David Bahn – Reflections

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These devotions are part of the Follow the Word Bible reading program at St. John Lutheran Church in Cypress, Texas. This year we are reading through the Scriptures together, listening for how God speaks through his Word day by day. I hope you will join me on this journey.

Today’s readings are Exodus 38-40; Psalm 56.

Exodus 40:17-34

In the first month in the second year, on the first day of the month, the tabernacle was erected. ¹⁸ Moses erected the tabernacle. He laid its bases, and set up its frames, and put in its poles, and raised up its pillars. ¹⁹ And he spread the tent over the tabernacle and put the covering of the tent over it, as the Lord had commanded Moses. ²⁰ He took the testimony and put it into the ark, and put the poles on the ark and set the mercy seat above on the ark. ²¹ And he brought the ark into the tabernacle and set up the veil of the screen, and screened the ark of the testimony, as the Lord had commanded Moses. ²² He put the table in the tent of meeting, on the north side of the tabernacle, outside the veil, ²³ and arranged the bread on it before the Lord, as the Lord had commanded Moses. ²⁴ He put the lampstand in the tent of meeting, opposite the table on the south side of the tabernacle, ²⁵ and set up the lamps before the Lord, as the Lord had commanded Moses. ²⁶ He put the golden altar in the tent of meeting before the veil, ²⁷ and burned fragrant incense on it, as the Lord had commanded Moses. ²⁸ He put in place the screen for the door of the tabernacle. ²⁹ And he set the altar of burnt offering at the entrance of the tabernacle of the tent of meeting, and offered on it the burnt offering and the grain offering, as the Lord had commanded Moses. ³⁰ He set the basin between the tent of meeting and the altar, and put water in it for washing, ³¹ with which Moses and Aaron and his sons washed their hands and their feet. ³² When they went into the tent of meeting, and when they approached the altar, they washed, as the Lord commanded Moses. ³³ And he erected the court around the tabernacle and the altar, and set up the screen of the gate of the court. So Moses finished the work.

³⁴ Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. 

Some time ago, a large condominium building in Florida failed — and I don’t mean financially. Its foundation gave way, and part of the structure collapsed in the middle of the night, killing 98 people. Only four were pulled alive from the rubble. The cause was determined to be long-term degradation in the reinforced concrete support of the parking garage below.

I thought of that tragedy while reading the detailed instructions for the building of the Tabernacle. Moses and the skilled workers were not constructing a high-rise condo, but they were building something far more significant — the dwelling place of God’s holy presence among His people. And it was designed to move with them through the wilderness.

God already knew they would wander for forty years. So this was no ordinary tent. It was portable, yes — but carefully constructed, richly appointed, and structurally precise. Every ring, hook, curtain, pole, and covering was described by God to Moses and then to the craftsmen.

Imagine if, upon first erecting the Tabernacle, they discovered the rings were misplaced or the courtyard curtains too short. Those would not be minor punch-list corrections. They could have undermined the entire project. “Well, Lord, we’ll have to redesign things before You can come down and meet with us.” That would not do.

Why so many details? Certainly logistics played a role. But more than that, the Tabernacle gave God’s people a visible place to look — for mercy, for guidance, for help. It was where heaven met earth.

John tells us that Jesus is the Word made flesh who “tabernacled” among us. The symbolism is hard to miss. He was not built from blueprints and specifications — yet He was God in the flesh. He moved from place to place, dwelling among His people for a time, just as the Tabernacle did before giving way to Solomon’s Temple.

Yet even the Temple did not last forever. It has given way to a new living temple – not made with hands. When Jesus completed His work, He sent the Holy Spirit, who now builds us into a living temple formed by grace. We are being shaped into a dwelling place for God, built to give Him glory and point people to the grace and truth of Jesus.