August 2

"The place whereon thou standest is holy ground." Exodus 3:5

The tabernacle of Moses had its proper setting in the wilderness. It was God’s dwelling among his pilgrim people, a movable tent, never fixed, never settled. By contrast, the Temple that Solomon built for God in his capital city of Jerusalem was fixed, settled, final. The one is the Church today; the other is the Church in the kingdom of God. Today we only have the earnest, represented by the tabernacle, of the coming age.

In the Temple everything was new: a new altar, a new laver, a new table, a new lampstand, a new incense altar. But one thing was not new; namely, the ark of testimony that came to rest there. And everything was enlarged to give greater glory to God; but there is one thing that cannot be enlarged, and that is the ark, the testimony of God’s Son. He is "the same yesterday and to-day, yea and for ever."

I like to think of the floor of the tabernacle, which was desert sand. This is the fitting scene of our pilgrim life before God. It is here that the testimony of Christ is to be borne by us on dusty feet today.