The following is Pastor Nate’s teaching transcription from Calvary Monterey’s 4/27/21 Tuesday Night Service. We apologize for any transcription inaccuracies.

Exodus 24

The Acceptance of God's Covenant

1 Then he said to Moses, “Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and worship from afar. 2 Moses alone shall come near to the Lord, but the others shall not come near, and the people shall not come up with him.”

Exodus Chapter 24 begins in Verse 1, “Then he said to Moses, ‘Come up to the LORD, you and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and 70 of the elders of Israel, and worship from afar. Moses alone shall come near to the LORD, but the others shall not come near, and the people shall not come up with him.’" Now, here, in Exodus Chapter 24, we are at a pivot point in the book of Exodus, things are transitioning.

In the last four chapters, after delivering the people from their slavery in Egypt, God has laid out the covenant before them, first with the 10 commandments, that would be the major guideposts of their people in Exodus Chapter 20, and then with a template of the law, the legal code in Chapter 21 through 23.

Many of those laws were case examples that they would then extrapolate from as they constructed the Israelite law code once they got into the land of promise. Now, the rest of the book, starting with Chapter 25, all the way to the end of the book is going to deal with the construction of the tabernacle, the specific designs that God prescribed for the tabernacle itself. Because once they built a kingdom, so to speak, or came into the land of promise. The whole point was that they would leave Egypt to become a worshiping people.

The tabernacle would be the center of the nation, just as it would be the center of the wilderness wandering for many years. The rest of the book is going to deal with the construction of the tabernacle. By the way, God just longs to be at the center of our lives. This is one of the major lessons that we will continue to learn through the back half of the book of Exodus, seeing the directions concerning the tabernacle. He longs to fellowship with his people. He wants to be at the center of our lives. He wants to be in a relationship with us.

The Leaders Are Called

Praise God for Christians, by the blood of Jesus, that fellowship is possible. Here in Chapter 24, it's a bit of a pivot from the distribution of the law, from God to Moses, to the people, to the commandments about the tabernacle because a decision has to be made. Do they want to enter into this covenant, this contract, if you will, with God? As we read in the first two verses, the first thing that God does to put the question forth to them, is to tell Moses to come up himself with Aaron, his brother.

Aaron sons, Nadab and Abihu and you probably, you might recognize those names when we get to the book of Leviticus, we'll see that these two men actually sinned in a grievous way and lost their lives, because they profaned the worship of God. We'll talk about what their particular sin was, or might have been when we get to Leviticus Chapter 10. They, of course, highlight for us the importance of serving God with a clean heart and confessing our sins and being cleansed and forgiven.

Whether God strikes out like he did with Nadab and Abihu or Ananias and Sapphira or not, people like this, Nadab, Abihu, Ananias, Sapphira in Acts 5. They give us an example of what God intends for us. He doesn't judge all of us expressly in this way. These templates for us help us to learn, well, I need to serve the Lord with purity of heart and holy hands. Not only Moses and Aaron and his sons, but also 70 of the elders of Israel, and we're not sure where these 70 elders appeared from.

Again, a lot of it goes back to more than likely the counsel that Jethro gave to Moses many chapters earlier when he told him to organize Israel's judicial system with judges. Perhaps there were already 70 that were ready to go, perhaps there was 70 elders already in operation back when they were enslaved in Egypt who continue that ministry to this present point. The idea is that the original readers, they knew who these 70 elders were. It's a little bit of conjecture for us. They go up, these 75 men, the 70 elders, Moses, Aaron, and the two sons.

They go up to the Lord, Joshua is the 75th man. We'll see him in a moment. They go up to the Lord for a meeting. In a sense, what we're going to see here is that the mountain of God is a little bit of a replica of the temple experience itself. In the temple, as many of you know, the worshipers would come and then there was a point that they could not go any further. Then the priests or the servants of the tabernacle and temple would serve. Then there was a point where they could not go any further.

Then there was a place that the priests could go as they offered sacrifices, and then they couldn't go any further. Then there was a place that the priests to offer the morning and evening prayers and changed out the table of showbread inside of the holy place, that he could go, and then he could go no further. Then there would be a place where the high priest would go, but once per year into the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement. You have this scale of how far a person could go in their connection with God.

Of course, Moses, all throughout the book of Exodus, is portrayed as the man who gets to go the furthest. There is even phrases describing Moses as speaking to God as a man speaks with his friend face to face. Here on the mountaintop, though the congregation stays behind it and they can go no further, the 70 elders will go further. Joshua and Moses will go further, and then Moses will go the furthest and spend 40 days and 40 nights with God. Look, I've got to point out at this point that the blood of Jesus obliterated that concept. Now the veil has been torn.

