His Holy Dwelling - Exodus 39:32 - 40:38

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Good morning and welcome to Faith Bible Church and glad to see each of you today.

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We've had a blessed week of rain, correct? Muddy yards, but thank the

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Lord for that. And we want to mention the fact that for the holiday, this

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Christmas is two Sundays away, but Christmas morning, we're going to not have

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Sunday school, but we'll have church the regular time, just so you remember that. I think for New Year's, the same thing, because New Year's falls on Sunday morning,

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Christmas falls on Sunday morning, so we will not have Sunday school at that time, but we'll have the regular morning service for Christmas and New Year's.

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Also the ladies have their annual Christmas fellowship.

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If I remember correctly, they said brunch will be served, so bring your hungers with you.

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But also the ladies, usually they have a gift exchange or something like that, but rather than that this time, they're requesting that we bring women's clothes and toiletries to be given to the city mission, rather than having a gift exchange.

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And that will be Saturday, the 17th at 10 o 'clock,

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Saturday, the 17th at 10 o 'clock. Thank the Lord for the time of fellowship that we can have together.

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And let's open up with a word of prayer. Our heavenly

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Father and our God, we come before your throne this morning, thanking you that you have blessed us even this week with the rain.

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And we thank you, Lord, for the many blessings that you shower upon us, both physically and spiritually through our lives,

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Lord. We realize that everything that we have comes from your hand. We pray for the service this morning.

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Pray for Pastor Ilgen as he brings your word that you would speak through him, speak to our hearts.

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We pray for those who of our church body that are ill or weak and are not here, we would uphold them before you today.

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We would ask heavenly Father that you would just be near to them and give a special blessing to them. And as we sing,

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Lord, and we lift up our voices in praise to you, may it be a blessing to all that are here and may it be a sweet odor to you as it rises up and we would thank you for it,

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Lord. We thank you again for this people that desire to go on with you, that desire to be close to you.

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We pray that you would just make it a special day of blessing today and we'll thank you and pray in Jesus' name, amen.

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Hey, good morning. And Jesus is our almighty heavenly Father and to him we will sing and let's stand.

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Scripture reading today will be from 1

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Kings chapter 8, verses 10 through 13. 1

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Kings chapter 8, verses 10 through 13. And it came to pass when the priests came out of the holy place that the cloud filled the house of the

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Lord so that the priests could not continue ministering because of the cloud. For the glory of the

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Lord filled the house of the Lord. Then Solomon spoke. The Lord said he would dwell in the dark cloud.

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I have surely built you an exalted house and a place for you to dwell in forever.

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May God bless the reading and the hearing of his words today. Welcome you with me to Exodus chapter 39, verse 32.

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I will be finishing the whole book today, Exodus 39 verse 32.

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This has been one year of Exodus which is pretty meaningful and ending on the note that God will dwell among his people and then we get to even celebrate the ultimate form of that this season of Christmas.

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God dwelling among his people by becoming man.

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So I think this is a special Sunday that we get to end

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Exodus on that note that God will dwell among Israel and then we will pick up next week in the book of Luke where we do get to see the ultimate fulfillment of God dwelling among man.

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Emmanuel God with us. Thus all the work of the tabernacle of the tent of meeting was finished and the children of Israel did according to all that the

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Lord had commanded Moses. So they did and they brought the tabernacle to Moses the tent and all its furnishings, its clasps, its boards, its bars, its pillars and its sockets, the covering of ragskins, dyed red covering of badger skins and the veil of the covering, the ark of the testimony with its poles and the mercy seat, the table, all its utensils and the show grip, a pure gold lampstand with its lamp, the lamps set in order, all its utensils and the oil for light, the gold altar, the anointing oil and the sweet incense, the screen for the tabernacle door, the bronze altar, its great of bronze, its poles and all its utensils and the labor with its base, the hangings of the court, its pillars and its sockets, the screen for the court gate, its cords and its pegs, all the utensils for the service of the tabernacle for the tent of meeting and the garment of ministry to ministry in the holding place, the holy garments for Aaron the priest and his son's garments to minister its priest.

