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Exodus 40 Bible study: The glory filled the tabernacle

Exodus 40 says "as the LORD commanded Moses" seven times, and it is Moses who lights the lamps, burns the incense and offers on the altar. "So Moses finished the work" has the same Hebrew verb and noun as God finishing his work in Genesis 2:2. The cloud that covered Sinai covers the tent, and Moses, who once went into that cloud, can't go in (40:35).

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“Then the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and the LORD’s glory filled the tabernacle.”
Exodus 40:34 · World English Bible

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“When the tabernacle was set up, Moses himself burned the incense and offered the burnt offering.”

Is that in Exodus 40, or not? Make your call.

What's really going on

Told, then done, in the same order

In the text

The chapter tells the setting up twice. First the LORD gives the order: "the ark of the covenant" and "the veil" (40:3), "the table" and "the lamp stand" (40:4), "the golden altar for incense" and the door screen (40:5), "the altar of burnt offering" (40:6), "the basin" (40:7), and last "the court around it" with "the screen of the gate of the court" (40:8). Then Moses does it, in the same order: the ark and the veil (40:20-21), the table (40:22), the lamp stand (40:24), the golden altar (40:26), the door screen (40:28), the altar (40:29), the basin (40:30), and last, "He raised up the court around the tabernacle and the altar, and set up the screen of the gate of the court" (40:33). Once the tent itself is up (40:18-19), it starts with the ark behind the veil and works outward to the gate.

Where it leads to Jesus

Into the cloud

Interpretation

Exodus 40:35leads toLuke 9:34-35

At the end of Exodus, "Moses wasn’t able to enter into the Tent of Meeting, because the cloud stayed on it" (40:35). On a mountain, Moses and Elijah appear with Jesus and speak "of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem" (Luke 9:30-31). Peter offers to "make three tents" (Luke 9:33). Then "a cloud came and overshadowed them, and they were afraid as they entered into the cloud" (Luke 9:34), and "A voice came out of the cloud, saying, ‘This is my beloved Son. Listen to him!’" (Luke 9:35). Luke doesn't cite Exodus 40, so this link is a reading: some hear in it the cloud that stayed on the tabernacle, now over the mountain where Moses stands with Jesus, and a voice from it pointing to Jesus; others read Luke's cloud on its own.

Honest questions

Questions people ask about Exodus 40

That was a taste

The rest of Exodus 40 is waiting in Favor

  • Seven times, "as the LORD commanded Moses"
  • From the mountain to the tent
  • Where God is, at the end
  • Words from Genesis
  • When the glory filled the temple
  • The cloud leads on
  • 11 questions as you read
  • 11 more Hebrew words
  • A short check at the end
  • Your notes, saved as you go
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The Hebrew word behind it

מִשְׁכָּןmishkansay mish-KAN

Brown-Driver-Briggs gives "dwelling-place, ‘tabernacle’"; Strong's says it comes "from 7931", the verb shakan, "dwell", and gives "a residence" and "specifically, the Tabernacle". It comes 17 times in this chapter, more than in any other chapter of the Hebrew Bible. It is raised up on the first day (40:2, 40:17), filled with glory (40:34-35), and in the last verse of Exodus the cloud is "on the tabernacle by day" (40:38). The LORD had given the reason for it: "that I may dwell among them" (25:8).

For your group

Exodus 40 Bible study questions

  1. 1Again and again, the chapter says it was done "as the LORD commanded Moses." Is there something you know God has asked of you that you've done only partway? What would all the way look like?
  2. 2When the cloud lifted, Israel went; when it stayed, they stayed, however long. Which is harder for you, waiting or going? Where are you waiting right now?
  3. 3Moses finished ordinary, careful work, and then the glory filled the tent. Where have you seen God at work after a long stretch of plain faithfulness, yours or someone else's?

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Questions

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