December 2, 2010

2 Chronicles 2

My wife grew up just a few miles from Valley Forge. As a matter of fact, her parents house was located on Valley Forge Road. A couple of times we visited the Valley Forge museum. In one display they have George Washington’s field tent set up in a hermetically sealed glass room. The environment is controlled to slow down the decay process of the tent. The tent followed and interesting path to its present location. At one time it was the property of General Robert E. Lee. Apparently somebody in the family line married a descendant or relative of George Washington, and through that line the tent came into his possession. Although, at Valley Forge General Washington wintered in a house, not the tent. Still in his summer campaigns, particularly on the move, he used the tent. It has been about 230 years since then. The tent was in still good shape, but only because it has been protected for the last 200 years. I wonder how long the Tabernacle of the Lord lasted.

David was incomplete in the movement of the Tabernacle to Jerusalem. We saw in 1 Kings 3 the great mercy of the Lord upon Solomon. Here in 2 Chronicles we learn that the bronze altar was in Gibeon. Gibeon is referred to as the great high place. David brought the ark from Kiriath Jearim. What was it doing there? When Samuel was a boy, the Philistines captured it. When the Lord plagued them, they hooked it up to an ox cart, and the oxen took it on their own, without a driver, straight to Kiriath Jearim, the nearest Israelite town. The ark remained there until David attempted to move it to Jerusalem. David set up a tent for the ark in Jerusalem. That implies that the Tabernacle was not there. Perhaps after 400 years the Tabernacle was much to worn to attempt to transport it. But he left at least the bronze altar there. Who knows what happened to the other Tabernacle furniture during those years. By this point, my guess is that the tent had worn out.

The bronze altar was a picture of the judgment of God against sin upon the cross. When the ark was moved, it should all have been returned together with the Tabernacle and other furniture, but it wasn’t. So, I guess Solomon was doing something kind-of-right. He went to Gibeon to offer the sacrifices. That is where the bronze altar was. God met him that night as a result. God always meets us initially at the cross. But we need to move deeper in than just a simple understanding of the sacrifice being made for our sin. We must press on in to find the glory of God. To look at the Tabernacle, it was a process that began at the bronze altar but continued on in to the Holy of Holies. There is where the glory dwelt. I wonder if Solomon ever made it past the bronze altar. I guess we will explore that a few chapters down the road. Indeed we serve a glorious King. Speak His glory to someone today!

--Pastor john

1 John 1

Glory is a hard word to get a handle on. Ask any group of people what glory means, and you'll get a lot of definitions. But no one’s definition will probably be sufficient. The glory of God is just not something that is easy to handle. But part of the glory of Jesus is that He is glory made flesh. He could be seen, reasoned with, even handled. He is the glory of God made known in a way that humans can grasp the greatness of His majesty without being destroyed. When His glory is handled, grasped or comprehended, it naturally results in joy, fullness of joy.

In particular His glory is light. Light reveals the nature of reality. When I was younger, God had blessed me with extraordinary vision. I could see a deer standing still a quarter of a mile a way and tell you when it flicked its tail. I could read very fine print. But alas, age is creeping upon me. I can no longer read my large print Bible without glasses. I have found that the amount of light makes a great difference in what I can see in print, on my clothes and even on my own face when I look in a mirror. With my diminished eyesight, light is very important for seeing reality of what is in print, what is on my clothes or the presentableness of my face.

As we focus on His glory, we walk into His light. In the midst of His light we see the reality about ourselves. We see the sins we cling onto. We see the effect of sins on our presentableness. We have three options. We can continue to gaze at the ugliness of our sin that is revealed by the light. We can turn our backs on the sin and walk back into the darkness. Or we can confess the sin and continue to gaze upon His glory. The wonderful thing about confession and continuing to look for His glory is that as we do that, His blood washes away our sin. We become presentable! That is His glory for you! Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!

--Pastor John