Exodus ends with the people obeying every command of the Lord for the building and erecting of the Tabernacle. God’s presence descends as a cloud covering the tent of meeting and His Glory fills the Tabernacle. The Lord’s presence would go with the Israelites. He is the Covenant-Keeping God. He would be their God and they would be His people!
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 40:38).
Can you imagine what it would have been like to actually see the Lord’s presence? His physical presence. I believe His presence was visible not only for the Israelites – but also as a testimony to all the nations that the Lord of the Israelites was the One True God.
In Matthew, Jesus answers the disciples’ questions about the end of the age. He says,
And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come (Matthew 24:14).
From the beginning of time, God’s heart has been for all the nations. He called Israel apart as His people as a testimony to all the nations. And in the end, heaven will be filled with people from all the nations.
And they sang a new song, saying,
“Worthy are you to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God
from every tribe and language and people and nation (Revelation 5:9).
God’s covenant promise to Abraham in Genesis 12 was that ALL the peoples of the earth would be blessed through him. We are heirs of this promise. And we are called to be the vehicle in which the promise is fulfilled as we proclaim God’s grace and salvation to our neighbor and to the ends of the earth. The end of the age is waiting for the nations to hear!! In the end…
…every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:10-11).
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