14. A Second Passover

God's view of time is just as real and current as man's view of time, and vice versa. God is manifest in the flesh. He created man's view of time and appreciates His creation immensely. Yet God's full use of man's view of time cannot eliminate or lessen in any way God's relationship with time. We can see clearly that God used both views of time in the setting up of the Tabernacle on April 1, 1461 BC. God began with the Mercy Seat, and then worked out from Himself, yet the further out from God He went, the more “closed off” the Heart of God became in human view. Then, once God had completed unfolding Himself out from His heart, He had placed before man what appeared to be a step-by-step WAY into that same Heart.

Now the Lord called to Moses, and spoke to him from the tabernacle of meeting, saying . . . Leviticus 1:1

This is one of the most important, most extraordinary lines in the Old Testament – God now in the midst of His people.  This reality comes out of a very precise unfolding of God in space and time.

But before walking through that unfolding through time, let's look at a slightly more specific rendition of this same thing in Leviticus 1:1.

Now when Moses went into the tabernacle of meeting to speak with Him, he heard the voice of One speaking to him from above the mercy seat that was on the ark of the Testimony, from between the two cherubim; thus He spoke to him. Numbers 7:89

God places Himself above the Mercy Seat on the Ark of the Covenant. Here alone is where we know God. In fact, here are even more specific words.

 You shall put the mercy seat on top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the Testimony that I will give you. And there I will meet with you, and I will speak with you from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are on the ark of the Testimony . . . Exodus 25:21-22

And there I will meet with you.

This statement is central to both Sacrifice and Atonement.

A different title for this letter, fully fitting, would be, “God in Space and Time.” Readers are asking me about this issue. In responding to their questions, I am seeing that God's relationship with space and time is a BIG deal. Unless we know how God is revealed in space/time, we cannot know either Sacrifice or Atonement as they are. The ignorance of God in space/time is one of the largest barriers keeping people from knowing Him.

Look at the words: Now the Lord called to Moses, and spoke to him from the tabernacle of meeting.

God in space and time; God among us.

God manifest in the flesh.

Having attempted to understand God in space and time in the last letter, I want to try it again, this time through the pattern of Israel's journey, this second Passover.

First, let's place the layout of events through time. I will use the names of our months, with your understanding that they represent for us the names of the Hebrew months.

If Moses went up upon the mountain around June 12, then 80 days places his final return back down the mountain in early September, 1462 BC. He would have needed time to determine the craftsmen for the building of the tabernacle and the gathering of the materials given freely by the people. Thus we could surmise that the workmen began sometime near the Feast of Tabernacles that October. They began with the Ark of the Covenant. In fact, it would take many weeks of beating the fine gold to the perfect shape of the Mercy Seat in particular.

The craftsmen busied themselves with the tabernacle through the months of October, November, December, January, and February of 1462 BC. Then, through March, all the elements of the Tabernacle were gathered together. The “site” was not in consideration with the Tabernacle, for it was built to be mobile, to travel with the journey of the Ark of God.

Thus the practice run for unpacking every piece of the Tabernacle and setting it all up in just a few hours time on one day was scheduled for April 1, 1461, that is, the first day of the first month. Not only were the elements of the Tabernacle being readied, but so also was the priesthood. That preparation had two parts. First, the Levites who were assigned the duty of tending the pieces of the Tabernacle, taking them down, carrying them, and setting them up again, were cleansed by water and by sacrifice in a ritual before God. Second, Aaron and his sons, who would minister as the priests in that Tabernacle were also cleansed by water and by sacrifice in ritual before God. Their hearts and bodies were consecrated before April 1 dawned.

However, on April 1, Moses did most of the work while the Levites watched. Though the Bible says “Moses raised up the tabernacle,” those words do not prevent the probability that some of the Levites assisted him.

And it came to pass in the first month of the second year, on the first day of the month, that the tabernacle was raised up. Exodus 40:17

Moses starts with the Tabernacle itself, setting up the boards and pillars and draping the skins over them. Once the tent itself is raised, then Moses places into the Ark the stone of the testimony he had carved to replace that stone he had first shattered. He puts the staves, the carrying bars, into the Ark and carries it into its place in the Holy of Holies. After the Ark is in its place, Moses drapes the veil to cover it. Then Moses works his way out from the Holy of Holies, placing the furnishings in the Holy Place, with the door still open to view.