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According to all that the Lord had commanded Moses so the children of Israel did all the work that Moses looked over all the work and indeed they had done it as the

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Lord had commanded just so they had done it and Moses blessed them. Then the

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Lord spoke to Moses saying on the first day of the first month you shall set up the tabernacle of the tent of meeting you shall put in it the ark of the testimony and partition off the ark with the veil you shall bring in the table and arrange the things that are to be set in order on it and you shall bring in the lampstand and light its lamps you shall also set the altar of gold for the incense before the testimony and put up the screen for the door of the tabernacle then you shall set the altar of the burnt offerings before the door of the tabernacle of the tent of meeting and you shall set the labor between the tabernacle of meeting and the altar and put water in it you shall set up the court all around and hang up the screen at the court gate and you shall take the anointing oil and anoint the tabernacle and all that is in it and you shall hallow it and all its utensils, and it shall be holy.

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You shall anoint the altar of the burnt off, break on all its utensils, and consecrate the altar.

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The altar shall be most holy. And you shall anoint the labor and its base, and consecrate it.

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Then you shall bring Aaron and his sons to the door of the tavern, and will immediately wash them with water. You shall put the holy garments on Aaron, and anoint him, and consecrate him, that he may minister to me as priest.

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And you shall bring his sons, and clothe them with tunics. You shall anoint them, as you anointed their father, that they may minister to me as priest.

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For their anointing shall surely be an everlasting priesthood throughout the generations. And thus

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Moses did according to all that the Lord commanded him. So he did. And it came to pass in the first month of the second year of the first day of the month, that the tabernacle was raised up.

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So Moses raised up the tabernacle, fastened its sockets, set up its boards, put in its bars, and raised up its pillars.

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And he spread out the tent over the tabernacle, and put the covering of the tent on top of it, as the

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Lord had commanded Moses. He took the testimony and put it into the ark, inserted the poles through the rings of the ark, and put the mercy seat on top of the ark.

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And he brought the ark into the tabernacle, hung up the veil of the covering, and partitioned off the ark of the testimony as the

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Lord had commanded Moses. He put the table in the tabernacle immediately on the north side of the tabernacle, outside the veil.

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And he set the bread in order upon it before the Lord as the Lord had commanded Moses.

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He put the lampstand in the tabernacle immediately across the tavern table on the south side of the tabernacle.

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And he lit the lamps before the Lord as the Lord commanded Moses. He put the gold altar in the tabernacle immediately in front of the veil, and he burned sweet incense on it, as the

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Lord commanded Moses. He hung up the screen at the door of the tabernacle, and he put the altar of burnt offering before the door of the tabernacle at the tent immediately, and offered up it, the burnt offering, the green offering as the

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Lord had commanded Moses. He set the labor between the tabernacle and meeting and the altar, and he put the water there for washing.

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And Moses, Aaron, and his sons would wash their hands and their feet with water from it. Whenever they went into the tabernacle of meeting, and when they came near the altar, they washed as the

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Lord had commanded Moses. And he raised up the court all around the tabernacle and the altar, and hung up the screen of the court gate.

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So Moses finished the work. Then the cloud covered the tabernacle of meeting, and the glory of the

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Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the tabernacle of meeting because the cloud rested above it.

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And the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Whenever the cloud was taken up from above the tabernacle, the children of Israel would go onward in all their journeys.

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But if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not journey till the day that it was taken up.

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For the cloud of the Lord was above the tabernacle by day, and by fire was over it by night, and in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys.

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This is the word of the Lord. Let us pray. Father, we are thankful for the fact that you are a

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God who dwells among his people. Thank you that despite your holy presence, despite our sinfulness, that you desire and make a way for us to experience your dwelling presence.

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And Father, we pray that we would cherish that delight in that and treasure that forever, knowing that what makes us unique is not our strength, but your presence among us.

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And Father, this morning that we pray that all of us, we would experience your presence, knowing that you show yourself, reveal yourself when the body of Christ gathers.

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Father, we pray that we would not take this lightly, that we would not take this as another day, but a day in which we can experience your dwelling presence among us.

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In Jesus' name, amen. We have reached the end of Exodus.

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And the whole book of Exodus, the main point, the main theme that runs through Exodus is the divine relationship with his people.

