exodus 40 1-11, 34-38
(From dear Malcolm’s Sunday school lesson that he wrote this week and taught this morn)
Good morning everyone,
Today we will be continuing the crop of lessons that are all about The GLORY Of God. As a foundation for today’s lesson, I want to partially revisit the lesson from last week that brother deacon Kenny George taught.
As we heard in last week’s lesson, Moses had three as yet unheard of requests for God, those were as follows:
“Now therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, shew me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight: and consider that this nation is thy people.”
“And he said unto him, If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence. For wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? is it not in that thou goest with us? so shall we be separated, I and thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth.” and
“And the Lord said unto Moses, I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken: for thou hast found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name. And he said, I beseech thee, shew me thy GLORY. And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy.”
That previous lesson was about The guidance, holiness and GLORY of God’s Presence.
Today, we’ll build upon that fine foundation, starting with the prescribed methods of Interacting With and Experiencing His Grand GLORY at that time, In The Tabernacle, specifically.
Then I’ll share the points and notions that stood out to us the most.
But first, our Text for today, which is from Exodus 40:
EXODUS 40:1-11:
And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
On the first day of the first month shalt thou set up the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation.
And thou shalt put therein the ark of the testimony, and cover the ark with the vail.
And thou shalt bring in the table, and set in order the things that are to be set in order upon it; and thou shalt bring in the candlestick, and light the lamps thereof.
And thou shalt set the altar of gold for the incense before the ark of the testimony, and put the hanging of the door to the tabernacle.
And thou shalt set the altar of the burnt offering before the door of the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation.
And thou shalt set the laver between the tent of the congregation and the altar, and shalt put water therein.
And thou shalt set up the court round about, and hang up the hanging at the court gate.
And thou shalt take the anointing oil, and anoint the tabernacle, and all that is therein, and shalt hallow it, and all the vessels thereof: and it shall be holy.
And thou shalt anoint the altar of the burnt offering, and all his vessels, and sanctify the altar: and it shall be an altar most holy.
And thou shalt anoint the laver and his foot, and sanctify it.
EXODUS 40: 34-38
Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the GLORY of the Lord filled the tabernacle.
And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation, because the cloud abode thereon, and the GLORY of the Lord filled the tabernacle.
And when the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the children of Israel went onward in all their journeys:
But if the cloud were not taken up, then they journeyed not till the day that it was taken up.
For the cloud of the Lord was upon the tabernacle by day, and fire was on it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys.
(End of exodus snippets)
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The process of setting up the tabernacle and the tent of meeting seems quite detailed; that brief description alone would likely be daunting to anyone who’s never undergone such a process before. To me, the series of tasks feels overwhelming to even think about, much less carry out.
While our LORD Gives specific and ordered instructions in today’s text, I know that it would be virtually impossible for me to remember all the steps in order and get everything the exact way He Wanted it to be … with as much precision As His Perfection and Majesty would demand, anyway.
Which kind of reminds me of how impossible it is to keep even half of the 10 Commandments, much less the 613 laws written in the Torah.
Though they may have been meant to show us that we can never be righteous enough to get into heaven on our own, and that we need a savior if we’re to have any sort of chance.
(I say chance because we have to accept His Free Gift, of course.)
This is all to say nothing of how we are tainted by Original Sin, meaning that even if one managed to fulfill all of the Old Testament laws found in the Torah, such a feat would only have fulfilled the letter of the law, and not the spirit, as in Matthew 15 and then 23, for example, where Jesus calls out Pharisees for being as whitewashed tombs or inwardly rotting catacombs, on account of their tendency to honour him–or appear to, anyway–with their lips, while their hearts remained distant From Him.
This reminds me of someone who gives beautiful compliments or even gifts without having a shred of feeling for the recipient.
Or, perhaps, when people–who may simply be exhausted rather than deceitful–lift their hands in church while mentally reliving yesterday’s skirmish with colleagues or this morning’s garbage disposal failure instead of worshiping In Spirit and In Truth.
Which brings us back to the letter of the law vs the Spirit of the law, and how all the Pharisees’ good deeds and scrupulous rule-keeping were naught more than filthy rags To Our King.
Why? Because behaving in a holy manner without The Holy Spirit just doesn’t work, doesn’t give the faintest hope of ever fitting the bill.
Anything done under our own power just isn’t enough, and never will be.
This again, is why we need a Savior and will always need him.
Only The Pure and Purifying Blood Of The Lamb Of God could atone for our sins and grant us free access To The Father, doing away with the detailed and precise rituals and tasks, as well as the hierarchy of the priesthood, which didn’t necessarily reflect holiness… as with Eli’s greedy sons.
Likewise, when The Glorious Pillar Of Cloud rested upon the tabernacle, at least part of the purpose was to guide His people and lead them—not just geographically, but also in terms of time, both spent With Him and time “taking care of business,” as it were.
What strikes me is that it took, or rather, He Prescribed a ritual and a barrier and other physical items to contain or “guard against” The GLORY Of The LORD and to “grant” holiness and sanctification to the items listed in the text for today, and that The Physical Presence–Too Glorious To Witness and live–was what indicated the israelites’ movements, or contained them.
