Exodus 25–27

This is, I feel like the stuff we're getting into here as we get into Exodus, separates those who are maybe serious about being in the Word from those who just want to read the exciting parts. As we get into Exodus chapter 25, which is where we are, by the way, we're going to be talking, in these next few chapters about the instructions that are given to Moses for the tabernacle, and the various elements of furniture that went inside the tabernacle. And if you're the kind of person who tries to read through the Bible on a fairly regular basis, more than likely you get to passages like this, and you either decide to skip it, or you read it quickly. Or you do any other number of things when the text just doesn't seem to have a whole lot to say to you devotionally. But I think we're going to see as we go through here, that there's a lot of Jesus here in the Old Testament, particularly as it relates to the symbolism of these elements of the tabernacle and the particular furniture. So let's just pray. Father, as we get into this, this is all Your Word, Lord. And as we go through the Bible, chapter by chapter, verse by verse, this is the kind of stuff we run into. And I pray, my Father, that as we get into these things, Lord, that You would speak to our hearts and that You would speak words of insight and understanding. And that You would help us to lay hold of the meaning here, and the things beyond perhaps even the obvious. And so we ask You to lead us and guide us. And we ask it in the name of our Savior, Jesus, amen. Amen. All right, I'm going to put up here on the screen, a little bit of an outline for chapter 25, so you can see what we're dealing with in this first chapter.

Chapter 25 Outline  Contributions for the tabernacle  Instruction for building the Ark of the Covenant  Instruction for building the Table for the bread  Instruction for building the golden lampstand Moses is going to be given information from the Lord about, Contributions that the people can make for the building of the tabernacle. He will then proceed to give Instructions for building the Ark of The Covenant. For also building the Table for the bread of the Presence. And then also, we'll end this chapter with, Instructions given related to the construction of the golden lampstand. And all of these things had very specific meaning for the people of Israel and frankly, for you and me as well. As we get into this, it says in verse 1,

I want you to notice here that the Lord, well, first of all, do you remember when the people left Egypt? It says that they asked people for all kinds of things, and the people of Egypt gladly gave them whatever they asked for. And in that sense, the Israelites kind of plundered the Egyptians. And so when they left Egypt, they left with a great deal of stuff, so you can imagine there's probably lots of carts loaded with all kinds of things. And we're going to see some of the things that the Lord is going to be asking for here as a contribution for the tabernacle. But I want you to notice that He says, “From every man whose heart moves him you shall receive the contribution...” And, that's a principle that I think is so important. There are so many churches today. Oh, I hear from so many people who are attending churches where they are putting such incredible pressure on the people in the area of giving, financially giving, to the point where people are grieved by what they're hearing. And they'll write to me and say, pastor Paul, my pastor or our church says that… And what these churches are doing is they're putting demands on people. They're literally commanding. They're telling the people, you have to give. You, you've heard me say before and tell you that many years ago when I was a fairly youngish believer, I went down to Oklahoma and spent a weekend down there and went to church at a church where they took an offering early on in the service, and then came back about midway and said that wasn't enough, we're taking another one. And I was shocked at that whole kind of a procedure. But this is commonplace for a lot of believers to be in a situation where they're being told that, you are commanded by God to tithe and more. And I want you to see here that even in the Old Testament where the people are being asked to make contributions, they are still being asked to make those contributions according to what their heart moves them to give. And that's the New Testament principle. And so what people will say when they write to me is, are we commanded by the Word of God to tithe? And the answer is no, we're not. No, that's…, if you were told that, you were told something that was incorrect. Paul very clearly says in the new Testament that, each man should give according to what he is determined in his heart to give, for God loves a cheerful giver. (2 Corinthians 9:7) And it's hard to be cheerful when somebody is cracking the whip over you constantly and saying, you have to get…, you better do this. And if you don't, we're going to come back and get it from you because this is what God commands. And if you want to be in good favor with God, just putting the screw to people. It's really sad. It really is. Anyway. It goes on here in verse 3 and it says,

First of all, the first thing we note, is that He asks for contributions of all these things, which means they had them with them. They're out in the wilderness. They are literally out in the wilderness and they have all of these things: goat skins, acacia wood, spices, anointing…, onyx stones, and all these other things.

