The document provides an overview and summary of Exodus 20-40. It discusses how God establishes the terms of the covenant with His people at Mount Sinai, including giving them the Ten Commandments and other laws. The people fail to keep the covenant by worshipping a golden calf. Moses intercedes for them. God renews the covenant and instructs the people to build a tabernacle where His presence will dwell among them. The document outlines how the tabernacle prefigures Jesus Christ's role in reconciling people to God. It emphasizes that the Old and New Testaments tell one unified story of God graciously saving sinners.

1. Old Testament
Core Seminar
Class 5
“Exodus 20-40”
Old Testament Overview
1

2. Introduction
2
• Time frame - mid-15th century BC, and Moses is still our
author.
• Yahweh has just rescued His people from Egypt through great
signs and wonders, judging Egypt in the process.
• His name has been magnified in all the earth and His people
are heading toward to land promised land.
• And on the way, they come to “Mount Sinai” where they are
to worship Yahweh before they go any further.
• We are at a highpoint in the redemption plan
• As soon as the first sin - God promised to send a Savior.
• We saw the promise being directed through one man, Abraham.
• Now we’ll see Abraham’s descendants becoming a real nation
with laws and a national religion.
• The re-creation of humanity is slowly creeping forward, and
God is beginning to dwell with and have fellowship with His
people again!

3. 3
Theme of 2nd half of Exodus: Yahweh is establishing the terms of
the covenant with His people to show them how to live in
fellowship with Him.
• Israel receives the covenant laws that Israel was to live by.
• The “Tabernacle” is constructed where God’s presence dwells.
• We see how well the people kept the terms of the covenant
(the laws), and Yahweh’s response to the covenant breakers.
• A (Biblical) covenant is an inviolable bond between two
parties that, if kept, brings about great blessing, but, if
broken, brings a curse.

4. 4
Structure:
• Chapters 20 through 23 of our text, we have the Ten
Commandments (the Decalogue), along with additional
commandments and regulations regarding society, morality,
and the religious calendar of God's people.
• These four chapters, lay out the covenant obligations of Israel
and act as prologue to the second half of the book.
• Chapters 24 through 40 are written using a literary devise
called a chiasm.
• A chiasm is a type of structure, found commonly in texts
from the ancient world, in which important concepts or
ideas are placed in a symmetric order for emphasis.
• The chiasm in chapters 24 through 40 of Exodus is
especially noteworthy because it presents us, right here at
the outset of the Old Testament, with a beautiful picture of
the gospel.

5. 5
• In chapter 24 and chapter 40:34-38 – (the beginning and end
of our text), is the ultimate goal of the covenant: fellowship
with God.
• Chapters 25-31 and chapters 35-40:1-33 - what God
requires in order for his people to fellowship with him.
• Chapters 32-34 – the people are unable to keep those
requirements - Moses has to intercede.
• The people sin (golden calf).
• Moses intercedes for the people.
• God shows Moses his glory, renews His covenant,
and replaces the stone tablets.
• The Gospel – Sin, intercession, God’s glory, and grace – are
found at this turning point of this second half of Exodus.

6. Outline
6
1. Exodus 20-23: Covenant Obligations (prologue)
2. Exodus 24: Covenant Ceremony
3. Exodus 25-31: Covenant Instructions (how to build tabernacle)
4. Exodus 32-34: Covenant Disobedience & Covenant Grace
5. Exodus 35-40:1-33: Construction of Covenant Meeting Place
6. Exodus 40:34-38: Covenant Presence of the Lord

7. 1. Exodus 20-23: Covenant Obligations
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• God Speaks – read Exodus 20:1-17.
• The people react – read Exodus 20:18-21.
• God remembers His promise to Abraham = grace (free gift).
• Why this Mosaic Covenant when the Abrahamic one exists?
• Back to the Garden of Eden
– God made man in his image, a sort of priest-king by exercising
dominion on behalf of God.
– When Adam and Eve sinned, they ceased to image him perfectly.
– Banished - but God, in his mercy, humanity’s not banished forever.
– To accomplish His purpose in creation (displaying his glory) He selects
a particular people.
– He makes this promise to Abraham: I will bless you, your
descendants, and all the nations on earth through you (Gen. 12:1-3).
• Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob received God’s promise but there
still the problem of sin.

8. 8
• Exodus 19:6 – God wanted to have “a kingdom of priests and
a holy nation.” That’s creation language “man created in the
image of God”.
• In verse 5 we see that it’s conditional – if you keep my
commandments … then …
• The Law was a blueprint of what this looked like to be in the
image of God.
• “If you live according to this blueprint, you will be my kings,
exercising dominion; you will be my priests, mediating my
character to the world.”
• The law get’s broken – what does that do to the grace of the
Abrahamic covenant?

9. 9
• Galatians 3:17-18 “And this I say, that the law, which was 430
years later, cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed
before by God in Christ, that it should make the promise of no
effect. For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no longer of
promise; but God gave it to Abraham by promise.”
• The giving of the law did not nullify the promise to Abraham.
• If Israel fails to obey the law, there will be real consequences.
• But they will not ultimately and finally be cut off!
• Because even if they break their end of the covenant, Yahweh
will still uphold His end of the covenant.
• First you have the promise then you have the law. Why is the
law added to the promise?
1. To fulfill God’s purposes of revealing his character.
2. Because of transgression; the law makes us aware of our need for a
Savior. (Gal 3:19)
3. As a tool for our sanctification as Christians.

