Exodus 26 - Holy Place of The Tabernacle & The Priesthood of All Believers

I'm going to play Exodus 26, so go ahead and open up there. I'll play that on my phone, and then hopefully this will stay here and I can just describe a few things as we go through. So Exodus chapter 26.

The Materials and Measurements of the Tabernacle

Moreover, you shall make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine woven linen and blue, purple, and scarlet thread. With artistic designs of cherubim, you shall weave them. The length of each curtain shall be twenty-eight cubits, and the width of each curtain four cubits.

And every one of the curtains shall have the same measurements. Five curtains shall be coupled to one another, and the other five curtains shall be coupled to one another. And you shall make loops of blue yarn on the edge of the curtain on the selvedge of one set.

And likewise, you shall do on the outer edge of the other curtain of the second set. Fifty loops you shall make in the one curtain, and fifty loops you shall make on the edge of the curtain that is on the end of the second set, that the loops may be clasped to one another.

And you shall make fifty clasps of gold, and couple the curtains together with the clasps, so that it may be one tabernacle. You shall also make curtains of goat's hair, to be a tent over the tabernacle.

You shall make eleven curtains. The length of each curtain shall be thirty cubits, and the width of each curtain four cubits. And the eleven curtains shall all have the same measurements. And you shall couple five curtains by themselves, and six curtains by themselves.

And you shall double over the sixth curtain at the forefront of the tent. You shall make fifty loops on the edge of the curtain that is outermost in one set, and fifty loops on the edge of the curtain of the second set.

And you shall make fifty bronze clasps. Put the clasps into the loops, and couple the tent together, that it may be one. The remnant that remains of the curtains of the tent, the half curtain that remains, shall hang over the back of the tabernacle.

And a cubit on one side, and a cubit on the other side, of what remains of the length of the curtains of the tent, shall hang over the sides of the tabernacle, on this side, and on that side, to cover it.

You shall also make a covering of ramskins dyed red for the tent, and a covering of badgerskins above that. And for the tabernacle, you shall make the boards of acacia wood standing upright. Ten cubits shall be the length of a board, and a cubit and a half shall be the width of each board.

Two tenons shall be in each board for binding one to another. Thus you shall make for all the boards of the tabernacle, and you shall make the boards for the tabernacle, twenty boards for the south side.

You shall make forty sockets of silver under the twenty boards, two sockets under each of the boards for its two tenons. And for the second side of the tabernacle, the north side, there shall be twenty boards, and there forty sockets of silver, two sockets under each of the boards.

For the far side of the tabernacle, westward, you shall make six boards, and you shall also make two boards for the two back corners of the tabernacle. They shall be coupled together at the bottom, and they shall be coupled together at the top by one ring.

Thus it shall be for both of them. They shall be for the two corners. So there shall be eight boards with their sockets of silver, sixteen sockets, two sockets under each of the boards. And you shall make bars of acacia wood, five for the boards on one side of the tabernacle, five bars for the boards on the other side of the tabernacle, and five bars for the boards on the side of the tabernacle, for the far side westward.

The middle bar shall pass through the midst of the boards from end to end. You shall overlay the boards with gold, make their rings of gold as holders for the bars, and overlay the bars with gold. And you shall raise up the tabernacle according to its pattern, which you were shown on the mountain.

The Veil, the Holy of Holies, and the Pattern Shown on the Mountain

You shall make a veil woven of blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and fine woven linen. It shall be woven with an artistic design of cherubim. You shall hang it upon the four pillars of acacia wood, overlaid with gold.

Their hooks shall be gold upon four sockets of silver, and you shall hang the veil from the clasps. Then you shall bring the Ark of the Testimony in there, behind the veil. The veil shall be a divider for you between the holy place and the most holy.

You shall put the mercy seat upon the Ark of the Testimony in the most holy. You shall set the table outside the veil, and the lampstand across from the table on the side of the tabernacle toward the south.

And you shall put the table on the north side. You shall make a screen for the door of the tabernacle, woven of blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and fine woven linen made by a weaver. And you shall make for the screen five pillars of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold.

Their hooks shall be gold, and you shall cast five sockets of bronze for them.

Now, as you listened along to Exodus 26, there's a lot of details that you might have wondered, why do I need to know all of this? And sometimes people get the idea about God, that God only cares about the big things, or the big issues, or that if you're going to pray to God, pray about the important things.

Don't bother God with all the little details. But is that really true? Because one of the takeaways I got from Exodus 26, is that God cares about the details. Clearly the Lord gave many details here, with all of the instructions to build the tabernacle, and of course its furniture.

