Exodus 25.1-22-The Lord Gives Moses Instructions Regarding Donations For Construction Of Tabernacle And Ark And Use Of The Ark
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Sunday March 25, 2012
Journey Through The Bible Series: Exodus 25:1-22-The Lord Gives Moses Instructions Regarding Donations For The Construction Of Tabernacle And Ark And Use Of The Ark
Lesson # 28
Please turn in your Bibles to Exodus 25:1.
The subject of Exodus chapter 25 is the tabernacle, which symbolized God’s dwelling among His people (25:8; 29:45) and was the place where the Lord met the leaders of the Israelites (29:42) as well as its citizens (29:43).
Exodus 25:1 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Tell the sons of Israel to raise a contribution for Me; from every man whose heart moves him you shall raise My contribution. 3 This is the contribution which you are to raise from them: gold, silver and bronze, 4 blue, purple and scarlet material, fine linen, goat hair, 5 rams’ skins dyed red, porpoise skins, acacia wood, 6 oil for lighting, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense, 7 onyx stones and setting stones for the ephod and for the breastpiece. 8 Let them construct a sanctuary for Me, that I may dwell among them. 9 According to all that I am going to show you, as the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all its furniture, just so you shall construct it.” (NASB95)
This pericope records the Lord instructing Moses to go to the Israelites and take up a voluntary offering for Him in order to procure materials for the building of the tabernacle.
Notice the Lord says that this offering was for Him even though the offering was to procure material for the building of the tabernacle, which makes clear that this tabernacle was symbolically God’s dwelling among the Israelites, thus intrinsically His property.
Exodus 25:2 teaches a basic principle of giving, namely that offerings to the Lord are to be voluntary and spontaneous, which is emphasized in 1 Chronicles 29:5, 1 Corinthians 9:17, 2 Corinthians 9:7 and 1 Peter 5:2.
In Exodus 25:1-9, the Lord specifies exactly what He wants from the Israelites.
The four metals to be used in the construction of the tabernacle were gold, silver and bronze.
The materials to be used in the construction were blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen as well as goat hair, rams’ skins dyed red, porpoise skins, acacia wood, oil for lighting, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense, onyx stones and setting stones for the ephod and breastpiece.
The materials for tabernacle are categorized according to type.
The metals are first (verse 3), then the fabrics are listed (verse 4), then the skins and wood (verse 5), which is followed by the lamp oil, the fragrant anointing oil ingredients (verse 6), which were to be used on the breast piece of the high priest (verse 7).
The metals would be used for covering the wooden framework of the tabernacle and for covering the altars, the table and the ark.
Some would be used for the solid gold rings that held the ark poles (verse 12), the gold plates, dishes, bowls and pitchers (verse 29), the lampstand (verses 31ff.) as well as the mercy seat on the ark (verses 17-22).
The fabrics would be used for the curtains (26:1ff.) and for the garments for the priests (28:2ff.).
The skins would serve to shield the tabernacle from the elements (26:14).
The wood would be used for the framework for anything that needed to have strong spans such as the rafters of the tabernacle, the table, altar surfaces and legs for the ark (25:10ff.), the table (25:23ff.) and the altar (27:1ff.).
The oil would be used as fuel for the oil lamps of the tabernacle lampstand (25:3ff.; cf. 27:20-21) as well as the main ingredient of the anointing oil, which was to be used on a regular basis by the priests (30:22ff.).
The incense was compounded into a formula for the exclusive use of the tabernacle from the ingredients donated by the Israelites (30:34ff.).
The gemstones would adorn part of the ephod (28:6ff.) as well as the breast piece of the high priest (28:15ff.).
They would represent each of the twelve tribes of Israel when they were symbolically brought into the presence of the Lord regularly by the high priest and they would be over his heart.
The materials listed in Exodus 25:1-9 would not normally be owned by slaves, which the Israelites were in Egypt but remember the Israelites plundered the Egyptians when they left Egypt according to the Lord’s promise.
These high cost luxury items mentioned in verses 1-7 would not have been available to the Israelites while living in Goshen as slaves.
Now, here in Exodus 25, we have the Lord inviting the Israelites to contribute a portion of the items they received from the Egyptians in order to construct a dwelling place for Himself.