In Exodus 40, it says that Moses did all this, but in Numbers 8, it says that Aaron did his part as well. Thus we understand that “Moses did” meant that others helped under his direction. This is a normal way of speaking in construction. I say that I designed and built many buildings. Yet always, part of “I built” is the reality that many others worked with me. Yet I directed them in their work, and it came out of my design. In the sense of construction, those working with me were an extension of me, the builder.

So, let's picture the activity. There is no door covering over the front of the Tabernacle. Everyone can see the unfolding taking place inside. First Moses and Aaron set the table of showbread and place the bread on it, bread that must have been baked by Levites just that morning. Next they place the lampstand, pour oil into the seven lamps, and Aaron lights them. Finally they place the altar of incense. Aaron spreads incense upon it, incense prepared by Levites, and lights it with fire from his censer. Each of the pieces of furniture serve a purpose, that is, they are the holding place, the dwelling of something else. The table contains bread, the lampstand contains fire as light, and the altar contains fire as incense, a sweet aroma to the Lord.

It is only then that the door over the front of the tabernacle is put into place. At this point the Tabernacle is standing by itself in the middle of the dusty plain. Moses then sets the altar of burnt offering in its place in full view of everyone. This is the largest piece and would have taken much help. Before doing anything else, Moses and Aaron offer a burnt offering upon that altar. Then they place the laver just before the tent, pour water into it, and Moses, Aaron, and Aaron's sons all wash their hands in the water.

Finally, they raise the court wall, its pillars and covering, all around the enclosure. The entire thing is now hidden from view. It is in their midst, but the way into God can be walked, now, only by God's order.

God's order for man is backward from His order for Himself. To man, it is a forward walk through space and time into the Holy of Holies. To God it is an unfolding out from the Holy of Holies of all that is already true.

Once everything was in place:

Then the cloud covered the tabernacle of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the tabernacle of meeting, because the cloud rested above it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Whenever the cloud was taken up from above the tabernacle, the children of Israel would go onward in all their journeys. But if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not journey till the day that it was taken up. For the cloud of the Lord was above the tabernacle by day, and fire was over it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys. Exodus 40:34-38

God, a God who has been there all along, is now known, for the first time, in space and time, among us.

I want to point out something here that I just now see that is fascinating to me. I don't know if it means something for this letter, but I suspect it will mean much ongoing. Notice that each one of the seven pieces of furniture contains something; that is, they are vessels, holders, containers. The brass altar of burnt offering contains wood fire for sacrifice, the laver contains water, the table contains bread, and the lampstand contains oil fire for light. The golden altar contains incense fire for aroma, the ark contains the Covenant, and the Mercy Seat contains the pillar of fire – God present by appearance.

Now three of the first six contain a form of fire: for sacrifice, light, and aroma. And three of the first six contain a form of word: water of word, bread of word, and the written word of covenant. The Mercy Seat, however, is both. It is fire, the fire of God made known, and it is word, God speaking with us. – I like patterns.

Then, beginning on April 1, 1461 BC and continuing for 12 days, the princes of each of the tribes of Israel come to the Tabernacle with their appointed offerings of sacrifice and incense, silver, oil, and flour. On April 1, it is Judah, with Naphtali closing out the progression of the tribes on April 12. Levi is not part of this count.

While these offerings are being transacted between the Tribes and the Levites, Moses enters into the tabernacle to talk with God.

Now when Moses went into the tabernacle of meeting to speak with Him, he heard the voice of One speaking to him from above the mercy seat that was on the ark of the Testimony, from between the two cherubim; thus He spoke to him. Numbers 7:89

On April 8, the ministry of the priesthood begins, but the ritual is stricken with horror. First, Aaron and his two oldest sons work through the process of offering sacrifices to God for themselves. Once they are purified, they then offer sacrifices for all the people, to purify the whole camp of Israel.

Then Aaron lifted his hand toward the people, blessed them, and came down from offering the sin offering, the burnt offering, and peace offerings. And Moses and Aaron went into the tabernacle of meeting, and came out and blessed the people. Then the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people, and fire came out from before the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the fat on the altar. When all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces. Leviticus 9:22-25

Note that the heart and intentions of God and His ministry was to bless the people.

