Category: Exodus

The True Bride Doesn’t Settle for the House (Exodus 33:1–11)

Does the “depart” of Exodus 33:1 sound like God’s driving man out of the garden in Genesis 3? It should. If it doesn’t, then you do not know what the chief blessedness of the garden was. If it doesn’t, then you probably think Israel was getting a great deal here and don’t understand what all the tears were about.

Despite their great sin, God mercifully still gives Moses to lead the people. An angel, I would argue not the same Angel promised in chapter 23, will go before them and derive out their enemies. Further, they still get to enjoy the promised land flowing with milk and honey. It would seem that all lost in the garden and hoped for in God’s redemption and restoration will still be theirs.

So what is being denied to them? God! It is as though man having been driven from the garden is now permitted to return, only God isn’t there. Would this be disastrous news to you? If you have not seen the glories of chapters 25–31, you won’t see the disaster of Exodus 33:3-5. I’m not saying that chapters 25–31 will magically read more excitingly than the ten wonders recorded in chapters 7–12, but if upon meditating on the truths seen in chapters 25–31, you do not see that the supreme blessing and greatest glory of God’s redemption of His people is His dwelling among them, then you won’t see this as disastrous.

The greatest glory of Exodus isn’t what the people were saved from, but Who they were saved to, just as the greatest joy of marriage isn’t the leaving behind of singleness, but he embracing of intimate companionship. So, does this “depart” sound as disastrous as God’s driving man from the garden? If you think that Adam lost only life, health, and ease, then you don’t have a clue how far man fell. To have the promised land or the garden without God is worse than having the earth with no Sun. It could only be cold, dark, untethered, and lifeless. John Piper asks,

The critical question for our generation—and for every generation—is this: If you could have heaven, with no sickness, and with all the friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no human conflict or any natural disasters, could you be satisfied with heaven, if Christ were not there?

Picture a husband and wife radiant with love who build a cottage with striking intricate craftsmanship and a stunning garden. It is as though the house is a manifestation of the beauty of their love for one another. But, in a moment of immeasurable folly the spouse commits adultery. She mourns repentantly confessing and pleading with her beloved. The husband doesn’t utterly abandon her. He leaves her the house and promises provision, but he will not be with her. Will she enjoy the house? No! It will only be a continual reminder of the beloved she has sinned against and can no longer know.

Would you be happy if you got the house minus the Bridegroom? If so, you have never known Him. He is not yours, and you are not His.

Mediated Judgment and Mercy (Exodus 32:15–35)

“You break it, you remake it.” Is this the connection between Moses’ breaking the first set of tablets, which were completely the work of God, and the second set, which God required Moses to cut? Is Moses being punished for a temper tantrum? I doubt it. When Moses makes the second set, it doesn’t speak against, but for Moses.

Just before Moses comes down we have the fullest description of the tablets (Exodus 32:15–16). This sets you up to be devastated at their being broken; but who really has broken these tablets? The tablets say, “You shall have no other gods before me.” The tablets say, “You shall not make for yourself a carved image.” Who has broken the tablets? If Moses’ breaking the tablets was wrong, far better to break these tablets the way Moses did than the way Israel did. Still, I don’t believe Moses is sinfully throwing a hissy fit, and thus, neither was his making new tablets like being required to rewrite a sloppily composed essay.

Consider the following things that speak for Moses’ action. First, the very words are used to describe God’s anger (32:10), and now used for Moses’ (32:19). Second, unlike the instance in Numbers 20 where Moses does disobey God, there is no rebuke here. Third, Moses breaks the tablets at the foot of the mountain, the place where the true altar was built and their covenant with the true God was ratified. Finally, the tablets are a visible sign of the covenant. Israel has broken covenant, and now Moses throws them down as a sign of what has happened. Moses throws down the tablets of the covenant to show them what they’ve done.

Following this, further judgments are then mediated through Moses, yet, following this, he pleads with God for the people. When the people enter back into covenant through Moses’ mediation, the second set of tablets is carved by the mediator. This isn’t punishment, rather, it speaks to the necessity and blessing of mediation before God.

