Moses, Creator

Moses, Creator August 7, 2014

Exodus includes two descriptions of the furnishings of the tabernacle, one before the golden calf incident (25-31) and one after (35-40). Exodus 39:32-43 provides the conclusion to a section describing the construction of the tabernacle and furnishings, which is followed by the actual erection of the tabernacle in chapter 40.

That conclusion passage in chapter 39 is a new-creation passage. The numerous specific features of the tabernacle are listed under seven major headings:

1. Tent and coverings (with furnishings, clasps, boards, boars, pillars, sockets, covering of rams’ skin, porpoise sin, and the veil, vv 33-4).

2. The ark (with poles and cover, v 35).

3. The table (with vessels and bread, v 36)

4. The lampstand (with lamps, vessels, oil, v 37).

5. Golden altar (with incense and veil, v 38).

6. Bronze altar (with grating, poles, vessels, laver and stand, v 39).

7. Court pillars and hangings (v. 40).

All of these constitute the “vessels for the service of the tabernacle, for the tent of meeting” (v. 40). And to these inanimate vessels are added the priests who minister in the holy place (v. 41).

The list of finished equipment for the tabernacle matches the sequence of the days of creation. The tent and coverings are the heavens; the ark with its cover form a firmament; the table of bread is the dry land with its grain; the lampstands has seven lamps that are the heavenly lights; the golden altar smokes with a swarm of incense; the bronze altar is the mountain garden of God, with its laver of water; and the court hangings mark off the court as a Sabbath zone. (The second description of the tabernacle begins with a Sabbath command, 35:1-3.) Into this creation, Yahweh inserts the priests, new Adams.

But all this creative production is overseen by Moses. Everything is made according to the Word of the Lord, but that Word is mediated through Moses (cf. 39:31, 43). When the Lord speaks, and Israel obeys, they form a new creation house for Yahweh.

That Moses is slotted into the position of creator becomes clear in 39:43, where, after everything has been finished and gathered, Moses “saw the work and behold, they had done it,” just as Yahweh “saw” the work He had accomplished by His Word and Spirit and pronounced it good. Like Yahweh too, Moses “blessed” the things that had been made (v. 43). 

The tabernacle account displays Moses as sub-creator who leads a nation of sub-creators.


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