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That God would have a relationship with his people. And Exodus is in fact divided into two parts to show that structurally.

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The first half is God rescuing, redeeming his people for a relationship, right?

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This is not just a redemption that is a purposeless, it's not a catch and release kind of idea.

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Freeing a wild animal, that's not it at all. God redeems Israel in order that he may have a covenant relationship with them.

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And then the second half from Mount Sinai and on to the building of the tabernacle is how this holy

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God will relate to Israel. Israel, after all, before Exodus, no one in Israel had a regular access to God, right?

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Moses did not encounter the Lord until at his very old age in the wilderness when he saw the burning fire.

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And that burning fire was not something he could return to. It wasn't a set location.

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There was no set location in which God's people would encounter God's presence.

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That has not been the case since the Garden of Eden. And here we see the completed tabernacle according to the

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Lord's command. And that phrase is repeated many times because it is not based upon what

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Israel desired. It was based upon what God commanded. And God shows up when

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Israel obeys in order to provide a dwelling place for God.

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And I think this is really important because oftentimes we have this paganistic mindset, even as Christians, that we believe that we have to get to a certain place at a certain time in order to experience

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God's presence. When I was growing up in youth group in high school, there were specific trips in which the high school students would get excited about because during those retreats, they would have this spiritual high.

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And during the whole trip, they would feel really close to God. People would get baptized during it.

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And people would place their faith in Christ who knows how long that lasted.

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But all of those spiritual events would happen only so that they would come back in a week later, go back to the same lifestyle.

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This idea that God is present in a specific location in the wilderness, in the beautiful mountains, maybe by the

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Delta on a houseboat. There are trips for that for Christians. I think that that's a flawed view to think that God is extra present in those regions.

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Now, I'm not saying that nature does not proclaim God's glory, right?

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We can all attest to that. But what I'm saying is God's presence is not specifically promised or set apart in the beautiful sceneries, but rather God's presence is set apart and promised only according to where he has promised.

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And for the new covenant Christians, that is the gathering of the holy people.

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That's the gathering of the church. You do not need to gather in a building that looks like the

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Sistine Chapel. You do not need to gather by the beach, with the calm waves, warm sunlight.

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The moment God's people gather in worship of Christ, they can experience the dwelling presence of God.

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That's according to God's word. And this morning we have the utmost privilege of experiencing that as God's people.

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And that's what makes Sunday special. Because we get to experience

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God's dwelling presence that you can't even if you go camping to Yosemite by yourself.

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Even if you go on a tour to the Vatican city, you can't experience God's presence, not like this.

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And today's main point is, what does it mean for God to dwell among his people?

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What does it mean for God to dwell among his people? The first point covers the majority of the chapter.

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God's people carefully obey God's instruction to experience his dwelling presence.

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God's people carefully obey God's instruction to experience his dwelling. At this point,

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God's people Israel have completed every article of the tabernacle according to God's word.

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And verse 32 confirms that they were careful to follow all of the instructions.

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And the children of Israel did according to all that the Lord had commanded Moses. So they did.

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In fact, it is important to note that this was a communal project. It was not

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Moses' pet program for ministry, right? This was not Moses had a great vision for Israel.

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We can go somewhere with this. No, this was the tabernacle involved all of God's people following all of God's instruction in order that God may dwell among all of his people.

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This was a communal corporate project in order that they may all experience

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God's dwelling presence. In verses 33 to 41 show the quality control process that every artifact of the tabernacle went through.

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And they brought the tabernacle to Moses. Now in Exodus 40 and of course 39, are they bring the tabernacle artifacts, the furnishing to Moses, because Moses is the only person whom

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God has revealed and shown the heavenly blueprint of the tabernacle, right?

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From Exodus 25 through 31, God has always said, just as I have shown you,

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Moses has seen something that other Israelites have not. He was the only one who spent 40 days and 40 nights up on Mount Sinai.

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And verses 33 to 34 start with the external structures of the tabernacle, its clasps, boards, bars, pillars, and sockets and covering and veil.

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So right here, the external tent, that's what they brought first. And then from verses 35 to 40, the tabernacle furnishing, they are introduced in the descending order of holiness, the decreasing order of holiness, which means verse 35 starts with what is most holy.

