Building a tabernacle of meeting: Who is God to YOU?

As we are still lingering in His Presence - a question was posed to me this weekend that I am still pondering.  The question is: "Who is this God we are meeting in the tent of meeting to YOU?"  There are many scriptures we can quote that describes who He is.

To Moses, He was a friend (Ex 33), Whom he could talk to face to face.  To Jacob, He was the God he wrestled with and came out crippled by, saying, "I saw the face of God and yet lived". So intense was the experience that he was relieved to be alive.  Who was God to Ruth?  From my perspective I always wonder what she saw in Naomi's God that made her say, "Your people will be my people and your God will be my God." She lost her husband, father-in-law, brother-in-law, and her mother-in-law was sufficiently bitter about all her hardships that she asked to be called "Mara", which means 'bitter', because she said that God made her life bitter.   What did Ruth see in the God of Naomi that made her leave her own country, family, friends and all that was familiar to her to journey with Naomi to a foreign country, accept a foreign culture and God?  I don't have an answer but I do know the fruit of that decision was profound.  She married Boaz and from their union Obed was born, and from that generational line the Messiah was born many many years later.  

So back to the question - "Who is this God we are meeting in the tent of meeting to YOU?"  Good question.  Lots to think about and to try to put into words.  So how would you answer this question today, this week, for yourself?  Who is God to YOU?

Here is my answer:

Song of Solomon by Martin Smith 

Building a tabernacle of meeting: Lingering in His presence

This week, I contemplated the question - "What happens after we have been in the weighted glory-presence of God?" What comes after that?  For a while I had no answer, until Ex 33:11 caught my attention.  It says the following:

¹¹ The Lord spoke with Moses face to face, just as a man speaks with his friend. Then Moses would return to the camp, but his assistant, the young man Joshua son of Nun, would not leave the inside of the tent.

There are two very different people in this verse with very different ways of relating to God.  Both had an amazing relationship with God, although in different ways.  There was a conversation between God and Moses, a face to face conversation "just as a man speaks with his friend". No doubt Moses discussed all kinds of things with God, presumably how to govern and lead the people, etc.  When the conversation was over, he returned to the camp with an array of wisdom and know-how to go about his daily tasks. This was the basis of Moses's leadership and no doubt this is what made him a great leader.  Not without mistakes, but still a man that the Lord spoke to as one speaks to a friend. 

Joshua on the other hand, 'would not leave the inside of the tent'.  Joshua remained in the presence of the Lord for as long as he possibly could.  It was not quite the time yet for Joshua to lead.  It was his time to soak up the presence of God in his spirit in preparation for leadership.  It was his time to get to know the voice of God.  To get to know the heart of God so that when his time of leadership would come, he would be well prepared to know what God's voice sounded like.  It would bring him to a place where he would understand that, if God gives him uncommon ideas or unusual strategies to take on the enemy, he can trust that voice of God because he has heard and experienced God in the tent of meeting so many times before, that he could be sure that the unusual, uncommon and sometimes illogical things he was going to hear in future was God's voice and His way of dealing with a particular situation.  In short, He was getting to know God's unusual side.  

Both these men, with their vastly different ways of engaging with God in different times in history, were men of God that walked out their callings, although different, still with amazing efficacy.  Yes they made mistakes.  Moses took God's glory and could not enter the promised land because of that.  Joshua did not ask God's counsel in the matter of the Gibeonites and entered into a covenant that was not originally part of the plan for Israel, yet in general both men accomplished their callings because they were in the presence of God.  

So let us linger a little longer in the presence of God.  Let's just be with Him in whichever key of music it comes for you, get to know His voice, so that when the usual or the unusual wisdom of God comes our way we will be so used to His presence and what His voice sounds like that we will not doubt or second guess whether it is Him.

Let us accept the invitation of God to 'Come to Him and to linger in His Presence'  

 Come to Me - Jenn Johnson 

 

Building a tabernacle of meeting: The Glory of God’s Presence

In 2 Chronicles 5 we read the account of the day the Ark was brought into the temple King Solomon build.

2 Chronicles 5:13-14 (AMPC)

13 And when the trumpeters and singers were joined in unison, making one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord, and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and other instruments for song and praised the Lord, saying, For He is good, for His mercy and loving-kindness endure forever, then the house of the Lord was filled with a cloud, 14 So that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of God.

It must have been such a special and spectacular occasion. We read how the Levites were sanctified and brought the Ark to the temple in procession and how everyone was in unison in the praise and worship of God. On that day, all differences in opinions and standpoints seemingly were set aside and replaced with one focus – the focus of Worshiping the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Everybody joined in unison, made one sound, lifted one voice, blew the trumpets together with all kinds of instruments to bring honour to the goodness, mercy and loving-kindness of God that endures forever. The result was a visitation from God. Not just a visitation that would last a few hours but a visitation that was meant to be permanent. God inhabited, was enthroned in the praises of His People (Ps 22:3) to such an extent that He filled His house with His presence. He blessed mankind with His presence and came to dwell with them in a very visible experiential way. The cloud of His Presence and glory filled the house of the Lord. The word “glory” in Hebrew carries the meaning of “heavy” or “weighted”. Thus the “heavily, weighted’ presence of the Lord filled the house with the result that the priests could not stand to minister anymore. They were flat on their faces worshipping an almighty, merciful, good, faithful God whose loving-kindness endures forever!