Then, Aaron's two oldest sons, Nadab and Abihu, just after Moses and Aaron have blessed God's people, take their own censers, place in them their own incense, and light the incense with their own fire. Fire comes out from the presence of God and zaps them dead. Everyone is stunned. But Moses insists that everything continue as God had directed.

I don't want to turn this letter to applying the meaning of this awful thing; rather, I will reconstruct this day in an upcoming letter.

It is in response to the death of Nadab and Abihu that God through Moses then sets the order for the Day of Atonement. Through the next few days, God also sets the order for the sacrifices and for the priest's duties on a regular basis. All the layout of sacrifice in Leviticus 1-7, God speaks through Moses in the days leading up to the 14^th, the second Passover. Large parts of the law came from God through Moses during these days.

Thus Israel celebrated the Feast of Passover a second time. The first time was the real deal; the second time was the first remembrance. The Feast of Unleavened Bread continued, then, through the 22^nd. On May 1, God began to order the camp of Israel in preparation for the journey to the Promised Land. That journey began specifically on May 20, 1461 BC, that is, the twentieth day of the second month, in the second year.

We will come back to the events following May 20 in the letter, “Turning Away.”

In my letter, “Sacrifice,” I want to define salvation more clearly than I have ever known. Thus I am using these prior letters to lay as wide a foundation of that unveiling as I can. More than that, Sacrifice is the key that unlocks for us the Day of Atonement and the mighty action no human being save Jesus has ever made, out of which He walked, the most incredible thing the High Priest did on that day, the very action all Israel awaited with bated breath. (I am trying to build suspense, though I have already stated that action in this series.)

Christianity and Christians everywhere hold an infantile comprehension of salvation. A two-year-old child understands the life and reality of a sixty-five year old highly educated professional person experienced in all the glories and sorrows of life better than Christians comprehend God and salvation.

The biggest thing is that we treat God in our words and in our doctrine of salvation as a creature, a Thing over there. And we have imagined a salvation that is 100% geographical. We leave one place where God is not found (earth), we escape another place (Hell/Hades, either one), and we go to a third place (Heaven). This is childishness; yet the conversation and teaching of almost all Christians treat this infant-thinking (childish, not child-like) as the real deal and force all that God does say to fit this absurd framework.

God is all-pervasive invisible Spirit who is omnipresent/infinite. Now, in speaking of God, we are NOT speaking of heaven. Heaven is not God. Heaven is created and temporal; it is passing away. Heaven is filled with all kinds of created substances, entities, and persons. We are considering God only, leaving out all outward expression of God into either heaven or earth.

God is omnipresent; that is, ALL of God is ALL everywhere. There is nothing that is part of this Being, God, that is finite. If God is ALL everywhere, then ALL that is God is ALL everywhere.

Find a Quasar on the other side of the universe, go to any spot in that Quasar, find one electron in that spot, and ALL that is God is there, present, personal, and now, in that electron. Find the most vile demon in the center of screaming torment, go deep into its being, find one particle of this thing, and ALL that is God is there, present, personal, and now, in that demon.

All human beings contain in themselves ALL that is God in every particle of their being, spirit, soul, and body. Nothing else is possible. If it were possible that All that is God would not be found in all things created, then God is finite and not God.

The converse is true as well, that all things, in all that they are, are entirely and only inside of God.

You cannot leave God. You cannot get God out of you. If you had such power to do either one, you would have eliminated God by making Him into a finite creature.

Space cannot be separated from God, and God cannot be separated from space.

So what is the problem? If God is, as He says, ALL in ALL, why the difficulty? Knowledge. – God is INVISIBLE. – No one knows He is there!

Thus the gift OF God is eternal life, that is, to KNOW what IS. That they might know You.

Yet this IS God is utterly and intensely, deeply and intimately PERSONAL. And that makes a world of difference. However, let's look at time before we explore what Personal means.

Time cannot be separated from God, and God cannot be separated from time. Time is the same as space in all this layout; however, time is a bit different in its conception.

God's view of time is different from man's view of time. However, both views of time are fully legitimate. Man's view of time is not false; rather it is simply a place of perspective. Much of the Bible is written out from man's view of time. That fact does not eliminate God's view of time. Both God's view of time and man's view of time exist and must be known together all the way through.

