EXPOSITION

Exo 29:43-46

GOD‘S PROMISES. The chapter terminates with a parenthetic insertion of various promises, intended to cheer the Israelites under the hard circumstances of their wanderings in the wilderness, and growing out of the mention of the tabernacle as “the tabernacle of meeting” (Exo 29:42). “There,” says God, “He will meet, not only Moses, to speak to him, but also the children of Israel, to receive their offerings, hear their prayers, and grant their requests. There will he meet them, and there his glory shall be; and the tabernacle shall be thereby sanctified. He will sanctify both the tabernacle and the altar; he will sanctify, moreover, both Aaron and his sons; and he will dwell among the children of Israel, and be their God; and they shall know him.” Very precious and gracious promises, made absolutely; though, as the result showed (2Ch 36:14-18), contingent on their obedience; and faithfully performed, as long as even a remnant was obedient, during a space of above seven hundred years from the Exodus to the Captivity!

Exo 29:43

There will I meet the children of Israel. Lay Israelites might not enter the tabernacle, and could only “meet God” at its entrance, when they brought their sacrifices to the altar. He promises, however, to meet them on these occasions with favour and. acceptance. The tabernacle shall be sanctified by my glory. Compare Exo 40:34. The presence of the Shechinah was the true sanctification of the tabernacleall the rest was mere type and figure. God not only “put his name there,” but put his presence there visibly.

Exo 29:44

I will sanctify the altar. See Le Exo 9:24, where we learn that on the first occasion of Aaron’s offering sacrifice upon the brazen altar, “there came a fire out from before the Lord, and consumed upon the altar the burnt offering and the fat.” Thus the altar had its miraculous sanctification, as well as the tabernacle, and was not merely consecrated by human instrumentality. I will sanctify also both Aaron and his sons. It would seem to follow, by parity of reasoning, that here also something more is intended than had been accomplished by the rites of consecration. The verb is in the future”I will sanctify”and must allude to something which has not yet taken place. Probably, sanctification of the spirit is intendedthat Divine influence upon the heart which alone makes men really and truly “holy.” (Compare Le Exo 21:8, Exo 21:15; Exo 22:9, Exo 22:16.) But in this ease the promise must have been conditional. God would sanctify them so far as they would allow him.

Exo 29:45

I will dwell among the children of Israel. Compare Exo 25:8. Primarily, the indwelling of the Shechinah in the holy of holies is, no doubt, meant; but the expression need not be limited to this. God would be present with his people in manifold waysto direct, sustain, enlighten, defend, and save them. And will be their God. Compare Exo 6:7. What treasures of love, protection, bounty, tenderness, and pardon, are there in this phrase!

Exo 29:46

And they shall know, etc. When they experience my protection, bounty, love, tenderness, pardon, they shall truly feel and know in their inmost hearts, that I am the same God who delivered them out of the bondage of Egypt, and brought them forth, for the very purpose of “dwelling among them.” I am Jehovah, their God. No other God could deliver after this sort. No other God could be so long-suffering to a “stiff-necked people.”

HOMILETICS

Exo 29:43-46

God’s promises to Israel.

Here we may note

I. THE DIVINE GOODNESS AS SHOWN IN THE MAKING OF PROMISES, Man has no claim upon his Maker. Our “goodness extendeth not to him.” So far forth as we “do him true and laudable service,” we are “unprofitable servantswe have done that which was our duty to do” (Luk 17:10). But how little of such service is rendered! How great are our shortcomings! How many our “sins, negligences, and ignorances!” How little do we deserve anything but evil at God’s hand! And yet, he not only bears with us, but makes us gracious promises. He binds himself to us beforehand by express engagementshe pledges his own sacred word to bestow upon us divers blessings. Here he promised Israel five things

1. The sanctification of the tabernacle by the Shechinah;

2. The sanctification of the altar;

3. Holiness in Aaron and his sons;

4. His own permanent abiding presence with them as their God; and

5. Their own recognition of him as their Lord God

the deliverer who brought them out of Egyptthe eternalJehovah Eloheyhem. And to Christians he has promised far morepardon, redemption, acceptance, sanctification by the Holy Spirit, eternal life! Utterly unworthy as we are, these promises have been made to us. God’s infinite goodness has caused him to condescend to enter into covenant with his creatures; and the promises which he has made to us, “he for his part will most surely keep and perform.”