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And the holiest object of all is the Ark of the Testimony with its poles and mercy seat.

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And this is the symbol of God's dwelling presence among Israel. It was the symbolic throne room of the

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Lord. And notice on the mercy seat are the cherubim, two cherubim with the wings covering the mercy seat on which the sprinkling of the blood would happen in order that the national sin would be forgiven, that Israel as a nation would be forgiven on the day of the atonement when the high priest, after making sacrifice for his own sin, makes an atoning sacrifice for all of Israel.

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And the cherubim were the holy cherubim in which they carry God's presence.

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In fact, we see God being carried by cherubim in different locations of the

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Bible. Ezekiel, for example, shows that God's glory is on the cherubim.

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And then verse 36 describes the table and its related utensils and the showbread.

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And this is the dining room which is outside the most holy place that showed

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God's, that showed that God's people continually offered up bread to their king in thanksgiving.

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It was a symbol of their deep relationship. Israel worships

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God who is pleased to commune among his people. Israel worships

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God who communes with his people. He's in the encampment, encampment with them.

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And then verse 37 moves to the golden lampstand and its utensils.

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This golden lampstand stood right outside the most holy place and it represented

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God's ever watchful presence among Israel. The lamps will be burning all night in the darkest of nights.

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In the darkest night when every campfire snuffed out, the lampstand of the

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Lord would continue to burn to provide light to God's people. You only had to walk outside to look at the center of the encampment to see the gleaming light that God is still watching.

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Even if everyone else is asleep, God does not sleep. He is the unsleeping eye that protects the encampment of Israel from all sorts of dangerous things in the wilderness.

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And then verse 38, Moses checks on the golden altar and the anointing oil and the sweet incense in the screen door.

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These are the last furnishing inside the tabernacle proper, the tent. And this altar will burn incense daily to represent

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Israel's continual devotion and constant communication with the

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Lord. The incense burning would go up continually to the sky, would go upward.

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And it was believed that the special assortment of incense, which is unknown to us now, would go up in a pillar.

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When we burn smoke, it's just all over the place. It's chaotic. But for some reason, in the

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Jewish tradition, the incense was so specially made that it would go straight up like a pillar.

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And only one family would know how to make this incense. And when the old wise rabbis asked, hey, why can't you share this with us?

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They would say, because of the temptation for other people to make it for their own household and commit idolatry, they knew that this incense was specifically for the

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Lord and to the Lord only. And that secret died with them.

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We don't know how to make that. And frankly, we don't need to know how to make that. Because in Christ, we offer up our constant communication and devotion that is more acceptable than any secret incense that men can create.

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But this altar, this incense altar, provided a physical representation of their perpetual prayers.

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Israel was a nation in which they talked to God constantly. And then the verse 39 describes the bronze altar.

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It depicts the altar and its utensils, which lie just outside of the tent.

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These artifacts, also not inside the tent, were still very important. They were the very means by which

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Israel could maintain their relationship with the Lord. After all, their sins would be polluting the whole camp.

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Their sins would prevent them from continuing in their relationship with God. However, these bronze altars would provide a way for their sins to be covered by the blood sacrifice.

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When the blood was sprinkled on the horns of the altar, it would show that their sin, too, was covered, that God held it against them no more.

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And verse 40 covers the hangings of the court to establish the boundary of the tabernacle.

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After all, the holy realm had to be physically separated from the rest of the encampment.

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The camp of Israel was clean. It was ritualistically clean. But what was holy was the tabernacle.

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And you could not get that mixed up. Because God presents himself in the holy realm.

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And this showed them that God's dwelling place was marked not just spiritually, but physically.

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It taught them a spiritual lesson. The holy God can't be just approached willy -nilly.

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And verse 41 covers their garments for ministry so that Aaron and his son serve as priests.

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And Aaron's garments especially resembled the patterns of the tabernacle with blue, purple, scarlet, and gold.

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And it showed that the Lord's high priest is especially set apart to approach the

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Lord, to represent his people. And after Israel showed

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Moses all their hard work, Moses in fact approves, that Moses looked over all the work and indeed they had done it.

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As the Lord had commanded, just so they had done it. And Moses blessed them.

