EXODUS - Living For God's Glory - Exodus 40:33-38

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If you have a Bible with you would you like to turn with me to Exodus chapter 40

Exodus 40:33–38

verses 33 to 38. Let me encourage you in your own time please do read the

chapters, the two chapters before that which have led up to this as well. We're

going for that short passage there just for the sake of time but it will cover

that whole section there which is really helpful as we've made our way through

the book of Exodus but we are in our last bit here. So let me read to you

Exodus chapter 40 verses 33 to 38. If you have a church Bible that is on page 101.

Exodus 40:33–38

Then Moses set up the courtyard around the tabernacle and altar and put up the

curtain at the entrance of the courtyard and so Moses finished the work. The cloud

covered the tent of the meeting and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.

Moses could not enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled on

it. The glory of the Lord had filled the tabernacle. In all the travels of the

Israelites whenever the cloud lifted from above the tabernacle they would set

out but if the cloud did not lift they did not set out until the day it lifted.

So the cloud of the Lord was over the tabernacle by day and the fire was in

the cloud by night in the sight of all the Israelites during all their travels.

Matt's going to come and share the word to us now. Thanks Eric and good

afternoon everyone really good to be with you. Do you keep your Bibles

open in Exodus as we're going to be kind of looking at that part of the Exodus

story but we'll also be doing really an overview of the whole of the book. So why

don't I pray before we start. Dear Heavenly Father we thank you so much

that you are a good God that you love us deeply and that as your word is open you

speak to us no matter who we are no matter the circumstance which we've

arrived here this afternoon and we ask that none of us would leave here

unchanged. Amen. Well let me ask you this question. Let me ask you this question.

Were you ever were you ever afraid of monsters under the bed? Were you ever

afraid of monsters under the bed? You see when the when the light is switched off

at night and you're plunged into darkness did you ever hide under the

covers? Was that you? Did you ever kind of cocoon yourself in the duvet because

actually when you were cocooned in the duvet it just felt like you were safe. It

was like a warm and cozy refuge with just you and a community of cuddly toys

where you could kind of bunker yourself down and be safe. Well that was certainly

my experience and I think last week I really made a breakthrough in improving

that you can ask Jackie. But I imagine for many of us being afraid of the dark

looking for safety is probably an experience that marked all of our

childhoods at some way at some point or another. But as grown-ups but as

grown-ups we come to realize that actually the monsters under our beds

that we imagine that are there are really not the types of things that we

should be worried about. For in the darkness or out there there are far more

terrifying things that even our best efforts to build stronger refuges out of

apartments or houses or strong CVs or tight friendship groups or even

marriage cannot protect us from. One leadership writer he posed a question

recently on the platform LinkedIn and he said this what is the one thing that

you're struggling with right now above anything else and he overwhelmingly got

the response back more than relationship issues more than financial issues the

problem that people said they were facing was that of mental clutter. That

is a sense of being overwhelmed a sense of not being able to switch off because

your brain is always switched on it's kind of like it's got a radar for

problems that could come your way that need fixing for future issues that you

need to be aware of of scanning past conversations that you've had with other

people looking for mistakes that you may have said or faux pas that you may have

unwittingly made. You see those monsters of the world the world that we live in

way way outside of Eden a world where each one of us if we're honest has

actually abandoned our creator God and the way that he's asked us to live and

in our own way vowed that we would live life our own way the worries of that

world that we have been responsible for making well that is a world full of fear

full of worry and we live in a world where those monsters live within our

hearts and minds and our duvets and our cuddly toys will not protect us in the

dark and that's why the book of Exodus is so important. Now this is going to be

the final talk in our Exodus series we've been trekking through Exodus for a

long time overall and I want to give you an overview of Exodus I want to show you

where we've been and I want to kind of give you a final reminder as we close

this book of the Bible why it is so valuable for us today. Exodus is 40

chapters long but within the book of Exodus are described three refuges three

refuges three locations of safety that point to the ultimate rescue ultimate

protection the ultimate peace that we can finally have from the monsters of

this broken world. I want to show you these three refuges as quickly as I can

and that's going to be the way that we're going to restructure this kind of

overview in the book of Exodus and then I'm going to finish by giving us a key

something that we can take away that will help us when we face our own fears.