II. THE DIVINE FAITHFULNESS, AS SHOWN IN THE FULFILMENT OF THE PROMISES MADE.

(1) The sanctification of the tabernacle was effected by the entrance into it of the Shechinah (Exo 40:34);

(2) That of the altar by the fire which “came out from before the Lord” (Le Exo 9:24);

(3) Aaron and his sons were sanctified to the effectual performance of all their ministerial acts, and were further personally sanctified, so far as their own wills would permit;

(4) God did abide with his people Israel, notwithstanding all their short-comings, for at least seven centuries; defended them from their enemies; taught them by his prophets; made them a praise and a wonder among the nations. And, on the whole,

(5) notwithstanding occasional defections, Israel did recognise Jehovah as their God, did maintain his worship, did observe his laws, did believe that he dwelt among them, and was “the Lord their God.” Shall we think that to us he will be less faithful? Shall we doubt that he will give to us the covenanted blessingspardon, and redemption, and acceptance, and sanctification, and eternal life? Surely, “God is not a man that he should lie, or the son of man that he should repent.” He is “the faithful and the true” (Rev 19:11). He never broke a promise. All to which he is pledged he will most assuredly perform, if we only are not wanting on our part.

HOMILIES BY J. ORR

Exo 29:43-46

Israel sanctified by God’s presence.

1. Three grades of sanctification.

(1) By blood.

(2) Unction of the Spirit.

(3) Personal Divine indwelling.

2. God’s dwelling with Israel sanctifies

(1) the tabernacle;

(2) his servants;

(3) the whole people.J.O.

Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary

Exo 29:43. And there I will meet, &c. Some are for rendering this, and there I will be manifested to the children of Israel; and will be sanctified in my glory; or, they shall be sanctified by my glory: the Samaritan has it, there will I be sought for by the children of Israel, &c. God, in this and the following verses, promises, that he will dwell peculiarly among the Israelites; the Shechinah, or his Divine Presence, being always in the midst of them, watching over them, and protecting them, as their tutelar God and King. Compare Lev 26:11-12 with 2Co 6:16 and Rev 21:3.

Further reflections on the ordinance of the Priesthood.

As the sun paints the clouds with a variety of glorious colours, which, in their own nature, are but dark and lowering vapours exhaled from the earth; so when the Sun of righteousness arises, even the carnal ordinances and commandments of the law, dark and earthly as they seem, are gilded by his beams, and wear a smiling appearance. By his kindly influence, who is the Light of the world, the most barren places of the Scripture rejoice, and blossom as the rose. What portion of sacred writ is more apt to be perused without edification and delight, than what relates to the Levitical priesthood; the qualifications of their persons, their apparel, their consecration, and different parts of their function? And indeed it must be confessed a very hard task to reconcile with the wisdom of God the enjoining such numberless rites, purely for their own sake. But when we consider that Aaron and his successors were figures of our great High-Priest, we must acknowledge that these injunctions are neither unworthy of God, nor useless to man, but are profitable for doctrine and instruction in righteousness. We shall instance in a few things:

First, Whoever he was that approached God in the character of a High-Priest, he ought, according to the law of Moses, to be of the stock of Israel, the tribe of Levi, the family of Aaron, having his genealogy well attested.It must certainly be acknowledged, that our High-Priest was neither of the family of Aaron, nor of the tribe of Levi; “For it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Judah: of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood,” Heb 7:14. In this respect he certainly differs from them in a very essential point; which, however it might disqualify him from administering in the tabernacle or temple (“for if he were on earth he should not be a priest”), yet does not in the least infer his incapacity to be a priest of a higher order than the order of Aaron, that is, of the order of Melchizedec, who joined in one person the priest and the king. The character and office of a Levitical priest he never assumed when he was upon earth. What shall we say then? That he is inferior to Aaron and his successors on this account? Nay, the difference of his tribe is the most convincing proof of the supereminence of his order. Like Aaron, he was taken from among men, and was a Hebrew of the Hebrews; and never any priest of them all could boast of such an illustrious pedigree as Jesus Christ. Which of them all was born of a virgin? and “to which of them said God at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee?” Heb 1:5.The genealogy of the ancient priests behoved to be firmly documented: but they had no such illustrious proofs of their being the sons of Levi, as Christ had of his being the Son of God, which the Father attested, both by the voice from heaven, and by the mighty works he enabled him to do.