Exodus 12:35-36 records a fulfillment of prophecy since the Lord predicted in Exodus 3:21-22 that the Israelites would find favor with the Egyptian people because of the plagues so that the former would not leave Egypt empty-handed.
In Exodus 25:8, the Lord tells Moses that these materials must be used by the Israelites in constructing a sanctuary for Him to dwell among them.
It must be emphasized that the Lord was not demanding that they build this dwelling for him since they were to donate materials on a voluntary basis only, which indicates that the Lord did not want to dwell with His people unless they invited Him.
The Lord did not need the building since He is omnipresent but He did desire to dwell with the Israelites.
But He would not dwell with them unless they invited Him by building a dwelling place for Him according to His requirements.’
In Exodus 25:9, the Lord emphasizes that this sanctuary must be built according to the specifications that He prescribed.
Exodus 35-40 presents Moses carefully executing the divine plans and Exodus 25:10-27:21 and 30:1-6 give the reader the details of those directions (cf. Hebrews 9:23-24).
Hebrews 8:5 makes clear that the “pattern” mentioned in Exodus 25:9 indicates that the tabernacle the Lord wants the Israelites to build for Him was to be a copy of the heavenly tabernacle, which is located in the third heaven and was created before the foundation of the world.
Thus the reason why the Lord demanded that the Israelites follow precisely His instructions was to produce in the Israelites a desire for heaven as well as a confident expectation of heaven and was to produce a desire in them to live with Him forever.
Hebrews 9:11-12 teaches that there is a tabernacle in heaven, which Jesus Christ entered into upon His ascension and session at the right hand of the Father.
This passage teaches that He entered by means of His substitutionary spiritual and physical deaths on the cross, which are referred to as “His blood.”
Interestingly, there are several articles of furniture within the tabernacle, which are described in Exodus 25:10-40 before the tabernacle itself (Exodus 26).
The reason for this is that these articles are greater in importance since the tabernacle served to protect this furniture.
The most important piece of furniture in the tabernacle is mentioned first, which is the ark.
Exodus 25:10 “They shall construct an ark of acacia 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.” (NASB95)
“Ark” is the noun ʾǎrôn (אֲרֹון) (aw-rone´), which was the most important and sacred object of Israel’s worship and was made of acacia wood two and a half cubits long, one and a half cubits broad, and one and a half cubits high (external dimensions) and was plated inside and out with pure gold.
Running around each side was a gold border extending above the top of the Ark, so as to keep the lid from moving.
This lid was called the “mercy seat” (Ex. 25:20, 22, Hebrew: kapporet, a “covering”), and was the same size as the Ark itself, and was made of acacia wood covered with gold.
The ark was transported by means of two gold-covered poles run through two gold rings on each side, from which they were not to be moved (25:15) unless it might be necessary to remove them in order to cover the Ark when the Tabernacle was moved (Num. 4:6).
Upon the lid, or mercy seat, or at the ends of the ark, as in the temple, were placed the cherubim, probably figures beaten out of gold, as was the lampstand.
In shape they were probably human, with the exception of their wings, though some authorities think they were of the same complex form as the cherubim mentioned in Ezekiel (Ezekiel 1:5-14).
They were no doubt the normal or full height of a man and are always spoken of as maintaining an upright position (2 Chronicles 3:13) and stood facing each other, looking down upon the mercy seat, with their wings forward in a brooding attitude (Ex. 25:20; cf. Deut. 32:11).
The golden censer, with which the high priest once a year entered the Most Holy Place, was doubtless set upon this lid.
The ark contained the two tables of stone on which Yahweh wrote the Ten Commandments, or rather those prepared by Moses from the original, broken by him when he heard of Israel’s idolatry (Ex. 31:18-34:29; Deut. 9:10-10:4).
The ark also contained a golden jar of miraculously preserved manna (Ex. 16:33-34) and “Aaron’s rod which budded” (Heb. 9:4; cf. Num. 17:10).
The materials, contents and employment of the ark of the covenant (Ex. 25:10-22) were significant.
In its materials, acacia wood and gold, the ark was a type of the humanity and deity of Christ.
The ark portrays the Lord Jesus Christ in hypostatic union as the God-Man, in other words, undiminished deity and true humanity in one person forever.
Acacia wood grew in the desert and fittingly portrayed Christ’s humanity as a “root out of parched ground” (Isaiah 53:2).
