God With Us

Since Christ has ushered in a New Covenant through His shed blood, the rites and ordinances of temple worship have been fulfilled.  Even if the Temple was rebuilt and the Ark of the Covenant found, it would be an empty exercise.  Instead of the Spirit of God dwelling in the Holy of Holies above the Ark of the Covenant, through the Gospel Christians are made the temple of the Holy Spirit.  Unfathomable access to God and His throne room of grace have been made possible through the indwelling Spirit of God within us through the Gospel.  I am always amazed and grateful we no longer have to follow the letter of the Mosaic law concerning the temple.  God laid down very specific commands and a process of worship that had to be obeyed.  The consequences for disobedience were very severe:  death to the priests who transgressed!

Though God is worth all effort and sacrifice, the demands of the law seemed to create an incredible inconvenience to come before the presence of God with the shedding of blood of sacrifices and offerings made by fire on the sanctified altar.  The lamp was to be kept perpetually burning, and bread was to be kept on the Table of Showbread always.  Every day lambs needed to be sacrificed.  Priests needed to be washed, anointed, and sanctified to perform their duties.  Worship of God was literally a full-time, 24 hours a day job.  It was labour the Jews were joyful to relish, for they worshiped the One True God, the Creator of Heaven and Earth who revealed Himself especially to them.  He committed His laws and statutes to them as a people:  He would be their God, and they would be His people.  They shared a special relationship with God because God chose them.

God spoke to me today as I read a scripture in Exodus 29:44-45:  "So I will consecrate the tabernacle of meeting and the altar. I will also consecrate both Aaron and his sons to minister to Me as priests. ⁴⁵ I will dwell among the children of Israel and will be their God."  It makes sense that man should want to know God and draw near to Him.  The phenomenal thing is not the specifics of the pattern of the temple, the articles, or vestments, but that God desired to dwell among His people!  Here is the point:  God did not implement these laws because He wanted to make it difficult to approach Him.  God made a way so man could approach Him.  God fervently desired to dwell among His people.  But if He dwelt among them as a holy, righteous God without the appropriate sanctifying safeguards, they would be utterly consumed in a moment.  God wanted to be among His people with a fervent desire His people could never know.  The laws governing temple worship were there for the protection of the people - not to create a cross to bear.  Temple worship did not even provide the closeness God desired, so He sent His only Son Jesus.  Jesus would bear a cross for us on Calvary, when He bore the sins for all mankind as the perfect Lamb of God.

From the beginning it was never what a man could do for God, but what God has done for man!  Let all people rejoice, for God desires to dwell with you forever!  Jesus came to redeem men to Himself.  Jesus says in John 14:3, "And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also."  Again, the Old Testament rules and regulations pointed to the person of Jesus Christ who would fulfill them.  He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  Jesus is called Immanuel, translated "God with us."  He will never leave or forsake those who have been purchased by His blood through the Gospel.