Exodus 34:10–Exodus 36

I'm going to have you start off with me in 1 Corinthians. We're in Exodus of course here on Wednesday night, but I want you to turn in your Bible to 1 Corinthians for just a moment, chapter 10, if you would please. 1 Corinthians chapter 10. I had a guy write to me a couple of weeks ago, I think it was, and ask what I thought was a very good question. He simply said, what's the benefit of studying the Old Testament? Which is, what we do here on Wednesday nights. And I wrote him a fairly lengthy note and shared several reasons why I believe it is beneficial to study through the Old Testament. But frankly, if I had only given him this following verse in 1 Corinthians, this probably would've been enough. It's 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 11. Skip down to verse 11. The ESV says, and this is related, this is speaking of the Old Testament, okay? It says, “Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.” The events that we read about, that we study about, and we learn about in the Old Testament, are given to us as an example and for instruction. And so that's the reason that we do it. The Old Testament, I will grant you, probably does not have the same amount of devotional content as the New Testament. And I think that's one of the reasons why people tend to spend less time maybe in the Old Testament. In fact, tonight, as we get in deeper and almost getting close to being done here with Exodus, we're going to start going through some of the gathering of the supplies and that sort of thing for the building of the tabernacle. And they're going to go into all kinds of detail that probably aren't going to include verses that you would pin up on your fridge and say, this is going to be my memory verse for the week. Or something that you'd necessarily hang on to when you're going through a hard time. However, these things are written down for us as examples and there is a benefit from learning these things. And let me just say as an aside, and I don't want to make a big deal of this, but I know some Christians who live off devotionals. And I don't have a problem with devotionals. If you use a devotional in the morning, or evening, or something like that, that's great. There's nothing wrong with a devotional as long as you're getting into the Word in a general sense and going through the scripture, chapter by chapter, and verse by verse. I really believe that's the way we really grow. Devotionals are great, but they tend to create in us an appetite for only devotional content. In other words, something that, we can go away and just, whoa, sort of a thing. And when you study through the Bible, that's not the whole process. That's not our experience of studying through the Scripture from Genesis to Revelation. There's plenty of things that aren't what we would consider to be devotional. You're not going to find it in a devotional book, but it is the Word of God and it is part of what God has prepared and preserved for us these many years. And I do think that it's beneficial. End of rant. All right, we're in Exodus chapter 34. You'll remember, those of you who are here and caught up on what we did last week, we covered the first 9 verses of Exodus 34 as part of our study in the previous chapter, because it all was part of the same study, and so we're going to be picking it up here in verse 10 of chapter 34, so pray with me. Father God, it is with humility and desire that we approach the throne of grace that You might fill us with insight and understanding from the study of Your Word. And Father we pray that You would use what we study tonight here in Exodus, to really challenge our hearts to go deeper, to learn more, and to understand why these things in the Old Testament were given to us, and written down for us as an example, and for instruction. Use this we pray tonight in the name of Jesus our Savior, amen. Amen. All right. Chapter 34, beginning at verse 10, it says, “And he said, (and this is obviously the Lord speaking to Moses now) “Behold, I am making a covenant.” (ESV)

And right away I want to get you to stop there with me for just a moment because this is an important statement and it's important that we take a moment to look at it. God is declaring to Moses that He is making a covenant, a covenant with Israel. A covenant with Israel. And I want to talk to you just a little bit about a covenant and what is a covenant, because there are, I think there are some people who would begin to explain a covenant as a contract between two people, two or more parties. And I think that there are probably some similarities between a covenant and a contract, but there are also some significant differences. Because a contract tends to typically involve profit and self-interest. For example, if I asked you to come over to my house and help do some landscaping in my yard, maybe I needed some work done on my sprinkler system. Sue’s laughing at me because I need some