Exodus 40:34-38

Sermon Slides

Tabernacle Handout

Today is Palm Sunday. We sang a Palm Sunday hymn written 1200 years ago: All glory, laud and honor to Thee, Redeemer, King, to whom the lips of children made sweet hosannas ring! Then we had the joy of our children leading us in praise, waving their palm fronds. Today we remember the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem. But those who welcomed him at the beginning of the week were a few days later calling for his crucifixion. So, next Friday evening we will gather here again for our Good Friday service to remember his death. We will hear again the story of his final 24 hours, beginning with his last meal with his disciples. Then we will follow his Passion, the sufferings of Jesus: his agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, his betrayal and arrest, his trial by Jewish and Roman authorities, his crucifixion and burial. Interspersed among the telling of this story we will sing and reflect on what we have heard.

Friday evening is also the beginning of Passover. All over the world Jews will gather to share a meal and to remember. They will hold a Passover Seder (Heb. seder “order”); the meal follows a set order. Central to the Seder is the Haggadah (Heb. “the telling”), the script which tells a story from long ago: the story of how God delivered his people from Egypt. This telling will also be punctuated by songs. One of these songs is Dayenu. Dayenu means “enough for us.” The song celebrates all that God had done for Israel in bringing them out of Egypt; he had done much more than might be considered “enough for us.” The first stanza is “If he had brought us out of Egypt, Dayenu; it would have sufficed.” So it continues for 15 stanzas: if he had split the sea for us…fed us manna…given us Shabbat…led us to Mount Sinai…given us Torah…brought us into the Land of Israel…, and finally, built the Temple for us. Each of these might be considered “enough for us,” but God kept going, he kept doing more and more.

God delivered Israel from harsh slavery in Egypt. This is the great act of salvation in the Old Testament, the paradigm of salvation. This is what is celebrated each year at Passover. But salvation was not God’s greatest gift to his people. Bringing his people out of Egypt was only the start. He brought them to Sinai and gave them Torah, the gift of order in ethics, but this was not his greatest gift. Nor was the Sabbath, the gift of order in time. Nor was the tabernacle, the gift of order in space. As we saw last week the tabernacle was indeed a great gift; it was a new creation, it was Eden restored. But the tabernacle was only a container. It was a vessel designed to contain something, to contain that which is uncontainable. So, the final paragraph of the tabernacle narrative which has stretched across 16 chapters (Exodus 25–40) describes the entrance into the tabernacle of that which it was designed to contain.

The Lord had instructed Moses, “let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst” (Exod 25:8). “Let them make me a sanctuary”: the tabernacle has now been made. But this is not the end. There is a purpose for the tabernacle. It has been made so that the Lord might dwell in the midst of his people. This entrance into the tabernacle forms the climax of the whole book.

Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Throughout all their journeys, whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the people of Israel would set out. But if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not set out till the day that it was taken up. For the cloud of the Lord was on the tabernacle by day, and fire was in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys. (Exod 40:34–38 ESV)

The Lord had saved Israel to bring them to himself, to bring th