“Finishing God’s Work, Experiencing God’s Glory (Exodus 40)" | 8/13/23
Exodus 40 | 8/13/23 | Will DuVal
Polly and I celebrated our 15 year wedding anniversary last week. So we went out for a nice romantic dinner, and as we were reminiscing on the past decade and a half, I reached across the table and held her hands and told her how blessed I am to be married to her, how much I LOVE her - SO much more today than I did 15 years ago - and I should have stopped right there, but y’all know me - sometimes the words just keep coming - and I said, “I love you SO much more… because there’s so much MORE of you TO love.”
Now, what I MEANT was: “You have grown so much as a person, you’ve got a stronger sense of SELF… and now I’ve got an extra 15 years of growing WITH you, of knowing you - that allows me to love you more…”
But she didn’t HEAR “15 extra years-worth to love”; SHE heard: “you’ve got 15 extra POUNDS to love.”
This morning, we’re putting a bow on our study of the book of Exodus these past 7 months. And I pray it’s been half the blessing to you that it has been to me. But the book ends with a bit of a surprise. If you didn’t know better, you might call it an “anticlimax”. As we’ve seen, Exodus is filled with some of the most vivid, memorable images in all the Bible: the baby in the basket, the burning bush, the river of blood, the plagues of judgment, the angel of DEATH, the parting of the SEA - all in just the first 14 chapters! And likewise, in the last half of the book we’ve seen bread from heaven, tablets of stone, the Golden Calf - but MOST of these past 20 or so chapters have been devoted to God’s list of LAWS for his covenant people, Israel, and to His list of INSTRUCTIONS for them, for the building of the TABERNACLE, this portable “tent of meeting” where God promised to dwellwith Israel. And this morning, we’re going to see them FINISH construction of that tabernacle and witness God’s gloryDESCEND on it and FILL it with His presence… and then the book ENDS. And spoiler alert: it’s actually gonna end with Moses - even MOSES, who had previously met with God intimately, personally; “face to face”, idiomatically - NOW, at the CONCLUSION, this new tabernacle is SO filled with God’s glory, that Moses can’t even get INSIDE, to MEET with God. As a matter of fact, the next book of the Bible, LEVITICUS, opens in ch1 with these words: “The Lordcalled [to] Moses… from [inside] the tent of meeting”, with MOSES still on the OUTSIDE. What are we to make of this? Is the tabernacle a BUST?
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Well, I’ll make you wait until the end to learn why Moses can’t get in. But I want to tell you up FRONT why this is NOT an anticlimactic ending. The reason the last HALF of Exodus BORES most folks is that we have an insufficient appreciation of the PRESENCE of God. Thad pointed out last week: God took 2 chapters to describe the creation of the entire universe in Genesis, but He’s devoted 13 chapters now at the end of Exodus to describing the tabernacle. WHY? Why’s it so important? Because it’s the place ON earth, IN His created universe, where God’s presence RESIDED. That’s a BIG DEAL!
Similarly, the reason ch40 may feel anticlimactic to some is that we have an insufficient appreciation of the GLORY of God.
Speaking of the universe, the glory of God is the most important thing IN it. In fact, according to the Bible, the glory of God is the reason FOR everything that exists IN the universe - I’m here, you’re here, it’s ALL here for God’s GLORY. So when we READ here in ch40 that the CLOUD of God’s glory descended and FILLED the tabernacle, we need to understand - this is a BIG deal!
But to fully appreciate it, we need to make sure we understand what the glory of God even IS. It’s the most important thing in the universe (because God is the most important BEING in the universe), and yet if I polled 100 people, including many professing CHRISTIANS, and asked the very simple question, “What IS the ‘glory of God’?”, I suspect the answers (or lack thereof!) might be disappointing. So let’s FIX that.
The Hebrew word for “GLORY” that we’re gonna see here in Exodus 40 - kavod - literally means “WEIGHTY” or “heavy”; NOT in the literal, physical sense, but rather, in the sense of SIGNIFICANCE, weight, importance. That’s what I was TRYING to convey to my wife at our anniversary dinner - NOT that she takes up a lot of PHYSICAL real estate, but rather, she takes up a lot of PERSONAL real estate, in my HEART; she is significant in my life.
