Holly Bible - KJV with Concise Commentaries by Z Selam - HTML preview
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he resided, here he ruled. By the visible tokens of God's coming among them to take possession of the tabernacle he testified both the return of his favour to them, which they had forfeited by the golden calf (Ex 33:7), and his gracious acceptance of all the expense they had been at, and all the care and pains they had taken about the tabernacle. Thus God owned them, showed himself well pleased with what they had done, and abundantly rewarded them. Note, God will dwell with those that prepare him a habitation. The broken and contrite heart, the clean and holy heart, that is furnished for his service, and devoted to his honour, shall be his rest for ever; here will Christ dwell by faith, Eph 3:17. Where God has a throne and an altar in the soul, there is a living temple. And God will be sure to own and crown the operations of his own grace and the observance of his own appointments.
As God had manifested himself upon mount Sinai, so he did now in this newly-erected tabernacle. We read (Ex 24:16) that the glory of the Lord abode upon mount Sinai, which is said to be like devouring fire (Ex 40:17), and that the cloud covered it on the outside, and the glory of the Lord filled it within, to which, probably there is an allusion in Zec 2:5, where God promises to be a wall of fire round about Jerusalem (and the pillar of cloud was by night a pillar of fire) and the glory in the midst of her.
35 And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation,
because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.
The glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle, Ex 40:34,35. The shechinah now made an awful and pompous entry into the tabernacle, through the outer part of which it passed into the most holy place, as the presence-chamber, and there seated itself between the cherubim. It was in light and fire, and (for aught we know) no otherwise, that the shechinah made itself visible; for God is light; our God is a consuming fire. With these the tabernacle was now filled, yet, as before the bush