Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Exodus · About this commentary
That I Might Dwell Among Them
Exodus 29:22-46
22 Also you shall take some of the ram’s fat, the fat tail, the fat that covers the innards, the cover of the liver, the two kidneys, the fat that is on them, and the right thigh (for it is a ram of consecration), · WEB
A lamb is offered every morning and every evening without a break, and the purpose of the whole structure is stated in the last two verses.
You shall consecrate them seven days Exodus 29:35.
A full week of the same ceremony, repeated daily, with a sin offering every one of the seven days Exodus 29:36. Nothing about the installation is treated as a single event that takes. The altar itself is included: seven days you shall make atonement for the altar, and sanctify it; and the altar shall be most holy Exodus 29:37. Even the furniture requires cleansing before it can be used for cleansing.
Now this is that which you shall offer on the altar: two lambs a year old day by day continually. The one lamb you shall offer in the morning; and the other lamb you shall offer at evening Exodus 29:38–39.
The daily offering, and it is the pulse of the sanctuary. Two lambs a day, with flour, oil and wine, every day, for as long as Israel had an altar — a rhythm that framed each day at both ends and was never once meant to stop. It is a continual burnt offering throughout your generations Exodus 29:42.
What this establishes is that the sanctuary was not a place people visited when something went wrong. Its central act happened at dawn and dusk whether or not anyone had sinned that day, whether or not anyone was watching, and it framed the ordinary hours of a nation who mostly never saw it. The Passover was annual and the Day of Atonement was annual; this was twice daily, and it was the largest standing expense in Israel's religious life.
The stated location of the meeting is the same altar: at the door of the Tent of Meeting before Yahweh, where I will meet with you, to speak there to you Exodus 29:42. Not the ark alone, which is where God said he would speak to Moses Exodus 25:22, but the outer altar, which is where the nation could stand.
There I will meet with the children of Israel; and the place shall be sanctified by my glory Exodus 29:43.
The order in that sentence should not be reversed. The place is not made holy by construction, by materials, or by the seven days of ritual; it is sanctified by his glory, and everything else has been preparation for its arrival.
I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will be their God. They shall know that I am Yahweh their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, that I might dwell among them Exodus 29:45–46.
The closing sentence names the purpose of the exodus itself, and the clause order is the whole argument of the book. He brought them out of Egypt so that he might live among them. Deliverance was never the goal; it was what had to happen first. The plagues, the sea, the mountain and the sixteen chapters of specification all stand between a nation in slavery and a God who intended, from the beginning, to move in next door.
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