Would you say you’re close to God, or distant from him? Is he close to you, or is he somewhere far away.
This matters. Assuming there is a God. He’s powerful. He’s personal. He can do anything he chooses. You’d want to know him. Be close to him. Know that you’re in his good books.
And to be sure of that, we have to know what he’s like.
I want us to steer a path between two very common misconceptions of God.
The first misconception is that God is too accessible. He’s domesticated. He’s tame. Of course we’re close to God. Why wouldn’t I be? I can talk to him any time I want. God and I are best friends.
The second misconception is that God is totally inaccessible. He’s distant. He’s terrifying. He cannot be known. Why should he want to know little me? God’s there, but he’s too complex, too far off, and I’m too small for him to bother with.
The God if the Bible is neither a tame, domesticated God, nor a terrifying, distant God.
He cannot be known cheaply, but he can be known surely.
This was a lesson the people of Israel had to learn in the desert as they travelled from Egypt to the land God had promised them.
Not Tame and Domesticated
How did they know that God is not tame and domesticated? From the story so far in Exodus.
They’ve seen what God did to the Egyptians. You may remember the terrible plagues that fell on them because they would not let the Israelites leave. You’ll remember the chilling death of their firstborn boys at the first Passover. You’ll remember the crossing of the Red Sea that drowned the whole Egyptian army.
But then the people gathered at Mount Sinai to meet this God who had rescued them.
Let me read to you from that scene.
Exodus 19 first, verse 16: On the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled. Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly. And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him in thunder. The Lord came down on Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain. And the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up. And the Lord said to Moses, “Go down and warn the people, lest they break through to the Lord to look and many of them perish. Also let the priests who come near to the Lord consecrate themselves, lest the Lord break out against them.
So God spoke the ten commandments. The people heard his voice. And then here’s Exodus chapter 20, verses 18 to 20. Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.”
The people were in no doubt by this point. God is not tame. He’s not domesticated. The prophet Amos likens him to a lion. The Bible never compares God to a kitten. He doesn’t sit on your lap and purr. He roars.
The trouble is that we’re often not so clear. In our minds, we domesticate God. We imagine him to be tame. If we don’t carry him around in our pockets, perhaps he’s more like a genial uncle in the sky. He loves to give out presents. He has a kind face with gentle wrinkles, and he’s always smiling.
That’s not the God the Israelites met in the wilderness.
It’s not the God that Jesus introduced us to either. Sure, as a person, Jesus was very approachable. But we see his anger at injustice. He rejected people who stubbornly refused to come to him for life. And there were many occasions when his teaching explicitly reinforced that God has a burning holiness that will one day judge everything impure or untrue.
The rest of the New Testament does not teach God as kitten or uncle either. Hebrews chapter 12 verse 29 says Our God is a consuming fire.
No the God they met in the desert was the same God we meet in the rest of the Bible. He’s not tame. He’s not domesticated. The people begged not to hear his voice any more. If anyone tried to approach him they’d die. Later in the chapter we had, we discover that the priests would die if they approached God with the wrong underwear on. God is pure and holy, and we are not.
That’s the first thing to be clear on. God is not tame and domesticated. He cannot be known cheaply.
Not Terrifying and Distant
Now in today’s passage we discover God is not terrifying and distant. He may not be known cheaply, but he can be known surely, because he wants us to know him.
God wants to live among his people, so he gives instructions for the people to build him a special tent. It’s called a tabernacle, and it will be God’s tent.
But this doesn’t solve the problem. It highlights it. They’ve built this tent, but nobody can go into it.
And so in chapter 28 we meet God’s answer. The answer is the high priest.
God chooses one of the people to be the high priest. The first person to do this was Aaron, Moses brother. Exodus chapter 28 describes the high priest’s robes. His garments. What he was to wear when he was on official duties? 6 pieces of clothing. Described so as to tell us what the high priest is for.
The high priest represented the people before God.
Two things we learn, then, from his clothes. First, the high priest represented the people before God.
One garment he wore was called an ephod. A kind of long apron. Startlingly beautiful, with vivid colours, and expensive materials.
Our attention is drawn to the shoulder pieces. Think: A bit like the stripes or pips that a high-ranking police or army officer might wear.
Only they didn’t have chevrons, crowns or diamond shapes. They had one large semi-precious stone on each shoulder. It would sparkle in the sun. Look closely, they’d been engraved with the names of the twelve tribes
Whenever the high priest went into the presence of God, he was carrying the people on his shoulders.
And then there was a breastplate. Not a piece of armour, but a piece of cloth. And on it were 12 gem stones. 4 rows of 3. Each a slightly different colour, dazzling and sparkling. And each engraved with the names of one of the twelve tribes.
So when the high priest when into God’s tent, he stood before God with the names of the tribes on his chest. Only this one man went into the tent. But he’s saying to God: Here we are, all twelve tribes of us.
