Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.
The book of Exodus does not end with a law or a battle, but with a house — and with God moving into it. Everything from chapter 25 on has led here, and it raises two questions: why does God now live with a people He had only visited, and why is the man who built the tent left outside?
God Takes Possession
The cloud comes down on a finished work, and it does more than approve it.
Edward DennettThis was not only the Lord's public approval of the finished work. It was also His taking possession of His house in the sight of all Israel. The cloud, the symbol of His presence, covered the tent of meeting outside, and His glory filled the tabernacle inside.
Cloud Outside, Glory Within
Two different Hebrew words sit behind the English here, and the verse gives each one its own action.
J. N. DarbyThe cloud covers the ohel (tent), and the glory of the Lord filled the mishkan (habitation). Moses could not enter the ohel moed (tent of meeting), because the cloud stayed on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the mishkan. Mishkan is the dwelling-place... Ohel is a tent.
Redemption Made This Possible
God had spoken with people before. He had never lived with them. Commentators point to one reason for the change.
J. N. DarbyIt is only on the footing of redemption that God dwells with man. He did not dwell with Adam innocent, though He came down to him. He did not dwell with Abraham, though He visited him and ate with him. But when Israel came out of Egypt, God said He brought them to Himself "that I may dwell among them." At once the tabernacle went up, and God was present in the midst of His people.
A House Built by Obedience
At creation God prepared a place for man. Here the direction turns around.
J. G. BellettIn sovereignty, the Lord God had at the beginning built and furnished a place for man. Now, in obedience, man prepares a place for God... Then, keeping it all in His sovereign hand, the Lord commands Moses to put it together and to set it up in its sanctuary form. Moses does so, still in the spirit of obedience. And the Lord, in the symbols of the Cloud and the Glory, takes possession of it as His dwelling.
The Man Who Could Not Come In
The next verse says Moses could not enter. The glory came close, but it also drew a line no one could cross. That limit points forward.
An Outline of Sound WordsGod was showing His intention to dwell with men, as His glory dwelt among Israel. But as we see in Moses, man under law could not draw near to God, or enter into the full blessedness of God's presence with them. The time will still come when what was shown that day is fulfilled, for it is written: "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them... and be their God" (Rev. 21:3).
(The ESV reads "the dwelling place of God is with man." The older wording keeps the link to the word tabernacle.)
The Glory No Longer Shut Away
John's Gospel picks up this scene with one deliberate word. The two tabernacles are not the same.
Frederick W. Grant"And the Word was made flesh, and tabernacled among us, (and we beheld His glory, glory as of an only begotten with the Father,) full of grace and truth." This wording is more literal than the usual translation, and it keeps the all-important connection with the tabernacle of old. In that tabernacle the glory of God had dwelt in darkness, not in light — shut up, and out of reach for man. Here now was a tabernacle: the flesh of Christ, in which the fullest glory of Godhead dwelt, and it was most accessible. Divine glory could now be approached and looked upon, because it was revealed in grace and truth.
(The ESV reads "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us"; the wording quoted keeps the word "tabernacled".)
The Same Scene Later
Commentators see the same thing happen twice more in Scripture.
Edward DennettIt was so — in an even more striking way — when the temple was built. Both are surely pictures of that scene at Pentecost recorded in Acts... There the two things are combined. The house of God was formed and filled by the coming of the Holy Spirit. In both cases it was God taking possession of the house already made for Him.
Summary
- Redemption first. God visited Adam and Abraham, but He lived with neither. Only after Israel came out of Egypt does He say "that I may dwell among them" — and the tabernacle follows at once.
- Obedience next. At creation God made a house for man. Here man makes one for God, to the exact pattern — and the glory comes down on a work done as commanded.
- Possession then. The cloud settles on the tent outside. The glory fills the dwelling inside. This is God's public receipt for the work, in the sight of all Israel.
- Distance still. Moses, who built it, could not go in — proof that under law man could not yet draw near to the God who had drawn near to him.
- Access at last. The same glory later tabernacled in the flesh of Christ. It was no longer shut up in darkness, but open to be looked upon. And it ends where Revelation ends: God dwelling with men for good.