What we have broken, Jesus makes new. We have received something better than the sign of tablets for our covenant breaking. We have received the cup of the new covenant. Yet all the same, we should not take this sign lightly (1 Corinthians 11:27–32). Both judgment and mercy were mediated through Moses. We should not then be dumfounded that such things can be joined together in Jesus if they were united in Moses. Jesus will both save His church and purify her. All of His mediation is good and all of it is for the good of the church.

God Is not Unstable so Be Not Unstabled (Exodus 32:1–14)

The point of the text is not to paint God like some Roman deity. God is not moody. God isn’t temperamental or vindictive. God is not emotionally erratic and unreliable. Exodus 32 should not cause the saints to doubt God’s faithfulness, rather, just the opposite. God’s covenant faithfulness is unfailing.  Everything that happens in Exodus 32 is part of God’s sovereign plan. Consider four things.

First, read this singular instance in light of the whole of Scriptures that show God as sovereign over all things. Israel’s sin and Moses intercession are both part of God’s plan.

Second, Moses has pleaded with God on the basis of God. Moses has not spoken of how good the people are. Moses has not bartered with God as Abraham did, asking that if there are just ten righteous that God would spare them. Moses pleads with God upon the basis of what God has done (Exodus 32:11), out of zeal for God’s glory (Exodus 32:12), and because of what God has promised (Exodus 32:13). This isn’t Moses changing God’s sovereign will, but instead, revealing it.

Third, God set Moses up. When God says, “let me alone (Exodus 32:10)” the implication is that if Moses does not leave, then God will not consume them. Moses doesn’t disobey God. He stays upon the basis of who God has consistently revealed Himself to be and what He has promised to do and he implores God based upon the implication of what God has threatened and who God has called him to be—an intercessor.

Fourth, Why is Moses who he is? At the beginning of this book, when Moses was first on this mountain speaking with God, he argued with God in a sinful way, offering up various excuses for not obeying God and going to Egypt to deliver God’s people. Previously, Moses argued with God in a sinful way for selfish purposes that would leave Israel in bondage. Now, he implores God in a holy way for unselfish purposes, that will preserve Israel. So who has made Moses who he is? Who does Moses look like? Into whose image is Moses being conformed? Moses looks like Jesus, which is to say, he looks like God.

The point of the tabernacle is that man is sinful, God is holy, and that a mediator and sacrifices are thus necessary. This chapter, sandwiched between the instructions for and construction of the tent, not only amplifies those themes, it unites them as the mediator puts himself forward as the sacrifice (Exodus 32:30, 32). Saints, this text should cause you to hate sin and it should show you the ugliness of sin, but it should not cause you to doubt God’s faithfulness. One better than Moses pleads for you. He died. It is finished. He rose. He is at the right hand of the Father. You are united to Him by the Spirit. It is the Father who gave Him. You cannot be cast away unless Christ be cast away, meaning you are unmovable. Oh great sinners, take comfort in your great Savior.

No Need to Choke on Our Own Words (Exodus 31)

Whereas many are comfortable saying God “rested” on the Sabbath, I think more would squirm to say He was “refreshed” in Sabbath (Exodus 31:17). Of course we understand all this to be anthropomorphic language. We understand this, because, if it wasn’t, we couldn’t understand it. Follow?

Some people make a fuss when Scripture speaks of the strong arm of Yahweh, arguing that all man-talk of God is meaningless. This has several problems. First, man-talk is the language we know best. Second, man talk is the best creaturely language that there is to speak about God as man is made in the image of God. In theology, Spanish trumps dolphin beeps every time. Finally, such talk about man-talk being inadequate to communicate truth about God puts the greatest limits not on man, but on God. It may sound humble to say that human language can’t convey truth about the divine, but it is just the opposite. It is arrogant to think that God cannot speak in such a way as to reveal who He is to us. God knows our language better than we. He knows our ears too. There is a problem, but it’s not that God has a speech impediment, rather, our ears are morally clogged with filth.

