A Holy God, a Holy Space, and a Holy People
Exodus: The Presence of the Savior • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Exodus 25-30; 35:4-40:33
Introduction
Coronation of King Charles III
Almost everything about and everything used for the coronation was symbolic - to tell you something about the character, role, and responsibilities of the British monarch.
Regalia
Sovereign’s Orb - Made for King Charles II in 1661 - hollow golden globe with a cross mounted on top to symbolize the Christian world
Sceptre with Cross - represents king’s power and justice
Sceptre with Dove - known as Rod of Equity and Mercy - meant to represent king’s spiritual role
Coronation Chair (St. Edward’s Chair) - made in the year 1300 - wooden chair covered in gold leaf - same chair used to show continuity of the monarch - housed the Stone of Destiny (ancient symbol of Scottish monarchy)
Chair faces the altar in Westminster Abbey emphasizing a religious nature to the coronation.
After the oath, the king is anointed by the archbishop with oil that used olives harvested from two orchards on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem and consecrated in a special ceremony at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
On and on it goes, from the flask used to hold the anointing oil to the decorations on the carriage, everything in the ceremony was used to say something about the monarchy.
In one way, this is similar to what we see here in Ex 25-30
God is Israel’s king, and he is giving instructions on how the place where he will dwell should be built. And everything about the Tabernacle says something about God — His nature, His character, and His ways.
So much so that One commentator (Alec Motyer) calls the tabernacle “a visual aid for spiritual realities.”
We will ask three questions:
What was the Tabernacle?
What does it say about God?
What difference does learning about this old tent make in my life today?
Ex 25-27 - Command to make a holy space
Ex 36-39 - Construction of the holy space
In order for us to know what the Tabernacle says about God, we first need to know:
What was the Tabernacle?
What was the Tabernacle?
Three things surprising about the Tabernacle:
The fact that there was a Tabernacle
The nature of the Tabernacle
The current absence of the Tabernacle
In short, the Tabernacle was the place where God would dwell with his people.
(I use the term ‘dwell’ loosely)
In one sense, there is no building or place that can contain God.
God does not have a physical body, is not bound by spatial dimensions, and so is omnipresent.
Psalm 139:7–8 (ESV)
7 Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? 8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
More than that, as the Creator of the universe, there is nothing in the universe that can contain him.
Exodus 25:8 (ESV)
8 And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst.
This is the reason God gives as to His reason for the Tabernacle
So, this all seems silly. Why would God, who cannot be contained, command a place be built so it might contain his presence?
God desires to be with His people.
God desires to be with His people.
This is the first shock of the tabernacle - that there even was one!
God wants to be with you.
Exodus 25:8 (ESV)
8 And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst.
Exodus 29:45–46 (ESV)
45 I will dwell among the people of Israel and will be their God. 46 And they shall know that I am the Lord their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt that I might dwell among them. I am the Lord their God.
ILLUST - My girls had one of those tiny house playsets - the plastic kind. At times, they would “invite me over” to their house for tea. I would fight claustrophobia and contort my body in order to sit at the table for tea. Why? Because it was comfortable? No. Because I fit? No. To be with my daughters? YES!
The heavens cannot contain God, and yet God chooses a humble tent to meet with his people.
This same God wants to meet you - where you are - no matter how humble, how messy, how “out in the spiritual wilderness” you are. The fact remains that God desires to meet with you!
Ever since Adam and Eve in the garden, our sin has separated us from the presence of God
Genesis 3:8 (ESV)
8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
God is not the one hiding, we are.
God could have left us on our own, but he is always making a way to be with his people.
-God speaks to Noah
- Meets with Abraham
- Lights up a bush near Moses
-Tent of meeting
- Tabernacle
- Temple
- The Holy God creates a Holy Space for His Holy Presence
**God wants to be with you / to come alongside you in the middle of your circumstance(
All of these laws - all of God’s laws, in fact, are given because HE desires to be with HIS people.
He didn’t save them to leave them. He saved them to be with them.
**God didn’t save you to abandon you. He saved you to be with you.
**He saved you that you might experience the joy of his presence.
Exodus 29:45–46 (ESV)
45 I will dwell among the people of Israel and will be their God. 46 And they shall know that I am the Lord their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt that I might dwell among them. I am the Lord their God.
- Some believers don’t know this joy - they are happy that God saved them but know little of the joy of his presence - similar to a Jew who came out of Egypt and simply walks around the tabernacle without ever going in to experience God’s presence.