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Moses praised them. Moses approved of them. Every artifact for the tabernacle,

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Israel faithfully kept and created. And after all the artifacts of the tabernacle have passed the quality control, the

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Lord commands the assembly of the tabernacle. This was a meticulous event.

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This was not something we do with our Ikea furniture, right? Just put it all together in one day.

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Ah, that screw, there was one leftover screw. That's fine, it stands. No, this was an important event for Israelites because every part had to be just right because they were worshiping.

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How could they just be satisfied with any imperfection? How could they be satisfied with pretty good?

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Pretty good was not good enough for Israel. So the

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Lord commands the assembly of it from verses one through 15 of chapter 40.

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From verses one through eight, God instructs the assembly of the tabernacle. And I'm not gonna go over that because the order of the instruction is very similar to what we just went over.

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And then verses nine through 15 detail meticulously the anointing procedure of the tabernacle and all that are associated with it.

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Verse nine commands the anointing of all the furnishing inside the tabernacle.

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So all the golden materials that we just went over, right, the heart, the table, the lamp, the incense altar, all of that.

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Verse nine, they're anointed. Anointing was a process of putting holy anointing oil that was specifically for anointing only, not just for any use or cooking.

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And if it was to put it on these artifacts in order to consecrate them, set them apart, get them to be holy.

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Then verses 10 to 11 instruct the anointing of all the outside furnishing.

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So that's the bronze altar and the bronze labor, the wash basin, right?

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That's where the priest would wash their hands and feet before entering the tabernacle. And then verses 12 to 15 anoint the priest.

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The anointing, I think we need to cover what the act of anointing is.

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The act of anointing is confusing because our culture use it willy -nilly.

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It's kind of like a term they use to signify anything that's special, right?

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Especially in the Christian culture, we use the term to anoint to mean some sort of spiritual or special or maybe a bit of both, right?

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Instead of saying, yes, that is spiritual or yes, that is special or yes, it's spiritual and special, we use the term to anoint in that regard even though no oils used at all, hopefully, right?

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So for example, you might have heard someone say, wow, that worship music was so anointed or, ah, that sermon has so much anointing.

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That would not make sense in what anointing was in the Old Testament. You can't anoint something that doesn't physically exist.

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And in the Old Testament, anointing was an act of physically putting on holy anointing oil on objects or humans to set them apart for the

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Lord. It was a physical ritual to transfer something or someone from the realm of the common to the realm of the holy.

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Note that all the furnishing, although made really well by the Israelites, they were still made by common hands, by sinful man and with common materials.

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There were not holy materials. There was no holy silver, holy gold, or holy bronze.

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These materials and people, the priests, the garments, they had to be moved from the realm of the common, the profane, to the realm of the holy through the anointing process, which was a physical process to show the

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Israelites that something had to be done in order for God's dwelling presence to dwell among Israel.

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Something had to be done to make the tabernacle holy. And it wasn't enough just that they made it according to the instruction.

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Hence, they had to be anointed with holy anointing oil to transport these artifacts from the polluted realm to the holy realm.

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And this was the same case for the priests. They were not chosen because they were extra holy. That's not the case.

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They were chosen to serve, so they had to be consecrated to serve the holy

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God. It's the opposite. They didn't have an audition to see who's the holiest of all.

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They were chosen to serve. Now you gotta be holy. You gotta remain holy. And verse 16 states that this was all done according to the

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Lord's command. That same phrase, all done according to all of God's command.

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And finally, verses 17 through 33 show the completion of the assembly of the tabernacle.

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And this happened on the first month on the first day of the year, the second year. So this would be around their springtime because that's how they count the first month.

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It starts around spring. Hence, the Passover starts around spring. And for Israel, this was significant.

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What better way to start the new year than the celebration of God's dwelling among his people?

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That's what they looked forward to. Imagine that we consider the new year just new year, new me.

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Maybe I can start a new resolution. Maybe there would be a new year, maybe fewer unfortunate events.

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Maybe I can start a new goal, a new hobby. I can be healthier. But for Israel, new year meant

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God's gonna be with us. How exciting is that? That's the significance of the assembly of the tabernacle on the first day of the first month of the second year.

