And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
Exodus 25 opens with nothing more than a speaker and a hearer: God speaks, and Moses listens. Everything that follows hangs on that one fact — the sanctuary, the ark, the priesthood. Three questions open the chapter: where Moses was, why God spoke now, and what He asked for first.
Moses did not get these instructions on level ground. He went up the mountain, and then further in. That place says something about what he received.
Moses was not only called up into the mountain; he went into the middle of the cloud. God called him up to receive the tablets of the law. But inside the cloud He showed him a symbolic picture of things in the heavens, and gave him instructions for making the tabernacle. The very place where he learned the details of God's dwelling-place among men tells us the character of what the tabernacle unfolds. It shows God displaying Himself in His own creation. It is a place of nearness and closeness, though the way into the holiest place had not yet been opened.
This is the first time God asks His people to make Him a house — the tabernacle, a tent where He would live among them. The timing matters. It comes only after He has brought them out of Egypt.
The primary idea of the Tabernacle therefore is, that it was the dwelling-place of God. God never lived on earth with His people until after they crossed the Red Sea — until redemption in picture was complete. He visited Adam in the garden. He appeared to the early fathers of Israel and spoke with them. But until He had redeemed His people out of Egypt, nothing is said about making a sanctuary for Him to live in. So the Tabernacle was a proof of redemption. It was the sign that God had brought a redeemed people into relationship with Himself. He was the Centre they gathered around.
Before any measurement or material is named, God asks His people to give. He takes only from those who want to give.
God wanted a sanctuary where He could live among them, and in that desire He linked the people with Himself. That is a bright display of His grace. So He would take the offerings only from willing hearts. This is very beautiful. God first produced the willingness, and then credited them with the offering they gave. He counted on the fellowship of the people. He expected them to respond to the desires of His heart, which He had made known.
The same principle holds now, and the cost of forgetting it is high.
So it is vitally important to remember this. Everything offered to God must come from hearts made willing by His Spirit. It must be given freely, not because someone was persuaded or pressured, but from the heart. If the church of God had remembered this, it would be in a very different state today. What has caused more ruin than the many worldly schemes for raising money?
You might expect the description to start at the entrance. It starts at the opposite end.
At first, God began with the Holy of holies and the Ark of the Covenant, which was His throne. From that point He moved outward, until He reached the structure of the Tabernacle itself. He was speaking from the point of view of the law, the righteous demands of His throne. That was rightly the first thing described.
Because God speaks, Moses builds.
God Himself supplied the pattern of the tabernacle and all its details. The business of Moses and the people was to stick to God's pattern and not depart from it according to ideas of their own. Here is a broad principle of action. It holds good today for everything God has revealed, just as it did then. The thoughts of God embodied in His instructions are perfect and cannot be improved. The thoughts and ways of men can only spoil them.
The chapters ahead are full of materials and measurements. Each one is a picture — a type — and a picture has limits.
We must remember that types are not meant to teach truths. Their purpose is to illustrate them. They are only the shadows, not the very image of what they picture. That makes sense once we realise that Christ is the great substance of these shadows, the full image of all that was partial.
- Redeemed first. God had never lived on earth with His people until He brought Israel out of Egypt. He asks for a sanctuary only after redemption, and it stands as redemption's proof.
- God speaks first. The instructions came to Moses inside the cloud, a place of nearness. What the tabernacle unfolds is God displaying Himself among men.
- Willing hearts first. God produced the willingness, then credited the offering to the givers. Gifts to Him must be free, never squeezed out by pressure.
- The ark first. The description starts at God's throne in the Holy of holies and moves outward. We read the whole house from His side, not ours.
- The pattern first. Moses' task was to copy, not improve. God's thoughts are perfect, and the shadows He designed find their substance in Christ.
Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring me a heave-offering of every one whose heart prompteth him, ye shall take my heave-offering.
After the rescue from Egypt, God's first ask of Israel is not for work or worship. It is for a gift, and He sets one condition on it: the giver's heart.
