God gives instructions for them to be followed.
Bible Study Ideas and Commentary for Exodus 40
Here at the end of the book of Exodus, we have the record that the people finally obeyed God completely and precisely -- and He approved their efforts by inhabiting the Tabernacle He had instructed Moses to build. This is the final piece in God's plan to lead His people to their Promised Land. It also foreshadows the problems the people will soon create.
Moses did everything just as the Lord had commanded him. (40:16)

When We Studied This Passage in 2017
I talked about
Where do you meet God?
God's glory around us
A job well done
God's glory (which I also talk about below)
How do you know God is with you?
Getting Started: Things to Think About
Blind Construction Contest
I have no idea if you can use this, but I saw it on a construction company's team-building page and thought it was fun. Essentially, you divide your group into teams and give everybody the same materials. (Legos, playdough, popsicle sticks, whatever you want.) Only one person on the team is allowed to touch anything, and that person is blindfolded. Then, you show a picture of what you want the teams to build, and the people who can see try to explain to the blindfolded person what they're supposed to do.
On the website, this was a 15-minute ordeal, so you'll want to make it an extremely simple build to keep it short.
The point is that construction is a lot easier when everybody knows what the end-goal is and everybody works together.
Lego Instructions without Pictures
Here's my next crazy idea -- try to turn some Lego instructions into text-only instructions. As in you're not allowed to show any diagrams at all. Not of the end result, not of the intermediate steps, nothing. I don't think it can be done!

My point would be that we only have the written instructions for the Tabernacle today, which is why there are so many different ideas for how it would look.
But let's remember that God gave Moses an actual "vision" of the completed Tabernacle, and He gave specific skills to individuals so that they could precisely do what Moses told them to do.
You must make it according to all that I show you—the pattern of the tabernacle as well as the pattern of all its furnishings. (25:9)
Look, I have appointed by name Bezalel son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah. I have filled him with God’s Spirit, with wisdom, understanding, and ability in every craft to design artistic works in gold, silver, and bronze, to cut gemstones for mounting, and to carve wood for work in every craft. (31:2-5)
What Makes for the Best Construction Instructions?
You've probably had both good and bad experiences with "some assembly required". While I love the challenge of poorly-worded and confusing instructions, I prefer to know what I'm supposed to be doing. So, what separates good instructions from poor instructions?
Here's what Google says -- Visual clarity. Logical progression. Precise labeling. Minimal text. Multiple perspectives. And here's what makes for poor instructions: ambiguous language, overly complicated diagrams, and missing information. Yeah, that all sounds pretty right to me. What do you think?
All of that to make this point -- here we are 3,500 years later in a different language, and people all over the world can attempt to build a modern tabernacle and come up with results that are pretty consistent. Maybe these chapters are more effective than you give them credit for!
(If it makes you feel better about yourself, remember that Moses was with God for 40 days getting these instructions down right.)
Where We Are in Exodus
I found this map that I very much like -- it puts the first books of the Bible on a map. And it's right! Genesis moves us into the Promised Land and then to Egypt. Exodus moves us out of Egypt and to Mt. Sinai. Leviticus takes places entirely at Mt. Sinai. Numbers takes us on a winding road back to the Promised Land. Deuteronomy takes place on the verge of entering the Promised Land. Joshua takes place in the Promised Land, and Judges follows the downward spiral of the people there.

The book of Exodus gets us to Mt. Sinai where the people get an "overview" of their covenant relationship with God and receive instructions for building the Tabernacle, God's dwelling place with His people on their journey. The book of Numbers starts with an "overview" of how God has prepared the people to enter the Promised Land and goes with them. (The people rebel in Numbers 11, setting up the wandering in the wilderness until that rebellious generation dies.) In between is the book of Leviticus.
I really like how the Bible Project explains the transition. After the people build the tabernacle in Exodus 40 (this week's passage), God's glory fills it, and Moses is unable to enter it. This sudden separation between God and Moses reveals a very important problem that must be dealt with: the people's sin. And that is what the book of Leviticus is about.
This Week's Big Idea: Glory
Moses cannot enter the Tabernacle because it is filled with God's glory. This is an important transition in the Bible where we begin to learn more about who God is and how He cannot tolerate the presence of sin. (As I said above, it is no coincidence that the next book of the Bible is Leviticus.)

Think about the classic "oil and water" illustration (or even the "soap and pepper" illustration I suggested a couple of weeks back). It's not just that oil and water don't mix, it's that they actively push against each other (I think this is easier to see with the pepper).


