Lesson Two

Scripture: Exodus 24:1-8, Exodus 25:1-9, John 1:14, Hebrews 10:19-22, Exodus 25:10-22, Numbers 4:5-6, Exodus 16:1-34, Numbers 16:1- 17:13, Exodus 31:18, Deuteronomy 10:5, Hebrews 9:4, Matthew 5:17,18, Matthew 26:28, John 6:48-51, Romans 3:23-26, Hebrews 3:1,2, Hebrews 9:22-28

In this lesson we start to learn about the ark. This is the big important box that many people see and talk about. In fact there was a movie, Indiana Jones: Raiders of the lost Ark that referenced the ark from the old testament. Growing up this is talked about but for this lesson I want to see if there is anything else that I could stumble across.

First though in the lesson there were three questions so I might as well answer them.

Who is the architect of the sanctuary?

God. He gives Moses the pattern directly “make this tabernacle and all its furnishings exactly like the pattern I will show you.”

Why did he want it constructed?

God wanted to dwell among them. Reveal his plan to restore humanity. Illustrate his glory.

Why did he want the people to contribute?

Covenant participation. The sanctuary is about relationships.

“And let them make me a sanctuary that I might dwell among them” Exodus 25:8

The lesson starts with this idea: Following their deliverance from Egypt, God initiated – and Israel willingly entered into – a permanent covenant relationship.

….well hold up what covenant? Because the definition is: A covenant is a formal, solemn, and binding agreement or promise between two or more parties. That means that a promise had to have been made between God and humans. And when was this promise established? And then I remembered….

Oh yea…. God had made a promise. Well… he made a few by this point. We saw this in the last lesson that God promised a savior after Adam and Eve disobeyed and brought sin into the world. The second one that we didn’t mention so far is in the story of Noah

(Genesis 6:18-22) 18 But I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall go into the ark—you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. 19 And of every living thing of all flesh you shall bring two of every sort into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female. 20 Of the birds after their kind, of animals after their kind, and of every creeping thing of the earth after its kind, two of every kind will come to you to keep them alive. 21 And you shall take for yourself of all food that is eaten, and you shall gather it to yourself; and it shall be food for you and for them. 22 Thus Noah did; according to all that God commanded him, so he did.

Here we have a powerful scene where Noah and God enter a promise that if Noah obeys and makes and ark and gathers the animals and food that in a world that God was planning to flood he would then keep them alive. Then God continues that covenant with Noah after

(Genesis 9: 8-17) 8 Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying: 9 “And as for Me, behold, I establish My covenant with you and with your [a]descendants after you, 10 and with every living creature that is with you: the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you, of all that go out of the ark, every beast of the earth. 11 Thus I establish My covenant with you: Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood; never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” 12 And God said: “This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: 13 I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. 14 It shall be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud; 15 and I will remember My covenant which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16 The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” 17 And God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

Which if we look ahead to peter referring to the end times,

(2 peter 3:10) 10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.

Where we know that the earth will not be destroyed by water but by fire.

And then we get to the third promise to abraham;

(Genesis 17:1-9) When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am [a]Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless. 2 And I will make My covenant between Me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly.” 3 Then Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying: 4 “As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of [b]many nations. 5 No longer shall your name be called [c]Abram, but your name shall be [d]Abraham; for I have made you a father of [e]many nations. 6 I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. 7 And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you. 8 Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in[f] which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.” 9 And God said to Abraham: “As for you, you shall keep My covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations.”

In the first promise God promises a savior to reunite us together with him, but in this promise God is trying to build a relationship with people. This is a covenant of relationship, God is making a promise to not only give Abraham descendants, and land but to be his God, to be their God. To be with them.

I have an ongoing joke with my brothers that we can get mad at each other, and fight but when it comes down to it… we are family. And family is always there. I might not always like them, or approve of the things they do but I love them and that is just the way my heart works. But I’ve also seen this in childcare. I’ve worked in homes in which children were not treated well, where parents weren’t kind, or loving and children were neglected and hurt. And yet despite when it came down to it most of those children would never betray their parents, they didn’t want to be separated. Is that wrong? Are they bad? No, relationships matter. God wanted to form a clear and secure promise of a relationship between Abraham. There was still the promise of a savior and so in this plan God begins the seeds for that.

It’s hard, I know but stay with me.

This promise is important because this is the one that gets repeated to Issac and Jacob:

(Genesis 26:2-5) 2 Then the Lord appeared to him and said: “Do not go down to Egypt; live in the land of which I shall tell you. 3 Dwell in this land, and I will be with you and bless you; for to you and your descendants I give all these lands, and I will perform the oath which I swore to Abraham your father. 4 And I will make your descendants multiply as the stars of heaven; I will give to your descendants all these lands; and in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed; 5 because Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.”

(Genesis 35:10-12) 10 And God said to him, “Your name is Jacob; your name shall not be called Jacob anymore, but Israel shall be your name.” So He called his name Israel. 11 Also God said to him: “I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall proceed from you, and kings shall come from your body. 12 The land which I gave Abraham and Isaac I give to you; and to your descendants after you I give this land.”

And it is this very promise that leads us in Exodus when the Israelites are in captivity under Egypt:

(Exodus 2: 23-25) 23 Now it happened in the process of time that the king of Egypt died. Then the children of Israel groaned because of the bondage, and they cried out; and their cry came up to God because of the bondage. 24 So God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. 25 And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God acknowledged them.

That promise of a relationship not just to save humanity or to not flood the earth but to be together in a relationship with people who chose to follow him is still alive generations later.

God remembered.

Not because He had somehow forgotten them, but because the time had come for Him to act on the promise He had already made.

This means that before Israel ever got to Mount Sinai, before the Ten Commandments were written on stone, before Moses sprinkled blood on the people in Exodus 24, there was already a covenant relationship behind everything that was happening. God did not rescue Israel from Egypt and then decide He wanted a relationship with them.

He rescued them because he had already promised one.

And suddenly that sentence from the lesson makes more sense:

“Following their deliverance from Egypt, God initiated—and Israel willingly entered into—a permanent covenant relationship.”

Sinai is not the beginning of God wanting to be with humanity. It is another step in a promise that has been unfolding since Genesis.

And that makes Exodus 25:8 hit a little differently:

“And let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them.”

I will be their God.

I will be with you.

Let Me dwell among you.

The sanctuary is not simply a building God asked Israel to construct. It is what covenant relationship looks like when God chooses to live in the middle of His people.

Except…. We still have a pretty big issue. There is something separating us from God….

Sin