9:1 And the LORD spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the first month of the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying, 2 “Let the people of Israel keep the Passover at its appointed time. 3 On the fourteenth day of this month, at twilight, you shall keep it at its appointed time; according to all its statutes and all its rules you shall keep it.” 4 So Moses told the people of Israel that they should keep the Passover. 5 And they kept the Passover in the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, at twilight, in the wilderness of Sinai; according to all that the LORD commanded Moses, so the people of Israel did. 6 And there were certain men who were unclean through touching a dead body, so that they could not keep the Passover on that day, and they came before Moses and Aaron on that day. 7 And those men said to him, “We are unclean through touching a dead body. Why are we kept from bringing the LORD’s offering at its appointed time among the people of Israel?” 8 And Moses said to them, “Wait, that I may hear what the LORD will command concerning you.”
9 The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 10 “Speak to the people of Israel, saying, If any one of you or of your descendants is unclean through touching a dead body, or is on a long journey, he shall still keep the Passover to the LORD. 11 In the second month on the fourteenth day at twilight they shall keep it. They shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. 12 They shall leave none of it until the morning, nor break any of its bones; according to all the statute for the Passover they shall keep it. 13 But if anyone who is clean and is not on a journey fails to keep the Passover, that person shall be cut off from his people because he did not bring the LORD’s offering at its appointed time; that man shall bear his sin. 14 And if a stranger sojourns among you and would keep the Passover to the LORD, according to the statute of the Passover and according to its rule, so shall he do. You shall have one statute, both for the sojourner and for the native.”
The Cloud Covering the Tabernacle
15 On the day that the tabernacle was set up, the cloud covered the tabernacle, the tent of the testimony. And at evening it was over the tabernacle like the appearance of fire until morning. 16 So it was always: the cloud covered it by day1 and the appearance of fire by night. 17 And whenever the cloud lifted from over the tent, after that the people of Israel set out, and in the place where the cloud settled down, there the people of Israel camped. 18 At the command of the LORD the people of Israel set out, and at the command of the LORD they camped. As long as the cloud rested over the tabernacle, they remained in camp. 19 Even when the cloud continued over the tabernacle many days, the people of Israel kept the charge of the LORD and did not set out. 20 Sometimes the cloud was a few days over the tabernacle, and according to the command of the LORD they remained in camp; then according to the command of the LORD they set out. 21 And sometimes the cloud remained from evening until morning. And when the cloud lifted in the morning, they set out, or if it continued for a day and a night, when the cloud lifted they set out. 22 Whether it was two days, or a month, or a longer time, that the cloud continued over the tabernacle, abiding there, the people of Israel remained in camp and did not set out, but when it lifted they set out. 23 At the command of the LORD they camped, and at the command of the LORD they set out. They kept the charge of the LORD, at the command of the LORD by Moses.
Footnotes
[1]9:16Septuagint, Syriac, Vulgate; Hebrew lacks by day
7:1 Now when the king lived in his house and the LORD had given him rest from all his surrounding enemies, 2 the king said to Nathan the prophet, “See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells in a tent.” 3 And Nathan said to the king, “Go, do all that is in your heart, for the LORD is with you.”
4 But that same night the word of the LORD came to Nathan, 5 “Go and tell my servant David, ‘Thus says the LORD: Would you build me a house to dwell in? 6 I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent for my dwelling. 7 In all places where I have moved with all the people of Israel, did I speak a word with any of the judges1 of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, “Why have you not built me a house of cedar?”’ 8 Now, therefore, thus you shall say to my servant David, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be prince2 over my people Israel. 9 And I have been with you wherever you went and have cut off all your enemies from before you. And I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. 10 And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more. And violent men shall afflict them no more, as formerly, 11 from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel. And I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover, the LORD declares to you that the LORD will make you a house. 12 When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, 15 but my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. 16 And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me.3 Your throne shall be established forever.’” 17 In accordance with all these words, and in accordance with all this vision, Nathan spoke to David.
