Heaven is For Real: What the Bible Says About Heaven {Exodus 26-30}

There are a lot of books and movies about people who died and saw heaven, but are they real? Here is what the Bible says about heaven so we can know truth. #Biblestudy #Exodus #WomensBibleStudy #GoodMorningGirls

There have been a lot of books written about heaven that sit on the best seller lists. Clearly, people are curious about the after life. But rather than listening to a 4 year old’s story or hearing from the “Boy Who Came Back From Heaven” who recently announced it was a lie and he did not go to heaven –  I recommend we look into God’s Word and see what He says about HIS dwelling place.

As we read Exodus 26-30 this week, you may have felt bogged down with the details of the building of the tabernacle ….but check out what Hebrews 8:5 tells us we were reading about!

They serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, “See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.”

The tabernacle is a copy or shadow of heavenly things.  We get a glimpse of heaven as we read Exodus 26-30!

This is why God warned Moses, that he make everything, according to the pattern he was shown on the mountain. (Exodus 25:9)

Wow!

Since this is a blog post and not a book – our look at the symbolism will be an overview and not comprehensive.  Let’s dig in and see what we find at first glance.

God tells Moses in Exodus 25:3-7 to gather the items for the tabernacle:

These are the offerings you are to receive from them: gold, silver and bronze; blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen; goat hair; ram skins dyed red and another type of durable leather; acacia wood; olive oil for the light; spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense; and onyx stones and other gems to be mounted on the ephod and breastpiece.” 

First, they were to use the materials of gold, silver, and bronze to build the tabernacle.

Gold signifies purity and the deity of God.

Revelation 21:21 says of heaven: “the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.”

Silver represents redemption.  Jesus was sold for 30 pieces of silver by Judas. No silver is ever mentioned in heaven because our redemption has already been paid for by Christ.

Bronze represents judgement.  The altars were made of bronze to withstand the intense heat of the fire of the sacrifices.

Then they were to use blue, purple and scarlet yarn.

The blue represents the heavenlies and God’s throne.

Ezekiel 1:26-28 tells us that God’s throne has the appearance of sapphire (blue).

“And above the expanse over their heads there was the likeness of a throne, in appearance like sapphire; and seated above the likeness of a throne was a likeness with a human appearance. And upward from what had the appearance of his waist I saw as it were gleaming metal, like the appearance of fire enclosed all around. …Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard the voice of one speaking.”

The purple represents royalty.

The scarlet represents the blood shed for our sins.

Then they were to use fine-linen.  Revelation 19:6-8 says that we – the Bride of Christ – will be clothed in fine linen in heaven.  Look at what fine linen represents in the verses below:

6 Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out,

“Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure”— for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.”

Next was the use of goat hair and ram skins dyed red.

On the day of atonement a goat was set free as a scapegoat – carrying the sins of Israel away. This was a picture of Christ and how he has carried our sins away.

Do you remember the story of Abraham and Isaac on the mountain?  It was the ram caught in the thicket, that became the substitution for the offering to the Lord on that day.  The ram skins dyed red are a picture of Jesus Christ our savior as well!

Then they were to gather precious onyx stones and other gems.  Look at the picture of heaven Revelation 21:18-21 – gives us:

18 The wall was built of jasper, while the city was pure gold, like clear glass. 19 The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every kind of jewel. The first was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, 20 the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst. 21 And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, each of the gates made of a single pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.

I’ve only scratched the surface of the depth of what we have read this week.  There is so much more symbolism happening here with the Ark of the Covenant, table for bread, the golden lampstand, bronze altar, the oil for the lamp, and priestly garments.  All are mentioned in the book of Revelation and are a picture of the heavenly sanctuary we will one day see – with our own eyes!

Awesome!

We see the gospel does not begin in the New Testament with the book of Matthew – but rather it is interwoven from Genesis through Revelation!  We will revisit the tabernacle and it’s symbolism again as we read through the Bible because it is repeated through out the Bible.

If you are wanting to understand more, I encourage you to dig in and look for the symbolism yourself through the use of Bible Commentaries. One of my favorites is the Matthew Henry Commentary. (available free on-line -yay!)

But for now – let’s pause together and stand in awe of our God!  Bow low and worship Him today.

“Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgments,
and his paths beyond tracing out!

