Our dog Georgie recently delivered a litter of nine puppies! These are outdoor dogs whose mother had never seen the inside of a building. And then the temperature dropped to 18 degrees—no problem when you have heat lamps, space heaters,[1] and a cozy dog house on a covered, concrete porch.
But then the power went out.
Suddenly Georgie and her nine tiny, blind puppies found themselves indoors. It worked out well and the adorable puppies thrived, soon moving on to wonderful new homes.
Eighteen degrees is cold for Houston. The puppies were born in the dead of winter. But it never stays cold for long on the Texas Gulf Coast. By the time they were ten days old and opening their eyes (back on the front porch), it was clear they could not tolerate the noonday sun. I had to find ways to provide shade for the puppies during the brief hours when the sun shone in through the door in their dog house. No matter how cold it was at night, the afternoons seemed blazing.
As the puppies got older, they continued to prefer shade. They might chase each other around the yard for a few minutes, but soon all nine would conk out in the shade against a tree or a fence. These little furballs could not take the bright sun—not even in February!
Few things on earth are as beautiful or universally beloved as the glory of a bright, sunshiny day. But as beautiful as it is, we need to be sheltered from the sun—through sunscreen, sunglasses, and sunshades of all kinds.
Isaiah says God will provide a tabernacle to shelter His people:
“There shall be a tabernacle for shade in the daytime to protect from the heat” Isaiah 4:6.
The Old Testament idea of a tabernacle is that of a tent or a small building—a shelter to provide shade during the heat of the day. But Isaiah is talking about a tabernacle to shelter God’s people from the heat of God’s glory. Does that make sense?
God’s glory is a consuming fire (Hebrews 12:29) and as beautiful as that is, He does not wish to consume us. God desires to warm His people, to bless us and reveal to us some of His beauty and His joy. But we must be sheltered from the fullness of God’s glory. (The people of Israel could not bear even to see the residue of God’s glory when it made the face of Moses shine after Moses spent forty days with God on Mount Sinai, Exodus 34:29-34.)
The New Testament expands on this idea in the most intriguing way. John writes that “the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us” John 1:14. As one commentator put it, “the glory canopy moved from desert tent to human life.”
Imagine that. God provides a tabernacle to shelter us so we may behold some small measure of His glory. Then God comes in the flesh; God becomes the glory tabernacle. Jesus comes to earth as the shelter through which we can see some of God’s glory without being burned up by it.
The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us.
Through Jesus, we can see something of God’s glory.
“The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us. And we beheld His glory, glory as of the only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth … No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him” John 1:14,18.
Dear God, thank you for showing us some small measure of Your glory. Thank You for blessing us, for sheltering us, for allowing us to be warmed by Your glory, but never burned by Your all-consuming fire. May Jesus Christ be the incarnate God in our lives who reveals to us God’s glory and God’s truth, but shelters us under the covering of Your gentle, kind, loving heart.
AΩ.
[1] On the rare occasions I indulge the dogs with a space heater, I place it inside a large cage for safety and stability.
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