I wonder If The GLORY Of The LORD had other physical effects on humans.
I also wonder at the dichotomy of separation vs. Protection, more specifically, “which purpose was served at any one time?”
Reading through the scriptures for today’s lesson, you may have been able to see a connection between Moses’s first interaction with God and this one. Moses had to take his shoes off before he was able to communicate with the Lord through the burning bush because the area around the bush had been made holy by the presence of the Lord,
much like how the tabernacle has a veil that separates the outside world from the holy presence of God that resides within it.
A tabernacle is in essence, a portable temple that God allows his presence to be inside of.
Temples also have veils which separate the area that God’s presence occupies from the rest of the building. This portion of a tabernacle and a temple where God’s presence was hidden behind a veil was known as the holy of holies.
These restrictions that God put in place weren’t just for us to show respect to him and his holiness, but they were also to protect us from the unbearable weight and unbridled power That is our God.
Anyone who passed the veil of the Tabernacle without the Lord’s permission, without the proper rituals, or consequently, without sufficient purification, was struck dead; I even read that bells were sewn into the priestly robes, in order to alert those outside to such an outcome. Stragglers and poor direction-followers alike would succumb to our LORD’s holiness and GLORY because we are not built to be able to handle it.
While Moses was made to take his shoes off so that he would not Sully the holy ground around the burning bush with unholy dirt of the Earth, the veil was put there by the Lord himself to protect. It was put there as a warning to all who saw and understood what it was.
This portion of scripture shows that everything the Lord has us do has a purpose and if we cut corners, not only are we not following him, not only are we disrespecting him but we are endangering ourselves. How are we endangering ourselves? By being disobedient, we are opening the door even wider to demonic entities. We are putting a sign on our back that says “vacant room, no charge!”
Rewinding a sec to The first portion of scripture for this lesson, all the specifics might seem like a whole lot of busy work–over 20* discrete actions or outcomes appear in the first 11 verses alone– and, as previously mentioned, they definitely all seem daunting to me,
But after thinking more about it, the way I saw it all changed a bit.
So now, the main thing that stands out to me about the aforementioned list of preparations shows that God wants things done in a very specific way, His way.
He tells you exactly how he wants it done and it’s up to you to obey.
To me this now looks like a blatant foreshadowing of Jesus being the only way to salvation.
There is no other way to reach heaven, except by accepting Jesus as your Lord and Savior, and then accepting his sacrifice as the propitiation of your sins. Doing it any other way will not yield the same result, it will yield the opposite.
So, this brings us to the second half of the lesson, which I could not help but hint at, it seems :)
To put it succinctly, this second half is to do with the various ways in which the guidance, holiness and GLORY of God’s Presence (or the manifestations thereOf) have been impacted By His Physical Presence, the “removal” Of His Presence, and The First Return Of His Presence To earth, aka the death and resurrection Of LORD Jesus.
if the first was about the effects of His GLORY In, upon, and coming from The Tabernacle, the second is, again, about how The physical manifestation of God’s power and GLORY (and Sacrifice) forever changed how we are interacted with by him, how we understand and worship him and finally how we walk out our faith in him as believers and his children.
(It almost feels as though the spirit of the law versus the letter of the law are dancing around the edges of our discussion, and i’ll avoid bringing legalism into this today because our focus Is On The GLORY.)
With The Resurrection Of Jesus, and the Incendiary Presence Of His PRECIOUS Holy Spirit Upon the earth, the old legalities are thrown down, in favour Of The New Covenant. The Temple WAS Rebuilt in three days, as promised, and now there is a new dwelling place For The GLORY Of The LORD.
I am to be the temple of I AM, there is no barrier between us! He lives IN me.
My prayers are his incense, the washing is now done by his blood, and not a basin of water.
The wine of the new covenant is his blood.
The veil no longer separates us from one another or necessitates an intermediary, for I have the honour and privilege and thrill of serving as a temple of and vessel for HIS Holy Spirit.
I’m also his hands and feet on the earth.
There is no longer a day of atonement nor a special place called the holy of holies that can only be visited annually by a high priest.
The Most-High may never have shown up to me as a pillar of fire or a cloud, but he determines both my steps and my stops nonetheless.
He does not need to rest upon the tabernacle as a cloud to tell me I should be praying; sometimes he just “takes over” the scheduled events or even tongues of the faithful, praying through us before we even know what’s going on.
This experience, this deep connection with our God, is what he desires and wills for all of his children to have with him. It is not exclusive to any one believer but freely offered to all who will walk in HIS ways.
It’s clearly much more intimate this way and for me anyway much more thrilling.
As my lovely wife often says, he’s like our roommate but closer.
One thing my wife and I often discuss is the thermostat. we have to agree or compromise on a number and think of the other one’s wellfare.
In the same way, I am sharing my body, this temple of flesh that needs to be crucified daily, With Holy Spirit.
