Exodus - Lesson 26

Dr. Carmen Imes 
Exodus 
OT605-26 
Tabernacle Building Instructions
Lesson Transcript

All right, here we are at the most scintillating chapters in the book of Exodus. I already, I hope, effectively convinced you that genealogies were interesting and that now the tall order is for me to convince you that these instructions for how to build the tabernacle are also interesting. If you have done a Bible read-through, you might have come to these chapters and slogged your way through these building instructions only to find them repeated all over again a second time and you're wondering, why waste this paper? Why say it all twice? Hopefully these sessions will help you understand why this is here, why we have it twice, what is the literary design, and what is the theological message of these chapters.

And I actually find them very fascinating, so hopefully that will be a little bit contagious. We ended the previous session in Exodus chapter 24 talking about the ratification or inauguration of the covenant, and we watched as Moses went up the mountain, and there was some key language there that if you were listening carefully, you might have noticed echoes of creation. So, when Moses went up the mountain, the cloud covered it, and the glory of Yahweh settled on Mount Sinai.

For six days, the cloud covered the mountain, and on the seventh day, Yahweh called to Moses from within the cloud. This is an unmistakable echo of the creation story, where for six days God created, and on the seventh day he rested. So, we are meant to hear this tabernacle instruction material as a new creation.

God is doing creative work, and he's inviting Moses into it to witness it and to be part of it. Moses enters the cloud and stays on the mountain 40 days and 40 nights. This is also significant because through this time of testing in the wilderness that they're about to embark on, Moses doesn't know this yet, but they're going to be in the wilderness for 40 years, and God will do a new work of creation in those 40 years, inviting his people into Sabbath rest by which he lives among them again.

So, this sets us up to be thinking about creation, and there are so many echoes in these texts of creation besides this. Yahweh's instructions in these chapters, chapters 25 to 30, are presented as seven speeches. So, we have six days and the seventh day, and then we have seven times where it says, Yahweh said to Moses, and then there's material.

So, here they are. 25 to 30 is speech number one about the tabernacle and furnishing, so that's a long one. It's the first installment of seven speeches

The second speech is about atonement money, and then a little speech about wash basin, and then a little one about anointing oil, and then the incense recipe, and then a speech appointing Bezalel and Oholiab, two guys who are skilled workers, to do the actual design work for the tabernacle. And then, get this, the seventh of the seven speeches is about the Sabbath. So, this is what convinces me that it's not just an accident.

It's not, I'm not making this up, that we're supposed to notice that there are seven because we have the six days and the seventh day, and because the seventh of the speeches is about the Sabbath. I learned this from my mentor Daniel Block. I've mentioned him multiple times.

Read everything he's written. He's such a good and careful reader of scripture. Here are a list of creation echoes in the tabernacle texts that we might miss if we're just kind of barreling our way through.

This account of what they're supposed to do to build the tabernacle culminates in consecration. So, just as it said in Genesis 2 verse 3, then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done. So, this account of building the tabernacle also ends with similar language.

Exodus 40 verse 16, Moses did everything just as Yahweh commanded him, and then it says, so the tabernacle was set up on the first day of the first month in the second year, and verse 33 tells us, and so Moses finished the work. So, there's a sense of consecration and and completion that echoes what we find at the end of the creation story. We also have cherubim in the tabernacle as guardians of sacred space, just like we had cherubim stationed at the edge of the garden to make sure that people didn't come into sacred space in a state that was not fit to be in the presence of God.

So, Exodus 25 verse 18 describes the Ark of the Covenant. It says, and make two cherubim out of hammered gold at the ends of the cover. Make one cherub on one end, and the second cherub on the other.

Make the cherubim of one piece with the cover at the two ends. They're to have their wings spread upward, overshadowing the cover with them. The cherubim are to face each other, looking toward the cover.

And so, the cherubim are a very significant artistic part of this most elaborate and important piece of furniture that's going to go in the tabernacle. There are also cherubim in the curtains, in the design of the curtains. Make the tabernacle with 10 curtains of finely twisted linen and blue, purple, and scarlet yarn with cherubim woven into them by a skilled worker.

