God's Heart - Exodus 25-31

[00:00:00] Thank you for listening to the Calvary Monterey Podcast.

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[00:00:12] And visit nateholdridge.com for additional Bible teaching from our lead pastor, Nate

[00:00:16] Holdridge.

[00:00:20] Teaching today is our lead pastor, Nate Holdridge.

[00:00:23] All right.

[00:00:24] Good morning, church. At this point in Exodus, and our whole point in studying the book of Exodus is to know God. I mean, that's sort of the point of studying scripture. Let's get to know God. Who is he? How does he reveal himself? And I wanna encourage you guys, we're in the second half of Exodus right now. We only actually have two more teachings, I think, after this one, before we finish the book of Exodus.

[00:01:42] But some of you might feel like

[00:01:45] these aren't the good portions of Exodus. talked to you about that larger passage that we're going to read about. So I'm gonna start all the way back in chapter 24, verse 12, where the Lord said to Moses, come up to me on the mountain and wait there, that I may give you the tablets of stone with the law and the commandment,

[00:03:01] which I have written for their instruction.

[00:03:04] And then in chapter 25, verse one,

[00:03:06] the Lord said the table, the lampstand, the altar, the court, the oil, the altar of incense. Then verse one of chapter 28, bring near to you Aaron your brother and his sons with him from among the people of Israel to serve me as priests. Aaron and Aaron's sons, Nadab and Abihu, Eliezer and Ithamar,

[00:04:21] and you shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother

[00:04:24] for glory and for beauty.

[00:04:26] You shall speak to all the And behold, I have appointed with him a holy ab, the son of Ahai Samach of the tribe of Dan. And I've given to all able men ability that they may make all that I have commanded you. And verse 12, jump down to there. The Lord said to Moses,

[00:05:41] you are to speak to the people of Israel

[00:05:43] and say above all, you shall keep my Sabbaths.

[00:05:46] For this is a sign between me and you

[00:05:48] throughout your generations that you would apply it into our lives today. Help us to learn of and from you. In Jesus' name we pray together, amen, amen. Okay, as I mentioned earlier, at this point in Exodus, we know that Yahweh has already rescued Israel from Egypt and now he is reinventing Israel.

[00:07:00] They needed that because they've been programmed

[00:07:03] by their slavery in Egypt.

[00:07:04] So God is speaking to them, God is helping them.

[00:07:06] This is by the's what we've been thinking about the last few weeks together in the book of Exodus. They had gathered at that mountain just as God had said. And the first thing that we saw God do there at that mountain is in chapter 19 where he gave them an invitation. It was kind of like a marriage proposal.

[00:08:21] Do you want to come into this covenant relationship with me?

[00:08:27] They didn't know the the book of the covenant. These are probably laws that extended from the 10 commandments that were meant to govern the lives of the people of Israel at that time. Moses goes back down the mountain, he announces the book of the covenant to the people. They say, we're gonna keep that book.

[00:09:40] That's what we need to do.

[00:09:41] And then the beautiful thing that they do next

[00:09:44] is they offer a sacrifice to build him a house, to build him a tabernacle. Now, nearly all of the rest of Exodus from 25 onward deals with this tabernacle. First, Moses is going to receive the plans to

[00:11:03] the tabernacle. There will be a brief three chapter interlude

[00:11:06] that we're going to look at the beginning of the book, when it's like, Moses is born,

[00:12:20] then Moses is 40, then Moses is 80.

[00:12:22] And it's just like, you're on speed.

[00:12:24] It's cause God's like,

[00:12:25] I don't care about that part of the story.

[00:12:27] Then you get to this part with this passage of Scripture, should we slowly grind our way through it in like a 17 week study looking at the details of the tabernacle complex? Some of you guys would be super into that. And I'm sorry to burst your bubble. We're not doing that. Should we get all up in the types and allusions

[00:13:40] to Jesus that are found all throughout?

[00:13:43] You know, the ark was people of Israel and it can emblaze itself on our hearts as well. It's a building, it's a tent, it's a structure, it's tangible. And through those tangible realities,

[00:15:01] there are spiritual truths

[00:15:03] that God wants to communicate with us.

[00:15:05] So I wanna show you three things today about this passage them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell in their midst." That I may dwell in their midst. This is like already I know that this is corrective for a lot of us in our thinking about the tabernacle. Because a lot of us read about the tabernacle and the priesthood and the

[00:16:22] sacrifices and the feasts and all these steps that were required for people to have fellowship with cry out to God as we sang this morning as our heavenly Father. This is not imagery that is meant to say God is trying to be distant. This is imagery that is meant to say God is stepping towards His people. Now later on in the history of Israel,

[00:17:43] this tent would become a permanent structure. But right now it's a tent.

[00:17:45] And the reason events that happened? They understood their nakedness, they covered themselves and hid themselves from God, who it says when he walked in the garden in the cool of the day said, man, where are you? The idea is that that was the norm

[00:19:02] before sin entered into our species.

[00:19:05] God walking in the Eden, the Sabbath is mentioned with the Lord's seventh saying. So the seventh time the Lord says in Exodus 25 and 31, what does he say? He says, keep the Sabbath. What is the seventh day of creation?

[00:20:20] The day of God's Sabbath rest.

[00:20:23] Like the paradise of Eden, we can know that he is reclaiming a small holy space to carry out his original plans for humanity. And as long as Israel prioritized this facility, there would always be an eidenic place on earth where God dwell with man.

[00:21:43] Now, the reality though is that because of our sin, there had to be a way to deal with it.