So the first point is this the first refuge the basket first refuge the

basket. Now the book of Exodus it opens with the Israelite nation being enslaved

by the Egyptians they've been enslaved for hundreds of years by the time verse

one comes around and in the early chapters of Exodus the Pharaoh has said

that he's afraid of the Israelites they'll get too big and he wants to cull

the population so in an act of genocide he he calls he calls for all of the

Israelite boys to be thrown into the River Nile and killed. You see this is a

very dark opening to the book of Exodus I wonder if you remember it those of you

who were who were here when we started this series but these early chapters you

may not know this these early chapters are also titled by some as the five

women who saved the world that's also kind of how these early chapters are

titled the five women who saved the world in the sense of the actions the

courage of these five women at the very first chapters of Exodus actually laid

the foundation for the Messiah to come. In the beginning of Exodus you have two

midwives who have been told by Pharaoh that they need to work for him one's

called Chifra which means splendid and the other one is called Pua which means

beautiful and I think if you were in a maternity ward and you had a midwife

called splendid and another one called beautiful you would probably feel a

little bit calmer would knew about what was about to happen to you but these

amazing Israelite women these amazing Israelite midwives covertly defy Pharaoh

the great superpower of the time. Look at me at verses 1 to 4 of chapter 2 if

you've got your Bible chapter 2 verses 1 to 4 says this now a man of the tribe of

Levi married a Levi woman and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son when

she saw that he was a fine child she hid him for three months but when she could

no longer hide him she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar

and pitch then she placed the child in it put it among the reeds along the

bank of the Nile her sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him

so this is the kind of origin story of Moses who is the main character

throughout the entire book of Exodus but you've got Moses's mother really is the

star of the show in these opening chapters she is a mother who joins the

ranks of courageous women who have hidden their children from slaughter

something that there will be a number of mothers even across our world today who

have had to make that horrendous choice and Moses mother risks her own life in

the process she perhaps shows even greater courage by placing her child in

a basket on the major river of the nation this simple basket is the first

refuge in the book of Exodus and against all the odds it bears a child born in the

image of the living God on top of the water everything around that basket is

danger and inevitable death but within the basket there is safety there is

refuge and it's all under the watchful guardianship of his sister well that is

that is the next woman where it lands remarkably in the safe hands of the

Egyptian princess whose women woman number five an Egyptian princess who

against all of the stigma and the pressure of her own family she chooses

to raise this child as her own can you imagine the situation where this woman

goes against her very father's wishes to have these children destroyed and these

people treated as less than dirt on your feet and yet she chooses to pluck this

child who should otherwise be dead out of the water and cares for him as her

remarkable courage and for those of you who know your Bibles does it not ring

some bells here is there not like in a ding ding ding that this feels a little

bit like the story of Noah's Ark that you can read about in Genesis 9 which

sure if you know your story is a huge boat known as the Ark that became a

refuge for Noah and his family from the death of the flood waters but carrying

these fragile humans to safety and so here we have at the very beginning of

our book of Exodus God raises up a leader called Moses who will be tasked

to rescue his people from the monster of slavery now the challenge of course is

you if you were there at the very beginning of the book of Exodus to the

very beginning of our series the challenge for us here today in 21st

century Manchester was in the light of the example of the bravery and courage

of the five women who saved the world the challenge was this where are you

where are you I'm talking to you where are you subversively doing good in the

place that God has placed you where are you subversively doing good in the

location that God has placed you you see it's always going to be easier for you

and I to put our heads down and blend in with the wallpaper of the office or the

school gate or the university bar or the digital realms that you inhabit but but

on this side on this side of the new creation where things are not good and

not well and things are dangerous and harmful and not as God had planned them

to be two things are constant number one God's people will always face

persecution they will always face injustice and they will always face

suffering either directly or indirectly that will always be a constant this side

of the new creation the second thing is God's people are called to act they're

actually called to do something about it they're called to risk the status quo to

put themselves on the line to subversively if necessary be a force of

resistance against the darkness in this world all of the women at the very

beginning of the book of Exodus brings significant impact through leveraging

the very ordinariness of their position the ordinariness of their opportunity of

their resources under their current circumstances these women didn't turn

the world upside down for kind of being entrepreneurs though that is a good thing

