A Throne in the Tabernacle Part 2: The Blueprint for Revival
There is a throne in the tabernacle. There was one in David’s day. There is one in our day. And will be one, forever in the age to come.
Part Two: The Blueprint for Revival
King David had a revelation of a room in heaven where the throne of God is at the center, surrounded by living creatures and twenty-four elders who never stop singing, declaring His worth and crying out in intercession. David desired to build a room on earth as it is in heaven. David spent thirty-three years perfecting this ministry of 24/7 worship and prayer in a tent where he placed the ark of God’s presence at the center, surrounded it with 4,288 singers and musicians led by twenty-four elders of families who never stopped singing, praying and never stopped declaring the beauty of the Lord. All that David did was under the direction of the Spirit of the Lord, as the Spirit laid his hand upon David to make him understand. This was the Tabernacle of David. David then gave all the plans for the tabernacle to his son, Solomon. Those plans were for the courts of the house of the Lord, the divisions of the priests, singers, and the Levites, and all the work and service of the house of the Lord as it continued night and day. This plan was a blueprint from heaven, and David commanded Solomon to build according to the blueprint.
Then David gave Solomon his son the plan of the vestibule of the temple… and the plans for all that he had by the Spirit, of the courts of the house of the LORD… also for the division of the priests and the Levites, for all the work of the service of the house of the LORD… "All [this]," [said David], "the LORD made me understand in writing, by [His] hand upon me, all the works of these plans." – 1 Chronicles 28:12-19
This becomes what is known as the Davidic order of worship. David’s order of worship was about the convergence of heaven and earth and a resting place for God’s manifest glory. There were seven revivals in the Old Testament starting with King David’s. Every revival in Israel from that point forward was tied to the restoration of David's order of worship, the tabernacle of David.
Every. Single. One.
What made Israel distinct from every other nation was the glory of God in their midst. Moses said to the Lord, “Is it not in your going with us, so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?" (Ex 33:16) This was at the heart of David’s tabernacle. It wasn’t simply the function of the priesthood and the structure of the temple that God was looking for. It was an overflow of worship from a people who desired, more than anything, for God to dwell among them. Thus, the Davidic order of worship became a signpost of a people whose hearts were turning to the Lord. Every king in Judah, from David onward, placed priority and value on this order of worship and had favor from the Lord and victory against their enemies. Every king that made ministry to the Lord first saw the convergence point between heaven and earth open, followed by blessing, peace, and prosperity. If the leadership of Israel tried to expand the kingdom without the priestly ministry of worship at the center, it failed every time. All kingly rule and authority overflows from priestly ministry and God’s presence. The spirit of revival coincided with the restoration of this worship order and every season of discipline in Israel occurred alongside the abandonment. It’s a relatively easy study that I would encourage you to do yourself. A read straight through the book of 2 Chronicles will give you a good start. As you read through, keep your eyes open for this Davidic order of worship. I’ll highlight a few examples:
Jehoshaphat
When the Moabites and the Ammonites came up against King Jehoshaphat, he called upon the sons of Asaph, the chief musician in David’s tabernacle. Jehoshaphat’s confidence was in God’s presence in their midst. He learned that from David. Remember what David said in the tabernacle?
Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war arise against me, yet I will be confident. One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple. -Psalm 27:3-4
Jehoshaphat knew that if the convergence point was open between heaven and earth, God would fight their battles. His throne is in the tabernacle. The whole nation gathered together and stood before the Lord, with their little ones, wives, and their children while Jehoshaphat stood with the assembly in the house of the Lord. As the singers and musicians began to minister to the Lord, one of the singers named Jahaziel began to prophesy, “You will not need to fight in this battle. Stand firm, hold your position, and see the salvation of the LORD on your behalf, O Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed. Tomorrow go out against them, and the LORD will be with you." (2 Chron 20:17)
Did you see it? It’s the Tabernacle of David. God at the center, the multitudes surrounding the throne, falling down in worship as the voices of the singers grew louder and louder. Do you see heaven’s blueprint? When the people heard Jahaziel prophesy in the tabernacle, they all fell down before the Lord and worshipped.
