According To The Pattern

According to the Pattern

Exodus 25-27

We serve an amazing God. He is the one and only God of gods, King of kings, and Lord of lords. He is high and lifted up, and His train fills His heavenly temple. There is none like Him, and all of His creation will either bow before Him in love and reverence, or in fear and force, but they all will definitely bow.

Though He is all-powerful, all-knowing, and ever-present, one thing I find so amazing, or maybe I should say, mind-boggling, is the fact that God not only loves us, but that He is not content with staying in the heavenly realm and separate from us. He wants to be with us. He wants to dwell in the midst of His people. He wants to renew the relationship we once had with Him, and to me, that's amazing. It's mind-boggling because we are still in this flesh and we trip up, fail, and fall all the time. Like the Israelites of old, we disregard Him. We are disobedient. We think of ourselves first. We are controlled by our bellies and our desires.

But He still loves us and wants to be with us. This is why Moses went up the mountain. God called him up to give him some instructions in what needed to happen before He could dwell with the people. The Israelites had been consecrated and washed their clothes, but for God to have a more permanent presence among them, there were some things that they needed to construct. Everything that they needed to build, God was very clear in saying that there could be no tweaking His instructions, no improvising, no trying to make it "better." In this regard, it was God's way or the highway.

If they wanted God to dwell among them, then they had to do it His way, not their way. Like I said last week, "You can't just come to Him willy nilly." So, these chapters are really a pivotal point. The beginning of Exodus detailed God's redemption from Egyptian slavery. In this section, God gives the people specific instructions in how to build a tent of meeting for Him to dwell in, and what it was to be constructed of, and the furniture it was to be filled with. The last 16 chapters of Exodus deals with the proper worship of God with a brief interruption with the Golden Calf and the contrast between divinely appointed worship and worship that is not divinely appointed.

As I also mentioned last week, in essence, God was reintroducing Himself to His people who had been in slavery for 400 years. Prior to this point, the Israelites had no structured form of worship dictated to them. The patriarch’s built altars in various places after significant events in their lives. We have no idea what the form of worship was while in Egypt, but I think it's a safe bet that life and religion in Egypt had greatly influenced whatever ways and means of worship they had. So now, God is instructing them in how to properly offer Him their worship.

As we will see, an important key to understanding this section is found in verse 9 of chapter 25 where God tells Moses that he must construct everything according to a specific pattern. Exodus 25:9 "As for the tabernacle and all its furniture, so you shall make it, according to the pattern which I am going to show you."

According to the pattern. Now, I've read several studies on the tabernacle and many of them go into great detail about each and every item and the spiritual meaning or relationship behind them. However, I think we ought to be careful to not read more into what God has revealed to us through His word than is there. I say this because we simply do not have enough information from God to know what all the pictures are. He has told us that Deuteronomy 29:29 The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we may observe all the words of this law.

So, instead of getting highly speculative, let's see where Christ is revealed to us in the wilderness tabernacle and its elements, beginning with...

1. The Ark of the Covenant

Exodus 25:10-22 "They shall construct an ark of acacia (ah-kay-shuh) wood two and a half cubits long, and one and a half cubits wide, and one and a half cubits high. 11 You shall overlay it with pure gold, inside and out you shall overlay it, and you shall make a gold molding around it. 12 You shall cast four gold rings for it and fasten them on its four feet, and two rings shall be on one side of it and two rings on the other side of it. 13 You shall make poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. 14 You shall put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark, to carry the ark with them. 15 The poles shall remain in the rings of the ark; they shall not be removed from it. 16 You shall put into the ark the testimony which I shall give you. 17 "You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold, two and a half cubits long and one and a half cubits wide. 18 You shall make two cherubim of gold, make them of hammered work at the two ends of the mercy seat. 19 Make one cherub at one end and one cherub at the other end; you shall make the cherubim of one piece with the mercy seat at its two ends. 20 The cherubim shall have their wings spread upward, covering the mercy seat with their wings and facing one another; the faces of the cherubim are to be turned toward the mercy seat. 21 You shall put the mercy seat on top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the testimony which I will give to you. 22 There I will meet with you; and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are upon the ark of the testimony, I will speak to you about all that I will give you in commandment for the sons of Israel."