What then is God meaning to say with the word “refreshed”? We realize that “rest” simply means that God stopped His special work of creation ex nihilo. But what of “refreshed”? The word seems more problematic; too tied to man’s weakness. Indeed, creation didn’t exhaust or deplete God in any way. God didn’t need a nap. So some venture that such anthropomorphisms are merely meant to teach us about our stance to the Sabbath. No, the reason “rest” and “refreshed,” teach us anything about our stance to the Sabbath is because of what they first say about our Creator in whose image we were made.

If a job is done poorly or partly and then rest is attempted by anyone with a modicum of character, their time off is likely to cause more anxiety than refreshment. Have you ever been ready to take a vacation only to have a fresh load of work dumped on you last minute, knowing it will be waiting for you when you return? Or, say you botch up the last job before a trip that you know has to be redone, what will your mind be on? On the seventh day God looked at His completed work and saw that it was good. God’s refreshment derived from the completion and quality of His work. “Refreshed,” should not be take to mean that creation drained God, but rather just the opposite. He had joy in it. It was done. It was very good.

The Sabbath was good news to the Jew, not simply because they abstained from their work, but because God was inviting them to enjoy His rest. He invites us into this rest in Jesus Christ. The work is done. The work was perfect. The rest is therefore refreshing.

All Concerns the Tabernacle and the Tabernacle Concerns All (Exodus 30)

When you’re going on vacation the final bits of packing might seem haphazard and chaotic, but two things could be happening.

1. Things really are a mess. You’ve run through the house last minute gathering up tidbits you either forgot to pack or now think you might need and just throw them in.

2. There has been a strategic ordering and packing up of things and you’ve simply come to remaining smaller items that could only be packed last and for which there was no room in any other bag.

God didn’t pack the tabernacle instructions like you might pack for vacation. Everything has been highly organized. Chapter 25 concerned the furniture of the tabernacle, chapter 26 the tent itself, chapter 27 the courtyard, chapter 28 the priest’s garments, and chapter 29 the priest’s consecration. Now it’s time to pack some remaining items. Remember that the chapter divisions are inserted by man. These chapter divisions have been very good in seeing some natural divisions, but we must remember that they’re divisions within a section all concerning the tabernacle. The smaller items that make up chapter 30 don’t cohere together the way the items in chapter 28 do, but they do cohere with chapter 29 the way that chapter 25 does.

How do these all things go together? The way everything in chapters 25–31 go together. All these chapters are about the tabernacle. All these chapters are packed into the same place, or rather, are about the same place.

Even if a neighbor looked in on a crazily packed family car and asked what all that randomness was about, they could reply, “Vacation.” It’s not unrelated randomness. It is all about vacation.

This chapter is neither unrelated or random. All concerns the tabernacle.

When Israel would sojourn through the wilderness, all of these things wold be packed together and carried by the Levites. All of these things relate to the tent. The tabernacle is diverse, but not because it speaks of a great many different things, but of the great depth and diversity of a single thing, Christ and His redemption—that thing which binds not only the tabernacle together, but everything together. All concerns the tabernacle, and the tabernacle concerns all. Jesus’ redemption is so big that it not only unites all the tabernacle, it also is uniting all creation as a tabernacle.

God Doesn’t Give Busy Work (Exodus 29)

God doesn’t give busy work. The consecration of the priests was a big to do, but what was all the doing for? Why were the priests and the altars consecrated so? Two answers are given, and the first one flows and swells into the second like a river bursting forth into a grand delta.

The priests and the altar are consecrated for the daily offerings (Exodus 29:38–42). In the morning, a lambs offered with wine and flour; in the evening, the same. A full meal is to be cooked up to Yahweh on the altar twice daily.

But why all of this? Why the priests, the altar, the tabernacle, the daily offerings? The answer God gives is Himself. These daily offerings are to be made at the tent of meeting where Yahweh meets with Israel (Exodus 29:42–43). How does the Holy God meet in covenant love with a sinful people? By the priest, the altar, and the tabernacle.

None of this smacks of man trying to pull himself up to heaven. Nor is this God giving man secret carful instructions to climbing a heavenly stairway. All this action is a display of God’s action. The tabernacle and all the priest’s action is a reflection of heavenly realities. Ultimately it is God who consecrates the tent and the priests (Exodus 29:43). The tabernacle is no display of man’s wisdom, but God’s. It speaks nothing of man’s work, but God’s redemption. The tabernacle is not about man ascending, but God descending.

