January 30 - Attention to Details

 Read today’s texts first: Exodus 25-27; Acts 6

MAXIMize YOUR DAY 

• The New Testament helps us understand the Old.

• Serving God is in the details.

I love this Bible reading plan.  My mind naturally looks for congruity so I tend to find themes that fit both the Old and New Testament readings.  I once heard Jerry Cook explain that the New Testament provides the perspective we need to understand the Old.  In the Old Testament, God is outside human existence so He appears more distant, less intimate.  But Jesus our Immanuel, “God with us,” came to reveal the true heart of the Father.  Knowing what He taught and demonstrated through His actions helps us better understand the God of the Old Testament.  Of course, after Calvary, the “God out there” and the “God with us” became the “God in us.”  Now with the in-dwelling Holy Spirit we have a resident teacher who further illuminates our understanding of the Bible.

So then why are there five chapters of meticulous details on the tabernacle, its furnishings, and the priest’s garments?  The God out there is about to dwell among His people.  His heart is to be with His people.  He made us in His image as the ultimate focus of His creation.  The God of love finds His fulfillment in loving us and we find ours in loving Him.  That’s the way it was in Paradise before sin drove a wedge in our relationship.  He could no longer live in His people and so He would have to connect to them through an Ark, His covenant, in the Holy of Holies in a sacred Tabernacle.  The pains-taking details remind us of how holy our God is and how far we have fallen from Him.

In Acts 6 we see the same attention to details - the care of the widows in the church.  Now the emphasis is on the integrity of the individual and the community of believers.  This was always God’s plan, to live in us.  Now that Jesus has made that possible, we begin to see the need for meticulous care for our own purity and the purity of our relationships within the body of Christ.  Suddenly we see that making sure the widows are fed and cared for is as important as constructing the Ark of the Covenant – perhaps more-so.

“Lord, sometimes I focus so much on the big picture that I miss the details.  So often You prompt me in prayer or while I’m working to do something small and seemingly insignificant, like to call or write someone who needs encouragement.  I often dismiss or forget those impulses because I’m too busy fulfilling Your call on my life in my own way and in my own strength.  No wonder I get so tired and the big picture looks so distorted.  It’s missing a few pieces.  Lord, instill in me Your attention to the details that matter.”