“Set up the tabernacle, the Tent of Meeting, on the first day of the first month. – Exodus 40:2

Today’s Scripture Reading (June 28, 2012): Exodus 40

I love those advertisements for air fresheners that will give your car that “just off the lot” smell. Your car might be an old piece of junk, but it can smell like you just bought it. Part of my fascination with the air freshener is that that sought after new car smell really does not smell all that great. We like it (even I like it) because in our minds have we made the connection between the smell and something new. The problem with the air fresheners is actually that when we use them for our old heaps we begin to lose that connection between the smell and what is new. And once that happens, the air fresheners begin to lose their appeal.

It is really the same reason that we have for not making resolutions, either at the beginning of a new year, or at the beginning of a new stage in life. The reason we do not make resolutions is not because our lives are already the best that they can be – even though I know that is exactly what we tell our friends. The real reason is that the past has taught us that we will never make the needed change anyway, so why bother making the resolution.

And the real problem is that we are focusing on the past – on what is behind. But God’s emphasis is always on what is yet to come – the future. The past is finished and the only thing that we have any control over is the future. Israel had emigrated away from Egypt. They had spent about six months just in the process of leaving and learning to be a gathering of free people. It would have been near the end of that initial first six month period that the law would have been given to Moses on the Mountain of God. And for the last five and a half months they had been busy building the tabernacle and learning the ways of their God. It was a path that they would never have to take again. And now they had a couple of weeks to get ready for their future. The consecration of the tabernacle would actually take place on the first day of the second year of their nation’s existence. And it was designated as a time to look forward.

In Christ, it is the continual reminder that we live with. Yesterday is done and there is nothing that we can do to change it. But we are responsible for what we do today – and for everyday we as we walk into God’s future. It is summed up by Paul as he said “But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:13-14)

   

 Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Leviticus 1