Bible Readings
Reading 60: Yahweh’s presence fills the Tabernacle
Read Exodus 39:32–40:38.
One year after the Israelites left Egypt, they completed the building and preparation work for the Tabernacle. Everyone who took part in the work of building and constructing the different parts of the Tabernacle, brought what they had done to Moses for inspection.
Yahweh had given Moses very specific instructions on how the people were to build the Tabernacle. And all throughout today’s passage, we read that the people followed all of Yahweh’s instructions to Moses. Moses was pleased and blessed the people.
Then Yahweh told Moses to erect the Tabernacle on the first calendar day observed by their nation. This would be around March or April (because it was based on the lunar cycle) in our modern Gregorian calendar.
Specifically, God told Moses:
the physical arrangement and where everything was to be placed, both inside and outside
what and how to set aside or anoint everything for holy use
the washing, dressing and anointing of the priests to serve God and the people.
(Note that the act of anointing was to pour oil onto an object or person to set that object or person apart for special use. In other words, what was set apart was no longer for ordinary use. To call something holy meant that it is set apart from everything else.)
God told them to anoint, meaning to set apart, everything in the Tabernacle. The Tabernacle must not be treated as just any common ordinary tent. Everything about the Tabernacle and in the Tabernacle was special and unique. This tent was to be the place where Yahweh Himself would be worshipped, and where He would meet with Israel.
After Moses finished all the work of setting up and erecting the Tabernacle in the middle of the Israelite camp just as God had commanded, the cloud symbolising God’s presence, filled the Tabernacle. Earlier on, while the Tabernacle furniture was being built, God would meet Moses in the special tent of meeting outside the camp of the Israelites. There, God’s presence in the form of the cloud would appear when He met with Moses. But now, God’s presence filled the Tabernacle and remained there, right in the middle of the camp of the people. God was saying that He was with His people, right in the middle of them.
And this was how God guided them. The cloud of God’s glory and presence stayed in the Tabernacle when Yahweh wanted to people to remain at their present location. But when God wanted the people to move to a different location, this cloud would rise and move. Then the people knew that God wanted them to follow where the cloud went. The people knew that Yahweh’s presence was with them all the time. In the daytime, the cloud was clearly visible. At night, fire was seen inside the cloud, so everyone, whether by day or night would know that God’s presence was with them.
In today's passage, we learn that the people of Israel could see God’s presence with their eyes. God was with them in their camp. For us as church-age Christians, God’s presence is not just with us, the Bible tells us that the moment we put our faith in Christ, the Holy Spirit lives inside of us. Jesus told His Jewish disciples of this change.
John 14:15–17
15 “If you love me, obey my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. 17 He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you.
What a privilege we church-age Christians have. God is inside us, leading and guiding us from within us. As we spend more time with God’s Word, reading the Bible and praying to Him, the Holy Spirit in us will use all that we have learnt to minister to us and guide us in our relationship with Yahweh as well as in our daily living.
Today, let us pray to thank God for this wonderful privilege, that we are never alone. The Holy Spirit, God’s own Spirit, is in us wherever we go. Let us pray that we will always pay attention to how the Holy Spirit is helping us.