The Bridge Between

How it got there and why we cross it

It’s time to wrap up this series on prayer. There’s a lot more topics and information that I know we could go in to, but there’s one topic that’s been on my mind a lot recently, and I think it provides a good stopping point. For me, it’s something that reminds me what a gift it is to be able to speak directly with the Creator and Master of the Universe.

The whole narrative of the Bible is about God bringing His people, His children, closer to Him. Genesis 1 says that God’s Spirit was there as Creation unfolded. God Himself would walk through Eden with Adam. But when he and his wife sunk their teeth into that forbidden fruit, God was forced to leave His creation behind. God would send a flood, saving Noah and his family alone. He would confuse the languages at the Tower of Babel. His call to Abram is the first time God speaks to His Creation without intending to punish them since Genesis 2. From Noah through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, it is only a select few men who hear God’s voice or experience any part of His presence. That changes with Moses. God appears to Moses first in the burning bush and instructs Him on how to free the Israelites from the Egyptians, with God’s help. Still, Moses is the only one worthy enough to go before God and speak with Him. In fact, even after three days of purification, God tells the people that if anyone sets foot on the mountain while Moses is receiving the Law, they’ll die. And when God gives Moses the Law, the gap between Man and the Creator is bridged a little bit. God’s presence, His Spirit, would rest on the Mercy Seat of the Ark of the Covenant in the Most Holy Place. And on the Day of Atonement, the High Priest could go in and be in the presence of God’s Spirit

One man. One day of the year.

It’s a vast improvement from select righteous men who might hear from God a handful of times in 100 years, but still, for the average Israelite, there was always the priesthood and the physical structure of the Tabernacle or Temple separating you from God’s presence.

Until Jesus came, that is.

With Jesus’ arrival, you could look God in the face. You could shake His hand, hear His voice. It wasn’t something just for priests, prophets, or kings anymore. The Word was among us, as John says, so you didn’t have to hope God chose to speak to or through you. You could go to Him. And better still, as Jesus says in John’s Gospel, now the Spirit of God has come, so that every person has the opportunity to be in God’s presence and carry it with them.

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, Whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

I Corinthians 6:19

For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, Who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

Hebrews 9:13-14

Go venture through Leviticus and Exodus and find out what the priests had to do to be holy and pure enough to serve God. Go read about how even the furnishings of the Tabernacle had to be purified to be used in God’s presence. Read about how the Temple was constructed and dedicated to God, and consider that despite being a man after God’s own heart, David was not considered worthy even to lay its foundation.

God’s presence is a big deal. And being washed in the blood of Christ does something for every one of us that the blood shed under the Old Law could only do for few.

God has pulled out every stop to build a bridge for you and I to cross in order to get to Him. And that’s a big deal.

One more anecdote and then I’ll make my point:

In May of 2023, I had the opportunity to go to Israel with a group from my alma mater, Freed-Hardeman University. We spent time traveling all over the country, and there are a lot of moments that have stuck with me from that trip. But one experience I’ll never forget was seeing the Western Wall.

The Western (or Wailing) Wall is the only place where religious Jews can go worship where the Temple once was. The temple mount itself is controlled by the Muslim Waqf, soldiers under the charge of the Jordanian government. Anyone can go on the temple mount, but only Muslims are allowed to worship there. No iconography or literature of any kind from any other religion is allowed. In the center sits the Dome of the Rock. “The Rock” here, refers to what Muslims and Jews call “the Foundation Stone.” The Foundation Stone is believed by the Jews to hold all kinds of significance- it was the first part of the Earth that God created, where He took the dust that formed Adam, where Adam, Cain and Abel, and Noah offered sacrifices. It was on the Foundation Stone that Abraham bound Isaac to offer him to God, where Jacob saw angels climbing up and down the ladder to Heaven, and where Moses received the Law. A man named Araunah had a threshing floor there, and he sold it to David, and it was that land that was used for the Temple, and on top of the Foundation Stone, in the Most Holy Place, would rest the Ark of the Covenant, and therefore, the presence of God. The Foundation Stone, to the Jews, is where God comes down to meet His people, and where, they believe, He will someday come meet them again.

Now, of course, none of that is corroborated by Scripture, other than the Temple being built on the threshing floor, but that isn’t the point. I explain all that to give you all the context for why Jews from all over the world go to Jerusalem to pray and read Scripture at the Western Wall, and why it’s honestly painful to watch- it’s because they believe it is as close to God as they can get. It took over 13 hours of flying to get from Atlanta to Tel Aviv, plus time in a bus to get to Jerusalem. I don’t know where all of those Jewish men and women at the Wall that day were from, but I do know that the idea that I could’ve journeyed all that way to just be kind of close to God, only to be thousands of miles away again after a few days would break my heart.

This is why we must appreciate all the things God did to bridge the gap between Himself and us. We created it when we sinned, but He never stopped coming after us. He has never stopped shortening the distance. And of course, when we go join Him in the place He has prepared or us, the gap will be closed once and for all.

That’s why we pray.

Because we need to let God know that we love Him and see how He loves us. We need to praise Him. We need to spend time with Him, because He is our Father and He can’t be entirely with us right now, but He will give us the strength to overcome so that one day we can be together again. And we don’t have to do that through a priest or patriarch. We don’t have to go to some holy place. We don’t even have to go to a church building or wait for service times. God gave His people the first 24/7 direct line to speak with Him. I don’t have to put it in the hands of someone else to pray for me or make sacrifices for me. Jesus’ blood has purified me so well that I have no need for ritual cleansing. In fact, I can go to God confessing that I am unclean and in need of grace. I don’t have to hope I’m righteous enough to hear God’s voice a few times in my short life, because He has given me His perfect Word. I can read it and hear His voice, and feel His presence.

God did everything He could to get close to me. I want to do everything I can to stay there.