The Daily Guide. grow. pray. study. from The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas, United States “Make me a sanctuary” for Monday, 5 September 2016Exodus 25:1 Adonai said to Moshe, 2 “Tell the people of Isra’el to take up a collection for me — accept a contribution from anyone who wholeheartedly wants to give. 3 The contribution you are to take from them is to consist of gold, silver and bronze; 4 blue, purple and scarlet yarn; fine linen, goat’s hair, 5 tanned ram skins and fine leather; acacia-wood; 6 oil for the light, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense; 7 onyx stones and other stones to be set, for the ritual vest and breastplate.
8 “They are to make me a sanctuary, so that I may live among them. 9 You are to make it according to everything I show you — the design of the tabernacle and the design of its furnishings. This is how you are to make it.
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The Exodus was so sudden. Practically overnight, the Israelites went from being slaves, struggling to survive making bricks without any straw provided for them to use, to being a free people, but out in a desert they had never lived in. Leaving an Egypt that worshiped frogs, cows, a river and the
sun (among other “gods”), the Israelites had a lot to learn about Yahweh, the awe-inspiring LORD who had freed them. And God commanded Moses, “Build me a sanctuary”—a visible symbol that God was in their midst.
• The desert was not the land God had promised Israel ever since Abraham’s time
(cf. Genesis 12:1-3). They wouldn’t settle there. So the sanctuary was, basically, a tent—an elaborate, beautiful tent, but still made to be carried from place to place. It must not have seemed like much compared to the huge temples in Egypt. What was central to the sanctuary’s importance—its physical workmanship, or the God whose presence it evoked?
• Much Christian preaching in the New Testament is hard to understand unless we know about the sanctuary. In the poetic prologue to his story of Jesus, John wrote, “The Word (i.e. Jesus) became flesh and made his home among us” (John 1:14). The Greek word translated “made his home” meant, literally, “live in a tent.” As God was with the Israelites in a tent, John said, so
in Jesus God was fully present with the human family. What spiritual practices help you to
maintain a sense that God is present with you at all times?
Prayer: O Lord, you are a God who wants to connect with us, and a God who wants us to know you. Help me learn lessons about how you are with me every day, every moment from Israel’s desert sanctuary. Amen.
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Insights from Darrell Holtz
Darrell Holtz serves as Program Director for Adult Curriculum and Writing at The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection.When I was young, I heard pastors and teachers read (and then read from my very own Bible), Exodus 25:8: “They should make me a sanctuary so I can be present among them.” And the way my young mind heard that verse ran along these lines: “Poor God–out there in the desert, and no place to stay.” That’s how the verse reads, on the surface–that God called Israel to build the sanctuary because God needed the sanctuary.
Only later did I realize that, in fact, God had already been among the Israelites. The guiding, shielding pillar of God’s presence had stood between them and the Egyptian army at the Reed Sea. God’s presence had seen the blood of the lamb on the doorposts and protected Israel’s firstborn on the night of the terrible tenth plague. God had been present back when Moses was born, and God had guided his mother in taking the steps that saved his life so that he could grow into the godly leader who now led the Israelites toward Mount Sinai. The fact was, Goddidn’t need the sanctuary in order to be present among the Israelites.
So who did need the sanctuary? The Israelites needed the sanctuary. They needed a set apart space–even if, during their time of nomadic wandering, it could only be a portable tent–to remind them constantly that God was present among them. Even with the sanctuary right in the middle of their encampment, they showed a frightening knack for forgetting that God was among them, for making golden calves or rebelling against Moses or letting themselves be seduced into joining in the obscene pagan rituals of some of the peoples through whose territory they traveled. They desperately needed all the help they could get to remind them that God was with them.
Later in Israel’s history, after they had learned more about their God, the poet who composed Psalm 139 wrote these powerful words in verses 7-12:
“Where could I go to get away from your spirit?
Where could I go to escape your presence?
If I went up to heaven, you would be there.
If I went down to the grave, you would be there too!
If I could fly on the wings of dawn,
stopping to rest only on the far side of the ocean—
even there your hand would guide me;
even there your strong hand would hold me tight!
If I said, ‘The darkness will definitely hide me;
the light will become night around me,’
even then the darkness isn’t too dark for you!
Nighttime would shine bright as day,
because darkness is the same as light to you!”
God does not lose track of us. God does not abandon us. God does not need a special prayer chair in our den or bedroom; God does not need the picture of Jesus or the carved cross on our wall; God does not need the quiet, beautiful spot in nature we go to in order to sense the divine presence. But we do. We are easily distracted; we find ways of living other than God’s way alluring; we fall into the false belief that only things we can see or hear or stub our toes against are “real.” We, like the Israelites, need set-apart sacred spaces to remind us of God’s presence.An elderly farm couple, the story goes, were driving home one evening in their old pickup truck. The wife said, “Remember when we were young and courting, how we’d sit close and snuggled up to one another? Wasn’t that nice?” After a moment’s silence, the husband replied, from his spot at the steering wheel, “I haven’t moved.”
God hasn’t moved. God never moves away from us. Thank heaven for the sanctuaries, ancient and modern, that remind us of that priceless reality.
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