Our women’s group just finished “How Do I Get Through This?” an Exodus study. While there were many great lessons, one takeaway that stood out the most was God wanting to be with His people, and wanting to bless them, deliver them, provide for them whatever they needed.
God asks for obedience and worship of Him as the one and only true living God. Disobedience got Adam and Eve banished from the Garden of Eden. And they certainly were not alone….the Bible is full of stories of disobedience and worshipping of other gods. Despite this, over and over God guides us, loves us, and is with us.
In Exodus, God appeared as a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, so the Israelites knew who was leading them (Exodus 13:21-22). The Tabernacle, a large tent with different rooms, was eventually filled with God’s glory (Exodus 40:34). God’s presence was given a focal point, the Tabernacle, a physical structure. Later, King Solomon builds the Temple for God (1 Kings 6:1). And God promised to stay and live among his people so long as his commands were obeyed (1 Kings 6:12). But this doesn’t last because people are…. people, they forget and are self centered. God’s glory departs from the Temple in Ezekiel chapter 10. God still speaks through specific people providing guidance despite people’s rebellion. Then hundreds of years later…
God sends His Son, Christ Jesus, “the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.” (John 1:14). The focal point is a human body that is God. He walks, eats, sleeps, and prays among people. Jesus teaches and heals physical infirmities as well as forgives people’s sins. God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16). God came to walk and live among his people to save the world through Jesus, not to condemn it (John 3:17).
We know Jesus is crucified, resurrected, and ascends to heaven. Before Jesus was arrested, he promised to send the Holy Spirit that would be with his disciples and live in them (John 14:17). And when you read Acts chapter two, on the day of Pentecost, flames of fire appeared and settled on all the believers and they were filled with the Holy Spirit.
1 Corinthians 3:16 says, “Do you know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 says, “Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.”
What I have learned is that God wants to be with his beloved people. God’s love for people is so wide, so long, so high and so deep that he led them through the wilderness in a tent, then dwelled in the Temple people built for Him, then came in the form of a human named Jesus Christ of Nazareth, and now resides in our hearts, as the Holy Spirit, when we profess faith and accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior.
What a privilege to be a walking, living temple for God as a follower of Christ!! It’s a love we cannot earn and we do not deserve but can receive because of His grace!!
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