God wanted his people to know that he was with them and that his disposition towards them was one of love and favour. So, he had them build a tabernacle that would remind them of this. The tabernacle, also called the “tent of meeting,” was to be the place where people met with God and, by its symbolism, the mechanism that showed them how this was possible. Notice that the tabernacle was to be made from materials collected from the people. These were to be received, not as an obligation, but as a free response to God’s promise and the opportunity to create something by which they could regularly connect with God. What God said to Moses he also says to us: “Have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them” (25:8). The new covenant sanctuary is not an assembly of inanimate materials but an assembly of people (1 Corinthians 3:16; Ephesians 2:22). Every Christian is a part, a building block, in this ‘temple’. As with the materials donated to Moses’ tabernacle, we must give ourselves freely and wholeheartedly to God. Such ‘building materials’ create something in which God will dwell and through which God will send out his love and favour. God is building his tabernacle and he is calling you to be a part of it. Let your life be joined together with others to create a sanctuary for God. This is what Jesus is doing today; he is building a church against which the very gates of hades will not prevail (Matthew 16:18). To follow Jesus is to make this your priority.
Pray for your church that it might be all that Jesus wants it to be.
Read Exodus 25:1-9
