Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Does God Care About Body Image? | Torah | Exodus 25:1-9

Episode Date: July 12, 2022

Does what you think about your body matter to God? Does the Bible address body image? How should you think of your body? In today's episode, Tanya uses Exodus 25:1-9 to explain the importance of God's dwelling place and what that means for your life today. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Exodus 25:1-9

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Tanya Wilmuth, and right now we're in the book of Exodus. Does what we think about our bodies matter to God? Does he care if we think we're too heavy or too thin, too short or too tall? Does he care about the time we spend thinking about what we wish our bodies look like? Does he care about what we think we need to do to get there? Does it matter to God when we fantasize about a different version of,

of us that we think would make us happier. Now, those are private thoughts, right? Those are things we should keep close to us, not share with others, certainly not give over to God. Those are thoughts we want to be in control of. Now, I never thought I would read Exodus and think about body image. It's a pretty ancient scripture. Surely it can't have anything to do with a topic that's so modern and so personal.

Just in case you don't think much about body image or think it's relevant, let me tell you for a second. I live in a house with four teenagers. I have friends. I know people who are young adults and old adults, and I'm a human. If you don't think much about your body, you are surrounded by people who do. And while there's not a verse we can pull out of Exodus and say,

aha, that's it. See, God told us exactly how to solve these problems we have about our bodies and the way we feel. Do X and you'll get Y and Z. No, we're not going to find that, but God does tell us something bigger in Exodus than how to tame the shameful or obsessive thoughts that run through our heads. He tells us how to build a dwelling place for him,

a dwelling place that begins with a tabernacle in the desert of Mount Sinai, a dwelling place that now exists in us, as our Holy Lord has made us and our physical bodies his temple. Now today we're going to look at two things we learn as early as Exodus about our physical bodies. first God cares what we think about our bodies because they belong to him. So let's go to the base of Mount Sinai where the Israelites are camping, and while Moses converses with the Lord and receives the Ten Commandments, this wasn't just a random place for God to show up.

It was exactly the place God told Moses he would meet with him again, when the people escaped from Egypt. Now Moses was able to go up on that mountain and encounter God, while the rest of the nation was aware of God's presence, slightly removed. But this is something God is about to change. God gave Moses specific instructions to relate to the people about a tabernacle that they should build where he is going to bring his presence, where he is going to dwell. From Exodus 25 verse 1, the Lord said to Moses, speak to the people of Israel that they take for me a contribution. From every man whose heart moves him, you shall receive

the contribution for me. Now those contributions are what they're going to use to build. the tabernacle. And he lists all the valuable goods, things like gold, silver, bronze, scarlet yarn, fine linen, and goat's hair. And all of those things came from Egypt. And let's just consider this for a minute. The Israelites had just escaped from slavery. They'd crossed a sea. They'd been hiking through the desert. How did they have valuable things to offer? Well, the Lord asked them to give these things because he'd already provided them. Remember when the Israelites were in Egypt, it was like the Egyptian people were paying the Israelites to get out. Like, just leave. We'll give you all of our stuff.

So the Lord was asking the people whose hearts were moved to give back what he'd already given, what was already his. As creator, everything is from God. Everything belongs to God, including us. If God cared about the giving of ram's skin to build his dwelling place, how much more does he care about the way we give ourselves to him? We can trust God. We can trust God with our thoughts about our bodies, and we can trust him with the way he's made them because they are his. We can trust him to use them in a way that is good and glorifying. We can trust that his plan for them is deeper and wider than ours. Just like his plan for these beautiful furnishings was much more elaborate than anything that Israelites could have come up with on their own.

The second thing we learn from Exodus is that God cares what we think about our bodies because as he's chosen to dwell in us. Now, when that Egyptian woman gave the Israelite woman her robe, God knew why. And it was something he told Moses about before Moses even went back to Egypt. God was giving the Israelites everything they would later need to build his tabernacle, his dwelling place. When God brought them to Mount Sinai, he included them in his covenant to be his people. And as their God, he wasn't just going to make appearances.

He was going to dwell in their midst. He wanted to give them a tangible way to know that he was their omnipresent Lord. Now, let's pretend for a moment that the Israelites lost sight of why they were building the tabernacle. I know it's hard to imagine, but let's try to picture them looking around at what other people were giving and then looking at their own gifts. Oh, look at you. You have 14 pieces of gold and an unblemished goat skin.

