The Old Testament
especially the first five books tell us a lot about God and this revelation tells us how we are to worship Him. By worship
I mean; how we are to relate to Him in honor and the respect that He is do.
We see some specific
things about God He wants to know. He reveals these to see if we are going to obey Him. Some have the mistaken idea that this
world is hell and therefore since nothing can be worse when we depart we are all bound for heaven. It is easy to understand
where that comes from in a stressful world like ours. But the Old Testament says that it is more like living in a desert where
we need to learn to survive on the manna of God’s provision to get through it to the Promised Land.
Here in this
passage we find God revealing Himself as one who is teaching us about the relationships for the place we are headed. If we
learn them correctly here we will live eternally with God. If we ignore them here we will go from this desert to a greater
one which has no interaction with God.
Let us look at
the details for the lessons of revelation.
One, God asks
for acacia wood (10-11) for the ark and then asks us to cover it up. We would say why does the wood matter if you are only
going to caver it with gold? It’s not the material but Him who instructs that calls for Israel to use acacia wood. Will
they obey?
Two, Poles (15)
are to be left in the ark at all times so that if God moves so does Israel. God is never still and Israel will find out He
is always on the move. When we think we have Him boxed then we will find that our box is empty for He is not just the God
of our past need but of our present.
Three, All things
even the angels that strike us with awe are created beings and Israel was to remember that in their crafting of the ark. They
are to hammer (18) the gold figures of the angels so that The Creator God is surrounded by his creatures but not over shadowed
by them.
Finally, And
above the mercy seat (22) is where God will talk to Israel. All things (especially mercy) come from God and not from an art
form even of His own direction. Here we see that the God of grace of the New Testament is the God of the Old Testament as
well.
So what is it
we see in these lessons? God is self-revealing. His word is to be obeyed. He is living and active and merciful to those who
seek Him.
