CHAPTER 25

(1491 B.C.)

THE TABERNACLE

¹And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying,

²Speak unto the Children of Israel, that they bring Me an Offering: of every man who gives it willingly with his heart you shall take My Offering. (Pink says: We have now arrived at the longest, and most blessed, but least read and understood section of this precious Book of Exodus. From the beginning of Chapter 25 to the end of Chapter 40 except the important parenthesis in 32 to 34 the Holy Spirit has given us a detailed description of the Tabernacle, its structure, furniture, and Priesthood. When we consider, and understand, that more space is devoted to the account of the Tabernacle than to any other single object or subject treated in the Bible, we then begin to understand its vast significance. It took but two Chapters to portray the record of Gods Work in creating this Earth, and fitting it for human habitation. By comparison, some 12 Chapters are needed to tell us about the Tabernacle.

The reason? Everything about the Tabernacle pointed to Christ, and was a Type of Christ in some way.)

³And this is the Offering which you shall take of them; gold, and silver, and brass,

⁴And blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and goats hair,

⁵And rams skins dyed red, and badgers skins, and shittim wood,

⁶Oil for the light, spices for anointing oil, and for sweet incense,

⁷Onyx stones, and stones to be set in the Ephod, and in the Breastplate. (The Lord could have brought about these Offerings in any number of ways; however, His method is that we give to His Work, and then He blesses us. You cant out-give God!)

⁸And let them make Me a Sanctuary: that I may dwell among them. (As far as is known, the Ark of Noah, the Tabernacle of Moses, and the Temple of Solomon, with the plans for the last one actually given to David, are the only buildings ever erected from plans furnished by direct Revelation from God [Gen. 6:14-16; I Chron. 28:11-12, 19]. Since the Fall of man in the Garden of Eden, the Lord has been working steadily to bring man back to Himself. He longs to dwell with us, and that He now does, all made possible by the Cross.)

⁹According to all that I show you, after the pattern of the Tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall you make it. (The Pattern was all of God, and not at all of man. Salvation is the same! We must not deviate from the blueprint, of which both are identical Jesus.)

ARK OF THE COVENANT

¹⁰And they shall make an Ark (the Ark of the Covenant, a Type of the Throne of God) of Shittim Wood (referred to as indestructible wood, and a Type of the Perfect, unsullied, physical Body of our Lord): two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof (3 and 3/4 feet), and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof (2 and 1/4 feet), and a cubit and a half the height thereof (2 and 1/4 feet).

¹¹And you shall overlay it with Pure Gold, within and without shall you overlay it (a type of the Deity of Christ), and shall make upon it a Crown of Gold round about (represents the status of our Lord as King).

¹²And you shall cast four rings of gold for it (staves were to be inserted in the rings for the Ark to be moved, which it was occasionally, at least until the Temple was built about 500 years later; it signifies Christ Who desires to be with us at all times), and put them in the four corners thereof (wherever we are led to go, north, south, east, or west, He will be with us); and two rings shall be in the one side of it, and two rings in the other side of it. (If we are in His Will, He will be with us, just as much one place as the other.)

¹³And you shall make staves of Shittim Wood (once again, portraying the Perfect Humanity of Christ), and overlay them with Gold (portraying His Deity; while Jesus is Very Man, He is also Very God; He is with us as God, by virtue of the fact that He came to be with us as Man, and for the purpose of going to the Cross, which makes His perpetual Presence possible).

¹⁴And you shall put the staves into the rings by the sides of the Ark, that the Ark may be borne with them (the assurance of the perpetual Presence of Christ).

¹⁵The staves shall be in the rings of the Ark: they shall not be taken from it. (This would be the case until Solomons Temple, when the Priests would bring the Ark of the Covenant into the House of the Lord, place it under the giant Cherubim, and then would draw out the staves [I Ki. 8:6-8].)

¹⁶And you shall put into the Ark the Testimony which I shall give you (the two tables of stone, containing the Ten Commandments).

