Will God indeed dwell with man on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, how much less this house that I have built! (2Chr 6:18). Why then is He this precise regarding the details of the construction of the sanctuary? There is no place like home! When you have a house where everything sits just like you like, no matter where you are, you will always be happy to come back home to familiar odours and settings. At the local church and the individual levels, God also likes to feel at home. Hence the specific instructions to ensure that everything is exactly in place as He likes for when He comes. In fact, these instructions are there to help us build lives and churches which attract the LORD’s presence. Lives and churches where He resides and not just visits never to come back. Are you worshipping in such a church? Are you involved and committed? Is everything in your life exactly where GOD wants it to be? Has He approved of the incorporation of every element that you have brought in your life/His temple? In other words, have you built or are you building according to His plan?
The earth is the LORD's and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein (Ps 24.1). Why/ how do you give to someone who has everything? This question reminds me of something that happened to me at least twice. A brother came to borrow some money from me. He was desperate, I was the only one who could help, and, of course, he was going to pay me back at a certain date with all the necessary guarantees. I did not force him to commit and promise the moon. However, time passed, months, then years, without me seeing the colour of my cash or hearing about it. So, one day, I asked about it. The guy laughed and said: “Oh! I did get the money, but I thought of it and realised that I needed it more than you did. Look at you: you can’t be $500 short!” I could not believe my ears. Who was he to judge? And the problem was not whether I needed the money or not, the problem is that he had to honour his word. Why did he not tell me from the very beginning to give him the money as a gift instead of lending it? Why did he not say that he was not going to pay back because of his perception of my social status? At least, this would have helped him not to sin. After this, a dear sister in Christ also did the same thing to me. At some point, she was even travelling abroad every quarter, would tell me of all her acquisitions and how much she admired me and wanted to have my ‘class’, but would not give my money back. Her justification was: “Mrs P…, you are a big lady. What is $3,000 to you?” I don’t know if she thought that my ‘class’ came from unpaid debts and broken promises. Things really took a funny turn when she later came to complain about a sister who had also borrowed money from her and was now telling her stories. I just smiled and said nothing. She could not even see that she was reaping what she had sown. Likewise, people cry unto GOD for money; but once they have it, they don’t want to return even a part of that to Him. Why give to someone who obviously has everything? Because this is His will: That they bring me an offering (Ex 25:2). How do you give to someone who obviously has everything? By taking what He gives us and rededicating or consecrating it back to Him.
Now, talking about consecration and the construction of the temple, I have read an edifying article on this, written by a certain Rabbi Avraham Fischer: On the way to sanctity. According to him, there are not two distinct and antithetical spheres of existence: the sacred and the profane; but the sacred and the profane are rather the starting and end-points on a continuum. We start from one and progress towards the other. He explains that everything that was used for the tabernacle went through three steps: designated for holiness, construction and then, consecration. For instance, a piece of acacia wood which is designed for sanctity is taken and set apart, although it is not yet sanctified. It is only after the craftsmen have made it into part of the Holy Ark (Ex 25:10), that it is rendered sanctified by their act of sanctification and initiation. So, even at the stage when the donated materials are still not consecrated, they must be open to and directed towards holiness. They must be simultaneously part of the mundane and reserved for the service of GOD. Likewise, the living stones that we are (the building materials), must live every moment of our lives in a way that prepares for sanctity. Even when we are involved in the everyday activities of life, we must be oriented to the holy. The building of the tabernacle on earth (that which is visible), begins with the building of a tabernacle in our hearts. Once again, when we are set to build the temple and do GOD’s work, the emphasis is laid on the disposition and inclination of the heart. I see this like an invitation not to judge those whose progress seems painfully slow in the LORD, and also like an encouragement not to stagnate or backslide, but to keep pressing on towards sanctity and holiness. As He is, so we are in this world and so we shall be.
May God bless you as He empowers you to build your personal temple and your local church as you ought to.
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