A Call To Holiness

Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. Moses could not enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled on it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. In all the travels of the Israelites, whenever the cloud lifted from above the tabernacle, they would set out; but if the cloud did not lift, they did not set out—until the day it lifted. So the cloud of the LORD was over the tabernacle by day, and fire was in the cloud by night, in the sight of all the Israelites during all their travels. (Exodus 40:34-38, NIV, ©2011)

Another great moment of significance was witnessed by the freed Israelites and what a glorious moment it must have been.

To know and love God whom they could not physically see might have been a challenge but at this point, they had God reside with them physically as they journeyed to the promised land, a journey that would take them another 39 years.

Why can we not see God and how are we expected to live by faith, not by sight?

As I read God’s instructions to Moses, my first thoughts were why God wanted specific items placed where they were and I realized it would take away from what God was speaking to us today.

There will be a time when I will understand that but for today, what hit home was the reality that God was no longer a voice spoken exclusively to Moses but now God resided among the Israelites in a visible form.

The sinful Israelites wanted evidence of God as they had witnessed with while they lived with the Egyptians in the form of their idols. They even crafted a gold calf to worship and finally they were blessed with God’s own presence in their midst.

Better still, they needed clear direction and God gave them His law written on stone tablets that they could live by.

Unfortunately for the Israelites, what they received was what they would never attain. The law was God’s basic standard for them and it was obvious to them that try as they might, they would never attain the law by works.

In order to keep the law, they created rituals and followed practices that convinced them they met the requirements of the law but none did except for one, the son of God, Jesus Christ who came to fulfill the law and to give us a new and assured way of being reconnected with out maker.

Jesus, through His life on earth lived a sinless life and met every condition of the law. He then went on to sacrifice His own life to provide us the means to access God, by the shedding of His blood.

Every element in the tabernacle represents Jesus Christ and His sacrifice represents the final sacrifice that was needed for you and me to find peace with God.

If we are to come before God and live a life worthy of His name, we are called to humble ourselves before His son, Jesus Christ, submit our brokenness to Him, ask His forgiveness, and be washed in His shed blood.

We are then filled with His Holy Spirit that dwells in the temples of our hearts and directs our lives from that point forth. The Holy Spirit in us is God’s living presence in our lives.

The law that was written on stone is now written on the hearts of those who have been washed by the blood of the perfect lamb of God, Jesus Christ.

We therefore no longer are alone or need an idol to worship because God lives in us and works through us.

Is Jesus Christ still a figment of human imagination or is He alive and living in you? I pray your response is the later but if not, I beg you to call on Him right now to receive Him as your living and loving God and Savior.

In His Loving Service,
ServantBoy

Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple. (1 Corinthians 3:16-17, NIV, ©2011)

If you would like to know about Jesus, then please click here.

Related Articles

• The Temple of God (inhislovingservice.wordpress.com)
• The Tabernacle – All Pomp Or A Solemn Residence? (inhislovingservice.wordpress.com)
• Covenants, Blood Sacrifices and Holiness (inhislovingservice.wordpress.com)