The Hebrew word behind "contribution" carries a picture in it.
The word offering is a peculiar word in the Hebrew. It means something lifted off the ground and presented on high, and it is the word translated heave-offering.
The verse says the gift is taken "for me." The same word shows what God looks for in the giver.
Terumah, the word for heave-offering, means a sacrifice or gift offered up, raised or lifted up and presented for acceptance, and so devoted to Jehovah's service... It is the term used for the gifts of Israel for the tabernacle. There we learn God's mind about the inward state of those who offer. It is heart-willingness, the spirit of a person wholly yielded up to God in devoted service. The inner attitude answers to the outward act, as the gift is heaved or lifted up.
God asks nothing of Israel while they are still slaves in Egypt. The order explains why the giving was glad.
God brought Israel through the Red Sea as a people redeemed by power. They celebrated His goodness in song, and said they wanted to prepare a dwelling for Him (Ex. 15:2). The desire of their heart was a new thought, but a right one. Their redemption had been accomplished, so God could dwell there. As we learn later (Ex. 25:8), He would dwell among them. And those who shared in that redemption had the privilege of providing the materials — a willing offering from grateful hearts, made glad because His power had delivered them.
Israel had not earned these materials in the desert. They carried them out of Egypt, as God had promised Abraham long before.
God told Abram that his descendants would suffer in Egypt for four hundred years (Gen. 15). He said, "Afterward they shall come out with great possessions." Without those possessions, how would they have got all the things used in making the tabernacle? They could receive it all from the Lord, and the best thing we can do with what He gives us is to give it back to Him.
God asks for a gift from every man "whose heart moves him." One writer traces that willingness back to God Himself.
It is a bright display of grace on God's part to associate the people with Himself in His desire to have a sanctuary where He can dwell among them. So God would take the offerings only from willing hearts. This is very beautiful. God first produced the willingness, and then credited to them the offering they gave. He counted on the fellowship of the people, expecting a response to the expressed desires of His heart. The people did respond, as we see later in the book — so fully that word had to go out to stop the offerings.
So what happens when a person gives without wanting to?
When God called for material for the tabernacle in Exodus 25, they were to give according to their ability, but every man gave willingly with his heart. God did not want material from a man whose heart was not in His work. But if his heart prompted him willingly, God accepted that offering from him.
Willingness does not mean anything goes.
It is not enough that we have the will to serve Him; we must also learn from Him what He can accept. What they had they brought, little or much, and God accepted it. When did He ever refuse the service of a willing heart? A widow's "two small copper coins, which make a penny" may be worth more to Him who discerns the heart than the gifts of many who are rich.
God asks no gold from us today. But every material in the tabernacle pointed to Christ, and there the parallel holds.
All the materials speak in some way of Christ, in His varied perfections and glories, and yet the people were to bring them as a willing offering. God has revealed Christ to us in all His fullness. But if He is to have a dwelling place among us, and if we are to enjoy His presence and have communion with Him in a real way, is it not to be, in some measure, on the basis of a free-will offering of our own? It is no material offering now... but our hearts must be stirred up, made willing to enter into what Christ our Lord is, and so bring it, as it were, to God.
- Redeemed first. God asked nothing of Israel until they were out of Egypt and through the sea. The gift answers a rescue already finished. It never pays for one.
- Supplied first. The materials were the "great possessions" God had promised Abraham. Israel gave back what He had given.
- Willing first. God produced the willingness, then credited the offering to the giver as his own.
- Lifted, not forced. The word means a gift raised up and offered for acceptance. The inside must match the outside. So God turns down an unwilling gift and welcomes a widow's two coins.
- Christ now. Every material pointed to some glory of Christ. So the free-will offering today is a heart stirred up to take in what He is and bring that back to God.
And this is the heave-offering that ye shall take of them gold, and silver, and copper,
God has just rescued Israel out of Egypt. Now, for the first time, He asks them to bring something to Him: gold, silver, and bronze — the metal older translations call brass or copper. Why does God, who needs nothing, ask His people for materials? And why these three metals?