The People Accept

3 Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the rules. And all the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words that the Lord has spoken we will do.”

Every single Christian, covered by the blood of Christ, is given full opportunity to go to the top of the mountain, so to speak, anytime they like to into the Holy of Holies, so to speak, anytime they'd like to. We can, as Hebrews says, come boldly to the throne of grace to find grace and mercy to help us in our time of need. Don't think to yourself that your pastor or your favorite Christian author, that they somehow have a deeper further access to God than you do.

Now, it's very possible that others that you know in Christ are taking advantage of the access that they have to God more than you are. We cannot and should not think in the Christian mindset, the new covenant era, that we are limited in how much we can enjoy God. We can go all the way to the top of the mountain, so to speak. All right, so they begin to go up. Then in Verse 3, the people are asked the question or posed with the idea, do we want to enter into this covenant? Moses came, Verse 3, and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the rules.

All the people answered with one voice and said, "All the words that the LORD has spoken we will do." Everything we've read over the last few chapters, Chapter 20 through 23, the 10 commandments and the law code, Moses reads this out, tells the people the words of the Lord and all the rules, perhaps he had written them down as God communicated to them. It's a little fuzzy as to when God is speaking the law or when Moses is speaking it, it's like they're working together in tandem. Here, Moses is the one communicating the words.

The people, they're unified, and they say, all the words that the Lord has spoken, we will do. Immediately, they were willing to submit. Now, the thing is, is that Moses was going to go back to the mountaintop for 40 days and 40 nights, receive the plans for the tabernacle. During that time, the people of Israel were going to break most, if not, all of the 10 commandments, partly through Aaron's leadership, Moses's brother. They really did not understand their own hearts. Likely, what they should have said is with the Lord's help, we will obey His law.

4 And Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. He rose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel.

Because as I said, within a few weeks, the nation would be worshiping an idol and violating the very law that they agreed to obey. Moses, Verse 4, wrote down all the words of the Lord. He rose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and 12 pillars, according to the 12 tribes of Israel. A couple interesting things about that verse. First of all, he is writing down the words of the Lord. This is the second time that we have a specific mention of Moses writing. He also wrote in the book, after Joshua defeated the Amalekites in Chapter 17.

Now he's writing again. The Word of God is beginning to develop, as Moses puts pen to paper, so to speak, and records these things. He builds an altar. It's hard to know the details of this altar, God had spoken in Chapter 20 about the kind of altar that they would build. Perhaps that's what he did, is he built that kind of earthen altar to offer a temporary moment of sacrifice to God. Some worship before God and making that covenant before God, and then 12 pillars of some type, likely earthen pillars. One for each of the tribes of Israel to indicate, hey, we're all in.

5 And he sent young men of the people of Israel, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the Lord. 6 And Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he threw against the altar. 7 Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. And they said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.” 8 And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.”

We've all dedicated ourselves to this covenant. If you've ever been to a large Christian conference, where at the end, there's a moment of consecration and commitment, where people are standing or raising their hands or coming forward to make a commitment, here, what the message is, is that all of Israel has committed to keep God's law. Moses, Verse 5, sent young men of the people of Israel, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the Lord.

They hadn't developed their priesthood yet, but there were some young men that Moses deployed to help with these sacrifices before God. Moses, Verse 6, took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he threw against the altar. Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. Again, he'd written these things down. They said, "All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient." Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, "Behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words."

Interestingly enough, they have this moment of celebration mixed with worship, mixed with consecration unto God. There's peace offerings. This was something they told Pharaoh that they were going to do, that they'd offer peace offerings to God. Then Moses does this fascinating thing, likely very uncomfortable to modern Christians. He takes the blood of these sacrifices. Half the blood, he throws in God's direction towards the altar, and half the blood, he takes and throws actually onto the people.

This is the only time in the Old Testament that the people were sprinkled with blood. I think what this speaks of is the oath of obedience, obedience only made possible by the blood. It's almost as if, here in this commitment that they've made, Moses is immediately appealing to God's forgiveness and grace by throwing the blood in God's direction, as if to say, hey, we know that though we have committed to keeping this law, there's no way that we're going to keep it perfectly and in its entirety.