[00:21:45] And in that era, God of the tabernacle can help us. Doesn't the ornate design or the intricate worship

[00:23:01] or the tabernacle itself speak to us

[00:23:04] of God's deep love for his people? That's kind of my thing. I never took an art history class. I've never read lots of books. That has never been my interest to get into the study of what art is and its history and all that stuff. So I kind of have no idea what I'm looking at. There's just a general appreciation like, wow, look at that. Somebody could do that. That's great, you know?

[00:24:20] Or like you look at a Jackson Pollock piece

[00:24:21] and you're like, I'm pretty sure I could do that.

[00:24:23] I think, I think I got this, you know, kind of thing.

[00:25:23] complex and powerful that is. For God to spend time with us,

[00:25:25] for Him to enjoy and relate to us,

[00:25:28] for us to enjoy Him,

[00:25:29] it's not just this flippin' thing, is it?

[00:25:32] I mean, you look at the tabernacle

[00:25:33] with all the blood and sacrifice

[00:25:35] and the slow approach and the priesthood,

[00:25:38] and it really helps you appreciate what Jesus did for us,

[00:25:42] to make a way for us to meet with God.

[00:25:44] So that's the first thing I want you to see

[00:25:47] is that I think this passage helps us appreciate performing the priestly duties according to God's directions so that they may not die, it says. And that's like intimidating to us. The blood is like cast around throughout these passages. It's like sprinkled on garments and altars and earlobes

[00:27:00] and feet and toes and fingers.

[00:27:05] And once each year, the pathway to becoming fully and permanently holy and God, the Father's sight was paved. But at this point in the story, the tabernacle was as good as it got. God designed all this as a road back to himself.

[00:28:20] And I wanna say this today,

[00:28:22] the tremendous reality here is that it worked.

[00:29:23] He's at the temple and he's worshiping and he has a vision of God on his throne room

[00:29:27] in the Holy of Holies.

[00:29:29] And he recognizes, oh, I'm sinful like the whole nation.

[00:29:34] I'm a man of unclean lips.

[00:29:36] And then God cleanses him from his sin

[00:29:39] and then he calls him.

[00:29:41] Like the temple was a place where God's people met with God.

[00:29:45] Read those Psalms.

[00:29:46] So often they're singing about meeting with God. the stain of sin, but that it took the blood of the incarnate son of God to save us. We're convinced an animal's sacrifice could never really do the trick. God himself had to become one of us and shed his blood on our behalf and rise from the grave.

[00:31:00] As Hebrews said, by a single offering,

[00:31:03] he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. My ego gets boosted a little bit. Like I just kinda, I don't know what it was. I think when they busted out those big things with the upper line and the lower line and the dot dot dot line in the middle, and they're like, you can make it perfect. I think for me, I was like, oh heck yes, I love this. I'm gonna make it perfect. They're just kinda, I'm not very fun to hang out with, but good handwriting.

[00:32:23] But I had this obstacle, I've always had this obstacle,

[00:32:25] I'm left-handed.

[00:32:27] And it used to frustrate, as much as we might want that, our flesh, our sin, our shortcomings, it kind of still smears the page, right? What do we need? We need grace. We need mercy. We need God's cleansing.

[00:33:40] And the tabernacle, like it was working then,

[00:34:42] all the time, God wants to meet with you. You're like, yeah, He does.

[00:34:44] Of course He does, man, He's so good.

[00:34:47] Or the triumph of grace.

[00:34:50] Oh man, I needed to hear that today.

[00:34:52] I'd had a bad week.

[00:34:53] I wasn't what I wanted to be, the triumph of grace.

[00:34:57] But this last one that God is putting this out there

[00:34:59] to test their earnestness might be a little bit

[00:35:01] of a challenge to us.

[00:35:03] But throughout the directions,

[00:35:05] the phrase you shall to build the house.

[00:36:22] God could have just materialized it if he wanted to,

[00:36:25] but he wanted them to be involved in this process. Are you gonna come to God's house? Are you gonna worship the Lord? Are you gonna pursue him? Are you gonna seek his face? In fact, one way that you can understand all the Old Testament prophets, like I don't know if you guys have gotten there in your Christian journey yet, but to read Isaiah through Malachi, the prophets that spoke to the ancient people of Israel, one way to read them is as a pleading from God

[00:37:44] whenever his bride said, you guys are an amazing church. You've done some amazing things, but here's what I have against you. You've left your first love. You need to repent and you need to return to the very first deeds.

[00:39:00] I need to see that earnestness once again.

[00:39:02] And at the end of those seven letters,

[00:39:05] Jesus exhorted the lukewarm Laodicean church. Show me your earnestness to have a walk with me." To me, Jesus's invitations sound so similar to Yahweh's invitation to Israel to build his tabernacles so that he might dwell in their midst. It's what the Lord desires of us.

[00:40:20] He wants to bring us into this relationship with himself.

[00:40:25] Hebrews four verse 16 says, to do this, you know, they do the vows, she goes through the motions, the reception, you know, they're cutting the cake and he's all into it smooshing the cake in her face and she's just like, you know, walking away, that's dancing on the dance floor and she's not out there. You know, imagine that disparity.

[00:41:42] It would break your heart.

[00:41:43] It would break your heart.

[00:41:44] You know, the Lord is looking structure that was built back then was a temporary thing. We don't need it anymore. Jesus came, John says, he tabernacled among us and we beheld his glory. And now when we believe in Jesus, the Spirit of God comes to live not in the ark

[00:43:00] or the holy of holies, but in our human hearts,

[00:43:04] dwelling with us, knowing us, engaging with us.