¹⁷And you shall make a Mercy Seat of Pure Gold (the Mercy Seat formed the covering for the Ark; on it was sprinkled the Atoning Blood, which the High Priest did once a year, on the Great Day of Atonement; it was of this Blood-sprinkled Mercy Seat that God spoke when He said: There will I meet with you; here, in Type, was the only meeting place between God and the sinner; here, Righteousness and Peace kissed each other; it was all gold, signifying the Deity of Christ, signifying also that His Deity was not marred by Him becoming Man; Christ is the Mercy Seat): two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof (3 and 3/4 feet), and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof (2 and 1/4 feet).

¹⁸And you shall make two Cherubims of gold (they pertained to Gods Judicial authority; they seemed to be the highest among the Angelic order, or at least in the capacity in which they function), of beaten work shall you make them, in the two ends of the Mercy Seat. (They were not attached to the ends of the Mercy Seat, but were actually a part of the Mercy Seat. In other words, the Mercy Seat and the two Cherubim were all one piece of gold. The two Cherubim looked down on the Mercy Seat.)

¹⁹And make one Cherub on the one end, and the other Cherub on the other end: even of the Mercy Seat shall you make the Cherubims on the two ends thereof.

²⁰And the Cherubims shall stretch forth their wings on high, covering the Mercy Seat with their wings (stretched above their heads, and pointing forward, with the four wings meeting each other in the middle), and their faces shall look one to another; toward the Mercy Seat shall the faces of the Cherubims be. (They looked down upon the blood which was applied to the Mercy Seat once a year, on the Great Day of Atonement.)

²¹And you shall put the Mercy Seat above upon the Ark; and in the Ark you shall put the Testimony (Ten Commandments) that I shall give you.

²²And there I will meet with you, and I will commune with you from above the Mercy Seat, from between the two Cherubims which are upon the Ark of the Testimony, of all things which I will give you in Commandment unto the Children of Israel. (It is only above the Blood-stained Mercy Seat that God will meet with sinful human beings, because thats the only place that He can meet with sinful human beings, and not malign His Righteousness and Holiness. Concerning this, Mackintosh says: Thus it is that the soul of the believing sinner finds peace. He sees that Gods Righteousness and His Justification rest upon precisely the same basis, namely Christs accomplished Work. When man, under the powerful action of the Truth of God, takes his place as a sinner, God can, in the exercise of Grace, take His place as a Saviour, and then every question is settled, for the Cross having answered all the claims of Divine Justice, Mercys copious streams can flow unhindered. When a Righteous God and a ruined sinner meet on a Blood-sprinkled platform, all is settled forever settled in such a way as perfectly glorifies God, and eternally saves the sinner.)

TABLE OF SHEWBREAD

²³You shall also make a Table of Shittim Wood (once again, this indestructible wood, a perfect Type of the Perfection of the Humanity of Christ): two cubits shall be the length thereof (3 feet), and a cubit the breadth thereof (1 and 1/2 feet), and a cubit and a half the height thereof (2 and 1/4 feet).

²⁴And you shall overlay it with Pure Gold (typical of the Deity of Christ), and make thereto a Crown of Gold round about (Christ is King).

²⁵And you shall make unto it a border of an hand breadth round about (it is interesting that the width of the crown is described as a hand breadth, which is approximately three to four inches high; this corresponds with the Words of Christ: Neither shall any pluck them out of My hand [Jn. 10:28]), and you shall make a Golden Crown to the border thereof round about. (The Table was to hold bread, which, again, was a Type of Christ. The crown would tend to keep the bread in place, so that it would not slip off the Table, especially during times when Israel was instructed by the Lord to move. This speaks of the security of the Believer, all in Christ.)

²⁶And you shall make for it four rings of gold, and put the rings in the four corners that are on the four feet thereof.

²⁷Over against the border shall the rings be for places of the staves to bear the Table.

²⁸And you shall make the staves of shittim wood, and overlay them with gold, that the Table may be borne with them. (Wherever the Lord led Israel, even though it was in the wilderness, His Table accompanied them! So, wherever the Christians lot may be cast, even though it may be in a prison, such as Paul, the Believer can continue to feed on Christ, for Christ is ever with him.)