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And the order of assembly, of course, follows the same order of the quality check and the command to build them, right?

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From the most holy place to the holy place and then to outside the tent.

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And the main difference is that they start being used, right? As they assemble the whole tabernacle,

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Moses offers a burnt offering and peace offering. And the burnt offering symbolized the total devotion to the

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Lord as the most of the sacrifice would be given to God and no remainder given to the priest.

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And then the peace and the green offering to the Lord signified thanksgiving.

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Kind of like how our thanksgiving commemorates the harvest. So the green offering was a thanksgiving to the

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Lord for providing it for them. And after the bronze basin is set up in verse 30, the priest,

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Moses, they purify themselves because the physical purity showed the inward purity of God, in approaching

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God, the necessity of physical and inward purity in order to approach the holy God.

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And finally, verse 33 marks the completion of the whole enterprise. And he raised up the court all around the tabernacle and the altar and hung up the screen of the court gate.

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So Moses finished the work. This is important.

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I know when we read something over and over again with the same artifacts being covered over and over again, at least three times in these two chapters, right, in that similar order, and there's not much difference.

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But the reason why it's so important is because it had to be done exactly that way according to God's command in order that they may experience

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God's dwelling presence. They couldn't just follow their heart. There was no many ways to God.

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That was unthinkable. There was only God's way or you would not have

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God's presence. And under the new covenant, what's important to know is that the new covenant deals with the internal.

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The new covenant is not about cleansing the external, but it's cleansing the internal.

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Even at the announcement of the new covenant in Jeremiah 31, it's about part of stone.

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The law won't be written on stone, but it would be written in your heart. And in Ezekiel, it talks about the purifying, washing with the water and the spirit.

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It's about the inside. So how does God's presence dwell among his people?

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Internally. So under the new covenant, it's not the physical furnishing that's anointed to receive

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God's dwelling presence, but it is God's very people. In Ephesians 2, 20 through 22,

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Paul exhorts the church, so then you are no longer stranger and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.

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Built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the

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Lord. In him, you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the spirit.

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Under the new covenant, it is not a separate building in which

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God dwells. It's that God's people make up the building in which

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God dwells. God dwells among his people. And this corporate aspect of experiencing

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God's dwelling presence is very much missed today, mainly because we consider the gathering of the church as unimportant.

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Or when we consider the gathering of the church and we miss the main purpose.

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When we consider the gathering of the church just for the programs that I like.

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When we consider the gathering of the church just for the worship music that I can really feel inside.

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But when we consider the gathering of the church as the friends and family who gather, we miss the point.

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The gathering of the church, the corporate gathering of the church, the main reason is not even evangelism.

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Just as much as I like to stress evangelism, that people may hear God's word, may hear the gospel, that they may be saved.

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The gathering of the church is for the believers to experience

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God's very presence because they make up the new temple of God. That means there is no such thing as a solo church.

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There's no such thing as Zuma church, FaceTime church, online church.

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This means when the church gathers to worship the Lord, each of us make it possible for us to experience

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God's glory that we individually would not. You can have the best quiet time with your favorite version of the

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Bible after listening to your favorite worship song and after YouTubing the favorite pastor, but you would still miss out on experiencing

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God's presence if you don't gather on that Sunday morning. And that's because that is how

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God has instructed his people that he would meet. And the building metaphor in Ephesians is exactly that.

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You're built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets and Christ Jesus is the cornerstone. He is the most important part of the building and in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the

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Lord. And in Christ, you are being built together. Individually, you, each one of you, when we gather, we're being built together so that you experience the dwelling presence of God.

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That is why we gather. That's according to God's instruction. And this morning too, we can say that we've gathered, we've assembled just as the tabernacle was assembled according to what

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God has commanded that we may experience God's presence.

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Second, the glory of the Lord visibly manifests himself to dwell among his people.

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The glory of the Lord visibly manifests himself to dwell among his people. Verses 30 through 38 show what happened right after the assembly of the tabernacle and the result is immediate.

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Then the cloud covered the tabernacle of meeting and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.

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The same glory cloud that settled on the Mount Sinai for six days that even Moses could not enter the top is now dwelling among Israel in the encampment.

