The Sanctuary

And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst. Exactly as I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle, and of all its furniture, so you shall make it. (Exodus 25: 8 9)

Ever since God created the Garden of Eden for Adam and Eve, God planned to dwell with them because of His love toward them. So, even though Adam and Eve fell into devil's temptation by eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil against God's warning of death, God didn't put them to death but chased them out of the Garden. Later on, God destroyed the world with the great flood because of men being extremely wicked, violent, and corrupt. Yet, out of love, God made a covenant with Noah that He would never curse men like that again. Then God made an everlasting covenant with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and their descendants to be their God. That's why God made a covenant with the people of Israel and let them make Him a sanctuary to fulfill His love to dwell in their midst. Before departing from Egypt, the Israelites asked the Egyptians for silver, gold, jewelry and clothing as Moses told them. So, the first thing to make the sanctuaried tabernacle was to give them as a gift to God as described below.

The Lord said to 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. And this is the contribution that you shall receive from them: gold, silver, and bronze, blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen, goats' hair, tanned rams' skins, goatskins, acacia wood, oil for the lamps, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense, onyx stones, and stones for setting, for the ephod and for the breast piece. (Exodus 25: 1 to 7)

God could make a sanctuary for Himself. Instead, He asked the Israelites to contribute the material. It's a rare chance for the Israelites to show their love to God in return for God's love. This reminded me of when our small congregation was asked to leave a borrowed meeting place by the church, we were debating if to buy our own meeting place or borrow a new one from other churches like before. It seemed to be a heavy burden to buy our own place for a small congregation like ours. Then a brother said that how often did we have the opportunity to buy a place for God's sake? Then after praying, everybody agreed to raise the money to purchase our own place because this seemed to be a rare chance to participate in God's work even though it could be a heavy burden. Then before knowing it, we have our own congregational building after six months. God wanted Israelites to build a sanctuary for Him not just to accommodate Him, but also to restore the broken relationship with Him by giving God their precious belongings in the desert when everything was scarce as described in the Bible below.

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6: 19 to 21)

To restore the relationship, we need to give God our heart. One way is to give God what our heart desires, such as our fortune. It could also mean other things, such as fame, power, status, etc. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. However, God didn't just ask for the precious items. God also asked for common items, such as linen, animal skins, wood, oil, incense, stones, etc. So, people with less fortune could also contribute to God's sanctuary. This is like what Jesus described in the Bible as below.

And he sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums. And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny. And he called his disciples to him and said to them, “Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.” (Mark 12: 41 to 44)

I didn't know how insignificant of the two coins were until I saw them in a display in the Denver US Mint. They are dark and no bigger than my fingernails. Just like Jesus said, God values more on our heart than the material itself. As long as it's from our heart, then whatever we could offer would be valued for God's usage. Immanuel.

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