Home > The Armor Of God And The Tabernacle

Part 7: The Outer Court.

We find in the Outer Court the Altar of Slaughter and the Laver, where the sacrifices were offered to the Lord daily. There was the sin offering (Leviticus 4), the burnt offering (Leviticus 1), the meal offering (Leviticus 2), the peace offering (Leviticus 3), and the trespass offering (Leviticus 5). We are only interested in the peace offering at this time…more information about offerings are on our website, (www.judeochristianclarion.com).

We know that Yeshua was our sin offering (Romans 8:3), but most people do not know that He is our peace offering. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 5:6-8,  “Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough? Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Messiah our Passover also has been sacrificed. Therefore let’s celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”

So we have seen that Yeshua is our Passover Lamb, which is one of the peace offerings.  The peace offering was a voluntary offering. Yeshua said that He gave up His life; no one took it from Him (John 10:11, 15, 17-18). The peace offering also was a shared meal.  

The Seder Meal

Luke 21:19-20 tells us this, Yeshua, when celebrating the Passover Seder, which is a meal commemorating the redemption of Israel out of Egypt, said to His disciples, “When you partake of this Seder Meal,  Remember Me.”  Why must we remember Him? Because it was on this day, the Passover, that Yeshua died for us. The matzah eaten at the Seder is a reminder of Yeshua, because it is striped and it is pierced. This is what Isaiah 53: 3-7 says about our Savior, “He was despised and abandoned by men, a man of great pain and familiar with sickness; and like one from whom people hide their faces, He was despised, and we had no regard for Him. However, it was our sicknesses that He Himself bore, and our pains that He carried; yet we ourselves assumed that He had been afflicted, struck down by God, and humiliated. But He was pierced for our offenses, He was crushed for our wrongdoings; the punishment for our well-being was laid upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed. All of us, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the Lord has caused the wrongdoing of us all to fall on Him. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth; like a lamb that is led to slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so He did not open His mouth.”

During the Seder the middle piece of matzah is pulled out from a stack of three. It is called the Afikoman and it is hidden for a time and then brought back.  This represents Yeshua who was buried and then rose from the dead. The third cup that is drunk at the Seder is called the cup of Redemption. When the Afikoman is retrieved then the Cup of Redemption is drunk, it was at this point that Yeshua says, “This is My body and this is My blood, do this in remembrance of Me.” Yeshua knew that all the previous years the Jewish people only recognized the departure from Egypt, but going forward that those who believed in Him would remember that this referenced His crucifixion and resurrection.

 He was the Passover Lamb, the peace offering, and we are to eat of Him and drink of His blood, symbolically representing the shared meal at the table of the Lord, the Passover Seder, (John 6:48-58). The peace offering is also a thanksgiving offering in response to God’s favor.  So then what did that have to do with the Passover Lamb and Yeshua, who is our Passover lamb? During the first Passover, the people were to place the blood of the Passover Lamb on the lintels of the door frame for protection, so that the death angel would pass over them during the last plague of Egypt, the plague of the death of the first born, thus reconciling them to God, redeeming them from Pharaoh. This is what Colossians 1:19-20 tells us about Yeshua, “For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.”

Colossians  1:13 says this, “For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son,in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

This is what Ephesians 2: 11-18 tells us how Yeshua brought peace from His death on the cross. “Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— remember that you were at that time separated from Messiah, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Messiah Yeshua you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Messiah. For He Himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in His flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that He might create in Himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And He came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through Him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.”

In the Temple there was a divide between the court of the Gentiles and the court for the Jewish people. Remember only a few Gentiles (the God fearers) had come to the knowledge of the One True God, most were pagans. But when Yeshua died for us, and rose, but especially at the time of Pentecost, then Gentiles began to believe. Yeshua made the way for all those who believed to now enter beyond the divided wall, thus making one new man. Now the Gentiles were grafted into Israel.

 Romans 11:17-18 tells us this, “But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you.” Today this is not taught, we disregard this passage of Scripture, but it is true. We have been grafted into Israel and they support us. This is why we say that we are Judeo-Christians. We share the same beliefs and the same Scriptures. Yes, many Jewish people still do not have the Messiah, but they will for Romans 11:25-26 tells us,  “ Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, “The Deliverer will come from Zion,     He will banish ungodliness from Jacob”; and this will be My covenant with them when I take away their sins.” As regards the gospel, they are enemies for your sake. But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers.”

So Yeshua is our peace and He is our Passover Lamb, who has taken us from darkness into the light. Paul tells us that we too should keep the Feast of Passover, and why not? This is the day that Yeshua died for our sins. You see, how can you fight the spiritual battle if you are not remembering the crucifixion on the right day? You are standing on shifting sand unless you remember Yeshua at Passover, eating the Seder Meal. How can you give the proper salvation message unless you tell people the Lamb of God died at Passover at the same time the lambs were slaughtered for the Passover Seder. We have to stop listening to Satan’s lies and put on the Belt of Truth and take the Sword of the Spirit and combat him with the Word of God.