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The same glory cloud which was only accessible to Moses on the top of the mountain is now visibly manifesting in front of the very people of God.

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They don't have to look up. They don't have to squint. They see it.

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And the effect is so palpable that verse 35 tells us that Moses was not able to enter the tabernacle of meeting because the cloud rested above it and the glory of the

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Lord filled the tabernacle. The presence of God was so palpable even

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Moses could not enter the tabernacle. If anyone in all of Israel could ever enter the glorious presence of God, it would have been

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Moses. And I don't mean just that generation but in any generation,

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Moses was the prophet par excellence. Everyone looked toward Moses. That's why

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Moses shows up on the Mount of Transfiguration. Moses represented the law.

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But even Moses could not approach the glory of God. His glorious presence was so concentrated that even

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Moses could not enter the tent that's been newly built. Before the glory cloud fell, of course he was in sack.

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He arranged everything. He was the assembly man. But after it, not even

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Moses. Really tells us what kind of holy God we serve.

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And verses 36 to 38 show the role of God's glorious presence among his people.

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Whenever the cloud was taken up from above the tabernacle, the children of Israel would go onward in all their journeys.

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But if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not journey till the day it was taken up. For the cloud of the

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Lord was above the tabernacle by day and fire was over it by night. And in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys.

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In every step of the way, God's presence guided his people.

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And this is really significant because it shows that Israel was not set apart into God's people by having the strongest army.

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Israel was not known for the most technologically advanced society.

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God's people's identity was centered only on the very presence of God among them.

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And what a lesson for the church this morning. God's presence is the reason why it makes the church the church.

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It is not the political influence that we may or may not have. It is not the social media presence that we may or may not have.

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It's not the popularity of the pastor. It is not even how many poor people we serve.

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It's about God's presence among his people. That's the significance of the church.

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And when the church loses the presence of God, it's no longer the church. That's when salt has lost its saltiness and the light of the lamp has been turned off.

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Now what is the significance of this supernatural phenomenon we see in this text today?

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The fact that the glory of God came down. In fact, this phenomenon occurred, as Dexter read this morning in 1

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Kings 8, 10 through 11. And it came to pass when the priest came out of the holy place that the cloud filled the house of the

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Lord so that the priest could not continue ministering because of the cloud where the glory of the

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Lord filled the house of the Lord. The same filling, the same glory.

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When Solomon built the temple according to God's instruction,

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David couldn't do it. God said, no, your son will do it. And he followed through.

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Upon its completion, the same exact phenomenon occurs just as when the tabernacle was completed.

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The glory of the Lord fills the house of the Lord. And this is significance because the glory of the

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Lord, the presence of the glory of the Lord among God's people, you can track that.

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And depending on where the glory of the Lord is, you can tell the state, the spiritual state of God's people.

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After this temple, Israel and Judah will go spiral downward.

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They'll start worshiping other gods. And by worshiping other gods, it causes them to dehumanize even each other.

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They start sacrificing their children. They start oppressing the poor.

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They start living like vagrants. And now what happens? God judges according to what he said he would in the law.

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If you disobey, if you're unfaithful to God, he will leave, the land will be taken away from you.

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And in order for the land to be taken away, there has to be an enemy force.

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And of course, the enemy force is for Judah, is Babylon, and in Ezekiel, God specifically shows a very special vision to the prophet

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Ezekiel to show why Babylon was able to conquer

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Judah. Because if Babylon, a human empire, can conquer

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God's people, the temptation is there to blame

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God. Well, God wasn't strong enough to protect you guys. I thought you had the real

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God. But Ezekiel 10 shows a special vision to the prophet to show why

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Babylon was able to conquer Judah. After so much oppression, a national apostasy of Judah, the glory of the

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Lord leaves the temple on his cherubim.

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We discussed this morning, some kings prefer limo, some kings prefer bugatti, the

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Lord God prefers cherubim. And the vision is the Lord God leaves the most holy place on his cherubim, the temple is no longer significant.

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And that's why Babylon, among many reasons, was able to conquer

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Judah. What is tragic, however, is that even after God's people returned to the land, after the exile, when they build the temple, second temple, under Nehemiah and Ezra, the sight of the glory of God filling the temple is nowhere to be found.