The curtain where the cherubim would be is at the entrance, just like there were cherubim at the entrance to the Garden of Eden. And so, we're going to see even more garden and creation echoes to come. The Tree of Life stood in the garden, and in the tabernacle, we have a lamp stand with seven branches.

And various translations handle this in various ways, but the branches of the lamp stand are all, it's the same words used to describe trees. So, it's not just a pole coming out of another pole, but it's a branch and it's, the end of each branch has flower-like cups, cups and buds and blossoms of one piece. They're like the, they're like almond flowers.

So, it's like a flowering tree, just like what we saw in the Garden of Eden. In the Garden of Eden, we were told there was gold in that land and there were onyx stones. And now, we have a tabernacle being built and it incorporates gold and onyx stones.

We've already read about the two stones made of onyx that are on the shoulders of the high priest engraved with the names of the tribes. And there's, there are other gemstones used in the, in the making of the tabernacle. In Genesis 1, when God is creating everything after each day of creation, it says, and there was evening and then morning the first day, and there was evening and then morning the second day, etc.

In the building of the tabernacle, we have chapter 27, verse 21, we have similar language. Aaron and his sons are to keep the lamps burning before Yahweh from evening till morning. So, there's oil for the lamps, the lampstand that looks like a tree, and Aaron and his sons are tending them from evening till morning.

And that evening till morning idea gives us a sense, again, of creation. There is both prescribed food, here's what you're allowed to eat, and there's proscribed food, here's what you're not allowed to eat. So, just like in the garden, God said, you can eat from any tree but don't eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

So, in Exodus 29, verses 31 to 34, we have a description of what they can and can't eat. So, this is related to the offerings that are brought. Take the ram for the ordination and cook the meat in a sacred place at the entrance to the tent of meeting.

Aaron and his sons are to eat the meat of the ram and the bread that's in the basket. They are to eat these offerings by which atonement was made for their ordination and consecration, but no one else may eat them because they're sacred. And if any of the meat of the ordination ram or any bread is left over till morning, burn it up.

It must not be eaten because it's sacred. So, there's food you can eat and food you cannot eat, just like in the garden. In Genesis 1 and 2, we have a mention of the Spirit of God.

The Spirit of God was hovering over the waters and then the Spirit breathes life into Adam and he becomes a living being. In Exodus 31, we're told that the men who are going to do the the design work on the tabernacle are filled with the Spirit of God. They've been infused with spiritual wisdom and understanding.

The Spirit is inspiring their activities. Genesis 1, of course, details a seven-day process of God creating the world. Exodus 29 verse 30 describes a seven-day process by which the priests will be consecrated for service.

So, two seven-day processes, not to mention the passage we already read in which it took seven days for God to start speaking and giving this message to Moses. Finally, we have an elaborate ceremony whereby the priests are clothed so that they can enter the presence of God. Similarly, in Genesis 3, we have after Adam and Eve have sinned, God clothes them.

He clothes their nakedness. So, God is clothing them. In both cases, it's not like Adam and Eve don't just get up and get dressed in the morning.

God clothes them. And in Exodus 28, when we're told about the priestly garments, they don't just pick out their clothes and get dressed. Moses clothes them.

There's a ceremony by which the clothes are put on them by someone else, which again reminds us of Genesis because it's so unusual. Most adults dress themselves, but not in this case. There are a number of pieces of furniture that we read about in these chapters.

There's the Ark of the Covenant that will go in the Most Holy Place. And inside the Ark will be deposited the two stone tablets with the Ten Commandments on them, the duplicate copies. And we have a table that will be in the Holy Place, just outside the Most Holy Place, but also in the tent.

The table will be what they put the bread on. There will be a loaf of bread representing each of the twelve tribes. So, twelve loaves of bread offered before the Lord.

And across from the table will be the lampstand that we spoke of. And it will give light to the tent. It will shine down on the bread.

It will make the whole thing sparkle because this is not like electric light, but these are oil lamps that will flicker. And there's gold woven into the curtains, so the whole thing will sparkle beautifully. Chapter 26 tells us about all the curtains, the extensive curtains that are made for the outside of the tent.

