Missing Stones Series

[Note: Every week, I've been handing out stones and then asking them to put their stone at the foot of the cross at the end of the sermon. This week, I asked them to keep their stone to remind them of what the other stones represent. So, at the start of this sermon, point to the pile of stones at the foot of the cross.]

Do you remember what the first stone that we laid at the foot of the cross represented? It represented a piece of the stone tablets on which God wrote the Ten Commandments with His finger … signifying His power and the eternal nature of His Law. While Moses was with God, receiving the Law, God also instructed Moses to build an ark to put the stone tablets in. It was a box made of acacia wood. God instructed Moses to put rings on the sides of the Ark so that poles could be inserted through them and used to lift the box and carry it with them. Here is a little but important detail. God tells Moses that the poles must “remain in the rings of the ark; they shall not be taken from it” (Exodus 25:15). Why is that important? Because the LORD wanted them to be ready to move any time at His command. Leaving the poles in the rings also signified that they had not reached their permanent new home yet.

God then instructed them to construct what He called a “mercy seat” of pure gold with two angels of gold at either end of the mercy seat. “There I will meet you,” says God, “and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim that are on the ark of the covenant, I will deliver to you all my commands for the Israelites” (Exodus 25:22). Again, it’s important that you don’t miss what God is doing here. Before this, Moses had to go to God to talk to God and receive God’s commands. God had the ark built … a holy place … so that He could come and be with the Israelites … hence the name, “Tent of Meeting” … the place where God could be with His people and the people could come into God’s presence. The Bible then foreshadows what would become the model or standard for Temple worship when they finally do reach the Promised Land and set up a permanent home and build a nation.

“Whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people would rise and stand, each of them, at the entrance of their tents and watch Moses until he had gone into the tent” (Exodus 33:8) … just as the people would stand in the Temple and watch as the priest went before the Ark in the Holy of Holies. “When Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent, and the LORD would speak with Moses” … which is exactly what Zechariah was doing when the angel appeared before him and told him that his wife, Elizabeth, would give birth to the prophet, John, who would prepare the people for the coming of God’s long-awaited Messiah, Jesus.

The Bible says that on the day that the tabernacle was completed, the cloud that had protected them from the Egyptian army, the cloud that was leading them through the wilderness, the cloud which was the Presence of God, “covered the tabernacle, the tent of the covenant, and from evening until morning it was over the tabernacle, having the appearance of fire” (Numbers 9:15). That must have been a sight, amen? And I want you to close your eyes and picture it … and then I want you to hold on to that image.

When God first met with His people on Mount Sinai and made a covenant with them, how did He appear? The Bible says “there was thunder and lightning, as well as a thick cloud on the mountain, and a blast of a trumpet so loud that all the people who were in the camp trembled. … Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke, because the LORD had descended upon it in fire” (Exodus 19:16, 18). The image of God’s Presence descending on Mount Sinai is the same as God’s image descending on the Ark of the Covenant … again, signifying the place where God could speak to the people and the people could be in His Presence … to worship Him and to hear Him speak … the Tent of Meeting replacing the mountain of meeting … God coming down from the mountain top to be closer to His people. God going from being separated from the people by a mountain to an ark surrounded by curtains to being separated from the people by a special curtain in the Temple.