Everything up to this chapter had flowed one way — from God to Israel. One writer marks the change here.
But, oh, how immense the difference between the activities of grace and the words of the law! All previous to this was His giving, now they must bring to God. Never before were they told to bring such things to God. He delighted in giving. Now they were to build a tabernacle, and it was right for them to bring their best for it.
The giving was voluntary. The list of items was not.
The offering however was of specific materials for the building of the tabernacle. God designated these. There was no place for sackcloth or for people's personal household furniture.
The size of the gift, though, was never the test.
It is not enough to be willing to serve Him; we must also learn from Him what He can accept. What they had they brought, little or much, and He accepted it. When has God ever refused the service of a willing heart?
Freed slaves in a desert do not own gold. Israel carried this wealth out of Egypt, and one writer explains why.
God had set apart the wealth that Israel took out of Egypt for His service in the Tabernacle. There was a right use for it. God had a claim on the wealth that came out of the land with them. The wrong use of it shows up in chapter 32, where the golden calf came before the dancing.
Commentators read the metals as pictures. One writer takes them in the order the verse names them.
Gold is mentioned first, because it symbolizes the glory of God. Then silver pictures the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Copper stands for the holiness of God, which is an outstanding mark of His sanctuary.
Another writer agrees closely on gold and silver, but reads the third metal as judgment rather than holiness.
Without question, the purity and value of gold would suggest in a special way what is wholly Divine — God's righteousness and glory in particular. Silver, used for ransom, would speak of God known in redemption through grace. Brass, tempered in the furnace, would perhaps show His judgment of evil.
The two metals were not mixed at random. Where each one appears in the finished structure carries the meaning.
Gold is the symbol of divine righteousness, or the divine nature in the man Christ Jesus. Brass is the symbol of righteousness demanding judgment of sin, as in the brass altar, or the judgment of uncleanness, as in the brass basin. This explains why everything inside the tent of the tabernacle was gold — the ark, the mercy seat, the table, the lampstand, the altar of incense. Outside the tent, everything was brass — the brass altar and its vessels, the basin and its base.
In short: gold speaks of what God is in Himself; brass of His righteousness dealing with sin.
Why read silver as redemption? One writer points to how Israel collected it.
When Israel was counted, everyone in the census had to bring half a shekel of silver as an offering to the Lord. This money was called atonement money. The rich did not have to give more than the half shekel, and the poor did not have to give less. This shows that believers, all alike, stand before God on the ground of atonement.
Commentators differ here. One writer sets all three metals side by side and reads silver in another way.
As regards the tabernacle: brass is judgment of evil according to the responsibility of man; gold, according to what is fit for the presence of God; silver, I take to be the faithfulness and stability of God's purpose.
- Bringing follows receiving. Every earlier chapter was God giving to Israel; only now, after redemption, are they asked to bring to Him.
- Bringing is willing. God never refused the gift of a willing heart, whether little or much.
- Bringing is defined. The giver chooses whether; God chooses what. Household goods and sackcloth had no place on the list.
- Bringing gives back what is His. The gold and silver came out of Egypt. God had already marked that wealth for His dwelling, and chapter 32 shows it could be abused.
- Bringing points to Christ. Gold stands for divine righteousness and glory. Silver stands for the ransom paid alike for rich and poor. Brass stands for righteousness that judges sin — gold inside the tent, brass outside it.
and blue, and purple, and scarlet, and byssus, and goats' [hair],
God asks Israel for five things here: three dyes and two fabrics. Each was a free gift from people who were slaves a few weeks earlier. Commentators read the list as a portrait of Christ, with each colour and cloth showing a different side of Him.
One writer gives the sense of each item on the list:
Most agree that blue stands for what is heavenly in character. Purple stands for kingdom glory, and scarlet for earthly glory... Purple is placed between the blue and the scarlet: the kingdom will have a heavenly glory and an earthly glory... Fine linen stands for the perfect purity of human nature in Christ, which was pure and perfect within. The goats' hair stands for what is more outward: a holy, separate life that people could see.
