Oil for the Lamp

Story:  Oil for the Lamp

Passage: Exodus 27:20-12

Characters:  God, Moses

Summary:    God gives Moses instructions for the oil for the lamo.

  

Notes:  This is a very short passage about the oil to be used in the lamp.  However, since God thought it was important enough to specify, we will examine it.  The main thing specified here is that the oil is to be pure pressed olive oil.  Also, the lamp was supposed to always be burning.  The two things Aaron and his sons would have to do to keep the lamp burning were refill the oil and trim the wick.  I feel like this applies to our lives as well.  We are supposed to be the light in a dark world, and we are continuously trimmed and filled by God to do that!  I also think it is cool that the oil comes from pressed olives.  The olives are pressed and the result is they can burn bright.  I think this could be analogous to our maturing and growing through times when we are pressed.  In 2 Corinthians 4:8, the Greek word for pressed or troubled, depending on your translation, is the word used to describe pressed grapes.  We are also pressed and the result is we shine. 

Questions:  Why olive oil?  Why was it to be specifically pressed? 

Lessons:  It is encouraging to know that the moments we are pressed are intended for the glory of God.  It is when we are pressed that we shine brightest for Him.

The Court of the Tabernacle

Story:  The Court of the Tabernacle

Passage: Exodus 27:9-19

Characters:  God, Moses

Summary:    God gives Moses instructions for the tabernacle court.

  

Notes:  I don’t have a ton to say about the court of the tabernacle.  It was a much larger area than the tabernacle itself.  The pillars around the court were to be made of bronze.  The curtains were to be blue, purple, and scarlet.  Silver was used in the support of the Tabernacle.  Once again, we see gold is not being used.  These items do not represent the Father, Son, or Spirit like the gold ark, table, and lamp stand do.  Of particular interest to me is verse 19.  All the utensils of the Tabernacle were to be made of bronze.  Bronze feels like a very human metal.  Its use in the Bible is linked to sin and sacrifice.  Unlike gold, bronze is not pure.  It is neither precious nor pure.  I feel like this makes it a good representative of humanity.  The fact that the utensils were made of bronze shows us the impurity of our sinful nature.  Unlike the items in the Most Holy Place or the Holy Place, these utensils are tarnished.  We have a need for redemption. 

Questions:  Why is bronze used outside of the Holy of Holies?

Lessons:  We are sinful and impure.  Just like bronze was not found in the Most Holy Place, our impurity cannot mix with the pure holiness of God.  We are sinful and are impure.  In the New Testament, Christ is killed by humans.  The pure and spotless lamb is slaughtered by impure humanity as a sacrifice for our atonement.  The bronze utensils in the Tabernacle are a beautiful foreshadowing of our ultimate redemption through Christ!

The Bronze Altar

Story:  The Bronze Altar

Passage: Exodus 27:1-8

Characters:  God, Moses

Summary:    God gives Moses instructions for the bronze altar. 

  

Notes:  The altar was to be made of acacia wood.  It was not to be overlaid with gold however.  It was to be overlaid with bronze.  This was for practical reasons as well as aesthetic reasons I believe.  Bronze would not be affected by fire and thus it was a good choice to use on the altar.  We also see that bronze was already used for the curtain rings outside of the Holy of Holies.  Bronze seems to be the metal of choice in the Holy Place of the tabernacle.  The altar was to have four horns, one at each corner.  These horns would point all directions and symbolized what the blood of the sacrifice covered.  The atoning blood would be applied to all four horns.  The utensils for the altar were also made of bronze.  There was a bronze screen placed in the altar as well to allow the offerings to fall through the altar.  Basically, it was a hollow box with a screen, completely covered in bronze.  The Hebrew word for altar is derived from the word used to describe the slaughtering of animals for sacrifices or eating.  It was basically a killing place.  In Hebrews 13:10, we are told we have an altar from which those in the tabernacle have no right to eat.  The cross was the killing place where the perfect Lamb was sacrificed. 

Questions:  Why is bronze used outside of the Holy of Holies?

Lessons:  Christ is our sacrifice.  The cross was the altar He was sacrificed on.  Just as the horns of the altar reached out in all directions and showed how the atoning blood of the sacrifice covers us all, the cross also covers us all with the atoning blood of Christ!

The Tabernacle

Story:  The Tabernacle

Passage: Exodus 26

Characters:  God, Moses

Summary:    God gives Moses instructions for the Tabernacle. 

  

Notes:  I have been putting this post off because it is long and confusing and full of details which I was tempted to say are meaningless.  However, these details come straight from God so I am going to dive in and look at them.  God wanted Israel to build a tabernacle.  The previous three items were to be placed in the tabernacle.  I am going to list the things God specifically asked for and then if I have an idea of what they represent, I will try to communicate that.  Most of this is speculation unfortunately.  Here goes, the details of the tabernacle:

Dimensions -  God supplied specific dimensions for the cover, the curtains, and the frame of the tabernacle.  He even had enough detail to instruct what to do with overlap.  I believe He gave them the dimensions so they would know how much material they would need.  His structure is both solid, and portable.  It comes apart fairly easily for when they had to move around.  The basic design was that there was a room made of an elaborate colorful curtain covering a frame.  This was covered by a plain piece of material.  This was then covered by two more coverings made of watertight animal skin. 

