place, which could only be entered once a year (Day of Atonement) by the High Priest following a strict procedure.  Yet the New Covenant of Christ, established by His blood, atoned for sin perfectly and forever, made the temple obsolete, and truly fulfilled the prophecy of Abraham.  For on the mount of the LORD, on the day Jesus died for our sins, reconciliation with God was provided, and the temple veil on that mount was torn in two.

Now even the first covenant had regulations of divine worship and the earthly sanctuary.  For there was a tabernacle prepared, the outer one, in which were the lampstand and the table and the sacred bread; this is called the holy place.  Behind the second veil there was a tabernacle which is called the Holy of Holies, having a golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which was a golden jar holding the manna, and Aaron’s rod which budded, and the tables of the covenant; and above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat; but of these things we cannot now speak in detail.  Now when these things have been so prepared, the priests are continually entering the outer tabernacle performing the divine worship, but into the second, only the high priest enters once a year, not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the sins of the people committed in ignorance.  The Holy Spirit is signifying this, that the way into the holy place has not yet been disclosed while the outer tabernacle is still standing, which is a symbol for the present time.  Accordingly both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make the worshiper perfect in conscience, since they relate only to food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until a time of reformation.  But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation; and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.  For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled for the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?…For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.   Hebrews 9: 1 – 14, 24
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