10. 10
• Israelites were not saved because they kept the law. Exodus
20:2 says that the Israelites were already saved out of their
bondage before they were given the law.
• No one has ever been saved by keeping any kind of law.
Salvation has always been by grace through faith.
• Don’t use the Law as means to establish your own
righteousness.
• Rather, use the Law to remind yourself of your own sinfulness
and need for Christ!
• Then, by God’s grace and strength, strive to keep the law –not
to establish your own righteousness, but – to image God more
accurately to the world.
• Matthew 5:16, “let your light shine before others, so that they
may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is
in heaven.”

11. 2. Exodus 32-34: Covenant
Disobedience and Covenant Grace
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• Into the Chiasm! How did the people do in keeping this
covenant?
• Read Exodus 32:1.
• There go commandments numbers 1 and 2!
• God’s response - 7-10
• God is ready to disown “your people”, blot them out, and
start over with Moses.
• Moses, as a type of Christ, intercedes on behalf of the people
for God’s mercy.
• There are consequences!
• God’s plan of redemption moves forward.
• In chapter 34 we read that God has renewed the covenant
with people and gives them new stone tablets.

12. 12
• In Exodus 33:12-23 we learn the covenant was not just a lot
of rules to be kept in exchange for some blessings.
• Moses was concerned that he and the people of Israel have a
relationship with God.
• The covenant is not an end in itself. It is the means to a
greater end: knowing and enjoying God.
• Moses’s agenda: to know, love, and enjoy fellowship of God.
• That should be our goal too!
• Church, Bible studies, gospel, etc. are not just bring us social
acceptance, make us feel pious, or take away worldly stress.
• They are instruments to bring us to the greatest good:
knowing, loving, and enjoying God.
• Moses ends by requesting to see God’s glory – he can’t – it
would destroy him!
• God puts him on a rock and allows him to see Hid back – but
not His face.

13. 3. Ex. 25-31 and Ex. 35-40:1-33:
Instructions for and Construction of a
Covenant Meeting Place
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• The next pair of the Chiasm is the Tabernacle.
• It was a tent Yahweh instructed His people to build so that He
could dwell with them, even though they were sinful.
• This is the solution for how can Yahweh dwell with His people,
and “go with them” even though they are sinful.
• Chapters 25 through 28, contains detailed instructions for the
tabernacle, from how to fund and build to how dress the
priests who will work inside of it.
• Chapter 29 describes how these priests are to be consecrated
and explains the function and purpose of the tabernacle.
• How can a sinful people dwell in the presence of a holy God?
Here are seven things in this passage.

14. 14
1. Verse 38 – daily offering to make atonement for sins.
2. Verse 42 – offering at the entrance of the tent – it is only
through forgiveness of sins that anyone meets with God.
3. Also, here Moses receives revelations from God.
4. Verse 43 – This is where God will meet with His people and
reconcile them to Himself.
5. Also, the tabernacle is holy because of God’s presence.
6. Verse 45 – Here God will dwell with them and be their God.
7. Verse 46 – They will know that I am the Lord their God so
that I might dwell among His people – His ultimate goal.

15. 15
1. Jesus makes atonement for sins, once and for all.
Hebrews 9:26.
2. It is through this atonement for sins, found only in Jesus,
that anyone can come to the Father. John 14:6
3. Jesus is the full revelation of God, the place where we
learn the most about Him. Hebrews 1:2
4. God meets and reconciles with His people in Christ.
Romans 5:11
5. Jesus is the manifestation of God’s glory. John 1:14
6. Jesus is God in a physical body, dwelling with His people.
Colossians 2:9
7. Only through Jesus does anyone know God. John 14:7
• The Tabernacle is a beautiful picture of how God
condescends to His undeserving people. It points
forward to the work of Jesus Christ.

16. 4. Ex. 24 and Ex. 40:34-38: Covenant
Ceremony and the Lord's Presence
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• Exodus ends on a high note.
• In Exodus 24, Moses, Aaron, and other important men of
Israel confirm their covenant with God in an elaborate
ceremony and God dwells with them.
• Then Moses goes up Mount Sinai and continues to have
fellowship with God.
• God at that point in the story is not yet dwelling with the
people because there is not yet a tabernacle, as we just read
about, and the people are not yet acceptable to a holy God.

17. 17
• Exodus 40:34-38 (a mirror to chapter 24)
• “Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the
glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. 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. And when the cloud was taken up from over the
tabernacle, the children of Israel went onward in all their
journeys: But if the cloud were not taken up, then they
journeyed not till the day that it was taken up. For the cloud
of the LORD was upon the tabernacle by day, and fire was on
it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout
all their journeys.”
• God is again dwelling with His people as He did in Eden.
• It’s not the full manifestation of God’s plan of redemption.
But Exodus puts us well on our way.

18. Application
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• The Bible is one book.
• The Old Testament and New Testament are not two
discordant books tethered loosely together by misguided
scribes.
• They are part of one glorious story, a story about a sovereign
God who graciously saves sinners.
• Our plight is in some fundamental way the same as the plight
of the Israelites.
• We are sinners who are hopeless to have fellowship with a
holy God without a savior – which God provided thru Jesus.
• Let your prayer be the same as Moses' on the mountain:
"God, show me Your glory."
• And then praise Him for how he has shown us His glory in the
life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ on our behalf.