Certainly, by the time Jesus came around, and he began to show in passages like the Sermon on the Mount and interpretation of the law, that is even more severe than just the externals, but it's an issue of the heart. Can your heart keep the law of God? When Jesus came around, he showed us that the difficulty of keeping the law is likely even higher than many people thought for thousands of years. We need grace from God. We need the blood, so to speak. The people thrown on their direction, it was to help them understand this is what we need as well.

Now, of course, when Jesus came, he instituted a new covenant, not this old covenant, but a new covenant with his followers. On the night that he was betrayed and the night before he died, Jesus took the bread and the cup. He said, of the cup, this is the blood of my new covenant, my blood shed for you. When believers today partake of communion, we're celebrating the fact that Jesus brought us into a better and more final covenant than the one that we're seeing right here.

The Leaders Appear Before God

9 Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up, 10 and they saw the God of Israel. There was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness. 11 And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; they beheld God, and ate and drank.

These people sprinkled with blood, they're committing to God, and they're confessing in a sense that they will sin, they're going to need the sacrificial system as a way to make amends to confess their sins and to be right with God. Then Moses, Verse 9, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and 70 of the elders of Israel went up, and they saw the God of Israel. There was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness. He did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; they beheld God, and ate and drank.

Now, this is a shocking development to everybody, especially modern believers, because we have many indications throughout scripture that no one can see God and live. Yet in this story, you have the 75 leaders in Israel having a meal with God, they eat and they drink. They beheld God, and he did not lay his hand on the chief man. He says in Verse 11, of the people of Israel. Now, just the fact that Moses records that, we ate with God and no one died. Just the fact that he records that is an indicator that he believed this was a special moment.

Later on in Exodus 33:20, God said to Moses, you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live. Paul, in 1 Timothy 6:16 said that God alone has immortality. He dwells in unapproachable light, and no one has ever seen him or can see him. You patch all these passages together and this is where some of the confusion comes from. How is it that God says to Moses later, you can't see my face and live? How is it that Paul says in 1 Timothy 6 that no one is seeing God at any time. Yet right here in Exodus Chapter 24, 75 elders in Israel are eating a meal with God.

They beheld God, they ate and drank, Verse 10 says, and they saw the God of Israel. Well, as I said, for one, Moses recognizes this is a special moment. This is not a normal experience in Moses' mind. Secondly, looking at the text, what you see is that there was under God's feet, and he describes what the area around the feet of God was like pavement, like Sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness. It's possible that what's happening here is that this group, they're not receiving the full brunt of God's glory.

In fact, I think it's very safe for us to say that they didn't, because that's how God is able to then later in the same book, say, no one can see my face and live. I think these people were seeing a portion of God's glory. That's why the feet and the things surrounding God's feet are mentioned in this passage. I think what you could say is that no one in an earthly body has seen the fullness of God and lived to tell the tale. John 1:18 says that no one has ever seen God, the only God who is at the father side, he has made him known.

In a sense, a question I have of this passage is, I wonder if they are actually dining with the pre-incarnate Christ, the second person of the triune godhead. When Jesus came to earth, he was able to say things like, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father. We already looked at the angel of the Lord that was leading these people at the end of Chapter 23 and how this was likely pre-incarnate Christ. Is it possible that here, the people of Israel, these elders are seeing the glory of the second person of the triune godhead. Either way, there they are, it's an amazing moment.

Moses Goes up the Mountain of God

12 The Lord said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain and wait there, that I may give you the tablets of stone, with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction.” 13 So Moses rose with his assistant Joshua, and Moses went up into the mountain of God. 14 And he said to the elders, “Wait here for us until we return to you. And behold, Aaron and Hur are with you. Whoever has a dispute, let him go to them.”

They're communing with God, they're eating a meal with God. Meals in Scripture are often very symbolic. They speak of an agreement that is being made, a festival that is occurring. If you study scripture, there's a progression of banquets and meals that concludes with the marriage supper of the Lamb. This meal is entering in, God is making this covenant with the people of Israel in this special way. They eat this meal. Then the Lord, Verse 12, said to Moses, "Come up to me on the mountain and wait there, that I may give you the tablets of stone, with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction."

Moses rose with his assistant Joshua, and Moses went up into the mountain of God. He said to the elders, "Wait here for us until we return to you. Behold, Aaron and Hur are with you. Whoever has a dispute, let him go to them." The people, at this point, they've agreed, we want to keep the law, we want to enter into this covenant with God, we will keep the law. Remember, God had said, if you keep these things, then I'm going to unleash my blessings upon you. They felt this was a great deal. They're very excited about it.

