Exodus 36-40 - The LORD Dwells Among His People

Okay go ahead and open in your Bibles to Exodus chapter 36. I think we're gonna do one final study here in Exodus covering chapters 36 through 40 because now we're really entering into a section where we've covered most of the subject matter and it's getting into the fine details of the tabernacle and the furniture so there's not really much new information and again it's just a lot of details and that's going to continue into the book of Leviticus so Leviticus will get into the priests and their their work and the sacrifices and yeah that's it's a hard book to get through so I think next week

Lord willing we're gonna cover Leviticus so one big overview of Leviticus in one one study maybe maybe two

I'm not not exactly sure we'll see how that goes with Leviticus but again just a lot a lot of details and don't get me wrong

I don't mean to imply that they're not important obviously Moses knew they were important the

Lord knew and felt that they were important otherwise they wouldn't be written and detailed as they are so this was very important to the

Lord and in verse 1 go ahead and and look at verse 1 notice the statement at the end it says they shall do according to all that the

Lord has commanded so the beginning of chapter 36 is titled building the tabernacle verse 1 says and Bezalel and Aholiab and every gifted artisan in whom the

Lord had put wisdom and understanding to know how to do all manner of work for the service of the sanctuary shall do according to all that the

Lord commanded so they were to hear the Word of God what it said and they were to carry it out to the

T basically and Moses was to oversee all of this and to make sure they were doing it exactly as God had said so that's what we're going to see through Leviticus 2 and just to jump ahead to Leviticus the first nine chapters are kind of like chapters 36 through 40 of Exodus but then you're going to see a break in Leviticus where the two sons of Aaron kind of disregard all of the details right

God painstakingly I don't know if that's the right term but went through all the things they're supposed to do and who are the two sons

Nadab and Bayou right so they they offer strange fire to the

Lord and what happened to them yeah the Lord consumed them with fire so I think the application all of that I conclude that the application for the

New Testament Church is we're supposed to pay attention to details when going through the Bible pay attention it's like Jesus said in Matthew 4 for man shall not live by bread alone but by every word which proceeds from the mouth of God so don't ever read through the scripture well is this really that important you might not understand why or how but it is it is so I think that's the application for us the importance of every word of God and of course we are to do the

Word of God as James 1 22 says but be doers of the word and not hearers only otherwise you're doing what you're deceiving yourself so the gifted artisans here in Exodus were to do the work as God commanded if the

Lord said the length of the curtains were to be 28 cubits how long were the curtains supposed to be why can't they be 26

I mean does it really matter why not why not 26 you know you might be able to save a little time and money if you make them 27 that would be speed thank you but really what what's the big what's the big deal

I know God says this but I don't see the problem is the spirit behind that where obeying

God is optional or okay we should do what God says unless we kind of figure out a better way well they're gonna have order now they're gonna have a lot of a lot of things to pay attention to but that you know that that's the spirit behind you know some of the things the

Israelites did God said this but maybe we could do it this way so making application to the

New Testament Church Jesus said believe and be baptized right be baptized be part be part of the church well but you know is that really necessary I mean baptism is that it's not necessary for salvation so do we really have to be baptized

I don't know that that's but it's the same spirit hey here's what the Lord said that's that's it but you know that's not the way people look at it but despite all the shortcomings of the

Israelites the artisans they did follow the instructions and the people really rose to the occasion so despite all their flaws or their sins the people gave generously in fact they gave more than enough look at verse 2 then

Moses called Bezalel and Holiab and every gifted artisan in whose heart the

Lord had put wisdom everyone whose heart was stirred to come and do the work and they received from Moses all the offering which the children of Israel had brought for the work of the service of making the sanctuary so they continued bringing to him free will offerings we talked about that last week continued to bring them every morning verse 4 then all the craftsmen who are doing all the work of the sanctuary came each from the work he was doing and they spoke to Moses saying the people bring much more than enough for the service of the work which the

Lord commanded us to do so that's a good problem to have where the people are remember this isn't a commandment or a tie that you you have to bring this much it's a free will offering give what you want and they gave above and beyond so much so that Moses actually had to give a command for them to stop bringing you know stop giving all of these these things that they had too much so the people stepped up that's good to see so they have the talent they had the materials now they just had to do the work and as with any job site today what is every job site where there's all these people working to get the job done the job sites gonna have what you have the materials you have the workers what what else you gonna need to have a foreman or somebody overseeing the work so they would have to take instruction follow instruction and Moses was there certainly