The people have this kind of stuff. And God says, I want you to do this to make these things. And I want you to notice here also, that He says in verse 8, and this is very important.

And the reason that's an important thing to remember is that's not what we have today. The tabernacle, and then later the temple, was a place where people came to offer sacrifices and they would spend time in prayer and that sort of thing. But, frankly, what we have today is we have buildings. And by the way, there's no biblical text to refer to this building as a church. This is not a church. You are the church, the people of the church. This is a building and that's it, right? And what are our buildings? What do we create our buildings for? Well, they're for people to gather, right? But that really wasn't the purpose for the tabernacle. It really wasn't a place of gathering, at least specifically not in the wilderness time. And they later came and gathered for prayer, but it wasn't meant initially to be a place of gathering. What was it? Well, God says right there,

And so this was a place for God to dwell. This was a place for them to go to approach God. Now, I think that's where, as Christians, we've adopted this idea of the church as, the house of God. Meaning the building. We've even had people come, and this was actually before we built this particular building, back when the other one was the only one we had. I remember a couple of the times when people knocked on the door who didn't even attend our fellowship and just said, can I come in and pray in your sanctuary? And we were like, okay, yeah. Because what they wanted is, they wanted to come to the house of the Lord. I've had people say to me, I want to be sure I get married in the house of the Lord. And I say, so where is that exactly? Because this is not the house of the Lord. This is the house, this is a place for God's people to gather, to worship, and pray, and get into the Word. But it's not the house of the Lord. That is a holdover from the Old Testament where God said, build me a tabernacle that I may dwell there. He does not say in anywhere in the new Testament, that He dwells in our buildings. In fact, in the new Testament, they didn't have buildings that they got together and gathered in except that they were just houses, or public places where they would gather. Many times it was just the marketplace where believers got together, and hung out, and so forth. This is not the house of the Lord. It's a place for God's people. Anyway, it's just important to see this. But what the Lord is again asking them to build is not a place for them to gather, it's a place where He might dwell among them. And so, this is important for us to see this as we move on. It says in verse 10, “They shall make an ark of acacia wood. Two cubits and a half shall be its length, a cubit and a half its breadth, and a cubit and a half its height.” And as I read through the rest of these verses, you'll see on the screen that there's a picture. This is a rendering of the Ark of the Covenant and essentially what it looked like. Now, you'll notice that He says it should be, two and a half cubits long or so. A cubit was 18 inches, roughly 18 inches long. It was considered to be the length of a typical man's forearm and that's how they measured it. And so that was called a cubit. If you do some very quick math, you'll find out that the arc of the covenant was to be about 45 inches long. It was to be 27 inches tall, and it was to be 27 inches wide. It wasn't enormous, but it was going to be beautiful. It's made out of acacia wood, but look at verse 11.

He says, “You shall overlay it with pure gold, inside and outside shall you overlay it, and you shall make on it a molding of gold around it. 12 You shall cast four rings of gold for it and put them on its four feet, two rings on the one side of it, and two rings on the other side of it. 13 You shall make poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. 14 And you shall put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark to carry the ark by them. 15 The poles shall remain in the rings of the ark; they shall not be taken from it. 16 And you shall put into the ark the testimony (by the way, that's the tablets of stone that God wrote the 10 Commandments on) that I shall give you.” And then He said,

And we're going to talk about the mercy seat more in just a moment. But then He goes on to say,

Pause there, if you would, just for a moment, for just a little bit. The Ark of the Covenant, this is central to the worship of the people of Israel, because on it, the high priest would sprinkle the blood of the sacrifice that he would bring into the Holy of Holies, and that's where the Ark of the Covenant would reside in the tabernacle. Once a year, he would go in and he would go in two times, once a year. First, he would go in and sprinkle blood on the mercy seat for his own sins. And then he would go back in and bring blood to sprinkle on the mercy seat for the sins of Israel. He would do this on the day of atonement and so this was a very important element of Israel's community worship.