help on my sprinkler system. But that is, don't worry, we'll talk about that later. Anyway, it just came to mind. And if I hired you, and we made a contract, I would say, I will pay you so much money, and you will help me with this, and that would be the profit part of it. And then the interest part is that I get my sprinkler system fixed so that it's working properly. That usually is what is involved in a contract between one or more parties, usually two parties. But a covenant is different and that's what God is saying to Israel. “Behold, I am making a covenant.” What is that difference? A covenant tends to involve loyalty and sacrifice, and that is why we refer to marriage as a covenant, not a contract. Right? I don't have a contract with my wife. I have a covenant with her, whereby we have made promises one to another to love, honor, and cherish one another, no matter what comes along in life. And we intend to do that, or at least have intended to do that sacrificially. And that's what makes it a covenant. That's what God is saying here. I'm making a covenant, but there's something else we know about this covenant. We know that this was not intended to be a lasting covenant. God did not establish this covenant with Israel as a lasting covenant and we know that from the scripture. Let me put up on the screen for you. You can see from Exodus 34:10. Here's the verse we just read. "Behold, I am making a covenant." (Exodus 34:10)

But as you get deeper into the Old Testament, you eventually run into Jeremiah where it says this. "Behold, I am making a covenant." (Exodus 34:10)

Now that was spoken many years later and what God goes on to say in that passage in Jeremiah, is that it's not going to be like the previous covenant, and He even tells them which previous covenant. It was the one that I made with you when I took you by the hand and led you out of Egypt, so we know that He's talking about the Mosaic covenant. That's the old one. What's the new one? Well, we know that too. That's the one Jesus inaugurated and brought to us through His death, burial, and resurrection for us. Again, we know that the covenant that God is making here with Israel is not a permanent covenant. Now, here's what's interesting. The writer of Hebrews quotes Jeremiah and says this about the covenants. He says, Hebrews 8:13 (ESV) In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

Completely. It's already obsolete because the new covenant that came in its place is a much better covenant. And we're actually going to see that here in just a little bit. But, let's keep reading. We're in the middle of verse 10. It says, this is where the Lord goes on to speak of the things He's going to do in this covenant. But He says, “Before all your people I will do marvels, (in fact, He already has) such as have not been created in all the earth or in any nation. And all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the LORD, for it is an awesome thing that I will do with you.” And then He's going to give us some understanding of the terms of the covenant as it relates to Israel's part. Verse 11. Here are the terms for Israel. “Observe what I command you this day.” There it is. That's laid out. You can tell what this covenant is about, can't you? You understand that it's a temporary covenant, but you understand it's also predicated upon obedience from the nation of Israel. God said, I'm going to do some incredible things. I'm going to do absolutely miraculous things, but you guys have to obey. Okay. I promise to do these things, but you've got to obey. Remember, and this is with Israel and its temporary. All right. And then God outlines again, what He's going to do in return for their obedience. Look what He says here as we continue on in verse 11, “Behold, I will drive out before you the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.” In other words, what He's saying there is. For your obedience, you get the land. I'm going to bring you into the land that I promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, right? And that's what I…, and I'm going to, and as I give you that land, I'm also going to oust the nations that are currently living in the land. But now the Lord sounds a warning and this is an important warning to the people of Israel. He says, “12 Take care, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land to which you go, lest it become a snare in your midst.” Now, what did God say He's doing with Israel? He says, I'm making a covenant, didn't He? But what's the warning given to the people? Don't make a covenant with them. You've already made a covenant with Me. You are today making a covenant with Me. That covenant is predicated upon obedience. I promise to do these things. I'll bring you into the land. Here's the warning. Don't make a covenant with them. Why? It'll be a snare to you. In other words, a trap. Right. There this is one of those passages where this is an example to you and me.