In all the concerns over time, it is clear to me that those concerned have not accepted that time is simply relative to the viewer. When we view and speak of time, we see one thing; when God views time, He sees something different. Yet both are looking at the exact same thing. But God, in communicating to us, almost always speaks of time as we see it BECAUSE He is showing Himself to us. Yet, God's speaking of time as we see it does not alter how He sees time; thus God also, occasionally, speaks of time in the Bible as He sees it.

Here is what we silly Christians do. We latch onto either one of the two perspectives from which God speaks of time and use it as a weapon to eliminate the other perspective of time.

Thus the smaller group says, “All of God is now. There is nothing else, whatever we are right now, that's it.” But the larger group says, “God is a process. We don't have all of God now, but someday, after we “die,” (physically or by the cross) then we will receive from God whatever God is talking about.”

Both positions are absurd.

All of God is always all now, every moment. There is nothing that is God that was, is not, and will be. God does not cease. Nothing that is God ceases, not for one billionth of a second. If some element of God ceased for one billionth of a second at any tiny point of His creation, then God is temporary and not God.

However, God unfolds the knowledge of God, His revelation, part by part through time.

Here are the two perspectives. We look at the work God does in our lives and in the human experience as the building of a house. First you excavate the site, then you build the foundation, then you build the walls and roof. Then you make the furnishings and put the furnishings into the house. After that is all finished, you move into the new house.

This is how God presents His work in building His dwelling place to us – as WE view time. Thus the pictures and descriptions of God concerning this work are expressed as the human view of time, moment by moment.

But God's view of time is just as real and current as man's view of time, and vice versa. God is manifest in the flesh. He created man's view of time and appreciates His creation immensely. Yet God's full use of man's view of time cannot eliminate or lessen in any way God's relationship with time.

We can see clearly that God used both views of time in the setting up of the Tabernacle on April 1, 1461 BC. God began with the Mercy Seat, and then worked out from Himself, yet the further out from God He went, the more “closed off” the Heart of God became in human view. Then, once God had completed unfolding Himself out from His heart, He had placed before man what appeared to be a step-by-step WAY into that same Heart.

The best way I see to describe God's view of time is found in a fabric store. You've seen a bolt of cloth in a fabric store. Usually, it is not round, but rectangular. The clerk lays the bolt of cloth on the table. Let's say this bolt of cloth is actually one large tapestry.

The entire tapestry on that bolt is complete and finished, in full existence there on that cutting table. But you see none of it.  All the work of God is finished and complete before He ever begins it.

For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are BEING sanctified.

So what does the clerk do? Does she say, “This bolt of cloth is whole and complete, there is nothing else here to do”? Not at all. Rather, she takes that bolt of cloth and flips it one turn. Suddenly the “first” part of the tapestry is revealed, manifest, made visible. The she flips it again (next generation, next season of life, next moment of time), and the “next” element of the tapestry is revealed.

God is all every moment, and all of His work is already finished. But God reveals Himself, He unfolds His work through time. Yet at every unfolding of that bolt of tapestry, the entire tapestry/work of God continues complete. AND the unfolding of God is forever. There will never come a moment when there is nothing more of God filling us full for us to discover.

These realities of God are not hard to grasp. God is omnipresent; thus all that is God is all in every tiny place in all of His creation. Yet this invisible God is not known. God is eternal; thus all that is God is all at every moment of our experience of time. Yet God unfolds the revelation of Himself and His work through time.

If this reality of God is simple to grasp, what is the problem? – SIN! And through sin, Christian theology. (Though I place sin here where it darkens all things, I will not expand on it's role until “Sacrifice.” Sacrifice and sin are known together, that is, by opposition.)

Our view of time and space must change. You see, the whole problem is this statement: God manifest in the flesh. There is nothing as incongruous, illogical, un-connectable as this statement. To the human mind, it is simply impossible. Flesh is space and time – God is infinite and eternal.

God cannot be manifest in the flesh except God looks exactly like flesh as He appears. What we are seeing is appearance. It is real, yes, but it is also figurative; that is, it is the Substance as the substance is seen and known in the visible. The appearance of God, the appearance of Substance cannot be evil or unreal. Yet this appearance of God looks different outwardly in the earth than it looks like in the heavens. Yet both appearances, whether in heaven or in earth, are appearance, not Substance.