Then Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground, and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell down before the LORD, worshiping the LORD. And the Levites, of the Kohathites and the Korahites, stood up to praise the LORD, the God of Israel, with a very loud voice. -2 Chronicles 20:18-19
What happens next may be familiar to many of you. If you grew up in church, you have most likely heard of the victory Jehoshaphat won in battle that day; how he set the musicians and singers out in front of the army to sing to the Lord, but many of us have never considered where he learned that strategy from.
And when he had taken counsel with the people, he appointed those who were to sing to the LORD and praise him in holy attire, as they went before the army, and say, "Give thanks to the LORD, for his steadfast love endures forever." And when they began to sing and praise, the LORD set an ambush against the men of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah, so that they were routed. ... When Judah came to the watchtower of the wilderness, they looked toward the horde, and behold, there were dead bodies lying on the ground; none had escaped. - 2 Chronicles 20:21-22, 24
It was the Davidic order of worship.
Hezekiah:
One of the largest revivals in Israel after David was in the days of Hezekiah. Hezekiah was the king during the majority of Isaiah’s prophetic ministry. Hezekiah restored the Davidic order of worship in 2 Chronicles 29, gathering the singers and musicians and solemnly charging them to stand before the Lord and minister to Him. He told the nation that day and night worship was more David’s idea, it was a blueprint from heaven.
And he stationed the Levites in the house of the LORD with cymbals, harps, and lyres, according to the commandment of David and of Gad the king's seer and of Nathan the prophet, for the commandment was from the LORD through his prophets. – 2 Chronicles 29:25
After some time passed, the Assyrian king Sennacherib, who had conquered the northern tribes of Israel, marched down on Judah and laid siege on the city of Jerusalem. Sennacherib stood outside of the city boasting against the God of Israel with an army of hundreds of thousands of men. He shouted over the wall to all the people of Judah and mocked Hezekiah, telling them that he was going to put their God in the cart with all the other gods of the nations he had conquered. Hezekiah wrote a letter to the prophet Isaiah asking what they should do. Isaiah responded, “If the convergence point between heaven and earth is open, Sennacherib ain't putting nothing in a box. His throne is in the tabernacle.”
Hezekiah went into the temple with the letter from Isaiah in his hand. He laid it before the Lord, bowing before His throne, while the singers and musicians ministered to the Lord and they lifted their voices together. The next day a hundred and eighty-five thousand men didn’t wake up in the morning.
When the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah, Isaiah said to them, "Say to your master, 'Thus says the LORD: Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have reviled me. ... Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of the LORD and spread it before the LORD. And Hezekiah prayed before the LORD and said: "O LORD, the God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim, you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth. Incline your ear, O LORD, and hear; open your eyes, O LORD, and see; and hear the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God. ... So now, O LORD our God, save us, please, from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, O LORD, are God alone." ... And that night the angel of the LORD went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies. - 2 Kings 19:5-6, 14-16, 19, 35
When the worship order of David is restored, His throne is in the tabernacle, the convergence point is open, the kingdom expands and the enemy is defeated.
The Restoration Period:
Fast forward to the last of the seven Old Testament revivals. This is known as the restoration period in Israel’s history. There are four main books in the Old Testament that are written specifically about this moment. Ezra and Nehemiah chronicle the story of the exiles’ return from Babylon while Haggai and Zechariah are prophesying. Let me see if I can catch you up on the history. In king Josiah's day, Jeremiah prophesies that Babylon is going to invade Judah and take them into captivity. This happened between 597-586 B.C. under the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar. There in Babylon, we pick up with a young man named Daniel. You remember that guy? Daniel is among the children that were dragged over in captivity. Seventy years into captivity, he finds a prophecy from Jeremiah. Jeremiah prophesied that after seventy years in exile, the Lord would return to the people of Israel and bring them back to the land and fulfill the promises.
For thus says the LORD: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. - Jeremiah 29:10
Daniel looked at his calendar and realized the seventy years were up. He began to pray and intercede with fasting on behalf of the nation that this prophetic promise would be unlocked and released (Daniel 9). After Daniel prayed Jeremiah’s prophecy, God raised up a Persian king named Cyrus that Isaiah spoke about 150 years earlier! Cyrus decreed the release of the Jewish people out of exile and told them they were free to go home. He went a step further, not only were they free to go home, but he told them it would be an all-expenses-paid trip.