So, there's the tent of the Holy Place, and then there's outer curtains that will encompass the courtyard as well, and that are less elaborate. So, we have white curtains outside the courtyard, and then elaborate blue and scarlet and purple curtains for the tent itself. Outside the tent will be an altar of burnt offering.

That's where the sacrifices get offered, and people are allowed to be there observing the priest's activity and bringing the offerings themselves. The courtyard, the curtains for the courtyard are described in chapter 27. The instructions for how to do the oil for the lampstand, and then a lot of instruction about the priestly garments.

We'll come back to that in a few moments, and how to consecrate the priests. Chapter 30 introduces us to another piece of furniture that's going to go inside the tabernacle, and that is the altar of incense. It's a small altar on which they're going to burn incense so that it smells good in the Most Holy Place.

Worshiping Yahweh is a multi-sensory experience. There are sounds to hear, and there are smells, and there are visual cues that you are in the most lavish place, the most lavish building, for lack of a better word. Everyone lives in tents, of course.

They're crossing the wilderness, and they're all living in tents, and Yahweh's tent is the most elaborate of all. It's beautiful. And then, as I've already mentioned, there's these other speeches.

The Lord said to Moses, here's what to do with atonement money, etc. We'll come back to that. What I want to take note of is in this whole list of furnishings and things to make, there are two items that get more attention and more narrative space than anything else.

One is the Ark of the Covenant, and the other is the breastpiece of the high priest. Both of these are the most expensive, and they both get the most detail as far as how they're to be instructed. The Ark of the Covenant is right in the hot spot of God's presence.

Other passages talk about it as God's footstool. The Israelites recognized Yahweh isn't crouching down and living in this little tent we've made him. He's too big and too majestic to contain himself here.

But they imagined his feet resting on the Ark of the Covenant, that he had some actual presence there. And the other thing is the breastpiece of the high priest, which we've already talked some about when we talked about the command not to bear God's name in vain. Because Aaron has 12 gemstones, one for each tribe inscribed with their names.

There's actually, they hammered out gold to make it as thin as possible, and then sliced it into really tiny threads and wove the threads into the fabric so that he was literally wearing gold fabric, gold and different colors. The colored fabrics would have been extremely expensive, involving a really long laborious process. Purple fabric was made from a murex shell, which is a little snail shell that's found in saltwater.

You would have had to collect an enormous number of these shells, a whole room full of shells, to get a yard or two yards of purple fabric. They would crush the shells, boil them, dip white fabric into the water, and then spread it out in the sun to dry. And as it dried, it would turn purple.

It was a very expensive and time-consuming process. And so it was actually prohibited for the rest of the nation to dress like the high priest. They were supposed to wear more plain clothes because he's supposed to stand out as a really important functionary in the temple or tabernacle.

Here is a floor plan of the tabernacle. You can find them in study bibles. You can google it online if you want to take some more time with it.

But it was quite a large enclosure with this special sacred tent inside, and you can see where the different pieces of furniture are there. The outside curtains of this courtyard, as I mentioned, are white, and the east-west axis uses the most elaborate fabrics. So the closer you get into the most holy place, the more lavish the fabrics become, and the more elaborate their designs.

The expense and the beauty of the materials increases as you approach. And what's fascinating to me is that the high priest is the opposite. He's wearing a plain white tunic with a bright blue robe on top of that, and on top of that he has the ephod with all of the gemstones and the gold threads.

So we might consider him to be like an inside-out tabernacle. He's showing the glory of God on the outside, whereas you'd have to go inside the most holy place to see that kind of expensive fabric and gemstones. Here's a drawing that I attempted to show all the different pieces of the priestly garments that we encounter in chapter 28.

This is the longest, lengthiest description of clothing anywhere in the Bible, and it is super important. Aaron is the best-dressed Israelite, and it's a costume that befits the role that he plays in the nation. He can't just wake up in the morning and casually do his job.

In fact, he can't do the job at all if he doesn't have these clothes. The clothes make the man, in this case. And so he carefully, actually in the ceremony, Moses carefully clothes him with all these pieces.