If there is something I am tempted by, whether it’s harsh speech or laziness or whatever else we humans are tempted by, I need to consider my holy roommate.
It grieves him when we as his temples choose to sin, therefore sullying his domicile.
The GLORY of the Lord manifests itself in different ways and has since the dawn of Time.
It has gone from itemized elaborate rituals to a personal relationship, a personal connection and Holy Spirit’s InDwelling Presence.
From our Creator, to The Father Who also Created us. We can now come boldly to His Throne and petition Him, instead of waiting for Him to extend the golden scepter. Instead of just being our Adonai, He now asks us to call Him Abba, covering us In a blood-red robe and placing His Ring on our finger.
He has gone from being a cloud that we follow to being the still, small voice which all believers heed. Or at least hear. Or, at least, should hear.
When our lives are too busy, when there is too much “noise” in the atmosphere around us, this is when we have a harder time hearing his voice.
As we pray, we are taking authority over the atmosphere by speaking his words into the air and using his name, fighting against the prince of the power of the air.
In the context of this lesson, though, we can look at taking authority over the atmosphere and take it to mean cutting out and removing all distractions and throwing off the weight that so easily entangles us, so that we may focus on his beauteous and boundless GLORY.
We can look at it as fighting the temptation to do things “our way” and instead purposing in our hearts to do things the only true and correct way, God’s way.
As we begin to live the way he wants us to live, as we begin to give ourselves over to him, we will hear his voice (not audibly) more clearly and more frequently.
Our tastes will begin to change, and our will will begin to align with his own.
Those of us who are truly seeking him will begin to question whether or not we are fully submitting to him when time passes and things in our personalities and the ways we tend to do things have not changed.
He meets us where we are, but he loves us too much to keep us there.
As we allow the Holy Spirit to take more control over our daily lives, things will begin to irritate us, things that once brought us joy.
That’s him changing us, that’s him purifying us, that’s him disinfecting us from spiritual germs like alcohol on a paper cut.
God’s word causes us to live in a very specific way and I don’t think any of you are surprised by this, based on the content of today’s lesson.
It causes us to live lives of constant repentance and consecration.
We are supposed to live lives that are as holy as they can be. Holy meaning set apart; we are meant to live in the world, yes, but we are not meant to indulge and be part of it.
Instead, we are meant to be the salt that preserves what he created, the salt that dries out the snails and slugs of worldly mindsets, practices, and thoughts that are leaving their nasty residue throughout life.
This is how we walk out our faith: we pray, we wait, we listen for his voice and take action when he speaks.
We lean on him for everything, and (try to) refrain from leaning on our own understanding, because without him, we have and can do nothing.
We tell the world of our Lord and Savior so that they may share in the eternal life that he offers.
As it said in his word, we are to go out into the world and make disciples of the nations; this is the great commission that all Christians fall under. We are not called to live lives of pride, but instead of humility. We are not called to live lives of excess but moderation. We are not called to be a slave to our emotions, but instead of servant to our loving heavenly father. We are called to live with love in our hearts for all mankind, even those who will not love us back just as our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ did while he walked this earth. We are sinners saved by grace, covered by the blood of the lamb. We are protected by the lion of the tribe of Judah. We are made well by our eternal healer through him, through our God, we can do all things. Jesus Christ freed us and we are called to walk in and live by that freedom. It is by Grace through faith that we have been set free and have the privilege and opportunity to be with him for eternity.
We are called to constantly seek his face and to be in his presence because that is where we are rejuvenated, that is where we are strengthened, that is where we are prepared. We are called to spend time with him. We are called to talk to him to bring our burdens. Our cares, our fears and concerns to him in all things. This is the way that he calls us to live. Any other way is false and folly.
I started my preparations for this lesson almost unsure of what to say beyond the facts presented by the text. But now, after praying over it for a few days, I can honestly tell you that it was genuinely difficult to “turn the faucet off” this time.
So, in our experience (wife said she agreed with this), even TALKING about or REFLECTING upon The GLORY Of The LORD affects us palpably.
We give every last bit of that reflected GLORY and honour and praise to our MIGHTY LORD God in all things because it is through him and for Him, of course, that all things can be done.
It is his glorious nature that permeates and protects and pursues every true believer and gives them– gives us– the mind, the heart, and the will of Christ Jesus.
———
*list of discrete orders and or effects
- First day
- first month
- set up the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation.
- put therein the ark of the testimony,
- cover the ark with the vail.
- bring in the table,
- set in order the things that are to be set in order upon it;
- bring in the candlestick,
- light the lamps thereof.
- set the altar of gold for the incense before the ark of the testimony,
- put the hanging of the door to the tabernacle.
- set the altar of the burnt offering before the door of the tabernacle
- set the laver between the tent of the congregation and the altar,
- put water in it.
- set up the court round about, an
- hang up the hanging at the court gate.
- take the anointing oil anoint the tabernacle,
- Anoint all that is therein,
- and it shall be holy.
- anoint the altar of the burnt offering
- sanctify the altar:
- anoint the laver and his foot,
- sanctify it.
METANOiA Means 