Exodus 25:10–16 – Be holy because God’s is present within us

We have discovered in one of our discussions that the number three is God's signature. Our Triune God is in three persons yet One. Now the Tabernacle God instructed Moses to build would also consist of three parts: The Holy of holies, the Holy Place and the Outer Court. The Tabernacle, incidentally, represents our life. Like the Tabernacle, we are also a tripartite being made up of spirit, soul and body. Just as He began with the innermost part first, God also began His work in our lives with the innermost part first. He begins His work in our spirit.

The first piece of furnishings Moses was instructed to build was the Ark of the Covenant. Why? The reason seems obvious. It was the central and most important piece of furniture. It was the place where God would come and dwell among His people. This Ark of the Covenant was located in the Holy of holies. Not only was Moses told to build this first but was instructed on the specifications to build it.  

The Ark of the Covenant was to be a rectangular box almost four feet in length, two and a half feet in width and two and a half feet in depth. It was to be made of acacia wood overlaid with pure refined gold. Its edge was to be trimmed with gold molding. Four golden rings were to be cast and fastened to its four feet with two poles going through the rings, one on each side of the Ark. Like the material used for the Ark, the poles must be made of acacia wood overlaid with pure gold as well. These two poles would remain permanently through the four golden rings for the purpose of transporting the Ark so that the Holy Ark would not be touched.

One lesson we can glean from here is this - like the Ark of the Covenant placed in the Holy of holies, God’s holy presence dwells within our spirit, the innermost part of our being. Our spirit becomes God’s dwelling place. We must, therefore, take the utmost care to live a holy life because of the Spirit of God who is dwelling within. This explains the exhortation of Paul in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20. He calls us to conduct our lives in a holy manner saying, “…do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.” What Paul meant to tell us is this: To abuse our body is as good as desecrating the temple of God, for within us dwells the presence of God. We must make it our business to live a life of holiness so that we will not defile our body which is God’s temple.   

Exodus 25:9 – God with us

The world had seen many beautiful physical structures, both in time and history. Yet there had not been one that was as significant as the Tabernacle. Why? It’s because the Tabernacle came from the mind of God and the only structure that was built in perfect symmetry and exactness. It was the brain-child of the Almighty God, the architect of the universe. He Himself had designed it, giving exact details on everything concerning the outward structure and all its internal furnishings. He even specified the colour code and the precise material to be used for this divine structure. The Tabernacle had been, and still is, considered by believers to be the most significant, beautiful and exquisite structure that ever existed. In this divine structure, God has now provided us with lessons on the ways of salvation. This Tabernacle is both a prophetic and a redemptive message for us who trust God and want to follow Him in life.

Every building is built twice, once in the mind of the architect and once in reality. The Tabernacle was no exception. It began in the mind of God. He was the one who had provided the blueprint for this divine structure. He told Moses in no uncertain term what should be done for the building. His exact words were: “According to all that I am going to show you, as the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all its furniture, just so you shall construct it.” It is interesting to note that in creating the world God took only 6 days, but in constructing the Tabernacle God took forty days to instruct Moses on the precise pattern He wanted. This tells us how important God attached to the Tabernacle. Obviously, more details must be put into it. God was going to make it His dwelling place on earth so that He could stay close to His people. More than that, the Tabernacle was meant to teach about God’s character and what it meant to have a meaningful relationship with Him. More than that, through it, God also prescribes how He desires to be worshipped.  

The tabernacle was a rectangular building approximately forty-five feet long and fifteen feet wide. It had a tall fence surrounding a tent that was slightly more than 10,000 square feet in space. Outside of the tent, within the fence was known as the courtyard. At the entrance of the courtyard was the Bronze Altar of Sacrifice and a Laver, a basin-like receptacle placed in between the Brazen altar of sacrifice and the entrance into the tent.  The tent had two portions separated by a curtain. The outer portion we know is referred to as the Holy Place containing three pieces of furnishings namely, the Table of Shewbread, the Altar of Incense and the Golden Lampstand. The inner portion of the tent is known as the Holy of holies, the sacred place that houses the Ark of the Covenant.

The meaning cannot be missed. The building of the Tabernacle was God's way of signalling to His people that He wanted to dwell among us. He wanted to be near His covenant people and to stay connected with them.  For us, our Tabernacle is Jesus Christ our Lord. He was the Eternal Word of God that created the world. And He became a man to dwell among us. Now through Him and in Him we can come to God and more than that, stay connected with God! 

