Abiding in His Presence (Exodus 25:8)

And let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell in their midst.
—Exodus 25:8

Oh, verses like this are so important in the Bible because they represent a theme that carries from the beginning to the end of Scripture, a theme we see over and over again: God wants to be with his people, and God wants his people to be with him. This is the very beginning of the Bible. What made the Garden of Eden perfect was God’s perfect presence with his people, his creation unhindered by sin—everything good, not just good but very good, as the end of Genesis 1 says.

Then we come to Genesis 3, which recounts the entrance of sin into the world. Man and woman are separated from God, from the presence of God. The rest of the story of the entire Bible is about God bringing sinful men and women back into his presence. If you jump to the very end, this is what heaven is. It is the place, as Revelation 21 says, where God is with us, and we are with God, restored to what was lost in the beginning of Genesis.

Exodus 25:8 teaches us that God desires to dwell with us.

All along the way, we see pictures like Exodus 25:8. As God’s people journey toward the Promised Land, he says, “Let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst.” Let this soak in, perhaps in a fresh way today. God—the consuming fire, the sovereign Creator, Sustainer, and Lord over the whole universe—the holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty—wants to be with you. Let that sink in. He wants to be with you, and he wants you to experience the goodness of his presence.

He is the author of everything good. It all flows from his presence, and he wants you to experience all his goodness. He loves you so much that he wants to be with you. He wants you to be with him. And he has made a way for this to be possible in a way far greater than what we see in Exodus 25. This picture points us to Jesus, who is the Word made flesh, God with us—Emmanuel. He has come to us and made a way for us to be saved from our sin, restored in relationship with God, and filled with his Spirit—his presence inside us, as we prayed about in Exodus 24. So let us pray accordingly.

Exodus 25:8 illustrates the hope of perfect communion with God.

God, we praise you for your desire to be with us. We deserve to be in hell right now. We have sinned against you. We deserve to be cast out of your presence for all eternity. We praise you for your love, for your pursuit of us, for coming to us. Jesus, we praise you as God in the flesh. We praise you as God with us, who came to save us. We praise you for your life without sin, for your death on the cross for our sin, for your resurrection from the dead, for your ascension into heaven, and for sending your Spirit to dwell in us. You have made our bodies your sanctuary, that you may dwell in our midst—You with us, we with you.

God, we praise you for this reality. Help us to live in it today. Help us to walk in close communion with you all day, to pray continually, to follow the leadership of your Spirit in all that we do, to trust your provision and your mercy throughout this day.

God, we look forward to the day when we will be with you perfectly, you with us. O Lord Jesus, come quickly, we pray. We long for your return. We long to be with you and to lead others to be with you. Help us today to live in a way that leads others into relationship with you. We long for all the nations to experience communion with you.

Prayer for the Baori People

We pray specifically today for the Baori people of India—approximately 434,000 Hindu men, women, and children, with no known followers of Jesus among them.

God, we pray for the Baori people of India to be reached with the good news that God has come to be with us—the good news of Emmanuel, of Jesus, of his death on the cross, of his resurrection from the grave, of his making a way for them to be restored to relationship with you. No other gods—among the 300 million gods worshiped in Hinduism—can save. They are false gods. You alone are the true God. You have made a way for the Baori people, for all the peoples of the world, to be restored to you. May they be reached.

We pray all of this according to your Word and the theme we see throughout it, in places like Exodus 25:8. In Jesus’ name, amen.