Text for the Week: A Place to Meet God

Scripture: Exodus 39:32-43

³² In this way all the work of the meeting tent dwelling was finished. The Israelites did everything just exactly as the Lord had commanded Moses. ³³ Then they brought to Moses the dwelling, the tent, and all its equipment:

its clasps, its boards, its bars, its posts, and its bases,

³⁴ the covering of rams’ skins dyed red, the covering of beaded leather, and the veil for a screen,

³⁵ the chest containing the covenant with its poles and the cover,

³⁶ the table with all its equipment and the bread of the presence,

³⁷ the pure lampstand with its lamps set on it and all its equipment, and the oil for the light,

³⁸ the gold altar, the anointing oil, and the sweet-smelling incense,

the screen for the tent’s entrance,

³⁹ the copper altar and its copper grate, its poles, and all its equipment,

the washbasin with its stand,

⁴⁰ the courtyard’s drapes, its posts, and its bases,

the screen for the plaza’s gate, its cords, and its tent pegs,

and all the other equipment for the service of the dwelling, for the meeting tent,

⁴¹ the woven clothes for ministering as priests in the sanctuary, the holy clothes for the priest Aaron and the clothes for his sons to serve as priests.

⁴² The Israelites did all of the work just as the Lord had commanded Moses. ⁴³ When Moses saw that they in fact had done all the work exactly as the Lord had commanded, Moses blessed them.

Theme- Finishing the Tabernacle provides sacred space for Israel completing God’s creation.

Questions

1. Why does Exodus spend so much time describing the Tabernacle repeating the details multiple times?
2. Is there any significance in the order given to the building of the Tabernacle?
3. How should we interpret the fact that the same people who created the golden calf are able to do “all of the work just as the Lord had commanded”?

Helpful Information

Related texts: Genesis 1-2, Ephesians 2:17-22

There is a reversal in the discussion of the Tabernacle after the covenant is renewed, on a literary level this forms a chiasm around the description of God’s character in Exodus 34 which puts this description at the heart of the story. Within the second telling of the Tabernacle construction it places Sabbath and covenant first, highlighting the true purpose of humanity—to dwell in communion with God.

The Tabernacle is to be finished on the first day which provides a link to the creation narratives in Genesis, so do specific phrases indicating that the Tabernacle is meant to be a new Eden a place where God and humanity can commune together uninterrupted.

The theme of Exodus has not simply been about freedom for Israel but the ability of Israel to serve and worship God, the completion of the tabernacle brings that theme full circle as the people now are able to do so.

For more background watch my video here

Reflection

In Many ways the Book of Exodus, much like the Lord of Rings, has an anticlimactic ending to many in modern America. Many find the Lord of the Rings unsatisfying because they think the book is about destroying the ring and not about the hobbits, so when Frodo and company continue their adventure people loose interest not understanding that the book is about the hobbits making their world right. Likewise, many approach Exodus with the thought that the story revolves around the Israelites being freed from slavery and so loose interest after chapter 20 when the people are freed and given the covenant. But Exodus is not simply about Israel escaping slavery in Egypt it is about Israel claiming the ability to give themselves over freely and completely to the worship and service of their God who rescued them from bondage. This means the story cannot simply end with the people leaving Egypt, at that point the battle is only half won. The people might be liberated but they have not given themselves to the worship of God. This is why Exodus 19-40 are so important to us, they tell the story of Israel growing and learning how to worship God. And that is why it is so fitting for the story to end with the Tabernacle because it is the place of God’s worship.

Not only does the building of the Tabernacle form a fitting conclusion to the theme of Exodus, but the author also uses this as an opportunity to draw our attention back even further. While these are not visible in most translations, there are several references back to the Genesis creation accounts. Notably the allusions are to the seventh day of creation and God creating the Garden in Eden. It is easy to understand that the Tabernacle functioned as a Temple in the wilderness, which is a place for humanity to commune with God, but the author wants us to see it as a microcosm of God’s ideal creation. The tabernacle is meant to be a place where people can enter the Divine presence and experience the world the way it is supposed to be. The Tabernacle was meant to offer the people a place where they could experience God the way humanity was meant to throughout creation.

Modern Americans do not have a developed notion of sacred space; in fact, many modern American Christian traditions have emphasized that God is equally present everywhere. We do this because we often have a backward notion of sacred space. We tend to look at sacred spaces as if God is somehow isolated to those spaces. But sacred spaces are perhaps better interpreted in terms of us, our needs and experiences. These spaces are sacred because they re places where God can be encountered but we are right to recognize God can be encountered anywhere. What makes the space especially sacred is our commitment to meet God consistently in that space. A person who is committed to creating a sacred space is one who is committed to creating Eden on this earth, a place where we can encounter God in unbroken fellowship. It is important to note that many New Testament authors use this same language to talk about Jesus, how he opens the door to the Edenic communication with God. But we also note that many of the earliest Christians remained faithful to the Temple, and I think there is room in our theology to accept Jesus and a physical space can function in this role together. What is important is that we recognize the stain of sin on us and how that sin fundamentally disrupts the world God intends to make. Understanding this we recognize that in Jesus we find the means to remove that stain, which makes us able to walk into the presence of God in a state of purity. Second, we need to create a space where we are going to as far as possible prevent the stain of sin from entering. We need a space that we are going to try to keep clean and allow to cleanse us. Creating a sacred space is about making a place to reflect Eden, it is both a place to run when we need cleansed and restored to the communion God planned for us and a focal point to remind us of our task of extending the Edenic blessing into the world around us. The Tabernacle, like our places of worship was not a place to contain God but a place to encounter God in the most complete and pure way and we should seek to create such sites around us.