What would we have done if God did not love us, and did not send us our Deliverer? Yeshua’s death is very much a picture of  the Passover, and for that, we too must give the Father a Thanksgiving offering.  As 1 Corinthians 15:56-57 says,  “The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the Law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Messiah Yeshua.”

The Lacerna

Up to now we have been looking at the Armor of God and the Appointed Times of God and the Tabernacle. We have looked at the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place and we have looked at the Fall  Feasts.  Now we want to look at two Spring Feasts and the outer court. There are no more parts of the armor to look at except one that belongs only to Yeshua. We are going to look at the Lacerna, which is Latin for what we call the cloak or the mantle. The lacerna was fastened on the right shoulder with a brooch, and then wrapped around and held with the left arm. They were generally red or purple. The larcerna or mantle was worn by high ranking officers or officials, and even kings. It was a sign of power and position and authority and respect. Yeshua has all of this. There are many references to this. Revelation 19:11-13 speaks of Yeshua the Mighty Warrior, “And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war. His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many crowns; and He has a name written on Him which no one knows except Himself. He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God.”

Isaiah 59:16-17 tells us  about our mighty warrior Yeshua, and how He dressed for the battle. “And He saw that there was no one, and was amazed that there was not one to intercede; then His own arm brought salvation to Him, and His righteousness upheld Him. He put on righteousness like a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on His head; and He put on garments of vengeance for clothing and wrapped Himself with zeal as a cloak.” 

Even though the Roman soldiers mocked Yeshua’s royalty, it was a prelude to things to come as  Mark 15:17-18 tells us, “They dressed Him up in a ranking Roman officer’s robe of purple, and after twisting together a crown of thorns, they placed it on Him; and they began saluting and mocking Him: “Hail, King of the Jews!”” Little did they know that soon Yeshua was going to descend into the depths, and take the crown from Satan and conquer death. The cross was the altar of slaughter and it was here that Yeshua won the victory and was given the honor to wear the mantle, the cloak, the lacerna as a sign of the victor.

1 Corinthians 1:18 says this, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” And again in Romans 1:16,  “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”

Revelation 17:14 tells us that Yeshua, the Mighty Lamb of God will win over the enemy and be the victor forever. “These will wage war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them because He is Lord of lords and King of kings; and those who are with Him are the called and chosen and faithful.”

And we too, will win and will wear the robe of the victory as Isaiah 61:10 tells us,  “I will rejoice greatly in the Lord, My soul will be joyful in my God; For He has clothed me with garments of salvation, He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness, As a groom puts on a turban, And as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.”

The Laver

In the Outer Court is also the Laver. The laver was a large basin. Exodus 38:8 says this  “They made the bronze basin and its bronze stand from the mirrors of the women who served at the entrance to the tent of meeting.” These women let go of their vanity, when they donated their mirrors for the construction of the laver. Solomon writes in Ecclesiastes 1:14, “I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and indeed, all is vanity and grasping for the wind.” This may be true in many circumstances, but the people took making the Tabernacle very seriously, and yet they all died in the wilderness because of  their lack of faith (Hebrews 3:7-19).

James 1:23-24 says, “For if anyone is a hearer of the Word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.”

The purpose of the laver was so that the priest could wash. When they were first ordained they bathed their entire body, (Exodus 29:4). Once the priest was ordained then all he did was wash his hands and feet in the laver. We see this with Yeshua and His disciples.

John 13:1-10, “Yeshua knew on the evening of Passover Day that it would be His last night on earth before returning to His Father. During supper the devil had already suggested to Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, that this was the night to carry out his plan to betray Yeshua. Yeshua  knew that the Father had given Him everything and that He had come from God and would return to God. And how He loved His disciples! So He got up from the supper table, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around His loins, poured water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel He had around Him. When He came to Simon Peter, Peter said to Him, “Master, you shouldn’t be washing our feet like this!”Yeshua replied, “You don’t understand now why I am doing it; some day you will.” “No,” Peter protested, “You shall never wash my feet!”“ But if I don’t, you can’t be My disciple,” Yeshua replied. Simon Peter exclaimed, “Then wash my hands and head as well—not just my feet!” Yeshua replied, “One who has bathed all over needs only to have his feet washed to be entirely clean. Now you are clean—but that isn’t true of everyone here.” Yeshua told His disciples that they were clean because of the Word, (John 15:3).

So we, too, must be washed clean before we come into God’s presence. When Yeshua wanted to wash the disciples’ feet to show them that they too, must go out and do the same, Yeshua was not talking about literally washing peoples feet, but washing them clean with the Word of God.  Psalm 24:3-4 says, “Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in His holy place? The one who has clean hands and a pure heart,  who does not trust in an idol  or swear by a false god.”

