Monday, August 31, 2020

Exodus, chapter 40 comments: conclusion




Exodus 40:1 ¶  And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 2  On the first day of the first month shalt thou set up the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation. 3  And thou shalt put therein the ark of the testimony, and cover the ark with the vail. 4  And thou shalt bring in the table, and set in order the things that are to be set in order upon it; and thou shalt bring in the candlestick, and light the lamps thereof. 5  And thou shalt set the altar of gold for the incense before the ark of the testimony, and put the hanging of the door to the tabernacle. 6  And thou shalt set the altar of the burnt offering before the door of the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation. 7  And thou shalt set the laver between the tent of the congregation and the altar, and shalt put water therein. 8  And thou shalt set up the court round about, and hang up the hanging at the court gate. 9  And thou shalt take the anointing oil, and anoint the tabernacle, and all that is therein, and shalt hallow it, and all the vessels thereof: and it shall be holy. 10  And thou shalt anoint the altar of the burnt offering, and all his vessels, and sanctify the altar: and it shall be an altar most holy. 11  And thou shalt anoint the laver and his foot, and sanctify it. 12  And thou shalt bring Aaron and his sons unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and wash them with water. 13  And thou shalt put upon Aaron the holy garments, and anoint him, and sanctify him; that he may minister unto me in the priest’s office. 14  And thou shalt bring his sons, and clothe them with coats: 15  And thou shalt anoint them, as thou didst anoint their father, that they may minister unto me in the priest’s office: for their anointing shall surely be an everlasting priesthood throughout their generations.

    40:16 ¶  Thus did Moses: according to all that the LORD commanded him, so did he. 17  And it came to pass in the first month in the second year, on the first day of the month, that the tabernacle was reared up. 18  And Moses reared up the tabernacle, and fastened his sockets, and set up the boards thereof, and put in the bars thereof, and reared up his pillars. 19  And he spread abroad the tent over the tabernacle, and put the covering of the tent above upon it; as the LORD commanded Moses. 20  And he took and put the testimony into the ark, and set the staves on the ark, and put the mercy seat above upon the ark: 21  And he brought the ark into the tabernacle, and set up the vail of the covering, and covered the ark of the testimony; as the LORD commanded Moses. 22  And he put the table in the tent of the congregation, upon the side of the tabernacle northward, without the vail. 23  And he set the bread in order upon it before the LORD; as the LORD had commanded Moses. 24  And he put the candlestick in the tent of the congregation, over against the table, on the side of the tabernacle southward. 25  And he lighted the lamps before the LORD; as the LORD commanded Moses. 26  And he put the golden altar in the tent of the congregation before the vail: 27  And he burnt sweet incense thereon; as the LORD commanded Moses. 28  And he set up the hanging at the door of the tabernacle. 29  And he put the altar of burnt offering by the door of the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation, and offered upon it the burnt offering and the meat offering; as the LORD commanded Moses. 30  And he set the laver between the tent of the congregation and the altar, and put water there, to wash withal. 31  And Moses and Aaron and his sons washed their hands and their feet thereat: 32  When they went into the tent of the congregation, and when they came near unto the altar, they washed; as the LORD commanded Moses. 33  And he reared up the court round about the tabernacle and the altar, and set up the hanging of the court gate. So Moses finished the work.

    40:34 ¶  Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. 35  And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation, because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. 36  And when the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the children of Israel went onward in all their journeys: 37  But if the cloud were not taken up, then they journeyed not till the day that it was taken up. 38  For the cloud of the LORD was upon the tabernacle by day, and fire was on it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys.
    
Much of what is written here has already been commented on. We’ve learned a great deal about our worship and our reality here in Exodus and there are a few things I want to point out again. Our work for God is only acceptable to God if it is sanctified by Him. He makes our prayers and our worship acceptable to Him.

Aaron acts as a mediator between God and man in his office as priest. For Christians, Christ is our mediator. There are many verses about Christ bearing our sins and I will not post them all but this one is applicable to what Aaron was doing. We need no priest other than Christ, fully human and fully God, who in his humanity is our priest.

1Timothy 2:5  For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus…

Aaron is to bear the iniquity of the holy things in 28:38 and make acceptable to God the Hebrew’s fallible and weak offerings to him. Our worship without God’s help is a meager and pathetic thing. We don’t even know how to pray as we ought, we are so blinded by our sin nature. We need help.
The Holy Spirit even sanctifies our prayers.