And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world (cosmos) was. John 17:5 – "NOW" - then, Jesus humbled Himself.

Glory in Substance and humility in appearance in the earth are same thing. In fact, I have expressed over and over that the appearance of Glory in the earth is more LIKE GOD than any appearance of Glory in the heavens. God is known out from MAN before He is ever known by all heavenly creatures.

You see, these words in Jesus' prayer mean something totally different to a separated mind than to one who walks in the continual knowledge of ALL of God filling us full every moment. Separation sees continual separation; union sees continual union. Always keep in mind these other words of Jesus in order to comprehend anything Jesus says about His relationship with God.

And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me.” John 11:41-42

Jesus spoke for our sakes, not for His. Our being just like Jesus requires this utter shift of our knowing of God. We cannot walk as Jesus walked unless we know God as always ALL, here and now, Personal in us, yet unfolding His revelation every moment through space and time.

The figurative is not something out from God; it is God appearing in the flesh. "Figurative" means the difference and the continual connection between appearance and Substance. Figurative and image are the same thing. We, as humans living at the juncture of spirit and flesh, of heaven and earth, are the visible representation of an invisible God. Yet the appearance of God's glory through us is the continual nature of life laid down, of love poured out.

Jesus said that GREATNESS in Substance is service in appearance in the earth. They are the same thing. Jesus humbling Himself IS the Glory of God revealed, the highest value in the core of God's heart. The Sacrifice of Jesus is not something God did or something out from God, or sent by God – all of those ways of seeing and knowing God are from the human paradigm of separation; that is, they are the view of SIN.

The Sacrifice of Jesus IS God. God revealed.

When God's Glory was seen for the first time as it really is in the heavens, heavenly creatures saw a Lamb as it had been slain. They saw life laid down; they saw love poured out. They saw God as a Man laying down His life for His friends. All the outward appearance of glory as God had shown Himself in the heavens before that moment was nothing like what they saw then.

Space is the infinity of God showing up in every place. Time is the eternality of God all, now, every moment. Yet both are appearance, the appearance in space and time, flesh, of the Substance of God.

God/Substance – Man/Appearance.

– God manifest in the flesh.

 But God is not just omnipresent and eternal; He is also Personal. And thus we enter the picture of the Second Passover again. For here, God becomes, shows Himself, Personal. And here alone will we see Sacrifice.

The essence of Person is Heart. God displays, pre-figures, casts the metaphor, of His Heart in a very specific and precise manner. This picture God gives us of His Heart is ___ (I cannot find the human word to go here – brilliantly explosive, overwhelmingly incredible, achingly intimate – an endless string of such phrases all together as one.) We call this picture of the Heart of God – the Mercy Seat.

 You shall put the mercy seat on top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the Testimony that I will give you. And there I will meet with you, and I will speak with you from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are on the ark of the Testimony.

And there I will meet with you.

All connection between God and man is found here alone. All unfolding of God through man comes continually out from this place alone. In Moses' time, God called this place, “The Mercy Seat.” In John's vision, God called this place, “The Throne of Heaven.” In us, God calls this place, “The human heart filled with Christ.”

I have found a man after My own heart who will do all My will.

Let me state something I want to develop further in the next letter, “The Form of God,” which has inserted itself because we cannot know Sacrifice until we grasp fully God and man. Every created form serves the purpose of revealing some aspect of an invisible God. Animals reveal God; trees reveal God; angels reveal God; stars reveal God; weird things at the bottom of the sea reveal God; weird things in the farthest reaches of heaven reveal God; rocks reveal God.

Everything created is formed by God to reveal a certain aspect of His being; that is, everything comes out of Him. But only one created form is designed by God to reveal His Person, and that is man. And only one portion of humanity is designed by God to reveal the core of His Person, His Heart, and that is His elect.

Let's look at the specifics concerning this place where God says: And there I will meet with you.

We are looking at a pattern that reveals to us God's heart as a shadow. You and I were designed by God to be, not a shadow of that revelation, but the real deal – forever. Therefore we cannot see these things as objects of wood and stone and metal, but as they are of truth, the very Heart of God.

