Setting Up the Tabernacle

After renewing the covenant and receiving the commandments again, Moses also receives instructions about setting up a tabernacle – a place to worship God. As you read, note all the care that is taken with this holy space which is set apart from the rest of the world for God’s presence. Notice all the barriers placed between the people and the ark – how is that different from how we approach God today? What do we learn from this story, about God, about worship, and about what Jesus has done for us?

STUDY THE SCRIPTURE

Click here to access the reading from Exodus 40:1-33

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REFLECTION

 

An All-Consuming Power

By Judy Webb

Tabernacle: A portable dwelling, Tent of Meeting, the place where God meets with His people. The Israelites were nomads, wandering in the desert, constantly packing up and moving on.

Exodus 40 is the final chapter in this book, and it is dedicated to setting up the tabernacle. At first glance, it is just a lot of details and instructions for how to build this special tent. We might even scan the verses and prepare to move on, but wait; there must be more to this, a reason for its placement in this final chapter of Exodus.

Then the Lord said to Moses: “Set up the tabernacle, the tent of meeting, on the first day of the first month. (verse 2). This timing is an anniversary, it marks the beginning of the second year of the Israelites wilderness journey. How many of us have certain dates on our calendar of journeys we have taken in a wilderness of our own design? Perhaps the date when a battle with an illness, or a grief or loss marks out a timeline. This date in the Israelites’ history was important to God. He took great care in the details and instructions for setting up this ‘meeting place’.

Many of us seek God’s presence daily. We need the assurance that He is with us whether it be a day long outing or a forty-year expedition into the unknown. His Presence comforts, guides, protects, and offers everything we need to reach our destination. Have you experienced this sense? Have you searched for it when everything was dark and seemed hopeless?

“My dwelling place will be with them; I will be their God and they will be my people” (Ezekiel 37:26-27) Can you feel the peace these words exude? Do you ever come before God in the morning or evening and lay your soul bare, asking Him if He is there, if He hears? Have you then opened your Bible and right there on the page you discover God communicating with you? God showing you with His Word, that he hears, and he cares. His Presence is obvious, you can feel it in your spirit.

The Israelites had the Tent of Meeting where God made His Glory, His Presence known. Today, God has placed His Glory in Jesus, in the Church, and in individual believers. We can come before God anytime. We have the freedom and the privilege to seek His Presence daily. Given everything that is happening in our world today, wouldn’t it be a great time to begin?

UALC’S CAMPAIGN OF PRAYER

WEDNESDAY WISDOM – Pray for wisdom in these times as we all work toward protecting lives and consider the livelihoods of millions hurt by the economic impact.