The fact that the Ark was overlaid with pure gold (Ex. 25:11) suggested deity in manifestation.
The employment of the ark, particularly the mercy seat, typified the divine throne.
It was transformed from a throne of judgment to a throne of grace as far as the sinner in Israel was concerned by the blood of the atonement that was sprinkled upon it.
The blood sprinkled on the mercy seat on the Day of Atonement typified the substitutionary spiritual and physical deaths of Jesus Christ on the Cross, which propitiated the holy demands of the Father.
The cherubim with outstretched wings guarded the integrity or holiness of the mercy seat.
Therefore, the cherubims typified the integrity of God which cannot compromise with sin but has been perfectly dealt with and satisfied by the voluntary substitutionary spiritual and physical deaths of Jesus Christ on the Cross, which was typified itself by the blood of the animal.
The Ark was the commencement of everything in the tabernacle symbolism and was placed in the Holy of Holies, showing that God begins from Himself in His outreach toward man in revelation (John 1:18; Heb. 1:3).
On the other hand, in the human approach the worship begins from without, moving toward God in the very center of the holiest place.
Man begins at the bronze altar, that is, the cross, where atonement is made in the light of the fire of God’s judgment.
Exodus 25:10 says that the ark was to measure two and a half cubits by one and a half cubits.
The cubit is the Egyptian royal cubit equal to approximately 20.625 inches and the common estimate for the cubit is 18 inches.
A cubit was the distance from the tip of a man’s middle finger to the end of his elbow when his hand was held flat and straight in the plane of his forearm, which is about 18 inches.
Verse 12 makes clear that the ark was not to touch the ground since it would have feet and only the bottom of the feet could touch the ground.
The feet had rings attached to them. One ring protruded to the side from each of the feet.
This was so a gilded acacia wood pole could be run through the rings on each side (verses 13-14).
The ark was lifted by the ends of the poles and thus transported.
The special quality of the ark was protected by having the rings in the feet and not in any other part of the ark, thus, only the feet would be scratched.
The poles were to remain in the rings of the ark to minimize the possibility of damage as well as wear and tear to the poles.
The ark symbolized God’s presence as well as His holiness and in addition His covenant blessing upon the Israelites who were to respect this symbol, which portrayed the reality of God’s presence.
The ark not only had a symbolic value but also a practical value as well in the sense that it held something extremely important, namely the Ten Commandments.
The Shekinah glory appeared in the Tabernacle in Israel (Exodus 33:9-11, 18-23; 40:34-38).
Between the cherubim was the Shekinah (Hebrew: shekina, “residence”), the cloud in which Yahweh appeared above the mercy seat (Ex. 25:22; cf. Lev. 16:2).
It was not the cloud of incense (16:13), but the manifest appearance (pre-incarnate appearance of Christ or theophany of Christ) of the divine glory.
Yahweh manifested His essential presence in this cloud; therefore, no unclean and sinful man could go before the mercy seat.
Not even the anointed high priest could go before it of his own pleasure or without the expiatory blood sacrifice or he would be killed by the Lord instantly.
“Testimony” is the noun ʿē∙ḏûṯ (עֵדוּת) (ay-dooth´), which is the Decalogue or Ten Commandments according to Exodus 24:12; 31:18 and Deuteronomy 4:13; 9:9 as well as 1 Kings 8:9.
This word identifies the Ten Commandments as the witness or affirmation of God’s commandments belonging to His covenant with Israel and also expressed God’s will and the duty of the Israelites.
“Mercy seat” is the noun kǎp∙pō∙rěṯ (כַּפֹּרֶת) (kap-po´-reth), which means “covering” and was a lid on top of the Ark of the Testimony and was the place where sins were forgiven and was the same size as the Ark itself, and was made of acacia wood covered with gold.
The Greek equivalent of kǎp∙pō∙rěṯ is hilasterion, which is used by the apostle Paul in Romans 3:25 to describe Jesus Christ as a propitiatory gift. Paul uses this Greek noun to denote the mercy seat.
The Septuagint translators employed hilasterion to translate kǎp∙pō∙rěṯ in Exodus 25:17 and thus, in Romans 3:25 Paul teaches that the mercy seat portrays Jesus Christ as a propitiatory gift.