Chapter 13: The Secret to God's Presence

Is blood...

We are continuing our exploration of the Bible as a unified story. Where we are in the story is that God has saved Israel out of Egypt. He delivered them and saved them through the Passover, and Israel now finds herself in the dessert on the way to the promised land.

Today I want to focus on the Tabernacle and God coming to live with his people. To fully appreciate how significant this is, we need to go right back to Genesis in the creation story and the fall of humanity into sin. When the creation story finished, God enters into creation on the Sabbath day and he rests in perfect harmony with all that he had created. This includes humanity – God is in a perfect relationship with Adam and Eve and with all that had been created.

Then Adam and Eve sin and a gulf develops between God and his creation, particularly between God and his people. This is the central conflict that drives the whole narrative of Scripture.

The rest of the Bible is all about how God is going to solve this separation problem. As the story of scripture unfolds we have seen that it involves a people whom God has set aside – the people of Israel. God promises that they will be a blessing to all the nations and that he would live with them.

In our current passage we see this coming to fruition. God finally comes to live with his people in the Tabernacle. He gives very explicit instructions for how the Tabernacle was to be constructed. You can read these in Exodus 25-30. These instructions are painstakingly implemented in Exodus 35-40. So the Tabernacle is finally built and now God is coming down to come and live with his people in Israel.

At last everything is ready for God to finally come and live with his people, to finally return to the way things were before the fall of sin. There is this expectation that finally everything would be set right and the harmony that existed between God and his people would finally be reinstated.

Even the same language that was used to write about the Sabbath day are echoed here in Exodus chapter 40. So allow me to quote the chapter in full.

Exodus 40 (CSB)

The LORD spoke to Moses: “You are to set up the tabernacle, the tent of meeting, on the first day of the first month. Put the ark of the testimony there and screen off the ark with the curtain. Then bring in the table and lay out its arrangement; also bring in the lampstand and set up its lamps. Place the gold altar for incense in front of the ark of the testimony. Put up the screen for the entrance to the tabernacle. Position the altar of burnt offering in front of the entrance to the tabernacle, the tent of meeting. Place the basin between the tent of meeting and the altar, and put water in it. Assemble the surrounding courtyard and hang the screen for the gate of the courtyard. “Take the anointing oil and anoint the tabernacle and everything in it; consecrate it along with all its furnishings so that it will be holy. Anoint the altar of burnt offering and all its utensils; consecrate the altar so that it will be especially holy. Anoint the basin and its stand and consecrate it. “Then bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance to the tent of meeting and wash them with water. Clothe Aaron with the holy garments, anoint him, and consecrate him, so that he can serve me as a priest. Have his sons come forward and clothe them in tunics. Anoint them just as you anointed their father, so that they may also serve me as priests. Their anointing will serve to inaugurate a permanent priesthood for them throughout their generations.” Moses did everything just as the LORD had commanded him. The tabernacle was set up in the first month of the second year, on the first day of the month. Moses set up the tabernacle: He laid its bases, positioned its supports, inserted its crossbars, and set up its pillars. Then he spread the tent over the tabernacle and put the covering of the tent on top of it, just as the LORD had commanded Moses. Moses took the testimony and placed it in the ark, and attached the poles to the ark. He set the mercy seat on top of the ark. He brought the ark into the tabernacle, put up the curtain for the screen, and screened off the ark of the testimony, just as the LORD had commanded him. Moses placed the table in the tent of meeting on the north side of the tabernacle, outside the curtain. He arranged the bread on it before the LORD, just as the LORD had commanded him. He put the lampstand in the tent of meeting opposite the table on the south side of the tabernacle and set up the lamps before the LORD, just as the LORD had commanded him. Moses installed the gold altar in the tent of meeting, in front of the curtain, and burned fragrant incense on it, just as the LORD had commanded him. He put up the screen at the entrance to the tabernacle. He placed the altar of burnt offering at the entrance to the tabernacle, the tent of meeting, and offered the burnt offering and the grain offering on it, just as the LORD had commanded him. He set the basin between the tent of meeting and the altar and put water in it for washing. Moses, Aaron, and his sons washed their hands and feet from it. They washed whenever they came to the tent of meeting and approached the altar, just as the LORD had commanded Moses. Next Moses set up the surrounding courtyard for the tabernacle and the altar and hung a screen for the gate of the courtyard. So Moses finished the work. The cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. Moses was unable to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud rested on it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. The Israelites set out whenever the cloud was taken up from the tabernacle throughout all the stages of their journey. If the cloud was not taken up, they did not set out until the day it was taken up. For the cloud of the LORD was over the tabernacle by day, and there was a fire inside the cloud by night, visible to the entire house of Israel throughout all the stages of their journey.

