He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the sons of Israel.

Psalm 103:7

Whenever you first meet a person, all you can ever see at the outset is their outside.  You can see their works, how they present themselves, and where they choose to be located, things like that.  You can see how they permit access or do not to their life.  We know from experience that there is a whole inner world inside, but we do not see that at the beginning.

From the outside, all one could see was a white-linen fence with one gate.  To a person who was not standing at an altitude, you could see the smoke rising from within, and smell something of the incense from the holy place, but the inner workings were unknown.

As you enter into Jesus’ life, and His way, you are presented with one striking thing, a level of sacrifice that is both undeniable and yet not burdensome.  He is joyful in His trials, and most happy in His Father’s presence.  But, His entire life is laid down, and He is not living for Himself.  He is living for the will of His Father alone, and in that, for each one of us.

Just like the Tabernacle of Moses, the insides are invisible to the outside.

The children of Israel were familiar with the acts and mighty works of God, but it was to Moses that His ways were made known.  While most of Israel stayed at the entrance to the their own tents, Moses went into the tent of meeting, the Tabernacle that God had given Him, and He spoke with the Lord face to face, as a man with a friend.

Just as the tabernacle, or anyone’s life, within the white linen of our outer works is a whole life within, a whole reasoning, a way.  Whether in each one of our lives it is His Way is up to our own heart, but there is always something within our fence.

Jesus said He was the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  Each of these names correspond to one of the three gates in the sanctuary.

The Kingdom, and all that Jesus is lives on the inside of a person, and overflows out of them.  In such a way, Jesus came preaching and teaching in passages such as the Sermon on the Mount and demonstrated The Way, but not as a new law to put on, but as one that would come from the innermost place we allow Him to live through us.

Jesus gave the Beatitudes in Matthew 5 as what would be the outflow of the life of Faith.  It does little good in the scope of Eternity if we attempt to force ourselves into these models and leave our pursuit of His Way at that.  It may seem acceptable to the flesh, but eventually, we will find ourselves failing at many other places.

You see, it is not the curtain around the Tabernacle that was the focal point of the Tabernacle, but the thing way down inside, beyond two more entrances, the Glory of God.

But, if we believe, God the Father comes into our innermost man, and dwells within us, even as He did in Jesus.  As  we do, we have access to the Father, and we become to resemble the Jesus our Lord more and more.

The Beatitudes express God’s ways.  He is close to the broken hearted and the poor in Spirit, He is with those who are trampled upon for doing right.  He comforts those who mourn and makes Himself known to the pure in Heart.  All of these are portraits of Christ, and hence the Father, and they reveal the heart of God, His love for every child, and His perfection.

Yet, He has ways.  He has Truth.  We cannot continue to live in Him and live in what violates His perfect law.  We can think that we are doing a service by attempting to live out of the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes, but if while we can make up something in our minds that look like His Ways, they truly are not if they violate His Truth.

But, there were two trees in the garden, one of life and one of the knowledge of good an evil.  There is something further even than His Truth, while not contradicting it.  We can have a form of His Ways, and even read and comprehend a measure of His Truth through His Word, but what is on the innermost chamber is always either depravity, creepy crawly things and defiling graffiti, or the glory of God.

The way into the last chamber was called The Life, and it is in this place, that the manifest glory of God lived.  It was so holy that men could not enter this place except once a year with the blood of the sacrifice and with incense.

We can live the outer works, and we can have the truth within, but we must have the Life of His Glory radiating within us.  We must possess His Glory in our midst.

It is the glory that makes the tabernacle precious, and it is the presence of God dwelling within our hearts that makes us Christian.

The Life of God is held in its proper place in the midst of His Truth and His Ways, and makes us live forever.  Jesus is the Tree of Life, and knowing God and His Son is Eternal Life (John 17:3).

The Kingdom of God consists of Righteousness, Peace, and Joy in the Holy Ghost (Romans 14:17), and all His paths are peace and health to those who love them.