Creation itself explains why blue carries that meaning:
The blue arch of the sky is the great blue colouring in creation. When no clouds from the earth get in the way, nothing in nature is more beautiful or more striking than the colour of the sky. Its depth and purity give it that colour. Blue, then, speaks of that which is heavenly.
Applied to Christ, blue is not about His divine nature but about what He was as a man:
Nothing should be stressed more than the heavenly character of the manhood of the Lord Jesus Christ. If the gold in the tabernacle pictures the deity of the Son of God, blue shows that even in His manhood He is heavenly by His very nature.
The same writer treats purple and scarlet as two colours of rule:
Everyone recognizes this as the imperial colour. "The Imperial Purple" is a common phrase. The Lord Jesus was dressed in a purple robe, in mockery of His claims to kingship... Purple pictures the wide glory of the Lord Jesus as the Son of Man. As Son of Man He will one day take up the government of the world... Scarlet pictures the kingship of the Lord Jesus. Scarlet is the kingly colour, as purple is the imperial. He will yet reign over His ancient people, Israel, as their Messiah and King.
Commentators differ on scarlet: earthly glory in the first quotation, kingship here. One writer sums up the three colours in a single line:
The Lord Jesus was born a heavenly Man (blue); born Son of Man, with rights to universal reign and homage (purple); born King of the Jews (scarlet).
One writer separates the fabrics from the dyes by how they were made:
Textiles are fabrics formed by weaving. So the textiles used in the tabernacle picture what came out of the blessed life of the Lord Jesus. He wove them, as it were, in daily grace and patience, during His life.
One verse in Revelation supplies the key:
One verse gives the meaning of fine linen. Revelation 19:8 says, "it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure — for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints." So in the tabernacle fine linen pictures practical righteousness. And since the picture points to the Lord Jesus, it sets before us in a striking way the perfect righteousness that marked His life down here.
(The older translation this writer used reads "the righteousness of saints.")
The second fabric is rough, and two men who wore hair clothing explain it:
This pictures the thorough separation the Lord kept from the world and its spirit and ways. No one was so easy to approach as He, and no one so ready to help and bless. Yet no one was so completely separate from the world in every detail. As proof, remember that the prophet Elijah wore a hairy garment and John the Baptist a garment of camel's hair. Thorough separation marked both men.
Slaves do not own dyed yarn and fine linen. One writer traces the supply back to a promise:
When God told Abram that his descendants would suffer in Egypt for four hundred years (Gen. 15), He said, "afterward they shall come out with great possessions." How could they have got all the materials used in making the tabernacle, unless they had "great possessions"? They could receive it all from the Lord, and the best thing we can do with what He gives us is to give it back to Him.
- Blue — heaven. The colour of the open sky stands for heaven. It marks the heavenly character of Christ's manhood.
- Purple and scarlet — reign. Purple looks to the day when the Son of Man takes up the government of the world. Scarlet is the kingly colour of His reign over Israel, though some read it instead as earthly glory.
- Fine linen — life. Woven thread by thread, it stands for practical righteousness: a perfect life lived in daily grace and patience.
- Goats' hair — separation. The rough outer cloth marks the One who was easy to approach and yet entirely apart from the world's spirit.
- Giving — back to God. Israel offered what God had already given them when they left Egypt. The best thing we can do with His gifts is give them back to Him.
and rams' skins dyed red, and badgers' skins; and acacia-wood;
Exodus 25 opens with God asking a newly freed people for materials, and this verse names three: two kinds of animal skin and wood. Older wording calls them "rams' skins dyed red, badgers' skins, and shittim wood," and commentators read each material as a picture of Christ.