to do or stunning happen not for profit though that is a great thing to do these

women actually saved the world through leveraging the ordinary opportunities

that God had placed around them so what is the opportunity you have you you have

literally right now in order to showcase the goodness and generosity of God in

the everydayness of this coming week what opportunity do you have to show

that God is wonderful see this is a sense of what it means to live for his

glory isn't it don't allow your life to shrink shrink to merely getting by

don't waste your life just waiting for the weekend number two come to the

second refuge point to second refuge the house this takes us to kind of towards

the first kind of end of the first part of the book of Exodus in Moses Moses a

grown man now he's sent by God to tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go and

this drama of this section of the book is that Pharaoh says no says he's not

going to let God's people go which leads to the the very famous ten plagues that

are brought about by God and it's a fascinating piece of scripture if this

was a film it'd be like a montage sequence you know all the different kind

of plagues happening together at a super fast pace well the ten plagues mirror

the ten words or the ten times that God speaks in Genesis chapter one it's a

description in these ten plagues of the creation being unraveled or undone it is

a picture of de-creation it is making the point that the power that brought

the universe into being is now being devastatingly focused like sun was raised

through a magnifying glass onto this one stubborn slave endorsing nation it is

God saying I will not put up with this not with my people these ten plagues are

a scream into the darkness that when God commits to a people he never lets them

go you see Pharaoh doesn't budge though and so God calls the final tenth plague

I wonder if you remember it when we went through it as a church community it was

it was a hard one to work through it's the death of the firstborn of each house

it echoes Pharaoh's actions at the very beginning of Genesis when he killed the

Israelite children and this plague the final plague is the most intense

because this final plague is liable to fall on both Egyptians or Israelites but

equally equally and this is where the generosity comes in actually God gives a

way to be saved if you are an Israelite or if you are an Egyptian the only thing

they have to do to be saved is they have to build a refuge and the instructions

for building this second refuge in Exodus were were quite simple it's right

there in in verses 21 to 22 then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and

said to them go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter

the Passover lamb take a bunch of hisp dip it into the blood in the basin and

put some on the blood on the door and on both sides of the doorframe none of you

shall go out of the door of your house until morning again those of you who

know your Bibles will be thinking to yourself here we go it's a specific

location it's where families and animals all go in together and the people will

be safe we're talking about an ark here aren't we isn't this a reference again

to Noah's ark in fact and I love this in the original Hebrew the word house in

this part of the book of Exodus is the word for ark spelt backwards isn't that

cool that's pretty cool it's cool to me it's cool to me but this refuge the

second refuge this house has actually what is it's it makes a profound

difference because this house this refuge only works because of a

substitutionary death of another you see God's justice can't be selective

otherwise it would be corrupt you can't have a judge who says well I'm gonna

send you to prison but because you're part of my family you can go free that

just wouldn't be right would it we want the benefits of God's justice when we're

the victim but we really don't want God's justice when we're condemned after

all if if the reality of your life the things that you've said or done or did

publicly or in secret or just played up on this massive screen when you just

want the whole earth to open up and swallow you whole none of us can stand

the true justice of God can we so it was a temporary solution an unblemished

animal was sacrificed representing for the Israelites or the Egyptians a faith

by which the people could be rescued by God this animal would die in their place

because it was a representation that one day one day God would make a permanent

solution to the injustice of his people sin and one of the many challenges of

this part of Exodus is the question if you were there if you were there way

back in this part of Exodus when you were given the instructions for this

refuge would you actually have made your house a refuge would you have done that

would you have gone to the expense or the inconvenience would you would you

have changed your diary to do all of the things that God requested to make your

home a refuge would you in deepest love and distress for your Israelite

neighbor who you see going about their normal day business having ignored God's

instructions to make a refuge themselves would you have gone to that neighbor and

said hey I'm willing to have an awkward conversation with you because I love you

and you are in great danger unless you actually do what God tells you would you

have had that conversation would you have that awkwardness if it was someone

you loved and you were worried for them can you see where I'm going with that

application for us as a church community if God has been clear about what trusting

him looks like and and the end result of not trusting him is is terrifying

consequences of facing your own judgment for your own injustice but God's told us

