God Dwelling Among Us - Exodus 25 : 23 - 40

Please turn with me to Exodus chapter 25 verses 23 to 40. Exodus chapter 25 verses 23 to 40. You shall also make a table of acacia wood, two cubits shall be its length, a cubit its width, and a cubit and a half its height.

And you shall overlay it with pure gold and make a molding of gold all around. You shall make for it a frame of a hand breath all around, and you shall make a gold molding for the frame all around. And you shall make it for it four rings of gold and put the rings on the four corners that are at its four legs.

The rings shall be close to the frame as holders for the poles to bear the table. And you shall make the poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold that the table may be carried with them. You shall make its dishes, its pans, its pitchers and its bowls for pouring.

You shall make them of pure gold and you shall set the show bread on the table before me always. You shall also make a lamp stand of pure gold. The lamp stand shall be of hammered work, its shaft, its branches, its bowls, its ornamental knobs and flowers shall be of one piece.

And six branches shall come out of its sides, three branches of the lamp stand out of one side and the three branches of the lamp stand out of the other side. Three bowls shall be made like almond blossoms on one branch with an ornamental knob and a flower and three bowls made like almond blossoms on the other branch with an ornamental knob and a flower.

And so for the six branches that come out of the lamp stand. On the lamp stand itself, four bowls shall be made like almond blossoms each with its ornamental knob and flower. And there shall be a knob under the first two branches of the same, a knob under the second two branches of the same, and a knob under the third two branches of the same, according to the six branches that extend from the lampstand.

Their knob and their branches shall be of one piece. All of it shall be one hammered piece of pure gold. You shall make seven lamps for it. They shall arrange its lamps so that they give light in front of it.

And its wick trimmers and their trays shall be of pure gold. It shall be made of a talent of pure gold with all these utensils, and see to it that you make them according to the pattern which was shown you on the mountain.

This is the word of the Lord. Let us pray. Father, we're so thankful that we get to worship a God who dwells among his people, a God who is so holy, yet would choose to dwell among sinners like us, and that you would send your son, Jesus, to die on the cross for our sins so that you may dwell with us to take care of the sin once and for all.

We pray that this word that we read today would be delightful in our hearts and would transform our hearts in how we view you and how we view each other. In Jesus' name, amen. So we are continuing on the whole series of chapter 25 unto chapter 31 on preparation for God, the Lord God, to dwell among Israel.

And this mini-series is so important, although our eyes may glaze over whenever we read them, it was so important to Israel because for the first time since the Garden of Eden, God was dwelling with his people.

And of course, it wasn't just like the Garden of Eden because of the reality of sin, but God was making a way in which he would dwell with his people. And this is really important because as God's history unfolds, how God dwells with his people changes.

In fact, it intensifies, right? Now we're going over the tabernacle, the tent of dwelling in which God would dwell among Israel. And the New Testament authors are going to catch that and note that God dwelt among his people as a human being when he became man in the flesh, Jesus Christ.

And in order to create a permanent, more intimate dwelling, Jesus himself died for our sin so that the holy God may dwell among his people in a more personal and relational way than ever before. And that's the reality of the church, right?

The church, not as the building, but as the people, they are the people in which the Holy Spirit of God dwell. When we gather to worship the Lord, God is among us. And that's what Revelation 1 that Richard read, it's Jesus who is among the lampstands who are the seven churches, right?

Jesus is among us in the church. And that's why it's so important to gather together because that's how we experience God's presence. And of course, although we're reading in Exodus and it's a different covenant and it's a different, right, different testament, right, yet we still have principles to learn from how God dwells among his people.

It is different, but the principles do not change, right? Scripture is still fruitful, beneficial, profitable for the church, right? All scripture. So the main question that this text asks is how will the Lord dwell among his people?

How will the Lord dwell among his people? This question is really important because we actually live in a time where people are interested in spirituality, right? You will actually notice there are fewer atheists than 10 years ago or even 20 years ago.

It's actually become unpopular to be an atheist. Yet people don't want to actually pursue the true God according to his way, right? They would say, yeah, I am spiritual. They don't wanna say I'm a Christian or I belong to a church, but rather I'm spiritual.

But they want to approach God their way. But even since the Old Testament, God made sure when the Lord dwells among his people, he will do it his way. So this question is really important this morning because we get to learn how the Lord dwell among his people, his way.

First, the Lord feasts among his people. Verses 23 to 30, the Lord feasts among his people. The tabernacle or sanctuary which we went over, we started last week, we went over the ark, right? And then the ark here and also the mercy seat.

