As we near the end of our study in Exodus, we come also to the point where the construction of the Tabernacle nears its end. Let’s take a quick look at the events in this chapter:
Moses is to erect the tabernacle on the first day of the first month, one year after Israel came out of Egypt (Exo 40:1-2, 17, c.f. Exo 12:2-14).
All the tabernacle objects are to be put in the right place as required by God (Exo 40:3-8, c.f. Ex 26:33-35; 30:6, 18).
Moses is to anoint the tabernacle objects, the tabernacle structure, and the people who will serve as priests (Exo 40:9-15, c.f. Ex 30:26-30; 29:4-9)
Moses does all that God commanded him to do (Exo 40:16-33)
(A) From Manufacturing to Assembly – an earthly model of a heavenly reality
The tabernacle was to be set up on the first day of the first month of the second year that they left (Exo 40:1-2). What was significant about setting up the tabernacle on the day God commanded? This brings us back to Exo 12, which was a period of heightened tensions between Israel and Egypt. In Exo 12, 9 plagues had taken place. God also gave the people of Israel a new calendar to mark their days and time. Understanding where Israel was a year ago helps us understand how far Israel had come! They had left Israel as slaves and had left all they had known to come all this way through the sea, through the wilderness and now at the foot of Sinai as God’s people. The mood now was very different. A year ago they were living in fear and anxiety, but now, they have joy and anticipation as they have not only experienced deliverance but also forgiveness for their sins (c.f. Golden calf).
Exo 40:9-15 also shows us that Moses had to anoint the objects and consecrate not just the objects but also the priesthood. All that belongs to the Lord had to be set apart. These represent the ceremonial aspect of the law that allowed God to dwell among His people. God needed to make a way for His people to approach Him. This was done with certain limits imposed. Moses was to put up a veil that effectively cordoned off the part of the tabernacle where the ark of the covenant was. This part of the tabernacle was known as the Holy of Holies, and it would be where God’s presence would enter.
The Holy of Holies was so holy that only the High Priest (from the group of priests) could enter once a year, after satisfactory atonement was made. The rest of the priests conducted their duty outside the Holy of Holies, and the people were barred from entering. God establishes the rules of engagement and made it possible for His people to approach Him through the office and person of the High Priest.
The passage ends with Moses finishing the work. God gave Moses a design and told Moses to build it with exact specifications (c.f. Exo 25:8-9, 26:30). It was not because God was a difficult client. God did so because He desires to dwell with His creation. This harkens back all the way to Genesis, right in Genesis 3:8 (c.f. Exo 25:8). This was His original intent.
But because man has turned away from God to sin, God, whose nature is Holy, cannot dwell among man who is sinful. This is a spiritual reality with a serious practical implication. As we read in Ex 19, God’s very presence will destroy (i.e. break out) what is sinful. As a result, without compromising who He is, God has to make a way to condescend and dwell in the midst of His people.
The tabernacle was the means at this point in the redemption story that God chose to employ. Moses was given the task of building the physical means by which God would personally come and dwell with His people. In last week’s passage, we saw that the people finished all the construction in obedience. This week, we see Moses leading them to complete the assembly. We’ve come all this way from instruction to construction and now to assembly. All this was done so that God could come and be with His people. This was an important precursor to what God planned to do with Israel, which was to take them into the Promised Land as their God and King.
After all the drama, Israel is on the verge of entering the Promised Land. God had promised (Ex 3:8) to give them the land of Canaan, and God Himself promised to go (Ex 33:14) with them. All of Exodus actually builds up to this ‘going’. But as Moses argues in Ex 33, this ‘going’, this journey cannot commence until one critical condition is fulfilled. God must first come into the midst of His people and go with them.
(B) The Work Perfected – God Himself come to dwell, Immanuel
What do we do with all the repetition in Exo 40? The phrase “as the Lord had commanded Moses” is used a total of 8 times. Repetition is employed as a literary device to make a point. It is not for the sake of form. The point is:
The tabernacle is God’s and God commanded its construction.
God’s perfect design was carried out.
Moses was faithful to do what God asked Him to.
We see that Israel’s faithfulness extended even to where the bread and items were placed (Lev 24:5-7, c.f. Exo 40:23). Moses set it up exactly as God had shown him. This faithfulness was later affirmed in Heb 3:1-5. The writer of Hebrews juxtaposed Moses’ faithfulness with Jesus, who in finishing His own task given by the Father, “has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses”.
