God’s Worship Tent (Exodus 31:12–18)
God’s Story
While Moses is on the mountain with God, God tells him that Aaron and his sons are to be set apart to serve him as priests in his tabernacle. God shows Moses what they are to wear and how to consecrate them.
Every day for a week, precious rams and bulls are to be sacrificed, and Aaron and his sons are to be painted with the offering blood and anointing oil. God will soak them in holiness. The altar is also to be consecrated with offerings, and daily sacrifices are to continuously burn on it.
After giving construction instructions for the furnishings in the tabernacle, God identifies two men, Bezalel and Oholiab, to whom he imparts creative abilities. They will lead the work to create the artful furniture and implements of God’s tabernacle.
The King’s Heart
God, the infinite Holy One, the Purity Presence, is so holy, so pure, that he is all-consuming. Just as light consumes the darkness, God’s holiness would consume unholy people if they entered into his presence.
When people have deadly illnesses—ones where personal contact means imminent death—we quarantine them. For a time, as God was relating to his people, it was as if he had lovingly quarantined himself. If he were to unleash even a bit of himself, his people would not survive.
But God wants to share his heart. The separation wouldn’t do. So the Sovereign-God made provisions. He made a way for his sin-stained people to draw closer to his perfectly pure presence. But the cost to maintain holiness while drawing sinful people near would be high.
God first made a way through the tabernacle. His people would feel the weight of the distance between them as animals gave their lives to serve as coverings. But the people could come closer to him.
Later he made a way through the complete, very personal “provision”—his own self, the lifeblood of his very own Son. He himself would pay the steep price to reconcile the impure with the pure.
God’s holiness is so great that the highest price must be paid to uphold it. But God’s love for us is so great that he paid it himself.
Insight
Incense often represents prayer in Scripture (see Revelation 5:8; 8:3–4). The altar of incense would be placed directly in front of the curtain that shielded the Most Holy Place, where God’s Presence dwelled. God was painting a powerful picture of what our prayers look like in heaven.
Taken from NIV Discover God’s Heart Devotional Bible
The Gain of Serving God
“They will become his slaves so that they may learn the difference between my service and the service of the kingdoms of the countries.” (2 Chronicles 12:8)
Serving God is utterly different from serving anyone else.
God is extremely jealous that we understand this — and enjoy it. For example, he commands us, “Serve the Lord with gladness!” (Psalm 100:2). There is a reason for this gladness. It is given in Acts 17:25, “God is not served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all men life and breath and everything.”
We serve him with gladness because we do not bear the burden of meeting his needs. Rather we rejoice in a service where he meets our needs. Serving God always means receiving grace from God.
To show how jealous God is for us to get this and glory in it, there is a story in 2 Chronicles 12. Rehoboam, the Son of Solomon, who ruled the southern kingdom after the revolt of the ten tribes, “forsook the law of the Lord” (12:1). He chose against serving the Lord and gave his service to other gods and other kingdoms. As judgment God sent Shishak, the king of Egypt, against Rehoboam with 1,200 chariots and 60,000 horsemen (12:3).
In mercy God sent the prophet Shemaiah to Rehoboam with this message: “Thus says the Lord, you abandoned me, so I have abandoned you to the hand of Shishak” (12:5). The happy upshot of that message is that Rehoboam and his princes humbled themselves in repentance and said, “The Lord is righteous” (12:6).
When the Lord saw that they humbled themselves, he said, “They have humbled themselves, so I will not destroy them, but I will grant them some deliverance, and my wrath shall not be poured out on Jerusalem by means of Shishak” (12:7). But as a discipline to them he says, “They will become his slaves so that they may learn the difference between my service and the service of the kingdoms of the countries” (12:8).
The point is plain: serving God is a receiving and a blessing and a joy and a benefit.
This is why I am so jealous to say that the worship of Sunday morning and the worship of daily obedience is not at bottom a burdensome giving to God but a joyful getting from God.
Job’s three friends try to console him, but their words, especially their “answers,” do the opposite. Exasperated by Zophar’s advice, Job again cries out to God.
A Matter of Death and Life
Read
“But when people die, their strength is gone. They breathe their last, and then where are they? As water evaporates from a lake and a river disappears in drought, people are laid to rest and do not rise again. Until the heavens are no more, they will not wake up nor be roused from their sleep.
“I wish you would hide me in the grave and forget me there until your anger has passed. But mark your calendar to think of me again! Can the dead live again? If so, this would give me hope through all my years of struggle, and I would eagerly await the release of death. You would call and I would answer, and you would yearn for me, your handiwork.”
(Job 14:10-15)
Reflect
Life is short and full of trouble, Job lamented in his closing remarks to this first round of conversation. Sickness, loneliness, disappointment, and death caused him to conclude that life is not fair. Some understand Job 14:14-15 to mean that, even in his gloom, Job hoped for the resurrection of the dead.
The Old Testament does not say much about the resurrection of the dead. Job’s pessimism about death is understandable. What is remarkable is his budding hope (Job 14:14). If only God would hide him with the dead and then bring him out again! If only he could die and live again!
When we must endure suffering, we have an advantage over Job. Christ arose, and we have hope based on his promise in John 14:19. We know that the dead will rise.
Job’s profound speech in this section illustrates great truth: To have a right set of doctrines is not enough. To know what to believe is not all that is required to please God. Truth untested by life’s experiences may become static and stagnant. Suffering can bring a dynamic quality to life. Just as drought drives the roots of a tree deeper to find water, so suffering can drive us beyond superficial acceptance of truth to dependence on God for hope and life.
Respond
God’s solution to believers who live in an unfair world is to guarantee life with him forever. No matter how unfair your present world seems, God offers the opportunity of being in his presence eternally. Today, thank God for his love and presence now, and live in hope for the resurrection to come.
Streams in the Desert – June 1
The Lord said to Moses, “Why do you cry out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on. (Exod 14:15)
In the past he said to them, “This is where security can be found. Provide security for the one who is exhausted! This is where rest can be found.” But they refused to listen. (Isa 28:12)
Why dost thou worry thyself? What use can thy fretting serve? Thou art on board a vessel which thou couldst not steer even if the great Captain put thee at the helm, of which thou couldst not so much as reef a sail, yet thou worriest as if thou wert captain and helmsman. Oh, be quiet; God is Master!
Dost thou think that all this din and hurly-burly that is abroad betokens that God has left His throne?
No, man, His coursers rush furiously on, and His chariot is the storm; but there is a bit between their jaws, and He holds the reins, and guides them as He wills! Jehovah is Master yet; believe it; peace be unto thee! be not afraid.
–C. H. Spurgeon
“Tonight, my soul, be still and sleep;
The storms are raging on God’s deep—
God’s deep, not thine; be still and sleep.
“Tonight, my soul, be still and sleep;
God’s hands shall still the tempter’s sweep—
God’s hands, not thine; be still and sleep.
“Tonight, my soul, be still and sleep;
God’s love is strong while night hours creep—
God’s love, not thine; be still and sleep.
“Tonight, my soul, be still and sleep;
God’s heaven will comfort those who weep—
God’s heaven, not thine; be still and sleep.”
I entreat you, give no place to despondency. This is a dangerous temptation—a refined, not a gross temptation of the adversary. Melancholy contracts and withers the heart, and renders it unfit to receive the impressions of grace. It magnifies and gives a false coloring to objects, and thus renders your burdens too heavy to bear. God’s designs regarding you, and His methods of bringing about these designs, are infinitely wise.
–Madame Guyon