Today's Reading: Exodus 35
Today is part 2 of a study on Exodus Chapter 35. See yesterday's post for more information about this chapter study approach and the questions I started with- but this post lays out the first days study to answer the questions that came out of part 1. The study for question 1, 2, and 12 are begun below but are not complete. I am unsure how to post these as I continue the study so that there is not a bunch of duplicate reading but we'll see...
Lord please bless this study of your Word and reveal your purpose in this chapter. Please help me to answer the questions you led me to yesterday and may your Holy Spirit illuminate your Word to accomplish this. Please let me not rest on study for the answers as much as prayer and the lead of your Spirit Lord. In Jesus name I pray, amen.
Study:
1. Why a tabernacle?
Exodus 25:8 (ESV)
8 And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst.
Exodus 25:22 (ESV)
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.
Exodus 25:16 (ESV)
16 And you shall put into the ark the testimony that I shall give you.
Exodus 31:18 (ESV)
18 And he gave to Moses, when he had finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God.
Exodus 28:42–43 (ESV)
42 You shall make for them linen undergarments to cover their naked flesh. They shall reach from the hips to the thighs; 43 and they shall be on Aaron and on his sons when they go into the tent of meeting or when they come near the altar to minister in the Holy Place, lest they bear guilt and die. This shall be a statute forever for him and for his offspring after him.
Exodus 29:45–46 (ESV)
45 I will dwell among the people of Israel and will be their God. 46 And they shall know that I am the Lord their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt that I might dwell among them. I am the Lord their God.
Exodus 30:10 (ESV)
10 Aaron shall make atonement on its horns once a year. With the blood of the sin offering of atonement he shall make atonement for it once in the year throughout your generations. It is most holy to the Lord.”
Exodus 40:34–38 (ESV)
34 Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. 35 And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. 36 Throughout all their journeys, whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the people of Israel would set out. 37 But if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not set out till the day that it was taken up. 38 For the cloud of the Lord was on the tabernacle by day, and fire was in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys.
2. Why build it now?
God first spoke of it in chapter 25 right when Moses met God on Mt. Sanai the first time. It was the first thing God spoke of…
Exodus 25:1–9 (ESV)
25 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.
So this was followed by a description of the tabernacle and the contents and the priests clothes and requirements for various sacrifices and such in order for the priest to come to the Lord for atonement of Israel's sin.
12. What is the significance of the sabbath command at the beginning as it relates to the construction of this tabernacle (or my body under the new covenant)?
Exodus 35:2 (ESV)
2 Six days work shall be done, but on the seventh day you shall have a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on it shall be put to death.
This command was not new to them but He chose to remind them at the outset of this command to begin construction of the tabernacle. He first required them to honor the Sabbath in the wilderness when He delivered manna from heaven and commanded them not to gather bread on the sabbath but He told them they would find enough the day before for two days. Most days any leftovers would spoil by morning but the sabbath was different.
Exodus 16:23–26 (ESV)
23 he said to them, “This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Tomorrow is a day of solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord; bake what you will bake and boil what you will boil, and all that is left over lay aside to be kept till the morning.’ ” 24 So they laid it aside till the morning, as Moses commanded them, and it did not stink, and there were no worms in it. 25 Moses said, “Eat it today, for today is a Sabbath to the Lord; today you will not find it in the field. 26 Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, which is a Sabbath, there will be none.”
It seems that one element of the sabbath was to remind them that it is He who provides and that their gathering of the bread was not the provision. He shows that He can sustain them according to His choosing and reinforces that they need to rest in His provision and not on their own efforts…or die!
Israel is to embody faithfulness to the Lord by keeping the Sabbath holy while they are building his sanctuary.
Since the Sabbath was the sign of the covenant God made with Israel (31:16-17), its observance was crucial. Moses’ words to the people about the Sabbath occur here at the beginning of chapters 35-40, not at the end as in God’s instructions in chapters 25-31. This is because Israel had demonstrated a tendency to disobey. If the covenant were to be maintained, instructions about the sign of the covenant had to be obeyed. Also because of the people’s excitement in constructing the tabernacle, it was important that worship not be neglected even in doing worshipful work.
Exodus 31:12–14 (ESV)
12 And the Lord said to Moses, 13 “You are to speak to the people of Israel and say, ‘Above all you shall keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the Lord, sanctify you. 14 You shall keep the Sabbath, because it is holy for you. Everyone who profanes it shall be put to death. Whoever does any work on it, that soul shall be cut off from among his people.
So in the passage above God explains that the sabbath is a sign that God sanctifies us. If we are faithful to this commandment as a reminder of His covenant to us it evidences how He sanctifies us and makes us more like His Son.
Until tomorrow...
Soli Deo Gloria!
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Thanks for commenting- I will probably post it if you dont seem to be a crazy person!