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Glory · Exodus & Covenant
Fresh from Sinai's thunder, God asked for an offering and built a home: a sanctuary so He could dwell among the people He had rescued. Every board and curtain taught that access to Him is real but mediated, and the mercy seat sat above the tablets of the law. When the glory filled the finished tent, God moved in; and John says the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us.
https://glorystudy.com/questions/what-was-the-tabernacle-for · Scripture quoted from the World English Bible
Exodus 25:1-22
As you read: A freewill offering for a sanctuary, a building done strictly by the shown pattern, and the ark with its mercy seat where God promises to meet with Moses.
1Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
2“Speak to the children of Israel, that they take an offering for me. From everyone whose heart makes him willing you shall take my offering.
3This is the offering which you shall take from them: gold, silver, brass,
4blue, purple, scarlet, fine linen, goats’ hair,
5rams’ skins dyed red, sea cow hides, acacia wood,
6oil for the light, spices for the anointing oil and for the sweet incense,
7onyx stones, and stones to be set for the ephod and for the breastplate.
8Let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them.
9According to all that I show you, the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all of its furniture, even so you shall make it.
10“They shall make an ark of acacia wood. Its length shall be two and a half cubits, its breadth a cubit and a half, and a cubit and a half its height.
11You shall overlay it with pure gold. You shall overlay it inside and outside, and you shall make a gold molding around it.
12You shall cast four rings of gold for it, and put them in its four feet. Two rings shall be on the one side of it, and two rings on the other side of it.
13You shall make poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold.
14You shall put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark to carry the ark.
15The poles shall be in the rings of the ark. They shall not be taken from it.
16You shall put the testimony which I shall give you into the ark.
17You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold. Two and a half cubits shall be its length, and a cubit and a half its breadth.
18You shall make two cherubim of hammered gold. You shall make them at the two ends of the mercy seat.
19Make one cherub at the one end, and one cherub at the other end. You shall make the cherubim on its two ends of one piece with the mercy seat.
20The cherubim shall spread out their wings upward, covering the mercy seat with their wings, with their faces toward one another. The faces of the cherubim shall be toward the mercy seat.
21You shall put the mercy seat on top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the testimony that I will give you.
22There I will meet with you, and I will tell you from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are on the ark of the testimony, all that I command you for the children of Israel.
Exodus 40:34-38
As you read: Obedience completing the work, then the cloud and the glory filling the tabernacle, Moses shut out, and the cloud and fire leading every journey.
34Then the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and Yahweh’s glory filled the tabernacle.
35Moses wasn’t able to enter into the Tent of Meeting, because the cloud stayed on it, and Yahweh’s glory filled the tabernacle.
36When the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the children of Israel went onward, throughout all their journeys;
37but if the cloud wasn’t taken up, then they didn’t travel until the day that it was taken up.
38For the cloud of Yahweh was on the tabernacle by day, and there was fire in the cloud by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys.
John 1:14-18
As you read: The Word becoming flesh and living among us, glory seen, and the contrast between the law given through Moses and grace and truth realized in Jesus Christ.
14The Word became flesh, and lived among us. We saw his glory, such glory as of the one and only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.
15John testified about him. He cried out, saying, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me, for he was before me.’”
16From his fullness we all received grace upon grace.
17For the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.
18No one has seen God at any time. The one and only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him.
Sinai gave commandments, but God's first request after them was a home: 'Let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them.' He later names this as the very reason for the Exodus, saying He brought Israel out of Egypt 'that I might dwell among them.' Rescue was never just out of slavery; it was into residence with God. The tabernacle exists because the covenant aims at fellowship.
“Let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them.”Exodus 25:8
“I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will be their God. They shall know that I am Yahweh their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, that I might dwell among them: I am Yahweh their God.”Exodus 29:45-46
God says of the mercy seat, 'There I will meet with you,' yet He also warns Aaron not to come at all times into the Most Holy Place, lest he die. Curtains, courts, washings, and a priesthood all preach the same sermon: nearness to God is genuinely offered, but only on His terms and through His appointed way. Hebrews confirms the design, calling those holy places 'representations of the true'.
“There I will meet with you, and I will tell you from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are on the ark of the testimony, all that I command you for the children of Israel.”Exodus 25:22
“and Yahweh said to Moses, “Tell Aaron your brother, not to come at all times into the Most Holy Place within the veil, before the mercy seat which is on the ark; lest he die: for I will appear in the cloud on the mercy seat.”Leviticus 16:2
“For Christ hasn’t entered into holy places made with hands, which are representations of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us;”Hebrews 9:24
Inside the ark lay the testimony, the tablets of the covenant law; on top of it was the mercy seat, and there, above the law, God said He would meet with His people. The furniture arrangement preaches before any prophet does: atonement covers commandment-breaking. Paul reaches for the same word when he says God sent Jesus as 'an atoning sacrifice', received through faith in his blood.
“You shall put the mercy seat on top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the testimony that I will give you. There I will meet with you, and I will tell you from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are on the ark of the testimony, all that I command you for the children of Israel.”Exodus 25:21-22
“whom God sent to be an atoning sacrifice, through faith in his blood, for a demonstration of his righteousness through the passing over of prior sins, in God’s forbearance;”Romans 3:25
When the work was finished exactly as commanded, the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, 'and Yahweh’s glory filled the tabernacle.' So heavy was the presence that Moses himself could not get inside. From then on the cloud by day and the fire by night directed every march and every camp. The tabernacle was never mainly architecture; it was Presence, God traveling with His people.
“Then the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and Yahweh’s glory filled the tabernacle. Moses wasn’t able to enter into the Tent of Meeting, because the cloud stayed on it, and Yahweh’s glory filled the tabernacle.”Exodus 40:34-35
“For the cloud of Yahweh was on the tabernacle by day, and there was fire in the cloud by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys.”Exodus 40:38
John's claim about the incarnation borrows this chapter's vocabulary: 'The Word became flesh, and lived among us,' literally, pitched His tent in our midst, and 'we saw his glory.' He frames it against Sinai: 'The law was given through Moses. Grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.' No one has seen God, John says, but the Son has declared Him. This is Immanuel, 'God with us.'
“The Word became flesh, and lived among us. We saw his glory, such glory as of the one and only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.”John 1:14
“For the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God at any time. The one and only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him.”John 1:17-18
““Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall give birth to a son. They shall call his name Immanuel”; which is, being interpreted, “God with us.””Matthew 1:23