Exodus - Lesson 30

Dr. Carmen Imes 
Exodus 
OT605-30 
Assembly and Blessing of the Tabernacle
Lesson Transcript

At the end of chapter 39, Moses gives his blessing on the people. He sees that they've done everything properly, but the tabernacle still isn't set up yet. They still need to actually assemble it, take all of the things people have made and contributed, and set it all up and then consecrate it and inaugurate it so that the presence of God can dwell among them.

So Exodus chapter 40 is that important work of assembly and blessing. It's so interesting to notice that the chapter begins with God saying to Moses, set up the tabernacle, the tent of meeting, on the first day of the first month. So here we are again with the beginning of a new calendar.

Remember the first day of the first month is the day that they left Egypt. God's instituted a new calendar. So now here we are in narrative time.

It's one year later. Another way of thinking about this that's argued by Michael Lefebvre is that this narrative time does not necessarily reflect chronological time. That is, it might have taken more than a year to get to this point, but what the narrator is doing by saying first day of the first month, or what God is doing by saying first day of the first month, is to tell you when to celebrate it.

So on the first day of the first month you're celebrating the leaving Egypt and the setting up of the tabernacle, because this is the completion of God's inaugurating a new community, creating a new community. We have seen so many creation echoes already in Exodus, and this continues that process of seeing creation echoes. Moses finished the work in chapter 31 verse 18, and in 40-33 we have a reiteration of that.

And so Moses finished the work once he gets it all set up as God commanded. Chapter 39 verse 43 says Moses saw the work and approved, just like God saw what he had made and said it was good. Moses gave a blessing at the end of chapter 39 on the work and on the people, and this is what God does at creation.

He gives a blessing to the first humans, be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. Moses consecrated the result in chapter 40 verse 9. Take the anointing oil and anoint the tabernacle and everything in it, consecrate it and all its furnishings, and it will be holy. Then anoint the altar of burnt offering and all its utensils, consecrate the altar and it will be most holy.

Anoint the basin and its stand and consecrate them. Bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance to the tent of meeting and wash them with water. This is the fulfillment of the priestly ordination ceremony we read about in chapter 29.

And remember that we talked about how a ritual that involves transformation has a period of liminality. We talked about how the limen is the threshold or doorway of something and it's an in-between space. And so here we are, bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance, the limen, of the tent of meeting.

That's where the ritual will take place. Then dress Aaron in the sacred garments, anoint him and consecrate him so that he may serve me as priest. Bring his sons and dress them in tunics, anoint them just as you anointed their father so they may serve me as priests.

Their anointing will be to a priesthood that will continue throughout their generations. There's not going to be a power struggle every generation to find out who gets to be priest this time. It's going to be a dynasty, a priestly dynasty, in which Aaron and his family line will always hold this role.

Moses did everything just as Yahweh commanded him. The consecration of the tabernacle and the priests mirror the consecration of creation that we read about in Genesis chapter 2 verse 3, where Yahweh said, where the narrator tells us, then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done. There's a blessing for this day that's been set apart.

And here there's a blessing and setting apart of the tabernacle and the functionaries who will maintain what's supposed to happen in the tabernacle. What are the implications of having a tabernacle and of God going away from Sinai with them, traveling with them? Chapter 40 verses 34 to 38 describes for us what happens once the tabernacle is all set up and there's several things we can learn from this. Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting and the glory of Yahweh filled the tabernacle.

This is exactly what we were hoping for, that God's presence would come, his glory would come and be among them in the tabernacle. So it worked. But verse 35 is more problematic.

Moses could not enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled on it and the glory of Yahweh filled the tabernacle. This seems troubling because Moses has up until this point been able to be in the presence of God. On the mountain he could be in the presence of God.

He could meet God in the tent of meeting that was pitched outside the community. You might have noticed when I read verse 1 of this chapter that the tabernacle and the tent of meeting are being coordinated or combined here. Set up the tabernacle, the tent of meeting, on the first day of the first month.

This indicates that the tabernacle will now replace this other tent that Moses has been meeting with God in that has been outside the community. We're not going to have two places to meet with God, there's just going to be one. But now Moses can't enter the tent of meeting so we have a problem to reckon with.

In all the travels of the Israelites, whenever the cloud lifted from above the tabernacle they would set out. Remember just as Moses was saying in chapter 33 and 34, Lord if you do not go with us, do not send us up from here. The flip side of that is if you're getting up and moving, we're coming with you.

We're not going to stay here if you're taking us somewhere else. But if the cloud did not lift, they did not set out until the day it lifted. So the cloud of Yahweh was over the tabernacle by day and fire was in the cloud by night, in the sight of all the Israelites during all their travels.

I love this. At any moment you could step out of your tent and just look over to where the tabernacle is pitched and make sure, yep, Yahweh's still with us. Okay, I can go to sleep.

It's the night light all night long. It's the, you know, checking if you get busy doing your work, you're chopping your wood or you're you're baking your bread and like check. I just want to make sure I haven't missed anything.

Nobody's left without me. God hasn't left us. Nope, he's still here.

So there's this beautiful sense of reassurance day and night and guidance telling them exactly where to go. Israel has a new master. Pharaoh doesn't call the shots.

Moses doesn't call the shots. No individual Israel Israelite gets to call the shots. They are all at Yahweh's beck and call.