David’s Prayer of Gratitude
18 Then King David went in and sat before the LORD and said, “Who am I, O Lord GOD, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far? 19 And yet this was a small thing in your eyes, O Lord GOD. You have spoken also of your servant’s house for a great while to come, and this is instruction for mankind, O Lord GOD! 20 And what more can David say to you? For you know your servant, O Lord GOD! 21 Because of your promise, and according to your own heart, you have brought about all this greatness, to make your servant know it. 22 Therefore you are great, O LORD God. For there is none like you, and there is no God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears. 23 And who is like your people Israel, the one nation on earth whom God went to redeem to be his people, making himself a name and doing for them4 great and awesome things by driving out before your people,5 whom you redeemed for yourself from Egypt, a nation and its gods? 24 And you established for yourself your people Israel to be your people forever. And you, O LORD, became their God. 25 And now, O LORD God, confirm forever the word that you have spoken concerning your servant and concerning his house, and do as you have spoken. 26 And your name will be magnified forever, saying, ‘The LORD of hosts is God over Israel,’ and the house of your servant David will be established before you. 27 For you, O LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, have made this revelation to your servant, saying, ‘I will build you a house.’ Therefore your servant has found courage to pray this prayer to you. 28 And now, O Lord GOD, you are God, and your words are true, and you have promised this good thing to your servant. 29 Now therefore may it please you to bless the house of your servant, so that it may continue forever before you. For you, O Lord GOD, have spoken, and with your blessing shall the house of your servant be blessed forever.”
Footnotes
[1]7:7Compare 1 Chronicles 17:6; Hebrew tribes [2]7:8Or leader [3]7:16Septuagint; Hebrew you [4]7:23With a few Targums, Vulgate, Syriac; Hebrew you [5]7:23Septuagint (compare 1 Chronicles 17:21); Hebrew awesome things for your land, before your people
9:1 And the LORD spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the first month of the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying, 2 “Let the people of Israel keep the Passover at its appointed time. 3 On the fourteenth day of this month, at twilight, you shall keep it at its appointed time; according to all its statutes and all its rules you shall keep it.” 4 So Moses told the people of Israel that they should keep the Passover. 5 And they kept the Passover in the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, at twilight, in the wilderness of Sinai; according to all that the LORD commanded Moses, so the people of Israel did. 6 And there were certain men who were unclean through touching a dead body, so that they could not keep the Passover on that day, and they came before Moses and Aaron on that day. 7 And those men said to him, “We are unclean through touching a dead body. Why are we kept from bringing the LORD’s offering at its appointed time among the people of Israel?” 8 And Moses said to them, “Wait, that I may hear what the LORD will command concerning you.”
9 The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 10 “Speak to the people of Israel, saying, If any one of you or of your descendants is unclean through touching a dead body, or is on a long journey, he shall still keep the Passover to the LORD. 11 In the second month on the fourteenth day at twilight they shall keep it. They shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. 12 They shall leave none of it until the morning, nor break any of its bones; according to all the statute for the Passover they shall keep it. 13 But if anyone who is clean and is not on a journey fails to keep the Passover, that person shall be cut off from his people because he did not bring the LORD’s offering at its appointed time; that man shall bear his sin. 14 And if a stranger sojourns among you and would keep the Passover to the LORD, according to the statute of the Passover and according to its rule, so shall he do. You shall have one statute, both for the sojourner and for the native.”
The Cloud Covering the Tabernacle
15 On the day that the tabernacle was set up, the cloud covered the tabernacle, the tent of the testimony. And at evening it was over the tabernacle like the appearance of fire until morning. 16 So it was always: the cloud covered it by day1 and the appearance of fire by night. 17 And whenever the cloud lifted from over the tent, after that the people of Israel set out, and in the place where the cloud settled down, there the people of Israel camped. 18 At the command of the LORD the people of Israel set out, and at the command of the LORD they camped. As long as the cloud rested over the tabernacle, they remained in camp. 19 Even when the cloud continued over the tabernacle many days, the people of Israel kept the charge of the LORD and did not set out. 20 Sometimes the cloud was a few days over the tabernacle, and according to the command of the LORD they remained in camp; then according to the command of the LORD they set out. 21 And sometimes the cloud remained from evening until morning. And when the cloud lifted in the morning, they set out, or if it continued for a day and a night, when the cloud lifted they set out. 22 Whether it was two days, or a month, or a longer time, that the cloud continued over the tabernacle, abiding there, the people of Israel remained in camp and did not set out, but when it lifted they set out. 23 At the command of the LORD they camped, and at the command of the LORD they set out. They kept the charge of the LORD, at the command of the LORD by Moses.