Which animal the middle skin came from is uncertain, and the writers admit it. One follows the word through its only other use in Scripture:
People have asked a great deal about what badgers' skins were. The badger is an animal unknown in Bible lands... The only other place where badgers' skins are mentioned apart from this outer covering of the Tabernacle is Ezekiel 16:10, where it says, "I... shod you with badgers' skins," giving the idea of something coarse and durable, suitable for footwear. Most think it may refer to the tough skin of the seal or dolphin, animals that are plentiful in the Red Sea. Such skin would be very durable, and resist sun and rain.
The colour is not decoration. It belongs to an animal with a fixed role elsewhere in Exodus:
The ram served as the consecration offering at the setting apart of the priests for their office. It is called "the ram of the consecration." "Dyed red" clearly points to death. So the meaning is complete consecration, devotion that goes as far as death. Where was that ever seen in perfection, except in the One who humbled Himself and became obedient to death, even the death of the cross?
The tough outer layer pictures a quality of walk, not just weatherproofing. The two Bible lines inside this quote follow an older translation:
The badger-skin covering points to a watchful holiness, both in His walk and in His outward relationships. That holiness kept Him, and kept Him perfectly, from the evil around Him. "By the word of your lips I have kept myself from the paths of the destroyer." "Everyone who has been born of God keeps himself, and the evil one does not touch him." Beyond what we may call His Person, these things match the new nature in us, the new man.
Only this outer layer met the eye of a passer-by. One writer ties that plainness to how the world received Christ:
This rough outer covering protected everything beneath it from any defilement. In our Lord there was something that completely repelled all evil. But this stirred up the world's hostility. It explains why the prophet had to announce that in Him there was "no beauty that we should desire Him."
The same building offered two different sights, depending on where you stood:
Picture the tabernacle finished and standing. From outside, the badgers' skins were all that met the eye. But the priest had the privilege of entering the holy place. He saw the full beauty of the fine twisted linen, the blue, the purple and the scarlet, and of the embroidered cherubim. It was Christ outside and Christ inside. Outside was Christ as the natural eye sees Him, finding no beauty that man should desire Him. Inside was Christ as seen by the eye that the Spirit of God has opened.
The third material is the wood, and its quality is the point:
The first material mentioned is shittim, or acacia wood. Reliable authority holds this wood to be imperishable, or incorruptible. If this is so, it is a most fitting picture of the true humanity of our blessed Lord. His humanity was holy and incorruptible, since He was conceived by the Holy Spirit. As it is written: "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy — the Son of God."
The people who supplied all this were the least likely donors imaginable:
When we think about who supplied the materials, our astonishment deepens. The Israelites had just escaped from bitter slavery. Their life had been hard. "Bricks without straw" showed how deep the misery of forced labour could go. Yet these were the people who gave from what they owned so willingly that Moses had to hold back their flood of generosity.
- Freely given — every item came from the hands of former slaves. They gave so freely that Moses had to stop them.
- Wood within — acacia, a wood that does not decay, pictures the true and holy humanity of Christ, conceived by the Holy Spirit.
- Red above — the ram was the consecration offering. "Dyed red" carries that consecration all the way to death.
- Skin outside — a tough, weather-resisting hide pictures the watchful holiness that kept evil out. Writers link the same quality to the new nature in the believer.
- Two views — from outside, only the drab skins and no beauty; from inside, fine linen, colour and embroidered cherubim. Where you stand decides which Christ you see.
oil for the light; spices for the anointing oil, and for the incense of fragrant drugs;
Exodus 25 lists what God asked Israel to bring for the tent where He would live among them. After the metals, fabrics and wood comes a short line about oil and spices — gifts that were spent in the tent's service rather than built into it.
The gifts named here belong to a different class from the gold, linen and wood listed just before.
We now complete the list of the materials in Exodus 25:3-7. So far the materials have all clearly referred to Christ, and they went into the actual construction of the tabernacle. The materials we now consider differ: they were used in the service of the tabernacle, not in building it. Oil clearly pictures the Holy Spirit. It was called the anointing oil, and the Spirit given to believers is called "the anointing": "the anointing that you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you" (1 John 2:27).
