Exodus 40
Exodus 40 brings the whole book to its destination. The opening chapters found Israel in bondage, crying out under the lash; the long middle delivered them through the sea, met them at Sinai, and gave them, in painstaking detail, the pattern of a dwelling where the LORD could live among them. Now, on the first day of the first month of the second year - one year, almost to the day, after the Exodus - everything is ready, and the LORD commands Moses to set up the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation (v. 2). What follows reads at first like an inventory: put the ark here, set the table there, light the lamps, place the altars, fill the laver, hang the court. But it is not a dry list. Each command moves toward one end - a place prepared for the presence of God.3
The LORD's instruction comes in two movements. First the structure: ark and veil, table and candlestick, the altar of gold and the altar of burnt offering, the laver, the court round about. Then the consecration: thou shalt take the anointing oil, and anoint the tabernacle, and all that is therein, and shalt hallow it (v. 9), and Aaron and his sons are to be washed, clothed in the holy garments, and anointed - their anointing shall surely be an everlasting priesthood throughout their generations (v. 15). Nothing is left to improvisation. The dwelling is not a thing human hands devised; it is a thing human hands receive, exactly as it was given. And so the chapter's middle section beats out a single refrain as Moses works - as the LORD commanded him - sounded again and again until the last line falls: So Moses finished the work (v. 33).
Then the answer descends. Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle (v. 34). What had been promised becomes presence; what had been blueprint becomes home. The glory is so weighty that Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation (v. 35) - the man who spoke with God on the mountain cannot now cross his own threshold, because the holy has filled the house. And the book of Exodus closes not on a command but on a sign that will go with the people every day from here on: the cloud of the LORD was upon the tabernacle by day, and fire was on it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys (v. 38). God has come down. He is with them. And He will lead them all the way home.1
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Exodus 40:1-15Set Up the Tabernacle · Anoint and Sanctify It All
1And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 2On the first day of the first month shalt thou set up the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation. 3And thou shalt put therein the ark of the testimony, and cover the ark with the vail. 4And thou shalt bring in the table, and set in order the things that are to be set in order upon it; and thou shalt bring in the candlestick, and light the lamps thereof. 5And thou shalt set the altar of gold for the incense before the ark of the testimony, and put the hanging of the door to the tabernacle. 6And thou shalt set the altar of the burnt offering before the door of the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation. 7And thou shalt set the laver between the tent of the congregation and the altar, and shalt put water therein.
The chapter opens, as the whole book so often does, with a word from the LORD: And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying. Everything that follows is His instruction, not Moses' idea. And the first thing fixed is a date: On the first day of the first month shalt thou set up the tabernacle (v. 2). It is no random day. As the chapter will note again in verse 17, this is the first day of the first month of the second year - one year, nearly to the day, since Israel walked out of Egypt. The anniversary of deliverance becomes the birthday of the dwelling, and the pairing is the point: the people were not freed merely to be free, but to be a people in whose midst God would live. Then the LORD names the pieces and their places, moving from the center outward: first the ark of the testimony, hidden behind the veil (v. 3); then the table and the candlestick (v. 4); the altar of gold for incense, and the screen at the door (v. 5); the great altar of burnt offering before the entrance (v. 6); and the laver, filled with water, between the tent and the altar (v. 7). Every object has its appointed spot. The dwelling is not arranged by taste or convenience; it is set in order by the One who will fill it.3
There is a deliberate logic to the order the LORD gives, and it is worth slowing down to see it. The ark comes first, and it is placed at the heart of the structure behind the veil - the seat of the LORD's presence, the place from which He had promised to speak. Everything else is arranged in relation to it. The table of bread and the candlestick stand in the holy place just outside the veil; the golden altar of incense stands before the veil, where prayer would rise like fragrant smoke; the great bronze altar and the laver stand in the court, where sacrifice is offered and hands and feet are washed before drawing near. Read from the outside in, the arrangement traces the very path of approach: a worshipper passes the altar where atonement is made, washes at the laver, and only then enters the holy place. Read from the inside out, it shows how everything radiates from the presence at the center. The structure is a kind of map of how a holy God may be approached and how near He has chosen to come. Nothing here is arbitrary; the placement itself is teaching.