Footnotes
[1]9:16Septuagint, Syriac, Vulgate; Hebrew lacks by day
7:1 Now when the king lived in his house and the LORD had given him rest from all his surrounding enemies, 2 the king said to Nathan the prophet, “See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells in a tent.” 3 And Nathan said to the king, “Go, do all that is in your heart, for the LORD is with you.”
4 But that same night the word of the LORD came to Nathan, 5 “Go and tell my servant David, ‘Thus says the LORD: Would you build me a house to dwell in? 6 I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent for my dwelling. 7 In all places where I have moved with all the people of Israel, did I speak a word with any of the judges1 of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, “Why have you not built me a house of cedar?”’ 8 Now, therefore, thus you shall say to my servant David, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be prince2 over my people Israel. 9 And I have been with you wherever you went and have cut off all your enemies from before you. And I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. 10 And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more. And violent men shall afflict them no more, as formerly, 11 from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel. And I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover, the LORD declares to you that the LORD will make you a house. 12 When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, 15 but my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. 16 And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me.3 Your throne shall be established forever.’” 17 In accordance with all these words, and in accordance with all this vision, Nathan spoke to David.
David’s Prayer of Gratitude
18 Then King David went in and sat before the LORD and said, “Who am I, O Lord GOD, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far? 19 And yet this was a small thing in your eyes, O Lord GOD. You have spoken also of your servant’s house for a great while to come, and this is instruction for mankind, O Lord GOD! 20 And what more can David say to you? For you know your servant, O Lord GOD! 21 Because of your promise, and according to your own heart, you have brought about all this greatness, to make your servant know it. 22 Therefore you are great, O LORD God. For there is none like you, and there is no God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears. 23 And who is like your people Israel, the one nation on earth whom God went to redeem to be his people, making himself a name and doing for them4 great and awesome things by driving out before your people,17:21); Hebrew <i>awesome things for your land, before your people</i></note>">5 whom you redeemed for yourself from Egypt, a nation and its gods? 24 And you established for yourself your people Israel to be your people forever. And you, O LORD, became their God. 25 And now, O LORD God, confirm forever the word that you have spoken concerning your servant and concerning his house, and do as you have spoken. 26 And your name will be magnified forever, saying, ‘The LORD of hosts is God over Israel,’ and the house of your servant David will be established before you. 27 For you, O LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, have made this revelation to your servant, saying, ‘I will build you a house.’ Therefore your servant has found courage to pray this prayer to you. 28 And now, O Lord GOD, you are God, and your words are true, and you have promised this good thing to your servant. 29 Now therefore may it please you to bless the house of your servant, so that it may continue forever before you. For you, O Lord GOD, have spoken, and with your blessing shall the house of your servant be blessed forever.”
Footnotes
[1]7:7Compare 1 Chronicles 17:6; Hebrew tribes [2]7:8Or leader [3]7:16Septuagint; Hebrew you [4]7:23With a few Targums, Vulgate, Syriac; Hebrew you [5]7:23Septuagint (compare 1 Chronicles 17:21); Hebrew awesome things for your land, before your people
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
Jeffrey Heine:
I invite you to open your Bibles to Numbers chapter 9. Take a step out of Exodus. Numbers chapter 9, and we're gonna begin reading in verse 19. Wanna be looking at the tabernacle tonight. A lot of Exodus is dedicated to the book or to, this theme of the tabernacle.
Jeffrey Heine:
We're gonna start in numbers 9. We're gonna take a look at second Samuel a little bit, and then we'll get to Exodus. Begin reading in verse 19 Or verse 18, sorry. At the command of the Lord, the people of Israel set out. And at the command of the Lord, they camped.
Jeffrey Heine:
As long as the cloud rested over the tabernacle, and they remained in the camp. Even when the cloud continued over the tabernacle for many days, the people of Israel kept the charge of the Lord and did not set out. Sometimes the cloud was a few days over the tabernacle, and according to the command of the lord, they remained in camp. Then according to the command of the Lord, they set out. And sometimes the cloud remained from evening until morning.
Jeffrey Heine:
And when the cloud lifted in the morning, they set out. Or if it continued for a day and a night, when the cloud lifted, they set out. Whether it was 2 days or a month or a longer time that the cloud continued over the tabernacle abiding there, the people of Israel remained in camp and did not set out. But when it lifted, they set out. At the command of the lord, they camped, and at the command of the lord, they set out.