Just like there were 7 days of creation, there are 7 anointings in the tabernacle. To anoint something is to set it apart for use by God, and in the account we see that 7 things are set apart for God: The tabernacle, the altar, the basin, The High Priest Aaron, his two sons, and the priesthood that comes from Aaron’s line.

They are set apart so that they can make sure the space God lives in, in the tabernacle stays pure and holy. The world outside had been polluted by sin, but the Tabernacle was set apart and was kept pure and holy.

Then we have 7 kinds of creation moments for setting up the tabernacle.  

V16-32 repeats this phrase “just as the Lord had commanded him”. Moses sets up the tabernacle, just as the lord commanded him. He covers the tent of meeting, just as the lord commanded them. He screens off the ark of the covenant just as the Lord commanded him. He puts the special temple bread before the Lord, just as the lord commanded him, He puts up the lampstands, just as the Lord commanded him. He sets up the altar and offers incense in front of it, just as the Lord commanded him. He offers offerings, just as the Lord commanded him. He puts the washing basin up, just as the Lord commanded him. After doing these things v33 says “So Moses finished the work”.

This is a direct quote from the 7 days of creation: On the 7^th “The Lord finished the work”. Just like in Genesis, it is not until all the work is finished that God comes to inhabit the work, so here too it is not until Moses finished all the work, that God comes to dwell in the Tabernacle.

Finally, the cloud of God’s glory fills the tabernacle and at last, for the first time since sin entered the world, God has come down to live with his people. At last God is in relationship with his people once again. Once again God’s people could walk and talk with him, like they did in the beginning. At last they could have a proper relationship with God again.

Right?

That is what is supposed to happen. That is what we have been waiting for since the fall of sin. But that isn’t what actually happens. After all that anticipation, after all that waiting, after carefully and precisely following all of God’s commands for how the Tabernacle was supposed to be set up, God, at last, comes down to be with his people. But what happens?

He doesn't walk and talk with his people in the cool of the day. Instead we read a shocking and surprising thing.

​ Exodus 40:35 (CSB)

Moses was unable to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud rested on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.

This would have been shocking to Moses and to the Israelites. It should be shocking to us. After all that, the whole tabernacle thing doesn’t work. The people could not come into God’s presence. God was there, in the middle of the camp. The people were there, all around the tabernacle but they couldn’t come in.

It must have confused the Israelites. So what is the point? What do we learn from this?

We learn that no matter how good, how exacting, how specific our religious stuff is, it won’t work to fix the gap that exists between us and God. Religion does not get us back into a relationship with God. It’s not that the religious stuff is unimportant, after all God was very, very specific about how the Tabernacle was supposed to work. The details matter a lot to God.

But in and of itself religion will not save. Religious observance will not fix the sin problem. As important as all the trappings of religion are it cannot fix the fundamental problem that sin created. The gap between us and God still exists, even though the tabernacle was set up perfectly.

Why?

Because the tabernacle was incomplete. Moses and the people could not come into God’s presence, until a secret ingredient was added. What was the secret ingredient?

Blood.

You see in the Tabernacle, in the deepest most holy part, the Ark of the covenant was kept. This was a box that represented God’s throne room in heaven, and in the ark was the two tablets of stone on which God had written the 10 commandments. The problem was of course that no one in Israel could perfectly keep the law. Everyone sinned. So the Law, set in literal stone, testified against them all the time.

God’s presence in the Tabernacle sat on top of this box which contained the Law. To put it crudely, God was sitting literally right on top of the law, as the holy and perfect one. The problem was that if you break God’s law you die.

You can’t be in God’s presence, if you don’t keep the law perfectly. That is why the people could not come into God’s presence – if they did, as dirty sinners, they would die. So how does the tabernacle system deal with this issue? Through the atonement cover (also called the mercy seat).

Now this whole event happens exactly one year after the Passover, where God required Israel to offer a lamb without defect , and to cover their houses with the blood of the lamb so that they would not die.

This is no mere coincidence. Because the same thing that applied during the Passover applies here. For Israel to come into the presence of God, blood was required. The Mercy seat was supposed to be sprinkled with the blood of a lamb. Every year, on the day of atonement, God would invite one person into the most holy place. The high priest would come into the most holy place, and he would cover the mercy seat with blood.

This blood covers the requirement of the law. It was not until the mercy seat was covered in the blood of a scapegoat that the people could enter into God’s presence.

And one day, God would send another tabernacle. John 1:14 tells us that the Son of God became flesh and tabernacled (dwelt) with us. He would become the scapegoat on whom our sins were laid. He would supply the blood to cover our inability to keep the law. On that day the curtain that separated people from God would finally be torn for good, and the relationship gap that exists between us and God would finally be fixed.

And on that day God would finally declare. “I will be their God and they will be my people, and I will live among them.”