Now concerning the mercy seat, we're basically talking about the lid. It's the lid of the Ark. And it's what you see there that the cherubim are mounted on. They are one piece with the lid, or the mercy seat. And that was where, the blood was sprinkled. Listen to what, or, on the screen, what the writer of Hebrews says, as he talks about these things. He says, Hebrews 9:4-5 (ESV)

…the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold…above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. So their wings, as we saw in that description, overshadowed that lid, or the top of the mercy seat. And again, it was very significant for the people of Israel because the divine presence was promised by God to rest above the mercy seat. And He would there extend mercy to the people of Israel when the blood of the sacrifice was sprinkled upon that that mercy seat. Concerning the mercy of the Lord, I want you to remember something. Mercy means, not getting what you do deserve. Okay. When God speaks of mercy, He's not talking about sins that might have happened. He's talking about sins that definitely did happen. And He's talking about showing you mercy, meaning that you're not going to receive from Him what your sins deserve. Okay. Now that's different from grace. Grace is a completely different thing. That's that is receiving what we don't deserve. Mercy is not receiving what you do deserve. You deserve punishment, but you don't get it. Why? Because God is merciful. Let me show you this from Lamentations chapter 3. It says, Lamentations 3:22-23 (ESV)

The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; (and we’re told) his mercies never come to an end;…” Have you ever worried about God's mercies coming to an end? I get notes from people all the time who are worried about God's mercies coming to an end in their life, all the time. But here it says, “his mercies never come to an end.” In fact, it says, they're “new every morning.”

And He's very faithful to do that. And great is His faithfulness related to the showing of his mercy. And then in Hebrews chapter 4:16, I love this passage too. It says, Hebrews 4:16 (ESV)

Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, (you know what grace means) that we may receive mercy (right?) and (also) find grace to help (us) in (our) time of need. But we find, or we receive mercy because we know we're sinners and we know we deserve to be punished for our sin. But we go to the throne of grace and we receive mercy. God says, I'm not going to give you what you deserve and that is His mercy. And it's a beautiful thing. Now as we move beyond the Ark of the Covenant, which, as I said earlier, is placed in the Holy of Holies, or if you will, the Most Holy Place. We're going to move into the Holy Place, and we're going to see the next pieces of furniture that are mentioned. But I want you to notice here, that as God gives direction for how things are to be made in the tabernacle, He starts at the center and He works his way outward. Okay. We're going to make all… and we'll go all the way out to the courtyard around the tabernacle. But as we go from the Holy of Holies to the Holy Place, the first piece of furniture mentioned here is the table for the bread. And it says in verse 23, “You shall make a table of acacia wood. Two cubits shall be its length, a cubit its breadth, and a cubit and a half its height.” Up on the screen you can see a rendering of what the table looked like. It was roughly 36 inches long, 18 inches deep, 27 inches tall, and it's often referred as the Table of Showbread.

We'll talk about what it means in a moment, but in verse 24, this is the instruction as to how it was to be built. “You shall overlay it with pure gold and make a molding of gold around it. 25 And you shall make a rim around it a handbreadth wide, and a molding of gold around the rim. 26 And you shall make for it four rings of gold, and fasten the rings to the four corners at its four legs. 27 Close to the frame the rings shall lie, as holders for the poles to carry the table. 28 You shall make the poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold, and the table shall be carried with these.” Remember the whole, all the furniture and all the tabernacle, this had to be moved, whenever the people of Israel moved so these things had to be portable. And so you can see that God factored that into it. And He says in verse 29, “And you shall make its plates and dishes for incense, and its flagons and bowls with which to pour drink offerings; you shall make them of pure gold. 30 And you shall set the bread of the Presence on the table before me regularly.” And so symbolically, the table for the bread of the Presence spoke of God's provision of the bread of life. Because you see, bread back in those days was a symbol of life, to have bread. And that was, it was a staple of their diet. And I don't know, maybe for you, it's a staple too. Boy, you guys who are gluten intolerant I feel bad for you. Because the Bible says, man shall not live on bread alone, but I think I could live on bread alone. What He was saying was, you shouldn't, you can't exist on simply what feeds the flesh. That's what that verse means. There's more. There's the bread of life. There's the Word of life that we have to consume in order to truly be nourished. But if it came down to like, just if I only had like one thing to eat for the rest of my life, I'd pick bread. In fact, my daughter came over the other day and baked us some homemade bread. Oh, it's wonderful. It was great. Anyway it just, she made up for all the trouble she caused as a teenager, right? Just like that, just… But anyway, so there's this symbol of God's sustaining power by simply giving the bread of the Presence. And it was to always be there, symbolizing the fact that God would always sustain. He would always take care of us. He would always provide for us, right? For the essence of life. But in a larger sense, the bread of the presence is a foreshadowing of the person of Jesus Christ. And that's what Jesus meant when He said, man cannot live or should not live on bread alone. (Matthew 4:4) There's something more that we need, and the more that we need is Him. Let me show you on the screen from John 6:51. It says, Jesus talking here.