Jeffrey Heine:
They kept the charge of the lord at the command of the lord by Moses. Pray with me. Lord, as Jessica has already prayed, we are in desperate need to hear from your words tonight. I ask that you would come and that you would communicate truth. Open up our hard hearts, our tired hearts, our fatigued minds, to your spirit.
Jeffrey Heine:
May we hear truth tonight. I ask that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore, but Lord, let your words remain. May they change us. I pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.
Jeffrey Heine:
Now if you've ever tried to read through the Bible straight through, typically a rookie mistake if you try to do that. Once you get to Exodus, around chapters 25 through 40, you're gonna bog down because all of that is about the tabernacle. And it is a lot of details, and it and it gets kind of, you know, you don't wanna use the word boring, but let me give you a sample. This is from Exodus 26, and it says 50 loops you shall make on the one curtain and 50 loops you shall make on the edge of the curtain. That is the 2nd set.
Jeffrey Heine:
The loop shall be opposite one another, and then you shall make 50 clasp of gold and couple the curtains one to another with a clasp so that the tabernacle may be a single hole. You shall also make curtains with goat hair. It goes on and on and on about this, and people usually bog down at this point. You're given all of these specifics, all of these little details about the materials for the tabernacle, the width, the length of every single section. One third of Exodus is appointed for the tabernacle.
Jeffrey Heine:
Gives us all of these details. Details such as curtain rods, all of the furniture, the clasp for the for the supports, the the support beams, the pegs, different lampstands, all of the furniture there, the types of fabric, what color is each one of these these, cloths to be? At times, really, if you're reading it, it sounds more like, and I'm not making this up, it sounds like kind of a home and garden magazine. When you're reading through it, you know, how do you hang the curtains? How do you put the rug?
Jeffrey Heine:
What's the best place to put the furniture? And it goes on and on about this. But why? Why is a third of the book of Exodus dedicated to the tabernacle? Well, certainly one of the reasons is to show us the importance of worship, the central importance to worship.
Jeffrey Heine:
I mean, that's what the tabernacle was set up for, is to teach the Israelites how they can worship the Lord. Worshiping God is not something you just throw together. You just throw together and kinda see what happens. Our worship has to be focused. Details matter.
Jeffrey Heine:
Remember, the the Israelites here, they're they're very young in their faith. They need a whole lot of instructions. They don't really know this god that well who has redeemed them, and so god sets up the tabernacle kind of as a teaching tool to guide them through worship. Obedience is crucial to worship, and we see this all throughout Exodus. Chapters 25 through 31 of Exodus is God giving the instructions, all the details how to build this tabernacle.
Jeffrey Heine:
Chapters 35 through 40, 41, are almost verbatim the exact same thing except it's, thus they did this, thus they put it together this way. It is almost the exact same as showing them that they actually obeyed each one of the commands of the Lord. Now Moses could have simply, when he was written it down a lot easier way, would have just been said, all that the Lord commanded, He did. Period. He would have saved 6 chapters of print.
Jeffrey Heine:
But instead, he wants to go through each one of the little details. The clasp, they did them just like that. The little rings, they did them exactly like that. Builds shows every single way that they obeyed the Lord, because obedience is crucial when we've come to worship. Now, over the last few weeks, I've looked at a lot of studies that have focused on all of the minutia really of the tabernacle.
Jeffrey Heine:
Some of the stuff has been really good, some has been bad, perhaps some of you have gone through studies of the tabernacle. I spent weeks reading through all different types of fabrics. How the tint was covered with seal skin, how the blue dye they got, they actually got from a little sea snail, and they imported it, and they crushed it, and they use that to get the little shade of blue that they had. And and you could go on and on with all these little details there, but I've decided not to talk about those. Or the endless typologies or really allegory that you can pull out from it.
Jeffrey Heine:
And basically, you can make the tabernacle mean whatever you want it to mean. This lampstand means this, and it just goes on and on, all of these different commentaries in these books. The problem is Exodus doesn't tell you the lampstand means this. And so a lot of it is just pure speculation. Some of it's good, some of it's bad, but I'm not gonna share any of that with you.