Moses is here you know God's giving it to Moses Moses get is giving it to Bezalel and Bezalel I'm sure is is commanding other people so again trying to make application to the

New Testament Church we talked about the giving last time but what about this idea of overseeing the work why did the

Israelites get the job done because they they listen they listen to Moses they presumably listened to Bezalel so they followed instructions and they worked together and there was a structure of leadership it wasn't a matter of Bezalel being better than everybody else or you know he's the man who does he think he is that's not the issue he's the one who had the gift and people cooperated and followed along and they got the tabernacle built so what about the local church does your average believer and I'm not necessarily talking about this church but just in churches in general maybe you've attend different churches throughout the years does your average

Christian recognize or respect the authority structure in the local church is that a problem where leadership is not considered leadership is not listened to and everyone's kind of off on their own doing their own thing it does that happen right so you know then this goes for all of us we all need to be willing to accept instruction and even constructive criticism so some people are good at doing that some some are not

I suppose but if here's the point if Christians refuse to work together if everyone is off doing their own thing and we're not listening or respecting any sort of authority structure then things just are not going to get done or they're not going to get done efficiently it goes without saying we all have our own ideas we all have our own opinions and even for pastors it's not the job of the pastor to come up you know and reinvent the wheel and come up with our own plan of how we think the ministry should be done we have a we have a manual right we have an instruction manual yeah so pastor elder deacon everybody top to bottom we have the we have the manual so we just have to listen and who's above it all again

Jesus right Christ is the head of the church and then there's the pastor the under shepherd you know what

Jesus is called and I think it's first Peter first Peter 225

Jesus is called the bishop of our souls so Jesus is the overseer of all of it so we need to make sure we are carrying out the

Lord's wishes and then you know just everybody's on board working together following the

Lord's plan yes Dennis I've been convinced over the years that when there's a lack of submission within the body of Christ that's evidence that they're not submissive to Christ either it goes all hand in hand doesn't it right and yeah

Hebrews 13 17 I never liked the translation obey those who rule over you but I did a word study on it once and it means allow yourself to be persuaded and convinced by the pastor in other words is what it's saying be persuaded be open and entered and then those who are leading you and be submissive pretty straightforward stuff right right

I know you're not gonna say that that's why I'm saying okay I mean it's a good point yeah let's say there is a church where you know leadership is being ignored why

I follow Jesus I don't follow any man I only follow Jesus it's well it sounds spiritual but Jesus did say to follow

I mean Paul said follow me as I follow Christ I think part of it we we were brought up and we live in a democratic society we've never lived in a theocracy we've never lived in a monarchy we are used to voting on everything you know and have it

I want my boy and of course in a local church people do have their voices heard but ultimately if you think about it the church is sort of like a monarchy yeah

I mean Jesus is the king all right so we just need to make sure we're listening to him all right any questions or comments on that no all right so in Exodus 36 the people they're they're doing what

God said they're doing what Moses said they give and the craftsmen begin the work and they have plenty of materials we've talked about the gold how much gold is involved in the work where do they get the gold remember they plundered said they plundered the

Egyptians when they left Egypt so thankfully they didn't waste all the gold on the golden calf they wasted quite a bit

I guess but they still have some left over look at verse 8 then all the gifted artisans among them who worked on the tabernacle made ten curtains woven of fine linen and a blue purple and scarlet thread with artistic designs of cherubim they made them okay so two quick things and again a lot of this is review so we've touched on this in the past but first the cherubims so these designs were woven into the fabric right this is not 3d this is not a graven image the the design is in in the fabric however on the

Ark of the Covenant there are three -dimensional images or you could say a graven image of the cherubim right on on top of the

Ark the mercy seat now the Lord said don't make any graven images and yet you see the images of the cherubim on the

Ark so if somebody comes to you and says well to you that's a contradiction God said don't do it and here he instructed they should do it how would just how would you respond

I like that answer yeah he's

God you know if he says it's okay it's okay well and here's one difference they were not bowing down to the cherubim they were not worshiping the cherubim on the

Ark so there were times the the Lord told them to build such things the serpent the brazen serpent is another example of that so that's

