|
|
Set up a Tabernacle According to God’s Plan
Set up a Tabernacle According to God’s Plan Exodus 26:1 – 27:21 Key Verse: 26:30 “Set up the tabernacle according to the plan shown you on the mountain.” Last week we began to think about the construction of the tabernacle or the sanctuary where God would dwell among His people. Throughout their travels in the wilderness this tabernacle would be at the very center of the Israelite camp. Its very position among them was to be a constant reminder of the importance of this place, but that was not the only thing that was to remind them of this. The precious materials that it was to be made of and the very precise and detailed instructions for its construction would also serve as reminders for the people of just how important this tabernacle was for them. In last week's passage we thought about how all the people were invited to contribute to the making of this tabernacle by giving free will offerings from what they had acquired from the Egyptians when they Egypt. Even the instructions for these offerings were very detailed; God wanted the people to offer only the specific material He wanted for the construction of His sanctuary. We also thought about the first three items God instructed Moses to make for the tabernacle, the Ark of the Covenant, the table for the Bread of the Presence and the lampstand. These three items, along with the Alter of Incense describe in Chapter 30, were to be the only things inside the tabernacle. Today we want to think about God’s instructions for building the tabernacle itself and the courtyard that would surround it. At first it may seem like this is going to be a very boring Bible study, but as I studied it I realized that it is not boring at all because it tells us so much about God and how we should approach Him. Our God is a Holy God and He is a God of great detail. Because He is holy we cannot simply approach Him any way we choose; we must do it in the way He prescribes. This is why he gave such detailed instructions to Moses concerning the building of this tabernacle where He was going to reside so that He could be among His chosen people. God’s astounding commitment to detail should also give us great hope and encouragement in our own lives. No detail seemed too small to leave out when God gave Moses the instruction to build the tabernacle and I came to realize that this is exactly how God looks at our lives. This can be a great comfort to us, but at the same time it should makes us take a very careful and strict look at how we are living our lives. As I was reading the passage the amount of details that God was giving Moses seemed almost overwhelming. I began to wonder how Moses could keep it all straight in his head and how Moses was to know if everything was built according to God’s plan. Then I came across 26:30 and 27:8 and I looked back at chapter 25 and found verses 9 and 40. I also thought about the command that God gave Moses right at the end of chapter 27 which really didn’t seem to fit into this passage. Then I realized something truly remarkable about our God. He doesn’t just leave us a few instructions and tell us to just do the best we can. Just like He showed Moses the plan on the mountain, He has shown us the plan He has for our lives. He sent us His one and only Son Jesus to live among us as the light of the world. In short, He has shown us how we are to live because He lived among us. God’s plan for each of us is extremely detailed and at times that plan may seem overwhelming. We may think that we don’t know how to carry out that plan, but all we have to do is look to Jesus, God’s perfect pattern for our life, and we will know what to do. May God bless our study of this passage and open our spiritual eyes so that we can see the detail plan He has for our life and clearly see His pattern for that plan in Jesus. First, instructions for the construction of the tabernacle (26:1-37). Chapter 26 gives us a detailed account of how God wanted His tabernacle to be constructed. God begins by describing the curtains that will form the inner walls of the sanctuary. These curtains were big – there were to be ten of them and each one was to be about thirteen meters long and 1.8 meters wide. They were to be sewn together in two sets of five and these two sets were to be joined together by making fifty loops from blue material on one end of each set of five and joining these loops with a gold clasps. These curtains were also to have cherubim woven into them by a skilled worker. They were not only to be beautiful, but the colors that were used signified who was to be dwelling there. The colors purple and red signified royalty and blue signified divinity, so the one who resided there was not only their royal king, but also their divine God. From there God goes on to describe how to construct the tent that will go over the tabernacle and protect it from the outside elements. This tent was to begin with a layer of goat hair and consisted of eleven curtains which were even larger than the ten curtains used inside the