So I think it's safe to say, that God is a God who cares about details. So yeah, as we listened to Exodus 26, you may have wondered, well, why do I need to know all of these things? Who wondered that?

Be honest, few of you probably, okay. All of you wondered, why do I need to know this? Well, here's the thing, there's significance to the things, that the Lord went through. There's significance. So let's try to answer some of the questions, of what is the significance?

Let's look at verse one. It says, moreover, you shall make the tabernacle, with 10 curtains of fine woven linen, and blue, purple, and scarlet thread. So these would have been the colors, you would have seen in the tabernacle.

Blue, purple, and scarlet. And I would argue that Christ, is the scarlet thread, that is woven through every book of the Bible. This color red, or scarlet, represents, we believe, the blood of Christ.

I just think about a few stories in the scripture. Remember in Joshua chapter two, when Rahab was hiding the Israelite spies, what was she told to do? To bind a scarlet cord, outside of the window, so that when the Israelites saw it, all those in her household were spared.

So the scarlet cord, with Rahab, represents the blood of Christ. She was protected, or she was under the blood of Christ. There have been many articles, books, and sermons, about this concept of the scarlet thread.

That there's a scarlet thread of redemption, that's woven throughout the tapestry of scripture, if you want to put it that way. In the gospel of John, Jesus says about the Old Testament, these are they which testify of me.

So the Old Testament scriptures point to Christ. So somehow, all of these things are pointing ahead to Christ. And the scarlet thread, I think, is woven throughout the scripture. So the red represents the blood.

I think that's fairly well established. So Exodus 26, verse 1, Moreover, you shall make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine woven linen, in blue, purple, and scarlet thread, with artistic designs of cherubim, that's the angels, you shall weave them.

So scarlet is the color of blood. Purple, what do you think of when you think of the color purple?

Jim?

Okay, royalty. Jesus is the king of kings. He was clothed with a purple robe, right? Before, of course, they were mocking him, the soldiers were. So this, you say, well, okay, what is purple and blue and red?

What is this about? This may just be speculation. I thought this was interesting. Okay, the scarlet, the red blood of Christ, we got that. But before Jesus was crucified, he was beaten. And normally, we talk about bruise marks on the body as being black and blues, right?

You have black and blues, but they're not really black and blue. What are they? They're purple and blue. So that may be the significance of these colors. There's the blood of Christ. He was beaten bloody, beaten black and blue.

Jesus, as a man of sorrows, this may be pointing ahead to his wounds. And then also, it's talking about the wood that's used in the ark is acacia wood. All right, why do we need to know what kind of wood it is?

Does it matter? Well, I thought this was interesting. The acacia wood, the Hebrew word that's derived, that it's derived from, is the word for scourging. And Jesus was scourged. So acacia wood, it's believed, had thorns on it and was used for harming people.

And of course, Jesus was crowned with the crown of thorns. He was beaten, having wounds of blue and purple. So all of that might be the symbolism that is pictured here. And someone could say, well, I don't think that's what it means.

Well, if anyone has a better explanation, I'm willing to listen. But I think that's what it's pointing to.

Jim.

I saw they color blue and representing the Holy Spirit. So what's going on here is you have the Trinity.

Okay.

Christ, the Holy Spirit, and God.

So where do you get the blue representing the Holy Spirit?

The Holy Spirit is always represented as blue or a color of blue.

Is there a verse, though, or something we can point to?

You never see the blue, though.

He's never seen a blue dove. Well, if you think of a verse,.

Let me know.

But as of now, that's what I'm going with. The marks of the sufferings of Christ. So verse one talks about the artistic designs of the cherubim. So in order to weave them into the curtains, you had to know what they look like.

You can say an angel or a cherubim. But how does Moses know what this thing looks like or Bezalel, who would actually be the one doing the work? How do they know what a cherubim looked like? But remember, it tells us verse 30.

Skip ahead to verse 30. Moses knows because God showed him a picture. The Lord says, and you shall raise up the tabernacle according to what? To its pattern, which you were shown on the mountain. So we talked about this last week.

The tabernacle on earth was a copy of the true tabernacle in heaven. So Moses got a glimpse into what these things look like. And in heaven, there would be angels all around, right? So in heaven, if you're there, you'd look around and see the cherubim all around.

Well, that's what you saw here. In the earthly tabernacle, you look around and the cherubim are woven in everywhere. So this is a copy of that real tabernacle or true tabernacle in heaven. And then of course you have the two cherubim, which would have been on top of the ark,.

On the lid,.

