Numbers 7:80-89: a reflection

80one golden ladle of ten shekels, full of incense; 81one young bull, one ram, one male lamb a year old, for a burnt offering; 82one male goat for a sin offering; 83and for the sacrifice of peace offerings, two head of cattle, five rams, five male goats, and five male lambs a year old. This was the offering of Ahira the son of Enan. 84This was the dedication offering of the altar, on the day when it was anointed, by the princes of Israel: twelve silver platters, twelve silver bowls, twelve golden ladles; 85each silver platter weighing one hundred thirty shekels, and each bowl seventy; all the silver of the vessels two thousand four hundred shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary; 86the twelve golden ladles, full of incense, weighing ten shekels apiece, according to the shekel of the sanctuary; all the gold of the ladles weighed one hundred twenty shekels; 87all the cattle for the burnt offering twelve bulls, the rams twelve, the male lambs a year old twelve, and their meal offering; and twelve male goats for a sin offering; 88and all the cattle for the sacrifice of peace offerings: twenty-four bulls, sixty rams, sixty male goats, and sixty male lambs a year old. This was the dedication offering of the altar, after it was anointed. 89When Moses went into the Tent of Meeting to speak with the LORD, he heard his voice speaking to him from above the mercy seat that was on the ark of the Testimony, from between the two cherubim; and he spoke to him.

After chapters of offerings, the identical gifts of twelve tribal leaders listed one by one, and the totals tallied up, comes a single verse that is the point of it all: when Moses went into the Tent of Meeting to speak with the LORD, he heard the voice speaking to him from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim, and it spoke to him. All the offerings, the altar, the elaborate tent, led to this: God speaking with his servant.

Notice what the whole apparatus of worship was for. Not the gifts and rituals as ends in themselves, but communion, a place where God and his people could meet and where God would speak. And notice where the voice came from: from above the mercy seat, the place of atonement, of grace. God met Moses and spoke to him from the seat of mercy. The goal of it all was relationship, God in conversation with his people, from a place of grace.

That is worth remembering about our own worship and religious practice. The offerings, the disciplines, the gathering, the giving, are not ends in themselves; they exist to bring us into communion with God, to a place where he speaks and we hear. It is easy to get lost in the machinery of religion and miss the point, which is God himself, meeting us and speaking to us from the mercy seat. Do not settle for the apparatus. Press through it to the purpose: to hear God's voice, to meet with him, from the place of his mercy in Christ.

Lord, all the worship you appointed led to this: your voice speaking from the mercy seat. Keep me from getting lost in the machinery of religion and missing the point, which is you, meeting me and speaking to me from a place of grace. Draw me through the practices into real communion with you, and give me ears to hear your voice.