THE BEAT e122 A God Who Dwells

This is Faith to Witness 99, motivating us to hear God and share the Shepherd.  

Season 2 Episode 122 

THE BEAT | A God Who Dwells  

Quick Take

Hey human, in this episode we learn how to build a tabernacle. Consider God defined as inclusive, exacting, master builder, giver of enduring love, and… a dweller. Thanks for joining us on e122.

How is God reaching for you today?

I’m Kathryn Bise, your host. 

Today is a few minutes of evidence that my heart is brimming over into my soul, a burst of joy spilling over into my podcast. For those dropping in for this episode, I am doing my annual Bible read-thru in 2 months. It’s a high energy read to sustain my spiritual heart rate at the pace of God moving through His story.

Perhaps you read the title and thought, that’s oversimplified.

We all have a worship gene.  And our spiritual superfood is the holiness of God—the undeniable, unattainable, inimitable glory of God, his Son, and our privilege to experience it through the Holy Spirit.

God’s story is rich with worshiping. God, or other gods. False gods. And the battle in-between. When Moses and his people arrive at the foot of Mt Sinai, the first day of the third month of their exodus from Egypt, the conversation between God and his people accelerates. They get the big 10, and a daily code of conduct for how to behave in the wake of sin, almost sinning, and not wanting to sin. The human condition, the contrast of it with an all-powerful God grows more distinct.

Kristi McLelland, in her book Rediscovering Israel beautifully lays out how God’s story is about him coming closer and closer to us: first hovering over the waters, then dwelling in a tent in the desert, to dwelling in his Son on earth, to living within us. Sometimes when I read something it affirms what I have experienced but hadn’t quite named yet. Thank you, Kristi. Your witness is so strong in my life.

So, we get to Exodus, and this is why being immersed in his story is powerful and life changing. It deepens how much I care about how God wrote his story.

In this case, he designed his earthly dwelling, in such glorious fashion it is hard to believe that with every architectural feat in our world, the amazing buildings, I am thinking New York City and how I loved looking up from the sidewalk, with every home that brings wide acclaim, that we don’t first attribute the possibility of creating such masterful work to the Master Builder who gave us this right. I could stop here and talk about architecture, but maybe another time.

It might be about sanctification through quality craftsmanship, materials, architectural function, purpose. Fellowship through participation. A tabernacle in the middle of the desert. Uh, a mobile tabernacle at that.

What does a tabernacle have to do with this podcast? The first one built by God at the foot of Mt. Sinai in about 1400 BC.  Well, that’s where I am right now… and God does not ever disappoint. It feels wrong to even say that, because I come to Him in humility, with no expectation. But sometimes I am so surprised by my joy that I wonder if I had set some bar of expectation… to be so surprised.

The Hebrew word for “tabernacle” is “mishkan” which literally means “dwelling place” or “residence” and refers to the portable sanctuary that the Israelites carried during their journey through the wilderness, considered to be God’s earthly dwelling. 

The tabernacle is about the place God dwells. And how we approach it.

The God of the Israelites was always a moving presence. He walked in the Garden of Eden.

He had in-depth conversations with His people, the people we call patriarchs.

He travelled through the wilderness for 40 years with his people, conversing with Moses.

What I get this time from immersing in God’s exodus of his people, is my own personal exit from how this world pleads with me to get closer to God. It isn’t up to the world. I am the sojourner, I am responsible for the altar to my soul, it’s upkeep, and my sacrificial will.

All of this is possible through Jesus, something we have that the Israelites did not yet have wandering around in the dessert, but if you will hang with me for a few minutes, something that is sacred to the chosen nation, will become sacred to you, maybe. Maybe not. I am sure gonna try.

Who God Asked Those Whose Hearts Prompted Them to Give

It began with an offering. It began with who God asked to support it. It began with those whose hearts prompted them to give. A voluntary act.