On the mercy seat. Isaiah 37, 16 says, O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, the one who dwells between the cherubim. You are God, you alone of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth.

So God is said to be the God who dwells between the cherubim. Therefore, the ark, I believe represents the throne of God. So this is like heaven's throne room and the ark is God's throne or more specifically his footstool.

So the ark of the covenant is God's footstool. How do we know this? Well, Psalm 132 verse seven, the Psalmist writes, let us go into his tabernacle and let us worship at his footstool. So the Lord would appear where?

When Moses went in, he would commune with God between what? God would appear between the cherubim. So God's up here and his footstool is the ark of the covenant.

All right,.

Everyone following along?

All right, good.

The Holy Place, the Most Holy Place, and Access to God

So God cares about the details in the tabernacle because all of these things are meant to teach us something. Certainly meant to teach Moses and the Israelites something about God and who he is and what he was going to do, his holy character.

Another thing we see and you may have picked up on this last week in regards to the tabernacle, the Lord starts with describing the inside. He starts by describing what's on the inner sanctum,.

So to speak,.

And then he works his way out, right? So what does that tell us? God cares about the details. He starts on the inside, working its way out. That's what he does with his people. He starts with us working on the inside and then from there works its way out.

So it's not that the outside doesn't matter. The outside does matter, but the inside matters more. So when you first came to faith, God worked on your heart, right? And renewed your mind. And it might have taken a little while before that started to show up on the outside.

So God, that's what he does. He starts working on the inside, moving out. Remember what Jesus said? He said, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish that the outside of them may be clean. Also look at verses 31 and 32 says, you shall make a veil woven of blue, purple, and scarlet thread and fine woven linen.

It shall be woven with an artistic design of cherubim, and you shall hang it upon the four pillars of acacia wood overlaid with gold. Their hooks shall be gold upon four sockets of silver. So details are given regarding the tabernacle, its furniture, and even the veil.

And all of these things would have displayed a great deal of beauty. Blue, purple. Purple is very rare back in those days. The gold and the silver. So this was all very, very beautiful. Now we want to spend some time on the veil here.

And I guess you could sort of see it right here because the veil blocked everyone from the, the Holy, the most Holy place, Charles Ryrie. How many of you are familiar with Charles Ryrie? Well-known theologian from Dallas Theological Seminary.

Ryrie says about the veil that according to Jewish writings, the veil,.

Get this.

It was four inches thick.

So this,.

I don't even know. Is that even possible?

I mean,.

So here's this veil, four inches thick, impossible to see through,.

Obviously,.

But also impossible to rip. No human being could tear this thing. And more on that in just a few minutes. Verse 33, and you shall hang the veil from the class, and you shall bring the arc of the testimony in there behind the.

Veil.

The veil shall be a divider for you between the Holy place and the most Holy. Notice that the veil is to act as what a divider. So once again, this is showing us the unapproachable nature of God, because where is,.

You know,.

God's everywhere. God is omnipresent, omnipresent, but really he's dwelling here. The arc is the presence of God. So the veil is blocking. It's dividing. It's keeping people away from God. Nobody can approach the Lord who could enter into other than Moses communing with God, who is allowed other than Moses to enter into the right, the high priest.

And how often was he able to do it?

Once,.

Right?

Once a year on the day of atonement, look at verse 34, and there's going to be symbolism and meaning. And that we'll see it in a moment. Verse 34, you shall put the mercy seat upon the arc of the testimony in the most.

Holy,.

And you shall set the table outside the veil and the lamp stand across from the table on the side of the tabernacle toward the South. And you shall put the table on the North.

Side.

So this is where you see this picture, just to help you get a visual of these things. That's one thing to read it or to hear it read. It's another thing to kind of visualize it. There's the court of the tabernacle, which was large.

Okay.

There's a large area around it. Then there's the tent or the, the tabernacle proper, which was the smaller structure inside. Inside the tent, there is two chambers, the most Holy place containing the arc, and then the Holy place containing the menorah table and the altar of incense.

And again,.

Only the high priest was allowed to enter the Holy of Holies once a year. So this is God's throne room with the arc. Here's the thing. Most Israelites would have never been able to get anywhere near all this.

I mean,.

The Israelites could be out here, but they really were blocked. Certainly they couldn't see the most Holy place. They weren't allowed in here. Who is allowed in the Holy place, the priests. And from what I understand, only Levites were allowed in this outer court area.

So,.

You know,.

Joe Israelite from the tribe of Ruben,.

You know,.

He's,.

He's outside. He never gets to see any of this. So God is among his people. He's dwelling with his people. Yet at the same time,.

He's still,.

