Exodus 30-31

What’s Happening?

Moses has spoken to God on Mount Sinai for nearly 40 days (Exodus 31:18). Over that time, God has made it clear that he wants to live with his people. Over the last several weeks, God has given Moses detailed blueprints for a Tabernacle. He will live with Israel in this small tent as he once did with Adam and Eve in Eden. It will be where God and man will finally live together after being separated so many years ago. Just like God created the world in seven days, God delivers the instructions for his Tabernacle in seven speeches (Exodus 25:1; 30:11, 17, 22, 34; 31:1, 12). The Tabernacle will be where God restores the relationship lost in the Garden of Eden and where God will live with his people once again.

Chapter 30 then tells Israel about the first items they should place in God’s new Eden: incense, an altar to burn it on, a basin for washing, and sacred oil. The altar of incense sits just outside God’s presence and is overlaid in gold, while the basin for washing is placed in the outer courtyard and is made of bronze (Exodus 30:1-6, 17-21). God also gives instructions on how to make the sacred oil and incense that will be used in the Tabernacle (Exodus 30:22-38). The precious metals, the exotic spices, and the fatty oil are all supposed to remind God’s people of the abundance of Eden and the rich quality of relationship they had when God lived among his people.

Every adult in Israel is told to fund the Tabernacle, its furniture, and the priests through a half-shekel tax. Not only would this tax pay for needed repairs and supplies, but God also says it will make atonement for their lives (Exodus 30:11-16). Atonement means something or someone that couldn’t live with God is now able to. This atonement tax communicates that a price must be paid so God’s people can enter God’s Edenic presence. Even the altar of incense must be atoned for once a year (Exodus 30:10). Not only do people need to be prepared to enter Eden, but the physical place must be prepared at a cost for God to live there. In fact, the very place God says he will meet with his people is over an “atonement cover” (Exodus 30:6). Ultimately, access to God will be accomplished when a price is paid.

Then, just as God placed two people in the Garden of Eden to bring order to the world, God appoints two artisans to build his Eden tent (Exodus 31:1-11). They are filled with God’s Spirit for their creative task, just as God’s Spirit filled the first human for his task (Genesis 1:1-2; 2:7). Finally, with all God’s designs communicated and his chosen priests and artisans identified, God calls Israel to rest, to take a Sabbath, just as he did after he created the world (Exodus 31:12-18). But God’s people aren’t simply supposed to rest in imitation but in faith that God has provided everything needed to atone, prepare, and bring them into his Edenic presence (Exodus 31:13).

Where is the Gospel?

In the Tabernacle, God designs a new Eden for Israel. In his tent, heaven would meet earth, a new creation would begin, and God would live among his people. And through an act of atonement, everyone in Israel can experience God’s creative power and his divine rest. But Israel’s Tabernacle was only a prototype. It helped prepare God’s people for the day when God would personally tabernacle among his people, in Jesus (John 1:1-14).

In Jesus, God and man live together. In him, the relationship between God and man is restored. Just like the Spirit was breathed into Adam and later filled the Tabernacle artisans, God’s life-giving creative power fills Jesus. He brings rest, relief, healing, and Eden-like abundance wherever he goes (John 6:12-13, John 9:6-7). Like the artisans, Jesus builds a new Eden on earth.

But just as Moses’ Tabernacle was built through an atonement tax, so was Jesus’ new Eden (1 John 2:2). Jesus died like the animals that purified and prepared the Tabernacle furniture. Through his death, he prepared the earth to receive his presence. But Jesus’ life was also “taxed” so we could live in God’s new Eden (Romans 6:1-5). But Jesus’ new tabernacle is not located in a building, but in himself and in the people he transforms (1 Corinthians 6:19). No longer does heaven meet earth in a tent in Israel but in anyone who trusts that God has provided everything needed to atone, prepare, and bring us into his Edenic presence.

See for Yourself

I pray that the Holy Spirit will open your eyes to see the God who wants to live with his people. And may you see Jesus as the one who has created a new tabernacle in us.