God didn’t say- When you get to the Promised Land, I’ll be with you. He said - I’ll make a way that I can be with you on your journey
ohel - God had them build a “tent” for him - they also dwelt in tents - God dwelt where they dwelt
The second shock of the tabernacle was
The Nature of the Tabernacle.
The Nature of the Tabernacle.
It was not uncommon for surrounding countries in the ANE to have a place or places where they would worship their god or gods - a place where they believed their god dwelled.
When you begin to compare Yahweh’s tabernacle with the other temples and places of worship in Egypt and Mesopotamia, you find some interesting differences that would not have been lost on the Israelites OR on the nations surrounding them. These differences indeed say something about Yahweh who prescribed them.
First difference we see:
The Size
The Size
Other ANE temples:
Mesopotamia - 1439 temples in written records
- Nabu temple - 80yd x 80yd
-Anu-Adad temple - 110yd x 80yd
-Babylonian ziggurat - 450yd x 450yd
Egypt - hundreds of temples in written records
- temple of Amon - 286yds long
- temple of Ramses II - 330yd x 230yd
- temple of Aton in Amarna - about a 1/2mi long
Yahweh’s tabernacle - 5yd x 15yd!!
(Image)
The great and mighty God that destroyed the gods of Egypt and who will be no match for the gods of Mesopotamia has a place of worship exponentially smaller than any of the other gods.
He doesn’t need or even want the most magnificent structure
ILLUST - Aladdin - Phenomenal cosmic powers! Itty bitty living space!”
What does this say about God?
God is humble and unique
God is humble and unique
The sheer size difference of the tabernacle compared to other temples would have stood out to the Israelites as they came from Egypt which had many temples all much bigger than the tent God was asking them to build for him.
God doesn’t need to try to compete with the other gods.
The true uniqueness of our our God is not in where rests but in what he does!
There is no God like our God!
God is not demanding or unreasonable in his requests
God is not demanding or unreasonable in his requests
ILLUST - Craziest celebrity riders
I won’t name them but here are some of the most interesting demands celebrities have had:
- bowl of M&Ms with all of the brown M&M’s removed
- Life-sized cardboard cutout of humself
- Two celebrities require new toilet seats be installed on bathrooms prior to their arrival.
- Flowers with stems trimmed to exactly six inches
- soy cheese and Flintstone vitamins
-16 dozen bath towels
Certainly if we could build something that would indicate the greatness of our God it would be more than this - However, God required nothing unreasonable.
The materials were items they readily had on hand (acacia wood, animal skins, etc)
OR items he had previously provided
1 The Lord said to Moses, 2 “Speak to the people of Israel, that they take for me a contribution. From every man whose heart moves him you shall receive the contribution for me. 3 And this is the contribution that you shall receive from them: gold, silver, and bronze, 4 blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen, goats’ hair,
Where in the desert would these former slaves get such fine items?
33 The Egyptians were urgent with the people to send them out of the land in haste. For they said, “We shall all be dead.” 34 So the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading bowls being bound up in their cloaks on their shoulders. 35 The people of Israel had also done as Moses told them, for they had asked the Egyptians for silver and gold jewelry and for clothing. 36 And the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they let them have what they asked. Thus they plundered the Egyptians.
God even provided for them what he was going to ask of them.
**God gives you all that you need to obey him.
Not only is there a difference in size, there is a difference in furnishings within the tabernacle.
Furnishings
Furnishings
Furnishings of ANE Temples
1. Deity's image (often life-sized)
2. throne (often flanked by cherubim)
3. Footstool, for god to rest feet while sitting in throne
4. Chest-of-drawers containing changes of clothing for deity)
5. Table, with dishes, cups, eating utensils, for god to use for meals when served
6. Lampstands; lamps; incense stands; beds; etc.
All this was inside the most holy place of the temple.
What was the nature of the tabernacle?
Find it listed in Ex 25:10-27:21
The Tabernacle:
(image)
From most holy to least holy
Materials (25:1-9)
Ark (25:10-22)
Table (25:23-30)
Lampstand (25:31-40)
Tabernacle (26:1-37)
Bronze Altar (27:1-8)
Courtyard (27:9-19)
Ex 36:8-38:20 lists how the people carry out the work in the same order.
While the items in ANE temple were often elaborate and focused on the idol, Yahweh’s tabernacle had only four items inside: a chest, a table for bread, a lampstand, and an incense stand.
