Advent 2024: The Tabernacle

“And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst.” Exodus 25:8

“This Moses did; according to all that the Lord commanded him, so he did. In the first month, in the second year, on the first day of the month, the tabernacle was erected. Moses erected the tabernacle. He laid its bases, and set up its frames, and put in its poles, and raised up its pillars. And he spread the tent over the tabernacle and put the covering of the tent over it, as the Lord had commanded Moses. He took the testimony and put it into the ark, and put the poles on the ark and set the mercy seat above on the ark. 

Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.” Exodus 40:16-20, 34-35

As a noun, tabernacle is defined as “a fixed or moveable habitation, typically of light construction.” (Oxford English Dictionary)

For the nomadic Israelites, this type of moveable structure for God’s dwelling place on Earth made perfect sense. They had left the slavery of Egypt and been led into the wilderness, still very much uncertain of what was next before entering the Promised Land. It’s at this point– this in between– that Moses climbs Mount Sinai to meet with the Lord. And it is here that Moses receives not only the Ten Commandments, but also very detailed instructions to build the tabernacle, a place the Lord could draw near to his chosen people. 

Maybe, like me, you get to the details of the tabernacle’s construction and you begin to skim, but pause here. Imagine in your mind the artistry and architecture involved. Every detail of its design was meant to draw the people to remember who God is, his history with his people, and also to point to a future together one day in eternity. Pause again and imagine the sight of a massive cloud of God’s presence settling down overhead. 

As I began to prepare for Advent, the tabernacle immediately connected with me. This temporary dwelling feels so relatable to me at the moment. We sold our home over the summer and are in the process of building our new home. In the interim, we are leasing. It took a few months after settling into our new home and a few moments of quiet in a full schedule to put my finger on the lowkey hum of what I had been feeling– the feeling of being in an unsettled place. In an attempt to limit what we unpack now only to have to repack in a few months, we still have boxes piled everywhere. Though not nomadic like the Israelites, I feel the temporariness of our current situation. Yet when I take the time to look, to pause and really look, I cannot help but see the many gifts God has shown us in these months, the gift of his presence woven through this time. 

I don’t know what you are carrying into this Advent. You may be moving, finding yourself in flux in a relationship or at work, having lost a loved one, or just uncertain what the next step God has for you is. But I’d venture to guess many of us can readily draw to mind some experience that leaves us feeling unsettled, waiting, wondering. As we draw nearer to Christmas Day, can I invite you to pause in that feeling? And as you do, to remember our God’s presence with you in that space. 

Earlier, I shared one definition of tabernacle with you. Allow me to share one more. Merriam-Webster Dictionary also defines the verb form of tabernacle. To tabernacle means “to take up temporary residence, especially to inhabit a physical body.” 

The same God who met Adam and Eve in the garden, Moses at the burning bush, led his people by pillars of cloud and fire, and came near in the temporary dwelling of the tabernacle is the same God who took up temporary residence here on Earth in the form of a baby. The tabernacle was a temporary, earthly dwelling for our infinite, uncontainable God, but it was just a hint of what was to come when Jesus was born in Bethlehem. This Christmas, may we find peace with us in our temporary and wilderness places, knowing that as he was for his people throughout time, our God is near. 

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Editor’s Note: Whether he walked with Adam and Eve in the Garden, spoke to Moses through the burning bush, led the Israelites through the wilderness, or let his presence dwell in the Tabernacle, our God has always shown his desire to have a relationship with his people. These instances found in the Old Testament, amazing as they are, are only shadows of what would come when Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Each meeting brought us a step closer on the journey to Bethlehem, to the arrival of our Savior. 

Each week in our Advent reflections, we’ll take a look at one of the ways God drew near to his people leading up to Jesus’s birth.

Advent 2024: The Cloud of Smoke and Pillar of Fire

Imagine you look to your left, your right, before you, behind you, and all you can see are the thousands of people plodding onward into an unknown future. It’s a surreal feeling—you are leaving Egypt, the only home you have ever known, that anyone in your family has known for the past 400 years. You are leaving your job as a brick-maker, the only thing that ever gave you value in the world. And strangest of all, you are being led by a something so odd, you think your eyes must be playing tricks on you—a giant column of a cloud, which at night glows like fire. When it stops, your entire Israelite group stops and makes camp. When it moves, and where it moves, you pack up and follow. 