He's still separate or set apart from his people. So all of this would have communicated something that God is Holy and the people need to be kept at a distance. So the priests get to come into the Holy place.

They get a little closer. The high priest gets to go in before the arc once a year on the day of atonement and the priest entering in once a year. He is acting as a type of Christ. He is able to come near to God on behalf of God's elect people.

So here's the symbolism.

All right,.

Jesus who died for our sins. He entered in heaven. He entered into the most Holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. And that's what Hebrews 9,.

12 says.

So all these things that were happening here in the book of Exodus, it all pictures what Christ did on the cross. And then afterward entering into the throne room when he ascended into.

Heaven, right?

He is our great high priest.

Good.

So we understand the symbolism. Hopefully any comments or questions so far,.

Right?

Yeah.

So God,.

Yeah,.

God told him to do that. And by the time of Jesus, there was a sect called the Sadducees who did not believe in angels.

Yeah.

And how they justified that. Who knows? They were obviously wrong. Normally we view the,.

You know,.

We look at the scribes and the Pharisees and they were, they were the bad guys,.

Right?

And it's true.

They were,.

But they were right about a lot of things. The Sadducees, they were the bad guys too, but they really didn't believe. They're like the liberals of our day because there are people in churches. They profess to be Christians.

They don't believe in angels. They don't believe in the resurrection of the dead. They don't believe that the Bible is, or all of the Bible is authoritative. Only some parts. And the Sadducees, they believed in the first five books of Moses.

So they would say, but they didn't believe the rest of it, that that wasn't authoritative. Long story short,.

There,.

There was that kind of thing going on in Bible times. And we have the same type of thing going on today with the, like the liberal unbelief and then the, maybe the more conservative Bible believing.

But,.

You know,.

Just because you're in one camp or the other doesn't mean you are of God. Necessarily, because there's bad, bad people that hate God and hate God's word mixed throughout. There's false prophets in both groups is what I'm trying to say.

So does that,.

I don't know.

Does that answer your question?

Okay.

Anything else?

All right.

The Torn Veil and Bold Access Through Christ

So 1500 years later, after Exodus 26, Jesus is crucified. He makes atonement. And do you remember what happened? Remember going back to the veil?

Right.

It was torn top to bottom. And no human being could have torn it anyways. But the fact that it was torn top to bottom lets us know that it was, it was God who, who tore the veil. What was the purpose of the veil?

Yeah.

To divide, to keep people out. No one was really able to approach God except, except the high priest. So there's more symbolism. So the problem of sin at Christ's death has been dealt with.

Therefore,.

That barrier of sin and guilt, that barrier has now been removed. So God tears the veil. And now it's symbolic for men, having believers, having access to God. God has, has opened the way through the blood of Christ.

The Bible says in Hebrews 10, 19 through 22,.

Therefore,.

Brethren having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he consecrated for us through the veil. That is his flesh and having a high priest over the house of God.

Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith. So that's the symbolism that now we can walk through. And now we all have access into, into God's, into God's presence through faith. Also has been said that the furniture in the holy place speaks of three obligations that we have to the Lord.

So prayer, that's one obligation we have to God. That's represented by what here,.

What,.

What piece of furniture would represent prayer?

Yeah.

The golden altar of incense. So incense, as the smoke goes up, that represents the prayers that go up. What represents communion or, or fellowship? The table of showbread represents communion and fellowship.

And then the lamp stand is believed to represent the illumination of truth. And of course, Christ is the, is the light of the world. And he gives light to those who follow him. I like to read from what Matthew Henry wrote about verses 31 through 37.

He says a veil or curtain separated the holy place from the most holy place. It was hung upon pillars. This veil was a partition between the holy place and the most holy, which forbade any to look into the holiest of all.

The apostle tells us what was the meaning of the veil in Hebrews nine,.

Eight.

I think he's saying that the apostle Paul wrote Hebrews. I think that's what Matthew Henry is saying. That's another story for another day, but it says in Hebrews nine,.

Eight,.

That the ceremonial law could not make. This is what is communicating that the ceremonial law could not make the comers there unto perfect, nor would the observance of it, bring men to heaven. The way into the holiest of all was not made manifest.

While the tabernacle, the first tabernacle was standing life and immortality lay hidden till they were brought to light by the gospel, which was signified by the rending of this veil at the death of Christ to where we now have boldness to enter into the holiest in all acts of worship by the blood of Jesus.

So I,.

Every time I read what Matthew Henry says about these passages,.

I always,.

I always get something from it. I hope you do as well.

The Priesthood of All Believers and Our Sacrifices to God

All right.