tabernacle. These were to be sewn into two sets, a set of five and a set of six. These were also to have fifty loops added to one end of each set and these loops were to be joined by fifty clasp, but this time the clasps were to be made of bronze and not gold. As I mentioned last week as you move away from the Holy of Holies, the precious metal used in the construction goes from gold to silver to bronze. As we shall see, even the alter used for sacrifices and all the furnishings associated with it were to be overlaid or made of bronze because they were to be kept outside in the courtyard of the tabernacle. After the layer of goat hair another layer of rams skins dyed red was to be added and finally a third layer of the hides of sea cows was to be added. One of the interesting things that I noticed here was that all the beautiful and intricate work that was to go into the construction of the tabernacle was going to be completely covered up. The beauty inside the tabernacle would never be seen by ordinary people. All they would see is what I would imagine was a rather plane looking leather cover. Ordinary people were not permitted to enter the tabernacle at all, only the priests were allowed to do this. In English were have a saying that I think applies here. The saying is, “Never judge a book by its cover.” It applies to this tabernacle because what is seen from the outside is nothing like the beauty that can be found on the inside. The same idea applies to people. It is very easy to judge people simply based on the way they look, but this is a great mistake and Jesus warned us never to do this. In fact, if we look at the people Jesus most closely associated with it is apparent that Jesus always look into a person’s heart. Think about it for a moment, he was always surrounded by common fishermen, tax collectors, zealots, prostitutes, demon possessed people, sick people, lame people and, in general, the poor and needy of society. Those that look really good, the Pharisees, Sadducees, teachers of the law, and Roman officials generally didn’t want anything to do with Jesus didn’t go out of his way hang around with them. Jesus didn’t look at a person’s outer appearance he looked into their heart. After the covering God goes on to instruct Moses how to build the frames for the tabernacle. The frames were to be made of acacia wood and overlaid with gold. Each from was to have two projections which would fit into two silver bases. The frames were to have gold rings attached to them so that crossbars, also overlaid with gold, could be fitted into them. This system was not only beautiful, but it was sturdy and it was easy to take apart and put back together; it was perfect for traveling. God thought of everything, down to the smallest detail. God knew that His people were going to do a lot of traveling and He perfectly designed His dwelling place so that they could easily take it with them. At this point, Moses might have been completely confused and overwhelmed with all of these details, but God reminded Moses that He had His own him that pattern for the tabernacle and He showed Moses this pattern on the mountain. God is a gracious God. God could have simply told Moses what He wanted and then told Moses to do it and make sure he didn’t make any mistakes, but God knew this would too much for any human. To help Moses God showed him exactly what He wanted. As humans we all learn best by seeing things. Go ahead and read these instructions yourself and then try to build the tabernacle. I’ll bet you can’t do it. Why? Because you don’t know exactly what God wants. However, I’ll bet if you read the instructions and saw a picture of it you could do it. When I saw the picture of the tabernacle on my ESV Study Bible online everything made sense. I could see the beauty of God’s plan. It is just the same in our life. God has given us His instruction book, the Bible, but He has done much more than this. He has shown us the pattern of how He wants us to live our lives. Of course the perfect pattern is found in Jesus alone, but God has given us many other examples of men and women trying to live Godly lives in the Bible. We all need to look to Jesus every day because His life is the perfect pattern for our lives. However, we can also look to other Biblical characters like Joseph and Daniel who show us how to act when unbearable injustices take place in our life. We can look to Hannah to see how to fill our greatest needs and wants in life, especially when it seems we’re not getting them. We can look to Job, to see how God wants us to handle unbearable hardships. We can look to Abraham to see how we should live by faith. We can look to King David to see what we should do when we make terrible mistakes. We can look to Mary to see how to humbly accept God’s calling even if that calling may seem to be about to ruin our life. We can look to Paul to see how we should live a life of mission. There are countless other examples. God has shown us the pattern He wants our life to be lived like, now it is up to us to make sure we set up our