God's prerogative to to do that Marcus that is one thing that I do notice in Judaism itself is that there is perhaps too high a reverence for angels they a lot of that does that even in the

Passover Savior prayer it's it's it's praying to angels and that's that's not a good thing oh sure well was it in Revelation the angel came to John and John fell down on his face and started worshiping the angel right there's so yeah but obviously you're not supposed to worship graven images here's the thing

I've noticed about idolatry when we read about it in the Bible we recognize that it's idolatry and it's right here they are bowing down to a statue and we recognize that it's wrong when we read about it in the

Bible and yet when it happens today and we hear about it or see it it seems like there's sort of a disconnect and it's like okay

I know this church and that this group over here has statues and there are people bowing but you know they're not really worshiping it the the idol just represents something what's the same way it was back then yes newsflash the

Israelites did not actually think God was a cow right they knew that so the calf represented supposedly

Jehovah and they were bowing down to it so we read that obviously this is wrong and yet it happens all the time today and somehow people don't always

I think I think people here probably recognize this but yeah a lot don't see that it's the same thing you don't bow down to graven images yes

Marcus one more thing on the Hebrew search as you mentioned it in the songs that what we see

Jesus what a great idea that is to actually see him but in it you can almost if you study hard enough but or whatever but Hebrews the book of Hebrews written to the

Hebrews you know says he's greater than the angels and that's what these start right out with that because the

Jews had too high an opinion of angels but Jesus is greater than the angels he's greater everything greater than everything yeah one last comment about idolatry this is why

Christians throughout history have been very careful about artwork especially three -dimensional artwork graven images one thing we all agree on hopefully is that you don't bow down to them that's where it clearly crosses the line but these are two -dimensional in the fabric okay the second thing the colors

I just want to touch on this again maybe not everyone was here for the the study where we talked about these three colors what are the three colors okay so red and scarlet the same right so blue purple and scarlet oh so the red represents blood of Christ I don't think and hardly anybody would argue with that so then you say well okay what is the blue and the purple represent and I'm not dogmatic on it but I'm pretty firm and in my understanding that it represents the the sufferings of Christ in that he was beaten before he bloodshed on the cross he was beaten and when you receive a bruise right we call them what we call them black and blues but they're not actually black they're purple and blue so the purple blue and red

I believe represents the suffering of Christ well

I wouldn't argue with that well as far as purple representing royalty and he is the king that's why

I'm sticking with the sufferings because the tabernacle is a place of sacrifice it's a place of death right these animals come that's where they are their sacrifice so that's my story

I'm sticking to it the blue the purple the red represents the suffering of Christ okay amen everyone says amen moving on all right let's go to chapter 37 says in verse 1 then

Bezalel made the Ark of Acacia wood it's gonna change depending on your translation

I don't think anyone knows what Acacia wood is but he made the Ark of Acacia wood two and a half cubits was its length a cubit and a half its width and a cubit and a half its height and he overlaid it with pure gold inside and outside and made a molding of gold all around it

Matthew Henry writes in chapter or writes about chapter 37 he says in the furniture of the tabernacle were emblems of a spiritual and acceptable service the incense represented the prayers of the

Saints that's another thing that's not really disputed the sacrifice of the altar represented the

Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world the golden pot with manna or bread from heaven the flesh of Jesus Christ I think we understand that which he gave for the life of the world the candlestick with its light the teaching and enlightening of the

Holy Spirit I had said that the the light Jesus is the light of the world well

I don't know you know is there one right answer but this is what he says the teaching and enlightening of the

Holy Spirit because the light came from the burning of the oil which does represent we believe the

Holy Spirit the showbread represented that provision for those who hunger and thirst after righteousness which is the gospel right and then notice the cherubim again

Exodus 37 7 through 9 and he made two cherubim this is for the

Ark of beaten gold and he made them one piece at the two ends of the mercy seat one cherub at one end on this side and the other cherub at the other end on that side and he made the cherubim and by the way cherubim is plural right a cherubim okay cherubim like terrafim is what did we say terrafim were weren't they idols little statues maybe

I'm misremembering but yeah a cherub is singular cherubim or cherubim is is plural

Elohim right good L is

God Elohim is the plural name of God good so the cherubim spread out their wings above and covered the mercy seat with their wings and faced one another the faces of the cherubim were toward the mercy seat all right now

