Exodus 29:38-46 comments: God will meet with the children of Israel in the tabernacle

Exodus 29:38 ¶  Now this is that which thou shalt offer upon the altar; two lambs of the first year day by day continually. 39  The one lamb thou shalt offer in the morning; and the other lamb thou shalt offer at even: 40  And with the one lamb a tenth deal of flour mingled with the fourth part of an hin of beaten oil; and the fourth part of an hin of wine for a drink offering. 41  And the other lamb thou shalt offer at even, and shalt do thereto according to the meat offering of the morning, and according to the drink offering thereof, for a sweet savour, an offering made by fire unto the LORD. 42  This shall be a continual burnt offering throughout your generations at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the LORD: where I will meet you, to speak there unto thee. 43  And there I will meet with the children of Israel, and the tabernacle shall be sanctified by my glory. 44  And I will sanctify the tabernacle of the congregation, and the altar: I will sanctify also both Aaron and his sons, to minister to me in the priest’s office. 45  And I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will be their God. 46  And they shall know that I am the LORD their God, that brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, that I may dwell among them: I am the LORD their God.

 

Here is an important point to be made in verse 43. The tabernacle is sanctified or set apart for God’s service by God’s glory present within it.

We are sanctified, as the living temple of the Holy Ghost, by God’s presence inside of us. I think it would not hurt to review some facts again that I’ve touched on before.

First, understand that Satan is the god, little ‘g’, of this fallen world.

2Corinthians 4:4  In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

The Kingdom of God, our Creator, is not visible to the world like human kingdoms. It is within the believers making all state-churches and so-called Christian nations of history counterfeit works of Satan.

John 18:36  Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence.

Luke 17:21  Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

We have the Spirit of God, which is the Holy Spirit, which is also called the Spirit of Christ, living inside of us.

John 14:23  Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.

Romans 8:9  But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

    10 ¶  And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11  But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.

We are the temple of God, if we belong to Him.

1Corinthians 3:16 ¶  Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?

1Corinthians 6:19  What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

2Corinthians 6:16  And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

You and I have seen previously that we can neither pray nor worship in a way that is pleasing to God without His involvement, cleansing our prayer and our worship to make it suitable to Him. We do not save ourselves nor do we keep ourselves saved. It is God who makes us presentable to Him. It is Christ, the Son, who makes us acceptable to God the Father by means of the Holy Ghost, all three parts of the Godhead, working in us by the agency of the Holy Spirit.

And so here, it is God’s presence in the tabernacle that sanctifies the tabernacle, with God willing to enter into it when obedience is satisfied by what He has commanded. In the case of the Christian, whether he be Jew or non-Jew, a Gentile this is what is required.

John 6:28 ¶  Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? 29  Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.

God did not want to just carve out a people from the mass of humanity through Abraham and his descendants, the Hebrews. He wanted to live among them, to move about in the place where they moved. He wanted to experience them close up and personal, not just in the way He does as He directs every cell function and heartbeat and all reality but also in the reality that they experienced. It is important to God to experience our reality and to live in the space in which we live. He wants to know His people intimately, not just as a distant figure, untouchable and unapproachable.

Revelation 21:3  And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

The institutional church of history whether it be Roman Catholic, Anglican, or Baptist has tried to restrict this desire of God to have a relationship with His people. They tried and try to restrict access to God, to the people experiencing the presence of God, to the church organization only whether it be a catechism of the Roman Catholic Church insisting that the Holy Spirit only operates within the church organization not the individual believer or a Baptist saying that God only speaks to his people through the sermon on Sunday morning. God indwells you for a reason and He wants to experience you without the restraint of a go-between which is why He provided Himself as the go-between, the mediator.

With regard to measurements a hin is, according to Strong’s, about 5 quarts to 1.5 gallons or roughly 6 liters. Some authorities say a tenth deal of flour was the equivalent of 6 pints. I’m sure we cannot be certain with these measurements and would expect to find conflicting statements, much as we would in trying to understand what a cubit was.