God’s meeting His people here is not to be thought of as the event of a lifetime, but a lifetime event. God meets with His people here because He dwells here (Exodus 29:45). He dwells in their midst as their God for they are His people. He dwells with them in covenant love.

Still this isn’t the end of the blessedness that the tent testifies to. God is not content just to be their God; He wants them to know that He is their God (Exodus 29:46). Specifically, He wants them to know that Yahweh (all caps LORD), the one who has revealed Himself as sovereign, self-existent, eternal, infinite, immutable and incomprehensible, is their redeemer, the one who has delivered them.

The way that God wants Israel to know all of this is by a tent and priesthood that testify of Christ. Don’t shun knowledge of the tabernacle. Don’t think a study of the priest’s consecration moot. All of this is so that you might know Jesus, whose name means “Yahweh Saves.”

Christians Must be Fashion Minded (Exodus 28)

Confusingly, our skin-is-in society tells us clothes make the man. There’s a nugget of truth there. Perhaps we could better say clothes cover up the man. When man fell, he tried to cover up with fig leaves. These were insufficient. God made them garments of skins. Man is still trying to make clothes that make him something, rejecting the only garments that can cover His shame—those which God provides.

Clothes made the high priest. They were holy garments that made him holy (Exodus 28:3). The garments were part of the priest’s consecration (Exodus 28:41, 29:1ff). Because the priests were sinners, they needed to be clothed.

When the priests acted as ministers, they must dress up, but when the great High Priest Jesus acts as a minister, He must dress down. The priests had to put on heaven. Jesus had to put on earth. The sons of Aaron couldn’t reach that high, but the forever Priest after the order of Melchizedek did stoop that low. The priests had to put on holiness. Jesus put on humility. The priest’s holiness wasn’t perfect. Jesus’ humility was.

Before a holy God we need holy representation. We need a son of Adam who is the Son of God. We need someone not simply covered with holiness, but to cover us in His holiness. All the Aaronic priests died; they too were sinners, so how could they deal with other’s sins? Jesus made atonement once for all and ever lives for us clothing us in the robe of His righteousness. Clothed with the garments of the great High Priest, we draw near unto God with boldness and confidence. The shame of Eden is gone. We need not run away, but in Christ, we may draw near to our heavenly Father.

Ark and Altar (Exodus 27)

Some parts of the Bible are like nuts, and often, we’re too lazy to crack them. We easily bore with a passage like this. It is as though we shove the shell of in our mouth expecting candy and then quickly spit it out. Our palates are juvenile and our minds lazy. Comparatively, even among similar passages of Scripture, we find this one lackluster. After the description of the tabernacle, we find that of the courtyard plain, dull, and drab. What we bore with, the Israelites sang of.

“When iniquities prevail against me, you atone for our transgressions. Blessed is the one you choose and bring near, to dwell in your courts! We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, the holiness of your temple (Psalm 65:3–4)!”

“How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD of hosts! My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the LORD; my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God. Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, at your altars, O LORD of hosts, my King and my God. Blessed are those who dwell in your house, ever singing your praise! Selah …For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness(Psalm 84:1–4, 10).”

“Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth! Serve the LORD with gladness! Come into his presence with singing! Know that the LORD, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name! For the LORD is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations (Psalm 100).”

Come to texts like this prayerfully. Come to texts like this willing to work prayerfully. Come to texts like this asking God to make you sing.

Cracking this nut isn’t a matter of finding some hidden meaning in the fine details, but rejoicing in the clear revelation found in the big emphases. The altar is the biggest piece of furniture in the court, don’t miss it. It’s the biggest piece of furniture associated with the tabernacle, and for good reason, it was the most utilized.

As the ark is central to the tent, the altar is central to the court. Sometimes a person might have a piece of furniture or an appliance so large they joke that they build their house around them. Sometime it’s no joke. The tent and the court are designed around the ark and the altar respectively. Ark and altar are not just the prominent pieces of the tabernacle, they are the prominent pieces of the universe.

