god’s pursuit – Rev. Tim Ehrhardt

Bezalel made the ark of acacia wood—two and a half cubits long, a cubit and a half wide, and a cubit and a half high. He overlaid it with pure gold, both inside and out, and made a gold molding around it. He cast four gold rings for it and fastened them to its four feet, with two rings on one side and two rings on the other. Then he made poles of acacia wood and overlaid them with gold. And he inserted the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark to carry it.

He made the atonement cover of pure gold—two and a half cubits long and a cubit and a half wide. Then he made two cherubim out of hammered gold at the ends of the cover. He made one cherub on one end and the second cherub on the other; at the two ends he made them of one piece with the cover. The cherubim had their wings spread upward, overshadowing the cover with them. The cherubim faced each other, looking toward the cover.

They made the table of acacia wood—two cubits long, a cubit wide and a cubit and a half high. Then they overlaid it with pure gold and made a gold molding around it. They also made around it a rim a handbreadth wide and put a gold molding on the rim. They cast four gold rings for the table and fastened them to the four corners, where the four legs were. The rings were put close to the rim to hold the poles used in carrying the table. The poles for carrying the table were made of acacia wood and were overlaid with gold. And they made from pure gold the articles for the table—its plates and dishes and bowls and its pitchers for the pouring out of drink offerings. (New International Version)

This section is, for the most part, a mirror image of Exodus 25:23-40 – which provides meticulous instructions from God on how to build the Ark of the Covenant and the Table that goes with it.

The purpose of this section in Holy Scripture is to give a detailed report that everything the Lord instructed Moses to do, was obediently done, down to every last detail.

This was of upmost importance to the biblical writer, because half-obedience is really not obedience, at all. And there needs to be obedience in order to realize blessing.

God had a purpose with ancient Israel to establish them as God’s people, with God dwelling amongst them. The way this would happen was by means of all the specific prescriptions for the Tabernacle with its worship implements.

Foremost amongst those worship implements was the Ark and the Table, simply because that was the place of meeting with God – and even more specifically – the place of redemption.

The Tabernacle was built, then erected and put into place, just as it was described by God to Moses. And that is the point. The Lord does not change. There was no Plan B or altering the agenda as things went along, because human sin and people’s foibles mucked up everything. No, that’s not how it went down.

Nothing detracts or sidelines God from accomplishing divine purposes – especially when it comes to redeeming people and coming alongside them.

Just because the Israelites disastrously made an idol in the form of a golden calf, and worshiped it as if it were God, did not mean God’s plan failed.

In fact, the Lord made the plan even better by showing exceeding grace in not wiping out the entire lot of them – but instead used the situation to demonstrate steadfast love and accomplish the divine purpose of redemption.

No matter how you slice or dice it, it always comes out as grace.

My hope is that you can see that through all of the details of worship implements and Tabernacle protocol, God bent over backwards to be with the people.

God is holy. God is absolute purity and light. That holiness and purity would incinerate us in a nanosecond if we didn’t have things in place to help us be with God. That was what the Ark and the Table helped to do for Israel.

There are times in Holy Scripture when things get repeated. Repetition, according to many scholars, communicates emphasis. The repeated details of the Ark and the Table, as well as all the other articles associated with worship, communicate the heart of God in wanting us to have access to the divine. In other words, its repeated because it’s important.

Access, redemption, worship, and mercy are all important for the believer. We learn from today’s seemingly mundane verses that:

Sin must be addressed in order to have access to God
A way has been made for us to be with God
We are enabled and empowered to approach God
We have received the mercy of redemption from God
We are to therefore give mercy to others through table fellowship and forgiveness
And we are to give thanks and have gratitude in our hearts to God

Listening to the instructions of God, obeying them, and enjoying them is at the heart of good religion. May it be so, to the glory of God.

Accept, O Lord, our thanks and praise for all that you have
done for us. We thank you for the splendor of the whole
creation, for the beauty of this world, for the wonder of life,
and for the mystery of love.

