Category: Joy, Peace, and Hope Through the Bible

How the Bible empowers us to become people of joy, peace, and hope through the virtues of faith, hope, and love

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Where Heaven and Earth Meet

More than 3,000 years ago, God instructed His people to build a tent where His presence would dwell and heaven and earth would meet together.

Eventually, King Solomon replaced the tent with a permanent temple. Then, the temple was replaced with a non-geographic, portable worship in the Great Commission (Mt. 28:18 20). Nonetheless, reflection on this tent and its contents is a very pleasant thing. It teaches us about God, the world, human beings, Christ, worship, and the church. It’s not always easy to discern the exact meaning of every detail in it, but it is pleasant to think about. As the 17th century Dutch theologian Wilhelmus à Brakel said speaking of the high priest but equally applicable to the tent and the temple:

The entire priesthood, and particularly the high priest, was a glorious type of the Lord Jesus Christ, as the apostle subsequently shows us in his letter to the Hebrews. Furthermore, each particular matter had its specific meaning. However, we do not presume to be an expositor of each particular. We do indeed have our thoughts concerning this subject, and find meditation thereon a sweet work, but as we cannot speak about it with certainty, we shall remain silent, leaving everyone free in his thoughts concerning this. I wish to neither concur nor contradict, since we would not be able to agree with others in all things.

I think Brakel’s caution is helpful, but I believe we can share with each other our ideas that will help each other reflect on the meaning of the tent of God for us today.

To begin with, here is an overview of the structure of the tent with its furniture:

Here are a few suggestions for thinking about this structure:

  1. The tent is constructed as a picture of the universe. Earth is the outer court. The holy place is the heavens. The holy of holies is the highest heaven, the throne room of God (see the helpful discussion of this in Mitchell Kim and G.K. Beale’s excellent book on the temple, God Dwells Among Us).
  2. The ark represents God’s throne and law that is over the world. Note that the tablets of the Ten Commandments were in the ark.
  3. The altar of incense represents the prayers of the people by which they commune with God.
  4. The bronze altar and basin in the outer court represent the cleansing that sinners need and that God provides in order for them to come into His presence.
  5. The seven lights on the candlestick represent the seven visible lights in the sky and the light that God gives to the world through His Word.

As you think about the tent of God or the temple, one can conceive of a variety of ways in which the tent points to other realities in God’s revelation beyond the tent itself.

  1. The tent points to Jesus who is the One in whom heaven and earth meet (John 1:1, 14).
  2. The tent points to the work of Christ who is our great High Priest (Heb. 2:14 18), where earth and heaven meet in His atoning sacrifice.
  3. The tent points to the worship of the church because in it heaven and earth meet together (Heb. 12:22 24).
  4. The tent points to us, for with God’s Spirit dwelling in us, we become a place where heaven and earth meet together.
  5. The tent points to the new heavens and new earth when heaven and earth are finally and fully united together (Rev. 21:23).

There are innumerable other connections that one can draw. I find that these images help me see aspects of God and His work with us that I would not see as clearly otherwise. The Old Testament represents jewels just below the surface; the New has them on the surface. Both provide riches for our growth in grace and knowledge.

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The Blood of the Covenant & the Ten Commandments

The law of God is holy, righteous, and good. The law of God is glorious. God presented it in an audible voice to the people of Israel (see Exodus 19) in a dramatic way. The law presents the divine will for our lives. If we could live according to God’s law, we would fulfill our destiny as human beings and reflect the divine glory like a mirror reflecting the glory of the sun.

The law is holy, righteous, and good, but I am sold under sin. That’s also what the Apostle Paul and our experience teaches us. When we hear what God is telling us to do, sin is right there with us.  We take the good thing God commands, and we so often go in the opposite direction. This is what the Israelites experienced. They heard God speaking to them, and they immediately built a golden calf as an image of Jehovah in direct contradiction to God’s commandment.

And that’s why we need grace. We need the grace of forgiveness. We also need the grace of God to empower us to obey His commandments. That is the truth that God presents in the Old and the New Testaments.

After the giving of the law, Moses built an altar and offered sacrifices on it. Then, he took the blood and put it in bowls. He took part of the blood and splashed it on the altar. What did he do with the other half? “Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, ‘This is the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you . . .'” (Ex. 24:8).

This all may seem strange, but it is not the first time people apply blood in the book of Exodus. At the first Passover, the Israelites applied the blood of the lamb to the doorposts so that the angel of death would pass over them and not strike their firstborn. They were saved by the blood of the lamb. They then ate and drank the Passover meal.

