Two Foci Tuesday of Lent 1
Read Exodus 27:1-8 and Hebrews 8:1-2
You shall make an altar of acacia wood (Ex. 27:1).
On any given day in the wilderness, the tabernacle is a busy place as priests
attend to their God-given duties. There are different furnishings that each have
purpose and meaning, though we don't have time for them in a study this brief.
However, if you take the tabernacle and the courtyard and cut the area down the
middle, and look at the center of each half, you find the essentials, the two foci
of the tabernacle. One focus is, of course, the Most Holy Place or Holy of
Holies; that's where the Lord lives with His people. It is His presence there that
makes the tabernacle the Lord's house.
Outside of the tabernacle, in the courtyard, is the other focus of the
tabernacle: it is the altar of burn offerings. Animals are brought to this altar,
tied to the four horns at the altars so that they are unable to move; then they are
sacrificed as sin offerings and other sacrifices, their blood shed according to
God's command.
These are the two foci of the tabernacle—sacrifice and the Lord's presence.
The sacrifice is made on the altar outside the tabernacle; and because the blood
of the helpless animal is shed, the Lord declares His people forgiven. What is
the purpose of these two centerpieces? It isn't just a temporary religion set-up to
tide over the Israelites until the Savior appears, but far more: both highlights are
there to point to the Savior, to testify of Jesus.
The Most Holy Place is the site of God's presence; and once finished, the
Lord overshadows it in a cloud of glory, then enters in. He is there for His
people. Nine months before Jesus' birth, the angel announces to Mary that the
Holy Spirit will overshadow her (Lk. 1:35), and she will give birth to the Son of
God. (We'll speak more of this miracle a little later when we speak of the
Annunciation.) In Christ, the Lord draws even nearer to His people than a room
separated by curtained walls; He becomes flesh and dwells among them.
The altar and sacrifices point to Jesus, too. As those animals are stretched
out and tied to the horns so that their blood is shed, so Jesus will allow His
hands and feet to be stretched out and nailed to the cross. He will do so in order
to shed His blood, to sacrifice Himself, for your sins.
On the Day of Atonement, the altar and Most Holy Place are especially
connected, for the high priest sacrifices a bull on the altar and carries its blood
into the Lord's presence. This, too, points to Jesus: as Hebrews 8 points out, the
risen Jesus has now entered the Most Holy Place of heaven and presented His
sacrificial blood to His Father in heaven. Therefore, God the Father pronounces
you forgiven. This is the heart of the Gospel: Christ has sacrificed Himself for
your sin.
We sometimes fail to see much connection between the Old Testament and
the New. But from Genesis on, the Scriptures are the story of God's presence
with His people for forgiveness, and the story continues for you even now.
www.scholia.netPastor Tim Pauls
Good Shepherd Lutheran Church
Boise, Idaho