The incense altar

Exodus 37: 27-29, “And he made the incense altar of shittim wood: the length of it was a cubit, and the breadth of it a cubit; it was foursquare; and two cubits was the height of it; the horns thereof were of the same. And he overlaid it with pure gold, both the top of it, and the sides thereof round about, and the horns of it: also he made unto it a crown of gold round about. And he made two rings of gold for it under the crown thereof, by the two corners of it, upon the two sides thereof, to be places for the staves to bear it withal. And he made the staves of shittim wood, and overlaid them with gold. And he made the holy anointing oil, and the pure incense of sweet spices, according to the work of the apothecary.”

Incense is associated with sweetness and prayer in the Bible. The first time that the word occurs is in Ex 25: 6 (“Oil for the light, spices for anointing oil, and for sweet incense,”) and the last time it occurs is in Rev 8: 3, 4, (“And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel’s hand.”) The incense altar was also designed to be carried on the shoulders of the Temple servants meaning that is was part of the holiest instruments in the Temple. We can look at this today representing our prayers (Psalm 141: 2, “Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.”). As long as there is no Temple or Tabernacle then we can only offer our prayers to the Lord. If we come to Him with a humble heart then our prayers will be sweet to Him.

(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)

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Four rings of gold

Exodus 37: 10-24, “And he made the table of shittim wood: two cubits was the length thereof, and a cubit the breadth thereof, and a cubit and a half the height thereof: And he overlaid it with pure gold, and made thereunto a crown of gold round about. Also he made thereunto a border of an handbreadth round about; and made a crown of gold for the border thereof round about. And he cast for it four rings of gold, and put the rings upon the four corners that were in the four feet thereof. Over against the border were the rings, the places for the staves to bear the table. And he made the staves of shittim wood, and overlaid them with gold, to bear the table. And he made the vessels which were upon the table, his dishes, and his spoons, and his bowls, and his covers to cover withal, of pure gold. And he made the candlestick of pure gold: of beaten work made he the candlestick; his shaft, and his branch, his bowls, his knops, and his flowers, were of the same: And six branches going out of the sides thereof; three branches of the candlestick out of the one side thereof, and three branches of the candlestick out of the other side thereof: Three bowls made after the fashion of almonds in one branch, a knop and a flower; and three bowls made like almonds in another branch, a knop and a flower: so throughout the six branches going out of the candlestick. And in the candlestick were four bowls made like almonds, his knops, and his flowers: And 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 going out of it. Their knops and their branches were of the same: all of it was one beaten work of pure gold. And he made his seven lamps, and his snuffers, and his snuffdishes, of pure gold. Of a talent of pure gold made he it, and all the vessels thereof.”

The holiest item inside the holiest place was the ark. However, it was completely dark inside that part of the Tabernacle because there were four layers of curtains outside a wooden frame and then there was the outside curtain and the inner curtain as well. In order to give the priest light when he came into this part of the Tabernacle a table was made and a lampstand was placed on the table. The lamp was kept burning with special oil in the reservoirs. Each of these most holy items were designed to be carried on poles on the shoulders of the Levites. Other items could be carried on carts but these items were designed to be carried on shoulders. When the Lord has His most sacred message, the gospel, it is designed to be carried by individuals all over the world.

(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)

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Overlaid it with pure gold.

Exodus 37: 1-9, “And Bezaleel made the ark of shittim wood: two cubits and a half was the length of it, and a cubit and a half the breadth of it, and a cubit and a half the height of it: And he overlaid it with pure gold within and without, and made a crown of gold to it round about. And he cast for it four rings of gold, to be set by the four corners of it; even two rings upon the one side of it, and two rings upon the other side of it. And he made staves of shittim wood, and overlaid them with gold. And he put the staves into the rings by the sides of the ark, to bear the ark. And he made the mercy seat of pure gold: two cubits and a half was the length thereof, and one cubit and a half the breadth thereof. And he made two cherubims of gold, beaten out of one piece made he them, on the two ends of the mercy seat; One cherub on the end on this side, and another cherub on the other end on that side: out of the mercy seat made he the cherubims on the two ends thereof. And the cherubims spread out their wings on high, and covered with their wings over the mercy seat, with their faces one to another; even to the mercy seatward were the faces of the cherubims.”

