During the season of Lent this year, I read through Exodus as my Bible study. The first half of Exodus is pretty exciting; Moses, the burning bush, the plagues, Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt, and the 10 Commandments.
But about halfway through, the book takes a turn into what reads like a how-to project and list of specific, detailed instructions for making multiple projects. This part of the story goes on for essentially the rest of the book!
The whole time I was reading, I kept asking, "Why is this in here?" Why do we need to know how they designed every inch of the Ark and the Tabernacle? If some fact or law of dire importance was woven in-between the instructions, it would make more sense. But no, it's literal word-for-word how-to instructions. I'm not reading the Bible for design instructions. If I wanted to learn about how to build or design something, I'd watch Fixer Upper instead. The Tabernacle needs more shiplap, clearly.
As I read in my She Reads Truth Bible, I read a devotional based on Exodus 26-27 written by Andrea Lucado. She encouraged to take a big picture approach to these verses: while these verses might be literal instructions, they are not just instructions for a house or a table. They’re the blueprint, as Andrea put it, for where God wants to dwell. The tabernacle wasn’t meant to just be a thing the Israelites had to build for fun, it was meant to be the resting place for God to dwell until Jesus came and made way for God to dwell in our hearts. It’s the seat where mercy reigned, where God was near to His people.
The story of the Tabernacle is not just about instructions and to the letter directions. It’s a reminder that God came to dwell among us, first in the Tabernacle, and then in our hearts.
When we step back and see the big picture God is writing in scripture, we see the threads of love and life and Jesus woven into everything. He’s in the instructions, in the genealogies, in the long lists of laws and rules we skim over (or at least *I* do). We just have to look, and we’ll find God dwelling among us in between the lines.
Jordan Taylor
Jordan is a 22-year-old student living in the suburbs of Nashville, her lifelong hometown. She is currently studying to be an English teacher, and hopes to have a classroom full of crazy, loud middle schoolers in her near future! Jordan enjoys reading, long walks (anywhere, not just the beach!), crafting, listening to music, playing with her pug, Lola, and writing. She is learning how to be brave, loves adventure, and try new things (a lifetime work in progress!). Jordan loves Jesus with all that she is, and is learning to let Him love her too. She enjoys rambling and writing about her faith at her blog, which you can find here.
