Exodus Devotional | Day 4: Freed From Perfection
The Book of Exodus
The Greatness of God to His People in Need
God Stays With Us and Goes With Us, Day 4
“21 These are the records of the tabernacle, the tabernacle of the testimony, as they were recorded at the commandment of Moses, the responsibility of the Levites under the direction of Ithamar the son of Aaron the priest. 22 Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, made all that the Lord commanded Moses; 23 and with him was Oholiab the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, an engraver and designer and embroiderer in blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen.” - (Exodus 38:21-23)
When you consider just how much work and effort it took to be able to worship the Lord, it’s impressive and nearly insurmountable. All the fine craftsmanship, all the weight, all the gear, all the carrying from place to place. All the washings, and robes, and sacrifices. All of it, properly done, just to be in the presence of God and speak with him.
Today’s devotional is very short. There’s just one point.
While it was not wrong of God--in fact, he was right--to require all of this religious work in order to be around him, through Jesus, he liberates us from the religious and ritual burdens of being so perfect. Because Jesus is the greater ark and tabernacle, and because Jesus is the sacrifice needed, and because Jesus is our great high priest, we are freed from the religious burdens of being correct and perfect. No longer are we under threat of death in his presence if we aren’t sacramentally washed and perfect.
Jesus is God, who dwells with us and goes with us--he carries the burden of our religious perfection.
I want you to know just how blessed we are and how much more we have in Christ than the Israelites of their time. They might have had more signs and wonders and miracles, but we have God through Christ...Jesus, Immanuel, God with us. That is a far greater gift to have such access and approval with God.
Don’t take it so lightly that God hears you and is with you when you pray. All the cost and work the Israelites had to spend, Jesus spends it all now, so we can enter into the presence of God daily. Pray earnestly and pray thankfully today that God is with you!
Someone once said, “No child of a king asks their father for a quarter.” You have a Father in Heaven, Lord over all the universe. What “quarters” have you been asking for, like a stranger or slave, when you ought to be calling on your Father-God for what his own sons and daughters have the freedom to ask for?