Exodus 25:1-8 – Be a cheerful giver to God

In the last three verses of Exodus 24, they tell us that the glory cloud of God rested on the mountain when Moses had gone up to meet with God. Then on the seventh day, God called to him in the midst of the cloud. In Exodus 25, we see that the first thing God told him to do was to collect an offering to build the Tabernacle, a portable sanctuary. Two things come to mind. Firstly, this instruction tells us how much God wants to be among His people. And secondly, it tells us that God would graciously allow the people the privilege to participate in the building of His dwelling place. So in these verses, He instructed Moses to get the people to contribute to the project of building the Tabernacle.  Simply put, this first eight verses of Exodus 25 constitute a call to give.

In these verses, we are given a lesson on giving which is a vital part of one’s spiritual life. In fact, giving is an indicator of one’s spiritual health. A growing believer is a giving believer. Giving shows one’s ability to steward the resources God has given him or her. We must remember all that we are and have come from God. Everything belongs to Him in the first place. We are only stewards and not owners. When it comes to the subject of giving, being balanced must be the key. There are some who are overly obsessed with money that they will give a lengthy persuasive coercive talk about the need to give. But then, there are others who feel embarrassed just talking about it. A healthy perspective is to be balanced. We must not talk about money till the audience feel that the Church is after their money. But we must never avoid talking about it till believers are deprived of the privilege and opportunity to give to the glorious works of God.   

Exodus 25:1-8 provide us with a healthy perspective on giving to God. Firstly, notice that the giving is to God. Here God instructed Moses to tell the people to bring God an offering. What they would give was for God and not Moses or Aaron or the priests. Giving is an act of worship we offer to God. Their giving was for the glory of God. Giving is an act of gratitude to God’s gracious overtures in our life. Secondly, the offering must be out of the free will. It must be something that came out of their heart. Verse 2 says that the giving must be “…from every man whose heart moves him you shall raise My contribution.”  God would rather that we give to Him willingly and not feel coerced. Thirdly, the giving must be from our best. Verses 3-7 state the list God needs for the building of the Tabernacle and the breastplate of the priest’s garment. They include “…gold, silver and bronze, blue, purple and scarlet material, fine linen, goat hair, rams’ skins dyed red, porpoise skins, acacia wood, oil for lighting, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense, onyx stones and setting stones for the ephod and for the breast-piece.” Since these items were needed to build God’s dwelling place, they had to be made of costly material. This is by way of saying that we must offer to God our very best as we are enabled. Here everyone could contribute according to what they had. Finally, we give to God’s holy work. God wanted whatever was given to be used for His work, to build the Tabernacle so that He could come and dwell among them. 

  

What are the sound instructions in giving? Bear in mind that when we give, we are giving to God. Since it's giving to God, we bring our best willingly. Also bear in mind that when we give, we give to help the work of God to progress, so that others can be touched and experience Him as well. We must give cheerfully to God because God loves a cheerful giver!

Exodus 24:15–18 - Drawn to God to experience and declare His glory

Moses - what a befitting name for him. The name means to draw out. We have seen how many times God drew Him out. First, he was drawn out of the water of death, then he was drawn out of Egypt to the desert. Then he was drawn toward God at Mount Horeb by a burning bush which was not consumed by the fire. He was then drawn and enlisted to go to Pharaoh of Egypt and to deliver His people. Then He was drawn out by God to come up to Mount Sinai several times. Like Moses, God is drawing us out of the world of darkness to Himself, that we may connect with Him. And then to be His emissary in this fallen world.

These last four verses bring us to the climax of Exodus 24. The chapter began with God establishing and ratifying the covenant with His people on the basis of the blood from the sacrifice. Then He gave them the law. This chapter also tells us how Moses, Aaron, Nadab and Abihu and 70 elders of Israel saw God and were not smitten but came back to tell their experience. Now we are about to see Moses being drawn into God’s presence to experience His glory. There he stayed forty days and forty nights.

We come across the phrase “the glory of God” ever so often in the Book of Exodus. What do we understand by God’s glory? Simply put, it is the very person of God, His majestic personality and His majestic works. This Book of Exodus is about God revealing His majestic personality and works, one upon another. It is about God rescuing the people for His glory. The glory of God is about the visible manifestations of the beauty of the invisible God. His glory was manifested in the burning bush, then again in the journey as the pillar of fire by night and the pillar of cloud by day. When they were at Mount Sinai, He called the people near and His glory was seen descending upon Mount Sinai. Here in Exodus 24:16 we are told again that “The glory of the Lord rested on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days…” Verse 17 describes the manifestation of God’s glory this way. “And to the eyes of the sons of Israel, the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a consuming fire on the mountain top.” 