That was the core centerpiece of the whole tabernacle, right? That was the meeting place for the Lord and his people. And this is an estimate of what it could have looked like because again, we don't know where the ark is.

There are many speculations. I would love to talk to you after the sermon, but it's super interesting.

But we don't know where it is.

And think of the tabernacle as the palace for a king, right? It was a portable palace. Remember at this point, Israel did not have a human king. Israel had a divine king. The Lord was their king, which means the tabernacle was the dwelling place of the Lord.

It would serve as a portable palace for the King of Israel, the true King of Israel, the Lord. And last week, we went over the section, a cubic section of the Holy of Holies, which consisted of the ark, right?

And also the top of the ark, the mercy seat, in which the atoning sacrifice for the sin of the nation of Israel would be done once a year by the high priest, very important. And that's where the Lord chose to encounter his people.

And from the Holy of Holies, we move out to the holy place. This is the second most holy place, right? The Holy of Holies was the utmost holy location, and then we move out and we get the holy place, the sanctuary, right?

Consider this the front room of the palace, the room where you can enter the palace and you can see it, right? The room that is, in fact, visible from the outside as the curtain is open. And we have just moved from the, we, think of us as touring through the palace, even though none of us would have been able to enter this a couple thousand years ago, because we're not Jews nor Levites, but think of this as a tour of the throne room and then we move out to the living room of the king's palace, right?

If that helps you, think of it that way, from his most private room to the living room. And inside the living room, the first furniture introduced is the table. And I have a picture of it for us to imagine what it could have looked like.

Of course, we don't know where the table is even. But this is an estimate, right, of what it could have looked like. So verse 24, actually verse 23, starts with the dimensions. It's similar to the ark and the mercy seat in which it starts with the dimensions, right?

You shall also make a table of acacia wood, two cubits shall be its length, a cubit its width, and a cubit and a half its height. And for those of you who don't use cubits anymore, the top is three by 1 .5 feet, and then the height is 2 .5 feet.

So it's about a normal-sized table. Now, verse 24 tells us the material for the overlay. And you shall overlay it with pure gold and make a molding of gold all around. Now, similar to the ark, the table will be made out of acacia wood, right, of a light yet hard and durable wood.

And it would be overlaid with pure gold. And remember, pure gold is extra special. It's extra precious gold because it went through extra steps of purification process to remove all sorts of impurities.

The physical purity, of course, would signify the spiritual purity of the divine, right? For the holy deity who dwells in the tabernacle, even his dining room table will be free of all impurities, right, the physical pot, Israel, the spiritual reality.

Now, verse 25 describes the design of the table top. You shall make for it a frame of hen breath all around, and you shall make a gold molding for the frame all around. The frame of the top probably existed right here to prevent the materials on top of the table, such as the bread and also the pitcher, from falling.

As you remember, the table will be transported in the wilderness. So it existed to protect the precious dishware from sliding off the table. After all, this was not just any common table, but a king's table.

It would have been highly inappropriate for anything to fall from the king's table. Then verses 26 to 28 show how this table ought to be carried. And you shall make of it, for it four rings of gold, and put the rings on the four corners that are at its four legs.

The ring shall be close to the frame as holders for the poles to bear the table. And you shall make the poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold that the table may be carried with them. This is very similar to the tabernacle, the Ark of the Covenant itself from last week, right?

Because it's a portable palace, everything described in this chapter had to be removable and carried by Israel. The fact that the table, similar to the Ark, had to be carried by golden overlaid poles shows the holiness of the Lord.

The Lord's table could not be touched by bare hands. There were multiple degrees of separation from the Lord's table to a common Israelite, right? For example, out of all the 12 tribes of Israel, only the Levites were allowed to carry the table.

And in fact, even among the Levites, a certain clan of the Levites were designated to take care of the table and carry them, carry it. And again, the physical phenomena taught Israel a spiritual lesson, right?

It was the spiritual reality in which Israel would deal with a holy God. They could not just approach the Lord, not even the table, willy-nilly, right? This God was totally, utterly other. That His holiness required His table, even His table, to be separated even from His own people.

People could not directly approach His dining room table. In verses 29 to 30 detail what materials would be found on top of the table. Verse 29 describes the exquisite dishware. You shall make its dishes, its pans, its pitchers, and its bowls for pouring.