OK. Pause for a minute.
Isaiah prophesied it. Jeremiah prophesied it. Daniel prayed it.
They all confirmed that this was the moment that God said he would fulfill the promises.
You know what happened? Around a million Jews in Babylon said, “Nah, we’re good. thanks.” A million said, “I kind of like it here. It’s not so bad. I know it's Babylon but I have a house, I got a job. I don’t know what’s back there in Jerusalem.” Out of a million only fifty-thousand believed. Those fifty thousand returned to Jerusalem believing the word of the Lord. When they get to Jerusalem the whole thing is a pile of rubble. This faith-filled remnant looked at it and said, “You know what this thing needs? A convergence point between heaven and earth.” Before anyone started building their own houses, they re-established the Davidic order of worship. Ezra chapter three chronicles this amazing moment.
They set the altar in its place, for fear was on them because of the peoples of the lands, and they offered burnt offerings on it to the LORD, burnt offerings morning and evening. ... From the first day of the seventh month they began to offer burnt offerings to the LORD. But the foundation of the temple of the LORD was not yet laid. ... And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the LORD, the priests in their vestments came forward with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, to praise the LORD, according to the directions of David king of Israel. And they sang responsively, praising and giving thanks to the LORD, "For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever toward Israel." And all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the LORD, because the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid. But many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers' houses, old men who had seen the first house, wept with a loud voice when they saw the foundation of this house being laid, though many shouted aloud for joy, so that the people could not distinguish the sound of the joyful shout from the sound of the people's weeping, for the people shouted with a great shout, and the sound was heard far away. - Ezra 3:3, 6, 10-13 ESV
Did you see it? The Davidic order of worship. They knew that the most important thing about this radical remnant was God in their midst. They knew that in order for the city to be rebuilt, the prophetic promises to come to pass, and the kingdom to be established, the convergence point must be open. The priests and their vestments came forward with trumpets, the Levites the sons of Asaph cymbals to praise the Lord, according to the directions of David. This was five hundred years after David first pitched the tent and they are still looking back at the tabernacle of David as the blueprint. According to the directions of David, they put the altar on top of that heap of rubble, put the singers and musicians around it and sang responsively, praising and giving thanks to the Lord.
Well, a couple of years go by and difficulties hit and challenges come. Relational challenges spring up in their midst and accusation from the outside starts flooding in. This once passionate movement left the altar and the temple unfinished and went on to build their own houses. The unfinished structure sat on that hill in Jerusalem for about seventeen years and no one touched it. God raised up two men within the span of about a year who had come over with the exiles that returned from Babylon. One of them was likely just a child or may have even been born after they arrived. His name was Zechariah. Zechariah had eight visions in one night concerning the house of prayer and the glory of Jerusalem. In these eight dreams, God promises He will restore Jerusalem, punish her enemies, cleanse the people and provide a never-ending supply of anointing, grace, and resources to build the house of prayer (tabernacle of David). I'll just mention a few verses from these visions, maybe it will ring a bell for you.
“Not by might nor by power but by the Spirit says the Lord.”
“Do not despise the day of small beginnings.”
“He will bring forward the top stone amid shouts of ‘Grace, grace’ to it.”
Do any of these sound familiar? Do you know what these verses are about? They are about restoring the Davidic order of worship. God told Zechariah that He would release all the grace and anointing necessary for it.
At the same time, the prophet Haggai stands up and speaks straight to the leadership of Israel. At this point, Israel does not have a king, they are still under Persian rule, but they have a group of leaders. Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel was governor and Joshua the son of Jehoshaphat was the high priest.
In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came by the hand of Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest: - Haggai 1:1
Although they had abandoned the Davidic order of worship and the convergence point was sitting on top the hill unfinished, the Lord speaks to them in His kindness and says “Let's just get real for a second. I love you guys, you're the radical ones that left Babylon, you believed enough in the promises to show up so let me get real with you for a second.”