Maybe the easiest way to think about it is to consider: “How much would you MISS that thing if it was GONE?” What kind of HOLE would it leave in your life? Polly obviously already held a LOT of WEIGHT in my life on our wedding day - if she had DIED the day after, I would have of course been devastated. But it wouldn’t have even compared to how WRECKED I would be if I lost her today.
In order to appreciate the “weightiness” of the ending of Exodus here, we must appreciate the “weightiness” of God HIMSELF. God is the very ground of all being. He is the source of all existence; it’s right there in his divine name - Yahweh, “I AM”. That means we wouldn’t just be UPSET if God was gone; you and I and everything ELSE would simply be GONE TOO! Psalm 72 declares that “the whole earth [is] filled with [God’s] glory” (v19). He is INFINITELY significant and “weighty”. And this morning, God is going to allow Israel to EXPERIENCE His glory, as much “weight” as they can possibly handle, without CRUSHING them. This is God’s answer to Moses’ prayer, by the way, from back in ch33; you remember - “God, “Please show me your glory”” (v18) - God’s gonna DO it this morning, and let Israel experience “the whole GOD-ness of God”, as Philip Ryken (1159) defines God’s glory.
And I want us to glean 3 very simple takeaways FROM it:
1) That we, too, LONG to experience the glory of God,
2) That we too CAN experience the glory of God, but
3) in ORDER to experience God’s glory, we must finish God’s work.
That’s your outline for ch40. And in our last THIRD of the sermon we’ll come BACK to it. The FIRST third we just covered - introducing our main idea for ch40: the GLORY OF GOD. But in the MIDDLE third of our time together now, I want us to spend some time REVIEWING the main ideas and lessons we’ve learned in these 39 chs & 29 weeks leading UP to this climactic conclusion this morning. What has God TAUGHT us throughout our study of Exodus this year?
Well, we began with the Israelites in Egypt, after Joseph had moved his family there at the end of the book of Genesis, and God was multiplying their numbers, just as he had promised Abraham, but a NEW and paranoid pharaoh rose to power who felt threatened by Israel’s growth, so he subjugated them as slaves, and ordered the infanticide of all Hebrew baby boys. But the God of life protected his people by raising up godly midwives who risked their lives to save others. And we concluded that we too must be radically pro-life.
In ch2 we met MOSES, and we discovered what it takes to be a godly LEADER: we need both God’s blessing and others’ help, both learned training and innate skill, conviction and courage, compassion and holiness, wisdom and humility, you need other leaders and you need followers. But most importantly, we saw how Moses points us ahead to the ultimate leader: JESUS.
In ch3, we questioned “Where is God in our SUFFERING?” And we discovered - along with Israel, as they cried OUT to God during their brutal enslavement - that God CARES about our suffering, that He comes DOWN to draw NEAR to us amidst our pain, and that God will come THROUGH for us, and ultimately deliver us from suffering. And God proved ALL of it - his care, his condescension, his overcoming of suffering - in the death and resurrection of his Son JESUS.
Later in ch3, we met GOD, in the burning bush. And God revealed Himself BY NAME for the first time ever to Moses: he is YAHWEH.
In chs 4 & 5, we “prepared for God to MOVE”, as He did in MOSES’ life, in calling Moses to lead Israel out of Egypt. And we observed that any true movement of God will be obedience-demanding, other-including, fruit-originating, opposition-provoking, and heart-opening. And we prayed that God might move in OUR midst, to similarly inspire OUR obedience, empowerment, and faith.
In ch6, God reminded Israel that He is Yahweh, their covenant-keeping God, even as he renewed His promises to them, to “bring them out”, “deliver” them, “redeem” them, “TAKE” them as His people, “BE their God”, “bring them INTO” the Promised Land, and “GIVE” it to them. And we rejoiced at how ALL of those good promises find their ULTIMATE “yes and amen” for US now, in CHRIST.
In ch7, we examined “God’s Plan for Delivering” Israel, through a proxy (Moses), a petrifying (a hardening of Pharaoh’s heart), a promise of coming judgment, and once again, a prefiguring of JESUS, and the ultimate deliverance we now enjoy through Him.
