From Isolation to God’s Presence
I decided to call this message "From Isolation to God’s Presence."A recent article in the Washington Post described the growing sense of social isolation people feel. People may have hundreds of friends on MySpace, they may send out dozens of e-mails everyday, yet have no one with whom to share their lives deeply.
Relationships are becoming increasingly superficial. With internet, i-pods, i-phones, HDTV, and Wii, we are enclosing ourselves in a sort of technological cocoon. No one can see in and we cannot see out. We are being changed deeply and we are undergoing metamorphosis. What will one day emerge from the cocoon is uncertain.
Divorce rates are rising. Families are disintegrating. People are dying alone. Were it not for an obituary, no one would even notice our passing. We are cutting off ties with one another. We're busy. We're working. We're entertaining ourselves.
We aren’t just socially isolated. We are spiritually isolated. As disconnected as we feelfrom others, we feel infinitely more disconnectedfrom God. We don’t know God’s name. We don’t know his personality. We don’t know his character. We are out of touch with what pleases him oroffends him. We don’t know his thoughts, his will, his heart, his history, his word, his plan for our lives, or his purpose in creation. We pray, but he seems silent. We sing, but feel unmoved. God is mysterious.
Some conclude that he must not exist. He cannot be known, some conclude. He must be angry and he must be disengaged. We badly want to move from isolation into God’s presence, but isolation is what we know. How do you think the Israelites felt in Egypt? How do you think they felt when they were wandering in the wilderness?
They wanted to know the reality of the Lord’s presence.Numbers 6:24-26 (NIV) says, "The LORD bless youand keep you; the LORD make his face shine upon youand be gracious to you; the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace."
What is the cause of our isolation from God?
In order to move from isolation into God’s presence we need to understand the cause of isolation. Another word for isolation is separation. Why have we been separated from God’s presence in the first place? Did God move away? Or did we?
Within the Israelite community God commanded Moses to establish a number of symbols to teach them about spiritual isolation. Three examples should suffice.
The altar.
A first symbol of isolation was the altar. In Numbers 7 Moses is commanded to dedicate the altar. The altar was the place within the Tent of Meeting where the priest would slaughter animals. The altar stood ominously before the Holy of Holies.
Hebrews 9:7 (NIV) instructs, "But only the high priest entered the inner room, and that only once a year, and never without blood, which he offered for himself and for the sins the people had committed in ignorance."
Hebrews 9:22 (NIV) says, "In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness."
The lesson here is that a person cannot just waltz into God’s presence onhis own terms withhis own personal agenda. In order to approach God in the Holy of Holies, a penalty for sin had to first be paid. So in Numbers 7 the leaders of Israel come with offerings and gifts for the dedication of the altar.
Numbers 7:87-88 (NIV) says, "The total number of animals for the burnt offering came to twelve young bulls, twelve rams and twelve male lambs a year old, together with their grain offering. Twelve male goats were used for the sin offering. The total number of animals for the sacrifice of the fellowship offering came to twenty-four oxen, sixty rams, sixty male goats and sixty male lambs a year old. These were the offerings for the dedication of the altar after it was anointed."
Two cherubim guarding the Ark of Testimony.
Within the Holy of Holies was the Ark of Testimony. The Ark contained the stone tablets on which God wrote the Ten Commandments. These were the very laws that the Israelite community (and every single one of us) had broken.
But there is more. Above the Ark were placed two cherubim—two angels. The angels were a history lesson. Adam and Eve were cast out of the presence of God for having violating God's holy and perfect word.
Genesis 3:22-24 (NIV) recounts, "And the Lord God said, 'The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.'So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life."
What is the lesson in this? We cannot keep on breaking the commands of God day after day, week after week, and somehow think we're going to enjoy life in God. The wages of sin is death. The penalty for breaking the law of God is death.
The lampstand with seven lamps.
Standing before the Holy of Holies was a golden lampstand. The lampstand had seven branches extending upward with each branch holding its own candle. The lampstand symbolizes the tree of life of which Adam and Eve were forbidden to partake. In Leviticus the priests were instructed to keep the lamps continually lit.
