Most of you know the Exodus story, or at least, the first half: Israel is in oppressive slavery in Egypt, God performs all these signs and miracles, and ultimately the Israelites walk through a mysteriously split Red Sea that closes just in time to drown the Egyptian army that was pursuing them. Exciting! The rest of the book of Exodus is a list of laws and Tabernacle requirements, so to speak. Boring.
I'm in the boring part of Exodus now, per the Read The Bible In One Year schedule I'm on. But over the last couple days of reading, and today particularly, I've become amazed at the point of why God sets all these rules and regulations regarding the Tabernacle/priesthood/offerings while the Israelites are going through the desert. It's really simple: God wants to be with them. He wants to be with us.
And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them. ["http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=exodus%2025:8&version=KJV"] Exodus 25:8, King James Version
Here follows a passage that I want to draw your attention to today:
"This is what you are to offer on the altar regularly each day: two lambs a year old. Offer one in the morning and the other at twilight. With the first lamb offer a tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with a quarter of a hin of oil from pressed olives, and a quarter of a hin of wine as a drink offering. Sacrifice the other lamb at twilight with the same grain offering and its drink offering as in the morning--a pleasing aroma, an offering made to the LORD by fire. "For the generations to come this burnt offering is to be made regularly at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting before the LORD. There I will meet you and speak to you; there also I will meet with the Israelites, and the place will be consecrated by my glory. "So I will consecrate the Tent of Meeting and the altar and will consecrate Aaron and his sons to serve me as priests. Then I will dwell among the Israelites and be their God. They will know that I am the LORD their God, who brought them out of Egypt so that I might dwell among them. I am the LORD their God.
["http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=exodus%2029:38-46&version=NIV"] Exodus 29:38-46, New International Version
The two conclusions I've drawn today I want to share: 1.) The first part of this passage, where God is outlining the daily sacrifices (in this case, the twice-a-day sacrifices), shows how real and tangible and relational God is. Simply, God wants to eat, which is why he requires meat and spices. Here, his desire to connect and be present with the others is shown through Moses and Aaron giving the Lord food as if he were another human being. (Of course, given that God asks for the finest of everything, that's what makes him separate and above humanity. But that's presently beside the point.)
2.) The second part of the passage, as my New Revised Standard Version bible puts it, is the entire point of the book of Exodus. All these instructions are so that God can continually dwell, in a physical and concrete way, with the Israelites as they make their pilgrimage to the promised land.
Most people don't tend to think of God as really wanting relationship with us or at least wanting to meet us where we are before the birth of Jesus Christ, but I beg to differ. In as early as the book of Exodus, God clearly defines his desire to be with us. The difference, I sense, is that God only makes it clear to the Israelites/Hebrews/Jews in the Old Testament, but when Jesus comes he opens the possibility of relationship to everyone.