Number one is the tunic, this white fine linen tunic, and then around that is tied a colorful sash. Over top of that is a blue robe made with this really expensive dye. At the base of the robe is a row of pomegranates and golden bells.

There have been two different theories for how this works. They could be every other, so pomegranate bell, pomegranate bell. Others have suggested that the bell is actually in the shape of a pomegranate, and so it's a pomegranate or a bell with a pomegranate inside, basically hanging around the bottom of his robe.

There was a discovery by Eli Shukran recently in the city of David, actually under the west wall of the Temple of Jerusalem in the drainage ditch. He's an archaeologist who's been working in that area for 25 years, and he found a tiny gold bell in the shape of a pomegranate. And it's very enticing to think this could have been one of the bells of the high priest that somehow got disconnected, fell into the drain, and waited for us to discover it all these many years later.

Some people have speculated that the purpose of the bells, this is what I was told when I was young, maybe you've been told something like this too, that Aaron would be jingling as he went into the Most Holy Place, and so if he was struck dead and lay there on the floor, then the tinkling would stop, and then we'd know that he was dead, and so we could drag him out. And so I had heard that they would tie a rope to the foot of the high priest so that as he goes in there, if the bells stopped tinkling, they could just drag him out without someone else going in and dying. The problem with this theory, the reason why it doesn't work, is because on the Day of Atonement, which is the one day a year that Aaron is allowed to go in the Most Holy Place, he is not wearing his robe.

He's only wearing the white tunic. We're told that he has a very simple costume that day, none of this elaborate stuff. The elaborate stuff isn't necessary in the Most Holy Place.

The Most Holy Place is already elaborate. The purpose of Aaron's lavish clothing is to show the people God's glory. He doesn't need to show God God's glory when he goes into the Most Holy Place.

Instead, he comes in simply wearing the white tunic of a regular priest, matching the outer curtains of the tabernacle, representing the simple people in the presence of God. So the bells instead must have just been for a pleasing sound as Aaron went around the tabernacle doing his duties on a normal day. The next piece of clothing over top of the robe is this apron.

We don't know if it tied in the back or tied in the front, but we know that it was lavish and colorful and that it tied and that it had special straps with the two onyx stones on his shoulder and those connected to this pouch that he wore on his chest with stones inside for decision making and gemstones on the outside that represented each of the tribes. The beautiful thing about this, similar to the 12 pillars that were set up at the base of the mountain, is they prove that every tribe has access to Yahweh. Nobody can later be squeezed out because they could just come back to the high priest and say, see, I'm right there.

These are my people. You can't shut us out. And so I think that's a beautiful part about what he wears is it bears witness to the inclusion of all 12 tribes.

There are two different kinds of hats. There's a special, probably wound turban made out of linen for Aaron, the high priest, and there's a simpler cap for the regular priests and on top of Aaron's turban is tied with blue thread this gold medallion. We don't know exactly what shape it is.

Josephus describes it as a as a wide rectangular plate. We don't know if he really knew. If he apparently by his day that's what it looked like.

Originally we're not sure, but it is inscribed and we know what the inscription says, holy belonging to Yahweh, because Aaron bears God's name. We're told he wears underwear, so they made underwear out of linen. I've drawn them here as a kind of a gird up your loins kind of way of underwear.

We're not told exactly how they sewed them or what it looked like, but it's very possible it was wrapped in the way I have pictured there. And once it's all together, we have layer upon layer of really fine fabrics. It would have been warm for him to wear and he's the only one who can wear it.

When it's time for him to pass the baton to his son, when it comes to the end of his life, his son will wear the same outfit and will pass along the duties of the high priest, which take place especially on the day of atonement, that day when he brings the blood into the most holy place. So the the priestly garments are essential to the the role that the priests are going to play, and the garments are included in this list of tabernacle furnishings as if they just belong as part of the furniture. We have a table here, we have a lampstand here, we have this robe here.

It's just right in line with all of the things because Aaron and his sons are part of the tabernacle. The garments they wear imply a sacred privilege and responsibility. They have access to the holy place.

They cannot take that for granted. This is not a choose-your-own-adventure. It has to be a sacred trust in which they carefully obey everything God's asked them to do.