The ark was just a box that contained the sacred and precious artefacts of the Israeli religion. It was made of wood that would last for a long time and the wood was covered with pure gold. The gold covering ensured that the wood would last forever, if it was kept in good conditions. Gold is a gift that is fit for a king. When the wise men gave their three gifts to the infant Lord Jesus Christ they gave Him gold, frankincense and myrrh (Matthew 2: 11, “And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.”) God is a gift for a king, frankincense is a gift for a priest and myrrh is a bitter spice that was given for one who suffers. The Lord Jesus Christ’s mother was called Mary, which means bitterness (See Ruth 1: 20, “And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.”) The gold on the ark was to demonstrate that it was fit for the King of Heaven as well as to keep it for a long time. The ark was covered by the mercy seat to show that God is merciful every time He deals with people. The mercy seat was covered by two angels with longs wings reaching forward to touch each other to show a small portion of the Lord’s glory.

(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)

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He made a vail

Exodus 36: 35-38, “And he made a vail of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen: with cherubims made he it of cunning work. And he made thereunto four pillars of shittim wood, and overlaid them with gold: their hooks were of gold; and he cast for them four sockets of silver. And he made an hanging for the tabernacle door of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen, of needlework; And the five pillars of it with their hooks: and he overlaid their chapiters and their fillets with gold: but their five sockets were of brass.”

The most holy section of the Tabernacle was set aside for this was where the Lord Himself would come to communicate. When King Solomon built the Temple he said this during the dedication service, “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded?” (1 Kings 8: 27) Of course the Lord was far more powerful than someone who could actually inhabit a third of the Tabernacle. He is not just the God of Israel, He is the God of the whole earth (Psalm 97: 5, “The hills melted like wax at the presence of the LORD, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth.”) However, the Lord understood that Israel needed evidence of His presence so He gave them what they needed without compromising His own glory. They needed to set the holiest place apart so that no one would be tempted to try and reduce the Lord God to that size by attempting to see Him. When the Tabernacle was taken down the high priest would go into the holiest place and cover the ark with the curtain so that no one, who was not properly qualified, would ever see it. In this way the Tabernacle could be moved easily without compromising the Lord’s glory in any way.

(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)

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Curtains of goats hair

Exodus 36: 14-24, “And he made curtains of goats’ hair for the tent over the tabernacle: eleven curtains he made them. The length of one curtain was thirty cubits, and four cubits was the breadth of one curtain: the eleven curtains were of one size. And he coupled five curtains by themselves, and six curtains by themselves. And he made fifty loops upon the uttermost edge of the curtain in the coupling, and fifty loops made he upon the edge of the curtain which coupleth the second. And he made fifty taches of brass to couple the tent together, that it might be one. And he made a covering for the tent of rams’ skins dyed red, and a covering of badgers’ skins above that. And he made boards for the tabernacle of shittim wood, standing up. The length of a board was ten cubits, and the breadth of a board one cubit and a half. One board had two tenons, equally distant one from another: thus did he make for all the boards of the tabernacle. And he made boards for the tabernacle; twenty boards for the south side southward: And forty sockets of silver he made under the twenty boards; two sockets under one board for his two tenons, and two sockets under another board for his two tenons. And for the other side of the tabernacle, which is toward the north corner, he made twenty boards, And their forty sockets of silver; two sockets under one board, and two sockets under another board. And for the sides of the tabernacle westward he made six boards. And two boards made he for the corners of the tabernacle in the two sides. And they were coupled beneath, and coupled together at the head thereof, to one ring: thus he did to both of them in both the corners. And there were eight boards; and their sockets were sixteen sockets of silver, under every board two sockets. And he made bars of shittim wood; five for the boards of the one side of the tabernacle, And five bars for the boards of the other side of the tabernacle, and five bars for the boards of the tabernacle for the sides westward. And he made the middle bar to shoot through the boards from the one end to the other. And he overlaid the boards with gold, and made their rings of gold to be places for the bars, and overlaid the bars with gold.”