Jeffrey Heine:
If you have questions, Google it, ask me later. What I found is that people miss the forest because of the trees when looking at the tabernacle. They get so focused on all of the little particulars of which are good. They are symbolic. They do point to a greater reality.
Jeffrey Heine:
I'm I'm not saying don't study those, but I'm saying don't miss the the overall theme and theology of what the tabernacle is about. It's not about sea snails crushing them, getting a certain shade of blue. The the purpose of the tabernacle is to provide god a place to dwell in a unique way with his people in the midst of a community. And right there, I feel like I need to be careful because don't think that God lives in the tabernacle. That's not true, and and scripture does not teach that.
Jeffrey Heine:
The psalmist rightly says that god is everywhere. Where can I flee from your presence? If I go to heaven, you're there. If I go to shield, behold you are there. Wherever you go, god's presence is there, but in a unique way, god's presence fills this tabernacle different than it fills creation in a unique way.
Jeffrey Heine:
It's kind of like, and several commentaries have pointed this out, it's like a portable Mount Sinai. What what happens to Moses way up there in Mount Sinai, they made into this portable tent in which God would come and he would meet with them in the same way. And this is pretty remarkable. If you know anything about the the the religions of the ancient near east, in which people served all different types of gods, and most of them lived on mountains, like Mount Sinai. They lived on mountains and they stayed on mountains.
Jeffrey Heine:
They were aloof. They didn't really care much about what happened way down below. What man's problems weren't, weren't these God's problems, but here you have the God of Israel saying, no, I want to leave the mountain and I want to come and dwell in your midst. I want to be in the midst of your community. I want to join in with your hardships of life.
Jeffrey Heine:
I want to join in with your day to day activities. A matter of fact, I want all of that to be centered around me. And so you see from this that our God is relational. He's not distant, but he's very involved, and this is totally unique. But God's presence, when he comes to us, it does not come in the way that we would choose.
Jeffrey Heine:
I would not choose this way. God comes to live in a tent. That's what the tabernacle is. It's just a glorified tent. A tent is something you take for camping.
Jeffrey Heine:
A tent is is what I would say is a very temporary dwelling. It's certainly not a home. When you settle down, you're not gonna live in a tent. Nobody aspires to someday live in a tent. Tents are good for camping.
Jeffrey Heine:
Tents are good for if you, if you're in the army. If you're in a military movement, you need tents. If you're traveling, but not when one is home. And so you have to ask the question, why? Why does god decide to live in or to dwell in a tent?
Jeffrey Heine:
I mean, if if you look when they're at Mount Sinai, it's only like a 100 or so miles from the edge of the promised land. I mean, they could have just gone there and built a house, built something permanent. They're not far away from that. I mean, it just seems to me a little bit odd that the God of the universe would tell his people to make a little tent instead of a grand temple. And and indeed, it rubbed the Israelites kind of the wrong way too later because they really wanted that temple, and King Solomon would build 1 about 400 years later.
Jeffrey Heine:
If you have your finger in 2nd Samuel, turn to your 2nd Samuel 7. And this is when David, he approaches the prophet Samuel, and he he asked if he can build god a permanent structure, if he can build a temple. And really, if you wanna understand why the tabernacle, you need to understand why not the temple. Why does god not command that? Verse 1 says, now when the king live in the house, in the in his house and the Lord had given him rest from all his surrounding enemies, the king said to Nathan the prophet, see now, I dwell in this house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells in a tent.
Jeffrey Heine:
And Nathan said to the king, go, do all that is in your heart, for the Lord is with you. But that same night, the word of the Lord came to Nathan. Go and tell my servant David, thus says the Lord, would you build me a house to dwell in? I've not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I've been moving about in a tent from my dwelling. In all places where I have moved with all the people of Israel, did I speak a word with any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, why have you not built me a house of cedar?
Jeffrey Heine:
So King David, he comes to the prophet Samuel, and he says, you know what? I have this nice house. It is time for me to build God a house. And without hesitating, I might add without praying, Samuel says, absolutely, man, go for it. Do do do your heart's desire.
Jeffrey Heine:
Yeah. Much as if, you know, somebody had gone up, let's we'll just say a pastor somewhere in in Birmingham and said, I got $20,000,000 that I want to give to you to build a shiny new building, and it's yours right now if you want it. Now, most pastors that I know of, and I would probably almost throw myself in there, prayer wouldn't be the immediate thing. Your immediate instinct would be like, this person, God sent this person here for this. I wouldn't know any pastor who would refuse that, and Nathan was thinking the exact same thing.