Now, God invites Moses to go back up to the mountaintop, and what God is going to do there is he's going to put the 10 commandments on the tablets of stone. At this point, the 10 commandments have been verbally delivered, Moses has verbally delivered them to the people of Israel. Perhaps he's written them down himself, but now God Himself is going to write those 10 commandments down on tablets of stone, the law of the commandment as well will be written. Moses gets up. We have the mention in Verse 13 of rising with his assistant, Joshua.

This is not the first time, of course, that we've seen Joshua, he was fighting in battle against the Amalekites in Chapter 17. He needs to grow in prominence because he will, after all, be the one who takes over the leadership role that Moses leaves behind after 40 years of wilderness wandering. At this point, of course, Moses and Joshua are unconscious of that coming reality. Moses just seems to be mentoring this young man and he's just spending time with Joshua. Joshua is witnessing him, watching him. When Moses goes to pray, Joshua is conscious of it. He's around.

15 Then Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. 16 The glory of the Lord dwelt on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days. And on the seventh day he called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud.

He's learning about Moses's relationship with God. Thankfully so, because he would deposit and practice many of these things in his own life, once he was in the seat that Moses was in. It's just a great form of discipleship, just having someone come along with you, as you journey through your Christian life. Well, just letting your life be exposed to someone else. Moses is called up to God to receive the 10 commandments along with the other commands. It says in Verse 15, then Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain.

The glory of the Lord dwelt on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days. On the seventh day he called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud. Now, here, Moses is alone. As I mentioned earlier, he's atop the mountain by himself with God. Of course, he's operating as the representative for the whole group, the people of Israel are in covenant with God, but they're not partaking this level of closeness with God. There's God's glory, just present there on the mountaintop for six days. Moses is waiting. I mean, you can just imagine what that was like for him.

I'm sure it was awe inspiring. I think this was part of what made Moses later say, I want to see you, I want to see your full glory, and plead with the Lord that He might have a full revelation of God. On the seventh day, God called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud. He began speaking to Moses. Again, all of this is picturing what's going to happen at the tabernacle. Because after they built the tabernacle or then years later, when they built the temple to replace the tabernacle, once they were finished, what happened?

17 Now the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel. 18 Moses entered the cloud and went up on the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.

The cloud of God's glory came upon the tabernacle. Here, Moses is in the midst of the cloud for seven days and then he hears God's voice. Now the appearance, Verse 17, of the glory of the LORD was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel. Moses entered the cloud and went up on the mountain. Moses was on the mountain 40 days and 40 nights. Now, in the Old Testament, God often revealed his glory like this, in a cloud. He led the people of Israel by the cloud, and the fire, the pillar of cloud by day, the pillar of fire by night.

There's various passages throughout the Bible that declare God as a consuming fire. Here he approaches Moses like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain. Moses just waits for God to summon him. Then God summons him. Moses comes and appears before the Lord and he was there on that mountain for 40 days and 40 nights. Some people wonder if this is a proverbial 40 days and 40 nights or an allegorical 40 days or 40 nights, but I think it was a literal 40 days 40 nights. Other passages tell us that he didn't eat or drink anything during that entire time.

Now, as far as the eating is concerned, many have noted that that's about as far as the human body can go without nourishment about 40 days, and then you're approaching starvation, and death by starvation. 40 days without drink, that's impossible. If it was a literal 40 days that Moses was there without food or drink, then obviously, there was a miraculous sustaining of his body. This is a paranormal kind of experience that Moses is going through. What he's about to receive right now in this holy moment is the pattern for the tabernacle.

Exodus 25

Instructions for the Tabernacle

As I said, the rest of the Book of Exodus is going to deal with the directions on what the tabernacle should look like. Now, Genesis 1, which we've studied months ago, deals with in the first chapter of the Bible, one chapter, the creation of everything in six days. It's been noted that God then took Chapter 25 of Exodus all the way through chapter 40 of Exodus, along with some fairly lengthy follow up passages in Leviticus and Numbers and Deuteronomy, dealing with what the tabernacle should look like, feel like, be like, operate like in Israel.

A day for the cosmos, and many chapters and books to deal with the tabernacle. Again, this should show us something about who God is. He's created, yeah. He's created so that we could enjoy him, so that we can partake of him. I think what they were supposed to taste in the tabernacle was a little glimpse of what Adam and Eve were supposed to be tasting in the Garden of Eden, enjoying God, experiencing God, walking with God. God is working hard to press into humanity, so that we might know him.

