“Making Rooms for God”
Click below to download the Cornerstone Connections leader’s guide and student lesson. This week’s resources also include two lesson plans and a discussion starter video which offer different ways of looking at the topic. Each lesson plan includes opening activities, scripture passages, discussion questions, and real-life applications.
God asks for a sanctuary so that He can move right into the neighborhood with His people. The people respond to the opportunity to build it
SCRIPTURE PASSAGES
OVERVIEW
The building of the wilderness Tabernacle takes up a lot of real estate in the pages of the Torah. It is easy to quickly skip over these sections of the Bible. For the writers, these details mattered. It mattered that different people got credit or were named as the skilled craftspersons who contributed their talents to the project. It mattered that God’s directions were explicitly followed. Perhaps as we look at what mattered back then, we can find some truths that should also matter to teenagers and churches today!
OPENING ACTIVITY: BUILDING YOUR CHURCH
Supplies are needed:
Toothpicks
Miniature marshmallows
Prize for the winning team (gift cards, bag of candy)
DISCUSSION
FINAL QUESTION
TRANSITION
It is fun using our hands and doing some crafty things sometimes! We are made to be creative like our Creator. In the United States, this weekend is also a holiday weekend dedicated to honoring those who have lost their lives defending our country. Today we are going to be talking about a memorial as well, something that helps us remember. A large amount of the Torah (first five books of our Old Testament) is dedicated to the story of the building of the wilderness sanctuary. Moses is told that this sanctuary is a model of the sanctuary in heaven. And we are reminded that God’s big desire is to reunite humanity with heaven. The sanctuary is a conduit for making that happen.
In looking at the Tabernacle we will look at three unique, often overlooked aspects of the Sanctuary. We will see how much God values and appreciates beauty, how much God values order, and our New Testament role concerning the Sanctuary.
BIBLE STUDY GUIDE
If you have ever traveled to Europe, one of the things you will first notice is how old stuff is there compared to similar things in the United States or Canada. The next thing you cannot help but notice is how many churches there are. And, if you go into these old cathedrals, you will notice that they look very different from most of our Adventist churches. Yes, they are made of stone, and have much more uncomfortable pews, but these churches have something most Adventist and other Protestant churches don’t. Beauty. There is art everywhere. There is craftsmanship that sometimes took over a century to complete. There are frescoes, murals, and paintings. It’s interesting to think how much the people of the day may have sacrificed to make this happen.
Let’s look at the wilderness tabernacle. This was a structure that had to be mobile. Can you make art and beauty out of a tent? And some of you may be asking, why bother? Let’s look at what materials and labor were used in the tabernacle.
Read Exodus 35:4-19.
4 Moses said to the whole Israelite community, “This is what the Lord has commanded: 5 From what you have, take an offering for the Lord. Everyone who is willing is to bring to the Lord an offering of gold, silver and bronze; 6 blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen; goat hair; 7 ram skins dyed red and another type of durable leather; acacia wood; 8 olive oil for the light; spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense; 9 and onyx stones and other gems to be mounted on the ephod and breastpiece.
10 “All who are skilled among you are to come and make everything the Lord has commanded: 11 the tabernacle with its tent and its covering, clasps, frames, crossbars, posts and bases; 12 the ark with its poles and the atonement cover and the curtain that shields it; 13 the table with its poles and all its articles and the bread of the Presence; 14 the lampstand that is for light with its accessories, lamps and oil for the light; 15 the altar of incense with its poles, the anointing oil and the fragrant incense; the curtain for the doorway at the entrance to the tabernacle; 16 the altar of burnt offering with its bronze grating, its poles and all its utensils; the bronze basin with its stand; 17 the curtains of the courtyard with its posts and bases, and the curtain for the entrance to the courtyard; 18 the tent pegs for the tabernacle and for the courtyard, and their ropes; 19 the woven garments worn for ministering in the sanctuary—both the sacred garments for Aaron the priest and the garments for his sons when they serve as priests.”
DISCUSSION
The second thing that strikes me about the Tabernacle, from a big picture perspective, is that it is purposeful and well organized.
DISCUSSION
Read Exodus 25:8-9.
8 “Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them. 9 Make this tabernacle and all its furnishings exactly like the pattern I will show you.
DISCUSSION
They serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven. This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: “See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.”
