Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. 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. Throughout all their journeys, whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the people of Israel would set out. But if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not set out till the day that it was taken up. For the cloud of the LORD was on the tabernacle by day, and fire was in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys.
Exodus 40:34-38
Two final observations will suffice to bring our studies in Exodus to a close. The first is this: the divine glory came down into the midst of a people who had fallen into gross idolatry, and whose sin had kindled the wrath of God against them. If this be so, if the enormity of the golden calf could be forgiven and forgotten, must there not be hope for the Church in our day and generation, soiled and marred as it has become, if only there be a renewal of gospel-obedience? If the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, may it not also return, with power, to a church that humbles itself in repentance and in a determination to new obedience?
The second lesson, with which we conclude, is that of the abiding presence of the glory with the children of Israel throughout their journeyings (38). This is the ultimate in spiritual experience. Moses was right in 33:15 - all would have been useless if God had not given them His presence for the journey. Nor is it otherwise in the work of the gospel; it is only in the fellowship of the Spirit that that work can be done, and where that conscious fellowship, which mediates and communicates the divine presence, is wanting, worship will be vain and preaching will be vain. There is all the difference in the world between worship and service, however orthodox and evangelical, that lacks the holy unction of God and that which is touched and transformed by it. To know the latter, as Moses surely did and we must covet to do, is to be prepared to pay any price to have it continue. May it be so with us, for His great Name’s sake!