But if God is spirit, how does He "push back" against the presence of Moses from the Tabernacle (the "tent of meeting")? Well, yes, (1) because God can do whatever He wants. But, this is actually the best time to explain the biblical concept of glory.
Ask your group what they think of when they hear "glory".
My guess is that most people think of something immaterial, like a reputation or an image. But the biblical definition goes beyond that. The Hebrew word for glory (kavod) means "weighty". It's where we get idioms like "his opinion carries weight" or "he really threw his weight around". Weight has substance, real impact. Importantly, we can't give somebody "weight", we can only recognize the weight that somebody already carries.
(No, this would not be an appropriate time for jokes. And yes, I would like to think of a different way to say all of that.)
The point is that God's glory is so great that it manifests physically. (In our Sunday service, the preschoolers will sing "my God is so great, so strong and so mighty, there's nothing my God cannot do" -- which is an impressive attempt to put "glory" into words.) When God fills a space, His glory actually pushes everything else away. The only reason Moses or anyone else isn't immediately flattened by God's glory is He "withholds" Himself for everyone's good.
Please refer to this well-written and impressively short entry from the Holman Bible Dictionary; they are always top-of-the-line with their Bible references:
Glory. Weighty importance and shining majesty that accompany God's presence. The basic meaning of the Hebrew word kavod is heavy in weight (cop. 1 Sam. 4:18; Prov. 27:3). Thus it can refer to a heavy burden (Exod. 18:18; Ps. 38:4; cp. more idiomatic uses in Gen. 12:10; 47:4; Exod. 4:10; 7:14). On the other side, it can describe extreme good fortune or mass numbers, a use with many different English translations (cp. Gen. 13:2; Exod. 12:38; Num. 20:20; 1 Kings 10:2).
The verb thus often comes to mean "give weight to, honor" (Exod. 20:12; 1 Sam. 15:30; Ps. 15:4; Prov. 4:8; Isa. 3:5). Such honor that people give to one another is a recognition of the place of the honored person in the human community. A nation can have such honor or glory (Isa. 16:14; 17:3). This is not so much something someone bestows on another as a quality of importance that a person, group, or nation has and which another recognizes.
"To give glory" is to praise, to recognize the importance of another, the weight the other carries in the community. In the Psalms people give such glory to God; they recognize the essential nature of His "godness" that gives Him importance and weight in relationship to the human worshiping community (cp. Pss. 22:23; 86:12; Isa. 24:15). Human praise to God can be false, not truly recognizing His importance (Isa. 29:13; cp. 1 Sam. 2:30). At times God creates glory for Himself (Exod. 14:4,17; Ezek. 28:22). As one confesses guilt and accepts rightful punishment, one is called upon to recognize the righteousness and justice of God and give Him glory (Josh. 7:19; 1 Sam. 6:5). God thus reveals His glory in His just dealings with humans. He also reveals it in the storms and events of nature (Ps. 29; cp. Isa. 6). Glory is thus that side of God which humans recognize and to which humans respond in confession, worship, and praise (cp. Isa. 58:8; 60:1). Still, for the OT, the greatest revelation of divine glory came on Sinai (Deut. 5:24). Yet such experiences are awesome and fearful (Deut. 5:25). Such revelation does not, however, reveal all of God, for no person can see the entirety of the divine glory, not even Moses (Exod. 33:17-23).
The NT uses doxa to express glory and limits the meaning to God's glory. In classical Greek doxa means opinion, conjecture, expectation, and then praise. The NT carries forward the OT meaning of divine power and majesty (Acts 7:2; Eph. 1:17; 2 Pet. 1:17). The NT extends this to Christ as having divine glory (Luke 9:32; John 1:14; 1 Cor. 2:8; 2 Thess. 2:14).
Divine glory means that humans do not seek glory for themselves (Matt. 6:2; John 5:44; 1 Thess. 2:6). They only look to receive praise and honor from Christ (Rom. 2:7; 5:2; 1 Thess. 2:19; Phil. 2:16).
Bonus Big Idea: Tabernacle Symbolism Part 2
I said that we had two weeks to talk about the Tabernacle, so here's just a little bit more. Please refer to last week's lesson for more details.
Last week, I tried to point out how the design of the Tabernacle
pointed us to Jesus, and
reflected heaven
Let me take a few moments to spell that out a little more.

