January 28, 2024 - Exodus 40

Instructions have been given.  Materials have been collected.  Offerings have been made.  Workers have been enlisted.  And, now, the Lord says to Moses, “On the first day of the first month you shall erect the tabernacle of the tent of meeting” (40:2).  And in the tabernacle go all the things that point the people to God and to his redemption:  the ark of the covenant and the veil, the lampstand, the golden altar for incense, the basin and anointing oil, and all the utensils that will be used by the priests.  “So Moses finished the work.  Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle” (40:33-34).  And wherever the people went, the Lord’s presence went with them.  It would be easy to conclude, perhaps, that the story ends here; after all, at the tabernacle God met with the people, at the tabernacle offerings were brought and sacrifices made, at the tabernacle blood was poured out for the people’s sins.  But there is One who is coming . . .

See, the streams of living waters,

springing from eternal love,

well supply thy sons and daughters

and all fear of want remove.

Who can faint while such a river

ever flows their thirst to assuage?

Grace, which like the Lord, the Giver,

never fails from age to age.   –John Newton (1779)