It shall be a continual burnt-offering throughout your generations at the entrance of the tent of meeting before Jehovah, where I will meet with you, to speak there with thee.
The instructions for the daily lamb close with a promise bigger than the ritual. God names the place where He will come and speak. Why should an offering that burns day and night be the condition for meeting God? And what does that mean for anyone coming to Him today?
The offering never paused, and it ran on through every generation. That shapes what anyone finds when he comes to God.
Verse 42 shows a continual burnt offering at the place where God meets the people. Christ is before God day by day continually, a sweet savour. I cannot go to God without finding the savour of Christ there, in the perfect sweetness of His offering.
The offering did more than please God. It gave Israel a place to stand.
Since this offering never stopped, God laid a foundation by it. On that foundation Israel could stand and be accepted in all its fragrance and savour. So it is no small picture of the believer's position. It shows the ground of his acceptance in the Beloved. We can therefore say, "as He is so also are we in this world." We are in God's presence in all the savour of His sacrifice, and in all the acceptance of His person.
Nothing in this offering dealt with the worshipper's guilt. It was there for God's own pleasure.
The continual burnt offering, with its instructions in Exodus 29:38, was unlike other burnt offerings. No one laid hands on it, and it presented no atonement for people. It was wholly for God in every way. It lets us know the unbroken delight of Christ's sacrifice of Himself to God. The morning lamb and the evening lamb provided this constant sweet fragrance before God. One day the night for Israel will be over. The Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in His wings. Then there will be no need for the evening sacrifice, only the morning one, as Ezekiel 46:13 instructs.
An ordinary Israelite could come as far as the entrance of the tent, and no further. Older translations call it the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. The altar stood there, and there God met His people.
In grace God let Moses meet Him at the mercy seat. But the people could not pass beyond the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. Here the burnt offering went up on the bronze altar. So this was the meeting place between God and Israel, on the ground of the sacrifice. There could be no other possible place; just as now Christ forms the only meeting place between God and the sinner. This is a truth of the first importance, especially for those who are not saved. Apart from Christ no one can draw near to God. "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
A door means a way in. That tells us what God wanted.
Doors in Scripture have the idea of entrance. God wants to meet His creatures in a way that brings blessing to them. Bringing the burnt offering to the door of the tent of meeting made that possible. God would impress on His people that He truly did want to meet them. Meeting them on these terms meant He could give them blessings, on the ground of that offering in His divine favour.
God's willingness to speak there rested on one thing only — the sacrifice burning in that spot.
There was always before the face of God the death of the Lord Jesus Christ in complete, perfect obedience to His will, bringing a sweet savour to Him. It was on this basis, and this basis alone, that God could meet Moses and the children of Israel at the place where the offering was continually burning.
God met His people at that door and spoke to them there. But a door was not His goal — He wanted a home among them.
The whole offering burned on the copper altar before the door of the tabernacle. There the Lord met with Israel and spoke to them. To enjoy His presence, they had to keep bringing the continual burnt offering. In this way too God would sanctify the tabernacle, the altar, and Aaron and his sons. All of this was basic to God dwelling among the sons of Israel. Today too, God saves sinners from the bondage of sin. He does it not only to relieve them from such a miserable condition, but for a far greater purpose — greater blessing for them and greater glory for Him than any of us imagines at first.
Later God's glory filled that tent and set it apart. It did not come apart from the altar.
You will also notice that this glory took up its home in connection with the burnt offering. Christ's work is the basis of the Spirit's presence.
- Sacrifice — The lamb burned morning and evening without a break. The savour of Christ's death is never missing from God's presence.
- Standing — That unbroken offering gave Israel a place to stand. The believer stands on the same ground — his acceptance in the Beloved.
- Place — God named one spot: the entrance where the altar stood. There could be no other. Christ is now the only meeting place between God and the sinner.
- Speech — God met and spoke at that place, on the ground of the offering. He wanted His people near enough to hear Him.
- Dwelling — Meeting at the door led on to God living among His people. His glory settled in connection with the offering, never apart from it.
And there will I meet with the children of Israel; and it shall be hallowed by my glory.
These words come in the middle of the rules for the daily burnt offering. God names a spot on earth where He will meet a whole nation, and He promises to set that tent apart by His own glory. Two questions follow: why that spot, and what makes it possible for God to live so close to people.
God did not set this meeting in open space. He set it where the altar stood.
In grace God let Moses meet Him at the mercy-seat (Ex. 25:22; Num. 12:8); but the people could not pass beyond the door of the tent of meeting. The burnt-offering was presented here on the bronze altar. So this was the meeting-place between God and Israel, on the ground of the sacrifice. There could be no other possible place; just as now Christ forms the only meeting-place between God and the sinner.
The older translation uses a plural in one line and a singular in the next. Each points to a different hearer.
Besides the two lambs offered daily... another element comes in with the altar, "I will meet you" (plural) — that is, the children of Israel — "to speak there unto thee" — Moses. God made these communications to the mediator for a people who drew near at the door of the tent of meeting, and He made them at the altar. He also spoke from within. (See chap. 25:22.)
The phrase is unusual. It does two things at once. It sets the tent apart, and it sets the standard for all that comes near.
The expression "by My glory," as applied to the tabernacle, is remarkable. In only one place on earth did He show His glory — in the holy of holies, in the bright cloud, the Shekinah, the symbol of His presence. Displayed there, that glory separated the tabernacle from everything else on earth. It made it a holy place; it sanctified it. But more. His glory being there became the standard of everything presented... So we read in the letter to the Romans that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." That shows we are guilty sinners unless we meet the claims of His glory — unless we could stand before the direct display of it. It goes still further. As sanctified by His glory, the tabernacle became prophetic too — prophetic of the day when the whole earth will be filled with His glory.
Eleven chapters later the promise becomes an event. Even Moses cannot go in.
In Exodus 29:43 God had promised that the tabernacle "shall be sanctified by my glory." He kept His promise. When the tabernacle was set up, "Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle" (Ex. 40:34). Moses had seen the divine glory on the mountain. Now he has no cleft of the rock in which to hide. So it is recorded: "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" (verse 35).
The glory settles where the burnt offering is. One writer sees in that a pattern for the Holy Spirit's presence today.
We have already seen that the cloud, or Shekinah, the visible emblem of the presence of God, was a picture of the Holy Spirit... This glory sanctified the tabernacle and set it apart for the service of God. Everything inconsistent with that glory was put out. The whole house was ordered to meet the requirements of God's holiness. You will also notice that this glory took up its abode in connection with the burnt-offering. Christ's work is the basis of the Spirit's presence.
The same holds for the believer today.
So the believer, as temple of the Holy Spirit, is sanctified by that presence. He is marked out as belonging to God, and everything inconsistent with His holy will should find no place in the heart or life.
The verse sits inside a chain with a fixed order: offering, glory, dwelling, knowing God.
First, the ground on which the Lord could dwell with His people was the continual rising of the fragrance of Christ as the burnt-offering... Second, and as a result, His glory sanctified the tabernacle. God claimed the tabernacle, the altar and the priests alike on the ground of the same sacrifice, and set them apart to Himself according to all that He was as revealed... Third, the people should know the One who dwells among them as the One who had brought them out of Egypt — in fact, as the God of redemption.
- Sacrifice first. God meets people only where the offering is — the door of the tent, not a place of their choosing.
- Then glory. The cloud comes down at the same altar where the burnt offering goes up.
- Glory sets apart. His presence set the tent apart from everything else on earth. It also became the measure of all that came near.
- Glory keeps its word. God keeps this promise in Exodus 40. The cloud fills the tabernacle, and even Moses cannot enter.
- Then dwelling. The end of it all is not a visit but a home — God living among a redeemed people who come to know Him as their Redeemer.