Tag Archives: access to God

Why All The Tiny Details, God?

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Exodus 24-27

Were you tempted to skim over these chapters today? If you are a visual learner or if you aren’t into architecture and construction details, you probably were like me and found your eyes glazing over. Pictures! I need pictures!

Whatever was God thinking, to include such minute details in His Word for a structure that has long since been destroyed? I don’t even know what a cubit is – or care.

But as is the case every time I read these chapters and others like them, I am reminded ALL Scripture has a purpose. It grows us, stretches us, strengthens us to make us useful members of God’s kingdom. God’s Word reveals Himself in an intimate and meaningful way. All of it. Including these chapters in Exodus.

So this morning, when I found my eyes glazing over I stopped, backed up, and read again, asking God to speak to my heart. He always answers that prayer!

Today I found myself honing in on the Mercy Seat, the Holy of Holies, and the curtain that separated God from the people. The building of the Tabernacle was so that God could be a visible Presence as the Jews wandered in the wilderness. It was the place the people could go to God in praise and worship, and to receive forgiveness for their sins. From what I can tell, it must have been a beautiful structure there in the desert. And there in the center of it all was where God lived on Earth.

Amazing!

The truth of it is, every detail of the Tabernacle points to Jesus. Probably in more ways than we realize. The Tabernacle was a real life picture of Jesus’ atoning work on the cross. When I read how the curtain in the Temple tore in two the moment Jesus died, I think back to the description of the curtain here in Exodus, and the purpose it was there.

It reminds me that now, after Jesus, there is unhindered access to the throne of God. God doesn’t live in a tent any more. He does not live in temples made by hands. He lives in those of us who have accepted His mercy and grace through the blood of His precious Son, Jesus!

We are the temple of God if we have repented of our sin. And all the minute details we read about in the building of the Tabernacle, God is as detailed in His building of you and me, His current home on Earth.

So don’t skim over these chapters. Read every word. Every detail. They were written for you from the God who loves you and wants you to know Him!

Ripped

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I was reading Mark 15 this morning, Peter’s account of Jesus’ crucification as told through Mark. It occurred to me that Peter set down the facts pretty much without much emotion: Jesus was hung on a cross, people mocked him, Pilate’s sign “King of the Jews” made the chief priests really mad, the sky darkened, people thought Jesus was calling for Elijah, then he died.

Concise and to the point.

Mark even includes a sentence that is easily overlooked: “Then the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom”. (vs 38) Nothing more is said of this event in the book of Mark. Just the fact that it happened.

That blows me away. God ripped that veil in two like I might tear a piece of paper.

Have you ever held a mortgage or a car loan? You are enslaved to that piece of paper that holds the terms of the agreement. You think about it every month as you write that check, chipping away at the debt with every payment.

Then, one day you write the last check. The house or the car is finally yours. Debt paid! Did you take  your copy of the mortgage and rip it in two? How did that feel? Did you experience a sense of freedom, relief, joy?

Paid in full! That house, or that car, is mine!!!

I think that’s a little how God must have felt when he was finally able to rip that curtain apart. That curtain separated him from us. God could not have easy access to us until that curtain came down. But Jesus died on that cross, paid the full price, and now there is no more curtain. Until today I don’t think I ever considered the significance of that from God’s point of view.

What joy he must have experienced as he felt and heard that material rip apart.

Yes, the ripping of that curtain allows us to approach the throne of God. But it also allows God to live in us, walk with us, talk to us and guide us in a personal, precious way. God created us to fellowship with him, but sin separated us. In the Old Testament we read that God instructed Moses to put up a curtain so that we could get as close to God as possible while we still owed our debt. He could only communicate with his people through the prophets. And there were years when God didn’t communicate at all.

But when Jesus paid the price… in full… there was no need for the curtain. I think God must have been pretty excited about that.

As we prepare to celebrate Easter, Jesus death on the cross and his resurrection, let’s also be aware of the privilege that is ours through the ripping apart of that veil. God has access to me and I to him because my sin debt is paid.

Dearest Father, thank you for occasionally letting us in on what you are feeling. Sometimes we think it’s all about us and we forget that you have a stake in our lives, too. I thank you for Jesus, for his death on the cross, for what his sacrifice gives me. But let me remember what it gave you, too. You love us so completely. For thousands of years your dealings with us were from behind the curtain. It must have brought you great joy to rip that curtain in two. Thank you for wanting to walk with me so much. May I never take this privilege for granted.