We have a covenant with God through Jesus Christ and His death on the cross. But making a covenant with the world is just as much of a snare to you and me, as it was for the people of Israel, making a covenant with the pagan nations around them. Verse 13. Here's what you're supposed to do to the religions of the world. “You shall tear down their altars and break their pillars and cut down their Asherim 14 (for you shall worship no other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God),” Some people really get messed up when they read verses like this to talk about God is a jealous God. And they'll say, I thought jealousy was a bad thing. It's a bad thing for you. The reason it's a bad thing for you is because you have a sinful nature. And so jealousy for you becomes a very self-centered sort of an emotional response when somebody has something that you want. Or is something that you want to be. But God doesn't have any sin. There's no darkness in Him at all. And so when God feels jealousy, it's pure and perfect, and it has absolutely no selfish intent. In fact, God's jealousy is for your benefit. He's jealous for you, not jealous for Himself. That's the important distinction about it. God says, “I'm a jealous God.” He says in verse 15, “lest you make a (here it is again) covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and when they whore (and we're going to talk about that word in just a moment) after their gods and sacrifice to their gods and you are invited, you eat of his sacrifice, 16 and you take of their daughters for your sons, and their daughters whore after their gods and make your sons whore after their gods.” So what's the strong message here in this passage? Don't be involved in the things that the world worships, instead, tear them down, right? When you go into the land, get rid of the things that the world worships. Now, you can apply this just as much to today as the Israelites could back then. You could say, what does the world worship today? We're not to make a covenant with the world. We're not to worship their gods. And believe me, they have many gods in the world even yet today that they worship. And they are gods of pleasure, and gods of wealth, money, and all these other things. And He says, don't do that lest you make a covenant with the people of the land. And then He uses this very strong language. He says, “and when they (begin to) whore after their gods.” And you're drawn into that whole process and you start giving your kids to them in marriage. And then when their kids who are part of the world whore after all the gods of this world, your kids are drawn in to that same thing. I looked up that Hebrew word that is translated here in the ESV as, whore. And it literally means in the Hebrew simply, adultery. But the word is being used here like many words are used, in a figurative sense. And what that means is, you can't necessarily go to a dictionary and find the exact usage from this passage because some words are used figuratively, not literally. The literal definition is adultery, but it's being used here as a verb to mean, to commit fornication. And fornication is simply a word that means sex outside of marriage, outside of the confines of marriage, right? Now, God is obviously using these words to describe spiritual fornication, spiritual unfaithfulness, not physical unfaithfulness. A lot of times, pagan worship involved physical sorts of sexual practices and behaviors, but in this case, God is speaking in a figurative spiritual sort of a way to warn them against their covenant unfaithfulness to the Lord. And then He gets into some specifics, verse 17. “You shall not make for yourself any gods of cast metal.” Then He's going to start talking about the various feasts that He's going to require them to keep on an annual basis. First of all, He says “18 “You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month Abib, for in the month Abib you came out from Egypt.”” This is a commemoration of their being released from their bondage. Now, remember something about the Feast of Unleavened Bread? It went hand in hand with Passover. And so many times the Bible refers to Passover and many other times it refers to the Feast of Unleavened Bread. It's talking about the same feast because they really were literally back to back. You had Passover followed by the Feast of Unleavened Bread on the starting on the very next day so the terms are used interchangeably, all right? So that's one feast that they were to keep every year. Verse 19, He goes on to say, “All that open the womb are mine, all your male livestock, the firstborn of cow and sheep.” Now, remember what happened on Passover? God spared the firstborn Israelite males, right? Even their animals when they applied the blood of the lamb over their doorposts. And so they sheltered that night under the blood of the slain lamb and they were saved. All the firstborn males were saved. God said from now on, all the firstborn males are mine and they have to be redeemed back. Okay. That's what He's, so He's reminding them of something that was part and parcel of the feast of Passover. And so He says, you have to redeem those firstborn. All right. Something else He's going to remind them of. Verse 21, “Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest. In plowing time and in harvest you shall rest.” Boy, any farmer knows that's a tough one to do because when you want to get your crop in the ground, you've only got so many days to do it. When you need to bring your crop out of the field, you've only got so many days to do it. And yet God said, even during those times when you feel compelled to get back into the field and get that work done, you still must rest. Verse 22. Another feast, He says, “You shall observe the Feast of Weeks, (which is) the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering (then) at the year's end.” He has now reminded them about three feasts: Passover, Feast of Weeks, and Feast of Ingathering. And these were the three, they weren't the only feasts, but they were the three that God required the Jewish males particularly, to keep and attend. He says, verse 23, “Three times in the year shall all your males appear before the LORD God, the God of Israel.” That's during those three feasts. “24 For I will cast out nations before you and enlarge your borders; (look at this) no one shall covet your land, when you go up to appear before the LORD your God three times in the year.” He's anticipating some of their objections. So we got to travel all the way to wherever you decide we need to travel, and of course we know that ultimately was Jerusalem. And He's anticipating the fact that these farmers are going to say, wait a minute. If all the men are required to travel from wherever they are for these three feasts every year, aren't we leaving our fields and our families vulnerable? Aren't we just making it easy for marauders to just come waltzing into our territory, and going through our fields, and taking what they want, or stealing from our homes, or whatever?

