What does God most want us to know? This is expressed in the tabernacle. The amount of space given to the building of the tabernacle in the book of Exodus attests to the centrality of this symbol for the life and identity of God’s people. As they travelled through the desert they would encamp around the tabernacle, and every day they were reminded of one central and vital fact: God had provided for them to be forgiven and reconciled to himself. That is what the tabernacle with its associated sacrificial system symbolised. The one thing that Jesus asked us to do regularly together, celebrate the Lord’s Supper, signifies the same truth. This is what God most wants you to know: you are forgiven. God has taken away your guilt. There is no divide now between you and God. You can walk with God as Moses did. Just as the tabernacle was central to the life of Israel, so God wants us to make Jesus central to our lives. He is the reality of what all the symbols and sacrifices in the tabernacle foreshadowed. God wants you to live life in constant reference to Christ. God wants you to be constantly aware that there is nothing that separates you now from the love of God. Nothing is more central than that. God could not have paid a higher price to reconcile you to himself. And now, there is nothing that God wants more than to get what he paid for: you. That’s what God most wants you to know. And that is good news.
Note the care that was taken to get the tabernacle built according to God’s exact directives. Reflect on what you have been given in Christ.
Read Exodus 37-39