life according to the pattern He has shown us. We need to build a tabernacle in our heart so that Jesus can come in and dwell within us. That tabernacle is extremely detailed, but it must be built how God has shown us and not as we think best. The final instructions for the construction of the tabernacle concern two special curtains. They are both to be made of blue, purple and scarlet yarn, but one is to have cherubim woven into it and be hung with gold hooks from four posts overlaid with gold and standing on silver bases. The other is not to have anything woven into it and it was to be hung with gold hooks from five posts overlaid with gold but resting on bases of bronze. The second curtain was to act as the door way for the tabernacle, but the first was to be the curtain that separated the Holy place from the Holy of Holies. This curtain was to keep everyone out of the direct presence of God except for the High Priest who was allowed to go into the Holy of Holies once a year on the Day of Atonement. God was dwelling among His people, but they were not to come directly into His presence or they would die because of their sins. There was a replica of this curtain hanging in the temple in Jerusalem during Jesus’ time. That curtain was torn in half from top to bottom the moment Jesus died on the cross. Jesus opened up the way back to God once and for all. Now we can not only come into God’s presence if we are washed in Jesus blood, God Himself has promised to come and live within us if we invite Him in. Remember, however, that to invite Him in means that we agree to build that tabernacle in our heart according to the plan He has shown us in the Bible. Second the instructions for the construction of the Alter of Burnt Offering and the courtyard (27:1-19). Surrounding the tabernacle there was to be a courtyard. This courtyard was to be enclosed by curtains of finely twisted linen and was to be about 45 meters long and 23 meters wide making the total area of the courtyard about 1,035 square meters. The length of the courtyard was to be supported on each side by twenty posts with bronze bases and silver hooks and bands. The west wall of curtains of the courtyard was to be supported by ten posts on bronze bases with silver hooks and bands. The east end was slightly different, because this is where the entrance was. Curtains about 6.8 meters in length were to be supported by three post each on either side of the entrance. The entrance itself was to be made of one curtain about 9 meters in length made of blue, purple and scarlet finely twisted linen. It was to have four posts and bases. The main thing in the courtyard was to be the Alter of Burnt Offering. This alter was very important for the Israelites. Not only was it a place where they could make fellowship and free will offerings to God, it was also the place they had to make their sin offerings to God. This alter was to be made of acacia wood and overlaid with bronze and like the items in the tabernacle it was to be carried on poles when the Israelites had to move. Everything associated with the alter was to be made of bronze and not of gold or silver. This alter was placed right behind the entrance to the courtyard, so anyone entering the courtyard would see it right away. There would be no missing it. For the Israelites this alter was there connection to God and just as there was only one alter for the Israelites there is only one way of salvation for all of us. That way is Jesus. It is interesting to note that the curtains surrounding the courtyard were to be about 2.3 meters high making it impossible from the outside to see what was going on inside. To see what was happening inside you had to go into the courtyard. I think it is the same way in the world today. People think they know what is going on in God’s church, but if they’re on the outside they really have no idea. If they really want to see what is going on they have to go on in and see. I think this is why so many non-Christians have such a negative view of Christians. They can think whatever they want, but unless they go into the Christian courtyard to see what is really going on they won’t ever really know. Third, instructions for the lampstand 27:20-21. This chapter ends in kind of a peculiar way. God goes from the courtyard back into the tabernacle. He gives Moses instructions concerning the lamp that He instructed Moses to make in chapter 25. God wanted this lamp to burn at all times and never to go out. As I thought about this I thought about Jesus. Jesus the true light who came into the world to give light to all men. Jesus’ light never goes out and it never fades. With Jesus’ light we can always see where we are going and we can clearly see the pattern that God wants us to live our life according to. Without Jesus’ light we can’t see God’s pattern for our life and we can’t build the tabernacle in our hearts that God wants us to build. We need Jesus’ light to burn in our hearts day and night every day of our life. May God help us to have Jesus light always burning in our heart. |
| 
|