Then in chs 7-11, we witnessed “God’s Execution of Judgment” in the 10 PLAGUES He sent on Egypt. And we gleaned 10 gospel PRINCIPLES from them: that “God always gives sinners ample WARNING and He never hardens our hearts against our own WILL”; that “God invites us to CRY OUT to Him, and He delights to show us COMPASSION”; but that “God promises to PUNISH idolatry, and his power is to be FEARED”; and yet “God offers us GRACE, if and ONLY if we repent and surrender our lives to Him”.
Because, as we learned in part TWO of the plagues, and God’s judgment on the various “gods” of Egypt’s pantheon, our RELIGION can’t save us, our HEALTH can’t save us, our POWER can’t save us, our WEALTH can’t save us, WE can’t save OURSELVES; NONE of our “counterfeit gods”, our idols, our cheap substitutes for God will do; only JESUS can truly deliver us.
Then in chs 11 & 12, we pulled out 4 gospel truths from the FINAL plague - the death of Egypt’s firstborn sons - as well as God’s “passing over” Israel, and allowing them to instead PLUNDER and escape Egypt, namely, that “God will SMITE those who RESIST Him”, but “God SAVES all who RELY on Him”; “God SANCTIFIES those who REMEMBER Him”; and “God SHOWS FAVOR TO all who RESPOND OBEDIENTLY TO Him.”
In chs 12 & 13, we discussed how we ought to “RESPOND to God’s Mercy”: we CELEBRATE (worship Him), we COMMEMORATE (remember Him), we CONSECRATE (devote our lives to Him), and we COOPERATE (follow wherever God leads us).
On EASTER, you remember, we considered “Crossing from Death to Life” - in Israel’s case, out of bondage in Egypt by way of the opened Red Sea; in OUR case, we’re freed from our bondage to SIN by way of the opened tomb of JESUS, which has now opened HEAVEN to us, ETERNAL life.
In ch15, we dissected the first ever WORSHIP SONG recorded in the pages of Scripture, and noted that our worship should be a RESPONSE to who God is and what He has done for us; that worship CAN me MUSICAL, but true worship is ALWAYS GOD-CENTRIC; and yet, it is also PERSONAL (it comes from the heart); and finally, our worship is anticipatory - it points us ahead to the even GREATER things God has YET in store for us.
In chs 16 & 17, we were reminded that even when we are faithless, God remains our faithful provider. Even when Israel grumbled and complained, even ACCUSED God of bringing them out into the wilderness only to let them DIE of hunger and thirst; nevertheless, in SPITE of their faithlessness, God gave them bread from heaven - manna - water from the rock, to graciously provide for his children. And how much more will He - HAS He - provided for our EVERY need today, in His Son Jesus.
In chs 17 & 18, we were reminded of how much we need not ONLY God’s provision, but the help of OTHERS as well. Moses needed Joshua, Aaron, Hur, Jethro, the tribal chieftains. So too, we need one another still today - the community of faith - Christianity is a team sport.
In ch19, at Israel’s ADOPTION ceremony at the foot of Mt. Sinai, we considered what it means to “BE God’s People”; it means “we TRUST God because He is our SAVIOR”; we OBEY God because He is our LORD”; “we FEAR God because He is HOLY”; but most of all, “we rely on JESUS, because He is our MEDIATOR”, the better intercessor whom Moses foreshadowed.
In ch20, we looked first at the VERTICAL commandments - what it means to “love God” by obeying His top 4 commands: to TREASURE Him, WORSHIP Him, HONOR Him and REST IN Him, ALL because of who HE is and what HE has FIRST done for US.
Then we considered the HORIZONTAL commandments, and how we “love ONE ANOTHER” by keeping commandments 5 thru 10, to “honor our parents”, NOT murder, NOT commit adultery, NOT steal or lie or covet, because God wants us to VALUE the family, human life, marriage, propriety, the truth, and our LOT in life, respectively.
As we delved deeper into God’s Law, His GIFT of the Law, we noted that God actually offers us FOURTEEN distinct gifts in and through His Law: most significantly, God gives us the gift of RELATIONSHIP with Him, but He ALSO offers us the gifts of PROTECTION, JUSTICE, RESTITUTION, PURITY, MERCY, REVERENCE, INTEGRITY, REST, DEVOTION, GUIDANCE, ACCOUNTABILITY, HELP, and BLESSING to the extent we KEEP His Law. Truly, as the NEW Testament puts it, “His commandments are NOT burdensome” (1 Jn 5:3); they are intended to promote life to the FULLEST for us.
