As Christians, we sometimes wonder what it was like to witness the glory of the Lord filling the temple. It first happened in the wilderness to a structure covered with badger skins (Exodus 34: 33, 34). It says that Moses finished the work and then the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Reflect on that for a moment. On the exterior, that tabernacle looked like nothing special. However, those badger skins covered a magnificent interior, and those simple badger skins may have protected what was inside, both from the elements and perhaps from people who would have attacked in order to steal its valuables.
2 Corinthians 3:7 – 9 asks us a question. It says that if we think the wilderness temple was glorious, then wouldn’t the temple of the spirit be so much more glorious? I don’t know about you, but I can’t even imagine what it was like to experience seeing the sight of God’s glory filling up that simple-looking (from the exterior) structure in the wilderness.
So, if that was so glorious, what about the temple of the Holy Spirit? Verse 18 in the same chapter tells us that when we look at Jesus with a clear conscience, we are changed into the same image bit by bit, by the Spirit of the Lord. Imagine that.
That describes life in such beautiful terms. Life throws at us all kinds of difficult circumstances. We all have them. The difficulty of our particular circumstances is unique to each of us. At first we wonder, why has God allowed this to happen to me? But when we look at it from God’s perspective (God loves me, so what is this situation doing to help me be more like Him?), then somehow He works it out for us and a little bit more of His life enters in, step by step, from glory to glory.
Life is so beautiful. God is so amazingly kind to want us to get closer to Him. The image of being covered by badger skins definitely fits the bodies we are clothed with in this life. We look like nothing special too. Incredibly, we are God’s children. 1 Corinthians 6:19 says that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. Wow. Inside this badger skin that we call our bodies, there is something glorious that becomes more glorious as we live and learn about living for God in this crazy world. Our badger skin exterior protects God’s precious life in us.
The Bible, with its Ten Commandments, the ups and downs of all the lives in the Old Testament, the commandments of Jesus, and the instructions of the New Testament, is our instruction booklet on how to be changed from glory to glory. Will we recognize it? What a beautiful and divine privilege God has given us through Jesus Christ! Let’s not waste it!
Scriptures:
So Moses finished the work. Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation, because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.
Exodus 40:33 b – 35 (KJV)
Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;
1 Corinthians 6:19 (NIV)
Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, transitory though it was, 8 will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious? 9 If the ministry that brought condemnation was glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness!
2 Corinthians 3:7 – 9 (NIV)
But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
2 Corinthians 3:18 (KJV)
And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.
Isaiah 40:5
Enjoy the Brussels Choral Society singing Handel’s And the Glory of the Lord.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuog35ZBBfM&list=RDxuog35ZBBfM&start_radio=1
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Apples of Gold 