February 7, 2012 … Building The Tabernacle

Passage of the Day: Reference of Today’s Chronological Bible Study: Exodus, Chapters 25-27 … To study these chapters, go to this link -

Exodus 25: 8-9, 40 … : … [God’s Place of Residence] … [Yahweh’s Instructions to Moses] … 8 “Then have them [i.e., specially selected craftsmen from God’s people] make a sanctuary for Me, and I will dwell among them. 9 Make this tabernacle and all its furnishings exactly like the pattern I will show you. … 40 See that you make them [i.e., everything in the tabernacle] according to the pattern shown you on the mountain."
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Exodus 26: 31-33 … : … [Setting the Holy Place] … 31 “Make a curtain of blue, purple and scarlet yarn and finely twisted linen, with cherubim woven into it by a skilled worker. 32 Hang it with gold hooks on four posts of acacia wood overlaid with gold and standing on four silver bases. 33 Hang the curtain from the clasps and place the ark of the covenant law behind the curtain. The curtain will separate the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place."
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Exodus 27: 1 … : … [God’s Altar of Sacrifice and Atonement] … [More of God’s Instructions to Moses] … 1 “Build an altar of acacia wood, three cubits high; it is to be square, five cubits long and five cubits wide."
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My Journal for Today: Okay, … for those who’ve taken your time to read what God (I believe) has given me to write in this blog through Exodus, admittedly the second book of Moses can get a bit tedious; but that doesn’t detract from it’s importance. For example, in the next few days I’m going to be plowing through God’s description – to Moses and to God’s people – of how they should build THE TABERNACLE, … that place where God was going to reside as God’s people journeyed to the promised land. And there was great detail in Yahweh’s description through Moses and his scribes to the craftsmen who would do the building of the Tabernacle. And this detail can seem – on the surface – as tedious and non-essential reading. But stick in there and read these chapters (linked for you as usual above); because there are several reasons for the importance of all of this description. And the commentary that I use as I read along in my chronological study this year describes these three reasons why all of this is important. Therefore, quoting from the Parsons Online Commentary, it offers the following description as to why God gave such detailed instructions for His dwelling place.

>>> “First, the high quality of the precious materials making up the Tabernacle shows God’s greatness and transcendence. >>> Second, the curtain surrounding the Most Holy Place shows God’s moral perfection as symbolized by his separation from the common and unclean. >>> Third, the portable nature of the Tabernacle shows God’s desire to be with his people as they traveled.”

Those truths are worthy enough for us to pay attention as God also gives us a physical description of the most important reason He was building this tabernacle for His dwelling; and that was as a picture of the place His Son, Jesus, … the Messiah, … would dwell one day in the hearts of believers like you and me. And in this description, which we’ll be reading about in the next chapters of Exodus, we begin to see that Yahweh, as the the Messiah, would one day dwell in the hearts of His disciples as our place of worship and sacrifice.

Think about it, fellow Christian. As Parson’s Commentary again puts it, ” When Jesus Christ died on the cross, the curtain in the Temple (which had replaced the Tabernacle) tore from top to bottom (see Mark 15:38), symbolizing our free access to God because of Jesus’ death. No longer did people have to approach God through priests and sacrifices.”

… And now, dear one, because of Jesus, the living tabernacle, we can come into the Holy of Holies anytime, any place, for anything. I have the Tabernacle and the High Priest, in Person of Christ, in my heart; and I don’t need a human high priest to bring my blood sacrifice to God’s altar of grace. No, every day … every moment … becomes my living sacrifice on God’s holy altar of worship in my heart; because Jesus made the ultimate - and last - blood sacrifice on Calvary so that He could (and does) tabernacle in my heart, which is His Holy of Holies.

ISN’T THIS MAGNIFICENT!! And it certainly brings pertinence and power to the reading in Exodus of all the details of God wanting His tabernacle for His people to be so perfect and infinitely special.

My Prayer Today: … Lord, thank You for dwelling in the Tabernacle of my heart where I can become and be a living sacrifice before Your altar of grace. Amen