Now, therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts: Consider your ways. You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes. ... Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the LORD. You looked for much, and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? declares the LORD of hosts. Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house. Therefore the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its produce. And I have called for a drought on the land and the hills, on the grain, the new wine, the oil, on what the ground brings forth, on man and beast, and on all their labors." - Haggai 1:5-6, 8-11
God is so kind. He was helping them connect the dots. The kingdom does not expand, battles are lost, and resources dry up when the Tabernacle of David is abandoned. The people were saying that it wasn’t the season for that anymore. They were promoting the idea that it was a new season for building their own ministries, for building their own houses, for building their own brands. The Davidic worship thing? That's an old wineskin. That didn't work. So they were off to build their own dreams. The Father, in his kindness, interrupts that narrative with the voice of the prophet Haggai and says to them, “If you go that way, here's what's going to happen: you're going to put a lot of energy into it and very little is going to come out of it. Just look and take an honest assessment. There is a lot of energy going into building your businesses and your ministries and your houses and you're not getting a lot in return. Think about why.”
We must understand: it is not that God wasn’t into people having houses or businesses; it was because the convergence point is closed. The prophet pleads with the leadership and the people, “Do the math! Don't forget what makes you distinct! You are not set apart because you have radical language. What makes you distinct is not because you have a little more energy than the guys you left behind. What makes you distinct is that God wants to dwell in your midst.”
'Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How do you see it now? Is it not as nothing in your eyes? Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, declares the LORD. Be strong, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land, declares the LORD. Work, for I am with you, declares the LORD of hosts, - Haggai 2:3-4
The Lord tells them to give themselves to this work first and he would restore something even greater than what David built. He said, “in a little while I'm going to shake the heavens and the earth and sea and the dry land. I'm going to shake all the nations so that the treasures of all the nations will come in and I'm going to fill this house with glory.” It may have just looked like a few stones on a hill and an altar but God points to the glory that will fill the tabernacle of David in the days to come.
The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the LORD of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, declares the LORD of hosts.'" - Haggai 2:9
If His throne was in the tabernacle, then all the promises would be fulfilled. The Father wanted them to have houses, lands, prosperous businesses, and anointed ministries; but He wanted all these things overflowing from the convergence point between heaven and earth. God at the center. Kingly rule and authority overflowing from the priestly ministry and His presence. The throne in the tabernacle. This was the blueprint from heaven. That is what He wanted to expand into the nations of the earth.
Within a generation, the nation once again abandoned the glory of this ministry, and the prophet Malachi closes out the Old Testament with a glorious promise. Malachi tells the Levitical priesthood that just throwing some spoiled meat on the altar was not the Davidic order of worship. The tabernacle of David was more than the routine activity of the temple functions, it was the convergence point between heaven and earth. It was the overflow of God’s desire to dwell with His people and the reverberation of worship in response to His beauty, majesty, glory, power, kindness, and goodness. Malachi builds upon this idea that was introduced by King David on the day he brought the ark into the tabernacle. David prophesied that this blueprint from heaven would touch all the families of the earth.
Sing to the LORD, all the earth! Tell of his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples! ... Ascribe to the LORD, O families of the peoples, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength! Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; bring an offering and come before him! Worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness; - 1 Chronicles 16:23-24, 28-29
The prophet Amos, during the reign of Uzziah, saw that all the nations would encounter the beauty of the Lord when God restores the tabernacle of David.
"In that day I will raise up the [tabernacle] of David that is fallen and repair its breaches, and raise up its ruins and rebuild it as in the days of old, that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations who are called by my name," declares the LORD who does this. - Amos 9:11-12
Isaiah goes on further to say that all the nations would minister to the Lord, bring offerings to Him and be made joyful in the House of Prayer.
"And the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD, to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD, and to be his servants…these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all [nations]." - Isaiah 56:6-7
What makes this prophecy from Malachi notable is that he goes yet even further… the Davidic order of worship would not just be restored and rebuilt in Jerusalem, it would be raised up in every place. In every place that the light of the sun touches, incense will be offered and He would set his throne.
For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering. For my name will be great among the nations, says the LORD of hosts. - Malachi 1:11
What. A. Promise.
Malachi sees a day coming when that blueprint from heaven would touch every nation, that the convergence point would open over every region, and every tribe and tongue would gaze upon the glory of the Lord with unveiled face. The Old Testament comes to a close as these words echo through four hundred years of silence.
For centuries the question lingers, “When will we see the Tabernacle of David restored again?”