Moses is there, ready and about to receive these directions from the Lord. Now, like I said, the tabernacle was important to Israel's natural or national life. It symbolized God's dwelling among his people. It's the place where people would meet with God, where the leaders of Israel would meet with God. It's the place that God's glory would be manifest. It was the place that not only symbolized, but actual in practice, was the seat of the theocracy, the only nation on Earth that would ever be a theocracy.

Israel would be governed right there from wherever the tabernacle stood. God is about to tell them what this tabernacle is supposed to look like. Now, one thing that we should learn, just from thinking about how this is going to unfold, is that this is God telling Moses how this should be constructed. This is God in a sense, telling man, if he's to be worshiped, this is how. This is important because God decides how he is to be worshiped, not men. God wanted to dwell with his people. He builds this or commissions this tabernacle.

Then of course, later, we understand Jesus fulfills the tabernacle. He comes and he is the way, the truth, and the life, and no man comes to the Father except by him. The idea is that God is the one who designs our worship. God is the one who structures it the way that it's supposed to be. We need to look to him for how to worship the Lord. We live in, obviously, a time of great individualism. We worship the self in our Western society. Part of the worship of the self is that we think very highly of our opinions of what worship or spirituality should look like.

It's not uncommon for people to say things like, well, I relate to God this way, or I relate to God that way. Look, if you collect seashells and you feel close to God during that time, I'm not going to begrudge you that experience. There are tracks that God has constructed, that he has communicated. This is the way into my presence, of course, through the gospel, but then he gives to us a means of prayer and his word. These are ways that he has revealed Himself to us, so that we can know Him. It's not for us to decide how we want to worship Him. He tells the people of Israel.

The Collection of Materials for the Tabernacle

1 The Lord said to Moses, 2 “Speak to the people of Israel, that they take for me a contribution. From every man whose heart moves him you shall receive the contribution for me. 3 And this is the contribution that you shall receive from them: gold, silver, and bronze, 4 blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen, goats’ hair, 5 tanned rams’ skins, goatskins, acacia wood, 6 oil for the lamps, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense, 7 onyx stones, and stones for setting, for the ephod and for the breastpiece. 8 And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst. 9 Exactly as I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle, and of all its furniture, so you shall make it.

This is how he continues to tell us even today, this is how you can pursue me. All right, with that, in the first nine verses we have of Chapter 25, we have a collection of the materials for the tabernacle. It's a lengthy list. It seems that they are meant to image heaven a little bit. Just read them with me, Verse 1, then the LORD said to Moses, "Speak to the people of Israel, that they take for me a contribution. From every man whose heart moves him you shall receive the contribution for me.

This is the contribution that you shall receive from them: gold, silver, and bronze, blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen, goats' hair, tanned rams' skins, goatskins, acacia wood, oil for the lamps, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense, onyx stones, and stones for setting, for the ephod and for the breastpiece. Let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst. Exactly as I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle, and of all its furniture, so you shall make it.

Again, there's that theme there at Verse 9. This is God telling them precisely how this is to be done. Here, Moses is told by God that, hey, it's all going to start with you going back down the mountain and telling the people about what's going to be built and taking a contribution from them. This is a special gift. It's a freewill offering. It's something voluntary that they give to me. They, of course, were tithing. They'd have this whole structure designed and all of that. There was much that they gave to God.

This would be a onetime voluntary gift to create a thrust towards building this brand new structure. In the New Testament, we are called to be a generous people. 2 Corinthians 9:7 says, each one must give as he's decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, because God loves a cheerful giver. We're called to be a giving people. It's a personal conviction. We have to do what the Lord has laid upon us. We've got to do it not reluctantly or under compulsion. God loves it when we are cheerful in our giving. We're to put our treasure where our heart is, as Jesus said.

Or put our treasure where it needs to be, and then our heart will follow. We live in a time where many people struggle to be generous and struggle to give. Many people don't give. Here in this era, we're going to watch many people get behind the building of this tabernacle. Again, all of the materials there that they would come out of their time in Egypt and there seems to be just something beautiful and heavenly about the materials that are used. We're going to learn that the tabernacle is actually modeled after, not just the mountain experience, like I've already told you about today, but heaven itself, the true tabernacle, the true throne room of God is in heaven.

