Parshah Terumah - Exodus 25:1-27:19
Torah Reading for Week of February 22-28, 2009 |
This week’s Torah portion brings us face to face with the purpose and goal of our very existence, which the Westminster Confession declares is that “the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever” – this is our eternal purpose, but it begins here on earth and in this Parshah God begins to reveal to Moses how this is to be done.
And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them. Exodus 25:8
The Torah devotes a significant amount of time – 13 chapters – to the instructions about how to build the Mishkan (Tabernacle), whereas the story of how God created the earth and man occupies only 2 chapters.
The Lord explains that the purpose of the Mishkan is so that that He could ‘dwell among them.’ Its purpose was to create a place where God’s presence would be manifestly seen and tangibly felt. We need to be clear that God’s Presence was not limited to the Tabernacle, for He is infinite and cannot be contained into any one place and time. “The Mishkan was nevertheless the place that God’s presence was to be most revealed and therefore most easily perceived.” (a quote from a rabbinic source)
The word ‘dwell’ is a rather old fashioned word and means to live as a resident, that is, reside, or to exist in a given place or state. We used to commonly use the term dwelling as a synonym for home. So the Tabernacle was to be God’s “Dwelling Place”, in other words, a home for God on the earth. This raises the question – If the earth is the Lord’s and His presence fills all the earth, does He really need a dwelling place or a home here? (A basic tenet of our faith is that "the entire world is filled with His presence" and "there is no place void of Him." Chassidic Masters)
It might be helpful here to unpack the idea of ‘home’. Home is the place where we rest and where our most basic needs for food, shelter and hygiene are met. It is where we first experience love and care from our parents and is where we are nurtured and grow. The home serves our needs. It is the place that welcomes us.
The Rabbis explain that while the earth displays God’s handiwork it does not welcome Him because the earth is engaged in its own struggle for survival. They go on to explain that its sole aim and focus is the propagation of its species – a bit similar to our friend Darwin. But there is an element of truth here, namely, that living things are ‘egocentric’ as the rabbis so aptly state because their goal is propagation and preservation. Even humanity shows this trait, too; it is not just the animal kingdom that must survive predators, find food and a mate to survive. And man, when he lives outside of God’s law, is so distorted that power, greed and self advancement become not a matter of survival but his very God.
God gave the earth to us to have dominion over and to harness for our needs. Yet, it is also our resource for serving God. We use its materials to build homes and places of worship. We can use the fruit of our labours to get rich or to bless others.
The Rabbis also say that when God created the world it had the capacity to accommodate His Presence and that it was part of God’s intent at creation. But, because Adam and Eve chose a lie over God’s truth, sin entered into the world and this changed the way in which creation functioned in relation to God. They go on to say that it was through the giving of the Torah at Sinai and the establishment of Mishkan, along with the sacrificial system, that restored both to creation and to the created the capacity to accommodate the Presence of God.
A story is told that when God told Moses to build the Mishkan he wondered why the God who filled the universe should require a dwelling place on earth. “But the Lord said to him, "Israel is my flock", "and I am their shepherd”: make a hut for the shepherd whither he shall come to tend them.” Exod. Rabba 33
It is interesting to note that when God tells Moses to build the Mishkan, “... let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them”, God is not saying that He wants to live in the Mishkan, He is saying that He wants to dwell among them. God’s goal and intent here is to make his home among them. To do this the children of Israel needed to build the Mishkan so that they could learn how to draw near to God.
The Midrash likens the giving of the Torah to Israel thus: “God is like a king who gives his only daughter in marriage, and makes it a condition with her husband that there shall always be a room kept for him in their house. If we wish to have the Torah, we must have God also. This is the meaning of the words, ‘Make me a sanctuary that I may dwell therein.’”
In other words, if we want to have God make His dwelling among us then we must keep His Torah, that is, we must live according to His Ways. For those of us who follow Yeshua it means that if we want our lives to be Mishkans - places where God dwells, then we must walk in the light of the teaching of Yeshua and draw near to God through Him.
The Mishkan gave us a pattern or a form by which the children of Israel could approach God in worship. The Temple was constructed and followed this same pattern too. Just as the children of Israel constructed the Tabernacle using the resources that they had, offering them up to God, so do followers of Yeshua as we dedicate ourselves to His service and as we make our lives the place where God is received and welcomed where we serve Him.
For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, "I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” 2 Corinthians 6:16 ...you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? 1 Corinthians 3:16
The Children of Israel were given something that was lost after the Fall. When God said to them: “Let them make me a sanctuary,” to make for Him a dwelling place on earth, He was restoring to them a place where they could welcome His Presence as Adam and Eve had done when they walked with God in the Garden.
God wants to make the heart of the believer His home. I am reminded of when guests come, I run around, clean up and, of course, hide any mess somewhere they won’t see it. And I only ever use my dining room when guests come. It’s something special to me, and I get out my grandmother’s china and cutlery. Guests get to see what I want them to see. I think sometimes that can be the way we are with God, we try to limit His access into our lives, we show Him into the best room of the house but He wants the run of it, to be welcomed into every room.
Moses was given a blueprint for the building of the Tabernacle and the whole community participated by giving of their gifts, their offerings. The tabernacle was a community affair.
... in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. Ephesians 2:21-22
The Bible is the blueprint that God has given us for living so that we might be personally built into the Dwelling where God lives. |
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