Advent Thoughts

We've just completed Exodus chapters 25-31 this week in my study of the life of Moses. These chapters outline the pattern for the tabernacle which God gives to Moses during their 40 day meeting on Mt. Sinai. Such an appropriate lesson for the beginning of advent! After telling the Israelites what offerings are required, God says in verse 8 of chapter 25 "Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them." Immanuel. God with us.

Just as Moses is a type of Christ, so the entire plan of the tabernacle serves to foreshadow Him. The very word tabernacle means a dwelling of sorts but it is between the wings of the cherubim above the cover of the ark of the covenant specifically that God was understood to dwell.

The ark was a chest built to God's specifications to hold the tablets of the law. (Later, it also housed the jar of manna and Aaron's staff which budded. Hebrews 9:4) The cover of the ark of the covenant is called the atonement cover in the NIV but in other translations it is called the mercy seat. On the Day of Atonement, once a year, the high priest would sprinkle the blood of the animal sacrificed as a sin offering for the people on this cover and call on God for His mercy for them. As God looked down, He saw the blood of the sacrificed animal between Himself and His law which had been broken by His people. Here is a picture of God's judgment and the intercession of Christ through His shed blood giving forgiveness and righteousness to believers.

You may think I've strayed a bit from the topic of advent but the very word advent signifies a period of coming into being. So we are in the season of Christ's birth "coming into being." But there is a sense in which all time from eternity past, certainly from the point of view of what is recorded in the Old Testament of God's Word, is a season of preparation for Christ's coming, the period during which He would "dwell among us" in human flesh.