What Did Jesus Change: On Earth as it is in Heaven?

Then Moses set up the courtyard around the tabernacle and altar and put up the curtain at the entrance to the courtyard. And so Moses finished the work. Then the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. Moses could not enter the Tent of Meeting because the cloud had settled upon it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. -Exodus 40:33-35

I must confess, this passage is one of my favorites; the moment when the Divine Presence descends upon the Tabernacle and God dwells physically among His people. I always imagine it happens at night. Three million people are surrounding the tabernacle, each with their tribe, their clan, and their family. Something comes down from the heavens but no human being could possibly describe it. This Presence, which seems to have substance and a physical nature, rather than being like spirit or mist, lowers itself upon and then into the tabernacle. Suddenly, the darkened tent that Moses just completed ignites with a brilliant light, dazzling, amazing, and terrifying all of the witnesses to the event. In an instant, these people, all of whom willingly and wholeheartedly accepted God's Torah at the foot of Sinai, realize that their God is now dwelling among them.

But it wasn't the first time.

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?" He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid." -Genesis 3:8-10

Adam and Eve (Havah) don't seem particularly surprised to find God "walking" in the Garden, they are only startled because they don't want Him to "see" that they're naked. Before the expulsion from Eden, Adam and Eve took it for granted that God was with them and it wasn't an amazing thing for God to talk to them and for them to talk to God. Of course all that changed, and since that change, mankind has struggled to overcome the separation, and to establish and continue to have a relationship with God. Certainly, we don't have the same relationship as the one He intended; the one He had with Adam and Eve, nor the one we will eventually have again.

No longer will there be any curse. 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. There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever. -Revelation 22:3-5

Of course, that event is yet to come. But what did Yeshua (Jesus) change between the end of the Exodus and the end of Revelation? To understand the answer, you have to read this.

Central to Judaism is the belief in the coming of the Messiah, a time which God's light will shine openly in the world. The Jewish apocalyptic vision is of an eternal era of peace and brotherhood on the earth, rather than in the heavens. When a Jew speaks of the world-to-come, he or she means this world the way it will be when it is perfected.

Rabbi Shumely Boteach
Judaism For Everyone: Renewing Your Life Through The Vibrant Lessons Of The Jewish Faith

You probably noticed that Rabbi Boteach's description of the Messianic Age is substantially similar to what we read in Revelation 22. However, one of the reasons that rabbinic Judaism rejects Yeshua as the Messiah is that, in Yeshua's coming in the first century, he didn't accomplish the "Messianic goal" of repairing the world but instead, "died on a stake as a criminal". However, as believers, we also know that he lived among us:

He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God - children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. -John 1:10-14

We could almost change the translation to say The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us, summoning both the image of the tabernacle in the desert and the holiday of Sukkot...a temporary dwelling of Heaven on Earth. But if Yeshua came the first time to show us how to experience the divine within our midst, why did he leave?

On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: "Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit." So when they met together, they asked him, "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?" He said to them: "It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." -Acts 1:4-8

It's as if Yeshua is saying his work comes in two stages. Stage one is to recover the lost sheep of Israel so that they (through the commandment in Matthew 28) can disciple the world, bringing all mankind to God, or at least as many of us as are willing. Part two then, once the Age of the Gentiles has been made full, is to wage the final battle and, like the second bookend in a pair (the first being in Genesis), God will live among us again as He did in the beginning.

Yeshua came to open the door, not only to the lost of Israel, but the rest of the planet. He came to put all of us on the same playing field, as far as the love of God is concerned and as far as human access to God is concerned. We see in Acts 2 the Jewish apostles receiving the Spirit but the same Spirit is received by the Gentiles in Acts 10. This level playing field is what Paul describes in Galatians 3:28 ("neither Jew nor Greek") and our common bond is described by Paul in Romans 11 ("grafted in"). The specific means by which Gentiles and Jews access God may be different at the level of the individual commandments representing covenant relationships (though I haven't gotten that far in my analysis yet), but the "big picture" view is one of two peoples who are loved, cherished, and nurtured by "one shepherd" in "one flock" (John 10).

This change that Yeshua made only makes sense if Gentiles and Jews didn't have the same access to God prior to the Messiah's earthly coming. In the beginning, all people enjoyed equal access to God but once we were expelled from the Garden, all people suffered from the same separation from God. God, as part of His plan, chose for Himself, a subset of humanity to become a light to the rest of us. His chosen people, being people, weren't perfect (and of course God knew this all along) and the light didn't shine as well as one might have desired. Nevertheless, the Jewish people kept the Shabbat and the Torah for a thousand generations while the nations of the world were worshipping figures of wood, stone, and metal and tossing their (our) babies into the fire of Moloch.

Yeshua came to show us how to live a perfect life in an imperfect world. He showed us what it could be like for the divine to live with the secular and still remain divine. Yeshua showed us that God can be among His people and His Spirit can dwell within us, as if each person were a walking, talking tabernacle in the desert. The Talmud also states that the Divine Presence rests with Jewish people individually or in small groups, so this concept isn't solely Christian:

"Whenever ten are gathered for prayer, there the Shekhinah rests" -Talmud Sanhedrin 39a

"when three sit as judges, the Shekhinah is with them." -Talmud Berachot 6a

"The Shekhinah dwells over the headside of the sick man's bed" -Talmud Shabbat 12b

"Wheresoever they were exiled, the Shekhinah went with them." -Megillah 29a

When Yeshua's disciples asked him to teach them to pray, this is what he said:

"This, then, is how you should pray:
" 'Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.'
For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. -Matthew 6:9-15

One of the reasons I believe Gentiles are attracted to a Jewish worship form of the Jewish Messiah is described in the words of Rabbi Boteach, which I previously quoted. We seek a world in which the Holiness of God isn't in some far away Heavenly place but rather lives among us, here in our day-to-day lives, whether we're praying in church, are working at our jobs, or are eating an ice cream cone.

Holiness doesn't exist just in the Heavenly Court but anywhere on Earth where we live a holy life by the power of the Spirit and in each and every act we make at every moment in our existence. Yeshua showed us that we don't have to go to the Heavens to find God, God finds us on Earth.