Nothing natural lit the inside of the tent. The lamp burned on oil alone.
In the tabernacle, oil was for the light and for the anointing oil. So we are taught that there is no true light, no divine illumination, no spiritual teaching, except by the Holy Spirit. Inside the curtained tabernacle there was no sunlight by day and no moonlight by night. The only light that made things visible came from the seven-branched lamp fed by the oil.
Only certain people ever saw that light.
And no one saw the light except the anointed priests who served in the tabernacle. This shows that the believer must have the Holy Spirit to receive the light and teaching the Spirit gives.
Pollock then sets a limit on where that light comes from.
But here we must carefully guard ourselves. The Holy Spirit alone uses the Scriptures for the purpose of teaching, light and illumination. They give us the whole revelation of God, and there is no revelation outside of them.
The same spices had two uses. The first was the anointing oil, which mixed spice with oil.
The Psalmist, speaking of the Messiah, says, "your robes are all fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia." In the verse before he says, "God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions." This helps us understand what the holy anointing oil stands for. The spices, then, speak of the graces of Christ. His very robes are fragrant with these sweet perfumes. But they were mingled with oil, and oil is a figure of the Holy Spirit. Put these two things together and we learn this: the graces of Christ — the moral fragrance of all that is excellent in Him — came out in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Those same graces appear again in anyone who receives the Spirit.
If the believer receives the Holy Spirit, it is His joy to reproduce in him the graces that marked the Lord Jesus... "Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control" — our blessed Lord displayed every one of these graces in full. They are the fruit of the Spirit, and they illustrate the spices for the anointing oil.
The second use points the other way.
Then further, they were to be used for sweet incense. Sweet incense was used in the approach to God in worship, and spoke only of Christ. Nothing of ourselves can we present to God. But the believer is privileged to present Christ to God. Here the spices speak not of Christ being produced in the believer, which is what they picture when used with the anointing oil, but of the personal graces and beauties of Christ as He is the theme of worship before God.
Incense gives off its scent only when it is crushed and burned.
It appears from Exodus 25:6 compared with Exodus 35:8 that these spices formed the sweet incense burned on the golden altar... there is the added thought that the holy fire brought out the graces of Christ. On the cross He faced the judgment of God's holiness, and there He was made sin. That only brought out all that was most precious and fragrant to God. He was indeed never more precious in His eyes... On this account it was to be beaten very small — for the more it was beaten, the more fragrance it gave off.
God did not create these supplies; He asked His people for them, and commentators draw the practical lesson from that.
All the materials speak in some way of Christ, in His varied perfections and glories, and yet they were to be brought as a willing offering by the people. God has revealed Christ to us in all His fullness; but if He is to have a dwelling place among us, if we are to enjoy His presence in a practical way and have fellowship with Him, is it not to be somewhat on the basis of a free-will offering of our own?
- Service — oil and spices were not built into the tent; they were spent in its daily service.
- Oil — the Spirit; the sanctuary had no other light, and only those anointed ever saw it.
- Limit — the Spirit's light never goes outside Scripture; no revelation exists apart from it.
- Spices — the graces of Christ: mixed with oil, the Spirit grows them in believers; burned as incense, they go up to God in worship.
- Fire — the more the incense was beaten, the sweeter it smelled. Judgment brought out what was most precious in Christ.
onyx stones, and stones to be set in the ephod, and in the breastplate.
The list of materials for God's dwelling ends here, with the costliest items of all — gems, and gems cut ready for mounting. They are the only materials on the list that never went into the tent. The priest wore them, engraved with names.
God asked for everything on this list, gems included. He did not demand it. One writer shows how God arranged the giving:
The last point is God's invitation to the people to bring offerings of the materials the tabernacle was to be made of. It is a bright display of grace on God's part. He joins the people with Himself in His desire to have a sanctuary to dwell in among them. So the offerings were to be taken only from willing hearts. This is exceedingly beautiful. God first produced the willingness, and then credited to them the offering they gave.
