Back to the Garden

In the year 1970 a British folk rock band named Matthew’s Southern Comfort released a hit single that topped the charts in the early 70’s. The name of the song was Woodstock. A song celebrating the famous music festival with the same name that occurred the year before. The chorus of this famous song goes like this:

We are stardust
We are golden
And we've got to get ourselves
Back to the garden
Back to the garden.

I want to suggest that whether they knew it, this song touched on something profoundly true and immensely important. Namely, every single one of us is longing to get back to the garden. Not the garden of Woodstock with it’s psychedelics and promiscuity but back to the garden of God. Back to the place where God dwelt together with man in perfect harmony. Back to where Yahweh used to walk with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day. Back to a place where God and man spoke to one another as a man speaks to a friend. I’m telling you, whether you know it or not, that this is the deepest longing of your heart. The deepest longing of every soul is to get back to the garden where God dwells.

And so as we look at Exodus 30 and 31 we find that God is on the move actively bringing his people inch by inch back to the garden, back to the place where God and man dwell together in perfect harmony.

Along the way we are going to discover three things about God:

• We have a God who hears his people.

• We have a God who dwells with his people.

• We have a God who hallows his people.

1) We have a God who hears his people.

As we turn the page to Exodus chapter 30, Moses is instructed to make the altar of incense. In contrast to the bronze altar, this altar is not to be used for sacrificial offerings but rather for the burning of sweet smelling incense. This altar was to be made of wood and overlaid with gold. And it was much smaller than the bronze altar. It stood just 3 feet high and 1 1/2 feet wide and 1 1/2 feet long. I was thinking about this, If you want an every day object to compare this to, this was like the size of a water fountain in an elementary school.

Not especially big, but what this altar lacked in size, it made up for in significance. In the tabernacle, or the tent of meeting, this altar was placed directly in front of the curtain that separates the holy place from the holy of holies. In other words, the Altar of Incense was as close as you could possibly get to the most holy place without actually going in. And so just a few feet beyond it, just behind the curtain stood the ark of the covenant above which God has said “There I will meet with you.”

And twice a day, every morning and every evening here on the altar of incense a priest was commanded to burn a mixture of spices and frankincense that would fill the tabernacle with sweet smelling smoke. The exact recipe for this incense is laid out in detail here at the end of this chapter.

Now much could be said here about the altar of incense. But I believe that the single most important thing that I can say here is this: in the Scriptures there is a significant connection between the burning of incense on the altar and the prayers of God’s people. In the Scriptures both in the Old Testament and the New, the burning of incense became symbolic for and even synonymous with prayer.

Listen to just a few places where this connection is made clear.

Ps. 141:2 Let my prayer be counted as incense before you, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice!

Rev. 5:8 And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.

And lastly my favorite one here from the gospel of Luke chapter 1 starting in verse 8.

Now while Zechariah was serving as priest before God when his division was on duty, 9 according to the custom of the priesthood, he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense… Okay just to clarify, Zechariah has just been commissioned to minister in the Lord’s temple by burning incense on the very altar that was just described here in Exodus chapter 30.

And watch what the people are doing outside while Zechariah was ministering. We read in verse 10:

And the whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense. 11 And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. 12 And Zechariah was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him. 13 But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard…

Isn’t this a fascinating account? We see here that when the priest went in to burn incense on the coals of the alter, the people gathered outside the courtyard to pray. Luke describes this as the “hour of incense,” which seems to be a time set aside as an hour of prayer for the people both in the morning and evening.  And the picture that we get is that as the sweet smelling smoke from the altar rose into God so too did the prayers of God’s people. The people were praying with confidence that their prayers were actually finding their way into the courts of the living God. That they were actually being heard by the creator of the universe.

And again I want to see here that the altar of incense is one of God’s intended means to bring his people one step closer to the garden of Eden.

Remember that in the garden LORD God used to walk with Adam and Eve in cool of the day. And now here through the burning of incense, God was once more inviting his people to lift up their prayers to him every morning and every evening, twice a day in the cool of the day.

We have a God who hears his people. He heard his people cry for rescue from slavery in Egypt. He heard their groaning in Egypt and He remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. And here at the Altar of incense his people remembered together that God is a God who hears.

And let me just say, if the Old Testament people of God, who could not enter into holy of holies, or even the tent of meeting or even the court yard of the tabernacle, if they prayed with any measure of confidence that they were heard, how much greater confidence ought we to pray with as those those have been washed by the blood of Jesus Christ. We have gone behind the curtain through our union with Jesus Christ. Into the very throne room of God. They had a symbol that their prayers were heard, but we have assurance that our prayers are heard.

