Yesterday we noted that when the Tabernacle was being made detailed instructions were given, many beautiful materials were used and the Holy Spirit came upon people like Bezalel gifting them with creativity. All this was in order to make the Tabernacle a very special place where the Lord could come and ‘meet’ with His people,
Sacrifice for sin was set up in the heart of the Tabernacle. It made it a place where the Lord could come and ‘dwell’ by His Spirit, because it dealt with the sin that separated mankind from the presence of the Lord, Genesis 3:23. God, who loved to be with Adam and Eve, to walk and talk with them, Genesis 3:8, had to remove them from His immediate presence because of their sin. Now, through Jesus’ death and resurrection, God has given us a way back to that same intimate friendship that He always intended to have with mankind.
Forgiveness is at the heart of heavens culture, and at the heart of our ongoing relationship with God. Jesus sacrifice enables us to welcome God into our lives and hearts. The question might then be asked ‘If we know that the Lord will never leave us or forsake us, Hebrews 13:5, because He has removed our sin and made us ‘clean’, is there anything else that we can do to enrich that relationship with Him, to return His love and make Him ever more welcome in our lives?’
Well Jesus Himself had some things to say about that, just listen to some of the words that He spoke to His disciples during His final evening with them…..
“On that day you will realise that I am in the Father, and you are in Me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves Me. He who loves Me will be loved by my Father and I too will love Him and show Myself to him”. Then Judas (not Iscariot) said, “But Lord why do you intend to show yourself to us and not the world?” Jesus replied, “If anyone loves Me, he will obey My teaching. My Father will love him and we will come and make our home with him” John 14:20-23.
Then a little later He gives that teaching, “remain in My love”, and “Love each other as I have loved you”, John 15:9-12. This clearly impacted John greatly and he continued to teach this through his letters to the early church. He wrote ‘No man has ever seen God at any time. If we love one another God dwells in us…. Hereby we know that we dwell in Him and He in us because He has given us of His spirit’, 1 John 4:12.
So the Lord, who will never leave us or forsake us, nevertheless describes for us the kind of place where He loves to dwell. He wants a place where His love is freely received and also freely given to others, Matthew 10:8, A place where we know and thank Him for His forgiveness and freely extend that forgiveness to others. A forgiven and forgiving heart is where the Lord loves to be.
It was during that same ‘Last Supper’ conversation, mentioned above, that Jesus also promised them ‘the Helper’. He said “But the counsellor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have said to you”. John 14:26. This is good news. The Spirit, who was there to inspire Bezalel to make the Tabernacle beautiful for God, has been sent to us by the Father and the Son, John 14:16. He is with us to help us make our hearts a beautiful place where the Lord can comfortably dwell and fellowship with us each and every day.
Let us today thank the Lord that, as with the Tabernacle, He not only tells us how to make our hearts a beautiful dwelling place for Him but He also gives us His Holy Spirit who delights to give us the grace to love each other as He has loved us, and to forgive others who sin against us, just as Jesus taught us to do, Matthew 6:12.