how how we can find a refuge from the consequences of our own sin should we

keep that private or should we share that with others that was one of the big

challenges from this part of Exodus if you were there back then let's turn up

the volume on this one would you have knocked on the door of your Egyptian

neighbor if you were an Israelite and said hey something big is about to happen

but there is a way to be safe if you make a refuge or if you come into my

home would you have done that if if you were there would you have knocked on the

door of your slave master and said hey there's a there's a great judgment

coming but but you can come to the refuge with me would you have done that

or is your faith a private matter and what happens out there is their problem

refuges against coming danger and never just private are they if you were just

to walk a few meters down the road outside of this church towards Piccadilly

station you wouldn't know it but under that road is actually one of the largest

air raid shelters in this city it can hold about 1275 people and keep them safe

from bombs it's public it's not private it's why we as a church exist to be a

refuge not merely for ourselves but we have space here for your friends for

your neighbors for your work colleagues that do not yet know Christ and have no

idea that one day the Lord Jesus is coming back and bringing with him the

justice and judgment that we both long for and yet makes us tremble well come

with me to our third point the third refuge the tabernacle we're tracking

through this book fast aren't we the majority of the back end of the book of

Exodus is focused on the third refuge which is the tabernacle and who could

forget when Chris in this very room made a kind of life-size tabernacle for us all

to experience how big it was and how awesome it was it is the ultimate

refuge so far in the book of Exodus and it is far better than all of the

previous refuges it's better than the Ark of Noah is better than the

basket of Moses is better than the house this one this refuge was like a second

garden of Eden it was designed to be like that and it was a place where God

would be present with his people that's what made it so special where God's

presence would dwell and so in verses 35 to 40 sorry in chapters 35 to 40 final

chapters of the book they go into immense detail behind the construction

of the tabernacle but here's a teaching point for us yeah I have never

understood it when Christians dismiss creative excellence you see the writer

of Exodus could have just said oh God told them to build a nice big tent he

doesn't chapter upon chapter is God giving the very precise instructions of

exactly how he wants this final refuge to be made in this book God says how he

wants it to be made what he wants it to be made from he even says who he wants

to be there the craftsman working on it he doesn't just pull a plumber or an

electrician from gumtree he directly says in verses some 30 to 35 of chapter

35 he wants a fella called Bezalel and a fella called Ahaliah because he wants

their specific wisdom their skill their excellence that he has given them to be

used for the construction of this tabernacle in order for it to be

beautiful you see if you're a creative or consider yourself a creative in this

room then note the application in fact if you have skills of any sort which I'm

sure all of you do note this application Ephesians chapter 2 tells us that the

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

church the church that is this community of people that actually we are the

living stones of the new temple that is the new tabernacle that is the refuge

that enjoys the protection of God the Son God the Father God the Spirit so where

your skills adorn the church whatever that might be or wherever your skills in

your general life or profession points to Jesus then that's a big deal and you

should cherish that you see your diligence your practice your rehearsal

your attention to detail your attention to typeface or font size or measurement

or color palette or Excel precision or tuning or rehearsal all matters it all

really matters the skills are given to you by God for his glory how is it for

his glory because the tabernacle was like a walking signpost pointing the

Israelites and all of the other nations around them encouraging them to see how

beautiful God is so that they could put their trust in him and come to him as a

refuge think about it like this the tabernacle in Exodus was the most

expensive most beautiful most wonderful billboard pointing to a come here and

find a refuge in the desert advertisement that the world had ever

seen until perhaps you know the Burj Khalifa hotel and that doesn't move you

see this was a remarkable remarkable signpost pointing to God in all of his

glory the believer the Christian believer pursues excellence with their

God-given skills that's what we do we pursue excellence we pursue beauty and

design we pursue soul moving wonder in composition not to point at ourselves

but to provoke the world to ask the question who is the creator of you who

you honor through the things that you make and your skills be you an

electrician or a medic or an academic or a teacher or a stay-at-home parent

whatever you might be called to do your skills are an invitation to all who

observe and watch you it's an invitation to all of those who observe and watch

you to come and know the God that you serve so here Exodus ends the collective

effort of all of the people at the very end of chapter 40 they've created the

tabernacle and God dwells with his people he has empowered them to make a

refuge that will protect them look with me at verse 34 of the last chapter of

extas then the cloud covered the tent of meeting and the glory of the Lord filled

