Key Verses: Exodus 35-40

Key Questions


1. Why does the text emphasize Sabbath again—right before the Tabernacle is built? What does this teach about how we balance action and rest?
2. Why is the spinning of yarn by women mentioned specifically? What might this tell us about valuing unseen or domestic labor as spiritual (35:25-26)? What is the significance of all the careful repetition and detail (in all of these chapters)? How do these descriptions help reframe “tedious” tasks as acts of worship?
3. The expression “as the Lord commanded Moses” appear seven times in both chapters 39 and 40. What could this convey about the relation between Sanctuary and creation?
4. How does it change everything that God’s glory now fills a tent, not a mountain? What does it mean that God’s presence is not distant, but inhabiting the midst of the people?
5. How is the story of Exodus not just about freedom from, but about freedom for? What does it mean that God’s final act in this book is not delivering more laws, but dwelling with the people?


Theological Insights


“the completed Tabernacle is erected on New Year’s day, as Exodus 40:7 records. This underscores the idea that a new era in the life of the people has begun…” Nahum Sarna, JPS Torah Commentary, 156.

“Seven times in chapter 39, describing how the Israelites constructed the Tabernacle, we hear the phrase ‘as the Lord commanded Moses.’ Seven times in chapter 40, narrating how Moses set up the Tabernacle, we hear the phrase ‘as the Lord commanded him.’ Where have we heard this language before? The answer takes us back to another construction project, the first in the Torah: Noah’s ark. Three times we hear virtually the same phrase… There is deep symbolism here, if we can decode it. It seems to be this. God creates order. Human beings create chaos. It is only when human beings create their own symbolic order – the ark, the Tabernacle – by precise and exacting obedience to God’s command, that there is a chance for humanity to survive. This whole way of seeing things is diametrically opposed to myth. In myth, chaos is built into the structure of the universe. Gods fight. Elements clash. Tragedies happen, and not all the virtue in the world will save us from them. At best, we can try to placate or entice the gods. Conflict and chaos are ‘out there,’ in the capriciousness of nature and its fundamental indifference to humankind. In Judaism the problem of chaos is not out there, but ‘in here,’ in the human heart… With this we reach perhaps the deepest and most controversial thesis implicit in the book of Exodus, and central to Tanakh as a whole. Without God, human beings will fail to create a just society. Without the Divine Presence symbolised in the Tabernacle at the heart of the camp, human beings will do what they have always done: oppress one another, fight with one another, and exploit one another.” Sacks, Covenant and Conversation.


“Exodus concludes with remarks not about God and Moses but about the cloud, the people, and their movements… Even though they will depart the “holy” mountain, the Children of Israel will bring with them a portable Sinai in miniature.” Kass, Founding God’s Nation, 586-587.