Articles
Missing the Point
Missing the Point
More often than not, wake-up calls come from others who are concerned about you. It is a truly rare circumstance when you wind up delivering a wake-up call to yourself. One such occasion occurred yesterday.
Our congregation is studying Exodus on Wednesday nights and in preparation for an upcoming class I was reading in Exodus 25. The last time I had read from this section I had highlighted a passage that seemed particularly important:
“You must make it according to all that I show you – the pattern of the tabernacle as well as the pattern of all its furnishings.” (Exodus 25.9 CSB).
This is a repeated idea in this section of Exodus (25.40, 26.30, 27.8b) and after noticing the repetition I had underlined each time it occurred. Indeed, the concept of carefully following God’s instructions is very important, as we see it mentioned in the building of Noah’s ark (Gen. 6.15, 22), the strict requirements surrounding sacrifice (counter-example of Nadab and Abihu, Lev. 10), and Paul’s instructions to Timothy to “Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me” (2 Tim. 1.13 ESV). The concept of being careful to keep God’s instructions is one that has been hammered into me from youth, and thus it was easy to see and recognize in Exodus 25-27.
However, in doing so I had actually missed the point of the entire section. When reading it through again, my underlined note on Ex. 25.9 actually caused me to read more carefully the line previous to this:
“They are to make a sanctuary for me so that I may dwell among them.” (Ex. 25.8 CSB)
I was stunned. I had circled the “mote” while missing the “beam” right in front of me.
The main point of this passage was not to hammer into the minds of the Israelites that they must carefully follow God’s instructions, although that is a critically important concept (cf. 1 Sam. 15.22-23). The point was that in some sense God was coming down from Heaven, down from Sinai, and dwelling in a physical place among His people! This was a blessing beyond any that had been given to any nation on earth. Why were the Israelites to be so meticulous in their construction of the Tabernacle and its elements? Why was everything gold/silver/bronze-plated and embroidered to the maximum? THE ALMIGHTY was coming to dwell among them!
God’s dwelling with mankind was the privilege stripped from us in the Garden because of sin (Gen. 3.24). Further along in Exodus note God’s intentions to live among His people: “I will dwell among the people of Israel and will be their God. And they shall know that I am the LORD their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt that I might dwell among them. I am the LORD their God.” (Exodus 29.45 ESV) This intention is repeated in Lev. 26.12, issued again as a promise in Zech. 2.10, and ultimately fulfilled through Jesus Christ (John 14.17, 20, 23; 2 Cor. 6.16; Eph. 2.22, 1 John 4.4, Rev. 21.3, etc.). It is the fulfilled promise of the Spirit within us, of Christ within us, of God within us that is our glory as Christians today:
“To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Colossians 1.27 ESV, emp. mine)
So what was my wake-up call? The fact that I had missed something so beautiful and powerful as the coming of God to dwell among His people in favor of what I had been taught and taught myself SO many times! In a sense I had in my study tithed “mint and anise and cumin, and neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness” (Matt. 23.23).
Jesus’ instructions in this context are particularly appropriate: “These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.” (Matt. 23.23b) What compels me to further and deeper study now is one burning thought: “Where else have I missed the point?” I hope this thought will lead you back into the scriptures as well.
