Moment to Moment (Bible blog)
Lord, you struck our Rock, you struck Jesus on the cross and now through him we have living water.
Quench our spiritual thirst. (1 Corinthians 10:4, Exodus 17:6, Numbers 20:7-11, John 4:10, 7:37-39)
You brought us out of slavery to sin and Satan’s kingdom.
Now, Lord, let us be your sanctuary. Let us be your dominion. (Ephesians 2:16-22, Revelation 1:5-6)
In Jesus’ name amen.
We often call the church a sanctuary. And that’s what it is. It’s a place where we can find God and find safety in his presence.
But it is not a sanctuary for everyone. And that’s what God tells the people here.
This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Reform your ways and your actions, and I will let you live in this place.
Do not trust in deceptive words and say, “This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord!”
If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly, if you do not oppress the alien, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm, then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your forefathers for ever and ever.
But look, you are trusting in deceptive words that are worthless.
Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears my Name, and say, “We are safe”—safe to do all these detestable things?
Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you? But I have been watching! declares the Lord. (Jeremiah 7:3–11)
In short, you can’t just live your own way and claim sanctuary in the house of God.
David’s general Joab learned that to his sorrow. After years of living his own way and killing innocent men, he tried to escape to the sanctuary to avoid being put to death.
It didn’t work. Solomon had him struck down right there in the tabernacle. (1 Kings 2:28–34)
God told the people, “Look at Shiloh where my tabernacle used to be. It was wiped out because the people there turned their backs on me. And the same will happen to the temple in Jerusalem unless you repent. (12–15)
“I’m not so interested in your sacrifices or religious rituals. I’m much more interested in your obedience. If you’ll just obey, everything will go well with you. But instead you continually harden your hearts as your forefathers did.” (21–27)
Then he said,
This is the nation that has not obeyed the Lord its God or responded to correction. Truth has perished; it has vanished from their lips…
“The people of Judah have done evil in my eyes,” declares the Lord…
“So beware, the days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when people will no longer call it Topheth or the Valley of Ben Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter, for they will bury the dead in Topheth until there is no more room.” (28–30, 32)
Topheth, in the valley of Ben Hinnom in Jerusalem, was a place where the Israelites were doing child sacrifice. While they were performing their sacrifices to God at the temple, they were also performing these vile sacrifices to false gods.
And so God said, “I will bring judgment. Your going to the temple will not save you. Truth has perished to the point where you’re doing things that are evil in my eyes and you no longer respond to correction.”
How about you? Do you go to church thinking it absolves you from all the evil that you do during the week? It doesn’t. Going to church means nothing if you just live your own way the rest of the week.
So let us not live for God just for a few hours each week. But let us remember the words of Micah.
He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6:8)
We come to another section that can be a bit dry taken at face value.
But one thing that should be remembered is that a lot of the things that are described here are symbols of heavenly things.
God alludes to this a couple of times in verses 9 and 40. There was a specific pattern that Moses was to follow in building the earthly tabernacle.
The writer of Hebrews also points out that the tabernacle that God described here was a copy of the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is in heaven. (Hebrews 9:11)
But I also believe that these are pictures of our own Christian lives.
God uses two special words here. One is “sanctuary” and the other is “tabernacle.”
“Sanctuary” means “a place set apart.”
“Tabernacle” comes from a word that means “to dwell.”
And that’s what we are.
As Christians, we are dwelling places of God.
In Ephesians 3:17, it says that Jesus dwells in our hearts through faith.
In 1 Corinthians 6:19, it says we are a temple of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.
And in John 14:23, it says that the Father comes to dwell in us as well.
God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit all come to dwell within us. We are his living tabernacle.
We don’t need to go to some special place to encounter God; he dwells right within us, and he’s with us wherever we go.
But as his tabernacle, we are also a “place set apart” for God, his sanctuary.
When I come home after a long day of work, it’s my sanctuary. It’s a place set apart for my family and me, where we can relax and enjoy each other’s company.
It’s also a tool that can be used to touch people’s lives, as we invite people over and spend time with them.
Our lives should be the same way as God’s sanctuary. We should be a place where God feels comfortable, where he can relax and enjoy our company.
And we should also be a tool that he can use to touch other people with his love.
These are some of the things that God was trying to get across to the people of Israel. And it’s something he wants us to understand as well.
How about you?
You are God’s dwelling place if you’re a Christian. But are you also his sanctuary?
Is your life set apart for him both to have fellowship with him and to be a tool to touch the lives around you?
Lord, I thank you that you have made me your tabernacle, your dwelling place.
Lord, let me also be your sanctuary. That when you see my heart, you say, “Now this is a place where I feel comfortable, where I feel welcome. And this is a place I can use to touch the lives of others.”
I desire to be such a place.
Lord, prepare me to be a sanctuary,
Pure and holy, tried and true.
With thanksgiving, I’ll be a living sanctuary
For you.
Moment to Moment (Bible blog) 