Posts tagged ‘Godhead’
Sermon Extra – When Judah Came Near
This past Sunday, we kicked off a summer-long series at Zion on the book of Numbers. The book opens with the Israelites at the foot of Mount Sinai, where they have been camped for almost a year while Moses has been meeting with God and receiving His commands, including the famed Ten Commandments.
Now it is time for Israel to continue their trek through the Sinai wilderness. Before Israel breaks camp, however, God commands Moses to conduct a census. In Numbers 1, we get a list of tribes and clans, along with the number of men of fighting age in each tribe. In Numbers 2, we get instructions for how these tribes are to be arranged around the tabernacle—the place where God graciously promised to dwell among His people.
The picture above is my favorite depiction of the tribal arrangement from Numbers 2. To be clear, we don’t know exactly what this arrangement would have looked like. Numbers 2 does not say that the tribes were arranged in rectangles that fanned out perpendicular to the tabernacle. Still, the visual of the arrangement forming a cross is at least fascinating and fun to imagine.
What is clear from the instructions in Numbers 2 is that the tribe of Judah was stationed on the east side of the tabernacle, toward the sunrise, closest to the entrance:
“On the east, toward the sunrise, the divisions of the camp of Judah are to encamp under their standard.” (Numbers 2:3).
But between Judah and the tabernacle stood another small group: Moses, Aaron, Aaron’s sons, and other Levites. Their calling was to guard the sanctuary from unauthorized approach:
“Moses and Aaron and his sons were to camp to the east of the tabernacle, toward the sunrise, in front of the tent of meeting. They were responsible for the care of the sanctuary on behalf of the Israelites. Anyone else who approached the sanctuary was to be put to death.” (Numbers 3:38)
In other words, even though God dwelled in the midst of His people, direct access to Him was carefully—and lethally—guarded. Judah camped near the entrance, but Judah could not simply walk in.
But one day, someone from the tribe of Judah did walk in.
Jesus, a descendant of Judah, waltzed into His Father’s house like He owned the place. Even as a child, He told Mary and Joseph, “Didn’t you know I had to be in My Father’s house?” (Luke 2:49). But Jesus did more than come near to God’s house. He opened the way for us to come near to God Himself.
The preacher of Hebrews declares, “For it is clear that our Lord descended from Judah” (Hebrews 7:14). A few verses later, he says of Jesus, “He is able to save completely those who come to God through Him” (Hebrews 7:25).
Under the old covenant, unauthorized approach to God’s sanctuary meant death. But Jesus, the One from Judah, approaches God for us. And rather than barring sinners from God’s presence, He brings sinners into God’s presence. He does not put us to death when we draw near. He saves us from death when we draw near through Him.
How can Jesus do this?
Because Jesus is not merely a man from the tribe of Judah. He is also the God who dwelled in the tabernacle all along. Hebrews opens by saying, “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being” (Hebrews 1:3). John says it this way: “The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us” (John 1:14). The phrase “made His dwelling” is the verbal form of “tabernacle” in New Testament Greek. The Word “tabernacled” among us.
Jesus can bring us into the presence of God because He is the presence of God.
So, even if the tribes of Israel did not arrange themselves in the form of a cross some 1,500 years before the cross, their arrangement nevertheless points us toward the One who would die on the cross. The God who dwelled in the tabernacle came as a man from the tribe of Judah. And through Him, we are invited to draw near to God.
Judah could not simply walk into the tabernacle.
But Jesus, the Lion of Judah, did.
And now, we can.
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