It is timely that at this point we too consider Jesus as the true and perfect builder and finisher of God’s work. In doing so we should recognize that Moses was a ‘type’ of Christ, someone who lived before Christ, but whose life and ministry prefigured the perfect life and ministry of Christ that was to come.
The characteristics and attributes of the OT character’s life are a little less important than the way in which Jesus perfected what the OT person set out to do. If the question is why do types exist, the answer is that they point ahead to what Jesus would accomplish by establishing a pattern of things to come.
In this context, the work that Moses finished, in delivering God’s people out of slavery, and then in building the tabernacle for God to come and dwell in, was ultimately fulfilled by Jesus Christ. How did Jesus perfect this work? Where Moses struggled with doubt, Jesus responded with obedience. Where Moses led Israel through the sea into freedom, Jesus leads all who repent and believe in Him to eternal life. Where part of Moses’ work involved putting up the veil to the Holy of Holies, Jesus’ death removed that separation. While Moses died and was unable to enter the Promised Land, Jesus was the firstborn from the dead and has gone to prepare a place for us in God’s house. In the context of tonight’s passage, Moses’ work made it possible for God to come and dwell among a sinful people. Jesus, in whom the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, came and dwelt among us Himself. He puts His Spirit inside each and every one of us, such that in place of an external structure, you and I are now tabernacles of the living God. The Holy Spirit inside of you is not a tenant, there is no lease, you can’t kick Him out. The result of Jesus’ work is Immanuel, God with us, dwelling with us now and for all of eternity.
Firstly, where do you stand in relation to Jesus’ work? John 3:16-17 is familiar to many of us, and tells us the work that Jesus was given by the Father — “that the world might be saved through Him”. John goes on to say that Jesus came to Israel first, but they rejected him. The same people that rejected Moses (Ex 5:21) not only rejected Jesus, but had him hung on a cross (Mk 15:13). But the good news is that “…to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (Jn 1:12).
Secondly, how are you living in light of this finished work?
Joy – Israel sang a song of joy immediately after they crossed the Red Sea (Exo 15)! Later, we also read of how the people gave joyfully towards the building of the Tabernacle (Exo 36:5). The setting up of the tabernacle was a joyous occasion because they were expecting God to come and dwell in their midst.
Transformation – The Israelites went through a sea change when they were redeemed out of Egypt. Their old lives were left behind and when they emerged on the other shore, their lives started completely anew. In the same way, to be transformed means that we are no longer who we used to be. We go from being in one state to another state. When we believe in the finished work of Christ, life does not just take on new meaning, life takes on an entirely new life. We are born again. We should be careful not to believe what the world tells us. The world tells us that who we are and what we’ve gone through makes us who we are today. The world tells us that whatever doesn’t kill us make us stronger.
But the Bible tells us something different. Jesus tells us that what we kill off gives us new life. Life in Jesus is not about who we were before, but who we are in Him. Our hope is always in front of us, never behind us. As Exodus draws to its climax, the Israelites were about to receive God into their midst and be on their way to the Promised Land. Likewise, our hope is always in front of us, never behind us.Orientation – The tribes were to be organised around the Tabernacle. The Tabernacle followed the people wherever they went and always formed the centre of their gathering. All of Israel moved as one around the Tabernacle. The primary orientation was inward even though their secondary direction was toward the Promised Land.
If the entrance to the court of the tabernacle is facing east, then the position of the Holy of Holies is at the western side of the tabernacle. In their worship and service, Israel was turning away from pagan gods (e.g. sun god and the sun rises from the east), from the gods of Egypt and all the surrounding nations, towards YHWH. When they came into the court to offer sacrifices, every step in the direction of the tabernacle was made symbolically with their backs turned away from the false god of the sun. Turning away from the world and towards God. So with God dwelling in their midst, Israel was not only oriented inward, they were oriented Godward.
If we stand in the finished work of Christ, our lives should be organised naturally around Christ as our centre. This should also give us encouragement. Wherever we go, God is with us because He lives in us. On the other hand, if our lives are not orientated around Christ, we find ourselves getting lost. We end up getting ensnared by the things that are around us, we end up making covenants with other things, and end up worshipping them. Just as God warned Israel not to do.
In other words, everything we do must be measured by the presence of God in our midst. As we read about the work that Moses faithfully finished, and as we ponder the greater work that Jesus accomplished, the question we must ask ourselves daily is this – “does this <insert thing> that I am doing honour and celebrate Jesus’ work? Or does it make a mockery of it?”