“Who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has been his counselor?”

“Who has ever given to God,
that God should repay them?”

For from him and through him and for him are all things.
To him be the glory forever! Amen. “

Romans 11:33-36

Walk with the King,

Courtney

**Chime In**

I left so much uncovered from this week’s reading. Please share what God has taught you in your private study of Exodus 26-30.  It can be related to this post or non-related. We love hearing how God is speaking to you.

 

19 Comments

  1. You are so right, Courtney! There was so much to be discovered in this week’s reading! Every day I was so excited to get into our chapter for the day and see what God had in store for me! I am loving our time together in the Word. It has been so fruitful and I’m so thankful to be on this journey with you!

    Thanks for hosting the link-up every Friday. You’re my number one source of traffic for Grace-Filled-Moments.blogspot.com!! WooHoo!! 🙂

    God bless you! Have a great weekend!

    Walking in His Grace,
    Laurie

  2. Excellent post, Courtney!!!!

    I am super glad that you shared the link about that book, too. I know too many people who have taken it as truth. I will gladly pass this link along.

    His
    Shari

  3. Wow – this was really enlightening! I knew everything carried symbolism, but I hadn’t (forgive me!) really had the inclination to look more into it!

    I’m new to GMG and a brand new linkup blogger/writer too – thank you for hosting!! Excited to meet new blogging friends via your linkup!

  4. Wonderful reading! I never believed that story about that boy going to heaven and then coming back. We can’t see God and live. Thank you for all you do. I love and pray for you all. Through you and AFR88.3 (Radio station lol) you have brought me back to Jesus.

  5. It’s been so enlightening to see how much the Old Testament is intricately woven into the New Testament. I’ve known this but to really study it and see it for myself has been awesome. I get excited each day to see what The Lord is going to reveal to me next. I spent an hour one day studying why the term “clear oil of beaten olives” was important. Then the next day I was in awe at how intricately made and beautiful the garments were. Then the next day they were to sprinkle these beautiful garments with oil and blood; and my first thought was “oh no that’s going to stain them” and then my second thought was “oh yes that’s the blood of Jesus”! Thanks for inviting us along on this study of Gods Word with you.

  6. Courtney, Thank you so much for putting this Bible study together. I absolutely love the start of my day now. I have been following your blog for almost a year and the value it has added to my life is wonderful. The SOAP method is working very well for me and I have a bunch of gel hi-gliders and colored pens. I never would have guessed how fun Bible study could be.

    I really enjoyed your blog today. I did struggle through the reading this week, and I love how you broke it down for us. I will definitely be clicking on the Matthew Henry Commentary link.

  7. I love discussing and reading about this subject on heaven.
    I do myself question the integrity of some of these near death experiences though.

    The one testimony that impacts me though, and I firmly believe is genuine is that of Ian Mcormack.
    The New Zealander surfer ( who I’ve actually met and heard his testimony in real life), who in 1982 died and went to hell and heaven, and came back from the dead, after being stung by 5 deadly box jelly fish.

    His conversion was dramatic, he put his trust in Christ, and is totally living a repentant life. For over 30 yrs now he has been ministering and reaching out to people with his testimony across the world. And openly says he’d love to give away his DVD’s for free, but for publishing costs, practically gives them away for a dollar. If we stop and look at this, this is what the gospel is all about, Jesus making bad people into good people. Amen!

    Ian plainly states from the bible that no liars shall enter Into the Kingdom of Heaven, and that he takes this very seriously. He has been married to a wonderful godly wife for 27 yrs.

    Here is the link to the new recent movie about his life and conversion the Perfect Wave. http://www.theperfectwave.co.za Excellent Movie! I highly recommend people watch this.

    I myself during my early conversion, had a supernatural experience… Enough that I experienced the frightening though limited power of satan, and then the awesome power of Almighty God. ( this confirmed to me that, yes heaven is for real, and so is hell).

