For Glory and Beauty; The Unlimited Goodness of God

You shall make them for glory and beauty.

Exodus 28:40

Snowflakes are falling in West Michigan. Walking through cold January air I find myself captivated by their fleeting beauty. One in particular catches my eye, landing on my mittened hand. I study the intricate detail and wonder how many there must be stacked upon the ground and floating in the space around me, touching cold against my face. So much beautiful encapsulated in such a tiny package.

As I walk, the lyrics of Gungor’s “Beautiful Things” roll through my mind.

You make beautiful things, you make beautiful things out of the dust. You make beautiful things, you make beautiful things out of us.

Snowflakes form when very cold water molecules freeze onto particles of pollen or dust. Beautiful things out of dust.

In the book of Exodus God provides detailed instruction for building His mobile temple, the articles and priestly garments required for worship. Beginning in chapter 25 and ending in chapter 31, we hear the Creator give exact direction on what is to be built, what materials are to be used, and who is appointed to do the work. The instructions are to construct with gold, silver, bronze, with precious stones, and fine linen of royal colors. He details a lampstand hammered from pure gold, with cups like almond blossoms. He lists the ingredients for holy incense, reserved only for Himself, the Most High God. The priestly garments are to be hemmed with pomegranates crafted from blue, purple and scarlet yarns (pomegranates…) and gold bells. On and on He describes the temple plans, as an artist lovingly verbalizing a grand work of glory.

Twice in Exodus chapter 28, as God gives direction for the priestly garments, He states, “…for glory and beauty” (verses 2 and 40). No other reason, not for function, purposed only for glory and beauty. He values beautiful things. He designs with beautiful intent, makes beautiful things, things we cannot imagine.

While God is revealing His vision of glory and beauty, a temple to be built using the treasures plundered from their enemies, a sanctuary where He would dwell in their midst (Exodus 25:8), the Israelites are off scavenging their treasures. With their own means they build a golden cow (Exodus 32), not even a full grown one…just a calf. Impatience, boredom, lost faith, and self-sufficiency leave them with a mindless golden calf (which Moses turns to dust…Exodus 32:20).

Look what He planned for them. Look what they traded Him for.

Why do we trade the unimaginably beautiful for imaginable nothing?

He makes beautiful things out of dust (Genesis 2:7).

He is making your dusty story unimaginably beautiful. He cannot create any other way, it would go against the artist that He is, the creator that He is. He has plundered you from an enemy and He is using you in His story, in the building of His eternal temple, where He will reside with you, forever. The temple described in Exodus, a foreshadow of the residence that is to come (Revelation 21).

Do not trade the eternal goodness of God for that which cannot stand on its own. When you have come to the end of your patience in waiting, when you look around in boredom and see nothing but sameness, when you have lost faith and begin to make plans to obtain what you want, when you want it, stop. He has unimaginable plans for you (1 Corinthians 2:9).

He makes fleeting snowflakes beautiful, how much more will He take care in crafting you, an eternal creature who carries His own life breath (Genesis 2:7)?

And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the LORD God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day – and there will be no night there. They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations.

Revelation 21:22-26