God Dwelt Among Them Series

The Israelites had just left their slavery in Egypt, and they’d been in the desert for about a month, and had met their God at the base of a mountain called Sinai. (that’s the setting of our text today)

Someone once estimated that the nation of Israel (as they were at Mt. Sinai) numbered approximately 3 ½ million people. That’s about as many people as there are in the cities of Chicago and Indy combined. And the Israelites were going to have to survive in the desert for next 40 years. It would have required about 500 tons of food each day to feed those people. That’s the equivalent of 2 freight trains, each a mile long to hold it all that food. Then it would have needed 4000 tons of firewood each day to cook that food. And the water! That many people would have needed 3,000,000 gallons of water every day just to have enough to drink. And when they set up camp… their tent city would have covered an area approximately 2/3’s the size of Rhode Island (25 miles by 30 miles).

How could Moses have supplied all that for the people of Israel? Well, that’s an enormous responsibility. Moses had just led Israel out of slavery into an unforgiving desert. How was he going to help the Israelites survive? How could he have been equal to such an overwhelming task? Well, he wasn't! Moses was not equal to the task. Moses could never have kept the Israelites ALIVE in the wilderness. But then – of course – that wasn’t his job. That was God’s job. I could picture Moses saying “I can’t do it. But I know a God who can. And I think I’m just gonna let him take care of it.” You see, that was the whole point of God asking Israel MAKE the Tabernacle. God declared “Let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst.” Exodus 25:8

Now, God was always going to be the midst of them. He would always take care of things. He’d never leave them… and He’d never forsake them. He would always supply for their needs. But they needed to know God was there. And it was NOT like God really needed a sanctuary to dwell in. The Tabernacle wasn’t for God to live in… it was for Israel to look at. Every time they looked at the Tabernacle… it was a reminder that God was saying “I’M HERE… I’m HERE WITH YOU!”

Now… why should I care? Why does it matter TO ME that God wanted this tabernacle? Well, in the New Testament, Hebrews 8:5 says that The 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.’” The tabernacle was a message (even to US as Christians) about what God’s plans were. This Sanctuary God wanted was not just some tent you could buy at Walmart. It was a symbol of something God wanted us to understand. That’s why it had to be built according to the PATTERN.

So what was it that God wanted us to see here? Well 1st, God could have created that tabernacle with just a word of power. He could have spoken and it would have appeared. But God didn’t do that. God told Moses: “Speak to the people of Israel, that they take for me a contribution. From every man whose heart moves him you shall receive the contribution for me.” Exodus 25:1

Now, this was not a mandated amount. It wasn’t the tithe (10th of your income). God was asking for an additional offering… as a gift to Him. God was essentially saying – If you want ME in your midst I want you to be invested in that reality.

ILLUS: Back after Covid ran its course a man approached me (not a member) and he informed me that he was not going to be giving as much as he had. He knew how Covid might have hurt our offerings, and so he had increased his giving during that time. He wanted me to know (now that Covid had passed) that he was going back to his original amount he usually gave. I explained that I was honored that he’d done that, but no one here KNEW what he’d given. We didn’t keep track of what people gave. But this man was INVESTED in this church… because he liked you, he sensed God’s presence here, and he was contributing to that.

ILLUS: Now our church funds have grown a little tight over the past year. A couple weeks ago we forgot to emphasize offering plates during our Unity service… and offerings were down that week. And then LAST week we only had 41 people here because of the snow storm. And I’m sure the offering wasn’t real big then either.