You shall make them of pure gold. Just like the table's overlay, all of the dishware that the Lord, that would be presented in front of the Lord, would be made out of pure gold. This is even more exquisite than any gold.

And verse 30 describes the bread. And you shall set the showbread on the table before me always, continually. The showbread is sometimes translated as the bread of presence. This is not because the Lord is present in the bread, as some denominations may believe and inject, right?

But rather, it's because the bread is always in the presence of the Lord.

Right?

The bread is always set before the Lord because it is His dwelling place. So in fact, the bread, actually the 12 loaves of bread, as Leviticus 24, five through nine explains, the 12 loaves of bread had to be baked every week, made out of the finest flour, arranged in two rows of six, probably representing each tribe of Israel, and it would be set before the Lord even when they're transporting.

Hence, it was so important that the poles were near the top of the table rather than at the bottom legs, right? They understood physics back then. They knew how the center of gravity worked, right? We don't, we sometimes easily have this pompous, prideful mindset of the ancient people, but the ancient people knew how to construct things really well without degrees.

And the significance of the show bread is it was only allowed to be consumed by the priestly family. Not every Israelite, just the priestly family. The show bread was a continual show of appreciation and adoration to the Lord while other sacrifices were only momentary and dependent on specific circumstances.

The show bread were always present before the Lord at all times, right? In fact, they would travel with the tabernacle intact. It was an endless showing of thanksgiving. And just like any magnificent king, the Lord required the best of the best when it came to what was presented before him, right?

All the dishware made out of pure gold, the table overlaid with pure gold, and the bread of presents made out of the finest flour. Although the Lord did not literally consume the bread, right, the Lord does not need to eat bread like we do.

All this effort showed and taught Israel what kind of king dwelt among Israel. How holy and magnificent this king must be to feast like that daily. Under the Mosaic Covenant, however, the table was closed.

Under the Mosaic Covenant, only the priests could enjoy the bread a week after it was freshly baked. The Lord, so to say, quote unquote, dined alone. Although the Bible begins with the solitary meal in the tabernacle for the Lord, it ends with a feast with a multitude.

In Revelation 19, six through nine, the Apostle John shows us a great wedding feast. And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude as the sound of many waters and the sound of mighty thunderings saying, Alleluia, for the Lord God omnipotent reigns.

Let us be glad and rejoice and give him glory for the marriage of the lamb has come and his wife has made herself ready. And to her, it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright for the fine linen in the righteous acts of the saints.

Then he said to me, right, blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the lamb. And he said to me, these are the true sayings of God. Although under the old covenant, that feast, that exquisite feast was always present before the Lord for him alone.

Under the new covenant, Jesus makes a way for his people to be invited to even a greater feast in heaven. And how he did it was he died for his own bride. The bridegroom, Jesus Christ, died for the sin of his bride, his people, the church, in order that the bride may be pure and clean for the feast prepared for them both.

And Jesus did so on the cross when he faced the wrath of God for our sin so that we may be found in him clean, holy, and pure. Under the old covenant, that table wasn't supposed to be permanently for a feast alone, but a greater feast that's coming prepared by the bridegroom, Jesus himself, with the food that is more exquisite than any food prepared in Exodus.

Second, how did Israel experience the presence of the Lord? The Lord's presence continually shines among his people. The Lord's presence continually shines among his people. When we look across the table, verse 31 introduces a lampstand, or what we would normally call menorah.

This might be one of the few Hebrew words we know, menorah. The lampstand looks like this. I found a zoomed-in photo of it to focus on the design, the floral design, because those are harder to imagine.

I mean, we are, thanks to God, still aware of what menorah looks like, the lampstand. We kinda are familiar with that symbol. Now, the lampstand would stand across the table. It would be in the same room.

Verse 31 starts with, "'You shall also make a lampstand of pure gold. "'The lampstand shall be of hammered work. "'Its shaft, its branches, its bowls, "'its ornamental knobs and flowers shall be of one piece.'".

Unlike the previous furnishing, we are not given the exact dimensions for the lampstand. Many commentators assume it to be really, really tall. This is not a mini lampstand, lamp you might have next to your bed.

And similar to the previous temple furniture, this lampstand is also made out of the best gold, the pure gold. However, it's not a pure gold overlay, but rather, it's solidly pure gold. It's completely made out of pure gold.

The whole structure is of one single piece of pure gold. By looking only at the material, one can only imagine how significant and expensive this lampstand would have been. Now, what did it look like?

