Two years ago I was inspired to read through my Bible in a year. I heard a speaker say what he did was simply take the total number of pages in his Bible and divided by 360. This gave him the number of pages per day he needed to read, so that he would read through the Bible once each year. Great in theory, but remember who you are dealing with….yeah. I’m still working on that plan…..two years later. The thing is, when I stumble across something interesting, I stop and reread, and study and well, the one year plan didn’t really work out so well for me. I started in Acts, don’t ask why, and read through the New Testament and now have successfully finished Genesis and Exodus. It took me forever to get through Exodus, because when it gets to the part about building the temple….I had a really hard time focusing. See, I have a hard time envisioning things like that, and so it was kind of…hard. But here’s the thing, the Lord taught me some really cool things from just a few verses in Exodus, which I would like to share with you now. But, please remember who you are dealing with here…and just go with it for a minute.
These verses jumped at me, right off the page!
For Aaron’s sons you shall make tunics, and you shall make sashes for them. And you shall make hats for them, for glory and beauty. -Exodus 28:40
And you shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother, for glory and for beauty -Exodus 28:2
Can you guess which phrase jumped out at me? For glory and for beauty…garments, clothes for glory and for beauty. The Lord was giving specific directions to Moses to make Aaron’s garments for glory and for beauty. It really made me think….
And then, the description of tabernacle…so very detailed, and so very beautiful. Gold, silver, bronze, embroidery, ornate metal work…. there were skilled craftsmen creating beautiful, but also useful items for the tabernacle.
I was struck by the detail and care with which the tabernacle was made…but why was I so surprised? I mean after all, it was to be the dwelling place of God, right? It should be pretty fantastic, don’t you think?
And let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them. According to all that I show you, that is, the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all its furnishings, just so you shall make it. –Exodus 25:8-9
An amazing thing happened over the weeks that I was studying this concept, my brain cells began to talk to one another! I began thinking about this verse,
Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? -1 Corinthians 3:16
Then, because my brain cells were already on speaking terms, I realized another interesting thing. If I am the temple of God now, should I not take care to create a beautiful temple for Him?
What do you think? I would love to hear your comments before I finish my thoughts! :)
I could totally write a book on this whole topic. I will refrain as it often begins disagreements and I find myself hot under the collar.
1. Yes, the NT also speaks of the body being a temple and that we are to treat it as such.
2. the part that extends from this and gets me a bit worked up…this is also one of the many reasons why I believe we should dress up for church. I’ll simply stop there as the more I explain the more it bothers me to see jeans and flip flops in church among other things.
I have to say that I agree. I think that many Christians like to reason that “God looks on the heart” and really doesn’t care what I wear to church, as long as my heart and attitude are reverent. But, our actions(and choices for attire) are an overflow of our heart….