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!

Increasing Corruption on Earth

Story: Increasing Corruption on Earth

Passage: Genesis 6:1-8

Characters: Man, God, Nephilim, sons of God, daughters of man, Noah

Interaction: Sons of God took wives from the daughters of men. God was not happy and shortened the life of man. The children of these unusual marriages were mighty men, famous and renowned. The Lord saw how evil man was and regretted creating him. God decided to wipe out anything that was alive. But Noah found favor with God.

Notes: Apparently some kind of heavenly creatures came to Earth and married women. This was obviously detestable to God and He began to regret even creating life. Verse 5 says that every intention fo the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. This is very harsh, but if we think about it, is is true today as well. Man was meant to carry the image of God and bring glory to God. But instead, humanity tried to be their own God and glorify themselves. These creatures He created to worship Him and live with Him had rejected Him and worshipped themselves. When man decided to ignore His purpose, God decided to get rid of mankind. This was the just thing to do. However, we see a glimmer of hope when Noah is mentioned as finding favor in the eyes of God. As we have seen so far, even when man turned his back on God, God showed love and mercy to us. Even here, when God is regretting even creating man, there is a glimmer of hope. It is also interesting to note that God was going to destroy animals as well. Animals were not created in the image of God, but they too were cursed by the fall and thus they had been marred from their original intent and were going to be destroyed as well.

Questions: Who were the sons of God mentioned here? Could this interaction between heaven and Earth be the cause of mythology involving marriages between gods and humans? Did the Nephilim survive the coming flood? How did Noah's character differ from those around him and why did it differ? If God is all knowing, wouldn't He have known that humanity would turn away from Him before He created us? Why did He go ahead and create us with that knowlege?

Lessons: The only lessons I can pull away from this is that we are depserately wicked when we do not make God our god. When we rule our own lives, we grieve God who gave us life. We need to strive in our live to find favor in the eyes of the Lord. As we continue to read about Noah, we should try to glean what we can about his character and how he found this favor with God.