One of the works of the Holy Spirit is opening one’s understanding to see things in scripture that are physical, but are actually just representations of real substances that are spiritual (Luke 24:45). Those physical pictures are foreshadows, and they provide details for us to understand better the spiritual truths they represent. That understanding is what reveals the entirety of scripture to be ONE volume, and not two.
One of the many physical foreshadows we see in scripture is the Ark of the Covenant. It was crafted of wood, which is a corruptible material, but it was covered with gold, which is incorruptible—a symbol of divinity.
Into the Ark were placed Aaron’s budding rod (Yah’s power), some manna (Yah’s provision), and the Ten Commandments (Yah’s covenant). It was a physical picture of the bride, who is a spiritual real substance—it presents a physical picture of what is placed spiritually into the bride.
Atop the Ark sat the Mercy Seat, which was solid gold, a symbol of pure divinity, and a representation of Messiah. The union of the two represents the marriage of the Bridegroom and His bride, which, in eternity, is the New Jerusalem, the eternal dwelling place of the Father’s glory. His glory will shine through the New Jerusalem onto the new earth below it, where most of the inhabitants of heaven will dwell.
This is also foreshadowed in the matzah tash in the Seder, which is a linen cloth with three pouches, into which are placed three loaves of unleavened bread. The middle loaf is broken in two, the larger of the two pieces is hidden in the house, and the smaller piece is placed back into the matzah tash. It shows the Father, the Son, and the bride indwelt by the Spirit, together in Yah’s house. Yah, Yahoshua, and Y’isra-el, the New Jerusalem.
But note that Yah called it the “Ark of the Testimony.” Why? What is the correlation between the Covenant and the Testimony, which are both legal terms?
In 1 John 5:10, we see that those whom the Father calls “believers” have the Witness within them. Those who do not have the Witness are called “unbelievers.” The difference between the two is that believers have the promise of eternal life, while unbelievers will be cast into the lake of fire with Satan and his demons.
The Greek word that is translated there as “witness” is a word that means “evidence.” It is also the same Greek word that is translated “record” later in the verse. Now, in a court proceeding, when a witness is called, what does he provide? He provides “testimony,” and that testimony is classified as “evidence.”
You see, salvation is not a decision man makes, but a Divine legal decree. The process of justification is a judicial matter. It is a legal adoption that can be decreed only by the one with authority to declare it, according to the established requirements.
When the Holy Spirit leads a person to believe in Messiah Yahoshua, it begins the process of drawing up the adoption papers. That process continues while the one who has believed endures in his belief (faith) by confessing Messiah before others. But, the adoption is not final until the decree is written, declared, and sealed by the Judge.
Remember, Messiah said in Luke 8:13 that some will believe with all joy for awhile, but will fall away because they have no root (no source of life). For those who fall away, the adoption process stops. The decree is not finalized or sealed.
That decree is the covenant (promise) that is placed within the adopted child—the “witness,” or “testimony” that one has been made a child of Yah. And, the decree’s seal is the Holy Spirit, who is the guarantor of the promise that covenant represents. The real substance of the covenant is spiritual, and it was physically foreshadowed by the covenant that was placed within the Ark. That physical covenant (Ten Commandments) was given to a physical people, who are a foreshadow of a spiritual people.
Christianity commonly teaches that man’s belief IS salvation, but that false teaching omits the necessity of receiving the covenant, and makes man’s decision the covenant (which is not even a covenant, for it sidesteps the only One who can give the covenant, and the path He ordained for receiving it).
Because christianity threw away the Father’s traditions, and now mostly teaches that His traditions are irrelevant, or even contrary to the truth (imagine that!), the true path to salvation was discarded along with those traditions. The Passover journey from Egypt to the mountain—the priestly progression from the Outer Courtyard to the Holy of Holies—they both show the same thing, the true path to salvation.
Christianity teaches a salvation that is devoid of the true path—a salvation of man’s decision and his feelings. It is a false salvation of many different paths that are all called true, and anyone who claims to be saved is. It is a false belief system in which anyone who claims to worship Yah does. To reject the Father’s traditions is to reject the Father. And, as His traditions are ALL of His Son, who is actually rejected when that which is ALL of Him is denied?
The blindness that prevails in those false teachings is such a strong delusion that many christians are openly hostile to the Father’s traditions, and claim their man-centered false path to salvation is the only way. As the truths of the Holy Spirit always align perfectly with all of the Father’s traditions, rejecting those traditions is denying the Holy Spirit’s truths. And, if one denies the Holy Spirit’s truths, it’s pretty hard to imagine that he is also led by Him.
For more information: Between Belief and Salvation