PLEASE NOTE: THERE WILL BE NO PASTOR’S POINTS DURING THE SUMMER. THEREFORE, THIS IS THE FINAL EDITION UNTIL SEPTEMBER.

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Today we bring to a close our study series on the Old Testament book of Exodus. Our focus will be the final chapter, Exodus 40.

The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “On the first day of the first month you shall erect the tabernacle of the tent of meeting.” Exodus 40:1, ESV

This Moses did; according to all that the Lord commanded him, so he did. In the first month in the second year, on the first day of the month, the tabernacle was erected. Exodus 40:16-17, ESV

Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Throughout all their journeys, whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the people of Israel would set out. But if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not set out till the day that it was taken up. For the cloud of the Lord was on the tabernacle by day, and fire was in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys. Exodus 40:34-38, ESV

It seems to me that to appreciate the significance of the conclusion to the book of Exodus, we need to go all the way back to the Garden of Eden. Despite the sin of Adam and Eve, the Lord promised to send a Saviour.

“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” Genesis 3:15, NIV

Jesus is that promised Saviour, and that it’s through his death, burial and resurrection that people have opportunity to get back to the Garden, to knowing and enjoying the presence of God as Adam and Eve initially had. The way Exodus ends foreshadows something of the experience of life with God that we who are in Christ enjoy right now, and yet will enjoy even more fully in the future.

Exodus ends as the Lord presences himself in the midst of his people of old, but the sort of personal access to God’s presence that Adam and Eve enjoyed before they sinned is still not recovered by the tabernacle or subsequent Jerusalem temples.

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14, ESV

Matthew, Mark and Luke all record in their accounts of the life of Jesus that when Jesus died on the cross the curtain in the temple that separated off The Most Holy Place was torn from top to bottom, symbolizing how the way into the holy presence of God was through the atoning death of Christ.

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 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 Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. Ephesians 2:19-22, ESV

Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? 1 Corinthians 6:19, ESV

Anyone who places their trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins will be saved and invited back into the presence of God to enjoy a close personal relationship with God, like it was back in the Garden of Eden. But for those of us in Christ, as incredible as our present experience of the presence of God in our lives is, our best life is yet to come.

I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. Revelation 21:3, ESV

I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. Revelation 21:22, ESV

The city lies foursquare, its length the same as its width. And he measured the city with his rod… Its length and width and height are equal. Revelation 21:16, ESV

All those in Christ will have unimpeded access throughout eternity to The Most Holy Place, where we’ll wonder and worship in the presence of God as his people.