That makes my bronze pieces and tattered ram's skin. skin look kind of small and shabby. I should probably do some trading up so I can be known as having and giving something more valuable. We get this, right? See, we start looking horizontally and we lose sight of what God is building and we lose sight of how he wants to use us to do it. In Genesis, we already find out that our physical bodies are sacred. Or as Preston Springle describes in his book, embodiment, Adam and Eve's bodies are compared to sacred pieces of architecture, temples that embody God's presence, and so do our bodies. And Paul seems to agree with this in the New Testament. Body talk isn't as modern as we think. Paul addressed the Corinthians about it almost

2,000 years ago, and I doubt it was a new concept then. While some Corinthians were living like there was a differentiation between the spirit and the body, Paul talked to them about the way they handled their body sexually because their physical bodies were the evidence of their union with Christ. After the big sex talk, so to speak, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 619, Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You're not your own. You were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

So what you do with your body, the thoughts that you have about it are part of your moral nature. You can't separate your body from your soul. Paul also describes the reality of our future resurrected bodies, not just spirits, but physical bodies that will exchange the perishable for the imperishable at the coming of our Lord Jesus. If our future glorified bodies will be physical in nature, then it's consistent with Paul's teaching that we should honor our bodies now. When the trumpet sounds, when the sting of death is destroyed,

so will our struggles with our bodies pass. way. That's the hope we cling to. But just like running uphill, it doesn't get easier as you get closer to the top. But at least you can see the end in sight. It's the end of the story that helps us run up the challenging hills faithfully. Do you struggle with thoughts that sound like this? If I can just make it to that weight, then I will really look good and really be happy. Or if I just follow what that person does, then I will look like them and my life will be better. I just wonder if you chase that rabbit, what's at the end? Will you ever truly be happy even if you get there?

Or will there just be a new rabbit to chase? Now, I don't think we can even try to solve body issues in one podcast episode, but I'm going to remind us what is true so we know where to go with our thoughts. In Exodus, the Lord told Moses that from every person who hearts move them, he should gather materials and let them make a sanctuary that he may dwell in their midst. Because he dwells in us, we can dwell in him. We have his omnipresent power to help us in times of trouble. When we get into trouble with our thoughts, he doesn't leave us and go dwell with someone else. And he certainly doesn't shame us. He doesn't keep track of what we've eaten or how much

we've exercised and wait until we get it right to listen to us and help us. He is a is always with us. Before David died, he gave Solomon instructions on how to build the temple that David himself was never actually going to see. And he told him all about the furnishings and materials that should be used to build it, gifts and offerings that would come from the people. But he boiled it down to the truth when he said to God, but who am I? And what are my people that we should be able to offer this willingly? For all things come from you. And of your own, have we given you? He boils it down to the truth. that everything already belongs to God, and the willingness to give back to him comes from

understanding this. We have to know that we are his. We can't fight feelings of inadequacy or insecurity about the way we're made if we don't first identify that we belong to God. We can't adjust our behaviors and change the way we respond to self-hatred without inhaling the truth about how much we're loved. If you struggle with body shaming, eating disorders, disordered eating, unhealthy exercise, I hope you find someone to talk to. Maybe it's a friend that will be with you and keep you accountable to what you need to do next, or maybe you need more professional help. But I hope you do it knowing that you are loved and that you aren't less qualified by God for your struggles.

He already knows and he already loves you anyway. He already knows and he dwells in you. He already knows and he cares about you so much. that he provided people to help you. So that's what you can do, but this is what you can remember. Also from David's pen in Psalm 91-1, He who dwells in the shelter of the most high will dwell in the shadow of the Almighty.

Being able to dwell in God's shadow is a place where there's not a lot to do, but a lot to absorb. It's a place of sitting and abiding under the umbrella of God's mercy and grace. It's a place where your leaves grow because the sun and shades shine on them in perfect ratios while you soak it in. Lord, we know that you're the one who knows all our thoughts and desires. You know when we want to be different and when we dislike who we are.

You know when our thoughts consume us and you care about these things. When we don't know what to do, we ask what David asked in Psalm 27 for when he said, one thing if I asked of the Lord that I will seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in His temple. Amen. Before you forget, sign up for the brand new TMBT newsletter. Hit the link in the show notes and you'll get an email every Wednesday

that will help you beat the midweek slump and go deeper in your walk with Jesus. Thanks for listening.