Finally, (and we are closing with this because it might be the most important part of this lesson), how does all of this really apply to us today? Hopefully you’ve discovered some things about beauty and purpose. But what about us as individuals? And seriously, most of that stuff that happened in the tabernacle in Leviticus had to do with sacrifices, and Jesus took care of that, right? So, what does it matter now? We hinted at it in our last passage. God wants to dwell with us! So where is the copy of the tabernacle now? Our churches don’t look like that!
Read 1 Corinthians 3:16-17.
16 Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? 17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.
Read 1 Corinthians 6:19-20.
19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.
DISCUSSION
APPLICATION
1. WORK BEE
Offer to have a youth work bee at the church to do some beautification projects for your church or youth meeting area.
2. FAMILY TALKING POINTS
This week consider sending home some questions for students to talk with their parents about on Sabbath afternoon. Here are a few, and feel free to add some of your own as they come up in Sabbath School! Make sure to let parents know to expect to have questions asked of them.
Questions for Family Talking Points (Email home to parents this week)
SCRIPTURE PASSAGES
LEADER’S NOTE
For a Relational Bible Study (RBS) you’ll want to get into the Scripture passage and encourage the youth to imagine participating in the story while it’s happening. Then you will be able to better apply it to your own situation today.
You will need to ask God for the Holy Spirit to be present as your small group discusses the questions (no more than 3-6 people in a group is recommended). Start with the opening question. It is a personal question and the answer is unique for each individual. There is no right answer and nobody is an expert here, so don’t be surprised when you hear different responses. You are depending on the Holy Spirit to be present and to speak through your group. Say what God prompts you to say, and listen to what others share.
Take turns reading the chapter out loud. Follow that with giving the students some time to individually mark their responses to the questions (a PDF version of the handout is available as a download). This gives each person a starting point for responding when you start to share as a group. Next, begin the discussion by asking the students to share what they marked and why on each question as you work your way through. Feel free to take more time on some questions than others as discussion warrants.
Encourage each person in the group to apply what is discussed to their personal lives and to share with the group what they believe God wants them to do. Then ask them to pray that God will help each of them to follow through in doing so. Remind them to expect that God will show them ways to live out the message of this passage in the coming week, and that they are free to ask others in the group to help hold them accountable.
OVERVIEW
A survey of Christian places of worship will show a wide range of architecture. These varied edifices will normally indicate the type of worship carried out in them. The ancestors of Israel had known the very elaborate temples of Mesopotamia and Egypt and the simple sanctuaries of Canaan. For Israel, God commanded a combination of the complicated and simple, in which the details were intended to bring a revelation of God to the worshippers.
“Bring Me an offering,” God told Moses to say to the people. At first glance, it would seem ludicrous for such a command to be made. Here was a group of slaves, recently released from captivity in Egypt, now in a barren land. What sort of offering could they bring? God had already anticipated the problem, and had made provision for it. One of the aspects of this Exodus journey is the way God provided, even in the minutest way, for the needs of the people, and for their response to Him.
You will recall that prior to the departure from Egypt, before the Passover, He had instructed the people to ask the Egyptians for their jewels of gold and silver. And so, they had all those materials that they had gotten from the Egyptians. Isn’t that a kind of irony too? Some of the offerings the people brought they had received from their captors in Egypt. It’s important to note that the materials for the building of the tabernacle came from the people. And it came, according to the request of the Lord.
This is a new and radical intervention in the history of life that God would choose to dwell among His people. The deep richness of this is seen more clearly in the New Testament. In John 15, Jesus uses the word “abide.” In the Greek, this is the same word from which “dwelling place” comes in the Hebrew. He talks about our abiding in Him as He abides in the Father, and the Father abides in the Son. The circle is complete. Back in the desert, God took the initiative to pitch His tent among us, to dwell with men. Now, through Jesus, He has come to abide among us in the flesh, in order to complete that revelation, but also to provide a way for us to abide, to dwell, in Him. Accordingly, when He abides in is, we too become sanctuaries for His glory to be revealed through us.
The Hebrew word translated “sanctuary” literally means “a separated place.” The purpose of the tabernacle was that it would be a sanctuary, a holy place, because that was the place where God would dwell. May we become separated, set apart, dwelling places for God! In doing so, we will bring glory to His name and form characters for heaven; there we will be with God and He with us. This dwelling will be constant—forever!
“I am Sanctuary!”
When do you feel as if you are closest to God?
Read Exodus 25:1-40.