The priest went into the tabernacle. But as he did so, he was carrying the people in, he represented them. Through his being there, they were all there.
You probably know that the Union Flag is a combination of St Patrick’s Cross of Ireland, St Andrew’s Cross of Scotland, and the St George Cross of England. Slightly controversially, there’s no Welsh component in there. But the idea still works.
When the athletes parade the British flag at the winter games, every part of the United Kingdom is in the flag. Of the 60 million or so of us, only a few go to the games, and they don’t come from every town and city. But they carry a flag that contains 3 out of 4 of our countries. Because we are here, through our representatives, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are at these games.
And so the high priest went into the presence of God. He was wearing a costume that had all the twelve tribes stitched into it. He represented them as he made sacrifices for their sins. He sought God’s judgements to settle their disputes. He reminded God that these were the people he had promised to bless.
The high priest represented the people before God.
The high priest was dressed in God’s glory
The other thing we learn from his dress code is that the high priest was dressed in God’s glory. The high priest was dressed in God’s glory.
Verse 2 says that these are holy garments, for glory and for beauty.
The high priest’s garments were holy. That means set apart. Nobody else wore anything like them.
They were for glory. That means weighty. They highlighted just what a privileged role this man had.
And they were for beauty. They were dazzlingly designed. He was the best-dressed man in all Israel.
Holy. Glory. Beauty. Words that usually describe God. The high priest was a man of God.
And he looked stunningly like the tabernacle itself. The tabernacle was made with lots of blue, purple, scarlet and gold – all the same colours that the high priest would wear. He looked the part. He belonged in that tent.
If you go to a supermarket, they have colours that subtly tell you which store you’re in. Sainsbury’s is orange. Tesco is blue. Asda is green. And so guess what colours the staff wear? It subconsciously reassures you that the member of staff can help.
The tabernacle had its colours. And the high priest wore the branded design. Israel knew that he belonged. The tabernacle was a holy place, beautifully built, for God’s glory to live in. And so the high priest’s clothes were holy, beautiful and glorious.
Our High Priest
This solved the puzzle for the people of Israel. God was holy. Awesome. Alight. Glorious. Not tame or domesticated.
So how could they enter his presence? They couldn’t. They were not holy.
So God called one person to represent them. God made the high priest holy. His turban had written on it: Holy to the Lord. God put him in clothes that made him belong in God’s presence. And this one person could go into God’s presence. And through their representative, the people could meet with God.
But how about us? Where can we find a priest to represent us?
Let’s wind the story forwards. Spoiler alert.
The Old Testament priests were sinful. In 1 Samuel, you’ll meet Eli and his family. The priests were as much part of the problem as the kings were. And when God’s judgement fell on Israel, the prophet Hosea describes God’s judgement in one very specific way: There would be nobody to wear the ephod. No priest to represent them. No access to the presence of God.
What they needed was a priest who did not sin. It wasn’t enough to take a sinful member of the community and dress him in robes that were holy, glorious and beautiful. They needed a priest who was holy, glorious and beautiful on the inside too.
Wonderfully, we have such a priest. Jesus is consistently called our great high priest in the New Testament. It’s no coincidence that he was led to his execution wearing a purple robe.
Although as he hung on the cross, he wore no clothes at all. Like the priests of old, he offered a sacrifice for our sins. Although unlike the priests, he was the sacrifice. And unlike the priests, he wore no clothes at all. His garments were taken from him before his execution. He did not need fancy garments to make him holy, glorious and beautiful. He was like that through and through. On the inside.
Jesus is now in heaven. He’s not just in a tent that looks like heaven. He’s in the presence of God himself. And he’s there as our priest.
Most of the letter to the Hebrews is about this. I’ll just read two verse, Chapter 7, verses 26 and 27: It was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens. He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself.
For us
What does this mean for us?
We cannot waltz into God’s presence. If we do not see God’s majestic holiness. If we do not see our sin, and how it leaves us standing in filthy rags before God. Then it’s not the real God we’re believing in.
But this does not mean we cannot approach God. It does not mean we cannot know him. We just need someone to represent us. Someone God does accept. Who can take me into God’s presence.
Jesus does this for us. He’s carried our sins on the cross. He’s carried us on his shoulders into the presence of his Father. He’s strapped us onto his heart and taken us into the very presence of God.
Through Jesus, we’re already in heaven. It’s where he is. If we trust him, we’re so tightly wrapped up with him that we’re there too, through our representative. And one day, he’ll come back we’ll be with him in body.
This is real. Without having to try and tame God, we can enter the presence of the holy God. We can find his sure forgiveness. We can know that he’ll never forget us. We can enjoy his blessing. Because in Jesus, we have the most glorious high priest there has ever been.