Sinai is in the Sanctuary
Psalm 68:17
I can remember some years back preaching through the book of Exodus and feeling entirely inadequate to do so. I don't mean inadequate in the sense of incapable. I mean in terms of the shear awesomeness of the weight of glory that appears from the book of Exodus. The inner sanctum of that weight is Mt. Sinai, where God comes in glory and honor to reveal Himself in the giving of the Law.
We tend to think that Mt. Sinai was the first sanctuary. Before the Temple, before the Tabernacle, there was Mt. Sinai where the people of God came together before their Redeemer to worship and commune with Him. They even had a representative, one of their own as would later be the case in the Temple, to represent them before the face of the Almighty. Everything about Sinai is reminiscent of a rudimentary, though consecrated, sanctuary.
But Psalm 68 offers us the view from behind the curtain. "Sinai is now in the sanctuary." Sinai is not the sanctuary - Sinai is IN the sanctuary. The true sanctuary of God is wherever God is ascended on High and dwells in holy presence. Sinai would be nothing more than a spectacular mountain the middle east, but Sinai was IN the sanctuary of God because He descended there to commune with man. Sinai became the sanctuary when God met His people. The same is true of a church. A church would be little more than a structure with seating capacity, except that God meets with His people in a sacred way when they gather in His name for worship. That's the difference between a church building and a sanctuary. The sanctuary of God is where He dwells in ascended victory.
"You ascended on high, leading a host of captives in your train and receiving gifts from among men, even among the rebellious, that the Lord God may dwell there" (Ps. 68:18). King David, probably writing in response to the victories that Israel enjoyed as the ark went before them, cannot escape the one good thing: that the Lord God dwells among His people, and so becomes their sanctuary. In that sense, the church of the living God is IN the sanctuary of God. In the final analysis we don't GO to the sanctuary. We are IN the sanctuary.
That's what the apostle John had in mind when he wrote that Jesus Christ came to make His dwelling, literally, "to tabernacle," among us (John 1:14). Many Christians are apt to think that the distance between them and God can be closed by efforts of their will. "God will be near me if..." But the promised Messiah has fulfilled the hopes of Sinai. There is no more chasm between the sinner and his Savior. When you came to Christ by faith, you came into the sanctuary of God as a permanent resident. He has ascended on high and dwells among us as the victor over sin, death, and judgement. God has ascended on high and appears in our presence through His Son to show that the covenant He made with our fathers is a union that cannot be broken.
Sinai was not the sanctuary. Sinai was IN the sanctuary, because God appeared there in ascended glory. He does the same among us. There is no place for the ascended glory of God to be more fully exalted than when we worship as His holy ones. Because the Holy One dwells among us, we live in the sanctuary. The Christian is IN the sanctuary. Let us fly the banner of His presence, then be satisfied in His ascended glory.
Warmly,
