I’m jumping in quick today but I’ve been reflecting this morning on the sheer power of God and the radical difference that Jesus has made in our relationship with Him.

I’ve been reading through the book of Exodus in in Bible. It tells the story of the Israelites leaving Egypt, the land where they were enslaved for 400 years. The journey is incredible. It’s a story of a change in the physical location and position of the children of Israel, Gods people. But probably more importantly than that, it is a story about God and His relationship with His people.

After they have escaped Egypt, we are told in the account that Gods people reach a special place, Mount Sinai. This the place where God first met Moses, where God called Moses from a Burning Bush, the call that set the whole rescue plan in motion. Here, in this moment, is where the people establish their relationship with God. However, it is a very different relationship and connection to what we can experience today.

Here are some examples of that relationship and the interactions the Lord has with Moses and Aaron around the peoples engagement with Him.

Then the LORD said to Moses, “Come up to the LORD, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel. You are to worship at a distance, but Moses alone is to approach the LORD; the others must not come near. And the people may not come up with him.” Exodus 24:1-2

Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up and saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like a pavement made of lapis lazuli, as bright blue as the sky. But God did not raise his hand against these leaders of the Israelites; they saw God, and they ate and drank. Exodus 24:9-11

It doesn’t seem in these examples and in the Sinai narrative that the people are able to freely come to God whenever they would like to. We find that there were some opportunities to do this but the fear they had for the Lord stopped this from happening.

In the end of the wilderness account we here that the main ways that the people, through the priest, could approach God was through the tabernacle structure, a word that means dwelling place. It began as a temporary structure but once the people were properly established in the Promised Land the permanent temple replaced the temporal.

We could go on and look at lots of detail regarding how the people approached the tabernacle and therefore God but all you need to know for now was that there were MANY washing, offering, and consecration rituals that they were to carry out before they could come close to His presence.

When I read all of the different ways I have to be honest – It all feels difficult to wrap my head around. It’s so far away from my experience and understanding of God.

After all this morning I am sitting in my dressing gown, with messy hair, sleep in my eyes, teeth unbrushed, and a cappuccino in my hand hanging out with God in my back garden. I haven’t gone through any washing, consecrating, preparation, or offerings in order to spend time with God today. I’m still waking up! The preparations and rituals these people had to go through feel so alien to me. It can be so hard to understand why God would seem to make it so difficult for them to come to Him. Surely He would want it to be easy if He loved them so much?

We need a little context here – context is crucial.

What is important to remember is that back in the Exodus the grip and penalty of sin was still resting heavily on humanity. Humanity had dishonoured God and themselves. They were like a criminal on death row for their crimes. It’s not that God was so angry with them that He desired to destroy them, it’s just that the penalty of sin that they carried was so destructive that they couldn’t survive before the awesome presence of God. A friend of mine uses an analogy which helped me grab this. He asks the question; “what would happen your body if you just went up into space wearing what you have on now.” The only logical answer to that question is that we would most certainly die. He then follows up with this question; “why? does space want to kill you? What have you done to annoy space?” The obvious implication here is that space isn’t angry at us, nor does it take real joy in seeing our destruction. It’s just that space has conditions that are required for survival and if we don’t have the correct approach to space (suits, oxygen etc.) then space will kill us.

Now, whilst this analogy, like every analogy we can use for God, is limited in its application there are some helpful points here. God required his people to approach Him in specific ways because the penalty, power, and presence of sin in us simply could not stand before His glory – it would kill us! God has conditions for engagement that if they are not adhered to results in a serious consequence. Without wearing the correct suit so to speak, it was dangerous to approach God in all His glory. God in His grace was providing them with ways that they could approach Him, ways that they could still have a relationship and a connection with Him. That was the reality for all the people of God throughout the Old Testament.

Enter Jesus.

When Jesus came, years after the parts of Scripture that I am reading now, people were still approaching God in tabernacle, Old Testament way. They still were observing ceremonial washing, offerings, and preparations before coming to the temple. This is correct because this was the instruction they were given.

They even referred to God differently than I would today. No one really talked of God as Father. That was a much too intimate way to refer to Him. They referred to Him as Yahweh (without the vowels), the Lord, the I AM. He was ‘up there’ or ‘out there’ somewhere but not close by. They could interact with Him but only through another person, usually a priest, who was especially chosen and only at certain times of the year. Just like it had been instituted in the Old Testament.

But Jesus didn’t do that at all. When He arrived He seemed very familiar with God. He seemed to really know Him. He wasn’t disrespectful, not cheeky, but He asked things of God in a different way. He talked about “our father in heaven,” and even asked others to refer to God in that way. Although the word Father was respectful in the ANE (Ancient Near East) culture it wasn’t exactly the way people addressed God. On one occasion Jesus even referred to God as Abba Father, a very intimate Aramaic word, that spoke of the closeness and intimacy of a dad.

This understandably was hard for the people to grasp after generations of tabernacle worship. If they thought that was hard to get their heads around Jesus then began to let His followers know that they could have the same access to God that He had. Not just using the same words, but acting in the same way. Of course we now know that His death and resurrection would remove the penalty of sin that separated us from God. Then through the gift of the Holy Spirit we received ultimate access to God.

No longer would there need to be ceremonial washing, animal offerings, and rituals that we needed to preform to come close to God. Through Jesus God has come close to us. When the curtain ripped in two after Jesus gave up His spirit access was granted. When the Holy Spirit was poured out at Pentecost the fullness of that became available to us.

God was no longer distant but close.

Thanks to Jesus we can hang out in our back gardens with unbrushed teeth, messy hair, sleepy eyes, and ugly dressing gowns. Thanks to Jesus we don’t need a priest, pastor, minister, or a holy friend to talk to God for us – we get to do it ourselves as ourselves.

The difference that Jesus is made is incredible when we understand the journey.

Thank you Jesus!