BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT
Much of the final 16 chapters of Exodus deals with instructions for building a Sanctuary (Mishkan) that would accompany the Israelites as they traveled through the desert. The most sacred part of the Mishkan was called the "Tent of Meeting" (Ohel Mo'ed), and it was where the Ark of the Covenant was located. The passages below describe the purpose and function of the Tent of Meeting.
(42) [You shall bring] a perpetual burnt offering throughout your generations at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting before Adonai, the place where I will meet with you [lakhem, plural], in order to speak to you [elekha, singular] there. (43) And I will meet there with the Israelites, and it [that place] shall be sanctified by my Presence. (44) I will sanctify the Tent of Meeting and the altar, and I will sanctify Aaron and his sons to serve me as priests. (45) I will dwell among the Israelites, and I will be their God. (46) And they shall know that I, Adonai, am their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt so that I may dwell among them; I am Adonai, their God.
(1) Adonai called to Moses and spoke to him from the Tent of Meeting, saying, (2) "Speak to the Israelite people, and say to them: When any of you presents an animal offering to Adonai, you shall present your offering from the cattle or from the sheep. (3) If the offering is a burnt offering from the cattle, they shall present a male without blemish. They shall present it at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting to be acceptable before Adonai"....
(1) Adonai spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the Tent of Meeting, on the first day of the second month, in the second year of their leaving the land of Egypt, saying, (2) Count up the whole Israelite community by the clans of their ancestral houses, according to the number of names, every male individually. (3) You and Aaron shall record them for the purpose of military formations, from the age of twenty years and over, all those in Israel who can go forth with the military....
(89) And when Moses went into the Tent of Meeting to speak with him, he heard the sound/voice being spoken to him from above the cover that was on the Ark of Testimony, from between the two cherubim. And he spoke to him.
(13) These are the commandments and the laws that Adonai commanded for the Israelites through Moses, on the plains of Moab, by the Jordan River near Jericho.
Study Questions
1. After reading the five texts above, write an overall description of the purpose of the Tent of Meeting. What happened there and why?
2. Numbers 7:89 (Text #5) has some mysterious wording. It says "he heard the voice being spoken to him" and not a more normal phrase like "he heard a voice speaking to him." Also, when it says at the end "And he spoke to him," we can't be 100% sure who is speaking to whom. Another very unusual thing is that the word "God" or "Adonai" is not even mentioned in that verse. Who do you believe was doing the "speaking" there? Explain your opinion.
2. Compare the Tent of Meeting to Mount Sinai. What, if anything, do they have in common (based on the material we've studied)?