These things seem to be picturing or forecasting a little bit of the heavenly realm. They were to collect all these materials, so that they could build this sanctuary, he says in Verse 8, for God. Now, I should mention that in the New Testament, it says in John Chapter 1 that God became flesh and dwelt or literally tabernacled among us. That's the idea here of the tabernacle. It's God dwelling with his people. When Jesus came, it was really God coming and dwelling with his people.

I find sometimes it's very hard for Christians to really be convinced that Jesus is an accurate representation of who God is. We might feel that way, based on reading various passages of scripture, seeing God's judgment or holiness. Then Jesus just ... There's an approachable nature to him. We feel accepted by him. The truth that we believe is that the Father and the Son and the Spirit, they are triune, they are one, and that there is not this massive gap between who the father is and who the son is, as Jesus said, he who has seen the Son has seen the Father.

The Directions for the Ark

10 “They shall make an ark of acacia wood. Two cubits and a half shall be its length, a cubit and a half its breadth, and a cubit and a half its height. 11 You shall overlay it with pure gold, inside and outside shall you overlay it, and you shall make on it a molding of gold around it. 12 You shall cast four rings of gold for it and put them on its four feet, two rings on the one side of it, and two rings on the other side of it. 13 You shall make poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. 14 And you shall put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark to carry the ark by them. 15 The poles shall remain in the rings of the ark; they shall not be taken from it. 16 And you shall put into the ark the testimony that I shall give you.

The concept is that when Jesus came and tabernacle among us. We're getting at that point, the truest version of who God is. We can see God accurately by watching the life listening to the words of Jesus because He sanctuaried, he tabernacled among us. Now, Verse 10, the first thing that God describes to Moses is the ark itself, how that should be constructed. It says, they shall make an ark of acacia wood. Two cubits and a half shall be its length, a cubit and a half its breadth, and a cubit and a half its height.

You shall overlay it with pure gold, inside and outside shall you overlay it, and you shall make on it a molding of gold around it. You shall cast four rings of gold for it and put them on its four feet, two rings on the one side of it, and two rings on the other side of it. You shall make poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. You shall put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark to carry the ark by them. The poles shall remain in the rings of the ark; they shall not be taken from it. You shall put into the ark the testimony that I shall give you.

Before telling them actually, telling Moses what the actual tent or structure will look like, he begins with the ark itself. This is what the tent would be protecting, guarding, preserving. This would be what God's presence was most fully found in the nation of Israel. Again, to help them understand, I want to be at the center of things, I want a relationship with you, I am holy, this is who I am. This box, this ark is going to go right in the middle of everything. This ark would sit in a room called the Holy of Holies. It was the most important piece of the entire tabernacle set.

It represented Jesus wonderfully, as does the whole sacrificial system. It is emblematic of the very throne of God, begins at the heart of everything. God needed to be on the throne in Israel. His throne is right there in the middle of this tabernacle. Now, it's just a small, rectangular chest. I know it's recording for us cubits. Really, all it means is that it was 23 inches wide, 39 inches long, and 23 inches high, because a cubit, if we're saying it's 18 inches, then those would be the measurements that we're dealing with. It would be wood covered with gold, and some have felted.

This represents the humanity and the deity of Jesus in some way. They would carry the ark in a specific manner. It says in Verse 14, God again, deciding how they would transport the ark. Then Verse 16 tells us that they would actually put the 10 commandments that are the testimony into the ark itself, into this box, once they had constructed it and once they begin traveling around and establishing this tabernacle from place to place. By the way, I just have to say, I just love this stuff. I mean, I know that to the modern Christian, it can seem odd or strange.

I'm just so glad that we don't have a book that's just filled with a bunch of Hallmark sayings for us to receive personal encouragement from. I'm glad we have a historical, even strange book that we get to study and think about. What we're learning about here is just, again, the presence of God at the center of everything. As I said, the tabernacle and everything around is representative of what's happening in heaven when, for instance, Isaiah gets a vision of heaven. He sees the throne of God. He sees the glory of God.

He sees the angels flying around God's throne, and saying, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. When John, in Revelation, gets his vision of heaven, he sees God on the throne at the center of all things. The angels, again, are there flying around singing to God, holy, holy, holy. Elders are there throwing down their crowns. Multitudes are there, singing to God. That's the heavenly realm, and reality. It's part of what we all want to be doing during that time. I don't like painting the picture that for billions of years, we're just going to be singing one endless song to God, like the ultimate Pink Floyd song that just never ends or something like that.