Notice God's promise here. He says, listen, I'm going to make it so that you can do this. No one is going to covet your land when you guys go up to do this. In other words, you guys walk in obedience. I'll take care of you. Do you guys know that's a principle that is still just as much applicable today from the standpoint, if you decide, if you determine in your heart and mind, you're going to be obedient to the Lord, God's going to make a way for you to be obedient. It's a beautiful thing. Verse 25. “You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with anything leavened, or let the sacrifice of the Feast of the Passover remain until the morning. 26 The best of the firstfruits of your ground you shall bring to the house of the LORD your God. You shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk.” These are all just reminders. These are things the Lord had previously told them. He's giving them now by way of reminder, because this is a reiteration of the covenant and a reestablishment of it now after they've had that terrible fall, during Moses's first 40 days on the mountaintop where they began to worship a golden calf, so it's time to reiterate the terms of the covenant. All right. Verse 27, “And the LORD said to Moses, “Write these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.” 28 So he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights. He neither ate bread nor drank water.” And by the way, that's the second time this happened, that Moses was 40 days with the Lord on the mountaintop. Obviously sustained by the Lord for 40 days because you can't go that long without food. Well, I would just say, don't try that at home. That's just, that's one of those things. And it says here at the end of verse 28, “And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments. 29 When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand as he came down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God.” He literally was glowing, right? “30 Aaron and all the people of Israel saw Moses, and behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him. 31 But Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation returned to him, and Moses talked with them. 32 Afterward all the people of Israel came near, and he commanded them all that the LORD had spoken with him in Mount Sinai. 33 And when Moses had finished speaking with them, (this is interesting) he put a veil over his face.” Now you're not told why here. You're just told “he put a veil over his face.” And it says, “34 Whenever Moses went in before the LORD to speak with him, he would remove the veil, until he came out. And when he came out and told the people of Israel what he was commanded, 35 the people of Israel would see the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses' face was shining. And Moses would put the veil over his face again, until he went in to speak with him.” We have this odd sort of a passage here where we're told that, Moses literally took on this effervescent glow from his time spent in the presence of the Lord, where his face literally shown to the point where people were initially afraid to even come near him. What's interesting about this is that the apostle Paul writes about this and uses it as an example to describe what we started talking about at the beginning of this, and that is the difference between the covenants. The old covenant, the one we call the old covenant, the one God is making with Israel right now, and the new covenant, which is the one we have through Jesus Christ. Let me show you what Paul says. This is very interesting, on the screen. He says,

Now stay there for just a moment. Did you see the two references that Paul makes to the old covenant? He says, first of all, he calls it, “the ministry of death.” He's talking about the old covenant, you guys. He calls it “the ministry of death.” And then what does he call it at the end of that? “The ministry of condemnation.” Isn’t that something? We're talking about the law. The Law of Moses is the “ministry of death” and “the ministry of condemnation.” Why is Paul saying that? Can you understand why Paul got in trouble with Jews the way he talked about the law? But elsewhere, he says, that's what the law does to us. It kills us. It condemns us. It condemns you to death. The law says, this is the righteous standard of God, you can't keep it. You're condemned and you're going to die. Hey, great. Wonderful. Good news, huh? That's what the law does you guys. Remember that. Remember that about the law. When somebody starts squawking in your ear about how you need to be a little more careful to keep the elements of the law. Did you know that we're supposed to still keep the Sabbath? They're going to say to you. Do you know that we're still supposed to keep the food laws? Do you know that we Christians should be keeping the Jewish feasts? Did you know that? And people are going to say that to you. I'm telling you right now, if they haven't, they will. And they're going to tell you all kinds of things you have to do. I want you to remember something. What they're telling you have to do is “the ministry of death” and “the ministry of condemnation” according to the apostle Paul. I want you to go on and see what he goes on to say. He says, 2 Corinthians 3:7-13 (ESV)

Indeed, in this case, what once had glory (now he's talking about Moses and his face glowing) has come to have no glory at all, because of the glory that surpasses it. (now he's talking about the new covenant) For if what was being brought to an end came with glory, much more will what is permanent have glory. (he says,) Since we have such a hope, we are very bold, not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end.

