As I hurried to class, I saw a note in my college dormitory mailbox. The man at the Adventist Church’s world headquarters responsible for missionaries in Southern Asia had called.
While living in East Pakistan, my parents had survived cyclones and a civil war, but the 3-month-old country of Bangladesh was still unstable. Were they OK?
When the General Conference field secretary for Southern Asia answered my call, I asked, “Are my parents all right?”
“It’s not your parents,” he replied. “Your sister fell from a cliff.”
“How is she? How badly was she hurt?”
“I . . . I’m sorry. She didn’t make it.”
I stood at the dormitory front desk unable to process what he was telling me. My younger sister Lucille, a 16-year-old junior at Far Eastern Academy in Singapore, was dead. She had gone on a girls’ club outing to an island off the coast of Malaysia. While walking around the island, she and another girl had tried to climb a cliff to escape a rising tide. Lucille had fallen to the rocks below. She died the next morning of internal injuries as the sun rose over the ocean.
I don’t remember the end of my phone conversation. The rest of the afternoon was a blur. As a preacher’s kid I was familiar with death, but this was different. We had looked forward to spending a summer together with my parents in Bangladesh, but what hurt most now was the thought I’ll never be with her again. I had letters, I had photos, but I did not have her. Never again would we be with each other.
Where is God When Tragedy Strikes?
If you have had a loved one die unexpectedly, or if you have struggled with a different tragedy—marital issues, financial hardship, or a devastating illness—you’ve likely asked the questions I asked: “Where is God? Why did He let this happen?”
You may have also asked, “Is God still with us?” And perhaps you felt as if you had lost touch with God. Is God just another story from my childhood? Is God just a comforting tradition from our prescientific, predigital, prepandemic past?
The question “Is God still with us?” is not new. It has been asked in every age. It was the question Adam and Eve must have asked as they fled from the Garden of Eden.
The descendants of Abraham, enslaved in Egypt, cried out this same question. Oppressed by taskmasters, their sons condemned to death by Pharaoh, their one hero, Moses, exiled to the Arabian Desert for murder, they had reason to wonder, “Is the God of our father Abraham still with us?”
God answered their question by sending Moses to rescue the Hebrews from slavery. Then God asked Moses to build Him a home so He could live in the middle of His people!
“Let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst” (Ex. 25:8, 9).*
God’s sanctuary in the wilderness was just a portable tent, but in this small space God tells the story of salvation in three acts:
(1) how God became human to save His people from their sins,
(2) how God is with us today, and
(3) how God will be with us in the future.
The question “Is God still with us?” is not new. It has been asked in every age.
Act One: The Sanctuary Courtyard Services
Act one was staged in the sanctuary courtyard. The animals sacrificed on the altar previewed Jesus’ future death, when God would experience death in our place.
Gabriel reminded Joseph of the message of the sanctuary courtyard drama in Matthew 1:20-23: “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: ‘Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel (which means, God with us).’ ”
For many Christians the first act in the story of salvation is the whole story. If Jesus became a human being and lived here with us, if Jesus’ death paid the complete penalty for our sins, what more do we need to know about the plan of salvation? Why did the sanctuary drama have two more acts?
Act Two: The Sanctuary Holy Place Services
The location for the second act in the story of salvation moves from the sanctuary’s courtyard to its first room: the holy place. Here Christ’s work for us is prefigured by the work of the sanctuary’s priests. Each morning and evening a priest came into the holy place as the people’s representative to plead their case before God. The priest burned incense to symbolize the prayers of the people ascending to God. The priest prefigured Jesus’ work today, answering our prayers, forgiving our sins, and defending us against Satan’s attacks. But how does this part of the plan of salvation answer the question “Is God still with us today?”
While my wife was managing a hospital unit, one of her best workers was jailed for a probation violation. Lanell wasn’t about to lose him, so she went to his court hearing.
When his case came up, the judge asked if anyone wanted to speak on Richard’s behalf. To the judge’s surprise, my wife walked forward. “I’m here to speak for Richard. I’m his manager at Community Hospital.”
“Oh,” the judge replied. “Community Hospital? Do you know my brother-in-law, Dr. Lanahan?”
Dr. Lanahan treated patients in my wife’s unit; he was my personal physician and helped me conduct stop-smoking plans. Other accused defendants and their lawyers and families waited while my wife and the judge talked about his brother-in-law, Dr. Lanahan.
Finally the judge asked Lanell, “What do you have to say for Richard?”
“He’s my best worker. He’s changed his life. Please drop his charges and release him from jail so he can get back to work.”
With a bang of his gavel, the judge granted my wife’s petition!
What Lanell did for Richard (and much more) is what Jesus does for us in heaven. He speaks for us, defending us against the accusations of Satan on the basis of His own righteousness.
Hebrews 4:14-16 teaches: “Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
That’s good news!
