Exodus 39:22-43
In these chapters 39 and 40, one expression is repeated continually: "as the LORD commanded Moses". Nothing was left to the imagination of those who did the work. And it is the same today with regard to Christian worship. The Bible teaches us all that is necessary to know of the way in which God wishes to be worshipped. To add something else to His instructions, or to replace them by that which we might think better would be rank disobedience, would it not? And at the same time pretension! By what right do we decide what is acceptable to God? Well then, look at the Christian denominations with their clergy, their organisations, their pomp and ceremony! God "has not commanded" these things, and the believer who knows the truth cannot in consequence associate himself with them.
By way of contrast with all the ordinances of the Old Testament, some of which we have looked into in this book of Exodus, the worship of "true worshippers" addressed to the Father is "in spirit and in truth" (John 4:23-24). The external forms of a carnal religion and its ceremonies have been put aside and replaced by the activity of the Holy Spirit. It is no longer types and shadows which are before us in our worship, but the reality of things which are eternal.