So because we understand the gospel, we understand what Christ did. We no longer like the Israelites have to go through,.

You know,.

All these hoops to get to God. We don't have to go through rights in rituals. We don't have to go through a priest acting as a mediator in order to get to God. The Israelites did right. The Israelites are kept at a distance and for them to get to God, they had to go to the priest who would then go in to God for them.

And even they really couldn't get into God except the high priest. So you see what's happening in the old Testament. All that's done away with all of it's done away with. So now as believers under the new covenant, we have access to God through who,.

Right?

You remember the verse last time there is one God, first Timothy two, five, there's one God and one mediator between God and men. Christ Jesus. So we can go directly to God through Christ. We don't need to jump through all of these hoops to approach God or to go through someone else to get to God.

That system of a priesthood is old Testament. All of that has been fulfilled. That is not something you see in the new Testament. Have you ever read through the new Testament and notice like, where's the priesthood right?

In the old Testament, there's a priesthood in some churches today. There's a priesthood. Isn't it funny how there's nothing about any priesthood in the new Testament.

Scriptures.

There's bishops and there's deacons and there's the saints, but there's no priesthood or is there? Well, there actually is a priesthood, but all of these things that we're talking about tonight and last week and what we're going to talk about in the next few weeks, all of this is types foreshadows, and it's all pointing to Christ and pointing to the gospel.

So the purpose of these things was to teach the people that when Christ did come, Hey, wait, now this all makes sense. And we see how this is pointing us to Jesus. Hebrews four 16 says, let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

So remember in the old Testament, only priests were allowed to come near. So how are we able to come near to God? Yeah, but we are. Now we have been made kings and priests Hebrew, or excuse me, a revelation chapter one six that says that Christ has made us.

He's made believers kings and priests to his God. So in the old Testament, only a select few were allowed to be priests, but now in the new covenant, which is a better covenant, all of God's people are priests.

So if you are saved, you are a priest. There is no special priesthood in the new Testament because everyone's a.

Priest. All right.

That's not a new thought for everyone. You've heard of this,.

Right?

The priesthood of all believers. This is a doctrine that was rediscovered during the Protestant reformation because the reformers understood this and they saw this teaching in the Bible where the Catholic church still had their, their special priesthood, which is only open to a select few.

So that, that religion that Rome practices today and even the Orthodox churches, their religion is more old Testament religion because they have this priesthood and they're claiming to offer physical sacrifices of bread and wine.

So really what they're doing is more old Testament and they have to go to the old Testament really to defend it. So now that we have the priesthood of all believers,.

Um,.

First Peter. Two, five, you remember what Peter wrote about this? Who is he writing to?

Peter? He's writing,.

He's,.

Well,.

He's writing to Christians. He's directing it towards Jewish believers,.

Maybe,.

But he's writing to Christians and he calls them a holy priesthood that we offer up spiritual sacrifices. That's what he said. So if we confess our sin to God and believe in Christ,.

Did the death,.

Uh,.

Believe in the gospel through the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, we have this access to God and it does play out in your day to day life. Have you ever noticed that sometimes an unbeliever might come to you and ask you to pray for them?

Well,.

Why don't they pray directly to God? I think some of them, they instinctively know that they don't have access to God. So they go to a Christian asking the Christian to pray to God for them. And that's completely appropriate because that's one of the responsibilities of,.

Of a priest.

So when you're asked to pray on behalf of an unbeliever, it's because you're part of the, the Royal, the Royal priesthood. I think it's really unfortunate that in our day and age, and even we know better, but still when people hear the word priest, they think of some guy in a weird outfit or some guy with an upside down collar.

And that's really unfortunate because that's,.

That's,.

That has nothing to do with, with what the priesthood is about. So there is the old Testament priesthood. There is the new Testament priesthood. And we are part of that new Testament priesthood of, of all believers.

So with all of that said, the Lord gives Moses all of these details that we all heard and read through. Moses gives, the Lord gives Moses all these details about the tabernacle in the proper way to worship him.

He does the same for us. The Lord gives us details so that we're not in the dark. We have all the details of how to properly worship God. And let's just close with a few of these. What is our duty? What is your duty as being a member of this new covenant Royal priesthood?

Well,.

Romans chapter 12 should have come to mind. What does it say? Because you have sacrifices to offer. Thankfully, not of, not of animals.

Right.

Romans 12, one says, present your bodies was a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And then Hebrews 13, 15 and 16 says,.

Therefore,.

By him, let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God. That is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name. But do not forget to do good and to share for with such sacrifices. God is well pleased.