Where can you see God?

Where can you see God? We've looked at Jesus teaching us that we can see the Father as we look at Him. Let us now look at the Tabernacle. The Tabernacle is described in many different chapters in The Book of Exodus. We’ll briefly look at those chapters. The point that I want us to see is how God met with the people. There is now a link to us, We need to see that we can see God in His Tabernacle and now He can live in us. We can apply what we learn about the Tabernacle to our own lives today. We’ll be looking at the Tabernacle, the priests and how we live. We’ll be looking at various verses in God’s word to address this topic, found in seven different chapters in Exodus.

We’ll start in Exodus 25. Exodus 25:1-2: “The Lord said to Moses, “Tell the Israelites to bring me an offering. You are to receive the offering for me from everyone whose heart prompts them to give.” Exodus 25:8-10: “Then have them 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. “Have them make an ark of acacia wood—two and a half cubits long, a cubit and a half wide, and a cubit and a half high.”

Exodus 25:17 “Make an atonement cover of pure gold—two and a half cubits long and a cubit and a half wide.” Exodus 25:23: “Make a table of acacia wood—two cubits long, a cubit wide and a cubit and a half high.” Exodus 25:31: “Make a lampstand of pure gold and hammer it out, base and shaft; its flowerlike cups, buds and blossoms shall be of one piece with it.”

Exodus 26:1: “Make the tabernacle with ten curtains of finely twisted linen and blue, purple and scarlet yarn, with cherubim worked into them by a skilled craftsman.” Exodus 27:1 “Build an altar of acacia wood, three cubits high; it is to be square, five cubits long and five cubits wide.” Exodus 27:9 says: “Make a courtyard for the tabernacle. The south side shall be a hundred cubits long and is to have curtains of finely twisted.” It goes on in Exodus 28:1-2: “Have Aaron your brother brought to you from among the Israelites, along with his sons Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar, so they may serve me as priests. Make sacred garments for your brother Aaron, to give him dignity and honour.”

Exodus 28:6 says: “Make the ephod of gold, and of blue, purple and scarlet yarn, and of finely twisted linen—the work of a skilled craftsman.” Exodus 29:1: “This is what you are to do to consecrate them, so they may serve me as priests: Take a young bull and two rams without defect.” Exodus 30:1: “Make an altar of acacia wood for burning incense.”

Exodus 30:11-12:“Then the Lord said to Moses, “When you take a census of the Israelites to count them, each one must pay the Lord a ransom for his life at the time he is counted. Then no plague will come on them when you number them.”Exodus 30:17-18 it says: “Then the Lord said to Moses, “Make a bronze basin, with its bronze stand, for washing. Place it between the Tent of Meeting and the altar, and put water in it.”” In Exodus 30:25 it says: “Make these into a sacred anointing oil, a fragrant blend, the work of a perfumer. It will be the sacred anointing oil.” Exodus 31:1-4 says: “Then the Lord said to Moses, “See, I have chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, ability and knowledge in all kinds of crafts— to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze.”

That's a hop-skip-and-a-jump look through those seven chapters. What is God saying in all of the instructions to build the Tabernacle? When talking about the Tabernacle, we need to also realize that you, if you have allowed Jesus into your life, you become the Tabernacle of the Holy Spirit. You are the Temple of the Spirit, as the New Testament puts it. The Tabernacle is the first draft of what would later become the temple. We see that the Tabernacle, which later became the Temple, entailed all the priestly services in the Old Testament. The Tabernacle and Temple were at the heart of the ancient Israelite religious practice.

Bearing that in mind, we need to get rid of the common idea that Christians sometimes have about these institutions. Some Christians believe that they were simply a lot of meaningless, endless sacrifice and tedious rituals and that these chapters can be dismissed. If we dismiss them, we misunderstand not only their significance, but misunderstand the purpose for Jesus Christ coming into this world. These institutions were symbols of a higher reality. They were symbols of an ultimately mysterious reality. They were the means by which God met with His people and connected with them. These institutions were founded at the foot of Mount Sinai. They were built by the end of year one in the desert in Exodus. They were part of the worship of God's people. The portable Tabernacle was replaced by the permanent Temple, a structure intended to be the footstool of God as the scripture says in 1 Kings 5-8. The temple was constructed according to the pattern of the Tabernacle, from stone and cedar. The temple was roughly twice as large as the Tabernacle. Both were an Earthly representation of a Heavenly reality.

The Tabernacle and the Temple was a microcosm of the created order. A microcosm of the only spotless part in creation. What used to be the Garden of Eden was seen again in the Tabernacle that moved with the people of God through the desert. Now you are the Temple of the Holy Spirit.

We need to look at the Tabernacle and what is meant in that context. We need to avoid the common criticism that these institutions in and of themselves were ineffective. Sometimes the Old Testament prophets criticized the abuse of the system, but they didn't criticize the Temple or the Tabernacle itself. They criticized the manipulation of God by some of the individuals involved in the worship in the Temple or the Tabernacle.

