Hands up if you love reading about all the ceremonial laws near the beginning of the Bible! You know, the stuff about entrails and fatty lobes and sprinkled blood and burning kidneys.
I sometimes find I hard to stay focused when reading all those details about the various sacrifices. But as I recently worked my way through some of those instructions, something unexpectedly caught my eye. I almost missed it, because I think my mind had kind of wandered off somewhere as I'd been reading (...has that ever happened to you?). But it was as if my mind suddenly stopped me and asked me, "Did you see that?" Though I suspect it was the Holy Spirit speaking to me.
After reading some extremely detailed directions to do with daily offerings, and just before some very exacting instructions regarding how to make an altar of incense, I suddenly noticed a beautiful theme tucked in there. In Exodus 29:42, God inserts a wonderful promise to a very undeserving people (much like us): "I will meet you to speak with you."
This probably felt like a very unexpected blessing. But God goes on to reinforce it as he refers to "the door of the tabernacle of meeting." This tabernacle was a new thing for the people of Israel. We may be used to reading about it, but they'd never had one before, and God's initial reference to it is full of encouragement. First of all, the Hebrew word for "tabernacle" literally means dwelling place. And if it's a dwelling place for God, then the mention of a "door" (or an entryway), and of "meeting" (or dwelling together) sounds pretty exciting! It all reinforces one thought: God wants to be among his people.
So this isn't just some tedious passage about outdated ceremonial laws. It's an example of God going to great lengths to be in relationship with his people. This becomes increasingly clear in the verses that follow. In verse 43, God says, "I will meet with the children of Israel." Then in verse 45, God says, "I will dwell among the children of Israel." Then in verse 46, God explains that all these instructions are "that I may dwell among them."
So what has potential to feel tedious to us, as we're immersed in myriad ceremonial details, is for the express purpose of making a way for a holy God to dwell among a sinful people. God simply didn't want to be separated from his people!
This is reinforced further as God insists that he "will be their God" (v.45), and "I am the LORD their God" (v.46). And what makes this more exciting is that all of this was meant to point to Jesus. Every ceremonial law was fulfilled by the sacrifice of Jesus, and when we invite Jesus into our hearts, we become his tabernacle -- his tent of meeting -- as he abides in us and meets with us and speaks with us.
John wrote, "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we seen his glory, glory as of the only son, from the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:14). John literally wrote there that Jesus "tabernacled" among us. And the offerings once required for God to dwell among us have been completed by Jesus, who offered his life for us. The Bible tells us that "every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God" (Hebrews 10:11-12). And so "by one offering he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified" (Hebrews 10:14).
So hands up if you're grateful for what Jesus did for us so that we can enjoy genuine fellowship with God! Amidst all the ceremonial details of Exodus, God wants us to recognize his Father's heart for fellowship. Those details are meant to point us to Jesus, through whom God wants to draw near to us -- right here and now -- to meet with us.