“I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” In other words, He's telling us here, I will take upon My body your sins. And that in that sense, I will give you this ability to sustain yourself. Whereas the bread that we eat sustains us for a few hours, the bread of life sustains us for eternity, right? Because He took upon Himself our sins and so forth. Jesus is the fulfillment, the true sustenance, always present. Always with us, always sustaining us as the bread of life.

And then we come to verse 31. It says, “You shall make a lampstand of pure gold. The lampstand shall be made of hammered work: its base, its stem, its cups, its calyxes, and its flowers shall be of one piece with it.” On the screen, you can see a picture of essentially the lamp stand. And, today this is called a menorah but it would be much larger than a typical menorah that might sit upon a table. He begins to describe it, and He says, “32 And there shall be six branches going out of its sides, three branches of the lampstand out of one side of it and three branches of the lampstand out of the other side of it; 33 three cups made like almond blossoms, each with calyx and flower, on one branch, and three cups made like almond blossoms, (take note of that) each with calyx and flower, on the other branch—so for the six branches going out of the lampstand. 34 And on the lampstand itself there shall be four cups made like almond blossoms, with their calyxes and flowers, 35 and a calyx of one piece with it under each pair of the six branches going out from the lampstand. 36 Their calyxes and their branches shall be of one piece with it, the whole of it a single piece of hammered work of pure gold. 37 You shall make seven lamps for it. And the lamps shall be set up so as to give light on the space in front of it. 38 Its tongs and their trays shall be of pure gold. (that’s how they feed the oil that the lamp burns it with) 39 It shall be made, with all these utensils, out of a talent of pure gold. 40 And see that you make them after the pattern for them, which is being shown you on the mountain.” Not only did Moses get a description here, he was shown these things. How, we don't really know. But the lamp stand, this is another piece of the furniture in the tabernacle. And again, it's a very beautiful symbol, which of course is very simple in that it gives light and it is the symbol of the presence of God among His people. And light is always mentioned in the Bible as crucial to helping us make our way through life. If you're walking in the dark, you're going to stumble. You might even hurt yourself. You might even fall into a pit. And so the picture is given throughout the course of scripture of walking according to the light and not stumbling. John referred to Jesus this way, John chapter 1, verse 9 up on the screen. He said,

That's what he referred to Jesus as the true light. He is the true light, so we have these pictures of light in the Old Testament. And then we have Jesus who comes along and who is the true light. And Jesus, of course, said this Himself. Look on this passage from John chapter 8. Jesus said,

What is He talking about? He's talking about the wisdom to be able to walk in this world, and to avoid the pitfalls, and the difficulties, and the challenges that come with not having a sense of understanding of the morality that God outlines in His Word.

When we walk according to the darkness of the world, we stumble into all kinds of difficulties, and heartaches, and challenges. And many of you in this room could stand up if you had the opportunity, and you could give testimony of how many pitfalls you actually fell into over the course of your life until you began to walk in the light that Jesus gives you. He is the fulfillment of the light. Chapter 26. “Moreover, you shall make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twined linen and blue and purple and scarlet yarns; you shall make them with cherubim skillfully worked into them.” And before we move on, let me just prepare you for something so that it doesn't confuse you. He's talking here about the tabernacle, but you need to understand some terminology. Before the tabernacle was actually built, Moses put up a tent that he would use to go in and speak to God. And it was called, the Tent of Meeting. And that existed as simply a place for Moses to meet with the Lord, and he would do that. Now, after the tabernacle was built, the title or the name, Tent of Meeting, got transferred to the tabernacle. You need to understand that after the tabernacle is built, they will refer to the Tent of Meeting, but it's going to talk about the tabernacle. They will use those terms interchangeably. All right. It's important that you understand that so you don't kind of get confused. On the screen, here's a recreation of the tabernacle and what it most likely looked like. Again, I want to remind you, this is something that had to be put up and taken down at a moment's notice. And packed up, and carried the next distance to where they camped and then put back up again.

