Êxodo 40

Êxodo 40

Morris - This cloud of glory, so brilliant that they could not even enter the tabernacle, had been with them day and night ever since they left Egypt (Exodus 13:21,22) and stayed with them as guide and protection throughout their years in the wilderness (Numbers 9:15-23). Its perpetual presence, evidencing the personal presence of God the Creator, who is Light, testifies clearly that these forty years were years of unique divine power and provision. Its miracles are not to be explained in terms of the normal processes of nature. This shekinah, the glory cloud, appeared again, centuries later, at the dedication of Solomon's temple (1 Kings 8:10,11). It will also fill the new Jerusalem, the eternal heavenly tabernacle (Revelation 21:10,11, 22,23), when it is established on the new earth, and there God, in Christ, will personally dwell with His people forever. Bush - The glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. That is, the visible sign or symbol of the Lord’s glorious presence ‘By this Glory was signified,’ says Matmonides ‘a certain created splendor which God caused miraculously to dwell any where for the purpose of manifesting forth his majesty.’ Abrabanel on this passage speaks still more distinctly; ‘Behold, it is clear that the Glory of the Lord was not a cloud, but something in respect to light and splendor like unto fire. A cloud, however, was round about it, as smoke is always about a fire; and as burning lamps (or lightnings) appear from the midst of clouds, so was the Glory of the Lord like to fire in the midst of the cloud and the darkness.’ In this august manner God look formal possession of the house which had been prepared for his residence. All things having been duty made ready, the great and glorious Occupant now makes a solemn entry into the habitation in which he had promised to dwell, and of which he now virtually says, ‘This is the place of my throne, and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel for ever.’ By this act Jehovah not only testified the restoration of his forfeited favor to the people, and his gracious acceptance of their services, but also gave typically a pledge of the future tabernacling of Chris: the true Shekinah, in human flesh, and of an ulterior visible manifestation of the divine glory in the latter days on the earth. This latter great event is distinctly foreshown in the following passages in language bearing evident allusion to that of Moses in the narrative before us; Ezek. 43:4, 5, ‘And the Glory of the Lord came into the house by the way of the gate whose prospect is toward the east.—So the Spirit took me up and brought me into the inner court; and behold the Glory of the Lord filled the house.’ John also in the Revelation, chap. 21:10, 11, alluding to the same illustrious period of the church, says, ‘And he carried me in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God; having the Glory of God.’ For ourselves we think it deserving of the most serious and profound enquiry, whether this ‘glory to be revealed’ be not a another term for the whole heavenly world composed of the glorified spiritual bodies of Christ and his saints, together with his holy angels, coming down to enter into a new and abiding connexion with the church on earth in its latter-day prosperity. To what else can it refer? Our Savior expressly assured his disciples that ‘hereafter they should see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending, upon the Son of Man. Equally explicit is the declaration of John in the Apocalypse, ch. 21:3, ‘And I heard a great voice from heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he shall dwell with them, and they shall be his people; and God himself shall be with them, and shall be their God.’ As the glory of the Shekinah came in all its effulgence and took possession of the tabernacle when it was prepared for its reception, so when the earth, by the previous outpouring of the Spirit and the universal diffusion and establishment of the gospel shall have become fitted for the divine inhabitation, are we not taught to expect that the glorified Savior and the glorified saved—the substance of the resplendent Cloud and the shining Cherubim of the most holy place—shall come and fix themselves in permanent sojourn in the temple thus prepared for them? Not that we are to understand this as implying that the glorified saints will ever be promiscuously mingled together with the tenants of earth, the dwellers in houses of clay and houses of wood or stone, but simply that there will be a visible communication and an intimate relation between these two great departments of the Lord’s family. We have no reason to suppose that spiritual bodies will ever inhabit material tenements on the earth, but as there was at the birth of Christ a sudden and glorious manifestation of a multitude of the heavenly host in the air, so we are perhaps taught that a similar developement of the invisible world will be made and become permanent in the latter day, abiding in immediate proximity to our globe, and thus giving its ultimate fulfilment to the dream of Jacob of an angelic inter-course between heaven and earth. In this state of things, the separating veil between the holy and the most place, will be done away. The cherubim will be ‘living creatures’ and pass freely out into the outer room. Sure we are, that if these predictions do not announce the sublime event now suggested, as they plainly point to some fulfilment of stupendous character, it behoves the interpreters of the oracles of God to inform an inquiring world what they do mean. It is impossible to be faithful to the entrusted truth of heaven, and permit its most sublime revelations to lie shrouded in obscurity under the idle plea that they are a part of prophecy, and that prophecy was not designed to be understood till it is accomplished. Not indeed that we would maintain that prophecy can be equally well understood before and after its accomplishment, but if it be unintelligible, why are we exhorted to study it? The truth is, the prophecies touch the very vital doctrines of Christianity. Its grand sanctions—its promises of bliss and its threatenings of woe—the judgment, the resurrection, and the New Jerusalem—are inseparably interwoven with the fulfilment of the great chain of scriptural prophecy; and we doubt not the time is not far distant when the interests of truth will imperiously demand that the mysteries of the Apocalypse shall be unfolded. D A Carson - THE CLOSING LINES OF Exodus 40 tie together several important themes already introduced, and anticipate several others. Here the construction of the tabernacle is complete, along with the vestments and accoutrements for priestly service. “Then the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle” (Ex 40:34). This must be the pillar of cloud (during the day) and the pillar of fire (during the night) that had accompanied them from the beginning. It signaled the very presence of God, and gave them direction as to when and where to move. Now that cloud rests over the newly constructed tabernacle or Tent of Meeting, settling in it, filling it. Indeed, in this inaugural filling, the presence of the Lord is so intense that not even Moses, let alone any other, can enter (40:35). Moreover, from now on the cloud of glory rests upon the tabernacle when the people are to stay put, and rises and leads the people when they are to move on (40:36–38). Six observations: (1) For the pillar of cloud and fire to rest on the tabernacle is to link this structure with the visible symbol of the ongoing, guiding, powerful presence of God. (2) At one point, after the wretched rebellion that resulted in the construction of a golden calf, God had refused to go up in the midst of his covenant community. Moses interceded (Ex. 32–34). Here is the fruit of his prayers. The tabernacle is now built, the presence of God hovers over it in the symbolic form with which the people have become familiar, and all of this right in the midst of the twelve tribes. (3) This focus on the tabernacle at the end of Exodus prepares the way for the opening chapters of Leviticus, viz. the specification of the sacrifices and offerings to be performed in connection with tabernacle service. (4) That tabernacle anticipates the temple. In fact, it is a kind of mobile temple. In the days of Solomon, when the permanent structure is complete, the glory of God likewise descends there, establishing the link with the tabernacle and with the pillar of cloud and fire of the wilderness years. (5) To anticipate the future: nothing more powerfully symbolizes the impending destruction of Jerusalem than the vision of the departure of the glory of God (Ezek. 10–11). (6) Nothing more powerfully attests the unique revelatory and mediating role of Jesus Christ than the insistence that he is the true temple (John 2:19–22); and nothing more powerfully portrays the sheer glory of heaven than the assertion that there is no temple there, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple (Rev. 21:22). (See For the Love of God (Vol. 1): A Daily Companion - Page 29) G Campbell