The Lord said to Moses, 2 “Tell the Israelites to bring me an offering. You are to receive the offering for me from everyone whose heart prompts them to give. 3 These are the offerings you are to receive from them: gold, silver and bronze; 4 blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen; goat hair; 5 ram skins dyed red and another type of durable leather; acacia wood; 6 olive oil for the light; spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense; 7 and onyx stones and other gems to be mounted on the ephod and breastpiece.
8 “Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them. 9 Make this tabernacle and all its furnishings exactly like the pattern I will show you.
The Ark
10 “Have them make an ark of acacia wood—two and a half cubits long, a cubit and a half wide, and a cubit and a half high. 11 Overlay it with pure gold, both inside and out, and make a gold molding around it. 12 Cast four gold rings for it and fasten them to its four feet, with two rings on one side and two rings on the other. 13 Then make poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. 14 Insert the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark to carry it. 15 The poles are to remain in the rings of this ark; they are not to be removed. 16 Then put in the ark the tablets of the covenant law, which I will give you.
17 “Make an atonement cover of pure gold—two and a half cubits long and a cubit and a half wide. 18 And make two cherubim out of hammered gold at the ends of the cover. 19 Make one cherub on one end and the second cherub on the other; make the cherubim of one piece with the cover, at the two ends. 20 The cherubim are to have their wings spread upward, overshadowing the cover with them. The cherubim are to face each other, looking toward the cover. 21 Place the cover on top of the ark and put in the ark the tablets of the covenant law that I will give you. 22 There, above the cover between the two cherubim that are over the ark of the covenant law, I will meet with you and give you all my commands for the Israelites.
The Table
23 “Make a table of acacia wood—two cubits long, a cubit wide and a cubit and a half high. 24 Overlay it with pure gold and make a gold molding around it. 25 Also make around it a rim a handbreadth wide and put a gold molding on the rim. 26 Make four gold rings for the table and fasten them to the four corners, where the four legs are. 27 The rings are to be close to the rim to hold the poles used in carrying the table. 28 Make the poles of acacia wood, overlay them with gold and carry the table with them. 29 And make its plates and dishes of pure gold, as well as its pitchers and bowls for the pouring out of offerings. 30 Put the bread of the Presence on this table to be before me at all times.
The Lampstand
31 “Make a lampstand of pure gold. Hammer out its base and shaft, and make its flowerlike cups, buds and blossoms of one piece with them. 32 Six branches are to extend from the sides of the lampstand—three on one side and three on the other. 33 Three cups shaped like almond flowers with buds and blossoms are to be on one branch, three on the next branch, and the same for all six branches extending from the lampstand. 34 And on the lampstand there are to be four cups shaped like almond flowers with buds and blossoms. 35 One bud shall be under the first pair of branches extending from the lampstand, a second bud under the second pair, and a third bud under the third pair—six branches in all. 36 The buds and branches shall all be of one piece with the lampstand, hammered out of pure gold.
37 “Then make its seven lamps and set them up on it so that they light the space in front of it. 38 Its wick trimmers and trays are to be of pure gold. 39 A talent of pure gold is to be used for the lampstand and all these accessories. 40 See that you make them according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.
Read 1 Corinthians 3:16-17.
16 Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? 17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.
1. After reading both passages, what emotions/feelings come over you?
2. What is God’s main point in Exodus 25?
3. What is the meaning of the Ark of the Covenant in Exodus 25:10-22?
4. What does, “Our bodies are the temple of God” mean in 1 Cor. 3:16?
5. Which of the following have you felt when you defiled God’s temple?
6. What is the meaning of 1 Corinthians 3:17?
7. Is your body a place where God can feel comfortable living?
8. How can your heart be a throne room for God’s presence?
SUMMARY
“Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defiles the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are” 1 Cor. 3:16-17. The apostle is writing not to those who were spiritually perfect; rather, to those who were characterized by the deepest moral defects. Yet He says, “Ye are the temple of God.” In what respect are we a temple? Each person is a special residence of God. God especially dwells in a human’s moral mind. We are also special manifestations of God. God is seen everywhere in this world, but never so fully as in the minds and hearts of humans.
APPLICATION
Let’s think about it, the destruction of a temple does not mean the destruction of all its parts, but the destruction of its use. We might live very long lives, and yet be ultimately destroyed, because the special residence, manifestation, and meeting-place of God is defiled by sin. It could also be that its use was contrary to what He desires as the witness of His name. Let us be open to God’s presence and power working in us.
Below, find some application activities to interface with this lesson. These are simply to provide ideas for your use, or to invite you to imagine and create some of your own, as you impact the lives of teens for God’s glory.