There is a fence around the Tabernacle keeping the people out, just as our sin keeps us from being in God's presence. (In life, it is for our good, because God's glory and holiness would destroy anything sinful in His presence.)
There is a gate that allows certain people (priests who have been consecrated) into the Tabernacle courtyard. Similarly, Jesus said He is the gate for any who want to be a part of "God's sheep", and He is the "only way" into the courtyard -- anyone who tries to enter by another way will be destroyed.
Before anyone can enter the Tabernacle proper, they must pass by the altar of the burnt offering and the bronze laver of ceremonial water. For us, Jesus was the once-for-all sacrifice that paid the price for our sins, and by trusting in Him, our sin has been washed away (a cleansing that is symbolized by baptism).
Then, in the Holy Place, we find a menorah that the priests must always keep lit (representing the presence and guidance of God), a table which the priests must always keep covered in the 12 loaves (representing God's provision for the twelve tribes), and an incense altar which the priests must keep burning (representing the prayers and sacrifices of the people that rise to God's throne). Now we remember that Jesus called Himself the light of the world. the bread of life, and that He is the reason we can approach the throne of God with confidence -- He is our Mediator.
Finally, there is the Most Holy Place, containing only the Ark of the Covenant, representing God's very throne. Because we belong to Jesus, Jesus has given us the right to march into God's throne room as beloved children.
This is why I say that the design of the Tabernacle (and likewise the Temple) points us to salvation in Jesus.
And I can't type the phrase "march into God's throne room as beloved children" without thinking of this priceless BBC interview --
Thank goodness that God is never too busy to receive us with joy, right? (But the interviewee's small smile is a great giveaway.)

The Tabernacle and Heaven
I saw this diagram online --

The guy who drew up this diagram takes the symbolism way too far (see the warning in the next section), but his proposal is something I've never thought about: the Tabernacle was designed to literally (physically?) reflect the arrangement of the heavenly throne room. That's going to take some thought and study, but I'm happy to share someone's interesting idea ...
... with a very important caveat that I'm not completely convinced that God intended that interpretation of the Tabernacle. This idea is interesting, but it may be reading too much into the text. And that leads me to one final point about the Tabernacle:
Tabernacle Symbolism Gone Awry
Something I wish I had done last week is warn you about how some groups take the symbolism of the Tabernacle to places that are just downright bizarre. This diagram is from a Mormon church:

I saw similar exercises in Jehovah's Witnesses teachings and elsewhere.
The challenge with "teaching by symbols" is that you can make any object symbolize whatever you want (and sound really smart and spiritual doing it). The Mormons can apparently use the Tabernacle to defend their doctrines of baptismal regeneration, the three degrees of glory ("the three kingdoms"), and why we need the Book of Mormon. So ... that's a concern.
I tend to be very cautious about using symbolism to explain/interpret the Bible, unless the Bible itself has done so (and that usually something in the New Testament explaining something in the Old, as we saw with Hebrews 8 last week). God is much better at using symbols/types/images than we are, so I'm happy to acknowledge that such symbols exist, but I don't "put much weight on" a symbol unless I know for certain from the Bible that God intended that symbol to be recognized.
Part 1: Somehow, the People Got It Done (Exodus 40:16-21)
16 Moses did everything just as the Lord had commanded him. 17 The tabernacle was set up in the first month of the second year, on the first day of the month. 18 Moses set up the tabernacle: He laid its bases, positioned its supports, inserted its crossbars, and set up its pillars. 19 Then he spread the tent over the tabernacle and put the covering of the tent on top of it, just as the Lord had commanded Moses. 20 Moses took the testimony and placed it in the ark, and attached the poles to the ark. He set the mercy seat on top of the ark. 21 He brought the ark into the tabernacle, put up the curtain for the screen, and screened off the ark of the testimony, just as the Lord had commanded him.
Moses (the author) makes a big deal out this because it's a bigger deal than you might realize. Remember that the last time Moses was up on the mountain talking to God, getting instructions for building the Tabernacle (Ex 25-31), the people were choosing to worship a golden calf with a pagan orgy (Ex 32).
So, this time when Moses goes up the mountain for further instructions (and new stone tablets, Ex 33-34), he comes back down and the people immediately get to work doing what God told them to do. So, chapter 35-40 describes in exhausting detail the people doing exactly what they were supposed to do. The repeated "just as the Lord commanded" is very intentional.
In summary: First time Moses goes up the mountain, pagan orgy, God's wrath, many deaths. Second time Moses goes up the mountain, patient waiting, complete obedience, successful build.
The timestamp tells us that the people have been at Mt. Sinai for 9 months (!). That is a long time, and I do understand how the people became antsy. But this is an exercise in patient obedience.
If you still have anything to discuss about the Tabernacle, this is the time to do it.
A discussion question might be, "When was a time you had to be very patient in obeying God?" We have regularly said that discipleship is really just "long obedience", so I would guess that you have dealt with this many times. God was teaching His people that they don't get to pick their shortcuts -- when God tells them/us to do something, it is to be obeyed precisely and completely.
Aside: What Happened to the Ark?
This question comes up periodically, so I repeat my answer periodically. WE DON'T KNOW.
Jerusalem was sacked so many times by so many groups (Egypt, Israel, Philistia, Babylon) that the ark could have been taken by any one of them. (Note that there is no ark in Ezekiel's temple (Ez 40-48), and he sees God's glory depart the temple when Nebuchadnezzar destroys the temple.) Lots of people, including Indiana Jones, claim to know where the ark is/was. But we don't.
And it doesn't matter! It's an archeological treasure, nothing more. According to Hebrews 9, the ark was part of the old order of things. God's temple is now His people. The ark that matters is the one in heavenly temple (Rev 11:19).
Part 2: God Approved (Exodus 40:34-35)
34 The cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. 35 Moses was unable to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud rested on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.
The point is that the people got the work done right, and God "approved" it by "inhabiting" the Tabernacle.
A couple of things worth clarifying -- God is everywhere, so it would be a mistake to think of God as "more" somewhere and "less" somewhere else. Right? Rather, we should see this cloud (and the corresponding fire) as God's condescension to His people. No one can see God and live, but God wanted His people to have a symbol/proof/reminder of His actual presence with them, so He sent a cloud/fire.
But, He allowed more of His glory to be present in the Tabernacle's Most Holy Place than usual (if that's the word to use), which is why Moses was unable to enter.
So, this cloud/fire is a tangible symbol of God's approval of His people's attempt to relate to Him according to His instructions.
This is where you could talk about the transition to Leviticus, a dry book that serves a crucial role in God's self-revelation. In Exodus, the people have discovered that disobeying God comes at a terrible cost. God has a role for His people to play -- to be the light of the world so that everyone can learn the truth of salvation and come to God. And when His people do not play that role, whether that be in behaving rightly or worshiping rightly, a muddied message goes out to the surrounding world.
And that's what the book of Leviticus dives into -- what "holy" living looks like in worship and in society.
Aside: Christ Our Mediator
I strongly encourage you to read Hebrews 3-5, where we learn how Jesus is greater than Moses and Jesus is the true High Priest. Because of Jesus, and specifically His atonement for our sin, nothing can keep us from coming into God's presence (in prayer).
But if we think we can use that forgiveness as a license to sin, We have so grossly misunderstood what salvation is that Paul questions if we are saved at all! See Romans 6-8.
Part 3: The Purpose of the Cloud (Exodus 40:36-38)
36 The Israelites set out whenever the cloud was taken up from the tabernacle throughout all the stages of their journey. 37 If the cloud was not taken up, they did not set out until the day it was taken up. 38 For the cloud of the Lord was over the tabernacle by day, and there was a fire inside the cloud by night, visible to the entire house of Israel throughout all the stages of their journey.