I'd like you to turn to Isaiah chapter 6 I'm trying to make some connections here

I think it was back in chapter 25 when we studied that chapter we talked about the mercy seat as being the throne of God here on earth so God's throne is in heaven right

God's throne room is in heaven Revelation chapter 4 and 5 what about God's throne here on earth that's that's the

Ark and the mercy the mercy seat now in heaven the throne of God is surrounded by what angels so it's fitting that the throne of God here on earth would be surrounded by angels you have one angel on one end the other here look at Isaiah 6 verse 1 in that or in the year that King Uzziah died

I saw the Lord sitting on a throne high and lifted up and the train of his robe filled the temple above it stood what seraphim okay so this is a different kind of angel although they're very similar each one had six wings and two he covered his face with two he covered his feet and with two he flew and one cried to another and said holy holy holy is the

Lord of hosts the whole earth is full of his glory and the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out and the house was filled with smoke all right remember just remember that part it was filled with smoke this is somewhat similar to what we see with the

Ark now the Ark has cherubim this is seraphim does anyone know the difference cherubim and seraphim there were cherubims guarding

Eden so Adam and Eve couldn't go back in right yeah seraphim

I think it's don't quote me on this burning ones right there's something about fire with the seraphim okay and then they cry out holy holy holy this is something we've seen the holiness of God God is to be regarded as holy that's brought out in Exodus 2 and this is why from Isaiah 6 why many if not most theologians believe that God's primary attribute is his holiness because it's elevated to the third degree and in Revelation chapter 4 which gives us a glimpse of heaven's throne room you see something similar where it's the four living creatures so this may be a third type of angel and what do they say they it says they do not rest day or night saying holy holy holy

Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come so Isaiah says the earth is full full of his glory and the house was filled with smoke okay now let's go to Exodus chapter 40 and we'll try to start to bring all this together so turning there just to kind of summarize the parts in between chapter 37 talks about the building of the ark the table of showbread and verses 10 through 16 then the lampstand and verses 17 through 24 then the altar of incense chapter 38 covers the altar of burnt offering the making of the court of the tabernacle and then other materials and then chapter 39 the priests and their their garments which we talked about that in a previous study and then in Exodus 39 actually look at this

Exodus 39 verse 32 said thus all the work of the tabernacle of the tent of meeting was finished okay finally it's done and the children of Israel did according to all that the

Lord had commanded Moses so they did if they had just done all that from the beginning it would have saved them a lot of pain and suffering but at least here they they did what

God said that's good so now the work is completed and we come to the final chapter of Exodus after all this time we've been in Exodus for how long almost a year a couple months 11 months yeah 40 weeks and 40 nights all right so remember

Isaiah the the glory of God and the the smoke that filled filled the house look at Exodus 40 verse 34 33 ends with says so Moses finished the work verse 34 then the cloud covered the tabernacle of meeting and the glory of the

Lord filled the tabernacle now I know Isaiah said smoke and this says cloud but we're not splitting hairs here right

I think this is the same this is the same imagery so the cloud covered the tabernacle of meeting and the glory of the

Lord filled the tabernacle so here's what I believe is going on if I can put it this way at this moment when the cloud comes in this is when the

Lord enters his earthly tabernacle is earthly throne room and is seated on his earthly throne verse 35 says and Moses was not able to enter the tabernacle of meeting because the cloud rested above it and the glory of the

Lord filled the tabernacle an amazing amazing site says whenever the cloud was taken up from above the tabernacle the children of Israel would go onward in all of their journeys but if the cloud was not taken up then they did not journey till the day that it was taken up so as far as when they moved when they stayed put it all depended on God's leading so as long as the

Lord was there seated on his throne they stayed there as soon as the cloud was taken up then they could go in and remember the tabernacles the tent they could break it down and move it and carry it with them on their journey so what are they doing there following the

Lord's leading and this speaks I believe to the Christian who is to follow the leading of the spirit of God so in conclusion despite all of the negative things that we've seen throughout the book of Exodus with the children of Israel it really ends

I think on a positive note the people give willingly they give generously they follow the instructions

God's house is built and now ends with God dwelling among his people and leading his people and we'll close with verse 38 for the cloud of the