Think about it like this, Randy Alcorn in his fictional work, “Safely home” wrote about one American’s experience of attending a prayer meeting at a small, illegal house church in rural China. He described his experience like this:

“The prayers were short and long, informal and formal, but all had a passion Ben had never sensed. Many years ago he’d fallen asleep at prayer meetings. No one could fall asleep here. No words seemed nominal. No prayers seemed scripted. More than that, Ben had the unmistakable sense that these prayers did not stop at the ceiling. They passed through it, gathering momentum, a cumulative force so explosive it threatened to blow off the roof of the old house.” Alcorn, Randy, Safely Home p. 139.

Brothers and sisters, we have a God who hears the prayers of his people. And at every stage of redemptive history God has been actively bringing his people one step closer to the place where we will once more speak with him face to face as a man speaks with his friend.

2) We have a God dwells with his people.

And this brings us to our second point, we have a God who dwells with his people. We see this in particular in the first half of chapter 31.

Here the Lord sets apart two men named Bezalel and O-holiab. And Bezalel in particular is set apart by God to take primary artistic oversight of the construction of the tabernacle.

And the language that is used here to describe Bezalel being set apart is rather striking. It should get our attention.

In verse 3 the Lord says, “I have filled Bezalel with the Spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver, and bronze, in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, to work in every craft.”

God fills Bezalel with his Spirit so that he might be able to construct and oversee everything God desired about in tabernacle in chapters 25-30. He was to be God’s appointed instrument for turning these verbal instructions into concrete realities.

And here we must pause to say that God has once and for all dignified the work of the artist. The call to create beautiful things with ones hands unto the glory of God is no secondary calling. Pursue it with all your might! That deserves a full sermon and I regret that I can’t go there this morning.

But I want us to focus on here are the parallels between Bezalel’s commission to create the tabernacle and the Lord’s work in creating the heavens and the earth.

There are three striking parallels here.

a) First, notice the prominence of the Spirit of God in both the construction of the tabernacle and the Creation account in Genesis 1.

T. Desmond Aleander says here that “The gifting of Bezalel with the Spirit of God recalls the opening chapter of Genesis where the Spirit of God hovers over the surface of the waters in preparation for God’s ordering and filling an earth that is formless and empty.”

The Spirit is plays a vital role both in God’s work in creation and in Bezalel’s work in constructing the tabernacle.

b) Second, notice the word work used both here in Exodus 31 and in Genesis 2:3. Here Bezalel was given skill in order to work, and in Genesis 2:3 it says that God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation. This is the exact same word.

c) And the third consider the parallel with Proverbs 3:19-20 which I consider to be the most striking of all. Listen to this.

The LORD by wisdom founded the earth;
by understanding he established the heavens;
by his knowledge the deeps broke open,
and the clouds drop down the dew.

The Lord founded the earth by wisdom and it is wisdom that is given to Bezalel. By understanding the Lord established the heavens and understanding is given to Bezalel.

By the Lord’s knowledge the deeps broken open and knowledge is given to Bezalel. In the Hebrew these two passages go three for three in the exact same order.

There is a striking connection between God’s creation of the heavens and the earth and his commission to Bezalel to create the tabernacle. But what am I getting at here? What I’m getting at is this—We have a God who desires to dwell with his people. Isn’t that remarkable?

We see here God’s relentless pursuit of mankind. Because of man’s sin there was no way  that we could ever come into the presence of God’s holiness. And so what did God do? He made a way through Bezalel to create a space where his presence might once more dwell on earth. Do you God’s mercy here? Bringing rebels as close as they could possibly get into his presence.

And now, brothers and sisters through Jesus Christ we have a better Bezalel. Through Jesus, that master artist, God has made a way for his presence to not just dwell in the midst of his people but inside the people themselves. We gather here as those who have been filled with the Spirit of God. Testifying to the master workmanship of Jesus Christ our Savior.

Let us marvel at God’s relentless pursuit to dwell among man. And this brings us to our third point.

3) We have a God who Hallows his people

After spending 6 and a half chapters giving detailed instructions for the building of the tabernacle we are given a surprising conclusion here in verse 13. Instead of adding further instructions for how to put the finishing touches on the tabernacle Israel is given here a reminder to keep the Sabbath.

The LORD says to Moses in verse 13,  13 “You are to speak to the people of Israel and say, ‘Above all you shall keep my Sabbaths…

Isn’t this interesting? After laying out all the instructions and filling Bezalel with his Spirit, and equipping his people for the most important work that they will ever undertake he reminds them to observe the day of rest.

It’s as if the LORD is saying here that as important as all your work might be, it is never to take precedence over the day of rest.

One commentator calls the sabbath “a tabernacle in time.” Isn’t that helpful? This sabbath, this holy day, this tabernacle in time, is not to be given a back seat to tent of meeting.

