A Place to Meet God and Worship

“So I will consecrate the Tent of Meeting and the altar and will consecrate Aaron and his sons to serve Me as priests. Then I will dwell among the Israelites and be their God. They will know that I am the Lord their God, who brought them out of Egypt so that I might dwell among them. I am the Lord their God.” (Exodus 20:44-46, NIV)

Worship is a very important spiritual activity. To recognize God as God, to be reverent before Him, to adore, praise and worship Him and follow Him in obedience are vital elements of a Christian’s relationship with God. We can worship God at any place we come before Him. A specific place to meet God and worship Him was a necessary element of establishing the Israelites as a nation immediately after they were released from 400 years of Egyptian bondage. You might like to consult a good Bible dictionary for how the Tent of Meeting (also called the Tabernacle of Meeting) looked and how it was used. The description of how it was built is found in Exodus 35-40. For brevity, we know that it was constructed with great care, moved and set up time and again as the Israelites went toward the Promised Land. It was important to the Israelites to know they had a specific place in the wilderness designated as a holy place, a site where they could meet and worship God. Aaron and his sons, Moses’ brother and nephews, were made priests, worship leaders. They represented God to the people and the people to God. They conducted sacrifices, prayers and other aspects of worship. The major reason for a place for worship and services of worship was stated firmly: “That I might dwell among them. I am the Lord their God.”

What reminders of God’s presence do I have in my life? A Tent of Meeting can be any place consecrated to God and designated as a place to worship Him. Is it at table, as the family gathers to eat, when all bow heads and someone prays, seeking God’s blessing and thanking Him? Is it at a desk, in a special chair, within a special room in the house where a ‘Tent of Meeting’ bids communion with God? Is it at an unexpected moment when an awe-inspiring sight compels you to seek God and recognize His handiwork in creation? Is your Tent of Meeting in a sick room when you recognize that God is there, available to heal, to show mercy, to comfort, to set right? Certainly it should be at the house of worship—the church building—consecrated as a place to meet God. All of these ‘Tents of Meeting’ are (or should be) as vital to our spiritual health as the Tabernacle of Meeting was to the Israelites. But the most important of all the Tents of Meeting is seen in Jesus Christ: “The Word became flesh and made His dwelling (tabernacled) among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14, NIV). Praise be to God!

c Ethelene Dyer Jones; Wednesday, November 3, 2010