No Soil in the Sanctuary

I've always been a homebody... and a bit of an introvert. My husband tells me I'm an extroverted introvert. In other words, while I enjoy spending time with friends, family, and acquaintances, most of the time I'm quite glad to stop being social and head home where I can rest, refresh, and regain my energy and zest. 

I have a strong attachment to the place I call home. It's not really that I love the familiar four walls that surround me when I'm inside them -- it's more the fact that those walls are familiar. That I can rest in the knowledge that I am me, and I don't have to hold up an expectation of anything else while I'm inside these walls.

Many of you know that I spent a weekend last month helping my parents pack up my childhood home in North Carolina and move them to Virginia. I cleaned and buffed and wiped and shined, and as I was doing these things, I realized: this house is not super nice. Built in 1968 and maintained on a shoestring budget, the paneling was cracked, the carpet frayed and stained, the laminate flooring chipped, along with a wealth of other small things. 

But this home is priceless. And the memories in that home are perfect, faultless, pristine... and the source of quite a few tears as I cleaned and buffed and wiped and shined.

Home is where one belongs, and it's portable. My memories of home didn't stay in that house. They came along with me, and they'll go wherever I go.

So this morning in Exodus 25, we dive into the nitty-gritty of God's instructions to Moses about how He wants to set up the Tabernacle, which is essentially -- a portable Temple (long, long before Solomon builds the Temple in Jerusalem). Chapter 25 begins with the Lord telling Moses to have the Israelites bring willing offerings of precious materials to begin to construct the Tabernacle. And then He gives detailed directions about how to make the Ark of the Covenant, the Table where the bread of the Presence is to be kept, and the Lampstand.

Let me just say, I thank the producers of the NIV Study Bible for hiring illustrators to draw pictures. It made it all fall into place when I flipped to pages 124 and 125 and saw the drawings.

I'll admit, I have read these passages before, and I generally avoid them if I can, because who wants to read about how many cubits the Ark is long and what kind of wood it's made out of? (Answer: 2 1/2 cubits long -- 3 3/4 feet -- and it's made out of gold-overlaid acacia wood.)

Anyway, this morning, the Lord reached through the heavy tradition and enshrinement of these passages, the years and years of rich historical symbolism, and He spoke directly to my heart in this verse when He tells Moses: "Then have [the people] make a sanctuary for Me, and I will dwell among them. Make this Tabernacle and all its furnishings exactly like the pattern I will show you" (Exodus 25:8-9).

God makes His home with His people, and notably, that home -- is transitory... until they reach the Promised Land.

Here's what I thought was really cool: "Cast four gold rings for it and fasten them to [the Ark's] four feet, with two rings on one side and two rings on the other. Then make poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. Insert the poles into the rings on the sides of the chest to carry it. The poles are to remain in the rings of this ark; they are not to be removed" (Exodus 25:12-15).

Before you think I'm completely crazy for going gaga over this verse, look at this: The word for "rings" here is a word literally translated: "House."

And the heavy artifacts made for the transitory Tabernacle... include rings: The Ark of the Covenant, the Table for the bread of the Presence, the Incense Altar, the Bronze Altar, etc. 

The poles are made to slide into their rings, into their homes... and stay there. They literally are at their house, at home as they bear the Presence of the Lord.

The Presence of the Lord? The Ark of the Covenant is a box containing the Testimony (the stone tablets of the Covenant, Aaron's flowering staff, and a gold jar of manna), but it's also set up as a throne -- a Mercy Seat -- where the presence of the Lord sits between the gold cherubim and communicates with Moses about the decrees He is giving to His people Israel.

So when the poles slide into the rings and stay there, they have slid home. They are resting in the exact spot for which they are made, and they carry the Presence of the Lord on them.

Y'all, we're poles.

Lol. But seriously, we are image-bearers of the Father. We are designed to be at home with Him, and reciprocally, He lives in us. His Presence rests on us. 

John 14:23 mentions this home: "If anyone loves Me, he will obey My teaching. My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him." 

To use an old saying: Home is where the heart is. If we make our sanctuary with the Lord, He is our home, and He makes His home with us. "You know Him, for He lives with you and will be in you... On that day, you will realize that I am in My Father, and you are in Me, and I am in you. Whoever has My commands and obeys them, He is the one who loves Me. He who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I too will love him and show Myself to him" (John 14:17, 20-21).

The awesome part? We don't have to have a designated spot for this to happen. We don't have to make any pilgrimages or hop a plane and fly to Jerusalem to the spot where the Temple used to be (and is now the Dome of the Rock -- a Muslim worship center). Jesus removed that barrier between us and the Father when He ripped the veil in the Holy of Holies, and opened the pathway to God.

We travel with Him, because we are in Him. He is not a house, but He is our Home, and He is perfect, pristine, priceless. Let's not soil His sanctuary; we are His home as He is ours.