If you have missed the first two reviews on The Temple Of God and The Materials Used, click on the links below to catch up:
The Temple Of God & The Materials Used 1
The Temple Of God & The Materials Used 2
We continue with our exhortation below.
Exodus 25:1-9
……Many a time, we bring physical things to the Lord, and we do not realize that if they are accepted of God, they will become divine. The children of Israel were asked of the Lord to bring “Onyx stones and stones to be set in the ephod, and in the breastplate’’.
They would have had to mine these stones, expended energy and effort and amazingly, once these stones were brought to the Lord, they became divine. They became stones by which truth was confirmed. They later constituted the “Urim & Thumim’ such that any “THUS SAITH THE LORD” needed to achieve a total lighting of all 12 stones, before it is accepted as truly from the Lord. These 12 stones symbolize the 12 tribes of Israel.
Isn’t it equally amazing today as well, that whatever we offer to the Lord and is accepted of him, becomes a divine thing? And whatever we offer or render that does not further the gospel of Christ on earth, in one way or the other, may well be a waste? This is because the one thing that remains forever is the word of God (Isaiah 40:8). The word of God is what makes anything divine.
The onyx stones and other stones and all the various materials they brought to build the magnificent sanctuary, was made divine only because of one thing – The Ark of Testimony! The Ark made the materials divine and once the ark is taken out of the whole mix, whatever materials, regardless of the costs, becomes nothing but just carnal materials. In the same vein, when the word of God is out of a church, when the Truth is out, what’s left is sports. When the word of God also leaves the heart of a man, he is no longer the tabernacle of God.
The utmost ridicule of the Jewish people was the seizing of the Ark of testimony by the Philistines. The utmost ridicule of a church is when the word of God no longer dwells there. Not the educational or financial status of the Pastor , nor the beauty of the building, but the presence of the Word of the Lord, which is today our ark of testimony. 1 Kings 8:9
There was nothing in the ark save the two tables of stone, which Moses put there at Horeb, when the LORD made a covenant with the children of Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt.
The Ark itself was a wooden work done by just about any carpenter. But what made it such a uniquely divine entity were the two stones in it. The two Stones Moses received of the Lord. You may observe all forms of religious rites, what makes you holy or uniquely divine is the word of the Lord that dwells in your heart.
1 Kings 8:11
So that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud: for the glory of the LORD had filled the house of the LORD. The glory of a church is the Word of God.
If truly we are the temple of God, then the glory of God should fill our lives.
What is the glory of God? The glory of God is the word of God. The glory of God in a family is the word of God in that family that brings joy. The word of the Lord should so dwell in our heart that it becomes the words that we speak. It forms the thoughts that we think… the praise that we sing. It becomes everything!