They have a new master, a master who says, I want you to have one day off a week to rest and for everyone in your household to rest. And I want you to look to me for your provision. There is danger involved, of course, in having God's presence among them.

We've seen the danger of violating covenant commands and the violence that might result from that, the wrath of God that they would have to reckon with. And so if God's coming with us, then we actually have to think about the way that we live and know that he's with us and he's going to see if we violate those commands. So it's dangerous, but it's also beautiful.

The creation of a new nation is what we've been seeing unfold over the chapters of this book. They've gone from disorder, from being dominated by a foreign ruler and forced to work, to being ordered and organized around the presence of God, organized for the worship of God. They've gone from oppression to love of neighbor, to being invited into a different way of being a community.

They've gone from serving Pharaoh to serving Yahweh. Their new society is different from the one that they're leaving. It's shaped by sacred time.

They have a new calendar starting the day they leave Egypt and remembering each first day of the year, the creation of the tabernacle and the setting up of God's presence in their midst. That calendar is punctuated not with civil holidays, but with religious holidays, with three festivals a year, at which time the men are supposed to appear before Yahweh and the women and children are welcome to come too. So we have the Passover, the Feast of the Harvest, and the Feast of the Ingathering that will be the rhythm that shapes this new community.

So they have sacred time. They also have sacred space. Not only is Yahweh's presence right smack in the middle of the community, but there's gradations of his presence.

There's the outer court that they're invited into to bring their offerings. There's the inner holy place where the priests go daily to light the lights on the lamp stand and to replace the bread and to burn incense. And then there's the most holy place, the hot spot of God's presence, where only the high priest goes and only one day a year to make atonement for the whole nation.

The new society is shaped by obedience to covenant stipulations. Somebody doesn't just sit around and think up rules like, let's do this or let's do that. This is a community that's gathered around obedience to God's commands.

Here's how I want you to live, to make you different from the nations. So it's a creation story. However, Exodus is also an unfinished story.

I mentioned at the beginning that the book begins with the word and, which connects it to Genesis. It's the continuation of the story of creation and covenant, the covenant God made with Abraham. But the book ends with this kind of anti-climax.

Moses is unable to enter the tabernacle, which mirrors the inability of the people to ascend the mountain to be in God's presence. There's a kind of unfinished quality to that. And the book of Leviticus also starts with the word and, which tells us that this isn't finished yet.

The story, this has been a significant chapter in the story, but the story is not over. Psalm 24 wrestles with the age old question that we see here in living color. We already read verses one and two, as we thought about the cosmology of the Israelites.

The earth is Yahweh's and everything in it, the world and all who live in it, for he founded it on the seas and established it on the waters. And now the question, who may ascend the mountain of Yahweh? Who may stand in his holy place? That's the question we're asking in Exodus. Only Moses has been able to ascend the mountain of Yahweh.

Only Aaron can stand in his holy place. But the psalmist answers this way, the one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not trust in an idol or swear by a false God, the one who is faithful to the covenant is the one who can approach the presence of God. So what we need is a purified people who can then enter the presence of God.

That's why Moses can't enter yet. He's part of a people for whom atonement has not yet been made. So Leviticus is what we need next.

Leviticus is going to purify this space and purify the people so that fellowship is restored. If we flip to the end of Leviticus and look at the beginning of the book of Numbers, we find that the problem of the end of Exodus has been resolved. So Exodus ends with Moses not being able to enter the tent of meeting.

Leviticus begins with, and Yahweh called to Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting. There's this sense that Moses is outside and Yahweh's hollering out the door so that Moses can hear. The last verse of Leviticus says, these are the commands Yahweh gave Moses at Mount Sinai for the Israelites.

And then Numbers begins again with the word and in Hebrew. And Yahweh spoke to Moses in the tent of meeting. It seems that Leviticus has been successful.

Leviticus with its rituals and sacrifices, with its ordination of the priests and the institution of the day of atonement, with its laws for ritual purity and laws for moral purity and regulations for who the priests are to marry and how to celebrate the festivals. With all that in place, the people are ready. They can enter the presence of God and Moses as their representative is able to go in the tent of meeting and speak with Yahweh.

So Exodus isn't the whole story. It sets us up to need the book of Leviticus and then to see where Numbers will take us as well. The other part that's unfinished is that they still do not possess the land.

They're in the middle of the wilderness. They have God living in a tent and they're living in tents. This is not the end game.

Numbers and Deuteronomy are the books that will get them there. Numbers is where they organize and begin their march through the wilderness. You might be tempted to skip over or skim over the first 10 chapters of Numbers, but that's where they get organized, where every tribe gives offerings for the ongoing work of the tabernacle, the sacrifices and procedures that happen there.

And every tribe gets counted and they're all told where to camp and where to march. And the Levites are told which ones carry which parts of the tabernacle when they move through the wilderness. And all of this is necessary if they're ever going to leave Sinai.

So Numbers helps them mobilize and then brings them across the wilderness to Deuteronomy where Moses gives his final address and prepares them to cross the river Jordan and enter the land. The book of Joshua is the one where they finally do that. After the death of Moses, the baton is passed to Joshua and Joshua leads them into the land that God promised that they will possess.

Exodus is an amazing book. I still think of it as my favorite book of the Bible, but it doesn't work all by itself. We need to continue on in the story so that we can see God's ongoing guidance and preparation of his people to fully receive all that he has planned for them.