The whispers start to spread around camp one night, speculating about what even is this thing, as you nervously watch it in the distance. Glowing and waiting – almost like a shepherd watching over a flock. People start to remember some echoes of a story, a story passed down from generation to generation, nearly forgotten, like a candle about to go out. When you hear it, your heart beats faster and you immediately forget the weariness you’ve been carrying: “This isn’t the first time that the God of our people appeared like this”. 

You lean in close as you hear the story retold. The one chosen by God, Abraham, was also fleeing Egypt, and was in a place of doubt. He was losing faith that he could continue to trust God’s promise to him. Abraham asked God for proof—some reason why he could continue to believe. God responded in a strange way—that Abraham should set up a marriage covenant. 

And so Abraham did as he was instructed—gathering animals together and sacrificing them, using them to create a path. He knew what happened next. Two parties would take turns walking down this path of dead animals, declaring that “If I do not hold up my end of the promise, I deserve to be like these animals”. 

Abraham knew that it was now his turn. The less powerful party would walk first, followed by the more powerful party. But Abraham tarried. Maybe he was feeling the weight of what it would mean to make a promise with the One who placed the stars in the sky. As he waited, Abraham fell asleep.

He awoke with a start to a blazing light (could it have been the same one lingering over our camp right now?), and it was going down the path. It was as if God were saying “I promise to be your God, and you will be my people. If either one of us doesn’t hold up our end of the promise, I will become like these animals. I will pay the price”. 

The talk in camp dies down as people head off to sleep, but you lie awake pondering these things, the light of the fire ever-present in the distance. After 400 years of slavery and silence, are we really being saved by the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob? And could it be that this strange, mysterious force leading us and protecting us also cares for us, enough to make this marriage promise for us? 

Over a thousand years later, there was another family fleeing Egypt. This family arrived in Bethlehem, and a light in the sky again acted as a guide. But this time the light was guiding God’s faithful not to a place, but to a person. The Israelites had been again waiting 400 years in silence, waiting to be saved by the promised Messiah, the one God would send to reign on King David’s throne forever.  And he was here. His name is Jesus. He would say about himself “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life (John 8:12).” Could he be that same light from all those years ago? 

And ultimately, Jesus fulfills God’s promise that when we fall short of being God’s people, he would take the punishment and pay the price that we should have paid. 

And so this Advent, we remember that the long-expected Jesus, this Light of the World, is worth following after. By his light, all other things become clear. The Light of the World, who God has sent, lights up the darkness in our world around us, and the darkness in ourselves. This Light of the World ultimately guides us to the peace that our wandering hearts have been longing for. 

References: Exodus 13, Genesis 12, Genesis 15, John 8:12

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Editor’s Note: Whether he walked with Adam and Eve in the Garden, spoke to Moses through the burning bush, led the Israelites through the wilderness, or let his presence dwell in the Tabernacle, our God has always shown his desire to have a relationship with his people. These instances found in the Old Testament, amazing as they are, are only shadows of what would come when Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Each meeting brought us a step closer on the journey to Bethlehem, to the arrival of our Savior. 

Each week in our Advent reflections, we’ll take a look at one of the ways God drew near to his people leading up to Jesus’s birth.

Advent 2024: The Burning Bush

As we spend time waiting, once again remembering Jesus’ arrival on Earth to be with us, we also remember an earlier time where God was with his people, or rather, one of his people, for a moment, a sacred moment that sustained Moses for challenging tasks ahead. In Exodus 3: 1-6 and 11-15 we read,

“Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.” When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!”

And Moses said, “Here I am.” “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God…[and then after God explains that He has heard the cries of the Israelites in slavery and is commissioning Moses to go free them, Moses asks] “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.” Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?” God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’” God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’ “This is my name forever, the name you shall call me from generation to generation. 

In Isaiah 7, the prophet tells of a future time when the Great I AM would come again to be with his people:

“Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign: Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.”

And in Matthew 1, we read how an angel of the Lord spoke to Joseph and gave him courage to stay committed to Mary, saying that the son she carried, Jesus, was the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy. He would truly be “God with us.” Think about how similar the word Immanuel is to the words “I AM”; God with us is the great I AM.

