May 24, 2010 (Exodus 36-40)

These chapters are all about the building of the tabernacle, the altar, the ark of the covenant, etc. Quite boring to be honest. I'm sure there is hidden meaning in all the specifications. Perhaps one of the messages that we are supposed to take from it is that God is intricately involved in all the details of our lives. Perhaps another message is that when God speaks and gives us specific instructions, He wants us to obey and blessings come from obedience.

^39:32 And so at last the Tabernacle was finished. The Israelites had done everything just as the Lord had commanded Moses.

⁴² So the people of Israel followed all of the Lord’s instructions to Moses. ⁴³ Then Moses inspected all their work. When he found it had been done just as the Lord had commanded him, he blessed them.

The last couple paragraphs of Exodus tell about how God inhabited the tabernacle, and how He directed them as to when it was time to move on. Today, we don't have quite the same 'visible' manifestions of His presence. He chooses to reveal Himself to us through His spirit which indwells us.

^40:34 Then the cloud covered the Tabernacle, and the glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle. ³⁵ Moses could no longer enter the Tabernacle because the cloud had settled down over it, and the glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle.

³⁶ Now whenever the cloud lifted from the Tabernacle, the people of Israel would set out on their journey, following it. ³⁷ But if the cloud did not rise, they remained where they were until it lifted. ³⁸ The cloud of the Lord hovered over the Tabernacle during the day, and at night fire glowed inside the cloud so the whole family of Israel could see it. This continued throughout all their journeys.