Personal Visits with God

Exodus 40:1-3; 9 and 16

Then the Lord said to Moses: “Set up the tabernacle, the tent of meeting, on the first day of the first month.  Place the ark of the covenant law in it and shield the ark with the curtain…..

Take the anointing oil and anoint the tabernacle and everything in it; consecrate it and all its furnishings, and it will be holy……

And Moses did everything just as the Lord commanded him…..

The tabernacle was ready…it was just in separate pieces. Moses had told them it was all just as the Lord had commanded….and God must have agreed…because he is telling Moses that it is time to assemble his great house. So Moses did just as God had told him. On the first day…of the first month…the anniversary of their flight from Egypt… Moses assembled the house of God….anointed everything with the anointing oil….and watched God descend from the sky in a cloud…and fill it with his glory.

The first day of the first month would have been March 1…the day in the spring that God used Moses to lead them out of Egypt. The spring…not just a simple time of the Earth renewing its life that had slept all winter….but now a moment in their history when God himself came and lived among them…in a cloud that settled over the holy of holies….as he watched over his people…as he made the covenant a visible image in their hearts and souls.

The tabernacle might be finished….but their journey with God is just beginning. Maybe God picked this anniversary date to remind them of the slavery they were freed from only a year ago….how he brought them out of Egypt with mighty miracles and signs…how he had traveled with them for a year now…teaching them…and showing them how best to live their lives. Maybe he wants to remind them that this freedom does not come without a cost….without the sacrifice of innocent blood…without confession of sins…without a choice to come and visit with him…to give him praise and worship in his house.

Father…I am overwhelmed at how much you love me.  You wake me each morning…and sit with me…and speak to me from your word. I thank you that you have made a way for me to visit with you that is even more personal than these Israelites…that had to bring a sacrifice and confess to the priests their sin. I thank you that you became my sacrifice…and offered to pay for my sins with your son. And I thank you that Jesus willingly accepted his task …and died on that cross. Make my anniversary of thanks an every day date.  Help me to praise you every moment…and continue to search for the things you have placed me on this Earth to accomplish for you.  Give me a willing heart…that listens for your voice to tell me what to do…and than does it…no questions asked….just the way you tell me to do it. Amen.