In ch24, we outlined “How to Have a Relationship with God”: we must be CALLED by God, we must be OBEDIENT to God, we must be FORGIVEN by God, HUMBLED by God, BEFRIENDED by God, and most of all, we must ABIDE IN God, just as Jesus invites us to “abide in me; I am the vine, you are the branches… apart from me you can do nothing.”
In chs 25-27, we detailed “How we can be in God’s PRESENCE”, by examining God’s blueprint for the TABERNACLE. And we noted that every single detail OF the tabernacle reveals a different requirement for entering God’s presence. It requires a CONTRIBUTION from us, it requires COMPLIANCE from us (obedience); it requires CONSECRATION, and CAREFULNESS (we don’t enter God’s presence flippantly, casually…); but most importantly, the bronze altar suggested that entering God’s presence requires a COST - a SACRIFICE. Keep that in mind; we will return to THAT important requirement in our conclusion today.
But then chs 28 & 29 detailed God’s requirements for the PRIESTS, those whom God called to represent the people before Him. And we recognized that this is now OUR calling as well - ALL who are in Christ, who belong to the “priesthood of ALL believers” - we are called to be custodians (humble servants), to be consecrated, to be careful carriers of others’ burdens, CONDUITS of God’s grace to them, to live in COMMUNITY with fellow priests, to be COMMISSIONED, and CLEANSED (purified, forgiven…), to be CONTINGENT (humbly reliant on the generosity of others), and to be CHILDING CHILDREN - we must work to raise up the NEXT generation of priests, even as we remember that we are ourselves, first and foremost, CHILDREN, sons and daughters of the King.
And in chs 30 & 31 we learned how to CULTIVATE that relationship with the Lord, through the “spiritual disciplines” or “habits of grace”. We GROW in our relationship with God through PRAYER, through GIVING, through SCRIPTURE-SATURATION, and SPIRIT-LED SERVICE, and by SABBATHING - by RESTING in the Lord.
In chs 32 & 33, we witnessed one of the clearest pictures of SIN in all the Bible, as Israel built and worshiped the GOLDEN CALF. But we recognized that this is ALSO one of the clearest pictures of the GOSPEL as well - that YES, we see the sinfulness of man on display in all our debased depravity, and yes, we see the holiness of God on display in all His resplendent GLORY, but we ALSO see here the RECONCILIATION of God’s MEDIATOR on display in all of his sacrificial LOVE - how Moses’ intercession here on Israel’s behalf points us ahead to our BETTER mediator, JESUS, who purchased PERMANENT reconciliation for sinners like us with our holy God, by means of His own shed blood on the cross, dying in our place, to satisfy God’s righteous wrath against sin, and pay our spiritual debt in full.
So in ch34, God RENEWED His covenant with Israel, by reminding them who He IS - their covenant-MAKER; what He EXPECTS - the covenant MARKS; and what God OFFERS them; His covenant MERCY, and blessing.
And last week in chs 35-39, we saw Israel RESPOND to God’s covenant promises by OBEYING His earlier command to build the tabernacle “just like God said”.
So now we are ready - FINALLY ready this morning - for the BLESSING that accompanies our obedience to God’s commands; it is the greatest blessing of ALL: God’s GLORY.
That is how the book of Exodus ENDS, ch40 in a nutshell: to the extent that we obey God, we will experience God’s GLORY. Or to put it another way: if we WANT to experience God’s glory (and we DO!), then we must follow God’s commands, and FINISH the work He has given us to do.
It’s a fitting ending, by the way, because that’s not just ch40; that’s all of EXODUS! Our tagline for this entire series has been “Freed to Follow”, and remember: I told you after the fact that I wish I had expanded that subtitle to read: “Freed to Follow FOR GOD’S FAME”. Because the purpose of Israel’s deliverance in ch14 - and the purpose of OUR deliverance when WE came to saving faith in Christ - was that we might FOLLOW Him. Ephesians 2 says we were saved by grace, through faith, in Christ… FOR good WORKS, But the purpose of those WORKS, of our obedience, our “following” Him, ultimately, is that God might get GLORY - “that [others] may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven,” Jesus said (Mt 5:16). It’s ALL about God’s glory!
