Do you know what the tabernacle is? According to the Old Testament, the tabernacle was the portable dwelling place for God’s presence from the time of the Exodus (exit) from Egypt through the conquering of the land of Canaan (Israel). Find out more about the tabernacle here.
Bear with me, folks. I will attempt to show you how this relates to your heart. :) Basically, God gave Moses instructions – meticulous instructions – on how to build the temple, and the upkeep was very important. The rules involving entering the tabernacle – especially the innermost circle – were even more rigorous. Only the High Priest was allowed to go into the Holy of Holies, and only once a year – on The Day of Atonement. The presence of God is a big deal.
Under the new covenant that came with Jesus’ sacrifice, God’s presence is no longer in a physical tabernacle. We don’t have to travel to Israel and go to a certain plot of land to access God’s presence. Through Jesus Christ, we can confidently access the throne of grace – we don’t need a priest as a mediator. Also, we have the Holy Spirit, so God now lives in us. This has huge implications.
Once we become saved, our heart becomes the temple of God. God’s presence goes WITH US.
Wow.
Leslie Ludy, in her book Set Apart Femininity, presented an interesting parallel between our heart as a woman, and the tabernacle of God in the Old Testament. There are three sections to the tabernacle: the outer court, The Holy Place, and The Holy of Holies.
In today’s day and age, girls are told more and more to just be real, and to give themselves away more and more emotionally and physically. Females like Fergie who just give themselves away to be seen literally to the whole world are more popular and attractive than appropriate, moral, Christian girls. Now, more and more, girls treat guy friends just like girl friends, chatting with them late into the night, spilling their deepest secrets to them like it is no big deal.
In the movie Titanic (totally inappropriate by the way unless you have Clearplay), the main character Rose says, “A woman’s heart is a deep ocean of secrets.”
I feel like in this day and age, this is becoming less and less true. The character of a woman is being warped by the culture more and more. We are becoming more “independent,” and more and more like men in many ways. We are taught to deny our emotions and just give ourselves away to whatever Bozo comes along.
Leslie’s basic message in this chapter is that a woman’s heart should be like the tabernacle of God. The outer court is where acquaintances and friends have access to. General things about ourselves.
Very close friends and family members we trust have access to the Holy Place. This is where our fears, insecurities, shortcomings, life details, and secrets lie. People that we intimately trust are in this inner circle. We shouldn’t just meet some guy on the street and spill our guts to him. We should not be an open book. We deserve more than that.
Next – the Holy of Holies. This is where our deepest, darkest, innermost secrets are. Basically God and your husband have access to this place. It is the “deep ocean of secrets” that Rose talks about. This is where deep wounds and hurts lie, along with our deepest dreams and hopes.
There are several examples in my own life and countless in the lives of other girls where girls get emotionally involved (even in a friendship! It doesn’t have to be a relationship) and basically tell guys way more than is appropriate for the level of friendship. Think of it this way: if your future children could see your interactions with your guy friends right now, would they be saying, “Mom, that’s not Dad! What are you doing?” or would they feel honored and cherished even now?
Leslie gives the story of one girl (we’ll call her Jessica) who met a nice Christian guy, and they started dating. Jessica spent lots of quality time with this guy, and she really began to trust him. She spilled everything to him – everything about her and her family, her hopes, her fears, her desires – the deep parts of who she was. In her mind, this was an emotionally-involved relationship in which they deeply cared for each other. In his mind, it was just a relationship with some girl. In a month or so, they broke up, and she could not believe all that she had told him. All that she could have saved for the special man one day who would actually care about her – her husband.
Our hearts should be sacred, and special. Only very close, trusted friends should be let into the Holy Place, and we should save the Holy of Holies for our husband, and obviously God. Clearly this is not a completely exhaustive, strict set of guidelines, and we don’t want to be secretive or cagey, but we do want to be cautious with what we tell guys. Girlfriends are just different than guy friends. They just are. Things should be kept appropriate, and we should try to honor our future husbands in our conversations even now! The general idea is to keep some things personal.
Your heart is special. Especially as a woman, you should have an air of mystery. You are not an open book for any random Joe Schmoe of the street to come read. In the American culture this is being undermined more and more, but that means we should fight for it more and more!
