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“Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.” 1 Corinthians 11:1 (NIV)

As I make my fourth journey through the One Year Bible, I am frustrated by the way my thoughts wander when I read through the exhaustive details of God’s specifications for setting up the tabernacle. Fast forward to the specification for making sacrifices and the Books of Leviticus and Numbers and the same thing happens. I simply zone out. These details fail to captivate me. But God’s Word says that, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” So this year, I stopped and prayed…inviting God to help me find meaning in these seemingly meaningless details.

Sweet friends, God is so faithful. Through various devotions and Bible verses, He showed me this pattern —God’s provision of specific instructions when He was “setting apart” people for Himself. When Noah found favor in the eyes of God (Gen. 6:8), God set him and his family apart to rescue them from the flood, giving Noah specific instructions for building the ark. When He sent Moses to Egypt, He gave him detailed instructions for persuading Pharaoh to let the Israelites go, so that they could be set apart for God. In the wilderness, God provided detailed instructions regarding their provision and the collection of manna, Godly living through the Ten Commandments, and worship through His plans for setting up the tabernacle and even details about the garments His priests would wear—all because He was setting them apart to be His Holy people. You are to be holy to me because I, the Lord, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be my own. (Leviticus 20:26)

Reflecting on these and other Biblical texts dealing with God’s specific instructions to His people, left me longing. Longing to hear from God and receive specific instructions—a detailed pattern to follow. But even as this thought formed in my head, a picture of Jesus came to mind. He is our pattern. Our detailed, specific, living example of how to live a life set apart.

I am challenged by God’s Word, along with these words of Oswald Chambers, “Jesus prayed that we might be one with Him, just as He is one with the Father (John 17:21-23). The resounding evidence of the Holy Spirit in a person’s life is the unmistakable family likeness to Jesus Christ, and the freedom from everything which is not like Him. Are we prepared to set ourselves apart for the Holy Spirit’s work in us?”

“Lord, I desire to be set apart for you. Help me to obediently follow the pattern of Jesus, just as the Old Testament heroes followed your instructions. Thank you that you provide all that I need to follow you. Create in me a heart that is willing and surrendered to the work of the Holy Spirit.”

For His Glory

Ann Skalaski
TRBC Women’s Life