In addition:
Role of Priests in ANE Temples:
I. Priests in charge of designing and initiating the construction of the temple
2. Priests in charge of dedicating the image
3. Priests in charge of designing and providing for the deity clothing, including breastplate, tiara, etc., generally of royal blue, royal purple, etc.
4. Priests in charge of providing the deity with food.
• Contra Yahweh's Tabernacle
1.Yahweh designs and initiates the construction of his temple
2. Yahweh is in charge of dedicating the priests
3. Yahweh designs and provides clothing for his priests
4. Yahweh provides food for his priests (Table of Shewbread) 5. C£ the two structurally highlighted sins stories about priests.
God comes to his people to serve them, not be served
God comes to his people to serve them, not be served
God does not need man’s help to see, so the lampstand is moved so the priests can see
God does not need to eat, so the table of food (bread) is placed with the priests as food for them
God does not have a body and so does not need to be dressed; therefore, there are no containers for clothing in the Most Holy place. In fact, God dresses his priests
God is self-sufficient and has no needs. Instead, all that he has he uses for his people.
This was counterintuitive thinking for the Israelites - Imagine an Egyptian travelling with the Israelites - “Why are you putting the lampstand THERE?”
Maybe they had a hard time not feeling as though they were to give more and more to God.
How many believers have this thought that God always wants something from them? That God would allow their lives to go more smoothly if they would just give him what he is waiting for. That somehow our job as Christians is to serve God. While that may be how we sometimes word it, the view from the tabernacle paints the picture in a more beautiful light.
Even as the people were worshiping God - he was providing for them.
**Even as you worship God, he is still giving to you.
Ex 35:4-40:33
The making of the tabernacle
Ex 40:33 - “So Moses finished the work.”
It seems unlikely that Moses himself did all of the work of erecting the tabernacle; however, as the representative and mediator for God’s people, the work is attributed to him.
ILLUST - I’ve tried to set up a large tent myself - didn’t go so well.
*Moses, as the representative of and mediator between God and his people, made a way for God’s presence to dwell among God’s people.
Moses makes a holy space for the Holy God to be among his holy people.
Hebrews 8–9 (ESV)
1 Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, 2 a minister in the holy places, in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man. 3
13 In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away. 1 Now even the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly place of holiness. 2 For a tent was prepared, the first section, in which were the lampstand and the table and the bread of the Presence. It is called the Holy Place. 3 Behind the second curtain was a second section called the Most Holy Place, 4 having the golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which was a golden urn holding the manna, and Aaron’s staff that budded, and the tablets of the covenant. 5 Above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat.
11 But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) 12 he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. 1
15 Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.
24 For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.
The final shock of the tabernacle is: The current absence of the Tabernacle
Jesus came as the very presence of God to do away with the veiled presence of God.
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
He ‘tabernacled’ among us!
Like the tabernacle, Jesus displayed humility, coming not to be served but to serve.
But now Jesus has returned to the Father? Where is the holy space to display the presence of God on earth now?
Paul tells us:
In the Church:
19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
16 Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?
In the individual believer:
19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,
Through Jesus, the Holy God makes the Holy Space among His Holy People
Through the Holy Spirit, the Holy God sends his Holy People to be a Holy Space
God sends you to display his presence in the places you live work and play
You are God’s dwelling place sent to display the presence of God
What difference does learning about this old tent make in my life today?
Do I want the presence of God in my life?
Do I want the presence of God in my life?
It was grace that the Holy God would desire to draw near, and it was obedience that made a way for a holy space
What if the Israelites had not obeyed? Had not built the tabernacle? Had not given of their time, energy, and resources to bring the presence of God near? It would not have affected God’s living space - for no place can contain God, nor would it have described an unwillingness on God’s part to be with his people. It would have instead revealed a lack of desire on the part of the Israelites to truly want the presence of God in their life. - It will require too much time!
- The moment I wake up I’m thinking about all the wilderness things I need to do!
The section on the tabernacle begins and ends with the responsibility of the redeemed people (25:1–9; 31:1–11).
“We can put it this way: they had a ‘means of grace’ at their disposal, and it was up to them to use it. It is the same for us;”
— Alec Motyer
Where will I take the presence of God with my life?
Where will I take the presence of God with my life?
As we look at the tabernacle, we see a space made holy by holy people to display a holy God.
What do people see when they see YOU?
Are the things you display displaying the character of God?
The tabernacle is no longer here, Jesus is no longer physically on earth, the place God has prescribed for people to see his presence is in your life.
He’s given you everything you need to make that space holy.