God’s Presence Changes Everything - Exodus 29
What does a cloth diaper boutique have to do with Exodus 29?
More than you might think.
Exodus 29 is not exactly the chapter most of us would choose for our morning devotional. It contains 46 verses filled with detailed instructions about sacrifices, priests, blood, altars, garments, and consecration. It can feel distant from our lives—and, at first glance, it is difficult to see how any of it connects to what we're facing today.
But underneath all of those detailed instructions is a profound truth: God desires to dwell with his people.
That is the story running through Scripture.
God Makes a Way to Dwell With His People
In Exodus 29, God gives Moses detailed instructions for consecrating Aaron and his sons for their priestly ministry. To consecrate something means to set it apart for God's purposes.
At the end of the chapter, God tells Moses why all of this matters:
“I will dwell among the Israelites and be their God. And they will know that I am the LORD their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt so that I might dwell among them.” — Exodus 29:45–46
The rituals, sacrifices, priests, and tabernacle all served a greater purpose: God was making a way to dwell among his people.
The tabernacle was essentially a portable dwelling place for God's presence. Israel carried it with them through the wilderness because God wasn't simply giving them a set of rules to follow. He was giving them himself.
And this theme doesn't stop in Exodus.
From Eden to the Tabernacle
The story actually begins in Genesis.
God created humanity and placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. The garden was more than a beautiful place to live. It was a place where God's presence was with his people. Adam and Eve walked with God and lived in relationship with him.
Then Genesis 3 happened.
Sin fractured that relationship, and humanity was separated from God's presence.
From that point forward, Scripture tells the story of God making a way to restore what was broken.
The tabernacle represents a major step in that story. God once again dwells among his people.
Later, Solomon builds the temple, providing a permanent dwelling place for God's presence among Israel. The temple eventually falls, is rebuilt, and remains central to Israel's worship and identity.
But then something even more remarkable happens.
God Comes to Us
John begins his Gospel by telling us that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
Jesus is Emmanuel—God with us.
God's presence is no longer confined to a tent or a building. God himself has come to earth in the person of Jesus.
And Jesus tells his disciples something even more astonishing. In John 14, he promises that the Father will give them another Counselor—the Holy Spirit—who will be with them and, remarkably, be in them.
Then Acts 2 happens.
The Holy Spirit comes upon the church.
And suddenly the story takes another enormous step forward.
God doesn't simply dwell among his people.
God dwells within his people.
Paul says it plainly in 1 Corinthians 6:
“Don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought at a price.” — 1 Corinthians 6:19–20
The temple is no longer primarily a building.
We are the temple.
God's presence goes with us.
What Does That Mean for Monday?
This is where Exodus 29 becomes surprisingly practical.
If the Holy Spirit lives in us, then God's presence doesn't disappear when we leave church on Sunday.
There isn't a veil over the doors of the church that separates “holy things” from everything else.
God goes with us.
Into the business meeting.
Into the Zoom call.
Into the classroom.
Into the hospital.
Into the kitchen.
Into parenting.
Into difficult conversations with coworkers.
Into the cloth diaper boutique.
Our ordinary work is not outside the reach of God's presence.
That doesn't mean everything we do suddenly becomes easy or that every situation will go the way we want. God's presence doesn't guarantee that our coworkers will stop annoying us, that our meetings will suddenly become productive, or that our kids will always behave.
It means that we don't enter those situations alone.
The Holy Spirit is present.
And because the Spirit is present, we have access to the kind of life Paul describes in Galatians 5: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
The question isn't simply, “What do I need to accomplish today?”
Perhaps a better question is:
“What might God want to do through me today?”
When you're nervous about a conversation, you can ask the Holy Spirit for help.
When you're struggling in a relationship, you can ask the Spirit to give you patience and wisdom.
When you're frustrated at work, you can ask God to help you respond with gentleness.
When you're exhausted from caring for your family, you can ask God to meet you there.
God's presence changes the way we enter ordinary moments.
Already, But Not Yet
There is still a tension in all of this.
The Holy Spirit dwells within us now, but God's work of redemption isn't finished.
We live in what theologians sometimes call the “already and not yet.”
God's kingdom is already here.
His Spirit is already within us.
Jesus has already accomplished the work of salvation.
And yet we are still waiting for the day when God makes all things new.
Revelation 21 gives us a picture of that day:
“Look, God’s dwelling is with humanity, and he will live with them. They will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them and will be their God.” — Revelation 21:3
Notice the language.
It sounds remarkably like Exodus 29.
The story that began with humanity separated from God's presence ends with God's presence fully restored.
No more death.
No more grief.
No more crying.
No more pain.
The presence of God that we experience now through the Holy Spirit will one day be experienced fully and completely in the new creation.
That is our hope.
So How Does God's Presence Change Things?
The question for us isn't merely whether we believe the Holy Spirit lives in us.
The question is whether we live like it.
What would change this week if you genuinely remembered that God's presence is with you?
How would you enter your workplace?
How would you treat your spouse?
How would you respond to your children?
How would you handle conflict?
How would you approach the person who frustrates you?
How would you respond when you're anxious, tired, or overwhelmed?
We don't have to manufacture God's presence.
We don't have to convince God to come near.
In Christ, God has already made a way.
The Holy Spirit dwells within his people.
So this week, let's remember who we are—and whose we are.
Let's go into our ordinary lives trusting that God's presence is with us, empowering us to love more deeply, make peace, practice patience, show kindness, and do the work God has placed in front of us.
Because God's presence changes everything.
