Readings for today: Exodus 26-28, Matthew 21
In yesterday’s reading, we came across this incredible story. “Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up, and they saw the God of Israel. There was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness. And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; they beheld God, and ate and drank.” (Exodus 24:9-11) It’s a powerful scene. Moses and the leadership of Israel going up the mountain to meet with God. The plain sense of the text suggests they actually enter heaven. They see God face to face. I try to imagine what that journey must have been like. One moment they are climbing over rocks and boulders and the next they’re walking on sapphire pavement. One moment they are surrounded by smoke and fire and a great cloud and the next they can see for what feels like miles. One moment they’re weary and tired and struggling for breath and the next they’re sitting down at God’s table to eat and drink.
“Mountaintop experiences” are part of the Christian life. Moments in time when it feels like the veil between this world and God’s world grows very thin. It might happen on a retreat. It might happen during a worship service. It might happen on a mission trip. These are powerful experiences meant to propel our faith forward. When we have them, the temptation is to make them normative. To do all we can to hold onto them. I think of Peter, James, and John on a mountain watching Jesus become transfigured before them. Their response? Let’s set up camp and hang out here forever! I imagine Moses and the rest of Israel’s leadership must have felt the same way. But life isn’t lived on the mountaintop. It’s lived in the valley. So back down the mountain they go.
Then they come down and immediately construction on the Tabernacle begins. The place where God will meet with His people. The literal “tent of meeting.” Tabernacle. Altar. Courts. Lamps and lampstands. Curtains. Even the priestly garments of Aaron and his sons who will minister before the Lord. All have their antecedents in heaven. All are copied from the heavenly Tabernacle where Moses and the elders had just met with God. All are attempts to approximate what they had just seen and experienced. If you ever wonder why there is such attention to detail in these chapters, put yourself in their sandals. Would you not do the same? If you had just come from heaven, would you not want to recreate everything you have just seen?
Furthermore, they know they are building at God’s direction and command. Pause and think about that for just a moment…the Living God who rules and reigns over the universe desires to meet with His people! He gives them plans to create a holy space where He can come down and dwell among them! Amazing! God claiming physical space on the earth which will be His space. Sacred space. Heavenly space. To enter this space is to enter heaven itself. To enter this space is to enter the presence of God in a very tangible, concrete way. How gracious is our God to condescend to us in this way!
In churches all over the world, believers pray the prayer Jesus taught us to pray. We pray many things in that prayer but one of the lines says this, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” When we pray this prayer, we are asking God to make His dwelling among us. We are asking God to invade our space. To invade our world. To claim the earth as His own. In a very real way, the church itself is to be a little taste of the Kingdom in this world. A colony of heaven in a culture of death. Believers who pray for God’s will to be done on earth, pray with the awareness that this begins in each individual’s life. As we surrender and submit our will to God, we become living tabernacles of the Holy Spirit. God making Himself known through us to the world.
Readings for tomorrow: Exodus 29-30, Matthew 22:1-22