A Most Sacred Place
Joshua 18:1
Then the whole congregation of the people of Israel assembled at Shiloh and set up the tent of meeting there. The land lay subdued before them.
Eight years ago, I had the special privilege of travelling to Israel with my father, a church friend, and a seminary professor who led us in a five-day tour of important biblical sites. Among the highlights from that trip included a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee, a short hike up a hill along the seaside where historians think Jesus taught His Sermon on the Mount, Gordan’s Garden Tomb (a possible site of the LORD’s Resurrection), the ruins of the City of David being excavated underneath the modern city of Jerusalem, the synagogue at Capernaum where Christ preached the polarizing message that would turn thousands of fans into enemies in an instant—"Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood you can have no part in the kingdom”—and a walk through Hezekiah’s underground tunnel.
But by far my favorite moment on the trip took place far away from the crowded cobblestone streets of Jerusalem, far away from the merchants selling their religious trinkets to Western travelers, far away from the haunting calls to prayer from the Muslim quarter that echoed through the city walls, and far away from the bustling crowds of religious pilgrims, some Russian Orthodox, some Mormon, some Jewish, some Muslim, who all claimed this land as their own holy land. It was in the quiet sanctuary of a flat-top hill, surrounded by gorgeous, rolling pasturelands as far as the eye could see, with no long lines of anxious tourists, no smokey shrines, and no memorials except for a little room that held a projector and revealed the enormous treasure that lay below our feet. This was Shiloh. This little hilltop, just a dot in the chasm of earth, with no city or cathedral or palace to mark it, was the spot where Almighty God once stooped to tabernacle with His people upon their arrival into Canaan. No more Ogs and Goliaths to silence the saintly songs. Oh no—the whole land is now subdued in the sacred tranquility of divine possession.
Friend, let this serene hillside serve as a picture of us today. May our hearts, too, be a place of communion and consecration and celebration—a Shiloh in an idolatrous world.