But sometimes we still long for Jesus’ physical presence, for the intimacy of God’s presence that Adam and Eve enjoyed. We want what John writes about in John 1:14 of Jesus’ life on earth: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
While Christ is acting as our personal representative in the heavenly sanctuary, He can still be with us through the Holy Spirit. As Jesus promised His disciples: “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you” (John 14:16-18).
Act Three: The Sanctuary Services in the Most Holy Place
In the sanctuary’s holy place the light of the candlestick represented the presence of God the Holy Spirit with us today, but in relation to act three of the sanctuary drama, Jesus promises He will again become Immanuel, God with us.
“And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God’ ” (Rev. 21:3).
In the earthly sanctuary services the Day of Atonement was a once-a-year service symbolizing God’s final judgment on both saints and sinners. We seldom want to stand in court in front of a judge, so how do the strange rituals of the Day of Atonement answer the question “Is God still with us?”
On the Day of Atonement the high priest would pick a goat to be slaughtered and would sprinkle that goat’s blood before the ark in the most holy place. The goat’s blood sprinkled in the most holy place on the Day of Atonement was part of a ritual of the cleansing of the sanctuary, pointing to the eventual eradication of sin itself and God’s promise: “No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in [the city], and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads” (Rev. 22:3, 4).
The ceremony of choosing a second goat symbolized how God’s judgment against sin is part of the eradication of sin—God’s judgment against sin and the ultimate instigator and originator of sin, Satan. The second goat was for “Azazel,” a Hebrew word representing a demonic enemy fighting against God. This goat was not killed, and was not an atoning sacrifice. Instead, the high priest confessed over it all the sins of Israel accumulated over the year—symbolizing the removal of sin from God’s people and the devil being loaded with the refuse of sins that he himself had instigated. The goat was then led into a remote area and was left there to die. The people watching rejoiced. They were clean and free.
While Christ is acting as our personal representative in the heavenly sanctuary, He can still be with us through the Holy Spirit.
How God’s Judgment Frees Us to Love Our Enemies
A story from an evangelist helped me understand this final act of the sanctuary drama. Anthony felt discouraged when in one of his evangelistic meetings he made a call for his audience to accept Jesus, but no one came forward. But after the meeting, three sisters approached him and said, “There were so many people in our row, we couldn’t get out to come forward, but we want to be baptized.”
Because two of the girls were underage, Anthony asked, “May I talk with your parents?” They pointed to a couple who were faithful members of the church. Anthony was surprised when the couple explained that they were the girls’ guardians, not their parents.
Each sister had been sexually abused by their father and their brothers. When their mother reported the abuse to the police, the father shot the mother. After the father was jailed for rape and murder, the Christian couple (attorneys working with abused children) had opened their home to provide the girls a safe place to live. “We’ve been sharing the gospel with the sisters, so we are glad they are requesting baptism,” the couple told Anthony. “Come over next Sabbath for lunch.”
The next Sabbath each of the girls had questions, but finally the oldest, a 19-year-old, asked, “How can I be baptized if I hate men, if I can’t forgive those who hurt us so much?”
Anthony paused, then replied, “Forgiveness is not excusing what your father did to you. Forgiveness means giving God the job of judging your father. God is a just judge. He won’t let this go. Forgiveness is not saying, ‘It’s my fault,’ or saying, ‘It’s OK.’ It’s not denying or excusing anything. It’s simply saying, ‘I’m going to let God take care of this.’ ”
Then Anthony added, “Even if your father somehow escapes from prison, God will see that he gets justice.” The oldest sister replied, “I’m ready to be baptized. I want to give up my hatred.”
As Anthony told me his story, I was amazed. “How did you know to give that answer?” I asked.
He replied, “Because I was sexually abused repeatedly as a child. I went into that meeting knowing how those girls felt. And the only way I got through my own abuse was believing the sanctuary’s truth that God is my abusers’ judge.”
“I don’t know where my abusers are now. If they have not accepted Jesus’ salvation, then He is their judge and can do a far better job than I can of giving them what they deserve. But if they are Christians, then because He died for them, Jesus has forgiven their sin of abuse just as His death forgave my sins. He’s justified them. They no longer pose a threat to others. The ultimate justice is turning murderers like Moses, persecutors like Paul, and traitors like Peter into the greatest prophets and preachers of the gospel.”
The story of salvation told in the sanctuary’s three acts reveals that Jesus paid the price for all sin. Not just our sin, but our worst tormentor’s sins as well. Jesus suffers with us and for us. We can lay our burden on Him to forgive and judge.
Yes! God is Still With Us!
“Is God still with us?” No matter what we face, whether tragedy, injustice, or simply a longing for God’s presence, the central truth of the sanctuary says: “Yes, Jesus is still our Immanuel, our God with us!” Jesus was with us on the cross as our substitute dying the death we deserve, He is with us through His Spirit as our personal representative in heaven, and when He has removed every trace of sin from the universe, Jesus will re-create this world and live with us on this earth for eternity.
* Biblical quotations are from the English Standard Version.
