Exodus 40

We are here to get our minds aligned with the truth of God's word for this day.

And we're doing it today by looking at Exodus chapter 40, verses 34 through 38.

We're continuing our series on the life of Moses.

We're in episode 39 of that series.

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Okay, friends, before we dig into Exodus chapter 40, I want to ask you to pray with me because we need God's help as we try to understand his word.

Now, God, we really want to understand this issue of your presence among your people, even for our day.

Exodus chapter 40, verse 17.

Flip back in your Bible, the second book in the Bible, Exodus 40.

And go to chapter 40 because what God put in my heart for us this morning was not just the presentation of the lamb, which we celebrate on this day as the Passover lamb, but what God wants to do in our temple and how God wants to minister to us and show us how to spend our time in the Holy of Holies with the Lord.

And so what we're going to do is we're going to look.

I'm going to put a picture of the temple up there.

Let's go ahead and put it up there.

Now, what I'm going to be reading in Exodus 40 is going to be the tabernacle.

It's the one that was in the wilderness with the tents and all that.

So they were very specific in how they carried out God's request.

And then in Exodus 40, verse 9, it says, taking the anointing oil and anoint the tabernacle and everything within it and consecrate it along with all its furnishings and it will be holy.

Now, I don't think very recently we've done this or I've done this.

I know some people come into the sanctuary early and they actually anoint worship the chairs with oil based on this and a few other scriptures because God is saying this is an anointing oil which will make, in a sense, the sanctuary holy before God.

And the tabernacle was supposed to be a holy place, a place fit to worship God.

Exodus 40, verse 33 and 34 say, he set up the courtyard around the tabernacle and the altar and set up the screen at the gate of the courtyard.

So Moses finished the work.

Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting and the glory of Adonai filled the tabernacle.

In fact...

Exodus 40, verse 17 makes it clear how long ago it was.

It says in Exodus 40, verse 17, Now, in the first month of the second year, on the first day of the month, the tabernacle was set up.

Well, that was a month ago.

Numbers 1 through 6 take place on the first day of the second month.

The 12 dishes, 12 bowls, 12 gold pans, each silver dish weighing 130 shekels, each bowl 70, all the silver utensils totaled 2,400 in sanctuary shekels, 12 gold pans full of incense weighing 10 shekels apiece in sanctuary shekels, all the gold of the pans totaled 120 shekels, all the oxen for the burnt offering totaled 12 bowls, All the rams, 12 male lambs, one year old with their grain offerings, 12 male goats for a sin offering, the oxen for the peace offerings, which were 24 bulls, plus 60 rams, 60 male goats, 61 year old lambs.

This was the dedication offering for the altar once it was set up and anointed.

And so what we have here is this extravagant display as part of the opening ceremonies for the tabernacle that weren't described in Exodus 40, weren't described in Leviticus 10 through 8 through 10, but they are described here as part of helping us see this opening ceremonies went on for 12 full days as a way of getting tabernacle services up and operational with a very lavish offering to God.

The ability of God to create change and to engender intervention.

In Exodus chapter 3 verse 20 he said I will stretch forth my hand and I will strike Egypt with all my signs and my wonders.

And he said Pharaoh will let you go.

So when you see signs and wonders, when you see intervention, that's the hand of God.

It says your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.

What part of you belongs to Caesar? But you see, they don't understand how to awaken dimensions of glory.

and when you study the glory there are many components to the glory but you see what we are looking at tonight is called the face of god the face when you are talking about the presence of god you are talking about the face of god it's called the panim of god the presence of god the countenance of god the ever ever com companionship dimension of God that's what we are dealing with there is a dimension of God's glory that causes him to be with you at all times the Bible refers to it as his presence this was what Moses demanded for if you study Exodus 34 God said my angel will go with you and he said if you do not go with us we will not depart from here if you do not go with us we will not depart moses was making a demand not just of an angel that carries power he was looking for the presence of god to go with them so when we speak about penia we are speaking about the place where you have the face-to-face encounter with god where you see the face of the almighty where you carry the presence Because the thing is that when you see him, you carry him.

When Moses met him on the mountains of Horeb, as he descended, he carried the measure of that presence.

And what do they declare in their thanksgiving? The Lord's goodness, his love, and his faithfulness.

The whole scene is reminiscent of the end of Exodus 40, where the tabernacle of Moses is dedicated and the glory of the Lord fills the temple in the same way.

Again, even then, the priests are not even able to do their duties.

From this experience and others since then, the people have learned from watching Moses and listening to David, what to do when they become aware of God's presence.

No, no, no.

Not Exodus 40.

Let's do Daniel 11 again.

So it says, but the people that do know their God.