“The Cloud covered the Tent of
Meeting, and the Glory of God filled The Dwelling. Moses
couldn’t enter the Tent of Meeting because the Cloud was upon it,
and the Glory of God filled The Dwelling.”
Exodus 40:34-35,
The Message
My thirteen and a
half month study of the Book of Exodus ended yesterday. Since
mid-January of 2016 until yesterday morning I have slowly plodded
through its pages, musing on the old story once again. On my journey
I was accompanied by Biblical scholars Walter Kaiser Jr., R. Alan
Cole, J.A. Motyer and John Mackay as well as several others who
contributed to my meditations – Kathy Lee-Thorp, Meindert DeJong,
Thomas Cahill, Bruce Feiler and Walter Wangerin, Jr. The principal
story line of Exodus I have known since my youth and flannel graph
days – the people in slavery, the plagues visited upon Egypt, the
Red Sea crossing, the receiving of the Ten Commandments, the Golden
Calf and the construction of the Tabernacle – but just like I have
found with the rest of the Scriptures, the Word is indeed “living
and active”, so that every time you read it the potential is real
to see something or hear something new that you hadn't seen or heard
before. Such was the case with this read-through.
When I attended
Bible college back in the early 80s, I didn't attend a school that
embraced the JEDP-theory of the Pentateuch (essentially the belief
that the first five books of the Bible were derived from several
different sources instead of being composed by one author) but we had
to, at least, be familiar with the idea. Having it be the source of
my devotional life for a little over a year I am now more persuaded
than ever that at least with Exodus, the book is a unity. I am no
scholar by any stretch of the word but the themes of the book are
consistent and seem to flow from one mind, one individual who was
chosen for a remarkable task.
The Book of Genesis
opens with creation and all its splendor, portraying humanity as it
was always meant to be. It ends with the fateful words “...he was
placed in a coffin in Egypt” (50:26). The story of Exodus begins
where Genesis left off – in Egypt but the people who once sought
refuge there had become enslaved for hundreds of years. By the end of
the book the people are in the wilderness of Sinai, now free and in
covenant with Yahweh with the glory of the Lord filling the
Tabernacle. They
J.A. Motyer writes
of the “clouds” of Exodus:
And
even more significant inclusio
looks back to the first chapters of Exodus. There is no verbal
reference to a 'cloud' in 1:1-2:10, yet we could not expound that
passage without reference to 'days of darkness' and 'to living in
the shadows.' It was, indeed, such a time. The dark shadow of
enslavement lay upon the people of God, the bitter cry of bereavement
as their sons were snatched from them for the river, the blows of
the taskmaster, a future without hope, and the relentless, uncaring
policy of genocide. They were at that time a people under a cloud,
even if the text does not expressly say so. Now, at the end of the
book, they were again a people under a cloud, this time the cloud of
the Lord, the signal of his presence in glory, holiness and grace.
Between these two clouds the Sovereign Lord of the whole earth had
routed all the power of the enemy, granted his people deliverance,
brought them to himself by the blood of the lamb, graced them with
his directive law and come, in the fullness of his person, to take up
residence in their midst as their indwelling God. This is the whole
story of the book of Exodus.
The
Bible Speaks Today: The Message of Exodus by J.A. Motyer, pp. 325-26
I
think on that day that Moses inspects all that had been constructed
(Exodus 39:32-43) – the furniture that will be in the Tent
including the ark and the altar of incense, the tunics that the
priests will wear and the special vestments for the high priest, the
curtains and the stands that will hold up the Tent, and all the other
special equipment. Like some agent of the FDA inspecting food, slowly
Moses makes his way around the plot of ground where the articles have
been lain inspecting their quality and ensuring that they are
according to plan. One of the men who serves on our Board of Deacons
has been involved in the construction of many homes. He tells me that
between blueprint and finished product there are always a lot of
“tweaks” to the plan. During his 40-day stay on the mountain,
among other things, Moses had been given a blueprint for the Dwelling
Place – the place where Yahweh would camp among his people.
Amazingly, considering how many workmen had been involved, he finds
at the end of the construction phase everything was completed “just
as the LORD had commanded” (39:42).
All
was set. All was made ready but the glory had not yet come. At this
moment, it's beautiful craftsmanship but nothing else. And then, “the
cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled
the tabernacle” (40:34). This is the climax of the story. God comes
to dwell with his people and share in their travels. The Presence is
so thick that not even Moses can enter the place. As Motyer comments:
Strange
as it must have seemed, the tent designed for meeting was the very
place even Moses found he could not meet with the Lord. The title
belied the reality. The Lord had come home, but was not 'at home' to
callers. Was Moses surprised? Reading between the lines, the text
seems to hint that he was, that he tried to go in but found he could
not. Yet, in reality, nothing had changed. On Sinai, while Moses did
indeed enter the divine presence, he never did so without
invitation, and in 24:15-16 he even waited six days to be called. The
Lord is sovereignly in charge of his own front door.
(p. 324)
John
Mackay points out that the same cloud that had covered Mount Sinai
when Moses had gone up on it (24:15-16) now settles and fills the
sacred Tent “which becomes in effect a miniature, portable Sinai.
The LORD's presence with his people is not confined to a single site,
but may now with them wherever they go” (Exodus: A Mentor
Commentary by John Mackay, p. 604). This is Day 1 of the beginning of
the second year since leaving captivity. In the camp they are
celebrating the Passover – it's first memorial celebration. The
cloud of God's presence is filling his Dwelling Place among them. On
this day, the hope and the joy they experienced must have been
palpable. The living God was in their midst. The land of promise
awaits them. Who could stop them now? Of whom could they be afraid?
The only appropriate response to these reality is worship.
