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Chapter 1: What insights can we gain from Exodus 25-27?
Hey Bible Readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for the Bible Recap. If you're a fan of home renovation shows or you're really into architecture or construction, today's reading should have been right up your alley. It included all kinds of furniture and construction details.
Chapter 2: Why was the tabernacle significant to the Israelites?
Here we have a bunch of former slaves living in the middle of the desert, and God wants them to build a portable tabernacle where he can dwell with them in the midst of the wilderness. He calls on them to use all kinds of precious metals and fabrics for this tabernacle. Where would they get this stuff? They got it from plundering the Egyptians.
Chapter 3: How were the Israelites able to construct the tabernacle in the desert?
Those things that God blessed them with are used for his glory. It wasn't just about them having nice things. Those blessings didn't terminate on them. They served a much bigger purpose. When reading through all this information, I'm sure some of you are like, this is boring. Why does it have to be so detailed?
But then some of you are probably like, I wish God were this detailed with me about what I'm supposed to do. Or maybe some of you even have both of those thoughts. Hang in there through these details. Be encouraged that our God is a God of detail. You want him to be that way. Let's touch on a few of the noteworthy things we saw today.
Chapter 4: What is the significance of the materials used in the tabernacle?
First, the metals used in the construction get more precious the closer you get to the Holy of Holies, where God will dwell. There's gold inside, then silver outside, then bronze the furthest out. Second, I want to highlight a few things about the Ark of the Covenant, or the Ark of the Testimony, in case you like visual details like I do.
Chapter 5: What unique features did the Ark of the Covenant have?
It was almost four feet long, a little more than two feet wide, and a little more than two feet high. Humans were not supposed to touch this at all after it was constructed. When they had to relocate the tabernacle as they moved around the wilderness, they were supposed to carry it with the gold-covered wooden poles.
This is reminiscent of how they weren't allowed to touch the mountain because of the presence of the power of God. Third, in 2518, we see that the lid of the Ark of the Covenant, which is called the Mercy Seat, has cherubim—that's the plural of cherub—on it. If you've seen a picture of a cherub, you've probably seen a naked baby with wings.
Chapter 6: What role do cherubim play in biblical descriptions?
As always, forget what you know from Renaissance art and precious moments figurines. We talked about cherubim not long ago. They're one of the various types of angelic beings God created— This type is not a messenger angel like the ones that show up as humans.
From the various descriptions of them that we see throughout Scripture, we see that they have four wings covered in eyes, they likely have the form and body of a man, but they have four faces. They most often appear as guardians of holy places, like the Garden of Eden, for instance, and their images also appear in the tabernacle and on the Ark of the Covenant.
If you're a guardian of a holy place, it's good to have four faces so you can be watching in every direction at all times. The mercy seat has two cherubim positioned on opposite ends. The mercy seat is made of pure gold. This was God's resting place. It was essentially God's throne on earth. In Exodus 25, 22, God says, The word used for meet here means betrothed.
And the word mercy seat is related to the word that means to make atonement. There's a lot happening in the language here. This Ark of the Covenant with the mercy seat on top, it's an important item, and not just because there's an Indiana Jones movie about it.
One interesting parallel with what we see in the mercy seat descriptions is that it's really similar to what we see the angels doing when they appear in Jesus' tomb after his resurrection in John 20, 12. They were positioned in the same way, at opposite ends of Jesus' burial spot. Finally, I want to point out the golden lampstand.
If you're familiar at all with Jewish culture, you may recognize this as a menorah, which is the Hebrew word for lampstand. Since it's a symbol of God's presence, it eventually became something Jewish people kept in their homes as a reminder of this. The standard menorah has six branches and seven lamps. But there are also special types of menorahs used during the celebration of Hanukkah.
Those have nine branches and are called hanukkiahs. We're going to be reading a bit more about the tabernacle and some of its elements here and there over the course of the next few days. So if you're visual and you want to see a rendering of what this may have looked like, we've got a video for you in today's show notes.
If you don't know how to find the show notes on your particular app or platform, try Googling it. It varies from app to app. This video shows the potential layout of the courtyard, tabernacle, and interior, as well as the seven pieces of furniture inside. So go to the show notes and get your HGTV on. Tomorrow, we'll have something for those of you who are more into Project Runway than Fixer Upper.
What was your God shot today? The thing that stood out to me most, apart from his attention to detail, is just the beauty of the fact that he wants to dwell with his people. These are the people who have sinned against him, doubted him, and keep forgetting all he's done for them. Yet he wants to be near them always. This is huge.
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