Jeffrey Heine:
Here comes somebody saying, I will build a temple, a grand house right now. Go for it. Absolutely. That's gotta be the Lord's will. I mean, he lives in a tent.
Jeffrey Heine:
God says, no. He says, have I ever once said that I was unhappy with this tent? That I wanted an upgrade? That, that, that I wanted something better. He says no.
Jeffrey Heine:
And what Samuel and what David don't realize is that a tent actually better reflects who the Lord is and who he wants his people to be than any temple. Man always wants a temple. God wants a tent. The temple that Israel did choose later to build, and I don't have time to go into all the comparisons, but if you were to compare it with the tabernacle, actually, you can compare it with the golden calf. The temple has far more in common with the golden calf than it does with the tabernacle, and the temple became an idol.
Jeffrey Heine:
When people were building the tabernacle, the people of God, the Israelites, they did their own work, contributed their own money out of a joyful heart, and God gifted them to do this to build something beautiful. They they were willing servants. It was an act of worship. Comparing that to when they built the temple later, actually, the Israelites did not build the temple later later. Solomon had forced slave labor, non Israelites, to build the temple.
Jeffrey Heine:
It wasn't an act of worship, it was an act of hardship. Actually, when Solomon built this, he more closely resembles pharaoh than he does Moses. And just like the golden calf, the temple quickly became an idol. The Israelites would think, hey as long as we got the temple, as long as the temple is not destroyed, God is on our side. And Jeremiah would say, all of you are always saying, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.
Jeffrey Heine:
We got the temple of the Lord. He says, the temple of the Lord means nothing. It's not some that's not God. That's not your idol. It was God's desire all along to live in a tent, and he chose us for a number of reasons.
Jeffrey Heine:
One of which we just read in numbers. Look at numbers 9 again. Numbers 9 verse 18. At the command of the Lord, the people of Israel set out and at the command of the Lord, they camped. As long as the cloud rested over the tabernacle, they remained in camp.
Jeffrey Heine:
And I don't know if you caught the language, but it was really it's kind of a wooden language as it goes through, and you really get the point after about 2 sentences. But the writer, he keeps saying now sometimes we would stay there for a day and then the spirit would leave or the presence of God will move on, and so we'd move. Sometimes it was a month, but we'd always set out when he set out, we'd stay when he stay. This was true if it was for this many days. This was true if it was for this many days, And goes on and on.
Jeffrey Heine:
The point being, they obeyed God whenever they left and whenever they stayed. God determined this. This was God's decision. Whether it was a day, or whether it was a want, or a month, nobody knew. Home is not this place they are going to go to.
Jeffrey Heine:
Home is where the God dictates, this is it. Right here. This is where you settle for right now, and I'm not gonna tell you if we're gonna be here for a day. I'm not gonna tell you if it will be a month. God is on the move.
Jeffrey Heine:
You can see this in his instructions of how to build the ark. Exodus 25 says that they were to make poles, really long poles to carry the ark. And these poles were never ever to be taken out of the ark. Never. It wasn't because they were so beautiful and they really enhanced, you know, how the ark looked.
Jeffrey Heine:
It was so the people would know that God never sits there. You can never contain him. He is always on the move. He's not stagnant. You cannot pin God down, make him do what you want him to do.
Jeffrey Heine:
You can't box him in. And as God's people, they are always gonna go where God tells them to go. Through living in a tent, having the the ark always with poles, God is saying that I want my people to be a people who do what I say, when I say, be on the move when I tell them to move. And we are to still live the same way. Wherever God's presence is, that's our home.
Jeffrey Heine:
Every morning when you wake up and you ask God to fill you with your presence, and then you should ask him, be my guide, dictate when I rise, where I go. When do I stay? Who do I talk to? God, be my guide because he still leads in the same way. And sometimes it's for no rhyme or reason that you will ever figure out.
Jeffrey Heine:
The Israelites couldn't figure this out. There was no reason they stayed here one day versus 1 month. It was simply to obey the Lord. God didn't explain then, he rarely explains now because he wants the reasons that we stay, the reasons we go, the reasons we marry, the reasons we don't marry, the reasons we take a job, the reason we don't take the job is to be because of him. Because of him.
