FRIDAY (12/18/20)

Hi, my name is Andrew, and I am the “In” Pastor at Riverside. It is truly a gift to be called to oversee home groups, formation ministries, and connections. At 6’9”, I am one of the tallest people around, and though it once took up most of my life, I gave up my brief basketball career at age 16.

The passages you will read today are Exodus 25:1-9 and Exodus 40:34-38. The Lord told Moses to “…have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them” (Exodus 25:8). God wants to assure the Israelites that He is with them throughout their wilderness wanderings during their great forty-year exodus from the promised land. It is one thing for God to tell them He is with them, but it is another to show them. By building the Tabernacle, a beautiful yet portable central point for the presence of God, the people had a place to turn their eyes and know—the Lord is with us.

Centuries later, God’s people would need to be assured again that God is with us. But this time, God does not show up as a glorious presence on a throne behind tabernacle curtains, but as a baby in a cattle-feeding trough in a stable. This is the glory of the Lord’s presence, embodied in the awesome fragility of a newborn child. That God could somehow package the glory described in Exodus 40 in the frame of a baby is one of the primary reasons the hope of Advent is at the center of our life in God.

  • What similarities do you see between the presence of God in the tabernacle and in the coming of Jesus? What differences do you see?
  • Israel needed to see the tabernacle to be reminded of God’s presence among them. Christ was born in large part to assure us that God is with us. What is one way God makes His presence known in your life today?