The Directions for the Mercy Seat

The idea is that we will be so enamored with God, and he'll be at the center of everything, and everything will be aligned, as it is supposed to be aligned. Everything will be right at that point. That's the idea here. God then takes that image and puts it into a tabernacle form for Moses, and it starts with the ark. This is where God's going to be before the people. Part of the ark was the lid on top of it called the mercy seat, and that's what we'll read off next in Verse 17.

17 “You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold. Two cubits and a half shall be its length, and a cubit and a half its breadth. 18 And you shall make two cherubim of gold; of hammered work shall you make them, on the two ends of the mercy seat. 19 Make one cherub on the one end, and one cherub on the other end. Of one piece with the mercy seat shall you make the cherubim on its two ends. 20 The cherubim shall spread out their wings above, overshadowing the mercy seat with their wings, their faces one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubim be. 21 And you shall put the mercy seat on the top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the testimony that I shall give you. 22 There I will meet with you, and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim that are on the ark of the testimony, I will speak with you about all that I will give you in commandment for the people of Israel.

He says, “You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold. Two cubits and a half shall be its length, and a cubit and a half its breadth. You shall make two cherubim of gold; of hammered work shall you make them, on the two ends of the mercy seat. Make one cherub on the one end, and one cherub on the other end. Of one piece with the mercy seat shall you make the cherubim on its two ends. The cherubim shall spread out their wings above, overshadowing the mercy seat with their wings, their faces one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubim be.

You shall put the mercy seat on the top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the testimony that I shall give you. There I will meet with you, and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim that are on the ark of the testimony, I will speak with you about all that I will give you in commandment for the people of Israel.” Again, this is God wanting to fellowship with the people. As I mentioned, the angels and the real throne room of God, well, here, the lid on the mercy seat has these graven golden angels, likely touching wings covering this lid that would be placed upon that box or on the ark.

Again, it's called the mercy seat or the seat of atonement, the atonement cover. I think part of the reason why it's called the mercy seat is because the law was inside of it, the people of Israel would constantly break the law just as we would have and we do. It's very nice to have something between you and Israelite worshiper and the law, and the thing that's between you is this cover. God has covered. There's mercy. You'd be putting blood on that mercy seat each year and offering sacrifices outside and prayers and all of that.

The idea is that we need mercy, because we can't keep that book perfectly. We can't keep that law perfectly. Of course, Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of that truth that we could not keep the law perfectly, we could not do everything correctly. We've fallen short of the glory of God. Praise God, there's a righteousness apart from the law that comes from and through belief in Jesus Christ. He tells them how to build or how to design this mercy seat that would sit on top of the arc. Then finally, it says in Verse 23, and “You shall make a table of acacia wood.”

The Directions for the Table of Bread of the Presence

23 “You shall make a table of acacia wood. Two cubits shall be its length, a cubit its breadth, and a cubit and a half its height. 24 You shall overlay it with pure gold and make a molding of gold around it. 25 And you shall make a rim around it a handbreadth wide, and a molding of gold around the rim. 26 And you shall make for it four rings of gold, and fasten the rings to the four corners at its four legs. 27 Close to the frame the rings shall lie, as holders for the poles to carry the table. 28 You shall make the poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold, and the table shall be carried with these. 29 And you shall make its plates and dishes for incense, and its flagons and bowls with which to pour drink offerings; you shall make them of pure gold. 30 And you shall set the bread of the Presence on the table before me regularly.

Now we have directions for the table of the breadth of the presence. “Two cubits shall be its length, a cubit its breadth, and a cubit and a half its height. You shall overlay it with pure gold and make a molding of gold around it. You shall make a rim around it a handbreadth wide, and a molding of gold around the rim. You shall make for it four rings of gold, and fasten the rings to the four corners at its four legs. Close to the frame the rings shall lie, as holders for the poles to carry the table.

You shall make the poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold, and the table shall be carried with these. You shall make its plates and dishes for incense, and its flagons and bowls with which to pour drink offerings; you shall make them of pure gold. You shall set the bread of the Presence on the table before me regularly.” This is our second to last element that we're going to look at today. Here, the next thing is this table of the bread of the presence. This is not be in the Holy of Holies.

This would be in the holy place, the room, the first room that they would enter into in the tabernacle. Again, you could just go online and probably find a picture, just Google the tabernacle ancient Israel and you'll see many artistic renderings that will give you a great idea of what you're seeing here. The table of the bread of the presence was just a framed table, had a little edge on it, about three inches high, probably very similar to the table that I'm sitting at right now. It would be carried on poles just like the ark would be carried.