We sin all the time and we need to repent of our sins. This is why you see the Laver with the Altar of Sacrifice. They are the only two things in the Outer Court. Today we must be clean also before we come before God, because you  can not  enter into the Holy Place unless you have been washed. Yes we are washed in the blood, but remember, we still have to clean our hands and feet. And it is those hands and feet that commit the sins.

Isaiah 59:6-7 tells us, “Their webs will not become clothing, nor will they cover themselves with their works; their works are works of wrongdoing, and an act of violence is in their hands. Their feet run to evil, and they hurry to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of wrongdoing, devastation and destruction are in their paths.”

The purpose of God’s Word is to show us how we are to live in right standing with God, because sin alienates us from Him. This is what Psalm 19:7-14 says, “The Law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the judgments of the Lord are true; they are righteous altogether. They are more desirable than gold, yes, than much pure gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, Your servant is warned by them; in keeping them there is great reward. Who can discern his errors? Acquit me of hidden faults. Also keep Your servant back from presumptuous sins; let them not rule over me; then I will be innocent, and I will be blameless of great wrongdoing. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, Lord, my rock and my Redeemer.”

1 John 1:5-10 tells us this, “ This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Yeshua His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous, so that He will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His Word is not in us.”

Water is a sign of sanctification. We see this with the mikvah. Mikvah is the Hebrew word for a body of water.  The mikvah was used for ceremonial purification. It indicated a separation from a former way to a new way.   Baptism is a form of submerging  in a mikvah. You give witness that you now are a child of God. Immersing in the mikvah is considered a spiritual rebirth.  John 3:3-8 tells us this, “Yeshua replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.” “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!” Yeshua answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”” We even see Yeshua entering into the water under John the Baptist before starting His ministry, (John 3:13-17).

In Genesis 1:1-2 it says,  “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was a formless and desolate emptiness, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.”

We see that the Holy Spirit and water seem to go together. Titus 3:3-7 says ,  “For we too were once foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared,“ He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we did in righteousness, but in accordance with His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He richly poured out upon us through Messiah Yeshua our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”

We know that the Holy Spirit was poured out on the day of Pentecost. Passover is only one day. 

Feast of Unleavened Bread

We are  not only to remember Yeshua at the Passover  but also in the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Unleavened Bread is a feast that goes for seven days. When the people left Egypt they fled before their bread could rise, so they had to eat unleavened bread, but this was all part of God’s plan. Egypt, full of it’s paganism  and sin, had an influence on the Jewish peoples’ lives. It was something that the first generation in the wilderness had a problem letting go of. Today we must let go of the world’s ways. James 4:4 tells us, “You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” 

The world is full of pagan ideas, Humanism which says that we are all gods and that there are no rights or wrongs. So God led the people to Sinai to give them His Word, so that they would live by His ways. He gave them the Tabernacle so that He would be in their presence and dwell amongst them. Unleavened is that reminder that we must rid ourselves of sin, for sin alienates us from God. It does not take much sin so make us sinful as Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 5:6-7, “Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough? Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened.”  God is so holy that the Tabernacle was all about holiness, and we too, are now the Temple of the Lord.  

1 Corinthians 3:16 says,  “Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone destroys the temple of God, God will destroy that person; for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are.”

Again 1 Corinthians 6:17-20 says, “But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him. Flee sexual immorality. Every other sin that a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought for a price: therefore glorify God in your body.”

1 Peter 2:1-5 tells us, “Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander, and like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord. And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by people, but is choice and precious in the sight of God, you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to God through Messiah Yeshua.”

We are told to put on the armor of God to fight the spiritual battle, but there is more to put on than the armor.

Getting Dressed for the Battle.

Let us look at all that we need to put on.

Romans 13:13-14 says this, “ Let’s behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and debauchery, not in strife and jealousy. But put on the Lord Yeshua Messiah, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.”

We must start by putting on Messiah.

1 Corinthians 2:15-16, “But the one who is spiritual discerns all things, yet he himself is discerned by no one. For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he will instruct Him? But we have the mind o f Messiah.”

Next we must put on the mind of the Messiah.

Ephesians 4:17-24,  “So I say this, and affirm in the Lord, that you are to no longer walk just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their minds, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; and they, having become callous, have given themselves up to indecent behavior for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. But you did not learn Messiah in this way, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Yeshua , that, in reference to your former way of life, you are to rid yourselves of the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you are to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.”

We must take off the old and put on the new.

Colossians 3:12-17, “Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Messiah rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Messiah dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Yeshua, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.”

Above all we need to put on love.

Do all these things and you will be ready for the battle and you will win the war.