Last night I was helping O review for an upcoming Bible test on Wednesday. Having missed an entire term of the class, she's feeling quite behind. She was given notice that she needed to take a test which covers info she had not learned before. So, I committed to helping her cram. It seems like years ago now since I learned about the Tabernacle in Israel. She's responsible for describing the layout and set up of the Tabernacle and the objects in the tabernacle.
As she lay in bed exhausted from an afternoon and evening of non-stop studying for various other subjects, I began describing for her some of the content she would be tested on...
"As you enter the tabernacle, you first need to offer a sacrafice - it's sort of an object lesson for the people of Israel that sin cannot go unpunished/without consequences. Then, the priest needs to clean his hands in the basin before entering the 'presence of God' in the tent. Only the priest could enter the tent. God decided that all the descendants of Levi would be ones He would set apart (not because they are 'holy' in and of themselves but because God chose them) as the only individuals who could enter into God's presence and represent the people...Upon entering the tent, you see the table of showbread on your right, a reminder that God provides. On your left is the oil lampstand, a reminder that God guides..."
...and so on and so forth.
When it was time to put her to bed (albeit way past bedtime at around 10pm due to our 3rd Chinese New Year celebration supper with a couple friends who came over to my parent's house), I prayed as I normally do, but this time, I was led to pray about the tabernacle and what it means to me, to us today.
Having been reminded of the tabernacle, I was struck, once again, of a few things:
- God's holiness; the power of His presence, His guidance, His provision
- The extent to which we are unclean and distant from all that is God; His goodness, His power, His love, His perfection, His...everything
- The fact that God want us to know Him and desires that we understand our relationship with Him as seen in the whole concept of the Tabernacle created for the Israelites (and us!) in the first place. We believe in a God who wants to be known and desires to be in relationship with us! And He loves the fragrance of our prayers (as the incense) rising up to the heavens
- (and last but certainly not least) The mystery and the miracle and gift of Jesus Christ who broke the veil, became the sacrifice, and we can now approach God with confidence.
For some reason, I felt all excited and tingly...as if a surge of joy filled me at the knowledge. And as I walked to my morning QT hangout, this knowledge continued to bring me joy and challenged me. God brought to mind my unholy thoughts - my pride, the lies, and the temptations to doubt God's goodness. God challenged my desire to not waste my life...to live a life that is significant for Him...and how my life will have NO significance if it is not lived in Christ, for Christ, and through Christ - if I am not intimately connected to the ONE who defines significance - if I am not holy. If I am not holy, I cannot even look upon Him for direction. I would feel the need to stay outside the tent, in the courtyard by the bronze Altar of sacrifice.
And then, I go to sit down to read the devotional that accompanied the passages I read YESTERDAY (there seems to be a pattern here...God keeps using the devotional reading schedule for the previous day for some reason) and I read this:
Psalm 14:1-7 devotional from 'The Bible in One Year 2012'
To be given ‘the keys of the kingdom’ (Matthew 16:19) means to be given access to God. This is what Jesus achieved for us. God has always looked for those who seek him. ‘The Lord looks down from heaven on all mankind to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God’ (Psalm 14:2).
But no one is righteous. The apostle Paul quotes this psalm as evidence. ‘All have turned away, all have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one’ (v.3; see Romans 3:9–12). The psalmist looks around at a corrupt world and says that God is looking for ‘any who understand, any who seek God’ (Psalm 14:2b).
Then the reading concludes with something that gives me an idea of what it means to live a significant life in Christ because Peter (the Church) and the disciples (us!) have been given the 'keys to the kingdom' by Jesus...to do what? To know God and be in His presence AND....to loose on earth what needs to be loosed and what Christ has already loosed (chains of injustice and of sin) and to bind on earth what needs to be bound (the lies and the wickedness humans inflict on each other and society).
So, as I sit here at the local McD's surrounded by a diverse group of people who aren't particularly priviledged, something feels really right today. God has made a way through Jesus for ALL to come into His presence. The curtain veil between humanity and God has been torn - the moment Christ became the ultimate sacrifice - and Jews, Gentiles, priviledged, less priviledged, the praised and the persecuted...can all approach God's throne with confidence and rest in His peace, His light, and His perfect provision.
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