They wouldn't be manhandling it and touching it directly. They'd put poles through it and cover it up. All of that was a holy thing that they were to be moving. It was made of pure gold, all the instruments and that they would use for the drink and the incense offerings and all of that. Plates and dishes were all holy and gold and set apart. Again, imaging the heavenly reality. Regularly, they would set the bread, Verse 30, of the presence on the table before God. This table was meant mostly for the bread that would be given to God each day.

It was where the priests served and found their bread, and that bread pointed, of course, to the true bread of life that would come. Jesus said, I am the bread of life takes away the sin of the world. He is the ultimate fulfillment of this. The idea of bread here inside the tabernacle, what does that communicate? Well, it communicates, again, breaking of bread, friendship, fellowship, God saying to man, hey, let's have a meal together. Will you pursue me? Could we spend time together? Could we enjoy each other?

The Directions for the Lampstand

31 “You shall make a lampstand of pure gold. The lampstand shall be made of hammered work: its base, its stem, its cups, its calyxes, and its flowers shall be of one piece with it. 32 And there shall be six branches going out of its sides, three branches of the lampstand out of one side of it and three branches of the lampstand out of the other side of it; 33 three cups made like almond blossoms, each with calyx and flower, on one branch, and three cups made like almond blossoms, each with calyx and flower, on the other branch—so for the six branches going out of the lampstand. 34 And on the lampstand itself there shall be four cups made like almond blossoms, with their calyxes and flowers, 35 and a calyx of one piece with it under each pair of the six branches going out from the lampstand. 36 Their calyxes and their branches shall be of one piece with it, the whole of it a single piece of hammered work of pure gold. 37 You shall make seven lamps for it. And the lamps shall be set up so as to give light on the space in front of it. 38 Its tongs and their trays shall be of pure gold. 39 It shall be made, with all these utensils, out of a talent of pure gold. 40 And see that you make them after the pattern for them, which is being shown you on the mountain.

It speaks of us giving of what we have to the Lord, but mostly of that fellowship between God and man. Then finally, to close out our study today. It says in Verse 31, about the lampstand, you shall make a lampstand of pure gold. The lampstand shall be made of hammered work: its base, its stem, its cups, its calyxes or calyxes, and its flowers shall be of one piece with it. There shall be six branches going out of its sides, three branches of the lampstand out of one side of it and three branches of the lampstand out of the other side of it; three cups made like almond blossoms, each with calyx and flower, on one branch, and three cups made like almond blossoms, each with calyx and flower, on the other branch, so for the six branches going out of the lampstand.

On the lampstand itself there shall be four cups made like almond blossoms, with their calyxes and flowers, and a calyx of one piece with it under each pair of the six branches going out from the lampstand. Their calyxes and their branches shall be of one piece with it, the whole of it a single piece of hammered work of pure gold. You shall make seven lamps for it. The lamps shall be set up so as to give light on the space in front of it. Its tongs and their trays shall be of pure gold. It shall be made, with all these utensils, out of a talent of pure gold.

See that you make them after the pattern for them, which is being shown you on the mountain. Here, again, in conclusion for today's teaching, we have this fourth element of the tabernacle, we've seen the ark, the mercy seat, the table of showbread, and now the lampstand of pure gold. Again, not made with any wood at all, but pure gold, just like the angels that are on top of the mercy seat. It would be made of one solid piece of gold, of 75 pounds talent. It would include all these little almond blossoms all over the place, just very ornate, beautiful.

It had lot of things going on, six branches, three cups, four cups on one bud on the lampstand. There'd be 69 different little groups or sections all over the place, but seven major candles that would be lit from this lampstand. They would, again, make it after the pattern, is what God said to him there in Verse 40. Now Jesus pronounced, I am the light of the world. Here, of course, we're seeing that God is trying to, I think, broadcast to the people of Israel, not only who he is, he appeared to Moses in the fire, he is the all-consuming fire.

Communicating to the people of Israel a little bit of who they are supposed to be as well, they were to broadcast the goodness of God to the nations. They were to be a light to the world. They didn't always succeed at that, just as the modern church doesn't always succeed at that, and just as the historical church hasn't always succeeded at that. That is to be our mission, to be a light to the world. The Lord is the ultimate light that we are broadcasting. We are, again, here learning who God is and how he wanted to be approached. Then I think it teaches us a bit of who he is and how he wants to be approached today. God bless you, church. Have a wonderful week.