Secondly, The laws about their priestly garments are both significant and highly instructive. The curious materials of the ephod of gold, blue, purple, and scarlet, might represent the unsearchable riches of Christ, and the lustre of those divine graces which adorned his sacred humanity.The names of the twelve tribes which the high-priest bore first upon his shoulders, and then upon his breast-plate, as a memorial before the Lord continually, engraven on precious stones, and disposed in comely order, make no obscure emblem of the saints, whom our High-Priest carries both on the shoulders of his almighty power, and on the breast of cordial love, according to the most pathetic prayer of the spouse, “Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm,” Son 8:6.These names were engraven on precious stones: for such are all his saints, though disallowed of men, and trampled under foot as worthless pebbles; yet are they chosen of God, and precious, and they shall be his in the day that he makes up his jewels.They were arranged in comely order: for “he is not the God of confusion, but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints,” 1Co 14:33.Shall we notice next the Urim and the Thummim which Moses was commanded to put into the breast-plate of Aaron? Thus in Jesus Christ we have that priest who stands up with Urim and Thummim, and bears the judgment of Israel before the Lord continually. In him are found the clearest light of wisdom and the greatest perfection of holiness. In him that prayer is fully answered, “Give the King thy judgments, O Lord, and thy righteousness unto the King’s Son.”The curious girdle may signify the alacrity wherewith our High-Priest discharged every part of his office. Aaron’s girdle was indeed of costly texture, gold and purple, blue and scarlet. But of Jesus Christ it was prophesied, “Righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins,” Isa 11:5. The beloved apostle John beheld him equipped with this priestly ornament, when he saw him in the visions of God walking in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, clothed with a long white garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle.The golden bells, suspended around the hem of Aaron’s under-robe, may signify the sweet sound of the Gospel which is gone into all the earth. O greatly blessed are the people who hear this joyful sound, sweeter to the ear of faith, than music in its softest strains to the ear of the body; and an undoubted sign that our High-Priest is alive, though we see him not, and lives for ever in the presence of JEHOVAH, to make intercession for us.

The pomegranates which were curiously wrought betwixt the bells, and equal to them in number, may be an emblem of those fruits of righteousness, with which the preaching of the Gospel is attended.The fair mitre which adorned his head, with the venerable inscription on the plate of gold surrounding his temples, may put us in mind of Jesus Christ, who is the only crowned Priest; and not only holy, but holiness itself unto the Lord; yea, he is himself the holy JEHOVAH, and Fountain of holiness unto his people. For “this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS,” Jer 23:6.

Such were the garments for glory and beauty with which the typical priesthood was invested, and such their mystical signification. Let us come next to the manner of their consecration. The Hebrew lawgiver is directed to bring Aaron and his sons to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation: there they were washed with water; arrayed with the priestly vestments; anointed with the costly oil, which it was death to counterfeit; and, lastly, sanctified by the offering up of peculiar sacrifices, whose blood was put upon the extreme parts of their bodies. Though every minute circumstance in these venerable rites may not be capable of application to the Lord Jesus, it is sufficient if we can observe a general analogy. Aaron was washed in water, to signify that he was before polluted; and Christ was baptized, not indeed because he was himself polluted, but as it became him to fulfil all righteousness. Aaron was arrayed with the appointed vestments; and Christ was clothed with the garment of our flesh. Aaron was anointed with oil, wherewith the inferior priests were but sprinkled; but Christ is anointed with the Holy Ghost, which God gives not by measure unto him. Aaron was consecrated with the blood of beasts; but Christ was sanctified by his own blood, and made perfect through sufferings, by which he learned obedience, though he was the Son of God.