Not everyone owned onyx. When the people brought their gifts, the gems came from one group:
Everyone whose heart stirred him up, and everyone whose spirit made him willing, gladly gave to the work of the Lord. Men and women brought their bracelets, earrings, rings, tablets and jewels of gold. The wise-hearted women spun linen and goats' hair. The rulers brought precious stones, spices and oil.
The stones close the list, and they change category. Every earlier material went into the tent; these did not.
Up to this point the materials have all pointed clearly to Christ, and they went into the actual construction of the tabernacle. The materials we now consider differ: they were used in the service of the tabernacle, not in its construction.
The verse names only one stone. Its Hebrew name points to brightness:
The Hebrew word translated "onyx" means "flashing forth in splendour." It was a flesh-coloured gem, called by Job "the precious onyx." Two of these gems had to be taken, and the names of Israel's tribes cut deeply into them, like the engraving on a signet ring — unmistakable and permanent.
Commentators differ on what the gems picture. Some read them as showing the worth of God's people to Him:
Gems, in the way they are used here, show how precious God's people are to Him. They show the place His people have in the affections of Christ, who never stops representing them before God as their great High Priest… The believer is dear to Christ — known to Him, loved by Him, cared for by Him in all His power and wisdom.
Others read the stones as light thrown back from Christ Himself:
Onyx stones and other precious stones adorn the special dress of the high priest. They stand for the bright reflections of the many beauties of the Lord Jesus.
The verse says the stones were for setting. What they were set in carries meaning too:
The onyx stones were gems — precious stones, figures of the excellencies of Christ. They were also set in gold. Put these two together and you get two things. First, the names of His people appear on the shoulders of the Priest in all His beauty and excellency. The gold shows they are set in divine righteousness. The shoulder is the emblem of strength. Christ therefore upholds His people in the presence of God in all His almighty strength.
The verse names two destinations, the ephod and the breastpiece:
In the Greek Old Testament the ephod is called the "shoulder piece," because much of the priest's work was to carry the burden of God's people before Him. He was also to have compassion on the ignorant and on those who go astray, and that called for patient love. So rings and chains of gold coupled the breastplate to the shoulders, and these two were never to be separated… The meaning of the picture is clear. The great High Priest carries the saints of God on His heart as well as holding them up by His power. His unchanging love stands behind His undiminished and patient strength. The ephod made the breastplate and the shoulder pieces one. His is not a powerless love, or a loveless power.
The same freewill principle reaches us now:
All the materials speak in some way of Christ, in His varied perfections and glories. Yet the people were to bring them as a willing offering. God has revealed Christ to us in all His fulness. But what if He is to have a dwelling place among us? What if we are to enjoy His presence in practice and have fellowship with Him? Must that not rest, in some measure, on a freewill offering of our own?
- Willing — the gems were asked for, never demanded; God produced the willingness first, then credited the gift to the giver.
- Costly — not everyone had onyx; when the collection came, the rulers were the ones who brought the precious stones.
- Different — every earlier material went into the building. These last stones went into the priest's dress, for service instead of structure.
- Set — the stone was mounted in gold. So it carried the names of God's people in divine righteousness, on the shoulder of strength.
- Carried — shoulder and heart were chained together and never parted. His love is not powerless, and His power is not loveless. Both hold every believer before God.
And they shall make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them.
God had just brought Israel out of Egypt. The first thing He asks for is not a fortress or a monument, but a place to live among His people. Why now, and who is fit to host the presence of God?
God had come close to people before. He had never lived among them.
Again, it is only on the footing of redemption that God dwells with man. He did not dwell with Adam innocent, though He came down to him. He did not dwell with Abraham, though He visited him and ate with him. But when Israel came out of Egypt, God said He brought them to Himself "that I may dwell in their midst." And at once the tabernacle was built, and there was God's presence in the midst of His people.