You can see in this particular drawing, which is in color, that the priest is wearing just a plain white tunic and cap and has a colored sash. So the regular priest didn't have a lot of color, but they did have the sash, which kind of connects them with the role of the high priest as well. I've already mentioned that Aaron is like an inside-out tabernacle, and in this colored picture you can see how that works.

His most elaborate garments are visible, which is the opposite of the tabernacle. He becomes an authorized representative of Yahweh with this medallion on his forehead and of the 12 tribes with their names on his chest. He moves between these two worlds, representing the people to Yahweh and Yahweh to the people, and his clothing shows us that he can do that.

Inside the pouch are these two stones, the Urim and Thummim. We're not exactly sure how they worked, but they're probably a kind of binary, like they're kind of flattened stones. This is one of the theories, that you could roll kind of like dice, and depending on which way they land, that's God's answer about whether something is a yes or a no.

This is not the kind of thing where like reading tea leaves or or reading someone's palm where you're getting a whole paragraph of information from God this way. It's a simple yes or no answer from God. When Aaron comes into the presence of God to discern God's will about something, God can say yes or no very simply.

This is the only kind of discerning the will of God like that that is approved. People are not supposed to be engaged in any kind of activity that might seem like sorcery, and that's why it's important that these stones are in the high priestly garments. They're centralized in the tabernacle.

Only one person is allowed to discern the will of God in this way. And we're also told one more thing about these garments that I want to mention, and that is that Aaron is, because he's wearing the name of God on his forehead, he's wholly belonging to Yahweh. Verse 38 says, it will be on Aaron's forehead and he will bear the guilt involved in the sacred gifts the Israelites consecrate, whatever their gifts may be.

It will be on Aaron's forehead continually so that they will be acceptable to Yahweh. So he actually becomes a physical bearer of sin. That is to say, he's responsible for the proper working out of the sacrificial system.

If he deviates from God's commands and starts doing it his own way, he will bear responsibility. So this is a sacred trust and there's a high degree of risk involved if he deviates from what God has commanded. Chapter 29 of Exodus gives us an elaborate ceremony by which the priests are ordained for service.

And if you're familiar with anthropology, you'll notice that this chapter includes all three defining marks of a rite of passage. That is, the priests are separated from the rest of the nation. They're set apart.

They endure a period of liminality. We talked about liminality in a previous session, and I told you that that's like the doorway, the in-between space. In this ceremony, they're actually supposed to stay in the doorway to the for seven days.

And then they're reintegrated to the people after they've gone through this seven-day ceremony. If you read the chapter carefully, you'll hear that Moses is the primary actor. Aaron and his sons are quite passive.

Moses says stuff, does stuff, sprinkles them, dresses them, sets things in their hands, and they just sit there. The point of this, I think, is that the priesthood is not something we do. It's something God does.

It's something to which God is calling them and equipping them. The priests go through a period of purification. There are offerings made to cleanse them before they can make offerings to cleanse other people.

So their own spiritual right standing before God has to be dealt with first. And then they're able to offer sacrifices that restore the holiness of the community. And we see that played out in Leviticus 8 and 9 when they're actually consecrated and begin their jobs.

The blessing that they give in Leviticus chapter 9 initiates the community's vocation as Yahweh's representatives. That's where they pronounce the priestly blessing that we read in Numbers chapter 6. Aaron lifts his hands and he blesses them. I've already mentioned that this section of Exodus includes seven speeches from Yahweh that culminate in the Sabbath.

And so far, all we've talked about is the first speech because it's a really long one with all the tabernacle furnishings and the high priestly garments. So I want to quickly point out just a few things about these other speeches which all appear in chapter 30. Beginning in verse 11, there's first a census of the Israelites and each of the Israelites has to give a gift to the tabernacle.

They each give a half shekel. And this is part of, it's kind of like a tax, like a temple tax, but I really love verse 15. The rich are not to give more than half shekel and the poor are not to give less when you make the offering to Yahweh to atone for your lives.

