There, peeping above the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for awhile. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up and out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing; there was light and high beauty forever beyond its reach. J.R.R. Tolkien

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

His House

I got fascinated with God's dwelling place a few years ago. I started looking at the journey from tabernacle to temple to me. (The spreadsheet person in me actually charted a lot of this by geographical location.) The "me" part is kind of shocking. The tabernacle and temple were so precise, so lovely. Me? Not so much. Sometimes I picture the Holy Spirit literally living in sticky, black goo. I get this mental image of him gingerly stepping through the stickiness....kind of like how you walk in a movie theater on dry, spilled soda.

I'm reading Exodus. I've been examining the details of the tabernacle again and its furnishings. God had high standards. Very high standards. He didn't tell his people to build with what they didn't have. For instance, he didn't require wood only available in South America or jewels from Siberia or silk from China. He did, however, require everything of value they did have and no little effort on their part.

God hasn't changed, so how does this ancient tabernacle thing apply to me?

He is still the same precise God of beauty and order and utter holiness. He still has high standards. He is still deliberately drawing near to humanity. He still has the same dim...ok, wrathful....view of sin. Yet, he has placed his Holy Spirit in me. The very presence of the living God is in me. That sounds like crazy talk. Except for one thing....Jesus. God showed in Exodus that it took sacrificial blood to cleanse and set apart the tabernacle and its furnishings. Good housekeeping alone couldn't do it. It took blood. It's blood that makes is possible for God to dwell in me. The blood of Jesus. And, in His time, he is making all things beautiful....even me....his dwelling place.
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1 comment:

  1. StephanieMay 20, 2011 at 8:00 PM

    Patti,
    I read through Exodus earlier this year and was also facinated by the tabernacle. I think I was more interested in the fact that God was so precise and detailed about the "tent in the desert"...something temporary. Today, as I was having my quiet time, I realized He is just as precise and detailed about this temporary "tent on earth" that is His Spirit's dwelling place. I have a tendency to think, "This body is just temporary and I'll have a perfect body someday." But that's not God's attitude. It's not mine from this day forward.

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