Verse 32 shows the structure of the lampstand. "'And six branches shall come out of its sides, "'three branches of the lampstand out of one side, "'and three branches of the lampstand on the other side.'".

So these would be the three on one side and three on the other side. And of course, the one that's going up, which makes it seven. This lampstand looks like a tree. It has seven branches. And biblically, seven is a significant number because it's a number of perfection, it's a number of completion.

It's when God rested, after creating all things in six days, he rested on the seventh day, right? That's why seven's really significant here. Verses 33 to 37 show the intricate design of the lamp and the branches.

And I will read them uninterrupted so that we could picture it better with the picture in front. And a little warning is, because we don't have the existing lampstand, any picture you might find on Google is just an estimation, right?

So it's important for us not to cling to one picture and hold on to that, as that must have been the lampstand. "'Three bowls shall be made like almond blossoms "'on one branch, with an ornamental knobs and a flower, "'and three bowls made like almond blossoms "'on the other branch, with an ornamental knob "'and a flower, and so for the six branches "'that come out of the lampstand.

"'On the lampstand itself, four bowls shall be made "'like almond blossoms, each with its ornamental knob "'and flower, and there shall be a knob "'under the first two branches of the same, "'a knob under the second two branches of the same, "'and a knob under the third two branches of the same, "'according to the six branches "'that extend from the lampstand.

"'The knob and their branches shall be of one piece. "'All of it shall be one hammered piece of pure gold. "'You shall make seven lamps for it, "'and they shall arrange its lamps "'so that they give light in front of it.'".

So the lamps are actually the tip top of the lampstand, and we do see the, actually it got cut off here, mainly because the picture didn't have it, but these would be called the lamps, right? And we can see, actually, the floral almond flower blossom design, and these would be knobs that it's talking about.

Really intricate, really hard to even picture in your mind. That's why I spend a lot of time searching it online on the internet. It's just so hard to imagine. I don't even know what an almond blossom looks like.

Now, this is such a complex design, that a picture is really helpful to see. And some speculate that the lampstand looked like the tree of life in the Garden of Eden because of its botanical illustration, right?

Detail, almond blossoms, branches. But since not many of us have actually seen the tree of life or even the lamp, it is impossible to verify the claim. It sounds cool, it sounds like a great speculation, but again, it's really hard to know how, unless the Bible tells us it was the tree of life, we really can't know that.

It's a speculation. However, here's one thing we can learn from the botanical design. The almond design, the almond blossom, is significant because the almond blossom symbolized watchfulness. The word for almond in Hebrew and the verb to watch have the same three consonants.

The fact that this lamp had almond blossom design showed that the Lord was always watching over his people.

Right?

This is, and this wordplay gets played in Jeremiah 1 as well when Jeremiah sees an almond branch and then the Lord says, I'm watching over.

Right?

This wordplay is present in the Old Testament. Now, why is this important? Remember, as they're journeying through the wilderness, they don't have RVs, right? They don't have fortresses. They're camping outside every night in a tent, right?

Not RVs, not protective hard structures. And as they're setting up camp, the tabernacle would be at the center of their encampment. All the tribes of Israel would camp in concentric circles around the tabernacle.

And the wilderness, of course, is a scary and dark place. At night, wild animals howl. At night, bandits come alive, right? They become active. That's when they steal a mug. And at night, foreign armies could easily ambush.

And at night, it was dark. And there's something about darkness that is inherently and naturally frightening, even to modern day audience, right? When there is a blackout, we feel out of control, right?

We scramble to look for a candle that may not even be present in the house. And imagine that's what the Israelites were experiencing every night, right? Sure, there was some fire for cooking, right? I'm sure they made fire for cooking.

But that fire doesn't last all night. It has to go out. After all, they have to sleep. And if no one's watching the fire, that's a huge danger to a tribe. So at one point, every night, it will be pitch dark, except at the center of the camp, they would see light coming out of the tabernacle.

And it would be the lampstand. And then light from this lampstand burning brightly all night. In the darkest hour of the night, the lampstand will be the only source of light. Not only that, the design of the lampstand would remind them the Lord is awake and is watching over you.

The Lord who is watchful. And every Israelite would have experienced that presence of God. And found the utmost comfort. All they had to do was just walk out of their tent and see, look over to the Lord's palace.

And there would be light shining out. And similar to the table, the utensils that needed, that was used for the upkeep of the lamp was all made out of pure gold. And the wick trimmers and their trays shall be of pure gold.