Jeffrey Heine:
And I find it fascinating that 400 years after the Tabernacle was built, when the Israelites build this temple, Finally, you know, they've arrived and they build this temple. And 1st Chronicles says that the Lord gave David the instructions to build the temple. Like the kingship, it wasn't God's idea, but they said, we want a king. He goes, okay, well, here's your king. Like the temple wasn't his idea, but they said, we want a temple.
Jeffrey Heine:
He says, okay, well, you're gonna make a temple. Here's the instructions of how you do it. And so God designs it, and when you look at it, he's actually, at first glance, a horrible architect. A horrible architect if you look at Solomon's Temple and how it is set up. And in 1 Kings 8, it says that when the Israelites, they made this procession and they brought in the Ark of the Covenant, and they bring it into the temple, and they set it in the most holy place, its resting place.
Jeffrey Heine:
It doesn't fit. God's the architect, and it doesn't fit. The poles actually go out of the room. And so as you're approaching this most holy place, you see poles coming out of the room. First Kings 8:8 says that the poles were so long that the ends of them stretched out of the most holy place.
Jeffrey Heine:
Yeah, if if, you know, God's an architect in this city and He makes something of huge importance. This is a huge building. Everybody's waiting for this. If you were to make a mistake like that, you're fired. Yet it's very intentional.
Jeffrey Heine:
God says, Okay, you're gonna have your temple, but you know what? I want you to always know, always see, I'm not at rest, I'm always moving, I'm always working, you can never pin me down. You can't hide me and fix me in that box. And he wants to remind them of that. As God's people, we must be willing to go wherever he goes.
Jeffrey Heine:
There's something else that God is communicating through this construction of this tent, and it's this, that our focus needs to be on the building of it, not on the completion of it. Our focus needs to be on the building of this, not on the completion. And Moses, he went the way he writes, he does this in in a subtle way, but he never once describes the completed tabernacle. He never does. He describes all of these details, but he always describes it in process as it's being built.
Jeffrey Heine:
He never just sits back and he says, this is what it looked like. He says, no. And this is how they put together the rings, and this is how they knit together the curtains, and this is how they put up the poles. And he's always describing the process, never the finished product. And even after the tabernacle is finally finished, it still becomes a process.
Jeffrey Heine:
You're always tearing it down. You're always building it back up. I mean, we we do this each week here, tear it down. It's a pain. I mean, really, it's a pain.
Jeffrey Heine:
You can see the benefits, and I don't think the scripture is talking about whether a church have a building or not. But you can see the benefits of having a building sometimes because, like, man, we don't ever have to take down or set we just leave it. But when God was setting up worship and how he wanted to be worshiped, he said, it's always gonna involve tearing down. It's always going to involve putting it back together. Whether you move 1 mile, whether you move 20, you're always going to be tearing this down and putting it up.
Jeffrey Heine:
And it would drive me crazy, and I'm sure it drove them crazy some. And I don't know if you can relate to this. Lauren and I, we often feel like we are tearing things down just to put them back together, just to tear them down, just to put them back together over and over. I mean, sometimes I feel like my whole life is in transition. I don't know if you feel that.
Jeffrey Heine:
You're like, you're always going. You've never arrived. You're always in transition. You're always waiting for that next step, that next event. You're, you want to remove that latest obstacle and the moment you remove it, you, you have something else.
Jeffrey Heine:
You know, Lauren and I were, or I'll recover from a surgery, and the moment I recover, I'll have another body part breakdown. It's just the way it goes. You know, we'll finally get Caroline and Natalie sleeping through the night, and then we have another baby who won't sleep. And we think, well Georgia, she won't sleep because she has a cold. Well she gets over the cold, then she gets an ear infection.
Jeffrey Heine:
Oh, that's why she's not sleeping. She gets over the ear infection. Oh, then she, she's starting to teethe. That's why she's not sleeping. It's always something.
Jeffrey Heine:
I'll get to know somebody at church here, and I'll pour myself into them, then they move away. Then then I get to know somebody else again, and I wonder if they might leave. Am I gonna keep having to give all this time, all of this energy, only for it to be spent in transition and nothing permanent? And what I'm describing here is life. That's what it is.
Jeffrey Heine:
Life. All of us we long for this fixed place. This place where we can rest. Finally be home. We want stability.
