After the Israelites left Egypt they embarked on the task of building the very house of God. The list of decorations was long…this just wasn’t going to be a week of Ty running around shouting on a megaphone and five hundred people working around the clock. The owner demanded perfection and true obedience to his demands. This in gold, and that many cubits; the whole enterprise had to be daunting. This many flaps of goatskin and incense continually burning. The altar is this big and the back porch is this wide. Even the dress code was quite particular. Everything had a purpose and everything glorified the person it was made for. Somebody did something beautiful. No it wasn’t a sermon laced with complicated, life changing theology. No not a song that lifted your spirit next to the face of God. No, not even a human conversation that influenced your relationship with Christ. No, not a dance at a ballet, or an old piece of art, or a classical piece of music, which all makes us appreciate the human pursuit of beauty. This tent, this mobile dwelling, something we use to “rough it” ,was the most beautiful architectural accomplishment of the day. The man that built it was a skilled craftsman empowered by God and moved in heart to work to accomplish God’s beauty. Sweat and time and energy went into making the art of divine dwelling. No ballet or food or poem will ever match the beauty of the very dwelling place of God. The beauty of a would-be a measly tent comes with a rush of fire at night and a settling of a cloud at day. The ark itself the resting place of the being that equipped and inspired the builder. The very presence of God cannot be matched in beauty and the builder, and when that cloud of the Presence came upon the tent that he slaved over, no doubt realized that he had done something beautiful.
God no longer lives between the wings of golden angels but between the ribcages of men. He created something even more beautiful to enclose himself, humans. The Tent is a symmetrical reflection of what we have now in Christ. The very Holy Spirit of God resides in us, and after all that talk about the particular beauty of the Old Covenant temple, how much more beauty has God crafted us to be His dwelling place!!! I labored to read the several chapters in Exodus specifying the details of God’s house…how many more chapters has Christ opened to detail the House of God in the New Covenant!!! The Father demands succinct perfection in his dwelling place, He made it happen with his Tent and He will make it happen with us. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder?, a resounding NO…Christian, your beauty is in the holiness of the indweller.
2 comments:
Beautiful! What a great commentary on the application of that passage. One of the things that jumped out at me in that passage is that God specifically empowered, through His Spirit, people to be able to sculpt and design and build the things He wanted done. God gives us the tools necessary to carry out how He wants to display His Glory! I miss you bro, keep writing and I'll keep reading. (Edwards is ripping my face off right now, if you have access to it you need to read his sermons on the Excellency of Christ and the Sovereignty of God. All I can say is Wow!) - Adam
brethren... you think in a way that i probably never will. i appreciate your thoughts greatly and encourage you to continue. now that the formal crap is out of the way... that junk is tight!! where'd you read that junk at? you trippin' man! that's some crazy junk man. you should write a book or something. ahem.. hem. (clear my throat). now brethren, may the lord bless you in your writings and literary analysis and go with you as you explore the never ending flow of his compassion and grace.
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