The only way to the ark is through the altar. The only way into God’s blessed covenant presence is through the altar of Christ cursed for our sins. The only way to the throne of grace is by the judgment of the cross. That’ll make you sing.

When the Tabernacle Burst at the Seams (Exodus 26)

Rare is the soul who reads construction manuals for kicks. Chances are you don’t read the instructions for something you’re going to build; you just look at the pictures. Here are construction plans for something they built, and there are no pictures. You don’t even have the parts, and you couldn’t manufacture them to reconstruct this tent even if you wanted. The more pics of the tabernacle you look at, the better, for you soon realize they’re all different. We know neither the precise size nor appearance of the tabernacle and its furniture.

Don’t mourn that you can’t reconstruct the tabernacle exactly as it was. Don’t mourn that you have words instead of pictures. The majority of the Israelites never saw the tabernacle. It was mysterious. Access was restricted. The clearest insight Israel had of the tent was the text. The way they “saw” the tabernacle is the same way you see—through words. There are no photographs of the tabernacle, for the tabernacle itself is a picture, and one you are meant to see via words. In his commentary on Exodus, Phil Ryken writes,

The reason we study the tabernacle today is not so we can draw pictures of it or build an exact replica (although this can be helpful), but to learn what the tabernacle teaches us about knowing God. The question is what does the tabernacle mean? Why did God tell Moses to set up a tent, and why did he tell him to do it this way?

Don’t feel gypped because you don’t get to see the tabernacle; that’s like wishing you could reconstruct scaffolding once a building project is done. The tabernacle was scaffolding, and it’s no longer needed. We have a description of it, so that we can learn something about the structure that was once under it, but now, the scaffolding has fallen, or rather, that which lied under it, superseded and fulfilled it so that it burst at the seems and rose through it.

Jesus tented among us, the supreme revelation of God’s glory (John 1:14). Through the curtain of His rent flesh we all have access to the Holy of Holies (Hebrews 10:19–22). In Jesus, we’re not just brought into the inner sanctum, we’re indwelt as temples both individually (1 Corinthians 6:19) and corporately (1 Corinthians 3:16–17, Ephesians 2:20–22).

So read these construction plans like a child reads the manual to their newest Lego toy, or the way a young family reads the plans to a home they’re building. Look under the scaffolding to what Christ is, and what in union with Him you are.

The Area 51 of Christendom (Exodus 25)

Concerning the tabernacle, Philo, the Jewish thinker of Alexandria, held that the seven lamps represented the seven then known planets, the four materials the four elements of earth, water, air, and fire, and the precious stones the signs of the Zodiac. Thus the tabernacle portrayed the cosmos. Silly ancient.

The tabernacle was a place of restricted access. Some Christians approach for this reason, others stay away. It’s like the Area 51 of Christendom. There are those who sneer and those who seek; neither approach is healthy. There are the conspiracy theorists who make every little detail of the tabernacle to be about something, and then there are those who stay away because they think all of this a tad weird.

So let me illustrate a healthier approach using a piece of furniture from the tabernacle. What does the gold lampstand mean? One could jump to John 12 where Jesus reveals Himself as the light of the world and trace that rich Biblical theme through the Scriptures, but when finished, he would have only shown that that theme was in the Bible without demonstrating that it was directly tied to the lampstand. In Zechariah 4 and Revelation 1 we see similar lampstands, but in each instance the lamps stand for something different. Further, in those passages we’re told what the lamps meant. Here we’re told nothing. Wisdom would dictate we say nothing. So what does the lamp mean? It means that with all those curtains, the tabernacle was dark and thus the priests needed light (Exodus 25:37).

Don’t miss the forrest for the trees. Don’t miss the word for the letters. We don’t read letters, we read words. Meaning is in words, not letters. The meaning of the tabernacle is in the big scope of things. When God begins to give instructions for the tabernacle, He starts with the core. Keep the core the core. Note what the New Testament makes a big deal out of, and make a big deal out of that. Read Hebrews 8 and 9 and don’t presume to be more insightful than its author. Or, as a friend of mine puts it, “Love Jesus. Don’t get weird.”