8And thou shalt set up the court round about, and hang up the hanging at the court gate. 9And thou shalt take the anointing oil, and anoint the tabernacle, and all that is therein, and shalt hallow it, and all the vessels thereof: and it shall be holy. 10And thou shalt anoint the altar of the burnt offering, and all his vessels, and sanctify the altar: and it shall be an altar most holy. 11And thou shalt anoint the laver and his foot, and sanctify it. 12And thou shalt bring Aaron and his sons unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and wash them with water. 13And thou shalt put upon Aaron the holy garments, and anoint him, and sanctify him; that he may minister unto me in the priest's office. 14And thou shalt bring his sons, and clothe them with coats: 15And thou shalt anoint them, as thou didst anoint their father, that they may minister unto me in the priest's office: for their anointing shall surely be an everlasting priesthood throughout their generations.
With the court set up and the gate hung, the instruction turns from placing to consecrating. Thou shalt take the anointing oil, and anoint the tabernacle, and all that is therein, and shalt hallow it… and it shall be holy (v. 9). A thing rightly placed is not yet a thing made holy; the oil is what sets it apart. The same act passes over the altar of burnt offering until it is an altar most holy (v. 10), and over the laver and its base (v. 11). What had been craftsmanship - wood and gold and woven cloth - is by the anointing claimed for God's exclusive use, lifted out of the ordinary into the sacred. The word translated hallow and sanctify means exactly that: to make holy, to set apart from common use for the LORD. The dwelling does not become holy because it is beautiful or costly. It becomes holy because it is consecrated to Him.
The consecration reaches its height when it moves from objects to people: thou shalt bring Aaron and his sons unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and wash them with water (v. 12). The same threefold pattern that hallowed the furniture now sets apart the men - they are washed, they are clothed in the holy garments, and they are anointed (vv. 12-15). And the purpose is stated plainly and twice: that he may minister unto me in the priest's office. A place has been prepared for God to dwell; now mediators are prepared to serve in His presence and to carry the people near. The promise attached is striking in its reach: their anointing shall surely be an everlasting priesthood throughout their generations (v. 15). This is no temporary arrangement. A consecrated line will stand between the holy God and His people, generation after generation - a ministry that does not lapse, a way of approach that does not close. The reader who follows Scripture forward will find the longing in that word everlasting answered in ways Aaron's line alone could never supply.
The ark of the testimony is named first because it is first in importance. It held the testimony - the two tablets of the covenant given at Sinai - and over it sat the mercy seat, the place from which the LORD had said He would meet with Moses and speak. Of all the objects in the dwelling, this one is the seat of the presence, and the chapter treats it accordingly: it is set in the innermost room and covered with the veil, hidden from common sight, approached only with the greatest care. Everything else in the tabernacle is arranged around it. To grasp the logic of the whole structure, begin here, at the center: the testimony of God's covenant, the mercy seat above it, and the promise that here, in this place, the holy God will draw near to a people He has redeemed.1
Exodus 40:16-33As the LORD Commanded Him · So Moses Finished the Work
16Thus did Moses: according to all that the LORD commanded him, so did he. 17And it came to pass in the first month in the second year, on the first day of the month, that the tabernacle was reared up. 18And Moses reared up the tabernacle, and fastened his sockets, and set up the boards thereof, and put in the bars thereof, and reared up his pillars. 19And he spread abroad the tent over the tabernacle, and put the covering of the tent above upon it; as the LORD commanded Moses. 20And he took and put the testimony into the ark, and set the staves on the ark, and put the mercy seat above upon the ark: 21And he brought the ark into the tabernacle, and set up the vail of the covering, and covered the ark of the testimony; as the LORD commanded Moses.
The section opens with a summary that sets the key for everything in it: Thus did Moses: according to all that the LORD commanded him, so did he (v. 16). Then the date is sounded once more - the first month in the second year, on the first day of the month (v. 17) - and the tabernacle is reared up. What had been spoken in verses 1 through 15 as command is now narrated, point for point, as obedience. Moses raises the framework: sockets fastened, boards set, bars run through, pillars stood up (v. 18). He spreads the tent over it and lays on the coverings (v. 19). He places the testimony in the ark, sets the staves, lays the mercy seat on top, brings the ark inside, and hangs the veil to screen it (vv. 20-21). The narrative is almost ceremonially repetitive - and the repetition is the message. There is no gap between what the LORD said and what Moses did. Verse 16 promises it, and the verses that follow prove it, one piece at a time.
22And he put the table in the tent of the congregation, upon the side of the tabernacle northward, without the vail. 23And he set the bread in order upon it before the LORD; as the LORD had commanded Moses. 24And he put the candlestick in the tent of the congregation, over against the table, on the side of the tabernacle southward. 25And he lighted the lamps before the LORD; as the LORD commanded Moses. 26And he put the golden altar in the tent of the congregation before the vail: 27And he burnt sweet incense thereon; as the LORD commanded Moses. 28And he set up the hanging at the door of the tabernacle.