Exodus 25

Offerings for the Tabernacle

25 The Lord said to Moses, 2 “Tell the Israelites to bring me an offering. You are to receive the offering for me from everyone whose heart prompts them to give. 3 These are the offerings you are to receive from them: gold, silver and bronze; 4 blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen; goat hair; 5 ram skins dyed red and another type of durable leather; acacia (uh·kay·shuh) wood; 6 olive oil for the light; spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense; 7 and onyx stones and other gems to be mounted on the ephod (eh·faad) and breastpiece.

In response to this request:

Exodus 40:21 –31

The Materials Used

24 The total amount of the gold from the wave offering used for all the work on the sanctuary was 29 talents and 730 shekels, according to the sanctuary shekel.

25 The silver obtained from those of the community who were counted in the census was 100 talents and 1,775 shekels, according to the sanctuary shekel— 26 one beka per person, that is, half a shekel, according to the sanctuary shekel, from everyone who had crossed over to those counted, twenty years old or more, a total of 603,550 men.

27 The 100 talents of silver were used to cast the bases for the sanctuary and for the curtain—100 bases from the 100 talents, one talent for each base. 28 They used the 1,775 shekels to make the hooks for the posts, to overlay the tops of the posts, and to make their bands.

29 The bronze from the wave offering was 70 talents and 2,400 shekels. 30 They used it to make the bases for the entrance to the tent of meeting, the bronze altar with its bronze grating and all its utensils, 31 the bases for the surrounding courtyard and those for its entrance and all the tent pegs for the tabernacle and those for the surrounding courtyard.

This offering was called a wave offering, defined as a portion of a sacrifice presented to God, then released by God for the use of those involved in the sacrifice.

The gold and silver alone would be worth more than $13 million in today’s currency.

So, it began with an offering.

It Began With an Exacting God

It began with an exacting God. When we get to the building, his nature is on full display. A major lesson about God’s hand in their lives through the design and building of the first tabernacle.

So God instructed Moses:

Exodus 25: 8 “Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them. 9 Make this tabernacle and all its furnishings exactly like the pattern I will show you.

Here are the first few sentences of each part of the tabernacle to capture what I am talking about. Stick with me. To read it all, check out Exodus chapters 25-27 for the full description.

Exodus 25

 

The Ark

 

10 “Have them make an ark of acacia (uh·kay·shuh) wood—two and a half cubits long, a cubit and a half wide, and a cubit and a half high. 1 Overlay it with pure gold, both inside and out, and make a gold molding around it. 12 Cast four gold rings for it and fasten them to its four feet, with two rings on one side and two rings on the other.

 

The Table

 

23 “Make a table of acacia wood—two cubits long, a cubit wide and a cubit and a half high.[d] 24 Overlay it with pure gold and make a gold molding around it. 25 Also make around it a rim a handbreadth[e] wide and put a gold molding on the rim.

 

The Lampstand

 

31 “Make a lampstand of pure gold. Hammer out its base and shaft, and make its flowerlike cups, buds and blossoms of one piece with them. 32 Six branches are to extend from the sides of the lampstand—three on one side and three on the other. 33 Three cups shaped like almond flowers with buds and blossoms are to be on one branch, three on the next branch, and the same for all six branches extending from the lampstand.

 

Exodus 26-27

 

The Tabernacle

 

26 “Make the tabernacle with ten curtains of finely twisted linen and blue, purple and scarlet yarn, with cherubim woven into them by a skilled worker. 2 All the curtains are to be the same size—twenty-eight cubits long and four cubits wide. 3 Join five of the curtains together and do the same with the other five…. 7 “Make curtains of goat hair for the tent over the tabernacle—eleven altogether.

 

The Altar of Burnt Offering

 

27 “Build an altar of acacia wood, three cubits high; it is to be square, five cubits long and five cubits wide. 2 Make a horn at each of the four corners, so that the horns and the altar are of one piece, and overlay the altar with bronze. 3 Make all its utensils of bronze—its pots to remove the ashes, and its shovels, sprinkling bowls, meat forks and firepans.

