Wed.’s Devo - God’s Glory Fills the Temple

Read Ex. 40:17-38 It looks to me like the first year they set the tabernacle up it was more like a trial run. The second year they set it up, the glory of God fell. A cloud covered the tent and the glory of God filled the tabernacle so thick that they couldn’t even enter the door. Amazing they went through the same motions both times. They reared the tent, posted the fence, put everything in place, prepared the priests… all the same way, but God showed up the second time. It just reminds me that God can show up at anytime and proclaim his glory. The same thing happened when Solomon dedicated the temple he built to the Lord. 2 Chron. 5:13-14 says, “then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the Lord; 14 So that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud: for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of God.” In Numbers 12 Miriam and Aaron had a complaint against Moses because he married an Ethiopian woman. God came down in a cloud and spoke to them about the matter. Jesus took Peter, James, and John to the mountain and they saw God’s glory put on Jesus. As they looked they were covered in a deep cloud and God spoke from the cloud. (Mark 9). One day Jesus was speaking about the end of time and he said he would come in a cloud. ( Luke 21:27) The cloud is the vehicle God uses to come to earth. It was also the vehicle he used to leave the earth in Acts 1:9-11, “And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. 10 And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; 11 Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.” This cloud led the children of Israel by day and a pillar of fire by night all through their journeys. Lord, may your glory come down and fill our earthly temples with your Holy Spirit.