Good Thursday to you my ‘Walking with Jesus:’ friends,
I’m sure you’d agree it’s a wonderful thing to watch a major building project come to completion and open to the activities for which it was designed and constructed, right? Yesterday I left you in Exodus 37 with Bezalel, Oholiab and a large group of very skilled craftsmen and women, fabricating the God designed Tabernacle and all the furnishings within. Think about that.
God as an architect and furnishing designer?!! Moses was daily at the worksite, I have no doubt, asking questions, checking on everything being done, for Moses had received the instructions for all this work directly from God on Mt Sinai. Moses felt responsible, of course, that this remarkable fabricating work would be done just as God had instructed. These Egyptian trained, skilled workers, were accustomed to following specifications in great detail and working under the watchful eye of Pharaoh’s slave masters. But now they were working for God!
Day after day the work progressed, and I imagine the crowds were at the work site from dawn till dusk amazed at what was taking shape. Exodus 38 and 39 give us great detail of all they did and finally Exodus 39:32 says: “So all the work on the Tabernacle, the ‘Tent of Meeting’, was completed. The Israelites did everything just as the LORD commanded Moses…Moses inspected the work and saw that they had done it just as the LORD had commanded Moses. So, Moses blessed them.” Did you notice God called this Tabernacle a ‘Tent of Meeting’. Why? Because God had promised Moses that He would come down and meet with His people in this special place!
All of us have had the experience of being given an assignment, working diligently at the assignment, and when completed inviting the one who gave us the assignment to come and inspect our work. Remember what you felt as they carefully inspected your work and what a great relief as a smile grew on their face and they expressed their delight with your excellent work?! Now imagine the feeling if you had completed an assignment given to you by God Himself!
With the fabricating work accomplished and the inspection completed it was time to put it all together. As often happens God’s timing was perfect. Exodus 40:1 reports that God said to Moses: “Set up the Tabernacle, the Tent of Meeting, on the first day of the first month…” Now pause a second here and let that soak in. What does it mean? Well, we remember in Exodus 12:2 God had instructed Moses to begin keeping track of time with the first day of the first month and then God explained to Moses the details of the Passover and their soon escape from Egypt!
Therefore, this is now exactly one year later, at Mt Sinai and Moses is about to set up the Tabernacle for the first time! If he does it well it should be completed in time for the one-year anniversary Passover celebration! Oh my, please don’t ever assume that TIMELESS God is not paying very close attention to every day, every hour, every moment of TIME!
Have you ever attempted to assemble something brand new, right out of the box? Are you one who follows the directions very carefully or do you try to see if you can figure it out without reading the directions? As Moses looked around the work site, he must have felt a bit overwhelmed, yet just as God had given Moses the design specifications, now God gave Moses step by step careful instructions of assembling it all for the very first time!
I assume Moses had recruited some help, especially from some of those who would have responsibility for disassembling and then reassembling it, because remember God had designed this ‘Tent of Meeting’ to be portable and mobile! So, Exodus 40:16 reports that “Moses did everything just as the LORD commanded him. So, the Tabernacle was set up on the first day of the first month in the second year.”
Can you imagine the large crowd of people who gathered watching this whole process and the shouts of celebration which spontaneously rose up from time to time through the day as it was taking shape? When finally, it was completed something happened none of them had expected.
Moses recorded this event with these words: “Then the cloud [of God’s Presence] covered the ‘Tent of Meeting’, and the glory of the LORD filled the Tabernacle…” (Ex. 40:34) I don’t know how to explain what these people were witnessing. It was more than a cloud, more than a fog bank. We remember Moses had entered into the cloud of God’s Presence several times when he had hiked up Mt Sinai to meet with God. But now, it appears that special cloud descended from the top of Sinai and enveloped the Tent of Meeting. I presume it was brilliant white but perhaps had a fire-like glow in the middle of it. It was a powerful symbol that God Himself had come to be among His people, as He had promised. (Ex. 29:45)
In fact, the remarkable book of Exodus concludes with this statement: “In all the travels of the Israelites [40 years in the desert] whenever the cloud lifted from above the Tabernacle, the people would set out; but if the cloud did not lift, they did not set out – until the day it lifted. So, the cloud was over the Tabernacle by day, and fire was in the cloud by night, in the sight of the Israelites during all their travels.” (Ex. 40:36-38)
What a remarkable sight, both day and night! This God designed ‘Tent of Meeting’ had the visible evidence of the Presence of God hovering over it both day and night. The Israelites knew it was time to pack up and move when the cloud lifted from the Tabernacle. And of course they followed that cloud until it paused in the sky, and then they would settle there, reassemble the Tabernacle on that new site, and the cloud would settle down on the Tabernacle again! Can you envision it friends?
It is a picture, my friends, of what Jesus promised us, His followers! Jesus promised that He would send the Holy Spirit of God to be with and live within us, His chosen, redeemed people, and the Holy Spirit would guide us and teach us all we needed to know to follow God obediently! (John 14:15-17, 25-27; 16:7-15)
Are you living in that exciting daily experience? Are you overwhelmed that God Himself is PRESENT with you as one born again by His Spirit? Can you discern the leading of the Holy Spirit and are you enthusiastically following as the Spirit leads you, everyday? Have you helped your children and grandchildren understand this glorious, powerful experience which is unique to Jesus following Christianity?
No other religion in the world claims God comes and lives with and even IN His people! In our dark, violent, angry, confusing world, do you understand how powerful and important this truth of God is?
Let’s celebrate with this worship song what Moses and the people experienced on that first day of their second year at Sinai as the cloud of God’s Presence settled with them. What you and I will experience TODAY as the Holy Spirit leads us! Is our relationship with God so intimate we can discern His leading in EVERYTHING today?
Again, we have some wonderful ‘lessons learned’ notes included in the Grand Narrative link just below to help us in our spiritual growth, and after we worship, let’s meet here again tomorrow.
Today’s Scripture: Exodus 38-40.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Exodus 39
Exodus 40
Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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