And that was, of course, all done by the Levites, which we haven't even heard about really yet as far as their duties, but we will get into that. But you can see that for a group of people who are moving through the wilderness, portability was very, very, important. Verse 2. We're going to get into a lot of details here.

bases of silver, two bases under one frame, and two bases under the next frame.” I hope you guys are paying attention, there will be a test. “22 And for the rear of the tabernacle westward you shall make six frames. 23 And you shall make two frames for corners of the tabernacle in the rear; 24 they shall be separate beneath, but joined at the top, at the first ring. Thus shall it be with both of them; they shall form the two corners. 25 And there shall be eight frames, with their bases of silver, sixteen bases; two bases under one frame, and two bases under another frame.” 26 “You shall make bars of acacia wood, five for the frames of the one side of the tabernacle, 27 and five bars for the frames of the other side of the tabernacle, and five bars for the frames of the side of the tabernacle at the rear westward. 28 The middle bar, halfway up the frames, shall run from end to end. 29 You shall overlay the frames with gold and shall make their rings of gold for holders for the bars, and you shall overlay the bars with gold. 30 Then you shall erect the tabernacle according to the plan for it that you were shown on the mountain.” There you go, now go get to work. Wow! “31 “And you shall make a veil of blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen. It shall be made with cherubim skillfully worked into it. 32 And you shall hang it on four pillars of acacia overlaid with gold, with hooks of gold, on four bases of silver. 33 And you shall hang the veil from the clasps, and bring the ark of the testimony in there within the veil. (I want you to notice that, within the veil) And the veil (very important) shall separate for you the Holy Place from the Most Holy.” All right. There was a veil, a thick veil, and what was that veil there for? Well, it was to veil the presence of God. It was to communicate that you don't go past the veil. You don't go there. Remember, the Old Testament is all about stay away, right? Keep your distance. There were people later on in David's day who callously looked, even touched the ark of the covenant, and dropped dead on the spot. God said, stay away, so He put this, had them put this veil separating the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place. Again, that constant reminder that God is off limits. God is off limits to all but the high priest. Only the high priest goes in there and he only goes in there once a year. Okay.

You guys know that when they built the temple, which of course was made in similar fashion to the tabernacle, they built the same rooms, the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place. And they put a veil between the 2 rooms. And once again, only the high priest would go into the most holy place once a year, and that veil was this constant reminder. You can't go in, stay away, stay out. What happened on the day that Jesus gave His life on the cross? Let me show you this from Matthew 27.

…Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. What happened on the day of the crucifixion? The veil in the temple was torn from top to bottom, thus exposing the Holy of Holies. And the message is very clear. In the Old Testament, it's stay away, stay out. In the New Testament, it's come on in. Through the blood of Jesus Christ, we have this total invitation to come to God anytime we want. It's no longer stay away. It's come to mem, all you who are weary, come and receive mercy. Come to the throne of grace whenever you want. It's a very different sort of a covenant arrangement, is it not? And I'm glad that we live under the one that we do. Moving on, verse 34 in your Bible, it says, “You shall put the mercy seat on the ark of the testimony in the Most Holy Place. (again, that’s the lid with the cherubim on top) 35 And you shall set the table outside the veil, and the lampstand on the south side of the tabernacle opposite the table, and you shall put the table on the north side. 36 “You shall make a screen for the entrance of the tent, of blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen, embroidered with needlework. 37 And you shall make for the screen five pillars of acacia, and overlay them with gold. Their hooks shall be of gold, and you shall cast five bases of bronze for them.”

Chapter 27. This includes instructions for building the altar. You'll notice it begins in verse 1 by saying,

You'll see it on the screen there. That's a rendering of what the altar looked like and of course this is where the sacrifices were made, right? And in case you didn't figure out the cubit references, this is basically seven and a half feet square, right? And it's about four and a half feet tall. And by the way, it's often referred to as the brazen altar. Okay. Verse 2,

