In the description of the Tabernacle and its furnishings the Ark is mentioned 180 times. It was central to the Tabernacle and everything pointed to it. We sometimes treat God as if He was another person but the Israelites were taught that God had to be respected and thought of as holy. The Ark represented the holiness of God and every detail pointed to that holiness.
The Ark was to be moved in a particular way that was commanded by God. The poles for carrying the Ark were always in place and when it came time to move their camp the veil was taken down and used to cover the Ark. Then the priests could take the Ark by the poles upon the shoulders and carry the Ark.
When David first wanted to bring the Ark back to Jerusalem he did not take time to read what God commanded. Therefore when Uzzah reached out his hand to steady the ark he was struck dead. The Israelites had not treated the Ark with the respect that God demanded and Uzzah thought he could help God by keeping the Ark from falling.
Today we often don't treat God as a holy God but rather as our friend. One of the reasons I did not like the book The Shack was that it did not treat God as holy but made Him common. It is time that the church learned to respect the holiness of God.
1 comment:
My friend J passed this on to me. Maybe soon she will have a login name and can comment directly. I hope I find the time to respond to her comments as they are most helpful and insightful.
Here is her comments:
Absolutely! God is holy! - yet His holiness does not stand in opposition to His love and desire for friendship! I don’t believe it has to be either/or (either we respect His holiness or we receive Him as our friend). That such a Holy God would want to be in fellowship with mankind who has rejected Him, and that He even sacrificed His own Son to prove the depths of His love – that is AMAZING! (definately not "common"!) It might seem too good to be true that a Holy God desires friendship and fellowship with us. But it is true! It would be foolish to choose fear, striving, slavery, death.... when He offers love, rest, freedom, LIFE (Deuteronomy 30:19-20, Galatians 3-5, Matthew 11:28-30, John 10:10, Hebrews 12:18-24…).
Jesus was Holy God incarnate. Yet He did not once say, “Don’t touch Me, don’t come near Me, I am too Holy for the likes of you… ...don’t expect personal attention, don’t waste my time… I have more important things to do...” This attitude might have been maybe what the Jews would have expected from their Messiah. But, in fact, He purposefully does just the opposite – He hung around “sinners” and befriended them – even calling some to be His disciples! (eg. Matthew 9:9-13) I can imagine that this is probably why the Pharisees were so convinced that Jesus was a heretic or a blasphemer rather than being their Saviour - God Himself! They were outraged at the grace Jesus extended to the outcasts, that these ‘sinners’ dared to call Jesus their friend. And they didn’t even recognize the grand scale of “scandal” this really was: God Himself – friend of sinners! So completely different was the promised Messiah from what they expected. A Creator who would leave the glory of heaven to take on human flesh, to reveal Himself in a way that we could relate to; to humble Himself and become like a servant and lay down His own life for His rebellious creation! (John 1:1-18, Philippians 2:6-8) Unfathomable!
I think their mistaken perspective is why Jesus did many of the things He did and told many of the parables to them. For a few of many examples: He invited the children to come to Him even as the disciples rebuked them, He touched and healed and ate with the social outcasts, …in the parable of the Incredible, Forgiving Father, the father (God) disgraces himself (in many ways!) for love of his wayward son. In the parable of the workers in the vineyard recorded in Matthew 20, here are His striking words from the landowner’s (God’s) mouth (to the Jews -?) regarding His puzzling ways: “I am not being unfair to you… or are you envious because I am generous?” (ooh! There’s a lot more on that sentiment too – ie: Jonah’s anger over God’s compassion (Jonah 4), Paul wanting to stir up His own people’s (Jew’s) jealousy over God’s grace extended to the Gentiles… in order that some may be “grafted in” again (Romans 11:13-16…23…).
The law (which points out our inadequacy) was put in charge to lead us to Christ. (Galatians 3:24-25) The Jews were still trying so hard to be acceptable to God by obeying the law. And some (especially the Pharisees) thought that they were doing pretty good! I think that this is a big reason why Jesus’ spoke extensively in Matthew 5 about how much higher His standard really is – to show our sin as even more sinful (Romans 3:20, 7:13, 1 Cor. 15:56) Because we are hopeless to meet the standards of the law (Romans 7:24), Jesus came to fulfill the law in our place (vs. 25, Matthew 5:17). Once you have come to Christ, it is not fear of God’s wrath that will motivate you to live a “holy” life. Through Him, there is a “new and living” way (Hebrews 10:19-20). His righteousness is credited to you! (Romans 4) Apart from Him, you can do nothing (of true value). We do in a sense put plenty of hard work and effort into “abiding in Him”, denying self, resisting the devil, taking every thought captive, renewing our minds by His Word… but it is only by understanding and believing who you really are in Christ and inviting and allowing Him to live His life in and through you that you can rest in His ability and sufficiency. It will be His life manifested as a result of abiding in Him – John 15:4-5 (independent of our best efforts – Romans 9:16). It is Jesus Christ (and faith in Him) who is pleasing to God. (see Matt. 3:17, 17:5, Hebrews 11:6) This is not shrugging at His holiness but neither is it refusing the friendship He desires.
And I agree with you, this is no casual friendship we are offered – it is so much more! Yes, He is a Holy God! Yet that is what makes His love so amazing! Hasn’t His aim always been to restore the closeness of the relationship He had with mankind before the Fall (before they doubted His love and His motives and chose instead to trust themselves resulting in a fear of God that drove them to hide)? Isn’t that the whole reason Jesus came to fulfill the Old Covenant? - to introduce a New Covenant in His blood, to restore relationship with us so that we will no longer be hiding in shame behind our pathetic little fig leaves (whatever our “fig leaves” may be…- we try to cover ourselves with so many different things – but only Jesus’ sacrifice is a sufficient “covering”… but of course even so much more than just a covering!…). Wasn’t the whole point so that we can know Him? He calls us “friends” rather than “servants” (John 15:15) - and what a deep and rich friendship it can be - and more! By His grace, we are provided the Way for this relationship with Him to progress from Master/servant, Potter/clay… …to Shepherd/sheep, brother/friend – a friend who has laid down His life for us (John 15:13-15, Romans 5:7-8) …Father/child, Groom and Bride – best friends, in a lifelong (eternal!) covenant in Love.
- A Father who has lavished His love and riches on us (Luke 15:11-24, 1 John 3:1, 2 Cor. 8:9…) - A husband who has bought us back even while we were unfaithful (“while we were yet sinners…” - Rom 5:8) “In that day… you will call me ‘my husband’; you will no longer call me ‘my master’” “I will heal their waywardness and love them freely (Hosea 2:16, 14:4)
I really appreciate AW Tozer’s words (“The Pursuit of God”) about the relationship God offers to each of us:
"An infinite God can give all of Himself to each of His children. He does not distribute Himself that each may have a part, but to each one He gives all of Himself as fully as if there were no others."
Holy God, gives Himself to us! Amazing!
To repeat from Nov. 6 blog comment:
“We have become the Tabernacle – the dwelling place of Almighty and Holy God! (WOW!)”
Holy God is closer than a brother, closer than a friend!
He is our very Life!
Post a Comment