Here in these last four verses of the chapter, we see God inviting Moses to come into His presence to revel in His glory. This servant of God was being drawn closer and closer to God with each experience. God called him up to the Mountain top for an experience with Him, until he was totally consumed in the holy presence of God! What Moses experienced can be our experience today. We are rescued from the domain of darkness and made God’s own sons and daughters through the works of Christ Jesus. We are called to live a set-apart and a worshipful life. We are drawn out from the world that we may live a life separated from sin. Then we need to be immersed in the Word of God constantly and to be found obeying them in our daily living. We are called to experience God’s glory and then to declare that glory. Isn’t this what 1 Peter 2:9-10 say? “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvellous light.” This is our commission and we must do it excellently for the glory of His name!

Exodus 24:12–14 – Learning to delegate work to responsible people

We are not told when Moses and the 73 of them came back to the people at the base of Mount Sinai, but they did. Then God summoned Moses to come before Him in the mountain again and to remain there. He even specifically told Moses that He would be giving him two tablets containing the Law and commandment which God had personally written for their instruction. Specifically, He was referring to the Ten Commandments. God could have written everything on only one tablet but instead, He had it written in two. Why? We often think that the Ten Commandments were written in two parts on two stone tablets. We surmise that one part contains the obligation that men had to God and the other, the obligations they had to his neighbours. But this was not the case. In reality, both the stone tablets contain the whole decalogue. This is because in every covenant, what had been agreed would have been written down in two copies. One for each of the parties making the covenant. In this case, God wanted to give both the copies to Moses for the people of Israel. They were obliged to keep their obligations not only to God but also to their neighbours. God need not keep a copy for Himself because the very nature of His faithfulness makes Him incapable to renege on His word. We need to know that the laws came from God and that He Himself had them written on the tablets of stone. They were not Moses’ word. The Ten Commandments are the moral compass to guide men in their walk of life.

This time Moses took Joshua, his aide with him. Joshua was not part of the entourage that went with Moses the previous time. He was relatively unknown at this point. Moses kept him close to mentor him. He was only serving as Moses’ porter. Spiritual leadership is cultivated and developed as one follows a leader in service. Moses was a capable leader, and he knew he had to delegate others to the task in his absence. So, he appointed Aaron and Hur to the task. At least they seemed to be the best people. For in the battle with the Amalekites in Exodus 17, they each supported one arm of Moses while Joshua and the men were engaged in battle with the enemies. This underscore for us that leadership should only be delegated to people who can responsibly discharge their duties. Presumably, Aaron and Hur were the right people or at least that was what Moses thought. So, having delegated the leadership to Aaron and Hur, Moses made his journey with Joshua up to the mountain.

The work of God must be shared and leaders must learn to train others while delegating tasks to them who have the capacity to do the work. To fulfil the task at hand, we need to adopt the principle shown in 2 Timothy 2:2. Paul instructs Timothy his protege saying, “The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” Let’s be faithful to the task God has assigned us. But let’s also find faithful men whom we can delegate some part so that together we can effectively fulfil the task.

Exodus 24:9–11 – The treasure of God’s presence

Moses, Aaron and his sons Nadab and Abihu and the seventy elders of Israel went up to Mount Sinai and there they saw the God of Israel. For years we were told seeing God is no joking matter. And no one could see God and stay alive because of the holiness of God. Yet the first portion of Exodus 24:2 explicitly said that they saw the God of Israel and nothing happened to them. Though all they could describe was the pavement that was under His feet. This led many to give all sorts of interpretation. We can be sure that many of us who love God would long to catch a glimpse of God. It would be an awesome privilege to be able to see Him. So, the question we ask is: did the 74 of them actually see God?  

Of course, they did, and they were not stricken dead. How do we know? Verse 11 says the Lord did not stretch out His hand against the nobles. It appears as if they even had a great time of fellowship where they ate and drank together. However, closer scrutiny tells us that they never described God. Why? Could it be that they never saw higher than the feet of God? Let’s put our minds together and imagine the scene for a while. It could well be that the radiance of God’s glory was so overpowering that all they could do was have a quick glimpse of God and then fell prostrate in awe and reverential fear in His holy presence. Hence, they did not see anything higher than God’s feet. So, all they could describe was the pavement where God stood on.  