In other words, Moses didn't want them to see the fading glory because the old covenant is a fading glory. The old covenant is a fading glory and it is surpassed greatly by the new covenant and the glory that the new covenant has. So be very careful when somebody starts to throw the law or the ministry of condemnation on you saying you need to keep it. You tell, Oh no, no, no. I'm not going back to the ministry of condemnation. I've already embraced the ministry of glory and life through Jesus Christ, the permanent covenant of life. I've already taken, I signed my name on the covenant of life. I'm not going back to the covenant of death, no way. No way, no how. All right. Chapter 35, as we get into chapter 35, the building of the tabernacle is going to become front and center. But before they begin, Moses is going to remind them again about resting because he's going to talk to them here about building the tabernacle. And they're going to get all excited about it and they're probably going to want to work seven days a week. And so “Moses assembled all the congregation of the people of Israel and said to them, “These are the things that the LORD has commanded you to do. 2 Six days work shall be done, but on the seventh day you shall have a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on it shall be put to death.” Wowzers! Capital punishment for not resting, how you like that? “3 You shall (even he says) kindle no fire in all your dwelling places on the Sabbath day.” The Sabbath and keeping the Sabbath was a very serious matter. Well, you know what? Resting in God is still a serious matter, because you see the Sabbath was fulfilled in the rest that we enter into by putting our faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. We're resting in the finished work of Jesus. We're not working for our salvation. We're resting in what He did. And that's one of the reasons why He said, if you don't rest, you die, because you know what? In the New Testament, if you don't rest, you die. If you're not resting in Jesus, same thing. So you can see what God was communicating. All right. Now, next, Moses is going to begin to speak to them about the contributions that are needed for the building of the tabernacle. “4 Moses said to all the congregation of the people of Israel, “This is the thing that the LORD has commanded. 5 Take from among you a contribution to the LORD. Whoever is of a generous heart, let him bring the LORD's contribution: gold, silver, and bronze; 6 blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen; goats' hair, 7 tanned rams' skins, and goatskins; acacia wood, 8 oil for the light, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense, 9 and onyx stones and stones for setting, for the ephod and for the breastpiece.”” And so forth. And he tells them what's needed. And then he begins to talk to them about the workers that are going to be needed. He says, “10 “Let every skillful craftsman among you come and make all that the LORD has commanded: 11 the tabernacle, its tent and its covering, its hooks and its frames, its bars, its pillars, and its bases; 12 the ark with its poles, the mercy seat, and the veil of the screen; (that’s the veil that is between the Holy of Holies and the Holy Place) 13 the table with its poles and all its utensils, and the bread of the Presence; 14 the lampstand also for the light, with its utensils and its lamps, and the oil for the light; 15 and the altar of incense, with its poles, and the anointing oil and the fragrant incense, and the screen for the door, at the door of the tabernacle; 16 the altar of burnt offering, with its grating of bronze, its poles, and all its utensils, the basin and its stand; 17 the hangings of the court, its pillars and its bases, and the screen for the gate of the court; 18 the pegs of the tabernacle and the pegs of the court, and their cords; 19 the finely worked garments for ministering in the Holy Place, the holy garments for Aaron the priest, and the garments of his sons, for their service as priests.”” And then it says, “20 Then all the congregation of the people of Israel departed (in other words, they scattered) from the presence of Moses. 21 And they came, everyone whose heart stirred him, and everyone whose spirit moved him, and brought the LORD's contribution to be used for the tent of meeting, and for all its service, and for the holy garments. 22 So they came, both men and women. All who were of a willing heart brought brooches and earrings and signet rings and armlets, all sorts of gold objects, every man dedicating an offering of gold to the LORD. 23 And every one who possessed blue or purple or scarlet yarns or fine linen or goats' hair or tanned rams' skins or goatskins brought them. 24 Everyone who could make a contribution of silver or bronze brought it as the LORD's contribution. And every one who possessed acacia wood of any use in the work brought it.” You ever wonder, these people are camping. Where do you keep all this stuff? They're camping. They're camping in the wilderness. Oh yeah, honey, let's grab that acacia wood that we've got packed there in the back of the tent. Let's bring it over here for Moses and then the thing. It's not, I can't believe it. It's just crazy. Anyway.

Verse 25. “And every skillful woman spun with her hands, and they all brought what they had spun in blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen. 26 All the women whose hearts stirred them to use their skill spun the goats' hair. 27 And the leaders brought onyx stones and stones to be set, for the ephod and for the breastpiece, 28 and spices and oil for the light, and for the anointing oil, and for the fragrant incense. 29 All the men and women, the people of Israel, whose heart moved them to bring anything for the work that the LORD had commanded by Moses to be done brought it as a freewill offering to the LORD.” I want you to take note of that. They “brought it as a freewill offering.” All right. Now you're going to notice that God gave some special giftings to some individuals to do the craftsmanship that's going to be required. It says, “30 Then Moses said to the people of Israel, “See, the LORD has called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah; 31 and he has filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, with intelligence, with knowledge, and with all craftsmanship, 32 to devise artistic designs, to work in gold and silver and bronze, 33 in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, for work in every skilled craft.” Look at this. And not only that, but He's “34 And he has inspired him to teach, both him and Oholiab the son of Ahisamach of the tribe of Dan. 35 He has filled them with skill to do every sort of work done by an engraver or by a designer or by an embroiderer in blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen, or by a weaver—by any sort of workman or skilled designer.” And so you can see that God gives gifts to men and women to be able to do the work that is required here. I want you to notice something. It says in verse 31 that “he (God) has filled him with the Spirit of God,…” Did you notice that? That's used in the New Testament or excuse me in the Old Testament in other places as well. It says, God has filled them with the Holy Spirit and yet we're not talking here about the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The term filled with the Holy Spirit, refers to the empowering of the Holy Spirit not the indwelling. Remember, nobody in the Old Testament was indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Nobody. Because the Holy Spirit wasn't free to indwell vessels at that time, because the vessels had not yet been cleansed by the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. The Spirit could come upon the which is the filling of the Spirit for the purpose of empowering. But the spirit would be lifted then. The Spirit would come and go according to their need. So remember, it is a different scenario than in the New Testament. Although in the New Testament, we are still filled with the Holy spirit. And it's for the same purpose as in the old Testament to empower for service. But we have something they never ever experienced, and that was the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, when the Spirit literally, we become the temple. That's why Paul says, do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit? (1 Corinthians 6:19) God never said that to people in the Old Testament, because there was a temple. There was a physical temple in Jerusalem, that was the temple. In the New Testament, you are the temple, different situation. All right. Chapter 36. Now we're going to see the contributions continue to come in, and then work begins on these various pieces. “Bezalel and Oholiab and every craftsman in whom the LORD has put skill and intelligence to know how to do any work in the construction of the sanctuary shall work in accordance with all that the LORD has commanded.” That probably should have been part of the previous chapter. “2 And Moses called Bezalel and Oholiab and every craftsman in whose mind the LORD had put skill, everyone whose heart stirred him up to come to do the work. 3 And they received from Moses all the contribution that the people of Israel had brought for doing the work on the sanctuary. (the sanctuary is another word for the tabernacle) They still kept bringing him freewill offerings every morning, 4 so that all the craftsmen who were doing every sort of task on the sanctuary came, each from the task that he was doing, 5 and said to Moses, “The people bring much more than enough for doing the work that the LORD has commanded us to do.” 6 So Moses gave command, and word was proclaimed throughout the camp, “Let no man or woman do anything more for the contribution for the sanctuary.” So the people were restrained from bringing, 7 for the material they had was sufficient to do all the work, and more. Isn't that something? I just have to tell you, I like that. The people have been moved by the Lord and so what do you have? You have an abundance. In fact, you have an overabundance. I like that. Verse 8, “And all the craftsmen among the workmen made the tabernacle (and what it's referring to there is the curtains specifically, and that's why it says,) with ten curtains.” And because we're reading now about the building of the pieces of the tabernacle, we're going to show you a picture once again of the tabernacle on the screen while we're reading the rest of this chapter. Because once again, this isn't the most devotional content you're ever going to read in your Bible, so we're just going to follow along here. It says, “They were made of fine twined linen and blue and purple and scarlet yarns, (that’s the fabric, curtains and it says,) with cherubim skillfully worked. 