The Tabernacle was a substantial structure but it was made for a nomadic people. It had to be put up and taken down on a regular basis and transported from place to place as well. For this reason it had to be made of strong and durable material and easily broken up in smaller but regular parts so that the people involved could put it up and take it down quickly and efficiently. The Tabernacle was also erected in the desert. It was covered with multiple layers so that the outside would be well protected from huge extremes of climate: heat, cold and strong winds. The four layers formed an efficient insulation over the Tabernacle without interfering with the beauty and holiness required for inner sanctuary of the Israeli religion. It was always pleasant inside.

(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)

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Every wise hearted man

Exodus 36: 8-13, “And every wise hearted man among them that wrought the work of the tabernacle made ten curtains of fine twined linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet: with cherubims of cunning work made he them. The length of one curtain was twenty and eight cubits, and the breadth of one curtain four cubits: the curtains were all of one size. And he coupled the five curtains one unto another: and the other five curtains he coupled one unto another. And he made loops of blue on the edge of one curtain from the selvedge in the coupling: likewise he made in the uttermost side of another curtain, in the coupling of the second. Fifty loops made he in one curtain, and fifty loops made he in the edge of the curtain which was in the coupling of the second: the loops held one curtain to another. And he made fifty taches of gold, and coupled the curtains one unto another with the taches: so it became one tabernacle.”

The Tabernacle was holy and the people needed to be protected from that holy place. When Moses was meeting with God on the mountain he was told that no one should go near the mountain for if anyone touched the mountain they would have to be stoned. (See Ex 19: 13, “There shall not an hand touch it, but he shall surely be stoned, or shot through;”) The Tabernacle had to be moved and the Lord showed His presence by the pillar of cloud. If anyone came near the Tabernacle they would be have to be killed and if anyone saw the sacred things they would be killed as well. There were curtains to separate the camp from the holy precinct and there were curtains to cover the Tabernacle so that no one would look on the holy things accidentally. The curtains also had to be transported so they were made to be taken apart into manageable portions and put together again.

(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)

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The people were restrained

Exodus 36: 1-7, “Then wrought Bezaleel and Aholiab, and every wise hearted man, in whom the LORD put wisdom and understanding to know how to work all manner of work for the service of the sanctuary, according to all that the LORD had commanded. And Moses called Bezaleel and Aholiab, and every wise hearted man, in whose heart the LORD had put wisdom, even every one whose heart stirred him up to come unto the work to do it: And they received of Moses all the offering, which the children of Israel had brought for the work of the service of the sanctuary, to make it withal. And they brought yet unto him free offerings every morning. And all the wise men, that wrought all the work of the sanctuary, came every man from his work which they made; And they spake unto Moses, saying, The people bring much more than enough for the service of the work, which the LORD commanded to make. And Moses gave commandment, and they caused it to be proclaimed throughout the camp, saying, Let neither man nor woman make any more work for the offering of the sanctuary. So the people were restrained from bringing. For the stuff they had was sufficient for all the work to make it, and too much.”

The Lord asked Moses to build a Tabernacle so that Israel could be involved in ceremonial worship of the Lord. However, Moses was a leader and not a craftsman so he wasn’t in a position to the work personally. The Lord understood this, after all He said to Moses earlier, “Who hath made man’s mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the LORD? Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say.” (Ex 4: 11, 12) In this case Moses was too busy leading the people and communicating with the Lord to actually do make the Tabernacle, its items and the priestly clothing so the Lord raised up other men to do the job instead. Whenever there was an issue on this journey from Egypt to the Promised Land, the Lord always had a good solution and every problem was solved along the way. The Lord didn’t prevent that generation from experiencing the consequences of the choices they made, He just found a way to proceed with or without them. The people, at that stage, were so grateful to the Lord that He had to tell them to stop giving because they were giving more than was needed for the task.

(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)

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