The Word for today:
1 Kings 7:13 -- 8:11

[The book of Hebrews in the New Testament develops the rich spiritual significance of the Tabernacle's design and furnishings. Why does Hebrews use the simple Tabernacle to illustrate these truths when it could have used the ornate Temple? We began to answer that question yesterday, and will continue our answer today.]

God proposed the Tabernacle. Man proposed the Temple.

The Tabernacle was a tent. The Temple was a building.

The Tabernacle was portable. The Temple was not.

There was nothing wrong with the Temple. It was good. But God's idea--the Tabernacle--was great.

Your relationship with God is ever-developing, ever-advancing. It's on the move.

Your relationship with God is one of response--he leads and we follow, wherever the Spirit might take us. The Tabernacle aptly depicts that responsiveness. It could be packed up and ready to go at a moment's notice, whenever the LORD went before them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night (1).

But the Temple, affixed to the ground, cannot depict our "pilgrim's progress."

Moreover, Christianity itself is a movement. It is not an institution. It certainly is not a building.

Our relationships with God--individually and as a body--should be suffused with a sense of responsiveness, ever willing to pack up and go where the Spirit leads.

So listen for his directions. And pack light.

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(1) Exodus 13:21-22