We thank you for the blessing of family and friends, and for
the loving care which surrounds us on every side.

We thank you for setting us at tasks which demand our best
efforts, and for leading us to accomplishments which satisfy
and delight us.

We thank you also for those disappointments and failures
that lead us to acknowledge our dependence on you alone.

Above all, we thank you for your Son Jesus Christ; for the
truth of his Word and the example of his life; for his steadfast
obedience, by which he overcame temptation; for his dying,
through which he overcame death; and for his rising to life
again, in which we are raised to the life of your kingdom.

Grant us the gift of your Spirit, that we may know him and
make him known; and through him, at all times and in all
places, may give thanks to you in all things. Amen.

Remember Jesus Christ, who was raised from the dead and descended from David. This is my good news. This is the reason I’m suffering to the point that I’m in prison like a common criminal. But God’s word cannot be imprisoned. This is why I endure everything for the sake of those who are chosen by God so that they too may experience salvation in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. This saying is reliable:

“If we have died together, we will also live together.
        If we endure, we will also rule together.
        If we deny him, he will also deny us.
If we are disloyal, he stays faithful”
    because he can’t be anything else than what he is. (Common English Bible)

C.S. Lewis once described God as the Hound of Heaven. By that phrase he meant that God doggedly pursued him and would not let go. Lewis came into Christian faith, in his own words, “kicking and screaming” as God’s faithful pursuit won out in his life.

The Apostle Paul reminded his young protégé Timothy of some basic theology to keep him on track and encouraged in a tough ministry. Paul gave Timothy a trustworthy saying that he could easily remember and say to himself day after day, especially when the going got tough:

If we died with Christ,
    we will live with him.
If we don’t give up,
    we will rule with him.
If we deny
    that we know him,
he will deny
    that he knows us.
If we are not faithful,
    he will still be faithful.
Christ cannot deny
    who he is. (CEV)

The beauty, wonder, and distinction of God is his amazing grace. There is no ambiguity with God. The Lord is not fickle but loves and holds tight even when we are unlovely and practice avoidance. When God pursues, God finds; when God holds on, there is no letting go.

This trustworthy saying of Scripture is a good, short, solid expression of theological truth to memorize, meditate upon, and say to ourselves repeatedly. We belong to Jesus Christ. God is with us. The Hound of Heaven will always sniff us out and bring us to himself.

Lewis likely got his phrase “Hound of Heaven” from an English poem of the same name by Francis Thompson (1859-1907). Thompson was a tortured soul who flirted in and out of depression, opium addiction, and suicidal thoughts for much of his adult life. Yet, he understood, perhaps better than most, that a loving God never stops pursuing a wayward heart. The poem’s beginning and end says this:

I fled Him, down the nights and down the days;
I fled Him, down the arches of the years;
I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways
Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears
I hid from Him, and under running laughter….

How hast thou merited—
Of all man’s clotted clay the dingiest clot?
Alack, thou knowest not
How little worthy of any love thou art!
Whom wilt thou find to love ignoble thee,
Save Me, save only Me?
All which I took from thee I did but take,
Not for thy harms,
But just that thou might’st seek it in My arms.
All which thy child’s mistake
Fancies as lost, I have stored for thee at home:
Rise, clasp My hand, and come.”
Halts by me that footfall:
Is my gloom, after all,
Shade of His hand, outstretched caressingly?
“Ah, fondest, blindest, weakest,
I am He Whom thou seekest!
Thou dravest love from thee, who dravest Me.

Theology is not an impersonal affair. Personal religion still exists. The individual’s wax and wane between faith and faithlessness shall never negate divine grace.

The Lord of the universe loves you. There is a deep Divine desire to shower grace on you, to shelter and protect you. There is no need to run. Yet, if you do, God remains steadfast in his dogged pursuit. The hunt will continue….

Thank you, O God, for your great faithfulness, even to me. I believe. Help me in my unbelief! I give unceasing praise and undying devotion to you for your grace of being the One who never lets up, through Jesus Christ my Lord. Amen.