ROUGHLY EDITED COPY CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY EDUCATION NETWORK EXODUS DR. DAVID ADAMS #62 Captioning Provided By: Caption First, Inc. 10 E. 22nd Street Suite 304 Lombard, IL 60148 800-825-5234 *** This text is being provided in a rough draft format. Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings. *** >> Okay. I read the entire section about the tabernacle. There sure is a lot of detail. And it can be pretty confusing actually. This seems like an odd way to end a book. Why does Exodus end with this account? >> Well, the first thing we need to remember, Eric, is that Exodus is part of a larger book. Remember, we began with that observation. And so when we say the book of Exodus ends with this account, we need to remember that nothing is really ending here. Because the next thing that happens -- Leviticus 1:11 is really connected to this. So this sets the stage for Leviticus, which talks about all of the things that God wants Israel to know, including how they are to conduct the worship in the tabernacle. So this is really, you know, not only just ending the book of Exodus. It's really in a sense making the transition to the book of the Leviticus, as well. So it's not -- you know, when understood that way, it's not really such an odd ending as it strikes us as we read it in our modern Bibles where we come to the end of a book here. In the ancient world this would have been almost like something like the end of a chapter that would continue on with a story right away. However, having said that, this does wrap up in a sense all of the theology that we've encountered in the book of Exodus and the Old Testament to this point. It wraps up the question "Who is Yahweh?" He is the one who has been revealed as creator. He is the one who has been revealed here in the book of Exodus as redeemer. And now his dwelling with his people makes present among them the fact that he is the one who relates to his people by means of his kesid. So by coming to dwell among them, he is presenting his gracious mercy, his kesid, to them in the flesh as it were. And finally, this wraps up the question "What does it mean for Israel to be the people of God?" As Moses said in Chapter 13, for Israel to be the people of God is to live in the presence of God. And so in the building of the tabernacle we have the presence of God enacting, again, made concrete. And so it brings that to a conclusion, as well. Because now Israel is living in the presence of God. God has come to dwell among them. In a sense this idea that the building of the tabernacle is the physical expression of the assurance of God's grace that he has given them by his presence abiding with him is both a promise of his grace and in a sense as long as you don't understand this word too absolutely, it's a guarantee of God's gracious presence to them. In that sense, the building of the tabernacle is sort of an Old Testament type of God's outpouring of the Holy Spirit. In the New Testament when God's presence in the person of the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in his people and is as the New Testament says a guarantee what God has done to his people. So we in some way here, you know, if we wrap up with the idea of Yahweh as the redeemer, this we have here in the building of the tabernacle sort of a type of Pentecost with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, God's presence to dwell in his people. There is a difference, of course. In the Old Testament God dwelled among his people. And in the New Testament God dwelled in his people. So they don't need a tabernacle or temple because they are the tabernacle. God dwells not above them but in them. The Holy Spirit dwells in you just as he dwelled in the holy of holies of the temple. Now, that's the point that is being made in Jeremiah 31 about the new covenant. So the story in a sense does end with a bang, theologically speaking. Or if not with a bang, at least with Israel at peace in the security of God's grace. I don't know about you. But from my perspective, that's a pretty good way to end any story. *** This text is being provided in a rough draft format. Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings. ***