So with ALL of that introduction and recap in place now, I invite you to STAND with me… Exodus ch40:
40 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “On the first day of the first month you shall erect the tabernacle of the tent of meeting. 3 And you shall put in it the ark of the testimony, and you shall screen the ark with the veil. 4 And you shall bring in the table and arrange it, and you shall bring in the lampstand and set up its lamps. 5 And you shall put the golden altar for incense before the ark of the testimony, and set up the screen for the door of the tabernacle. 6 You shall set the altar of burnt offering before the door of the tabernacle of the tent of meeting, 7 and place the basin between the tent of meeting and the altar, and put water in it. 8 And you shall set up the court all around, and hang up the screen for the gate of the court.
9 “Then you shall take the anointing oil and anoint the tabernacle and all that is in it, and consecrate it and all its furniture, so that it may become holy. 10 You shall also anoint the altar of burnt offering and all its utensils, and consecrate the altar, so that the altar may become most holy. 11 You shall also anoint the basin and its stand, and consecrate it. 12 Then you shall bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance of the tent of meeting and shall wash them with water 13 and put on Aaron the holy garments. And you shall anoint him and consecrate him, that he may serve me as priest. 14 You shall bring his sons also and put coats on them, 15 and anoint them, as you anointed their father, that they may serve me as priests. And their anointing shall admit them to a perpetual priesthood throughout their generations.”
16 This Moses did; according to all that the Lord commanded him, so he did. 17 In the first month in the second year, on the first day of the month, the tabernacle was erected. 18 Moses erected the tabernacle. He laid its bases, and set up its frames, and put in its poles, and raised up its pillars. 19 And he spread the tent over the tabernacle and put the covering of the tent over it, as the Lord had commanded Moses. 20 He took the testimony and put it into the ark, and put the poles on the ark and set the mercy seat above on the ark. 21 And he brought the ark into the tabernacle and set up the veil of the screen, and screened the ark of the testimony, as the Lord had commanded Moses. 22 He put the table in the tent of meeting, on the north side of the tabernacle, outside the veil, 23 and arranged the bread on it before the Lord, as the Lord had commanded Moses. 24 He put the lampstand in the tent of meeting, opposite the table on the south side of the tabernacle, 25 and set up the lamps before the Lord, as the Lord had commanded Moses. 26 He put the golden altar in the tent of meeting before the veil, 27 and burned fragrant incense on it, as the Lord had commanded Moses. 28 He put in place the screen for the door of the tabernacle. 29 And he set the altar of burnt offering at the entrance of the tabernacle of the tent of meeting, and offered on it the burnt offering and the grain offering, as the Lord had commanded Moses. 30 He set the basin between the tent of meeting and the altar, and put water in it for washing, 31 with which Moses and Aaron and his sons washed their hands and their feet. 32 When they went into the tent of meeting, and when they approached the altar, they washed, as the Lord commanded Moses. 33 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.
34 Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. 35 And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. 36 Throughout all their journeys, whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the people of Israel would set out. 37 But if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not set out till the day that it was taken up. 38 For the cloud of the Lord was on the tabernacle by day, and fire was in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys. [This is the word of God… SEATED…]
Three very quick, very simple, but very IMPORTANT truths about the glory of God that we need to see, and grasp, and APPLY in our OWN lives this morning, as we conclude our study of Exodus, and we’ll actually work our way through them BACKWARDS:
#1 - We LONG to experience the glory of God. (40:36-38)
We heard it in Moses’ plea from ch33 - “God, PLEASE show me your glory!”; we see it in Israel’s pursuit here in vv36 & 37: when the cloud left THEY left; when the cloud lingered somewhere, ISRAEL lingered. Moses had insisted on THAT in ch33 as well: “God, if YOU’RE not going WITH us to the Promised Land, then we don’t want to GO! We’d rather be stuck out here in the DESERT with you, than in PARADISE without you!” Cuz it can’t BE paradise without God - His presence is what MAKES Heaven… HEAVEN! “In [HIS] presence there is fullness of joy!”, the psalmist rejoices (Ps 16:11). “Better is [just] one DAY in [GOD’S] courts than thousands elsewhere” (Ps 84:10).
