The Meeting Tent

If you’re ever in a Bible Trivia game and are asked if Moses received the 10 Commandments twice, what would you answer?  If you said ‘yes’, you’re correct.  According to the story in Exodus that we heard yesterday, the first set of tablets, inscribed by the finger of God, (Exodus 31:18) were smashed by Moses when he became enraged at the sight of the Israelites worshiping a golden calf that they had built while he was getting the 10 Commandments from God on Mt. Sinai (Exodus 32:19). The second set were later chiseled out by Moses and rewritten by God (Exodus 34:1).  That’s what we heard at the end of our first reading today: Moses… “wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.”

Before hearing about Moses receiving these Commandments, however, we hear that he pitched ‘the meeting tent’ outside of camp. What exactly was this ‘meeting tent’, and what did it mean? Basically, it was a portable prayer space which represented God’s presence among the people.  Moses pitched it as a sign that God was always with them.  It was a place where each person could go to consult the Lord.  It was in this tent where Moses had face to face time with God.

For people always on the move in the desert, this meeting tent was a portable place of peace, prayer and worship.  When Moses, their leader, entered the tent to worship God, the people stood in reverence in their own tents and joined the worship honoring God.

This meeting tent has meaning for us today.

First, Moses made it a regular practice to set the tent up outside their busy camp.  For us, leaving our hustle bustle life and finding a quiet space to pray and develop an intimate relationship with God is also most important.

Second, the people had to wait to worship when Moses entered the tent until they saw the cloud from heaven descend, representing God’s presence.  For us, we don’t have to wait to worship or speak to God.  By our baptism and the presence of the Holy Spirit, our bodies have become God’s temple, our own ‘meeting tent’.  We have the profound privilege of talking to God wherever we are.  God dwells in us.[1]

May we take to heart the final blessing of this Mass as we carry the Lord’s presence with us: “Go forth and glorify the Lord with your lives.”