There is a parallel scripture in the New Testament we can find it in Acts 1:14 and 2:1-4 (AMPC) as we read the following:

14 All these with one mind and one purpose were continually devoting themselves to prayer, [waiting together]…

1When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place, 2 and suddenly a sound came from heaven like a rushing violent wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 There appeared to them tongues resembling fire, which were being distributed [among them], and they rested on each one of them [as each person received the Holy Spirit]. 4 And they were all filled [that is, diffused throughout their being] with the Holy Spirit…

Once again God’s people were together in unison, in one place devoting themselves to prayer and no doubt to worshiping God – waiting for His promise to be fulfilled. Once again, His presence filled the house, but this time Holy Spirit came down and filled the people themselves who were to be His temple, His place of abode, His dwelling place. The death and resurrection of Jesus made it possible for people to be His temple carrying, hosting, housing in our very spirits the blessing of the heavy, weighted presence of God.

Lord it is our prayer and our longing that you will once again fill your ‘house’ your human dwelling place, our spirits with your heavily, weighted presence to the extent that we would not be able to stand to minister. Sanctify us, bring us in unison with You. One voice, one mind, one sound, one purpose – to worship you alone! 

 

Come Holy Spirit Come... Oh the glory of your presence... 

 

 

Building a tabernacle of meeting: God is Sovereign over us

In the tabernacle of meeting we will KNOW, UNDERSTAND and EXPERIENCE God’s Sovereignty.  I am contemplating God’s Sovereignty with a most beautiful view of a Karoo sunrise and I am struggling to put my own words to it.  I am sure there are many scriptures that can be quoted, and I think Job 38-39 is probably one of those places in scripture where God Himself is speaking declaring His Glory and Sovereignty over all His creation.  It is too long to post, and I could not figure out what part of it to quote so if you want to just read those chapters in its entirety. However, another piece of scripture that in a similar way capture something of God’s Sovereignty for me is Psalm 104. Let us read and celebrate God’s Sovereignty today through this scripture.

Psalm 104 (AMPC)

¹ Bless (affectionately, gratefully praise) the Lord, O my soul! O Lord my God, You are very great! You are clothed with honour and majesty. ² [You are the One] Who covers Yourself with light as with a garment, Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain or a tent, ³ Who lays the beams of the upper room of His abode in the waters [above the firmament], Who makes the clouds His chariot, Who walks on the wings of the wind, ⁴ Who makes winds His messengers, flames of fire His ministers. ⁵ You laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be moved forever. ⁶ You covered it with the deep as with a garment; the waters stood above the mountains. ⁷ At Your rebuke they fled; at the voice of Your thunder they hastened away. ⁸ The mountains rose, the valleys sank down to the place which You appointed for them. ⁹ You have set a boundary [for the waters] which they may not pass over, that they turn not again to deluge the earth. ¹⁰ He sends forth springs into the valleys; their waters run among the mountains. ¹¹ They give drink to every [wild] beast of the field; the wild asses quench their thirst there. ¹² Beside them the birds of the heavens have their nests; they sing among the branches. ¹³ He waters the mountains from His upper rooms; the earth is satisfied and abounds with the fruit of His works. ¹⁴ He causes vegetation to grow for the cattle, and all that the earth produces for man to cultivate, that he may bring forth food out of the earth. ¹⁵ And wine that gladdens the heart of man, to make his face shine more than oil, and bread to support, refresh, and strengthen man’s heart. ¹⁶ The trees of the Lord are watered abundantly and are filled with sap, the cedars of Lebanon which He has planted, ¹⁷ Where the birds make their nests; as for the stork, the fir trees are her house. ¹⁸ The high mountains are for the wild goats; the rocks are a refuge for the conies and badgers. ¹⁹ [The Lord] appointed the moon for the seasons; the sun knows [the exact time of] its setting.  ²⁰ You [O Lord] make darkness and it becomes night, in which creeps forth every wild beast of the forest. ²¹ The young lions roar after their prey and seek their food from God. ²² When the sun arises, they withdraw themselves and lie down in their dens. ²³ Man goes forth to his work and remains at his task until evening. ²⁴ O Lord, how many and varied are Your works! In wisdom have You made them all; the earth is full of Your riches and Your creatures. ²⁵ Yonder is the sea, great and wide, in which are swarms of innumerable creeping things, creatures both small and great. ²⁶ There go the ships of the sea, and Leviathan (the sea monster), which You have formed to sport in it. ²⁷ These all wait and are dependent upon You, that You may give them their food in due season. ²⁸ When You give it to them, they gather it up; You open Your hand, and they are filled with good things.  ²⁹ When You hide Your face, they are troubled and dismayed; when You take away their breath, they die and return to their dust.  ³⁰ When You send forth Your Spirit and give them breath, they are created, and You replenish the face of the ground.  ³¹ May the glory of the Lord endure forever; may the Lord rejoice in His works. ³² Who looks on the earth, and it quakes and trembles, Who touches the mountains, and they smoke! ³³ I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have any being. ³⁴ May my meditation be sweet to Him; as for me, I will rejoice in the Lord. ³⁵ Let sinners be consumed from the earth, and let the wicked be no more. Bless (affectionately, gratefully praise) the Lord, O my soul! Praise the Lord! (Hallelujah!)

Sovereign over us

 MW Smith