Why should you care today about the details of how a tabernacle was constructed thousands of years ago? You should care because God cares, that’s why. God provided exacting details of how he wanted his house to be built, what kind of furniture he wanted in it, and how his people were to approach him in worship because he wanted to live among them. He still does! Why? Because he desires to “tabernacle” with you, too!
The Journey// Focus: Exodus 26:1-2,30
Make the Tabernacle from ten curtains of finely woven linen. Decorate the curtains with blue, purple, and scarlet thread and with skillfully embroidered cherubim. These ten curtains must all be exactly the same size—42 feet long and 6 feet wide. …Set up this Tabernacle according to the pattern you were shown on the mountain.
We live in a day when it seems that anything goes in terms of how we worship God. There is very little preparation on the part of the people as they come for corporate worship, what happens on the stage (in my opinion) is often more about the “performers” than the Audience of One about whom they are singing, and the end result of the “worship set” is that the audience claps their hands approvingly while the musicians exit the stage to the green room, and the order of service moves on to the next item on the agenda.
Now don’t get me wrong. Modern worship is not all bad. In fact, I would argue that there is much good in it—perhaps mostly good. No matter what church service I am in, no matter what style of worship is offered, no matter the quality of the musicians, I experience the presence of God. That is because, by and large, worship is a choice of the heart. I get to choose to worship the One who is worthy of my praise—and that is the choice I make.
So this is not a diatribe against worship in the modern American church. But it is a reminder against mindless, anything goes worship. God cares about how we worship, what we sing, even how we set the physical environment for the worship experience. If he didn’t, I doubt that we would have chapter after chapter in Exodus, sixteen of them, to be exact, in which he gave exacting details about the place and the process for his people meeting with him in the experience of worship.
There will be some, perhaps many, who will push back on what I have said so far. That’s fine—I think having a spirited, respectful discussion on a theology of worship is healthy and necessary to developing a proper practice for approaching a holy God who wants to be approached. But I would just say that whatever you believe about modern worship, you must consider what the tabernacle teaches us about what God wants, and demands, from the worshiping community. Consider the broad application of a New Testament exhortation regarding this Old Testament story:
All these things happened to [the Israelites of the Exodus] as examples—as object lessons to us—to warn us against doing the same things; they were written down so that we could read about them and learn from them in these last days as the world nears its end. (1 Corinthians 10:11)
What was it they did that brought down God’s wrath upon them? It had to do with their worship. They tried to worship their way; God showed them in no unmistakable terms that proper and pleasing worship must happen on his terms.
The bottom line to this, and the final sixteen chapters of Exodus that give us these boring, exacting details on how God expected worship to take place teaches us that he cares about our worship. Think of your worship this way: it is simply the pathway that God has established for you, a fallen, unworthy subject, to approach an unapproachable, holy Object who desires and is deserving of your best worship. It is thus important that you know how to approach him, and what “best” and “deserving” worship looks like.
That might sound a bit ominous and not encouraging of the free offering of worship to which you have become accustomed. Sorry about that. But you must keep the seriousness of worship in tension as you approach God. Yet this story also reminds us that God desires to live among his people—he wants to be close to you and for you to be close to him. That is the other side of these details. God has given a path for you to approach him, not because he wants to make it difficult, but because he wants you to experience his holiness without being consumed by it. That is why giving careful thought to your worship is so critical.
Exodus—God’s pathway to God-pleasing worship, and Numbers—the people’s pathway to humanistic worship, contrasts the right and the wrong ways to approach God. In the Old Testament story, God brought his heavy hand of judgment down upon the people for offering unholy worship. He doesn’t seem to do that today—thank God. But let the community of Israel be a constant reminder to us that worship done man’s way will always lead, sooner or later, to something that may look good on the outside but is anything but pleasing to the Audience of One.
On a positive note, be encouraged that Almighty God has gone out of his way to “tabernacle” with you; that is, to dwell in close, loving relationship with li’l ol’ you. Graham Truscott gives us something to think about in this regard:
When God’s people begin to praise and worship Him using the Biblical methods He gives, the Power of His presence comes among His people in an even greater measure
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