²⁹And you shall make the dishes thereof, and spoons thereof, and covers thereof, and bowls thereof, to cover withal: of pure gold shall you make them. (The dishes were no doubt used by the Priests when they ate the Bread on the seventh day. The spoons and the cover were more than likely used in connection with the Frankincense, which was to be poured over the Bread, symbolizing the Fragrance and Purity of Christ. The bowls were probably cups, and were used in connection with the Drink Offerings, which were poured out before the Lord in the Holy Place [Num. 28:7].)

³⁰And you shall set upon the Table Shewbread before Me always. (This was a Type of Christ, as the Bread of Life [Jn. 6:58]. Christ is always before the Father, making Intercession for us [Heb. 7:25].)

GOLDEN CANDLESTICK

³¹And you shall make a Candlestick of Pure Gold (should have been translated Lampstand): of beaten work shall the Candlestick be made: his shaft, and his branches, his bowls, his knops, and his flowers, shall be of the same. (The idea is, the entirety of the Lampstand was made out of one piece of gold. The Lampstand was the only source of light in the entirety of the Holy Place. It is a Type of Christ as the Light of the world.

The bowls or cups formed the first ornament on each branch, and are likened to almonds, which signify the Resurrection [Num. 17:1-8]. The knops could have been translated pomegranates, which speak of fruit. The flowers could have been translated lilies, and speak of purity. The lily-blossoms supported the lamps, which were separate.)

³²And six branches shall come out of the sides of it; three branches of the Lampstand out of the one side, and three branches of the Lampstand out of the other side (six is the number of man, and which is the Body of Christ, whether Israel or the Church; Verse 36 tells us that the entirety of the Lampstand was one beaten work of pure gold, meaning that these branches were not welded or fastened to the side of the main stem, but were rather a part of the main stem; this speaks of our being in Christ):

³³Three bowls made like unto almonds, with a knop and a flower in one branch; and three bowls made like almonds in the other branch, with a knop and a flower: so in the six branches that come out of the Lampstand. (We might ask the question as to why there were three bowls [almond-blossoms] on each stem, and only one pomegranate and only one lily? This tells us that the almond-blossom, which represents Resurrection, which speaks of the Cross, is the foundation on which everything is based. This is where the emphasis must always be [I Cor. 1:17].)

³⁴And in the Lampstand shall be four bowls made like unto almonds, with their knops and their flowers. (The main middle stem had four bowls, along with four knops, and four flowers. This made twelve ornaments, which speaks of the Government of Christ.)

³⁵And there shall be a knop under two branches of the same, and a knop under two branches of the same, and a knop under two branches of the same, according to the six branches that proceed out of the Lampstand.

³⁶Their knops and their branches shall be of the same: all of it shall be one beaten work of pure gold. (Even though the branches came out even at the top, even with the main shaft, as would be obvious, the outward branch would be the longest of all, with the middle branch next to the longest, with the branch closest to the stem being the shortest. But yet, all of them had the same number of ornamentation.

This tells us that all Believers can enjoy Resurrection Life, bear fruit, and develop purity. All done by the Holy Spirit, because of the Cross [I Cor. 1:23].)

³⁷And you shall make the seven lamps there of (seven is Gods number of perfection, and here speaks of perfect illumination, which only the Holy Spirit can do): and they shall light the lamps thereof (the Lamps were cleaned and lit twice a day, at the time of the morning and evening Sacrifices [9 a.m. and 3 p.m.]), that they may give light over against it (over against the Table of Shewbread and the Altar of Incense).

³⁸And the tongs thereof, and the snuffdishes thereof, shall be of pure gold (had to do with the cleaning of the wick, or replacing the wick, in order that the light might burn clean and bright).

³⁹Of a talent of pure gold shall he make it, with all these vessels (weighed about 120 pounds; at January 2004 prices, it would have been worth about $576,000).

⁴⁰And look that you make them after their pattern, which was shewed you in the Mount. (Moses was instructed to follow the Pattern exactly, which means it was not to be deviated from in any capacity. This tells us that the Work of the Spirit in our hearts and lives must be carried out strictly on Gods Terms, and His Terms alone.)