God gave these patterns from heaven. God the Creator of all that exists, gave this place as a mobile Worship Centre. For the people, the temple was the centre of Israel's religious activity and it enabled them to worship God in a way that was acceptable to God. God Himself had given it to them after they had been brought out of Egypt to worship the one true God. This was why, when the people of God disobeyed Him and He sent them into exile. The destruction of the temple was so devastating for the people. The Temple was the place where God met with the people. As soon as they could return to the Promised Land, after 70 years, we are told that they rebuilt the Temple (that can be read in Ezra and Haggai). Those incidences remind us of the great importance of the Temple to the people of God.

Jesus refered to Himself when He describes Himself as the Temple of God in John 2:19. There is another interesting verse in John 1:14 where Jesus is likened to the Tabernacle of God. John 1:14 says: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” The word for ‘dwelling’ is the word ‘Tabernacle’ and it's the picture of God dwelling among His people and “tabernacling” with them.

When you look at Jesus, you are looking at the new and improved Tabernacle or Temple of God come in the flesh and dwelling among us. What we see Jesus not rejecting the Old Testament Tabernacle or Temple but rather He points out that He is now the fulfilment of all they held. He is the climax to which all of that points. Jesus was truly the mobile, portable Tabernacle. That means the coming of Christ heightened the majesty of the Old Testament Tabernacle, while the beautiful decorations and furnishings are not there in Jesus Christ. Somebody far better has come, Jesus, the new Adam, the perfect human being. He is God come in the flesh tabernacling among us. If the Tabernacle was the Earthly representation of a Heavenly reality, how much more is Jesus Christ, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth? An Earthly representation of a Heavenly reality. We marvel at who Jesus is and what he has done for us. The Tabernacle points to Jesus.

The second thing we are to observe in this passage are the priests. We read about the priest being clothed. They were clothed in the same material as what the Tabernacle would be constructed. The priests embodied the Tabernacle and like the priests, Jesus also embodies the Tabernacle, not by how He dressed but by who He is. Jesus is God clothed in humanity. At the consummation of history, what shaped Israel's identity will no longer be needed because something better will come. Something better is here in Jesus which was seen in Christ when He came the first time.

Between the first and the second comings of Jesus Christ Jesus, is now the new Temple. Jesus is now ascended to the right hand of the Father, and He has promised us His presence always. Jesus is now in us. For Jesus and the Father have sent the Holy Spirit to be in you. He abides in us and is with us always. He is in the local church which is the new Temple of God. Therefore, the church has now become God's holy dwelling place and that's why you and I must not forsake the gathering together of God's people in church. We need to be the church.

God's Temple between the first and the second coming of Jesus Christ is the church. The church is both collectively the Temple of Christ, you and I individually are the Temple of Christ. We can now enjoy an intimacy with God because God lives in us. That's one of the reasons why we emphasize that you are now a priest as we are told in 1 Peter 2:9: “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” Not only are you a royal priesthood but you are the Temple of God.

That means that every true believer in Jesus Christ can hear from God, talk to Him and more than that they can now be part of God's direction of the church. That's why the local church is made up of a priesthood of believers. We as Baptists hold dear the Baptist principle of the church being governed not by one individual or a group of individuals but by the whole body of Christ. Members of the body of Christ are all priests together, who are listening to God together and making decisions corporately. We are governed as a local church by the priesthood of believers and that is something precious. As individuals, we can now have intimacy with God and that means we need to ask the question, how should we now live?

The third thing I want us to observe, is the application of this in our lives. If you were to consider how you live daily, in a fallen world. Have you ever thought that this body that God has given you, where the spirit of God dwells is precious? When you sin, you are affecting this temple of God. We need to see sinning in a different light. 1 Corinthians 6:18, speaks about individual Christians in Corinth who were defiling the temple by sexual sin. They were having sex outside of heterosexual marriage and some of the Corinthians were engaged in sexual immorality. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 warns us:“Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honour God with your body.” This question does not only have to be limited to sexual sin, this applies to all sin. God is not just out there far away. God is not just someone looking down at you trying to check whether you're being good. God has chosen to take up residence in you. That means there are some things that should be unthinkable for you to do. In a local church for instance, it would be unthinkable to put a condom machine next to the pulpit. How much more for you and I to do things that offend God within us? We are to have things that are unthinkable. Sins that we need to turn from because we know that God is always with us and in us by His Spirit.

Since God is with us, what can we say in conclusion? This means that any sin is repulsive to God. Like the construction of the Tabernacle, God repeatedly tells Moses to follow these instructions precisely. You are to be careful in your life. Do things precisely as God has taught us. Remember Jesus said that we are to disciple new believers and to teach them to obey all things that He has taught us. We must know not to tolerate sin in our own lives. We need to realize that God dwells in us and we must not introduce anything into this holy dwelling of God that would be unthinkable to God.