Of course God had multiple purposes for this cloud. I giggle when I think of a cloud filled with fire like the flag a tour guide holds, but that's part of it. And as a cloud, it can "rise and lower" in such a way that the people would understand "it's time to pack up" or "it's time to make camp".
And this would have to be extremely visible from a great distance.
This is where I have to remind us of the incredible logistics of having a camp of two million people. They would have been spread out over multiple square miles. Just moving the ark to the "front of the line" would have taken a couple of hours. (But more on this below.)

The book of Exodus ends with God dwelling visibly among His people -- His holy nation and kingdom of priests.
The Lifeway material asks how comforting God's visible presence must have been for the people.
That sounds great, but I want you to ask your group if God's visible presence had a lasting impact on the people. And I think you all know the answer. How many of the people in the camp described above would actually enter the Promised Land?
So then here's the discussion I would recommend -- why did the people continue to tend toward rebellion even after seeing all of God's power and goodness? And -- what hope does anybody have? Great time for a gospel presentation, don't you think?
Closing Thoughts: Stages of the Journey
According to the traditional locations, it's only a couple of hundred miles from Mt. Sinai to the Promised Land. It would have taken less than 2 weeks for a small band to make that journey. Now, God gave specific instructions for how the Hebrews were to camp and how they were to march. Remembering that they were basically to make a beeline east and north, their layout was very helpful. Assuming that they were efficient and hardworking at setting and breaking camp (a reasonable assumption for lifelong slaves), the size of their camp probably didn't slow them down very much.
So, maybe they got to the edge of the Promised Land (Kadesh-barnea) in 20 days (did they stop each night and set up the Tabernacle?).
Well, Numbers 33 gives us a compact overview of the Israelites' journey. It mentions 42 stops. (It's possible that there were more, unlisted.) Take my math with a grain of salt, but if they made 20 of those stops on the way from Sinai to Kadesh-barnea, then that leaves 20 stops for their wandering in the wilderness. And how long did they wander in the wilderness?
40 years.
In other words, I believe that after their rebellion at Kadesh-barnea, the Hebrews would have camped in one place for a year or two at a time. Maybe longer. This was no constant roving -- this was a lot of sitting around doing nothing. And what's more, by going "backwards" (any direction except east), the logistics of starting and stopping the march would have been cumbersome and irritating. Which I'm sure was God's point.

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