It shall be made of a talent of pure gold with all these utensils. For many of us who do not know the ancient unit of talent, it is about 75 pounds of pure gold. In today's heavily inflated currency, a talent of gold costs about $2 ,006 ,000.

The lampstand and its utensils were precious because it represented God's continual watchful presence among His people. And verse 40 clarifies how the lampstand needs to be made. And see to it that you make them according to the pattern which was shown you on the mountain.

I think we can find comfort in that. It's hard for us to imagine what the lampstand looked like. And it was hard for Moses too. So God had to show it to him on the mountain. And it cannot be just described with words.

This means what we have is just a summary of what the lampstand looked like. And any replica we can find on Google would only be just a mere attempt to visualize this heavenly lampstand. And as I've mentioned, these artifacts, we don't have the original artifacts anymore.

This pure lampstand has been missing for millennia. Some speculate the Romans took it after the temple's fall. Some say maybe it wasn't even there during Solomon's reign because Solomon made 10 lampstands.

We don't know. There's just no one alive who has seen the light from the lampstand. And how does the church experience God's illuminating presence, his watchful presence without the physical lampstand?

The apostle John in Revelation 112 tells us what he sees in a vision of not one lampstand, but seven lampstands. Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me, and having turned, I saw seven golden lampstands.

And in the midst of the seven lampstands, one like the son of man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band. And in verse 20, as Richard read to us this morning, the lampstands represent the seven churches.

The church does not look for a physical external lampstand. To be assured that God's presence is there. The church itself experiences God's presence because the church is the lampstand. The church is the source of light to the dark world to show God's watchful presence.

Those who are scared, to those who are confused, to those who are sinful, to those who are lost. Under the new covenant, the Lord's presence shines among his people because they are the lampstands. And the Lord himself is among them, right?

The lampstand was only special because it stood before the presence of the Lord. And in Revelation 1, we find out the Lord Jesus Christ is standing among the lampstands himself. That's why the church can experience God's presence and allow the lost people in the fringe to come see God's presence.

That's the significance of the church in this dark, chaotic world. The local churches are the lampstands that allow the world to witness the presence of God. But not only that, the church people get to witness the presence of God when we gather in person, right?

And how does the church continue to shine brightly? Our source of fuel is not olive oil, but Christ himself. So when you do read onto Revelations 2 and 3, goes over the seven churches, most of them are failing at one point.

Two of them do not get rebuked. But here's what we ought to do in order to run on the fuel of Jesus, our focus being Jesus. To the church of Ephesus, Jesus says, don't lose the first love. A loveless church is one of the saddest churches.

A church that was so excited about Jesus upon hearing the gospel at first. Now they're just a shell and they're practicing correct doctrines, but for what cause?

For whom?

Their heart for Christ has grown so cold. Second, to the church of Pergamum, don't compromise with false teaching. Don't accept false teaching. And this is so relevant to the churches in America today.

We want to easily compromise. Well, I guess scripture could be read this way so that the gay people can marry, right? I guess the scripture could be read this way so that women could preach. That's compromise.

Third, Thyatira, don't tolerate sin. Churches that allow for continual abuse and sin, Jesus will remove that lampstand. Churches that are scared of the opinions of man, they will lose their ability to shine in the world.

Jesus does not need a church that acts just like the world. Sardis, don't be spiritually dead. There are people, there's no way of knowing if they're even Christian, but they claim to be Christians. That's a scary place to be.

And those people will lose their lampstand. They can't shine brightly when they are not running on Jesus. Fifth, Laodicea, often known as a lukewarm church, don't be self-sufficient. When churches rely on their own strength and their own power to get things done rather than to rely on Christ himself, they can't shine brightly because they're no longer trusting Christ, but trusting themselves only.

Any church that loses its focus on Christ ceases to be the shining lampstand in the world. In fact, they join the world instead. And that's a scary place to be when the church loses its light. And I'm glad to say this church has not lost its light.

The Lord has graciously provided the lampstand with its fuel for 75 years according to Diane this year. And from reading Exodus, we learn what it means for God's people to experience his illuminating, watchful presence.

Although it's about the physical matter, the physical phenomena teach us the spiritual reality. And it applies to us today. Let us pray. Father, we are thankful for all that you've done and thankful for your watchful presence in this church for so long and thankful for your faithfulness to not abandon us and to not remove the lampstand among us.

And we're also mostly thankful for Jesus who is among us. He's the true light. He's the true source of light. We're thankful that he has not left us, but he's always with us. In Jesus' name.

Please stand.