I know I had initially set out to read a
chapter a day and write on a chapter a day. Today I’m writing on three chapters
together. To be completely honest, I
don’t know how I would write on each of these separately, because, in a way, they’re
all the same.
Exodus 37-39 is a report stating that Israel
had accomplished the task of building the pieces of the Tabernacle as the LORD had
commanded them. As the text says in
39:42-43, “According to all that the LORD had commanded Moses, so the people of
Israel had done all the work. And Moses
saw all the work, and behold, they had done it; as the Lord had commanded, so
had they done it.”
Part of me feels like three chapters of
detail to essentially say, “We did it!” is a bit of overkill, however, this is
very important stuff for Israel. This
was their worship place. This was the
place where they met God and He forgave their sins. The details matter. The LORD is worthy of the opulence and beauty
– not because I say so, but simply because He is.
For us this would be like retelling how our
church was built if we were part of the building program. It would be like standing in the entry way of
the church and detailing how it came to be that this congregation at that
particular point in history constructed a place for worship to the glory of the
one true God; a place where the Holy Spirit changes lives and people hear the
proclamation to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
One the one hand,
it really doesn’t matter where we worship.
The psalmist reminds us, “The earth is the LORD’s and all that is in
it!” (Psalm 24) Indeed, there is nowhere
we can go where God is not already there.
Again, the psalmist asks, “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I
flee from your presence? 8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. 9 If I rise on the
wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, 10 even
there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.” (Psalm
139:7-10 NIV)
Yet God chose to
have a Tabernacle built. Later in
history, God would bless the building of the Temple in Jerusalem. It isn’t that He dwells in buildings, but He
approves of places where His Word is proclaimed in truth and purity. That place is holy where His Word and Sacraments
are administered; people are baptized, they are fed by Christ’s body and blood,
and they are strengthened by the Word.
It is a blessed
thing to have a place to worship. Even
as people who know that we are temples of the Holy Spirit and God dwells within
us, we can rightly say, “I rejoiced with those who said to me, ‘Let us go to
the house of the LORD.’” (Psalm 122:1 NIV)
The church is not
a building, it is the Redeemed. We are
those who have been washed in Jesus’ blood.
That being said, it is indeed good to come together around Word and
Sacrament, which is where God promises to meet us now. We may not have a singular Tabernacle or
Temple, but we have Baptism which binds us together in Jesus’ death and burial,
and the hope of resurrection. We have
the Lord’s Supper which knits us together in Christ’s body and blood, and the
hope of His return. And we have the Word
of God, powerfully at work in us delivering to us Jesus’ salvation and strength
to live in this world.
Father in Heaven, thank You! Thank You for giving me assurance of Your
presence in my Baptism, as I eat the Lord’s Supper, and when I read Your
Word. Give me your Holy Spirit, so that
I may be strengthened in Christ, and worship you rightly, in spirit and in
truth. Amen.
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