I’ve been thinking about how God is always with us. Some of you know that Dave and I host a community group that uses the liturgies from a series of books called Every Moment Holy. The premise is that God is in every moment of life, not just the obviously religious ones. When we notice that and invite His perspective and create a moment of worship, we can make any moment holy.

And so I have been thinking about the holy moments that we are having with our Afghan family. Each time when we enter their home, we take off our shoes, just like God told Moses to take off his shoes. And I think about how this simple act reminds me that my time there with them is a holy moment where God is present. Maybe you have the routine of taking off your shoes as you enter your own home. Think about this simple act. Pause and remember that because Jesus came to Earth and was Immanuel— the GREAT I AM is actually present.

The same God who revealed himself through a burning bush and would be born a baby in Bethlehem who would live with his people, is today with His people through His omnipresent Holy Spirit. He truly is the Great I AM and we are part of the generations through the ages who proclaim that to be so.

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Editor’s Note: Whether he walked with Adam and Eve in the Garden, spoke to Moses through the burning bush, led the Israelites through the wilderness, or let his presence dwell in the Tabernacle, our God has always shown his desire to have a relationship with his people. These instances found in the Old Testament, amazing as they are, are only shadows of what would come when Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Each meeting brought us a step closer on the journey to Bethlehem, to the arrival of our Savior. 

Each week in our Advent reflections, we’ll take a look at one of the ways God drew near to his people leading up to Jesus’s birth.

Advent 2024: The Garden

Editor’s Note: Whether he walked with Adam and Eve in the Garden, spoke to Moses through the burning bush, led the Israelites through the wilderness, or let his presence dwell in the Tabernacle, our God has always shown his desire to have a relationship with his people. These instances found in the Old Testament, amazing as they are, are only shadows of what would come when Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Each meeting brought us a step closer on the journey to Bethlehem, to the arrival of our Savior. 

Each week in our Advent reflections, we’ll take a look at one of the ways God drew near to his people leading up to Jesus’s birth.

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The Garden

Genesis 3:8-10 – “Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, ‘Where are you?’ He answered, ‘I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.’ ”

I’ve often wondered what it was like to be Adam. First human being, first man, having the first woman alongside you for the ride. But more than that, I’ve often wondered what Adam’s relationship with the Lord was like and how I would have reacted if, on a cool, breezy, sunny day in that lush Garden all those centuries ago, God had suddenly decided to sidle up to me – as he did with Adam and Eve.

I would have been awestruck. Terrified. Diving for the nearest bush whether I was naked or not. I’d like to believe I would have realized the sheer magnitude and significance of that singular moment in time, but like Adam, I probably would have been ashamed, ignorant, or perhaps too self-involved to truly notice.

The Lord God’s stroll through the Garden that day marks the first time he was literally “with us.” Even though this remarkable appearance wasn’t in literal human form, God revealing himself to Adam and Eve as a sound – like that of an all-enveloping rushing wind – signified His desire to be with us, to share his masterpiece with us. After all, why would He have created us if he didn’t desire our companionship?

It's also important to remember that the Lord God, in all his infinite, boundless power and glory, could have lost patience with humankind right then and there, choosing to snuff out Adam and Eve and begin anew with more compliant, reverent models. But he didn’t. That incredible act of ceaseless love brings to mind the lyrics of an old hymn my childhood church used to sing quite often:

 “He speaks and the sound of His voice, is so sweet the birds hush their singing. And the melody that he gave to me, within my heart is ringing … And He walks with me, and He talks with me. And He tells me I am His own. And the joy we share as we tarry there, none other, has ever, known!”

How magnificent is that? The Lord God of Adam and Eve still walks and talks with us today, and he does so because of another miraculous, selfless choice. He opted to come to Earth as an innocent, pure baby; experience all of the same highs and lows Adam and Eve endured; then sacrifice himself on the cross for their sins and those committed by every single human being since that day in the Garden. He opted to declare, for all to hear, that he desires us forever and without exception.

So as we march headfirst into the usual hustle and bustle of the Christmas season, take a moment – take a few moments – to remember why the Lord God did all that. He didn’t have to. He wanted to. He wants to walk with us, to talk with us, and to continually, forever call us his own. And that’s something worth singing about.