And our hearts LONG for it, don’t they? To experience God’s presence, His joy, His GLORY! Israel got just a GLIMPSE of it here, and they were HOOKED! The Bible says “For now we see [God as] in a mirror dimly, but [ONE day we’ll see Him] face to face. Now we know [God’s glory] in part; [but on THAT day, when we are finally at home WITH Him, IN Glory] we shall know fully” (1 Cor 13:12).
Try and put that in perspective for yourself. What do YOU long for most in THIS world, THIS life? I’ve shared my own testimony with you, the role that sexual addiction has played in my story. So C.S. Lewis’ famous quote on sex in heaven - or rather, the lack thereof - helps ME put the weightiness and desirability of God’s GLORY in proper perspective. For context, Jesus made it pretty clear in Mark ch12 that there won’t be sex in heaven. So in addressing this alleged PROBLEM - “Can it really be HEAVEN if there’s no SEX?!” - C.S. Lewis (Miracles, 1947) said this:
“I think our present outlook might be like that of a young boy who, on being told that the sexual act was the highest bodily pleasure, should immediately ask whether you ate chocolates at the same time. On receiving the answer ‘No,’ he might regard [the] absence of chocolates as the chief characteristic of sex. In vain would you tell him that the reason why lovers in their raptures don’t bother about chocolates is that they have something better to think of. The boy knows [only] chocolate: he does not know the positive thing that excludes it. We are in the same position. We know the sexual life; we do not know, except in glimpses, the other thing which, in Heaven, will leave no room for it.”
And that “other thing” is GOD’S GLORY! Don’t you LONG for it?! To experience the thing that’s gonna make the best SEX here on earth seem like nothing but CHOCOLATE?! Like CHILD’S play. You won’t even MISS sex; the FULLNESS of God’s glory will blow it out of the WATER!
#1 - We LONG to experience God’s glory…
#2 - We CAN experience God’s glory. (40:34-35)
This isn’t just a PIPE dream, some “pie in the sky” religious wishing on a star; NO - we WILL experience God’s glory one day in full and we CAN experience it at least in PART TODAY!
Moses did, once again, back in ch33; remember: God ANSWERED his prayer - “show me your glory” - at least in PART; God HID Moses in the cleft of the rock, SHIELDED Moses’ eyes, and then permitted His glory to “pass by” Moses, allowing Moses to catch a glimpse of the AFTER-glow, of His glory. And even that was enough to cause Moses’ OWN face to glow.
Israel gets an even FULLER taste of God’s glory here in ch40: “the cloud - the Shekinah glory CLOUD of God’s PRESENCE - covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.” So much glory it was almost a PROBLEM for them - they couldn’t get IN! Moses couldn’t ENTER the tent, to MEET with God. But I’m guessing Moses didn’t MIND; I’m guessing he had the same mindset John the BAPTIST had when Jesus showed up on the scene, and John prayed: “He must increase; I must decrease” (Jn 3:30). “God, if there’s so much of YOU in the tent that there’s no room for ME, that’s no problem AT ALL! I’ll gladly STAY out here; YOU must increase; may YOUR glory fill not only the tabernacle, but the whole EARTH!”
And here’s the most amazing part of all: you and I can now experience God’s glory to an even GREATER degree. How?
2 Cor 4 tells us: “God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has [now] shone in our hearts to give [us] the light of the knowledge of the glory of God… [WHERE?!] in the face of Jesus Christ.”
We now experience the glory of God by beholding his SON - who is “the radiance of the glory of God” (Heb 1:3), “in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell” (Col 1:19), “the Word - God HIMSELF - became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have [now] seen his glory”, in the person and work of JESUS (Jn 1:14).
For all who LONG to experience God’s glory this morning, be encouraged: you CAN - look to JESUS!
By the way, the THICKNESS, the weightiness of God’s glory wasn’t the ONLY reason Moses couldn’t get INSIDE; there’s one important part of the tabernacle instructions still MISSING here in ch40 - did you catch it? What’s Moses MISSING?