the tabernacle it's like the high point it's like the climax this is what it's

all been about the great ultimate refuge that all of exodus has been building to

has been made but there is one ominous note right at the very end of verse 35

right there at the very end in your Bibles we're told that Moses could not

enter the refuge because the glory of God was there now the reason that this

is a slightly niggling it's just a niggle it's just a niggle perhaps you

think of it why couldn't Moses go in because you're thinking to yourself if

you've been through us for the whole of the Exodus journey in passages like

Exodus 24 verses 15 to 18 Moses is met with God on the mountain in the glory

Exodus 24:15–18

cloud with the lightning with the very presence of God that seemed to be no

problem and yet now at the very end of the book he can't go into the tent or

went wrong we're told that he couldn't go in because God's glorious presence

was there and yet throughout the book of Exodus throughout the book of Exodus

Moses has been the only one who could go to be close to God because his presence

was there so what has changed at the very end of the book what has changed

at the very climax when everything should be ice cream and cakes it's not a

good way to finish a book of the Bible with ice cream and cake there seems to

be a niggle of sadness and the reason it's there goes back to chapter 32

verses 31 to 34 of Exodus where Moses if you remember Ralph's sermon on the on

the moment the people abandoned God and they made this golden calf idol made of

gold if you remember Moses says when God is about to punish the people and

destroy them and have nothing more to do with them because of their their sin

because of their rebellion Moses goes look God punish me but save the people

let the justice fall on me only be the refuge to the people that you said you

would be and so at the end of this amazing book the people are safe and

they're worshiping God and they're having the time of their life with the

refuge of God symbolically right in the middle of the Israelite camp but they're

only able to do that because Moses said I'll take their place I'll take their

place let me put it like this back in 1912 one of the most famous maritime

disasters in the UK happened it was the sinking of the Titanic and in the final

minutes in the final minutes where that large ocean liner was sinking fast into

the ice-cold waters of the ocean there was one place left on the very last

lifeboat one place one place on the very last lifeboat and there was a lady there

was a lady who was in the queue and it was her place her name was Edith Evans

and she was about to step on board the lifeboat from the deck of the Titanic

when she noticed her friend was still on the ship a friend that she dearly loved

a lady called Caroline Lamson Brown Caroline Lamson Brown and so she said

no no no Caroline you take my place you you take my place and Caroline accepted

that invitation and she became the last person to step off the deck of the

Titanic onto a lifeboat according to numerous accounts whereas Evans perished

in the water with around about 1,500 other passengers aboard and her body was

never recovered and Caroline Brown said at a memorial service for Evans some

months later she said this it was a heroic sacrifice and as long as life

lasts I shall hold her memory dear as my preserver who preferred to die so that I

might live. Exodus is designed to point us to Jesus for like Moses and like

Evans Jesus said of us let them be safe let them be safe in the refuge let them

take my place and so is Jesus who took the punishment for my sin so that the

perfect good of God of justice could always be close to me and you not in a

tent but gifting me the Holy Spirit so that the presence of God could dwell

with me always. It was Jesus who is our true friend whose love would have pulled

me into the refuge of his house activated by his blood even though I

treat him like nothing and it's Jesus who had the courage like Moses's mother

to save me and you though I like a baby in a basket could do nothing to

contribute to my own safety. The application to you if you're not yet a

believer is put your trust in Jesus because it doesn't matter who you are or

what you've done Jesus has paid it all. But for those of you who are believers

and if you're like me but you are a worrier you are an excessive planner you

are an obsessive list maker well then if you're like me then there's part of you

that still believes that you are outside of the refuge. You see one of the things

that we learn in the book of Exodus is that slaves have to worry about

everything because they have no one to worry on their behalf but we do because

we're not slaves and so if you're like me and you struggle with that mental

clutter those monsters that come in the night and steal your sleep and your

peace one thing for you to remember the God who gave up his place in the refuge

of heaven for you will not abandon you now will not abandon you now. He will not

let you face your fears alone. For you are not called to live this life on your

own to be your own Savior. The book of Exodus calls us to draw close to him our

loving God. Let's pray. Heavenly Father we thank you that though we do not deserve it

you call us to be close to you you call us to walk with you though we often think

of ourselves as alone and abandoned we are reminded that in the Lord Jesus who

gave up his place in heaven so that we would never be without refuge again we

have the very creator of the universe walking with us as we face our challenges

our fears our monsters every day. Amen.