The different parts of their function is the last thing which demands our attention. “Every high-priest taken from among men,” in the manner above described, “is ordained for men in things pertaining to God, and to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sin.” Heb 5:1. This indeed was the most distinguishing part of their office, and fundamental to all other functions which are appropriated to them. However, they were also appointed to bless the people; to pray for them; to instruct them in the knowledge of the Divine will; to oversee the service of the tabernacle; to blow the trumpets both in peace and war; and to judge betwixt the clean and the unclean. But we see Jesus our High-Priest giving himself an offering and a sacrifice of a sweet-smelling savour, more grateful unto God, and more appearing to his incensed justice, than all the victims that ever smoked in the worldly sanctuary, or than all the gifts that ever were presented there, or than all the incense that ever fumed from the golden censer. Put off your robes, ye legal priesthood, your work is finished, your office entirely superseded. What ye could not do by multiplied oblations, Jesus Christ has done by one sacrifice. The vail is now rent, and the temple now destroyed. The shadow has given place to the substance. Perhaps it was not without a mystic signification, that Zacharias, a priest of Aaron’s order, and the father of John the harbinger of Christ, was struck dumb when officiating in the temple, so that he could not speak to the people when he came forth out of the holy place. Might it not be a silent omen, that a dispensation was now commencing in the days of the Messiah, wherein none of Aaron’s order should open their mouths any more to bless the people, saying. “The Lord bless thee, and keep thee: the Lord make his face to shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: the Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace?” Num 6:24-25. Jesus is that Priest whom God has sent to bless us; who prays for his people; whose lips keep knowledge to instruct us in the will of God. Jesus is that Priest who oversees the service of the tabernacle, being Head over all things to the church, which is his body. Jesus is that Priest, who now blows the great trumpet of the Gospel, and who shall descend shortly from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, to gather the congregation of the righteous. Then all who have him not for their Priest to wash and sprinkle them with his hyssop and blood, shall have him for their Priest to pronounce them utterly unclean.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

“Handfuls of Purpose”

For All Gleaners

“The tabernacle shall be sanctified by my glory.” Exo 29:43 .

Not even by the beauty which God himself had designed; not by the curious carving and cunning work of the artists whose busy fingers had made the tabernacle; not by the presence of Moses and Aaron; not by the burning of incense, or the offering of beasts, or the lighting of lamps; not by learning, pomp, splendour; not by rich and ingenious ceremonialism; only by the direct presence and ministry of the Divine Being. If we do not see the manifestation of God in the tabernacle, we see nothing that is worth looking at in the tabernacle. We should insist upon hearing the Word of God, and knowing the meaning of that Word, as little human as possible, whether in speech, or in music, or in spectacle; all these we certainly need, but we need them only as mediums or vehicles; they are nothing in themselves, except as they gather up and express the immediate and living and saving presence of God.

Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker

Exo 29:43 And there I will meet with the children of Israel, and [the tabernacle] shall be sanctified by my glory.

Ver. 43. And I will dwell. ] See Trapp on “ 2Co 6:16 “

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

the tabernacle. Supply Ellipsis with “it” (App-6).

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

the tabernacle: or, Israel

sanctified: Exo 40:34, 1Ki 8:11, 2Ch 5:14, 2Ch 7:1-3, Isa 6:1-3, Isa 60:1, Eze 43:5, Hag 2:7-9, Mal 3:1, 2Co 3:18, 2Co 4:6, 1Jo 3:2, Rev 21:22, Rev 21:23

Reciprocal: Exo 3:18 – met Exo 25:22 – between Exo 30:6 – I will Exo 30:36 – where I will Exo 33:7 – the Tabernacle of Lev 9:4 – to day Lev 10:3 – I will be Lev 21:8 – sanctify Num 17:4 – General 2Ch 8:11 – holy Isa 64:5 – meetest Hag 1:8 – I will be

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Exo 29:43-44. There I will meet with the children of Israel I will make this tabernacle the seat of my cloud of glory, which will be the symbol of my divine presence, and from thence I will give frequent discoveries of my will, and tokens of my favour toward them. The tabernacle of the congregation ohel mogned, the tabernacle of meeting, so called because there God and his people met together. I will sanctify Aaron and his sons God sanctified, set them apart, and marked them out to be his priests in a solemn manner by the appearance of his glory at their first sacrifice, and by sending fire from heaven to consume their burnt-offering, Lev 9:23-24.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

29:43 And there I will meet with the children of Israel, and [the tabernacle] shall be sanctified by my {p} glory.

(p) Because of my glorious presence.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes