“And there I will meet with the children of Israel, and the tabernacle shall be sanctified by my glory. And I will sanctify the tabernacle of the congregation, and the altar: I will sanctify also both Aaron and his sons, to minister to me in the priest’s office.” (Ex 29:43-44 AV)
God
is in the process of instructing Moses on the law of the tabernacle. The LORD is going through the pattern of the tabernacle,
the furniture, and the implements. He is
giving Moses the form of sacrifice and the priest’s role in it. The LORD is giving the pattern for the
clothing of the priests, especially of the high priest. Moses is receiving the rite of cleansing
which Aaron, his sons, and those that follow must adhere to in order to perform
their tasks. God is giving all these instructions
of assembling the center of worship and the practices of cleansing. They are very specific. They are somewhat cumbersome. If followed to the letter, the result will be
a representation of God’s holiness to a lost world. However, one must notice that just because
the letter of the law is fulfilled, it does not automatically result in the
tabernacle or priesthood as considered sanctified. Just because they fulfill the pattern, purpose,
and process of worship does not mean they are sanctified. They are sanctified because God makes them as
such.
I
am shocked by my wife. I thought she
loved me. I truly did. I thought my heartbeat was her heartbeat. I thought what I loved, she loved. I thought she would follow me in every
interest of life and be second only to me.
I thought my favorite foods would be hers. I thought my favorite hymns would be
hers. When it came to sports teams, I
fully expected this loving and endearing best friend that I vowed to be with
all my life would buy matching jerseys.
I thought for sure when the game was on, she would root for my
team. After all, wasn’t that part of the
wedding vows? It should have been. What happened? She went along with it for a while. She had a sweatshirt with my team’s
logo. She sat and watched the games with
me. And even cheered when they
scored. Then along came the kids. And the in-laws felt my paradise had to be
interrupted. Low and behold my oldest
and youngest felt the best way to get close to dad was to root against my favorite
team. The in-laws meddled and not only encouraged
my sons and wife to abandon my teams, but went one worse. They turned my entire family into haters! My sons, I would expect. Not my dearest friend who promised to be my
soul mate. What my sons and my in-laws did
was manifest the true heart of my lovely wife.
No matter how much she wore the jerseys; no matter how much she rooted
for the team; no matter how much she even wanted to buy me tickets and go to a
game; her heart was never truly with me.
She could conform to an outward fan, but inwardly, she was a hater.
Sanctification
is just that. Sanctification must
include outward conformity to laws and standards. However, sanctification is not partial. Outward conformity may make for outward
sanctification. When it came to the law,
God demanded it all. Not just and
outward sanctification. But an inward
one as well. The warning of approaching
the Holiest of All uncleansed and in a state of impurity is a dire one. The consequences of attempting such a feat
only go to show the LORD is after complete, and not partial
sanctification. Thus we have the statements
above. The tabernacle and priesthood could
be in full compliance with the law, but they are not sanctified until the LORD
makes them thus. And the way He did that
was resting His presence on them both.
Paul puts it this way, “But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and
circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose
praise is not of men, but of God.” (Ro 2:29 AV) The inward must be just as pure as the outward. We can handle the outward. It is the inward we have a problem with. The outward is important and required. But it does not stop there. That is a job half done. Only God can complete that work.
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