If you turn to the contents page in your Bible you will see that the first four books in the Bible are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers.

In the book of Genesis, we have the creation, the flood, and the Tower of Babel. But most importantly we have God choosing Abraham to be the special recipient of his grace.

In the book of Exodus we have the wonderful story of redemption. The people of God were slaves, but God set them free. He redeemed them.

Leviticus gives us both the way of salvation, and the way of life after salvation. It teaches all this through methods of worship, the practice of offerings and sacrifices, and the functions of the priesthood.

When we get to Numbers, the people are in the wilderness. They will wander there for 40 years. Numbers shows us the walk and warfare of the wilderness. And that is what we will look at today.

Welcome to part three of our series called Under Construction. We are looking at how God makes our hearts Christ's home.

To illustrate that, we are looking at what the Bible calls the tabernacle. This was the portable worship center for ancient Israel. It was a carefully designed and carefully constructed tent. Every detail was explained by God to Moses, and then by Moses to the skilled craftspeople who built it. This is the tabernacle.

In part one we saw that the first thing God does to make our hearts Christ home is to anchor our minds to absolute truth.

In part two we saw the second thing God does is hammer into our souls our own freedom. This is your power and dominion restored to you. It was restored through the ransom paid by a Savior... through the atoning work of Christ.

We are under construction, and this is what God is doing in our hearts.

Today I want to add a third essential elements in the divine construction project God is working on in our hearts. I invite you to meditate with me, in connection with the Old Testament Tabernacle, and the topic of...

Here is our starting Scripture for today:

Thus the children of Israel did according to all that the LORD commanded Moses; so they camped by their standards and so they broke camp, each one by his family, according to their fathers' houses. (Numbers 2:34, NKJV)