In Exodus 19, God’s glory was evident in the fire and cloud upon Sinai. And in Exodus 40, God’s glory was evident in the fire and cloud upon the tabernacle. The tabernacle was the new Sinai, a portable Sinai.1 The Lord had spoken from Sinai, and the Lord would now speak from the tent of meeting.

When the Israelites left Egyptian captivity, they did not take a direct route to the promised land. A lot happened between their exodus and their inheritance. On the third month after leaving Egypt, the Israelites arrived at the wilderness of Sinai (Exod. 19:1). And they remained at Sinai for the next eleven months (from Exodus 19 to Numbers 10).

The morning of the third day consisted of a theophanic experience. There were “thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled” (Exod. 19:16). Mount Sinai was “wrapped in smoke because the LORD had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly” (19:18).

This was the mountain from which the Lord spoke the Ten Commandments (Exod. 20:1–17). This was the mountain Moses ascended in order to receive more instructions from the Lord. Never was there a mountain like this. When the Israelites departed in Numbers 10, too bad they couldn’t take Sinai with them. Or…could they…did they?

In Exodus 25–31 and Exodus 35–39, the Israelites received and followed the instructions for building the tabernacle. The tabernacle was God’s dwelling place, a portable tent of meeting. The people were to depart Sinai with the tabernacle, setting up the portable tent wherever they camped and then disassembling it when they were ready to move on.

Read More