Something similar happens here. The elders of the Israel went up before the Lord, and they saw the God of Israel. Now note: “But God did not raise his hand against these leaders of the Israelites; they saw God, and they ate and drank” (v. 11).  They were saved by the blood of the covenant!

It is very important for us to see that God gives His law in this context. Grace is the context of the giving of the law in Exodus, and grace is consistent with the law. The goal of saving the people of Israel is so that they would be the virtuous, good, and obedient people who reflect God’s glory in their lives individually and collectively.

The next time we encounter the phrase “blood of the covenant” in Scripture is in Zechariah. There, God promises deliverance because of the blood of the covenant: “As for you, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will free your prisoners from the waterless pit” (9:11).

After that, the next time we encounter that phrase is the familiar words of Jesus Himself. “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matt. 26:28). How striking that this phrase is pronounced at the Passover meal! The disciples ate and drank with Jesus just like at Mount Sinai and at the Passover. The blood of the covenant is presented to them as the foundation of their lives and peace with God.

Another possible parallel. The Israelites said they would obey God fully and then immediately disobeyed Him. In the same way, Peter and the Apostles all said that they will not abandon the Lord and then immediately go out and abandon Him.

But Jesus brings restoration. The blood of the covenant not their obedience is the foundation of the covenant. Jesus came to them after His resurrection with restoration and called them again to obedience and to teach obedience, “teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you” (28:19).

The law of God presents to us a beautiful picture of what humanity should be. However, we have all sinned. We have broken this glorious law. The result should have been our death, but God intervened with the blood of the covenant. The blood of the covenant brings forgiveness and restores us to new obedience. That was true in Exodus and the Old Testament, and it is true in Matthew and the New Testament.

God bring this together beautifully in the benediction at the end of the book of Hebrews: “Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen” (Heb. 13:20–21).

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The Glory of the Law

What is the best way for humans to live? How can we be truly happy?

People may not discuss these questions explicitly, but all around us, people give answers to those questions. They tell us that we will be happy if we have a full head of hair, white teeth, big homes, and new cars. That is the good life. That is real living. Commercials present this vision of the good life to us a thousand times every day.

People also have strong opinions about the right way for people to live. John Ortberg explains (here) that people talk about it every day. Just listen to their conversations. People have so many complaints about what other people have done to them. They believe that others haven’t lived how they were supposed to live. However, it’s clear from their own lives that they haven’t lived according to the human ideal either!

So, how should we live? What will give us true happiness?

What if God came down from heaven and told us exactly how to live to be truly human and happy?

Well, that’s what He’s done. The book of Exodus describes God coming down to Mount Sinai. There, He spoke audibly to the entire people of Israel. They heard God’s voice. There, He told them how to live. He gave the Ten Commandments.

What do you think of when you hear the word “law”? It’s easy to get a negative view of it. Many Christians speak of the law in a negative way.

This is in part based on some of the ways the Bible speaks. The Bible recognizes that the law can tell us what to do, but the law can’t help us when we have broken the law or give us power to fulfill the law. Only God can do that.

We must be very clear, however, that the law is not the problem. We are the problem. As the Apostle Paul said: “So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good. . . but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin” (Rom. 7:12, 14).

When we think of the law, we should not have a negative reaction. We should think like the Psalmist: “Oh how I love Thy law, it is my meditation all day long!” (Psalm 119:97).

When we think of the law, we should think of glory. It is a glorious thing that God has spoken to us and told us exactly and clearly how to live. It is a wondrous thing that God has given us His commandments.

The Apostle Paul says that though the law condemns us, this does not mean that the law is not glorious. Instead, we should think this way: “If the ministry that brought condemnation was glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness!” (2 Cor. 3:9).

The opinions of people and the message of the world present a way of living that will disappoint us and not lead us to the happiness we desire. Praise God that He has revealed to us the right way to live and be happy! Praise God that He has given us His commandments! Praise Him even more that He offer us His Spirit, who enables us to obey His commandments.

So, let it be our prayer: “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” and “command what you want, O Lord, and give what you command!”

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Hope for a Way Out

We all have those situations where we feel there is no way out. It may be a dead end job, an addiction, negative emotions, a relationship, a city, or bad habits. These are the sorts of things that can make us bang our head against the wall or cry out to God.

In the Bible, the people of God suffered in just such a situation. One of the most powerful nations on earth oppressed them ruthlessly. They were stuck with their necks in a hard yoke of slavery.

But they escaped. How? “I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment” (Exodus 6:7). The mighty arm of God forced Egypt to give up their slaves. Israel was freed and departed to go to the land God had promised them.