Now the holy place is furnished, each item set and then put to its appointed use. The table goes on the north side and the bread is set in order before the LORD (vv. 22-23) - the bread of the Presence, a continual offering kept fresh before Him. The candlestick goes opposite, on the south, and the lamps are lit before the LORD (vv. 24-25), so the holy place is never dark. The golden altar of incense is set before the veil, and sweet incense is burnt upon it (vv. 26-27), the smoke rising toward the place of the Presence like prayer ascending. Then the screen is hung at the door (v. 28). What is striking is that Moses does not merely position the furniture; he begins its service. Bread is laid out, lamps are kindled, incense is burnt. The dwelling is not arranged as a museum to be looked at but readied as a house to be lived in - and the worship of God begins the very moment its furniture is in place. And after almost every act stands the refrain, steady as a heartbeat: as the LORD commanded Moses.
29And he put the altar of burnt offering by the door of the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation, and offered upon it the burnt offering and the meat offering; as the LORD commanded Moses. 30And he set the laver between the tent of the congregation and the altar, and put water there, to wash withal. 31And Moses and Aaron and his sons washed their hands and their feet thereat: 32When they went into the tent of the congregation, and when they came near unto the altar, they washed; as the LORD commanded Moses. 33And he reared up the court round about the tabernacle and the altar, and set up the hanging of the court gate. So Moses finished the work.
The work moves out into the court. The great altar of burnt offering is set by the door, and the first sacrifices ascend upon it (v. 29). The laver is set between tent and altar and filled with water, and at once it is used: Moses and Aaron and his sons washed their hands and their feet thereat whenever they approached (vv. 30-32). Cleansing precedes coming near - the pattern is built into the place. Then the court is reared up round about and the gate hung, and the chapter lands on a sentence that quietly echoes the dawn of the world: So Moses finished the work (v. 33). It is the same note struck in Genesis, where God finished his work which he had made - and the resonance is surely intended. A dwelling has been completed, ordered, set apart, exactly according to the word that called it into being. The building is done. Everything the LORD commanded has been carried out. And a finished work always waits on something: the chapter holds its breath for what must come next.
Exodus 40:34-38The Glory of the LORD Filled the Tabernacle
34Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. 35And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation, because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. 36And when the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the children of Israel went onward in all their journeys: 37But if the cloud were not taken up, then they journeyed not till the day that it was taken up. 38For the cloud of the LORD was upon the tabernacle by day, and fire was on it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys.
The held breath of verse 33 is answered in verse 34, and the answer is everything the book has been moving toward: Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. The dwelling that was reared up and made holy is now filled by the One for whom it was made. This is the same cloud Israel had followed out of Egypt, the same glory that had settled on Sinai when the LORD came down in fire; now it comes to rest upon - and pours into - the tent in the middle of the camp. What had been promise is now presence. The careful placing of the ark, the anointing of every vessel, the long obedience of as the LORD commanded - all of it strained toward this moment, when God Himself moves into the house His people prepared. The deliverance from Pharaoh was the journey; this is the destination. The God who heard their groaning in Egypt has come down to live among them.
And then a detail that should stop the reader: Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation, because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle (v. 35). This is the man who had stood in the cleft of the rock and seen the LORD pass by, who spoke with God face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. Yet now he cannot cross his own threshold. The glory is too full, too weighty, too present. This is not Moses being shut out as a punishment; it is the appropriate awe of a creature before the manifest presence of the holy. The very fullness that the people longed for is a fullness no one can simply stroll into. There is a tension here the chapter does not resolve: God has come near - nearer than ever, dwelling in the camp - and yet the nearness is so holy that even Moses must stand at the door. The presence is given and guarded in the same instant. That the holy God should dwell with His people at all is the wonder; that drawing fully in should require something more than even Moses had - that is the question the rest of Scripture will answer.
The glory does not settle in the tent only to stay still. From this point on, the cloud becomes Israel's guide: when the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the children of Israel went onward in all their journeys: but if the cloud were not taken up, then they journeyed not till the day that it was taken up (vv. 36-37). The presence that fills the dwelling is also the presence that leads the people. They do not chart their own course or read the terrain for the best route; they watch the cloud. When it lifts, they march; when it rests, they stay. For the next forty years this is how Israel will live - not by a map but by a presence, moving when God moves and waiting when He waits. The God who came down to dwell is the same God who goes before, and the same glory that filled the tent now governs every step of the road.
