The Big Crescendo (Part 3)
The Big Crescendo (Part 3)
a commentary on Exodus 40 (Application)
Thank you, Lord, for this day. May it be used for your glory!
Good morning everyone and welcome back to this week’s Biblit, part 3!
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This is it! The crescendo of crescendos! The application for Exodus 40.
At the end I’ll talk briefly of what is next for Biblit, so make sure to stick around!
Let’s jump in!
Application
Just like the main points in the interpretation, I will continue with our 2 main points for the application today.
God Directs Us
I think it is such a powerful picture to see God dwelling with Israel in the form of this fiery cloud. And such a cool way to direct Israel through the desert.
If the cloud moves, they move. Easy!
However, it’s also easy to see this and think how old and ancient those ways are. It has nothing to do with us.
But in reality, we have an even closer contact to God’s direction than they did! We have the Holy Spirit dwelling inside of each of us, guiding us!
There are a ton of scripture verses around this, but I think this one from Galatians really resonated with me today:
“I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20 CSB).
Christ lives in us, dwells in us! We no longer need fancy tents, for we ourselves are the temple for God. He lives in us and guides us. All we need to do is listen.
This is certainly easier said than done, right?
So let’s look at two other pieces of scripture that give us some encouragement on how the Spirit is working in our lives.
This first one comes from the famous gifts of the spirit passage in 1 Corinthians:
“Now there are different gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different ministries, but the same Lord. And there are different activities, but the same God works all of them in each person. A manifestation of the Spirit is given to each person for the common good” (1 Corinthians 12:4-7 CSB).
I don’t want to dwell on the different “gifts” of the spirit or talk about what on earth “speaking in tongues” means. I think those are important topics, but I also feel like dwelling on those instead of the above passage misses the point.
What Paul is truly getting at is that God has given you gifts. Plain and simple.
Those gifts are given by the Spirit of God who dwells inside of you. So when you need help listening for God’s direction, take account of the gifts and skills He has given you. That may just be your answer.
And when we get lost and confused in the midst of life, it can be hard to follow even our own gifts. It can even get hard to pray, or to know what on earth we should be praying about.
And Paul, once again, gives us great encouragement there too:
“In the same way the Spirit also helps us in our weakness, because we do not know what to pray for as we should, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with inexpressible groanings.” (Romans 8:26 CSB).
The Spirit is praying on our behalf!
This doesn’t mean stop praying. Don’t ever do that. You wouldn’t just stop talking to your best friend for no reason.
But it does mean that when life’s circumstances are so difficult we don’t know what to do or how to pray, that’s ok.
Because Christ, who dwells in you, is praying for you!
Finally, people often dwell on the age-old question: “What is God’s direction for my life?” Well, I think Christ summed is up perfectly right when He left this earth:
“Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20 CSB).
Make disciples, and share with others what Christ has done in your life. This definitely comes with other challenges and confusion on where and how to do these things.
But the important thing is that when we seek God’s direction in our lives, always come back to the great commission.
That is our ultimate direction. If we focus on Christ and the mission He’s called us to, and hold fast to the assurance that He is guiding us always, He’ll make our paths straight.
God’s Glory In Christ and In Us
Lastly, let’s remember the hope of Christ.
This is very fitting around Christmas time.
The disciples got to see Christ’s full glory, the full glory of God face to face during the Transfiguration.
And now that same glory dwells in us!
But we don’t get to see it face to face…not yet.
Paul reminds us of this encouraging hope in 1 Corinthians:
“For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, as I am fully known.” (1 Corinthians 13:12 CSB).
And when that happens, we too are presented in glory:
“And those he predestined, he also called; and those he called, he also justified; and those he justified, he also glorified.” (Romans 8:30 CSB).
That is a hope we can hold on to when life is good, bad, confusing, or anywhere in between.
Phew! That ended up being longer than I thought it would be. All for God’s glory, though!
I hope you all thoroughly enjoyed our walk through Exodus. I know I did. I learned a ton and gained a lot more insight of how this entire book points to Christ. The parallels to Eden and Christ were really fun to dive into!
Not to mention the whole idea of our Holy God, the Creator of the universe, dwelling with us mere humans? That’s wild!
I’m considering going back through all these Biblits and compiling them all into 1 short ebook kind of thing. If that’s something you’d be interested in, let me know!
Last, very briefly, I want to talk about my next goals and visions for Biblit.
Well, in the short term, I will be taking a break until the new year. With Christmas coming up, things are about to get hectic. And since we just finished Exodus, it seems like perfect timing.
I will release another Biblit “update” post sometime in the new year to let you know when we’re picking back up.
If you have suggestions on books you want to go through, let me know!
That being said, I think the next book we are going to jump into will be James. It’s short and sweet, and will be a good New Testament book to jump into.
After that, I am considering two options: either the life of David, so we’d go through 1 and 2 Samuel, part of 1 Kings, and sprinkle in Psalms. OR we can go through Acts and sprinkle in any of Paul’s letters as they fit in with the historical context of Acts.
Let me know if you have a preference or any other ideas! In the meantime, I’ll keep praying about it!
Alright, y’all! Merry Christmas! Happy New Year! Thank you for all your support!