This Mercy Seat upon which the fire of God rests and out from which God speaks to us and inside of which we live in God and God in us, is of solid gold. It is God. It is God in Substance, in Person, and in Heart. Yet it is formed as three things. It is formed as a covering, a lid. It is formed as a seat, a throne upon which to sit. And it is formed with two cherubs, one on either side facing the One who sits upon that throne.

I do not know what these two cherubs mean, not fully; therefore I will not attempt to “explain” them. I do know that these are the two cherubs keeping the way to the tree of life. Thus I also surmise that they also stood, one on each side of Jesus, as He hung there upon the tree of life, as Aaron and Hur did for Moses, helping Him to hold His hands up to God. By this we can see that they represent both authority and help, the grace of God.

HOWEVER, neither the gold, nor the covering, nor the throne, nor the cherubs, nor the pillar of fire, nor the voice coming out of that fire is the MOST important thing about this Mercy Seat.

Come close, if you would, and look upon it. For there, sprinkled across that gold, across that lid, across that throne, is Blood, great drops of blood, human blood, the blood of the Lamb.

By that Blood is all cessation of sin and sinner, yes, but the Blood is far more than cessation. The Blood is Life. It is love poured out and life laid down. Jesus' life is in that Blood.

Yet that Mercy Seat, that throne of God, covered with Blood, that Heart, is also a covering. The Mercy Seat does not exist apart from the Ark upon which it sits. And inside that Ark, a simple box of acacia wood, covered inside and out with gold, is the Covenant. That Covenant is Word in its third form. Word in its first form is water, water that washes away all dirt. Word in its second form is bread, bread that sustains and nourishes and fills with life. But Word in its third form is Covenant, the bond of the Covenant.

Here is the Covenant of God. – We shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He is.

This Covenant dwells inside of us, in our very hearts. And by that Covenant we speak Christ our only life.

Yet this picture God gives us of the point in space and time in which God meets with us, God manifest in the flesh, has two very very different aspects or views.

On the one hand, this Mercy Seat, this throne of God, dwells in total darkness, completely hidden from the children of Israel. In that form, light, knowledge, enters into this dwelling place of God only once a year, on the Day of Atonement. But that light does not enter into the Holy of Holies as the natural light of the sun and the wood fires burning up the sin sacrifices. It does not enter as the light of the lamp oil burning always in the Holy Place. The only light that enters that darkness once each year is the light that is the dim glow of the Altar of Incense, sending its fragrance up before the Holy.

We have a different name for that Altar of Incense. We call it Gethsemane. We call it the moment when our bitterness turned into Joy inside the Heart of a Man rising to His feet.

But that same throne of God, not typically called The Mercy Seat, but both together called the Ark of the Covenant, bears an entirely different aspect as well. In all the journeys of Israel, before one person puts a foot in front of the other, the tabernacle is taken down, piece by piece, the veil that normally blocks all from God is draped over that Ark, the Ark is picked up by the Levites appointed to carry it, and that Ark always goes first, out in front, leading all to the Promised Land.

Yet there are not two perspectives of this Ark of the Covenant, where the revelation of God rests, but three.

You see there was a bold and daring pirate, a bloody man, a man that cared not a fig for all the “requirements” laid down by Moses, a man who danced naked in front of all God's people just to celebrate the Ark of the Covenant. There was a man who held in his breast a heart as bold and daring as God's. This man took that HOLY, HOLY Ark, that Mercy Seat, that Holy of Holies, that Presence of God, and put it in his backyard, behind his house, in a big, ugly tent. A tent that, by the Presence of God, was now the Holy of Holies.

And  this scoundrel, this vagabond, took all of his friends with him, including a bunch of Philistines, and went into that Holiest Place in the universe and sang and danced before God together any time they wanted to.

But this guy did much worse, very much worse. You see, he murdered a man by deceit and stole his wife, thus committing adultery. Then he hid his sin from God. But God sent a prophet and found him out. What did he do? What did he do, this David fellow?

He ran into that very Holy of Holies, into the very presence of Almighty God, without any shame at all, placed himself there trying to finagle God into removing the consequences of his sin. When he found out that he had failed, he got back up and continued on dancing for joy in the Presence of the Holy as the King of Israel.

It is here, in this third representation, this third Holy of Holies, that Sacrifice will come home to us, by a man after God's own Heart.