 

The Courtyard

 

9 “Make a courtyard for the tabernacle. The south side shall be a hundred cubits long and is to have curtains of finely twisted linen, 10 with twenty posts and twenty bronze bases and with silver hooks and bands on the posts…. 13 On the east end, toward the sunrise, the courtyard shall also be fifty cubits wide…. 16 “For the entrance to the courtyard, provide a curtain twenty cubits long, of blue, purple and scarlet yarn and finely twisted linen—the work of an embroiderer—with four posts and four bases.

 

Oil for the Lampstand

 

20 “Command the Israelites to bring you clear oil of pressed olives for the light so that the lamps may be kept burning. 21 In the tent of meeting, outside the curtain that shields the ark of the covenant law, Aaron and his sons are to keep the lamps burning before the Lord from evening till morning. This is to be a lasting ordinance among the Israelites for the generations to come.

God provided access to this sacred space in the courtyard to make personal sacrifices on the altar of burnt offerings, closer to God’s presence, but not as close as the priests who were able to go into the tabernacle. His choice of wood, acacia wood, is known for extreme durability. On one hand, durability needed to withstand the sinful nature of the human condition, the daily bloody sacrifices, and on the other, God’s enduring hand, his everlasting, durable love and open arms to his people.

A God Who Leads

Before Moses could stop his brain from spinning on the level of detail God outlined for him, the “pattern” as God called it, God gave him the way this would be possible. Through two men he had spiritually ordained for just this work.

Exodus 35:30-35

 

Bezalel and Oholiab

 

30 Then Moses said to the Israelites, “See, the Lord has chosen Bezalel (beh·zuh·lel) son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, 31 and he has filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills— 32 to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, 33 to cut and set stones, to work in wood and to engage in all kinds of artistic crafts. 34 And he has given both him and Oholiab (o-ho-leeab) son of Ahisamak, of the tribe of Dan, the ability to teach others. 35 He has filled them with skill to do all kinds of work as engravers, designers, embroiderers in blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen, and weavers—all of them skilled workers and designers.

Why did God build a tabernacle? For the same reason he created the Garden, and humanity. So that he might dwell among his people. Fellowship. Remember how God found Noah’s sacrifice on his first altar when he stepped out of the ark the first time on to dry land? A pleasing aroma. Like that.

Exodus 29:45-46

45 Then I will dwell among the Israelites and be their God. 46 They will know that I am the Lord their God, who brought them out of Egypt so that I might dwell among them. I am the Lord their God.

How can we read about God’s first tabernacle and not know this:

God willed a purpose, a role, for his two lead men, and for every single man of the 603,550 men (+ families).

God planned detailed instructions on how to build his dwelling.

God designed a holy place where he could dwell in his divine glory.

God provided access to every Israelite.

It didn’t start there.

God walked by Adam and Eve in the garden post-apple chomping.

God came to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses in unique, personal ways. Abraham at the altar of his son. Isaac when he wanted to depart to Egypt, Jacob in a dream and a wrestling match, Joseph in several dreams.

To the Israelites following their leader, Moses, God was in a cloud, a fire, and a tabernacle. 40 years of manna every morning. This is when we first learn that God is the craftsman. He is the builder. He builds throughout his story. He wills, he plans, he designs, he provides throughout his story. I could write a book on the Master Builder.

A God Who Dwells

But what is on my heart today is this:  I love a God who dwells.

Our culture has increasingly turned away from what began as “tabernacle” worship. Not for everyone, but church attendance overall continues to seriously decline. We have prayer rooms, war rooms, prayer corners, prayer walls, online communities, audio Bibles, designated physical spaces, digital spaces to enter into worship with God. My physical space in my home is within my studio.

Bible sales are significantly increasing. The increased digital accessibility to a sovereign God makes some of this possible, right?

Yet people seem to be physically going it alone. We have a lot of empty churches.

I am taking this on. I feel a little cornered by it.

Episode 123 is about the power of going to a physical place of worship. Balancing our spiritual experience in a digital world with a commitment to going local to dwell with God and his people. Face to face.