I was taught that the meaning of Shaken meant glory, but it actually means To Dwell In. As the man I was listening to shared the definition I thought, what better way to bring glory to God than to allow Him to dwell in us. How amazing it is to me that God still wants to live not only among, but within His children. He wants a sacred place to commune with His people.
From The Garden of Eden in Genesis to Revelation: 21:2-3 the design was to have fellowship with us. When God had the Israelites build a tabernacle the goal was to dwell among them.
The purpose of the tabernacle was to promote intimacy between God and his people. We focus so much on the sacrifices and details of the preparation that we miss out on the main purpose. God did give them precise ways to handle the process, in fact He was adamant that they followed the pattern He put before them.
Exodus 28:35 "Aaron will wear this robe whenever he ministers before the LORD, and the bells will tinkle as he goes in and out of the LORD'S presence in the Holy Place. If he wears it, he will not die."
Yikes!! Those are some pretty scary words. We worry about what we will wear to church for our own vain reasons, and to be honest no real regard for what God might think, but we don't worry about dying! God still cares about the process of worship.
God brought His children out of Egypt for a reason, He tells us in
Exodus 29:45-46 "Then I will live among the people of Israel and be their God , and they will know that I am the LORD their God. I am the one who brought them out of the land of Egypt so that I could live among them. I am the LORD their God."
As a mom I have been blessed to live most of my life among my children and grandkids. At one time my oldest son, daughter and I had houses on the same block. My grandsons Anthony and Lucas (now 21 and 19) could just walk over to Nana's house whenever they wanted to!
I love doing life with my kids and desperately want to be a part of my grandchildren's lives as they grow.
I imagine God has a HUGE refrigerator in Heaven with all our pictures on it! God wants to be one with us, it's why Paul says our body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. A place for God to work in and through our lives. The tabernacle was also a place of meeting. Then, like now, there were those who were not ready for an intimate relationship with God, so the tabernacle was a place of meeting among His people to draw others to commune with Him. It was a place to meet and learn about God.
Ya'ad, To meet with you, to arrange things. The word stems from Moadim. I will meet with you, it's why God set up feast days, appointed times He would meet with His people, to dwell among them. We are to continue to learn God's ways, to be a holy people that God can use to draw others close to Him. He is the God of relationship.
The "how" He makes that happen is not always easy and because we are all different the application and results are not the same.
For example: God extended many invitations to King Nebuchadnezzar. According to the Bible, Nebuchadnezzar had more visions from God than any of the other ancient heathen kings. He even saw messengers (angels of God), and his kingship was full of visions and demonstrations of God's miraculous powers. Because He would not acknowledge God's sovereignty, Nebuchadnezzar was driven out of human society and ate grass like an ox. The dew fell on his body, and his hair grew as long as eagles' feathers and his nails as long as birds' claws. “When the seven years had passed,” said the king, “I looked up at the sky, and my sanity returned." King Nebuchadnezzar acknowledged the Kingship of God and his life was restored to him.
His son, King Belshazzar, had a different experience. He's in the middle of a full blown orgy in the palace and making it clear how powerful he is and a hand, no body, shows up writing on the wall. Read Daniel chapter 5 for the full story.
We tend to think the miracle is the bodyless hand but the true miracle is that God loves us enough that even when we do not seek Him, He still comes seeking us. Was the hand there to pass judgement? No the hand came as an invitation, it wasn't about the writing but the writer. God let's Belshazzar know the meaning of what was written on the wall.
Daniel 5:26 “Here is what these words mean:
Mene: God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end.
27 Tekel: You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting.
God is letting him know according to HIS holy scales Belshazzar doesn't make the cut.
Belshazzar has a very different ending than his father, he does not accept the invitation and continues with a hard heart and that very night the Babylonian king was killed. We have always had free will to accept or not accept a relationship with our Creator.
The idea that God wants to dwell in me is still mind boggling. Just as God had very specific instructions on how the temple was to be laid out, and the process to follow, exactly, with no variations by man, He still gives instructions for relationship. Consider that because of what Yeshua, Jesus did for us on the cross God has gone from dwelling among to dwelling IN us.
God was clear with His instructions to Aaron and the priest of what they should wear and the tasks they were to perform. We have clear instructions today as well. Jesus said, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35.) The way we love demonstrates who we are. The way we live is the first word we speak about the Gospel and the transformational power of the cross.
Gems, there is only one way for God to dwell in you and that is through the power of the blood of Jesus. He bore and paid the price for all our sins. He died on a cross and was raised to life 3 days later. He sits at the right hand of God and has given us a place within the family of God to live for eternity as a gift of love.
Once we have accepted that gift it is our responsibility to learn Romans 12:1-2 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service."
We don't get to pick and choose what that looks like anymore than the children of Israel did in the Old Testament. We don't get to negotiate terms with God on what we think is fair, we GET to have the most high God dwell in us!
God does not leave us clueless of the process, He has given us the Holy Spirit to lead and guide us, BUT you have to seek Him. These scriptures are the "how" for all of us.
- Do not withhold good (Proverbs 3:27)
- Lending to the Lord (Proverbs 19:17)
- Let your light shine (Matthew 5:14-16)
- The greatest will be your servant (Matthew 23:11-12)
- Whatever you did for the least of these (Matthew 25:40)
- The Son of Man did not come to be served (Mark 10:42b-45)
- Give, and it will be given to you (Luke 6:38)
- It's better to give than receive (Acts 20:35)
- Practice hospitality (Romans 12:9-13)
- Serve one another humbly (Galatians 5:13-14)
- Carry each other's burdens (Galatians 6:2)
- Value others above yourself (Philippians 2:3-4)
- He will not forget your work (Hebrews 6:10)
- Do not forget to do good (Hebrews 13:16)
- Above all, love each other deeply (1 Peter 4:8-10)
Here's the thing Gems, God said IF Aaron and the priest dressed the way he commanded they would not die.
We think we can dress our temple any way we want and there will be no consequences. We tend to join churches that tell us what we want to hear. We have no regard for sin or the price that Christ paid for our forgiveness. We think we can dress our temple however we want and God has to accept it, like we are the ones who decide the scales of holiness.
God is very clear with the results of His gift of salvation.
1 Peter 2:9-11
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.
If you don't wear His righteousness than you may want to ask yourself if you will come up short on the scales of God.
I pray you will decide to accept God's invitation to dwell IN you because there are only 2 choices, life or death. You will either spend eternity in Heaven or Hell.