Many Christians agree that all sins are equal but in reality most Christians have a hierarchy of sin. We'll say for instance, that it's okay to lie to a stranger but never lie to your family. We'll say that’s okay to cheat on your taxes to the government but don't cheat on your spouse. In reality all sin defiles the Temple of God. Jesus comes to us and He tells us to get rid of materialism. We are to get rid of all that will defile you. Remember that your life, your body, your soul, your mind is a place set apart for Him, that is Holy. Make your body a place the Holy Spirit might dwell comfortably, without offending or grieving Him.

We need to be careful in every area of our lives. We shouldn’t think using your boss's photostat machine is a small sin and robbing your neighbour is a big sin. All sin is sin and we are to turn from it entirely. The point is that we are God's Temple and everything should have its place and order in our lives. Throughout Exodus, God keeps reminding Moses to follow the Divine pattern, exactly without the slightest deviation. That means you and I need to follow what Jesus has taught us. We need to obey Him, yet we mustn't become paranoid about it. We know that perfection is impossible but we need to know as well that when we sin unconsciously even on an average day, or perhaps many times, there is the blood of Christ who atones continually for us.

When we are tempted we are to remember He dwells within us. He will give me the power to turn from the temptation. He will give me a way out under it, that we might be free for the Spirit of God lives in us. The Spirit of God can empower us to live a new life. The Spirit of God lives in our body, that means our physical body is worthy of honour. We mustn't see it in a way that is negative. For example, your body and its desires are not to control you, that's an extreme. You shouldn’t idolize your body by doing excess exercises and pump yourself up and live for pleasure, that's hedonism. We are not to give in to every urge. You mustn't do what the advertisers say, “Just do it!” Instead, you are to honour God with your body. He dwells within you.

Another extremist ideology is to think that your body can lead you to a spiritual experience to find God, by getting in touch with your inner self. The idea that you can find spiritual tranquillity in your body is another negative extreme. Transcendental meditation or super spiritual living is not the key. Jesus lives in you by His Holy Spirit. Your body is precious. He had a body like yours and has a body like yours. Now in heaven. We as Christians are God's Temple and we can resist either of these two extremes.

Though your body is worthy of divine dwelling, it does not make your flesh and blood the centre of the universe. God is the centre of the universe. Hold your personal longings and urgings in check. Be self-controlled. In the same way, it reminds us that your bodies are good and you don't have to deny your body and despise it. Your body, both spiritually and physically is made in the image of God. God created you and said that you were good when He made you. The totality of your humanity is God's design. Sin has broken and damaged that, but it is the whole person that God declares as very good in Genesis 1:31.

We are not to shun our bodies, nor are we to worship our bodies. The fact that God somehow miraculously dwells within your body is above our comprehension. It shows that your physical body is not to be elevated to inappropriate levels. However, you are to have an appropriate view of your body. In other words, your body image must come from God. It doesn't come from the mirror or the advertisements. Exercise and look after your body. Don't put chemicals into your body that will damage the Temple of the Spirit, whether it's nicotine, drugs or alcohol that will control you in some way.

You are free in Christ to be filled with joy, peace, kindness, self-control and all the fruit of the Holy Spirit. You can run to Jesus every time you're tempted and you’ll find in Him the power to live a new life. The story of the Bible is nothing less than God's initial intimacy with us that He had in the Garden of Eden. It was now lost through our sin. Yet, God has initiated and taken all the steps to restore that intimacy through the death of Jesus Christ on the cross and through the resurrection. Christ is now at the right hand of the Father and comes to us by His Holy Spirit and dwells in us. We see that love in our lives. We see that joy and peace when He is in us. He makes you a Temple of His Spirit. He demonstrates that you now participate in the last chapter of history until He finally dwells among us, and we see Him face to face.

Can you see God? Yes, in Christ we can see God as He dwells in you and as you flee from sin and run to Jesus. He fills you with His peace, joy, patience, kindness and all the Fruit of the Spirit and you’ll have life to the full. You are the Temple of the Holy Spirit. The Tabernacle points you to Jesus and Jesus dwells in you. You are a priest, and you are to live as one in whom God is always present in you and with you. Do you know this Lord Jesus? Have you invited Him into your life? If you have, praise Him with me. If you haven't, perhaps join me and echo this prayer as you pray this with me to God.

Let us pray. O Lord Jesus, thank you that you have come into this world that we might see what God the Father is like. Thank You for Your love in dying for us on that cross. Thank you for Your power that raised You from the dead. Please come into my life, I pray, by the power of Your Holy Spirit. Forgive me all my sin. Sprinkle me with Your blood that I might be cleansed of a guilty conscience. Set me free to live wholeheartedly for You and love you with all my body, mind, soul, and strength. Lord Jesus, dwell within me now by Your Spirit, I pray. Save me, Lord Jesus. I ask this in Your all-powerful name, the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

If that was your prayer you may comment below in the comment section or get in touch with me. I'd love to help you to take the next step but now dwell with Christ. He is in you. You've asked Him to come in and now follow His leading. Read His word. Join with His people and glorify Him and live your life till He comes for you or until He calls for you. To the glory of our one God Father, Son and Holy Spirit. To Him be all the praise and the honour, now and forevermore. Amen.