    I can honestly say through my experience, that in scripture where it says at the name of “Jesus” all demons have to flee, is actually true. One scripture for this I can think of is James 4:7

    1. Emma, thanks for sharing that. I think it’s hypocritical for some Christian leaders to critize the Heaven is for Real story. David Platt blasted it, yet he writes books all the time about his personal experience living this Christian life. Colton’s father wrote a book about what he experienced with his son which he wrestled with for several years, he was puzzled by everything this little boy was saying. God is limitless and if he chooses to show a child heaven, who are we to say that is not Biblical. I love the story of the Romanian girl who started seeing visions of heaven at age 4 despite the fact her parents were atheists and never talked of heaven. Her paintings are amazing. Why can’t God speak to us today of heaven? He clearly moves in other areas of our lives to show us He and what He says are real. I know He answers prayer, first because His word says He does but secondly, because I have experienced it in my life. To say I can only know answered prayer is real because the Bible tells me so is silly, I know from the experiences He has given me, why can’t it be the same with heaven or even hell? In the end we (Christians) discredit God and His word by all our bickering. It’s sad.

  8. Thank you for the commentary. I have been looking for a good one. Following along each week has been such a blessing for me. I have wanted to know more and now with this commentary I will be able to. Thank you so very much for your faithfulness, what so blessing!
    Linda

  9. Thank you so much for your Amazing website, I am really enjoying reading through the bible with you and your eye opening commentaries. May the Lord continue to bless you!!
    Mel

  10. I’m really enjoying the study… Even though I do typically find the details about the building the tabernacles, ect dry… 🙂
    This is totally off the subject but the fact that they sprinkled the priests new cloths with blood has always bothered me (since I was a little girl). I just keep thinking about the fact that those clothes were brand new and now they are stained! I’m sure there is symbolism for that in there somewhere but that doesn’t seem to help me! Hahahahaha

  11. Thank you Courtney for this post and reading through the bible together. I do find it frustrating that books are published and marketed as real Christian ones and then turn out to be a bunch of lies. For those searching for God I pray they stay searching and meditating the scriptures. The other part I find sad about these misleading books is that it makes Christianity a mockery. I guess on the upside of that I find myself in the Word rather than reading others interpretation of it – there are so many. It can be confusing who is right – .
    I’m loving being in this Bible study. I am learning so much and Matthew Henry commentaries are ones that my parents used when I was g rowing up, it’s exciting that it’s now online. I love the symbolism and the link throughout the Bible of it all. Have a blessed day.

  12. Thanks so much for writing his post. I have been reading through Exodus with my children. Understanding the symbolism is a blessing to them and to me.

  13. Great analysis, Courtney! Thank you for making this difficult stuff more accessible. Really appreciate it. I am a bit behind because I joined a women’s bible study through my church and I have homework for that each week which takes up my time, but I am trying to catch up a little here and there. Thanks for this post 🙂

  14. Hello Courtney i dont always get acess bt i am loving this bible study i read Hebrews 8:5 i know and beleieved that old testament is the shadow of the real things to come ,which is Christ ..bt people of God are persihing because they lack knowledge they ont red the word of God they only waait for Sunday at church and close their bibles throught out the week i am like the people of belea who like to search scriptures for the truth..

    may THE AMIGHTTY GOF continue to use to write the truth and open our eyes and encourage us to have this kind of relationship with Him..

    God bless you and blessed by your gifts of writing and your obedience to allow God to use YOU 🙂

    Mrs Vuyo Southafrica Cape town

  15. I have been a Christian for many years now and regrettably and shamefully say I have never read the Bible all the way through. I should however know several of the chapters of Genesis by heart as I have started and stopped so many times. I have told the Lord (not promised) that I will try my best to read it everyday and try to read it through. I asked Him to help me understand it as I go. I am now in Exodus (out of Genesis) 🙂 and am reading about the building of the Tabernacle. I wanted to see a picture of it and in looking it up, I came across your blog. I believe God directed me here! It has helped me understand the symbolisms as in relation to the New Testament. I hope I don’t lose your page as I would like to continue to read it as I read my Bible. Thank you for being a servant of God!

  16. It is important to expose false teachers and also to expose so-called Christians who write books about going to heaven, later on finding that it was all a lie. I am interested in the truth, not lies. I watched a video on U-Tube that really distressed me. A man claimed that he has been to heaven many times. He told about his experiences as if he had lived there for years and talked about everything that is in heaven. Then he made a statement about some food that was served on a silver platter. It is my understanding that there is no silver in heaven. I do not believe people who say they have been to heaven many times or have been there at all, unless they died first and came back to life. Beware of liers and false teachers. There are so many out there today.

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