The SACRIFICE. He’s got the ALTAR, but no SACRIFICE yet. That’s where the next book, LEVITICUS, comes in; it’s gonna LAY OUT the entire sacrificial system for us. And it’s also gonna make it clear why WITHOUT the shedding blood, FOR the forgiveness of sin, we can’t even approach God, in His holiness. To be continued… 🙂
But here’s the kicker, point #3: it’s not enough to simply sit around and meditate all day long on Christ’s glory; what we discover from the BULK of ch40 here, vv1-33, is that we will ONLY experience God’s glory if we FINISH GOD’S WORK!
That’s what Moses DOES here - won’t reread it all, but essentially, he puts the finishing touches on the tabernacle that God had instructed them to build in chs25-31… the tabernacle COMPONENTS that they had obediently BUILT last week in chs35-39… NOW, Moses TAKES all those furnishings - the ark, the veil, the table, the lampstand, the altar, the screen, the OTHER altar, the washbasin, the fence, the tent, the gate, the bases, the poles… the ANOINTING oil, the holy utensils, the priests, their clothes - ALL the various component pieces that make UP the tabernacle complex, and Moses puts it all TOGETHER.
And he DOES it, v1 says, on the anniversary of Israel’s exodus from Egypt - one year to the DAY - to signify that “The tabernacle was the culmination of everything that God had been working for since he first brought [them] out of Egypt” (Ryken 1156), to have His presence, His GLORY, dwelling with them.
But what we need to see more than ANYTHING here, that the text is just hitting us AGAIN and AGAIN over the HEAD with, is this persistent refrain: “as the Lord had commanded, so he did”; some variation of that refrain is repeated 19x in these closing chapters. God is emphasizing how important our OBEDIENCE is - our PRECISE obedience - if we want to experience His glory.
If we want to behold God’s glory, we MUST finish God’s WORK. The work He has left us to do. In Israel’s case, that meant building a tent, where God could LIVE with His people.
How about US? What is OUR work? It may surprise you to hear that it’s essentially the same thing: we too have been called to build God a HOUSE where He will live WITH us; it’s called: “the CHURCH”. That’s where God’s presence NOW resides here on earth - in the CHURCH.
1 Peter 2:5 “you yourselves [PLURAL] like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house”
1 Cor 3:16 “Do y’all [PLURAL; it’s ALWAYS plural, friends; God doesn’t just live in YOU, in YOUR heart; He lives in US; in our COLLECTIVE heart and life together, as a CHURCH; Do y’all] not know that y’all are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?”
We’re called to build the church. Or at least to play our PART. Only CHRIST can build His Church. And He has PROMISED to. We get a picture of it here again in Exodus 40. Who built the tabernacle? Well, in a sense, MOSES did. HE assembled it all together - finally, ultimately - such that God’s glory came down. And Moses has foreshadowed Jesus all THROUGHOUT Exodus. But where’d all the various furnishings come from? It was the work of Oholiab, and Bezalel, and the OTHER artists and engineers, and AARON and the priests, and ALL the Israelites who were called to contribute to the work.
Brothers and sisters: we ALL have a role to play in building the church. And Jesus has ASSIGNED us our role: preach the word (scatter gospel seeds), PRAY expectantly (water those seeds), and then leave the REST up to the LORD (only HE can “give the GROWTH” (1 Cor 3:7), and cause a gospel TREE to take ROOT).
But we can be sure of one thing: no tree has EVER grown without seeds being planted and watered. Planting and watering doesn’t GUARANTEE a tree, but FAILING to plant and water DOES guarantee the ABSENCE of a tree. ““Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” But How will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?” (Rom 10:13-14)
Church: may we be faithful PREACHERS, seed-scatterers, and waterers. And may we EXPERIENCE God’s glory made manifest TODAY in His CHURCH. In the OT, it was the CLOUD. In the Gospels, it was His SON. TODAY, God’s glory resides in His CHURCH, the living, breathing “body of Christ” here on earth. May we play our role in BUILDING it, by FINISHING the work Jesus has left us: to “make disciples of ALL nations”. Only THEN will the prophet Habakkuk’s beautiful vision come to fruition: when God’s kingdom has finally extended to EVERY nation, tribe and tongue - on THAT day “the [whole] earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” May it be so.