Let me put on the screen a diagram of the layout of the tabernacle in the courtyard. We haven't talked about the courtyard. We're going to here in a couple of seconds, but as you're looking at this, and I apologize for the type being pretty small. There across the top, you see, and this is a bird's eye view of things, on the left there, you've got the Holy of Holies, that small section taking up about one third essentially of the tabernacle. And then you've got the Holy Place taking up two thirds. And in the Holy Place, is the Altar of Incense, the Golden Lamp Stand, and the Table of Showbread, and the veil separating the Holy of Holies from the Holy Place. That’s it's, pretty simple layout. You've got the Ark of the Covenant there in the Holy Of Holies and basically the 3 pieces of furniture in the Holy Place. And then in the outer courtyard on the far right, you see the Altar of Burnt Offering or the Brazen Altar. And then there is the laver for washing, which we haven't gotten to yet in terms of the instructions, but that was simply where they would wash, where the priests would wash. All right. Now let's deal with the courtyard. Verse 9 says, “You shall make the court of the tabernacle. On the south side the court shall have hangings of fine twined linen a hundred cubits long for one side. 10 Its twenty pillars and their twenty bases shall be of bronze, but the hooks of the pillars and their fillets shall be of silver. 11 And likewise for its length on the north side there shall be hangings a hundred cubits long, its pillars twenty and their bases twenty, of bronze, but the hooks of the pillars and their fillets shall be of silver. 12 And for the breadth of the court on the west side there shall be hangings for fifty cubits, with ten pillars and ten bases. 13 The breadth of the court on the front to the east shall be fifty cubits. 14 The hangings for the one side of the gate shall be fifteen cubits, with their three pillars and three bases. 15 On the other side the hangings shall be fifteen cubits, with their three pillars and three bases. 16 For the gate of the court there shall be a screen twenty cubits long, of blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen, embroidered with needlework. It shall have four pillars and with them four bases. 17 All the pillars around the court shall be filleted with silver. Their hooks shall be of silver, and their bases of bronze. 18 The length of the court shall be a hundred cubits, the breadth fifty, and the height five cubits, with hangings of fine twined linen and bases of bronze.” The whole courtyard is going to be 150 feet long, 75 feet wide, and the curtain walls will be 7 and 1/2 feet wide. And then it says in verse 19, “All the utensils of the tabernacle for every use, and all its pegs and all the pegs of the court, shall be of bronze.” And finally, Moses has given some instructions for the oil that is burned in the lamp stead. He says, 20 “You shall command the people of Israel that they bring to you pure beaten olive oil for the light, that a lamp may regularly be set up to burn.” The lamps burned on olive oil. Isn't that cool? Olives are pretty cool. I don't particularly like I've never liked an olive just isn't real exciting to me, but boy, what comes from is really a pretty amazing, I mean, you can burn the oil, you can make butter out of olive oil. I actually use olive oil butter at home. I keep telling Sue it's God's oil, God's butter. But anyways, it's just an amazing fruit. Is it a fruit? Is an olive a fruit? Does anybody know? Nobody knows. That's okay. Don't worry about it. It's a thing. Anyway, they're going to be doing this. Verse 21, “In the tent of meeting, outside the veil that is before the testimony, Aaron and his sons shall tend it from evening to morning before the Lord. It shall be a statute forever to be observed throughout their generations by the people of Israel.” In other words, the light was never to go out. And God wanted to make sure of that.

And you'll notice that He mentions Aaron and his sons here, thus anticipating the priesthood, which we're going to cover in the next chapter, but not tonight, we're going to stop right there. A lot of interesting instructions, but in an amidst all of this, we see the fulfillment in the person of Jesus Christ, who is the final and perfect sacrifice for our sins. Let's pray. Father, we thank You so much for giving us time tonight to be in the Word, to open our hearts to all that it has to say to us. And Lord, even in passages that are like this that involve a lot of just instruction and frankly not a whole lot of devotional content. We know Lord that as we open ourselves to the Word of God on a regular basis, our learning, our, and the instruction that comes from it, has a cumulative effect in our hearts and lives. And there is a bonus even when we can't immediately be aware of it. And so Father, we thank You. We thank You for providing this Word for us and preserving it these many years that we can know and understand these things. And we thank You Father, most of all, that they all point to Jesus, the perfect fulfillment of everything You showed Israel. And I thank You, Father God, that today the veil has been rend. And the way into the very presence of God is open to all of us through the blood of Jesus Christ and the forgiveness that is ours through Him. We thank You. We praise You. We worship You in Jesus precious name, and all God's people said, amen.