Jeffrey Heine:
We want permanence. We don't want times of transition, but the reality is, we don't know which direction the wind is gonna blow. And we don't have that. Ultimately, our longing for, what we are longing for is heaven on earth. We are longing for the kingdom of God to come.
Jeffrey Heine:
But what we are given now is God's spirit, God's presence, working in a life of transition. I find it interesting that all of my heroes, not all, but the vast majority of my heroes in faith did their best work during times of transition, always during times that they were trying to get out of. John Calvin, you know, he wrote his institutes of the Christian religion when children were all running around him, and so he was so distracted, and when armies were just outside the city gates waiting to seize the city he's in. And all he ever longed for was to to get his own little private study and where he could sit down and just read and pray. And when he got it, his works pretty much ceased.
Jeffrey Heine:
Martin Luther, same way his best works that he put out was when the papacy was trying to kill him, and when enemies from government all these governments were were putting him in exile and trying to kill him, and he came out with his best works, and all he longed for was peace. He didn't want that life of transition, and I had to continually remind myself even when writing this message, Warren and I possibly had one of the worst days we've ever had in probably 5 years, and it wasn't one big thing. It was a ton of little things that drive you insane. You know, like the the the prints are running out of ink, and so you go to get ink, and then you realize, well, you're out of paper, and so you have to go and you have to go and get paper. And then you realize once you're doing that, it's like, Oh, forgot transparencies.
Jeffrey Heine:
I gotta go and get transparencies. Then I forgot about the overhead bulb. You know how many times you could visit office Depot in one day and they are so incredibly slow. And it just it's just little things like that. And I I'm working on this this message, and when I'm doing so, Caroline and Natalie are under the table, rolling up my my pant leg saying, let's tickle daddy.
Jeffrey Heine:
Listen, right right when I'm right here. And so I decided to put it in. I have to constantly remind myself of this because there's question every 5 minutes. It's a miracle if this makes any sense because when I first read through it, it was all these scattered points everywhere because anytime I got any kind of movement, I was asked a question, What? Alright.
Jeffrey Heine:
Where was I? But that's how God works. He meets us in life. Met me in life. In the process of doing this, He decided to dwell in a tent, not a permanent place.
Jeffrey Heine:
He wants to be part of our daily struggles, fight through our hourly temptations that we have. He wants to give us peace when we're just scattered and running every single direction. He wants to be in our midst, say, trust me, I'll tell you when to go. I'll tell you when to stay. I'll tell you when to move.
Jeffrey Heine:
I'll tell you how you can worship. We need to remember this during this Christmas season. You could say it pretty easily that, Mary and Joseph were going through a time of transition, a time of transition. I mean, I can guarantee you as newlyweds, Mary didn't expect to be 9 months pregnant, having to travel a long distance on a donkey for a census, with your extended family as a newlywed, having to spend the night in a barn and give birth to the Messiah. I guarantee you, she did not expect, anticipate this.
Jeffrey Heine:
When angels of the Lord appeared to her and told her she was highly favored. But this is how Jesus came. The gospel of John actually uses a really interesting word to describe the birth of Jesus. John chapter 1, It's a famous passage. John 114, it says, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glorious of the only son from the father, full of grace and truth.
Jeffrey Heine:
And that word and the word became flesh and dwelt. In Greek, that word dwelt is literally tabernacle. You could translate it, and the word became flesh and pitched its tent, pitched its tent among us. He pitched his tent. And just like the tabernacle and Jesus, the fullness of deity dwell.
Jeffrey Heine:
The tabernacle is a shadow, and Jesus is the reality. And this Christmas season, as things are just so crazy, and you just you really feel that transition, and this longing for this home that doesn't exist, that that that peace that you're looking for, that that rest that doesn't exist except for in God. Think of Jesus, who did come to us to walk alongside us, to suffer with us, to be tempted as we are tempted. He's not this aloof God off running the universe, but he has come. And with that, we have great hope and encouragement.
Jeffrey Heine:
Pray with me. Lord, I ask that we would not be discouraged when we feel like we live a life that's always in process, always building, but never anything completed. That's where you find us. That makes us moldable, easily to be shaped by you. And that gives us the true sense of home that we're longing for, which is simply your presence.
Jeffrey Heine:
I pray that you make that reality in our lives, and I pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.