Colors – God specified the colors to be used for the curtains.  They were to be blue, purple, and scarlet with images of Cherubim worked into them.  These same colors were used for the veil.  I did some research on the use of colors in the Bible and I may post that sometime.  Basically what I found was that blue represents the law, purple represents royalty, and scarlet represents both sin and cleansing.  I find it fascinating that if you were to be in the Holy of Holies with the Ark, you would be surrounded with gold, blue, purple, and scarlet.  You would be in a place where holiness, royalty, the law, and cleansing are all combined together.  This is a beautiful picture of the plan God had for humanity and it is communicated purely through the colors He specified for His Tabernacle. 

Clasp material – God specified the material of the clasps used to hold the curtains together.  The innermost curtain would have gold clasps and the next curtain would have bronze.  Obviously we see the continuation of gold being the only metal visible in the Holy of Holies.  This purity and holiness is really powerful if you think about it. 

Material of the curtains – The materials used from the inside out are, fine linen, goat hair, rams’ skins, and goatskins. 

Material of frames – The frames of the Tabernacle would also be visible from the inside and thus they were also acacia wood overlaid with gold. 

The veil material – The veil would be the same material as the curtains, but it would serve a different function.  The inside of the Tabernacle would be holy ground, but the Ark would be even holier.  The phrase “even holier” seems redundant.  How can something be more holy?  The point of this distinction is that God is infinitely more holy than we can comprehend!  God has us picture holiness, and then tells us He is even more holy than that.  The Ark which represents the presence and holiness of God is in the Most Holy Place.  This was the least accessible part of the Tabernacle.  A common person could only access God through the High Priest, and even he could only enter the Most Holy place once a year I believe. (We will read more about this later and I will edit this if I am wrong)  The holiness of God keeps us from Him.  We cannot survive being exposed to this Holiness without His mercy!  Because of this, I am fascinated by the positioning of the other pieces of furniture we have read about.

Position of the table and lampstand – If you remember, the lampstand seems to represent the guidance of the Holy Spirit and the table for the Bread of the Presence seems to represent the physical presence of God manifest in Christ.  We now know that the Spirit lives in us as Christians and guides us closer to God.  We also know now that Christ came to Earth and acted as our High priest.  He was the go between us and a Holy God.  As such, the Spirit and the Son are like the intermediaries through whom we can access the Spirit.  Thus the son and the Spirit are uniquely accessible to us in a way the holiness represented by the Father is not.  This is not to say that the Son and the Spirit are not holy, but rather that by God’s perfect design, this is the way He extends His mercy to us and allows us access to a Holy God.  Although these things were not fully understood in Moses’ time, we see that both the Table and the Lampstand are positioned outside of the Most Holy Place and are rather in the Holy Place.  As you can see, this communicates that these two are Holy, but accessible.  The Table is located just outside the veil, and when Christ was crucified, we read in the gospels that the veil was torn in two symbolizing that we now have access to the Father in ways that we never had before.  If you were to enter the temple after the veil was torn, you would see the Ark of the Covenant with the Table of the Bread of the Presence between you and the Ark.  I think this is a powerful picture of God’s plan for restoration of us to Him and it was all symbolized in the tabernacle in Moses’ day.

Questions:  Is this interpretation of the Tabernacle correct? Does it make sense?  What else is symbolized in the design of the tabernacle?

Lessons:  The Tabernacle shows us that from the beginning, God had a plan to restore us to Himself.  Take a moment and just worship the Holy God who loved us enough to restore us to Him even in the middle of our rebellion against Him!  Worship Him for His unchanging mercy and grace!

The Golden Lampstand

Story:  The Golden Lampstand

Passage: Exodus 25:31-40

Characters:  God, Moses

Summary:    God gives Moses instructions for the Golden Lampstand. 

  

Notes:  Moses was supposed to make a lampstand of pure gold.  It was to be hammered gold.  It would have six branches, three on each side of the center.  These branches would look like almond blossoms complete with petals and sepals.  The whole thing was to be a single piece of hammered gold.  There were to be seven lamps placed in the stand, designed to project the light forward.  Even the utensils for the lamp would be made of pure gold.  The almond blossoms are significant because almond trees were the first trees to bloom in the Spring.  Almonds represent life and rebirth.  In scripture, there are many references to God being the light of the world.  The word is a lamp to our feet according to David.  Light is important because it allows us to see what is truly around us.  It gives us the perspective we need to function.  Without light, obstacles are still in our path, we just don’t have the ability to work around them.  When light is added, we are able to avoid obstacles in our path and make observations of the world around us.  The lampstand is intended to symbolize this aspect of God.  He is the light of the world.  His word is a lamp to our feet.  That is why the lampstand was designed to cast light forward.  His light is intended to guide us.  While the light can represent Christ, I believe the lampstand is actually meant to represent the Spirit.  In Revelation 4:5, we read that there are seven lamps burning before God in His throne room.  These lamps are the sevenfold Spirit of God.  The Ark, Table, and Lampstand represent the trinity.  The ark represents the holiness of God, the table holds the bread of the presence, representing Christ, and the lampstand represents the Spirit.  One of the functions of the Spirit is to guide us.  The first thing God wanted to represent in the Tabernacle is His presence and the presence of the trinity.  Notice that these three items are made of pure gold or overlaid with pure gold.  The next few items we will read about are not made of gold.  This also demonstrates that these three items are designed to symbolize God and His character.

Questions:  Why did God choose almond blossoms?

Lessons:  It is important to realize that when God gave directions for the tabernacle, He did not start with the structure of the tent, He began with the items which represented Himself and His character.  I feel like a lot of times we ignore the character of God and focus instead on the structure and the logic of God and the lifestyle laid out in the Bible.  Before we get into the structure, we need to focus and learn about the person of God.  We need to meditate on His holiness, His presence, His guidance, etc.