So this collection that's made on of the whole nation is equal whether rich or poor, everybody has to give a half shekel, which is, which indicates to me that having more money or or having more wealth or standing in the community does not make you worth more to God. Nobody can swagger in and say, well I'm gonna give five shekels, aren't I special? Everyone is on the level playing field, they're each giving the same amount. They make a basin for washing so that Aaron and his sons can wash themselves before they enter the tabernacle.

And it tells us in verse 21, they shall wash their hands and feet so they will not die. So this is a very important washing ceremony. And then we have two recipes in a row, the anointing oil and the incense.

The anointing oil is for the anointing of the tabernacle and the priests as they enter into their service. And it's very interesting because we get a specific recipe that they're to follow and then they're told in verse 32, don't pour it on anyone else's body and do not make any other oil using the same formula. It is sacred and you are to consider it sacred.

Whoever makes perfume like it and puts it on anyone other than a priest must be cut off from their people. That is they're cast out into the wilderness or they may even experience death. This is serious business.

Nobody can be like, oh I want to be the really best in the community so I'm going to smell just like the high priest. That's not how it works. Nobody can irrigate themselves to that level.

Only the priests can wear this anointing oil. Same thing is true with the incense. The incense that is burned inside the holy place of the tabernacle is by a special blend and it says in verse 37, do not make any incense with this formula for yourselves.

Consider it holy to Yahweh. Whoever makes incense like it to enjoy its fragrance must be cut off from their people. There needs to be a separation between what's appropriate for Yahweh and what's appropriate for common use.

And then the last two speeches of Moses include the appointment of Bezalel and Oholiab who we've already noted are skilled and infused with the spirit to do all kinds of work. They are skilled in all kinds of technical skills that will be necessary to make the tabernacle. We'll get into more of the details of what they do later.

I love it that God includes artists in this process and He recognizes the talent and recognizes that this talent comes from Him. And then the final speech is the Sabbath. Then Yahweh said to Moses, say to the Israelites, you must observe my Sabbaths.

This will be a sign between me and you for the generations to come so you may know that I am Yahweh who makes you holy. Observe the Sabbath because it's holy to you. Anyone who desecrates it is to be put to death.

This is serious business. Those who do any work on that day must be cut off from their people. For six days work is to be done but the seventh day is a day of Sabbath rest holy to Yahweh.

So we have here an echo of the six days and seventh day that we saw at the end of chapter 24 which brackets this entire section and its seven speeches. It's a sign between God and the Israelites forever and then we have an explicit mention of creation. For in six days Yahweh made the heavens and the earth and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.

It's striking to me that this is the last speech God makes after He says here's a whole bunch of work I want you to do. This is going to be a long project. It's going to involve a lot of energy and a lot of talent and the last thing He tells them is keep the Sabbath.

Even when you're doing God's work you need to rest. God is not asking His people to work 24-7 to get this job done. He's wanting them to maintain the rhythms that He set up in the wilderness and so in at the end of chapter 31 this narrative section is finished with these words.

When Yahweh finished speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai He gave him the two tablets of the tablets of stone inscribed by the finger of God and that is our introduction to the tabernacle. Any questions? How far can you go in looking at the significance of the different parts? Like when it talks about the oil of the lampstand in chapter 27 it says that Aaron and his sons are to keep the lamps burning before the Lord from evening until morning which means that it always would have been light in the tabernacle. So when Jesus talks about light of the world or when we look at the new heavens and the new earth and the lamb is the light so there is not a need for any more light.

Are those connections legitimate? I feel like I need to spend more time exploring what are the kinds of connections like this that people make with tabernacle furnishings. I'm wary of jumping to typology and trying to see immediate connections between each thing and Jesus. The book of Hebrews makes some solid typological connections between the high priest and Jesus as our high priest who's going into the heavenly temple to make atonement for our sin but I'm hesitant to read too much into the details if it's not something that the text brings out itself.

I think to me sometimes we go hunting for Jesus we want to find him in the old testament and I want to say Jesus is Yahweh. He's everywhere in the old testament. Yahweh is the one giving these instructions.

It's his presence that comes down and that's Jesus because Jesus is part of the trinity so I don't know that we need to go looking in the details of the furniture to find him.