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It's not recorded. It's not cherubim, and the

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Old Testament ends on that, on that tension, where then is

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God's presence? What about God's people? Where is

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God's presence? And then the

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New Testament starts like this. The apostle John says, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us.

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He tabernacled among us. And we beheld his glory, the glory of the one and only begotten of the

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Father, full of grace and truth. This verse,

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John 1 .14, screens Exodus. The word became flesh and dwelt among us.

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The dwelling in the Greek word here is literally translated as tabernacled among us.

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The verb form has the word for tent in it. But many translators have opted to just say dwelt because it sounds smoother.

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But really, the direct wooden translation is that the word became flesh and tabernacled among us.

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And everyone would be thinking, the tabernacle was built, and God did come down.

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But in Christ, there was so much more. In Christ, it is still the same glory.

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John says, we beheld his glory. It's that glory that came down in John, Exodus 40.

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And this glory is of the Father, full of grace and truth. When did we see the graceful of grace and truth last?

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Well, when God's glory came down to show Moses his presence on Mount Sinai, when

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Moses is dejected, and he says, I can't go on. You gotta show me your presence.

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I can't go on without knowing who you are. And the

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Lord comes down, and he proclaims his name.

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The Lord, the Lord, merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in grace and truth, goodness and truth.

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That same Lord who came down on Mount Sinai, the same Lord who tabernacled among Israelites in Exodus is the same

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Lord, Jesus Christ. And the question is, when did we behold his glory?

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What are you talking about, John? When did we see that glory cloud come down? If you follow the thread in the book of John, we get to see

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God's glory in Jesus Christ on the cross. In Christ's priestly prayer in John 17, one, his first request is that,

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Father, the hour has come. Glorify your son that your son also may glorify you.

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The hour in the book of John is the hour of crucifixion and resurrection. It is the hour that he came for.

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And what happens during the hour? The son is glorified.

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When Christ, when Christ is utterly humiliated on the cross, bearing our sin to face the wrath of God for our sake so that we may be forgiven and adopted into his family.

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When he's bleeding on the cross, wearing a mockery of crown of thorns, as the people are chanting, as he has been betrayed by his friends, that's the hour of Christ's glory.

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That's when we beheld his glory. And it is so much more because it is not just for the nation of Israel, but the whole world gets to behold his glory.

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Because, ironically, Pilate places an inscription on top of Jesus' head,

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Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews, in three main languages of that time, the lingua franca.

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Aramaic, Latin, Greek. Aramaic was the language of the

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Babylonians. Latin, the language of Rome. Greek, the language of the

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Greeks, the trade. The whole world beheld Christ's glory on the crucifixion.

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We got to behold the glory that is greater than what these

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Israelites experienced in Exodus 40. It's the glory of God in the son of God.

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Who died to redeem, not just one nation, but all nations.

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In his humiliating death, the son is utterly glorified.

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And so is the father. And for God's people, that's the glory we beheld.

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That's the glory we long for. And that's the glory we treasure.

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And this morning, that is the glory why we meet and gather in person.

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To commemorate, to treasure that, and to talk about that.

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Because that is how God has manifested his dwelling among us, as the crucified

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Messiah. And with that, we end

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Exodus to jump forward to how that's fulfilled in Christ.

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Next week, we will begin with the book, the gospel according to Luke, to see the fulfillment of that.

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And it really, and it lands also on Christmas too, which is very fortunate for us, divinely ordained, that Exodus would end around this time.

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That we may see the fulfillment of God's dwelling presence in Christ Jesus on Christmas.

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Let us pray. Father, we are thankful that you are a

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God who dwells with us. And that your dwelling became even more intense and obvious in Christ Jesus who's been crucified.

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And he is the only one who makes it possible for us to have any relationship with you.

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And that even this morning, we can experience your dwelling presence in Jesus Christ through the

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Holy Spirit. And Father, we pray that we would desire this even more day by day.

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Long for it throughout the week. Long for the next Sunday together as the saints to experience your glorious presence.

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Thank you that we have the privilege of experiencing something that the Israelites looked forward to, in Jesus' name.