Leviticus 24:2-4 (NIV) says, "The Lord said to Moses, 'Command the Israelites to bring you clear oil of pressed olives for the light so that the lamps may be kept burning continually. Outside the curtain of the Testimony in the Tent of Meeting, Aaron is to tend the lamps before the Lord from evening till morning, continually. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. The lamps on the pure gold lampstand before the Lord must be tended continually."
What is the lesson in this? In the Bible, life is light. There is life in the presence of God—true life, eternal life, andimmortality! Yet this life, this light, has been concealed. It exists, but it was concealed within the inner room of the Tabernacle and was inaccessible to the Israelites.
By whose blood do we enter the Holy of Holies?
Here is the perplexing dilemma that we and the Israelites face. By whose blood do we enter the Holy of Holies? By whose blood do we partake of the tree of life and live forever? By whose blood do we move out of isolation and enter into the very presence of God?
The altar is calling for blood, for the sacrifice of innocence to atone for the sin of the guilty. The angels are guarding the presence of God, cutting lawbreakers off from the presence of God. The lampstand signifying life is shining brightly, but concealed from view.
Here is the good news. We worship a God of grace and mercy. In Numbers God makes a number of provisions for Israelite people. These provisions are symbols of God’s presence among his people.
Altar:God provides a blood sacrifice.
An interesting thing happens in Numbers 8. In Numbers 8:7 the Levites are ceremonially purified for service. In Numbers 8:10 the entire Israelite community gathers around the Levites and lays hands on them. In Numbers 8:11 the Levites are presented to the Lord as an offering. In Numbers 8:12 the Levites turn around and lay hands on two young bulls.
What is going on here? First, the sin of the entire Israelite community is being transferred unto the Levites by the laying on of hands. Second, the Levites transfer the guiltonto two young bulls. Last, the young bulls are offered up to God as a blood sacrifice for sin.
But there is more. In Numbers 9 the Israelites celebrate the Passover. During the Passover a lamb would be sacrificed to assuage or mollify the wrath of God.
Cherubim: Silence is broken.
Whereas man had been banished from the Garden of Eden, now the Lord speaks out from between the cherubim.Numbers 7:89 (NIV) says, "When Moses entered the Tent of Meeting to speak with the LORD, he heard the voice speaking to him from between the two cherubim above the atonement cover on the ark of the Testimony. And he spoke with him."
Exodus 33:11 (NIV) says, ''TheLORD would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend."
Lampstand: God reveals the glory of his life-giving presence.
In Numbers 9:15 we read how a cloud covered the tabernacle by day and a pillar of fire covered it by night. God was making his life-giving presence felt among the Israelites. Trumpets were blasted to prepare people for worship or to prepare them for war.
And there in Numbers 7 through Numbers 10 God’s people slowly make the move from isolation into God’s presence. God provides blood for the altar, he speaks to them words of life, and he reveals the glory of his presence. Numbers 10:35-36 (NIV) tells us, "Whenever the ark set out, Moses said, 'Rise up, O LORD! May your enemies be scattered; may your foes flee before you.' Whenever it came to rest, he said, 'Return, O LORD, to the countless thousands of Israel.' "
But here is the deal. Everything done by the priests and Levites in Numbers 7 through Numbers 10 is a foreshadowing of greater realities found in Christ.
Hebrews 8:5 (NIV) says, "They (Levites and priests) serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven. This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: 'See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.' "
Jesus is the lamb of God, who takes away our sins.
In John 1:29 (NIV) Jesus is revealed as the lamb of God, who shed blood once and for all.In the process hetakes away the sins of world. "The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, 'Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!' "
Hebrews 9:24-28 tells us, "For Christ did not enter a man-made sanctuary that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God's presence. Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. Then Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him."
John 1:15 (NIV) says, "John testifies concerning him. He cries out, saying, 'This was he of whom I said, He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.' " Jesus is the living word of God, who breaks the silence of God, and whose words bring life and light for all mankind.
John 1:1-5 (NIV) says,"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it."
In Colossians 1:15-20 (NIV) Jesus is revealed asthe fullness of God, the very glory of God, dwelling among us andreconciling us back into God’s presence."He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross."