In this study, we come to the last few verses of the book of Exodus. We can compare this to an epic: one of those long, fantasy stories that stretch for multiple books, like The Lord of the Rings series. Like an epic, the story of Exodus has a scale of the story that eclipses our individual lives, revealing more and more what God is doing in this world.
That’s an important point for us to remember, when we consider the final verses of Exodus. So often, we tend to think that our own lives are the measure by which we see the world. God sees so much more than we do, and in Exodus, He wants to remind us that our lives are not just our own, but we are part of a larger narrative.
(A) God’s glory in our midst (Exo 40:34-35)
These last few verses in Exodus describes some key events that occur. Firstly, we see how God enters in to the tabernacle, and dwells among His people. God shows here that He is real, that He is immanent: He is present and moves in among His people: in the tabernacle, the house that He designed and commissioned, and dwells in that. He finally dwells among His people, He is truly present with them in that place, even though it almost didn’t happen!
To understand the significance of God dwelling among His people, it might be helpful for us to sketch out the larger storyline of Exodus. Like the fantasy epics we know and love, the book of Exodus opens with an “origin story”. The setting is laid out: we are in Egypt, where the people of Israel are enslaved. The first few chapters of Exodus: chapters 1 to 5, are important as it lays out the kind of man that God presents as a Saviour of His enslaved people. This saviour is one who is an Israelites, threatened by Pharaoh, but preserved for a purpose. At the right time, God brings his home to do the work of delivering His people. But we learn firstly that he is flawed, broken, and even a murderer.
And then, in chapters 5 to 15, God lays out his redemption story. God’s people exit from Egypt, but not just randomly; they got out of Egypt to go to a land that God promised their forefathers. Exodus 15 ends with a song.
From Exodus 16, God tests His people in the wilderness. They complain about their lack of food and water. After they get saved by the saviour he provides, they don’t instantly become the people he wants them to be. There is testing, revealing who they are; as they are saved, you still need saving. God then brings his people to the foot of Mt Sinai: giving people the law, and then making a covenant with His people. Covenant refers to God’s structured promises with His people, requiring His people to comply. That structure of relationship shapes the way that God relates and interacts with His people: how they interact: do they keep it, or do they make it? Exodus 19-31 lays out the details of the covenant. And it seems good: God’s people are saved, are on their way, and they have the law.
But Exodus 32 changes everything. When waiting for Moses to come down, the people decide to recreate their own God. We are often familiar with the story of the golden calf; them, taking God’s gold, making that into their version of Him! A common understanding of idolatry is the worship of something else, the elevation of something else apart from God, to be God. But there is an important detail we cannot miss when we consider the golden calf: that the Israelites are creating their version of God: not another God. Note that they say to the calf “This calf brought you out of Egypt”. In other words, they know They created another God out of the God they worship, and fail to worship this God that has saved them in a right manner. This is important for us, for it is easy to cloak ourselves with self-righteousness, believing that we do not have idols, as long as we have form of a church upbringing, some form of knowledge about God… then perhaps we are not idolaters. But idolatry extends beyond the act of bowing down to another thing. It is displacing this God who has saved us, this God who deserves our whole life and worship, and putting anything else in His place.
Meanwhile, God Himself as a greater gift: His Word. Their hearts go astray. God’s people, saved by the Saviour He provides, are not yet the people He wants them to be. Their hearts go astray, as they make a replica of Him.
God can easily give up on His people. Instead, we see that the Saviour God provides stands between a holy God and His sinful people. And the saviour God provides says: “Oh God, if they are to perish, let me perish in their place”. Because of that Saviour’s merit, he relents. The saviour provides God’s people with the Word. And subsequently, in Exodus 35-40, we see the people saying: “We will do as God commands”.
Therefore, Exodus tells us the story of how the people almost don’t get God, except for the Saviour He provides. And finally, when God’s holy presence comes to dwell amidst a sinful people, we reach the wonderful conclusion to this epic.
Why are we framing the story of Exodus in such a way? Note that we write this not to suggest that Moses is our saviour! However, we use such terms as “Saviour” to show us that we see in this story, ought to point us to Christ: the true Saviour that God provides. In our previous studies, we learnt about typology, about the way that different parts of Exodus point us to Christ. And this kind of reading is affirmed in the Gospels. In Jesus’s transfiguration, we learn that He stands next to Elijah and Moses: a visual depiction there, of what he later affirms on the Road to Emmaus: that the law and the prophets (the two major categories of the Old Testament) are all pointing to Him. In other words, our reading of Exodus should lead us to more than just a Dreamworks-inspired fascination with plagues and boils; but it should lead us to see Christ more clearly: the rock that was cleft for us, the true and greater Moses, the true Saviour who truly saves us from our slavery to sin.
What is the cloud, in Exo 40:35? We learn of a “Cloud”: it is so thick, so real, that they cannot enter in. Seeing that God has settled on this structure, men is unable to enter: because of who God is. God Himself, manifested physically, pushes him out!
Here is what we may call a “theophany”. In Scripture, a “theophany” is where God makes Himself visible and known to His people. We see that already early on in Genesis 3, where we learn that God walked in the cool of the day, when in the garden. God is therefore not just an abstract voice in the sky, but God walked in the cool of the day. And most famously, in Exodus 3, the burning bush: a self-sustaining flame, defying the very laws of physics and thermodynamics. And here, another theophany: God’s manifest presence, a sign of his holiness that pushes man out.
Moses had seen the radiance of God before, on the mountaintop. All his encounters with God caused his face to shine. But here, we see God’s presence manifested in such a way, where Moses cannot enter.
This glory cloud is a picture of our holy God, Himself. It is right that we meditate on the holiness of our God. He is invisible, dwelling in unapproachable light. If we are dark try to approach He who is light, we cannot mix with His holiness.
What has made this filling possible, at this time? This filling of the tabernacle is similar to, but different form, other theophanies of God’s holy presence. Exo 40:33 tells us: “And he erected the court around the tabernacle and the altar, and set up the screen of the gate of the court. So Moses finished the work.” The key point here is that Moses finished the work.
What is the requisite: what is required for the filling of God’s presence in the tabernacle? It is the specificity, the precision of God speaking to Moses, then Moses proclaiming God’s commands, the priests being consecrated. It was the precision of God’s commands followed through to a tee, that by verse 33: the entire structure and all that is required in the covenant.
In this manner, these verses tell us about what is required for us, if we are to dwell in God’s presence. Covenant obedience is required for God to dwell among His people. God’s people must keep their part of their agreement with God. In this, we see a picture about what biblical obedience looks like. A crucial point we must understand here is that obedience is far more than just doing things for God. God desires not just obedience in doing things He requires. But more fully, He desires us to obey as He spoke, in fulifllment of the relationship that He designed between us and Him. God wants us to do things in a way that reflects our trust in Him, that His Word is reliable.
An example of this distinction with just doing things for God, as compared to a biblical convenantal obedience is as follows. Imagine if our parents ask us to do something, for example, to clean our room. We do it, but perhaps grudgingly, idly, in a haphazard way, or slowly. We would have cleaned our room at the end of the day, but is that still right? In this manner, we must see that obedience to God extends beyond just a requirement to do things for Him. As mentioned, God desires to obey Him as He spoke, in fulfilment of the relationship that He designed, between us and Him.
Similarly, the demands of obedience is far more than just doing things. Psalm 27 describes the kind of covenant obedience that God desires us to have. Psalm 27 tells us that in order to do good to us, we must trust that He is God. Hear the desire of the Psalmist: to be in His tent, His good presence: for where I am there, I will fear nothing. One thing I desire: to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord! The moment I can see that presence, my heart is at rest.
Covenant obedience is not just doing the thing God says: but doing what He says within the structure of his relationship. I don’t practice his commands just because it is obligation for me. Covenant obedience is the man who says “Though the world may not follow, I will live according to your presence. And with the assurance of your presence, I fear nothing.”
And knowing this, we have to ask ourselves: how would that obedience play out in my life? Some of us might feel apprehensive about the word “obedience”. For others, we might find delight in “obeying” God on our own terms, based on what we think is right and good, setting certain limits and caps for Him in our lives. In either case, we must return to a biblical understanding of obedience: to see the beauty of this covenantal relationship that we have with God in Christ, and to find in there the strength to obey Him truly. Are there areas in your life where God is calling you to obedience to Him?
(B) The journey: moment by moment, dependence on the Lord (Exo 40:37-38)
As God moves into the tent of meeting, they get ready for a journey. It ends, noting that God with His people, will go forward into the purposes He wants. It is a glorious people of God walking together with His people.
We see how God dwells with His people: a wonderful resolution, so lovely and true. But in light of that, we see the ugliness of idolatry. It is taking the object of His love, and twisting and turning that into something it is not. Note that the last 3 verses are deliberately written as a general statement: a return to a general statement. The relationship that God has with His people is a journey.
The journey metaphor can feel so cliché. Today, this word has been unfortunately co-opted by other systems of spiritual beliefs, where terms like “spiritual journey” can sometime mean a vague sense of spirituality, without any concrete understanding of God, with no sense of destination, movement, or growth. But we must see here that this journey that the Israelites are on is a literal one. For them, there is a day to day, moment to moment challenge of still being in a wilderness, and of having a set destination. They will get somewhere. Each moment, each day will be different from the previous. And most crucially, throughout all the different moments, God dwelled with them.
This notion of a journey also challenges the way we see the Christian life. We sometimes think of our journey as “I’m going somewhere, and God goes with me!” We sometimes frame our Christian walk as this “adventure”, where we go to many glamourous, unpredictable places, and God seems to tag along as some distant spiritual guide, or maybe even a sidekick to enable us to live our “best lives”. But these verses show us that we don’t bring God anywhere. Instead, our journey with God operates on a reverse: instead of Him following us wherever we want to go, we go where He leads us. They only go when God says go, and that is every step with journey. Everything that God brings us on, He brings us on His terms, whether we desire not to go where He is not.
In Exodus 33, Moses himself makes this command of God: “If your presence will not go with me, do not bring me up from here….” Moses is so conscious that the only thing that makes his life special and worthy of anything, is God’s presence in his life. If you don’t show us how, how will I go there?
God’s presence leading His people is not Him empowering our decisions, or Him placing the rubber stamp on the decisions we want to make. But us knowing that we are called into a difficult situation. We must go. There is no safer place to be. The journey that God brings us on is on His terms. We trust Him, because it is a good thing to be near the Lord.
Trusting him for any step that He brings me on – the journey he brings me on. Moment by moment, trusting In Him, day by day; decision by decision. I have no fear of the future: for I know who goes with me. We see in this book the story of the Gospel. How he is brought to His people. How he rescues them, that they exit one kingdom, and enter another. Now they are going, and the yare tested on the way. Their great struggle is idolatry. They depend on the man that God depends on Saviour. By His intercession and His ministry, they are upheld before God.
By His perfect obedience, they get the presence of God indwelling in them. What is missing here? They are not home yet. Exodus ends with the message that: “they are not home yet.” The journey is not yet over.
The ark goes to the promised land, the land set up; and God’s people has a king. At the centre of the promise land, he builds a temple. Now in the temple we have a permanent tent of meeting, now becoming the house of God. But the temple is sacked, and God’s ark of the testimony is lost; and God’s people are removed from the land.
God’s tent of meeting becomes a permanent walled structure; God’s presence finally dwelling among a sinful people.
We live in uncertain times: times marred by virus, a pandemic, by great uncertainty. But we have to see that we are not eternal. We will pass like grass; we will be here and gone tomorrow. Until God’s own presence comes to dwell with His people, we will not be home. But what a joy: to realize that eternity is our hope. How fragile it all is. Let us ground our confidence, in the presence of God.