Carry no money belt, no bag, no shoes; and greet no one on the way.

Luke 10:4 NASB

When Jesus sent out his disciples here in Luke chapter 10, He gave these instructions, that they should not greet anyone on the way.  Various explanations are proposed for the reason why He gave such specific instructions, but the rationale can be found in both understanding the Scriptures, and the power of God (see Mark 12:24).

Jesus introduced this command with this statement, “Go; behold, I send you out as lambs in the midst of wolves.” (Luke 10:3 NASB).

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In the beginning, God created man in the Garden.

God, light Himself, created light, spoke breath into existence, and divided light from dark.  He spoke the plants, and the animals, the sea and all that is in it, and it came into being.  He divided, formed, and fashioned, and called it good.  Very good.

From the beginning, He created it good.

There was nothing that was not good in all that He had made.

From the beginning, God placed man in Eden.

In a garden, with a mission, to subdue.

This was the call and the commission of the man.  It was his beginning, his calling, his purpose, and his role.  He was to be the subduer, he was to be the ruler, he was to be its sergeant.

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Imagine, for a moment, that Jesus was like us, approaching Christianity as we know it today.

Suppose, for instance, He, the King and creator of the universe, was standing in front of the religious leaders of His day with the mindset we see in the church today.  Perhaps he might approach leaders of a “different denomination” with some cordiality, trying to find some “common ground” so that they could see a little more “on the same level”.

Perhaps He might have, to use popular expression, tried to scale the mountain of the religion in His day to try to disciple His nation.

But, from the text, Jesus didn’t do any of that.

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They shall construct an ark of acacia wood two and a half cubits long, and one and a half cubits wide, and one and a half cubits high. You shall overlay it with pure gold, inside and out you shall overlay it, and you shall make a gold molding around it. You shall cast four gold rings for it and fasten them on its four feet, and two rings shall be on one side of it and two rings on the other side of it. You shall make poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. You shall put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark, to carry the ark with them. The poles shall remain in the rings of the ark; they shall not be removed from it. You shall put into the ark the testimony which I shall give you.

Exodus 25:10-16

Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1).  What Moses built in the wilderness was a picture of an unseen thing.  He built according to the “pattern” that he had seen on mount Sinai.  That pattern was Christ, a detailed look at who He is as the Word of God and His ministry on Earth.

The entire of the tabernacle was a walk through model of Jesus.  Every facet of the tabernacle from the ark down to the very tent pegs and number of pillars represented something of the perfect man Christ Jesus.

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