Tyre – Dancing In The Kingdom

Dancing in the Kingdom- Table of Contents

Dancing In the Kingdom – Part 2 – The Kingdom Revealed – Chapter 11 – The Kingdom Enters

The Kingdom expands

[Bible references: Matthew 8:5-13; 15:21-28]

Jesus did not travel far. He spent most of the time in the area around Jerusalem and around Galilee. His focus was on teaching and serving the Jews. However, there were a few occasions when Jesus did interact with the Gentiles, and those occasions showed that the Gentiles were capable of great faith. There was a case of a centurion who recognized the authority that Jesus had. The centurion did not ask Jesus to come to his household to heal his child, but rather asked Jesus to heal his daughter from wherever Jesus was. In another case, Jesus had gone to Tyre, and there a Syrophoenician woman who, knowing Jesus ministered mainly to the Jews, still asked for Jesus to cure her daughter with the humble attitude that “even dogs eat the children’s crumbs.”

Observe

Read Matthew 8:5-13; 15:21-28. How do these vignettes challenge our faith?

Dancing in the Kingdom- Table of Contents

Dancing In the Kingdom – Part 1 – Shadows of the Kingdom – Chapter 9 – The Prophets and writings

The Tabernacle and the Temple

[Bible references: I Kings 6-8; 7:13-51; 1 Chronicles 6:31-32; 2 Chronicles 6:18; Amos 9:11-15; Acts 15:1-21]

During the time of Solomon, the temple was built to replace the tabernacle. All the furnishings except the ark itself were built by a foreigner named Hiram from Tyre. The original furnishings of the tabernacle were probably put into storage in the temple. Although the temple was much more grandiose than the tabernacle, Solomon recognized that it still could not hold God. Solomon’s temple was eventually destroyed by the Babylonians.^[1]

The interesting thing with this history is that during the time of King David all the rituals of Moses were carried out at the tabernacle in Gibeon where there was no ark (and therefore no “presence of God”), while the ark itself, with the presence of God, was in Jerusalem where there was a service of joy, dancing and singing instead of the ritual sacrifices. Also, the ark was no longer concealed in the Holy of Holies where there was limited access, it was now in a place where everyone could access it.

This brings us to the prophet Amos who prophesied that God was going to destroy most of Israel, except for a remnant, but that David’s tabernacle will be restored – not the one at Gibeon, not the temple Solomon built, but David’s tabernacle. This scripture passage in the Old Testament was quoted in Acts 15 where it was determined that Amos was referring to Gentiles now being accepted into the kingdom of God. The tabernacle of Moses and the temple of Solomon were restricted to the nation of Israel, but God was now going to make himself available to the whole world, Jews and Gentiles alike.

[1] Jewish Bible Quarterly “Reconstructing the Destruction of the Tabernacle at Shiloh” Jewish Bible Quarterly January – March 2016 jbqnew.jewishbible.org/jbq-past-issues/2016/441-january-march-2016/reconstructing-destruction-tabernacle-shiloh/

Observe

Read Amos 9:11-15; Acts 15:1-21. How was Amos’ prophecy used by the apostles to allow Gentiles into the church without needing to submit to Jewish practices?