9 The length of each curtain was twenty-eight cubits,…” And I’ll just remind you that a cubit is about 18 inches. It was roughly the length of a man’s forearm. That’s how they measured things so you can do the math yourself. “…and the breadth of each curtain four cubits. All the curtains were the same size. 10 He coupled five curtains to one another, and the other five curtains he coupled to one another. 11 He made loops of blue on the edge of the outermost curtain of the first set. Likewise he made them on the edge of the outermost curtain of the second set. 12 He made fifty loops on the one curtain, and he made fifty loops on the edge of the curtain that was in the second set. The loops were opposite one another. 13 And he made fifty clasps of gold, and coupled the curtains one to the other with clasps. So the tabernacle was a single whole. 14 He also made curtains of goats' hair for a tent over the tabernacle. (you have a tent that now is over the top, we might call it a rainfly for your tent, but) He made eleven curtains. 15 The length of each curtain was thirty cubits, and the breadth of each curtain four cubits. The eleven curtains were the same size. 16 He coupled five curtains by themselves, and six curtains by themselves. 17 And he made fifty loops on the edge of the outermost curtain of the one set, and fifty loops on the edge of the other connecting curtain. 18 And he made fifty clasps of bronze to couple the tent together that it might be a single whole. 19 And he made for the tent a covering of tanned rams' skins and goatskins.” Now you have another covering over the tent. And “20 Then he made the upright frames for the tabernacle of acacia wood. 21 Ten cubits was the length of a frame, and a cubit and a half the breadth of each frame. 22 Each frame had two tenons for fitting together. He did this for all the frames of the tabernacle. 3 The frames for the tabernacle he made thus: twenty frames for the south side. 24 And he made forty bases of silver under the twenty frames, two bases under one frame for its two tenons, and two bases under the next frame for its two tenons. 25 For the second side of the tabernacle, on the north side, he made twenty frames 26 and their forty bases of silver, two bases under one frame and two bases under the next frame. 27 For the rear of the tabernacle westward he made six frames. 28 He made two frames for corners of the tabernacle in the rear. 29 And they were separate beneath but joined at the top, at the first ring. He made two of them this way for the two corners. 30 There were eight frames with their bases of silver: sixteen bases, under every frame two bases. 31 He made bars of acacia wood, five for the frames of the one side of the tabernacle, 32 and five bars for the frames of the other side of the tabernacle, and five bars for the frames of the tabernacle at the rear westward. 33 And he made the middle bar to run from end to end halfway up the frames. 34 And he overlaid the frames with gold, and made their rings of gold for holders for the bars, and overlaid the bars with gold. 35 He made the veil of blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen; with cherubim skillfully worked into it he made it. 36 And for it he made four pillars of acacia and overlaid them with gold. Their hooks were of gold, and he cast for them four bases of silver. 37 He also made a screen for the entrance of the tent, of blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen, embroidered with needlework, 38 and its five pillars with their hooks. He overlaid their capitals, and their fillets were of gold, but their five bases were of bronze.” I have no doubt. You see what they were building here in the tabernacle is, this was a model of heaven. Something about it relates to heaven. I don't know what. We'll have to wait and see when we get there. Something about the, I don't know, the Throne of God and surrounding. And I have no doubt about the fact that we're going to get to heaven one day and we're going to go, oh, I get it. I see all these things, and you gave us all these specific details, and all the skillful work, and the cherubim, and the basis of silver, and all the overlaid going, and we're going to get it. We're going to see that it all makes sense one day. Right now it's just a bunch of instructions that's even a little bit boring to read, but I'm sure it'll all make sense one day. So there you go. We're going to stop there and we'll pick it up in the next chapter 37. And we might just, there's a lot of instruction left. And so I'm thinking we're going to finish the Book of Exodus next week so that's the goal. Father, we thank You. We thank You that we can come together always. Lord, we thank You first for the freedom that we have in this country to gather in Your Name and worship You freely. To dig into the Scripture and learn of it, to grow from it, to understand it, to be nourished by it, and to learn from its example. We thank you, Father. We thank you for the blessing of living today in these rather dark and yet exciting times under this new covenant that You have made. This covenant and the glory of it is so much greater than any glory that existed before. And we thank You for that Lord. And that glory belongs to our Savior and we worship Him tonight. We worship our King of all kings, our Lord of all lords, our Savior, Redeemer, our friend. Thank You for loving us. Thank You for pouring out Your mercy. Thank You for forgiving us of all of our sins. We love You. We desire to know You more and we commit our night to You in the name of Jesus, our Savior, amen. Amen. God bless you. Have a good rest of your evening.