Anyway, we need not be there to know that we have a great God who defies description. And there is no way anyone can fully describe Him, much less fashion an image of Him. What happened that day was they caught a glimpse of God’s glory. It could well be that the person they saw was Jesus Christ in His pre-incarnate form. That’s the reason Moses described who they saw as God and not Yahweh, the LORD. Walking with God is an adventure in faith. We experience God as He reveals Himself to us through the Word and Creation. For us, believing is seeing and not the other way around. We must take God at His word. What the 74 of them saw up in that mountain was a glimpse of His divine glory and that was an exceptional privilege.   

What’s interesting was that they ate and drank in the presence of God. We are not told what they ate or drank. It could well be that they shared the bread and drink that they brought with them to the mountain, or perhaps what was left of the fellowship offering of the sacrifices that they had made. More than what they ate or drank, this is an indication to us that they had fellowship with each other and with God. Few things give us a greater picture of fellowship than eating a meal together. When we do that, we cultivate friendship and get to know each other better. Strong bonding with others is usually built through having meals together. We can understand why David In Psalm 23 said that God prepared a table for me. For that same reason, the New Testament church had regular meals together in God’s presence. This part about eating and drinking points us to the communion that we have in the church. In the traditional church, the communion is called the Eucharist. This word comes from the Greek word for thanksgiving. Communion is a Thanksgiving meal. Their eating and drinking with God leave us with a question about our own fellowship with God. Jesus yearns to fellowship with us. Let us not be like Martha who was so consumed with serving that she missed out the good things that her sister Mary enjoyed. Jesus said this is a needful thing and Mary had chosen the best part. Beloved, worship and fellowship with God will enhance the quality of our service. Don’t minimize the privilege of fellowship with God!

Exodus 24:5-8 – Living the covenantal relationship with God

The Ten Commandments and the Book of the Covenant were read and written down. Then in verse 7, we are told that the Book of the Covenant was read again. It shows how important it is to read what God had stipulated again and again as a constant reminder. And once again, we see the people affirmed their commitment saying, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient!”  Doubtless to say God expects obedience. We need to remember that it is good to affirm our commitment to God, but it is far better that we live it out. Let us not be people who say we will do and then fail to do it. Remember the Parable of the two sons which Jesus told. The first one promised to do what the father had instructed. Then failed to do it. But the second one who refused at first went out and did it afterwards. Jesus shows in that parable that doing is far better than merely giving mental assent. How wonderful it will be of us, not only to affirm our commitment to do the bidding of God, but also go all out to do as we have promised.     

The seriousness of being obedient to God cannot be overemphasized. So, what ensured was that Moses sent the young men to offer sacrifices, and the blood was used to ratify the Covenant made. What cannot escape our notice is that young men were sent to do it. It shows us how needful it is to give to God while we are youthful. We offer to Him the best years of our life, not the fading ashes of our heart. Certainly not when our strength is waning, our breath abating and the duration of our life running out. Hear what Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 12:1, “Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near when you will say, “I have no delight in them.””

What Moses did, he did it deliberately. He did not carelessly and flippantly go about the task. He seriously carried everything out with deliberateness. Three times the word “took” was used. The first time in verse 6 that he took “…half of the blood and put it in basins, and the other half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar.” Then in verse 7 he took the Book of the Covenant and read it. And again, in verse 8 we are told that he took the blood and sprinkled on the people. Moses did everything intentionally. How intentional have we lived for God? We live our life with deliberate choice and not leave it to chance. We must live our life with intentionality. Not only must we be intentional about our service to God, but like Moses, we need to do it without delay. We saw how quickly Moses responded. Discipleship and obedience to God must be an immediate thing.

Finally, we discover here that Covenant with God was a serious thing. It was sealed with blood. The blood was first sprinkled on the altar than on the people. It was the means by which the covenant was sealed. Notice what verse 8 says, “Behold the blood of the covenant, which the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.” God is seen here as the initiator. While there would always be two sides in a covenant, God has always been the initiator. This is true also in the New Covenant. The Bible makes it clear that God sent His Son and His blood was spilt for us while we were yet sinners. He died for us. The Covenantal intention is always about us living in a vibrant relationship with God. We can never live it fully without the basis of the atoning sacrifice Christ has made for us at Calvary. Worship has to do with the Word, but it has to do with a covenant relationship sealed with the precious blood of Christ. We are forever grateful to Christ and what He had done. We owe it to Him to live a glorious life for God, for without the shedding of His blood there will be no forgiveness of sin. His love knows no bounds!