From that time on, whenever Israel was stuck again, they looked to God to come down again, bare His mighty arm, and deliver them. This was their great hope: “Let all creation rejoice before the Lord, for he comes, he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his faithfulness” (Ps. 96:13). “For the Lord will deliver Jacob and redeem them from the hand of those stronger than they” (Jeremiah 31:11).

God is the God who provides a way out. He’s the God of the Exodus, and so there is always hope for a way out.

Sometimes, however, that way out does not appear in the way we might think. In Isaiah 52, the prophet contemplates a new exodus event. He says: “The Lord will lay bare his holy arm in the sight of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God” (52:10). He bares His arm but not how they think, for he says, “Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” (53:1). God’s mighty arm will be revealed, but people won’t see it or believe it. He won’t be smashing Egypt. The crushing blow will fall on the Messiah Himself He will be a suffering servant who will become a sacrifice for sin. This will provide a way out–an exodus for people stuck in sin and guilt!

I recently heard a story about someone who was stuck. He was stuck in a relationship problem. He struggled so much that he cried out to God. Eventually, God did provide a way out, but it was different than what he expected. “God changed me.” He said. That changed the relationship. He found the way out.

There’s always hope for a way out because the God of all hope is always there. The particular way out may surprise us. We may have to look carefully. We may have to change our thinking and actions. But the way out does come.

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The Exodus of Moses

When I read a novel, I often begin at the very beginning and find myself reading the acknowledgements section. The author thanks people and recounts the late nights she spent writing and editing. Then, there is the preface which gives us some background that is helpful but not always necessary. About halfway through these sections, I often think: I want to get into the story! Enough of this! Then, I move to chapter 1.

It would be easy to read the story of Moses that way. It is a sort of preface to the real story and action of the exodus of the people of God out of Egypt. This week, I’ve been reading Echoes of Exodus: Tracing Themes of Redemption Through Scripture by Alastair J. Roberts and Andrew Wilson. In this book, they explain that the story of Moses is not just introductory material. It is Moses’ own exodus story. Moses’ exodus introduces all the themes that will occur in the exodus of the nation.

Consider. Moses’ name means “Drawn out.” If we read his name that way, then we immediately begin to see the parallels with Israel being “drawn out” of Egypt and later the Red Sea. Here’s a passage from Exodus chosen at random with “Drawn Out” in the place of “Moses”:

Drawn Out saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. So Drawn Out thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.”

When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Drawn Out! Drawn Out!”

And Drawn Out said, “Here I am.”

“Drawn Out” will be God’s instrument to draw out the Isrealites from Egypt!

When we consider Moses’ life, the parallels are even more striking. As a baby, he goes down into the water and is brought out to salvation like the Israelites at the Red Sea. 40 years later, Moses seeks to liberate the Israelites. He then has his own exodus where he escapes from Pharaoh and flees into the wilderness.

In the wilderness, God provides Moses with water. Moses then fights off the shepherds to defend the daughters of Jethro. He gets aid from Jethro. All these themes are present in Israel’s experience in the wilderness in Exodus 16–18.

Finally, Moses meets God’s fiery presence in the burning bush. We must remember that this takes place at Sinai. After Israel crosses the wilderness, they meet God’s fiery presence at Sinai just like Moses did.

Why is paying attention to these themes so significant? Roberts and Wilson suggest that we should read Scripture in a musical way. Music repeats various themes and creates tension and then resolutions or more tension in a variety of ways. Reading Scripture this way can help us see what God is drawing our attention to.

In addition, metaphors are powerful. Roberts and Wilson remind us that politicians have often used martial terminology to explain political actions such as a “War on Poverty.” They ask, what if other terms were used?

Say we talked about the frayed edges of society and recovering the stitches we once dropped. Say we lamented the unraveling of communities, addressed the knotty tangles of social problems, and aruged that belonging to close-knit families was a crucial thread in the fabric of society. (23)

The authors note that this would help us think of our problems less in terms of enemies and more “in terms of our interconnectedness and the importance of maintaining the integrity of society’s relationships” (ibid.). All that would have changed was the metaphor, but it would make a significant difference.

So in our reading of Scripture. The metaphor makes a difference. The narrative and its emphases makes a differences. Roberts and Wilson provide some helpful ways to think about how God develops the themes of the Exodus throughout the Bible. The story of Moses is just one part of it. I would certainly recommend this book for anyone who wants to “hear” themes of Exodus in the musical score God wrote in the Bible and is writing in your own life.

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