Why? What’s so important about this day of rest?  In verse 17 The Lord says, “The Sabbath is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.’” The Lord grounds this command as he often does, in the pattern of creation. There is a six and one pattern that the people are called to keep. Six days of work. One day of rest.

Once more God is graciously inviting his people one step closer to the garden, to the place where he works 6 days and rests on the seventh.

If you want to hear a really helpful sermon on the sabbath and it’s implications for our lives, man  I would just commend to you pastor Jonathan’s message from last January. You can find it on our  website. He unpacks much about the Christian sabbath that I am not able to touch on here. Give it a listen this afternoon. So good.

But for now I want to highlight a second purpose for keeping the Sabbath that the Lord gives us here in Exodus 31. It’s one that have not seen before.

Listen to what it says in verse 13 ‘Above all you shall keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the LORD, sanctify you.”

One of the reasons that the Lord commands his people to keep the Sabbath is so that they would know that it is Yahweh who sanctifies them, it is Yahweh who sets them apart, it is Yahweh who makes them unique above all the people of the earth.

That’s what it means to hallow something. To set it apart as holy and unique and special above all other things.

Think about it like this. Kids, many of you probably have a favorite toy at home, right?  One toy that you that you value above all the others. This is the toy that you first play with when you get back from a trip. This is the toy that you would be most sad about if you misplaced it. Maybe it’s a ninja turtle. Maybe it’s a baby doll. What ever it is I want you to think that toy.

Now I want you to consider this: in the same way that you set your favorite toy above all the rest, the LORD of the universe sets apart his people. He makes them unique. Holy. Separate. As it says in Deut. 7:6  “For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.”

And the Lord wants his people to remember this. He wants Israel to remember why they are holy. He wants them to think on the source of their holiness. To remember that it’s Yahweh who sanctifies you. It’s Yahweh who sets you apart. Yahweh who makes you unique.

And wow was Israel to remember this? How could they keep from taking credit for their own holiness? How could they keep from boasting about their perceived superiority to others?

Answer: by observing the sabbath. One of the reasons that God commands his people to rest is so that we might be able to step back and remember that it is God’s work that is decisive not our own. Did you hear that? It is God’s work that is decisive not our own. We have a God who hallows his people. He makes us holy. He sanctifies us.

This was true of Israel and it is true of us. And one of the reasons why we should pursue a pattern of rest and worship on Sundays is so that we can acknowledge that the ultimate source of our sanctification is not ourselves. It’s not mainly our obedience. It’s not mainly our law keeping. It’s not mainly our consistency in reading the word. It’s not mainly our zeal for good works. It’s not mainly our disciple making. Or our fighting of sin. The source of our becoming more like Jesus Christ is God himself.

But lest we get this twisted. What does that look like practically? It looks like us saying together with Paul from 1Cor. 15:10 “by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.”

Paul worked harder than any of them. So, yes we should work too. We should fight sin. We should pursue holiness with all our might. We should strive to dig into God’s word and  to pray with more fervently and more consistently. And then on the seventh day we should step back and look consider the week that has gone by.  And there we should acknowledge the glorious reality that it has ALL been the grace of God. All of it. The effort. His. The energy. His. The desire to do good. His. If there are any ways that we have become more like Christ in those 6 days it has been the work of God in us. Brothers and sisters. We have a God who hallows his people.

And he invites us to remember this by resting on the sabbath. Resting as God did on the seventh day in the garden.

Conclusion

Let me close by repeating once more the lyrics that I began this message with.

We are stardust
We are golden
And we've got to get ourselves
back to the garden.

But here’s the reality, no man in history has ever gotten himself back to the garden. No effort of ours will get us there. No amount of sacrifices, no amount of prayers, not a tabernacle perfectly constructed, none of these could have ever atoned for the sins of man. None of these were ever enough to bridge the gap between sinful man and a perfectly holy God.

God had to provide a better way. A way promised to his people all the way back in the garden.

But, back in the garden, back on that fateful day that Adam and Eve ate of the fruit that plunged our world into darkness. Back on the very day that mankind was barred from God’s presence. God made a promise. A promise of a future offspring. The promise of a deliverer that would come and strike the head of the serpent.

And I testify before God and before man this morning that this promised deliverer has come. He has come. One who is able to take us beyond the curtain. Beyond the guards that have always stood between us and our Creator. His name is Jesus Christ. The Son of God.

And I testify that he took on flesh. And that he laid that same flesh on a roman cross. Where he suffered and died in the place of sinners like you and I. So that through his flesh we might once more with confidence enter into the presence of God.

You see, we’ve got to get ourselves back to the garden, but because we cannot Jesus Christ will bring us there.