Romans 8:26  Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

Another point is that God blessed the midwives and made them houses.
Exodus 1:21  And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, that he made them houses.
Now, lest you think God is in the business of building suburban developments near Cairo understand that a house can be a family, or a dynasty, that goes on for generations.
Exodus 6:14  These be the heads of their fathers’ houses: The sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel; Hanoch, and Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi: these be the families of Reuben.
1Samuel 20:16  So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, Let the LORD even require it at the hand of David’s enemies.
As well as a building…
1Kings 9:10  And it came to pass at the end of twenty years, when Solomon had built the two houses, the house of the LORD, and the king’s house,
So, depending on the context house can be short for household as well including servants, wives, and children.
Genesis 45:2  And he wept aloud: and the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard.
So, a question for fundamentalists arises naturally from this. Is this reference following a physical building or a group of people characterized in type as a spiritual building?
1Corinthians 14:23  If therefore the whole church be come together into one place, and all speak with tongues, and there come in those that are unlearned, or unbelievers, will they not say that ye are mad?
How do physical buildings come together to meet? Seems an absurdity.
Colossians 1:18  And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence…24  Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church:
The church is Christ’s body on earth, not a building.
Acts 2:47  Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.
1Timothy 3:15  But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.
So, what is the house of God, to the Roman Catholic ‘wannabes’ of Protestant fundamentalism, the Vatican’s auxiliaries? Has the gate of heaven reference in Genesis 28:17 confused you? Do you consider your specific church building, the place where your church meets, the ladder between heaven and earth? What about Christ in John 1:51? And what about these verses?
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?
Our bodies are the tabernacle where God meets with us after the resurrection because His Spirit resides in 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.

God’s Spirit is already inside of us if we are Christians and we do not need to ask for Him to “come down and walk among the pews.” We should ask to be filled with His Spirit.
Ephesians 5:18  And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; 19  Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; 20  Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; 21 ¶  Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.

God has placed in our hearts the things He wants from us if we will hear and obey.

Jeremiah 31:33  But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.

2Corinthians 3:2  Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men: 3  Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.

We must remember that Christ has fulfilled the Law for us. He is the fulfillment of it.

2Corinthians 3:12 ¶  Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech: 13  And not as Moses, which put a vail over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished: 14  But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ. 15  But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart. 16  Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away. 17  Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 18  But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

In Paul’s great argument, his letter to the Romans, he lays it out.

Romans 10:1 ¶  Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. 2  For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. 3  For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. 4  For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. 5  For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, That the man which doeth those things shall live by them. 6  But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:) 7  Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.) 8  But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; 9  That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10  For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 11  For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.

Always remembering that we Christians are not justified by the Law given to Moses.

Galatians 3:19 ¶  Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. 20  Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one. 21  Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law. 22  But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. 23  But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. 24  Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25  But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. 26  For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. 27  For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28  There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. 29  And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

There are many wonderful passages in Exodus. One that is revealed in the translation of great importance is this.
Exodus 12:3  Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house: 4  And if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbour next unto his house take it according to the number of the souls; every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb. 5  Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats:

These verses give us an understanding who Christ was and is.

He is a lamb (verse 3), a sacrifice and ransom to God, the propitiation to satisfy God’s wrath for mankind’s sins against Him. He is the lamb (verse 4), the only way to salvation. He is your lamb (verse 5), who died for your sins on the cross at Calvary and rose for your justification.
God is with us in our wilderness wanderings as we leave the world when we are born again and often wander in the wilderness trying to find our way.  God wants to lead us, to direct us to our Promised Land, eternal life with Him. The kingdom of God is within us.

Luke 17:20 ¶  And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: 21  Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

Exodus teaches us about how the Hebrews were enslaved in Egypt as we are enslaved to the world before we followed Christ. The Red Sea crossing is our salvation experience as we are led by God toward what He has ordained for us. We resist and struggle against Him often and just as the generation of Hebrews that left Egypt could not enter the Promised Land neither can our flesh, in its present form, go to ours. We must leave our temporal bodies in the wilderness.
God’s glory filled the tabernacle in the wilderness and we should desire that His Spirit fill this tabernacle in which we walk and live in a fallen world. In that tabernacle is an ark that contains the testimony of God as it should be in us.
Exodus teaches so much and I have only scratched the surface. I hope you will look into it for deeper truths and more important connections than I could give you here.

No comments: