Love Story

Background Story: John was a close disciple of Jesus who shared what he saw and heard.

Read John 17:1-5

After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed:

“Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.”

Big Idea: The Bible is the greatest love story ever written.

From the first pages to the last, God has been writing a love story to His people. When God created Adam, we read in Genesis 3:8-9 that God walked in the garden. Imagine that for a moment- the God of Heaven, the Creator of all things, coming to be here with man. Later when God delivered the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, God instructed them to build the Tabernacle (Exodus 25-29). In Exodus 29:44-46, God said, “I will consecrate the Tabernacle and the altar, and I will consecrate Aaron and his sons to serve me as priests. Then I will live among the people of Israel and be their God, and they will know that I am the Lord their God. I am the one who brought them out of the land of Egypt so that I could live among them. I am the Lord their God.” This Tabernacle was built to go with them. This idea blesses my heart! The people of Israel were on a journey to their permanent home, the promise land. So instead of God making a permanent place, He made the Tabernacle to be a temporary dwelling where He could live among them. That’s how much He desired relationship with His people.

After Moses died, Joshua and the people entered the promise land, the place they had been moving towards for over 40 years, and the Tabernacle found a permanent resting place in Shiloh (Joshua 18:1-10). The Israelites had reached their destination and instead of them moving the Tabernacle, the place of worship remained in Shiloh and they would conquer their enemies and return to worship. It was the center of their promise land. And we read later in the Bible that Hannah came to Shiloh to pour out her heart to the Lord in 1 Samuel 1 and then Samuel the Prophet was raised there. This Shiloh was the place to meet God and a place for Him to speak to His people.

Then David was born and his son King Solomon goes on to build the physical temple in Jerusalem (1 Kings 5-8) on Mount Moriah where Abraham was previously tested to sacrifice Isaac (Genesis 22). This is the same place that Abraham told his son in faith that, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” The temple was built to be a place where the people could come and worship and offer sacrifices for the forgiveness of sin. God had again made a way for His people to be with Him.

Then Jesus came to Earth, took on human form, and made His literal dwelling with us. He was beaten and mocked through the streets of Jerusalem. And fulfilling Abraham’s words, He died in our place to permanently, once and for all, be our perfect sacrifice for sin. So we no longer have to go to the temple, but through Jesus’s death and resurrection, the Spirit of God comes and lives within our hearts. We become the temple. He dwells with us! We can commune with Him, not at a tabernacle or at a physical temple, but we can walk with God like Adam in the garden.

Dwelling- mankind was made by God, for God, to dwell with God. And the story of the Bible is the greatest love story ever told about a God who created man and has done everything to bring us into relationship with Him. And in the very last book, we see the heart of God still inviting and calling out to mankind in Revelations 22:17, “The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come.’ Let anyone who hears this say, ‘Come.’ Let anyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who desires drink freely from the water of life.”

Takeaway Verse:

Song For Today:

Looking For More?

Similar Devotions: It’s Personal, Not A Typo, Leave the Pigs, Reckless Love, God With Us, A Friend, Unexpected Mercy, The Restless Heart, The Perfect Sacrifice, It’s Personal 2

Daily Verse

Devotions

Translate »
{title}