Devotions this week based on Come Home Week 1 – PLACE (WATCH HERE)
When a house is a home, the structure and furnishings fit the person dwelling in it. The walls have pictures. The shelves have memories. The style communicates the personality of the occupants. When someone walks in, they know who dwells there.
God has and is always with his people. However, with Moses leading the people of Israel out of Egypt, God wanted his people to know, see and experience his presence. He wanted them to know he was among them.
So he designed a dwelling that would communicate to all the people his being and his connection with the people.
The tabernacle was fashioned by artisans, furnished by craftsman and ordained with the precious metals the people brought out of Egypt.
All for one purpose: For God to dwell with his people.
Exodus 40:17 So the tabernacle was set up on the first day of the first month in the second year. 18 When Moses set up the tabernacle, he put the bases in place, erected the frames, inserted the crossbars and set up the posts. 19 Then he spread the tent over the tabernacle and put the covering over the tent, as the LORD commanded him.
20 He took the Testimony and placed it in the ark, attached the poles to the ark and put the atonement cover over it. 21 Then he brought the ark into the tabernacle and hung the shielding curtain and shielded the ark of the Testimony, as the LORD commanded him.
22 Moses placed the table in the Tent of Meeting on the north side of the tabernacle outside the curtain 23 and set out the bread on it before the LORD, as the LORD commanded him.
24 He placed the lampstand in the Tent of Meeting opposite the table on the south side of the tabernacle 25 and set up the lamps before the LORD, as the LORD commanded him.
26 Moses placed the gold altar in the Tent of Meeting in front of the curtain 27 and burned fragrant incense on it, as the LORD commanded him. 28 Then he put up the curtain at the entrance to the tabernacle.
29 He set the altar of burnt offering near the entrance to the tabernacle, the Tent of Meeting, and offered on it burnt offerings and grain offerings, as the LORD commanded him.
30 He placed the basin between the Tent of Meeting and the altar and put water in it for washing, 31 and Moses and Aaron and his sons used it to wash their hands and feet. 32 They washed whenever they entered the Tent of Meeting or approached the altar, as the LORD commanded Moses.
33 Then Moses set up the courtyard around the tabernacle and altar and put up the curtain at the entrance to the courtyard. And so Moses finished the work.
With the tabernacle set up and furnished, the Lord was ready to dwell in it.
34 Then the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. 35 Moses could not enter the Tent of Meeting because the cloud had settled upon it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.
The tabernacle was a daily and visible reminder that God does not love from a distance. He commanded Israel to build the tabernacle not because He needed a home but because His people needed Him near. The tabernacle was the visible reminder that God chooses to live where His people journey, wander, struggle, and worship.
This truth is the same for you today.
Apply: Do I believe God meets me in the middle of daily life? The tabernacle was a focal point of the people’s worship life. What blessing do you find (could you find) gathering in a place designed and built to focus on and experience the presence of God? (A bible believing, Christ-centered church)
Prayer: Lord, thank You that You do not abandon us in the desert. Camp in our uncertainty, dwell in our fear, and walk with us in our travels. Amen.