The book of Exodus ends not with a command or a summary but with a sign that will hang over the camp every day from now on: For the cloud of the LORD was upon the tabernacle by day, and fire was on it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys (v. 38). Two phrases carry the weight. First, in the sight of all the house of Israel - this is no private vision granted to Moses or the priests alone. Everyone sees it: the children, the elders, the mixed multitude that came up out of Egypt. The presence is public and undeniable; no one in the camp can wonder whether God is with them, for the proof stands over the tent by day and burns over it by night. Second, throughout all their journeys - the presence is not for the good days only or the settled places only. Cloud by day, fire by night, in every stage of the long road ahead, the LORD is with them. The last word of the book is, in effect, a promise: wherever this people goes, God goes with them, and the going-with does not end.
Further study
- The Hebrew text of Exodus 40 with Rashi, Ibn Ezra, and other classical commentators side by side - useful for kevod YHWH (v. 34, “the glory of the LORD,” the manifest weight of His presence), for the verb mashach behind the repeated “anoint” (vv. 9-15), and for the obedience-refrain ka'asher tsivvah YHWH (“as the LORD commanded”) sounded through verses 19-32.
- Exodus 40 ↔ John 1 · Revelation 21 · Matthew 17Intertextual BibleTraces the threads tying Exodus 40 to the rest of Scripture - the glory filling the finished dwelling (v. 34) read alongside the Word who dwelt (tabernacled) among us (John 1:14) and the promise that the tabernacle of God is with men (Rev. 21:3), and the cloud of glory (vv. 34-38) heard again in the bright cloud on the mount of transfiguration (Matt. 17:5).
- Exodus 40 - Translators' NotesNET BibleThe NET Bible's detailed footnotes on Exodus 40 - the dating “the first day of the first month” (v. 2) and its tie to the Exodus a year before, the sequence of placing and anointing the furniture (vv. 3-11), the repeated “as the LORD commanded” through the rearing (vv. 19-32), and the cloud-and-glory that close the book (vv. 34-38).
Where this echoes in Scripture
Set Up the Tabernacle · Anoint and Sanctify It All
- Exodus 25:8And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.The purpose stated at the start of the tabernacle instructions - the dwelling reared up in verses 1-15 is for God to live among His people.
- Leviticus 8:10-12And Moses took the anointing oil, and anointed the tabernacle and all that was therein, and sanctified them.The anointing commanded in verses 9-11 carried out - the dwelling and its vessels set apart with the holy oil.
- Hebrews 7:23-25this man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood... he ever liveth to make intercession for them.The everlasting priesthood of verse 15 - foreshadowed in Aaron’s line, held in fullness by One who lives forever.
- 1 Peter 2:5ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices.The consecration of priests for ministry (vv. 12-15) opened wide - a people made a dwelling and a priesthood for God.
- Psalm 133:2It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron’s beard.The anointing of Aaron in verses 13-15 - remembered as an image of blessing poured out and running down.
As the LORD Commanded Him · So Moses Finished the Work
- Genesis 2:1-2Thus the heavens and the earth were finished... And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made.The echo behind verse 33 - <em>So Moses finished the work</em>; the building of the dwelling told in the language of the finished creation.
- John 17:4I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.The finished work of verse 33 fulfilled - the complete obedience that prepares a dwelling for God.
- John 8:29he that sent me is with me... for I do always those things that please him.The obedience-refrain of verses 16-32 lived out fully - the life that does always what pleases the Father.
- Hebrews 10:7Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.The heart of the “as the LORD commanded” pattern - coming to do the will of God exactly as it is written.
- Hebrews 8:5See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount.Why the refrain matters - the dwelling was to be made precisely after the pattern God gave, not after human design.
The Glory of the LORD Filled the Tabernacle
- 1 Kings 8:10-11the cloud filled the house of the LORD, So that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud: for the glory of the LORD had filled the house.The same glory of verses 34-35 filling the temple Solomon built - the cloud that no minister could stand before.
- John 1:14And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.The glory that filled the tabernacle (v. 34) come in flesh - the verb “dwelt” meaning to pitch a tent, to tabernacle.
- Revelation 21:3Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people.The end toward which verse 34 strains - God come down to dwell with His people, now without veil or distance.
- Numbers 9:17-18when the cloud was taken up... the children of Israel journeyed: and in the place where the cloud abode... they pitched their tents.The guidance of verses 36-38 lived out through the wilderness - Israel moving and resting at the lifting and settling of the cloud.
- Matthew 28:20and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.The promise of verse 38 carried to its fullness - the abiding presence with His people throughout all their journeys.