As one looks over the geography of the Book of Exodus a clear and somewhat surprising pattern emerges as Daniel Hyde draws our attention to in ‘God in Our Midst’.
Exodus takes place in three geographic locations. The story opens where Genesis ends—with Israel in Egypt—and continues there in chapters 1–13 (cf. Gen. 50:22–26). After leaving Egypt in the dark of night, the Israelites proceed into the wilderness, the Sinai desert, which is the setting for chapters 14–18. Surprisingly, however, the book of the “exodus,” that is, the departure from Egypt, does not spend most of its time on that dynamic event. Instead, the majority of the book takes place at a static location: Mount Sinai. The narrative in this location covers more than half of the chapters, 19–40.
There is a wonderful theological and practical reason why more than half of Exodus is set at Sinai. The Holy Spirit is teaching us that redemption occurs for the purpose of invocation, that salvation happens for the purpose of adoration. The Israelites were saved from Egypt that they might serve the Lord.
Likewise, our purpose for being called out of the darkness of the world is that we might be called into the brilliant presence of God. We exist, as the memorable words of the Westminster Shorter Catechism teach us, “to glorify God, and to enjoy him for ever” (Q&A 1). Meditating on the tabernacle, then, like meditating on the rest of Scripture, should help us fulfil this purpose, “that [we] may proclaim the excellencies of him who called [us] out of darkness into his marvellous light” (1 Peter 2:9b)
This last and largest section of Exodus can be divided into two parts. In chapters 19–24, the Lord enters a sacred covenant relationship with His liberated people. In chapters 25–40, He gives His covenant people the means to worship Him for that liberation in the tabernacle.
The largest subsection of this largest part of the book of Exodus, then, deals with the instructions for and construction of the tabernacle, where the Lord met with His people and where they served Him in sacrifice and prayer. How important is this fact? One of the great Dutch Reformed theologians of the seventeenth century, Herman Witsius (1636–1708), expressed it this way: “God created the whole world in six days, but he used forty to instruct Moses about the tabernacle. Little over one chapter was needed to describe the structure of the world, but six were used for the tabernacle.”
Clearly, the Holy Spirit wants us to notice that the tabernacle was extremely important to the faith and life of His old-covenant people—and, since it is part of inspired Scripture, to us.
God is telling us how important our worship is to Him, drawing our attention to His jealousy over that worship and at the same time our propensity through sin to twist and pervert that worship into ways that suit us rather than honour Him. If He sees such delight in worship so must we. If He seeks such worship so must we. If He takes such care such care over His worship so must we.