So the dwelling is the goal of the rescue, not an extra. But God's holiness sets a condition on who may host Him:
The people honoured with this distinction must be a redeemed people. Otherwise it would be impossible for a God of holiness and righteousness to be in their midst... God sheltered them from the just judgment their sins deserved. He set them free from slavery in Egypt, brought them through the Red Sea, and delivered them from Pharaoh's power. Now they receive the highest distinction ever given to a people on earth.
One writer looks at the Hebrew root of the word for dwelling.
The word for "shall dwell" is from the Hebrew root "Shakan." The noun from that root, "Shekinah," was used to express the idea of the nearness of God to men.
A sanctuary is a holy place. One writer reads the verses around this one as a hint about the character God looks for.
In the verses immediately before Exodus 25:8 we have a collection of things which speak of priestly features... Would it not suggest that God is looking for such features of holiness to mark those among whom He desired to dwell?
The materials listed just before this verse are not decoration.
The first thing the Lord said to Moses is His gracious purpose to have a sanctuary, a holy dwelling place, in the midst of His people. Its materials point directly to Christ — His Person, His work, and the precious fruit of that work, seen in the light, the power, and the many graces of the Holy Spirit... Jehovah, whose majesty "the heaven of heavens could not contain," was pleased in His grace to dwell in a boarded and curtained tent. Those who longed to welcome His presence among them put it up for Him.
Every material came as a voluntary gift. One writer asks what that means for us.
God has revealed Christ to us in all His fulness. But if He is to have a dwelling-place among us, if we are to enjoy His presence in practice and have communion with Him, is it not in some way on the basis of a free-will offering of our own? It is no material offering now... but our hearts must be stirred and made willing to enter into what Christ our Lord is, and so bring it, as it were, to God.
Everything had to match the pattern God showed Moses.
How otherwise could it have represented what was in the mind of God, who always had Christ before Him? He was the great original in the mind of God. All that was given to Israel was only a shadow of what was to come; the substance is Christ. Any departure from the pattern shown to Moses would have falsified the picture of the ordered scene where God was pleased to dwell and reveal Himself.
God really lived in that tent. Still, the people could not come in.
Of old, God dwelt in the tabernacle in the midst of His redeemed people, and later in the temple which Solomon built for His name. But there was always distance between God and the people. The veil shut God in, and the people out... Not only is sin put away... but the Spirit of God has come down from heaven to form the church and to dwell in it.
One writer connects the tabernacle with what it pointed to:
It was always God's thought to surround Himself with His redeemed people. His tabernacle was a picture of the church, God's dwelling through the Spirit. The camp in the wilderness and the sanctuary in Messiah's glorious reign are only foreshadowings of the eternal state.
- Redeemed first. God dwelt with neither Adam nor Abraham; only a people brought out of Egypt could host Him.
- Dwelling as the goal. The sanctuary is not a reward tacked onto the rescue — nearness is what the rescue was for.
- Holy dwelling. The word is sanctuary: God looks for holiness in the people He lives among.
- Christ in the materials, willing in the giving. Every item pictures Christ, and every item came from a heart that offered it freely.
- Same desire, new address. Tent, then temple, then the Church by the Spirit, and at last God at home with His people for ever.
According to all that I shall shew thee, the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the utensils thereof, even so shall ye make [it].
God has just asked Israel for a sanctuary — a tent where He will live among them — and now He tells Moses how to build it. Two questions follow: where did the design come from, and why did God leave nothing to the builders?
This is more than a building instruction. It sets a rule for how people handle anything God has revealed.
Verse 9 emphasises the importance of observing the word of the Lord. God Himself furnished the pattern of the tabernacle and all its details. The business of Moses and the people was to keep to God's pattern. They were not to turn aside from it and follow ideas of their own. Here is a broad rule for action. It holds good today for everything God has revealed, just as much as it did then. God sets out His thoughts in His instructions. They are perfect, and no one can improve them. The thoughts and ways of men can only spoil them.
"Exactly as I show you" points to something Moses saw with his own eyes. One writer explains what that was.
On the mountain Moses learnt about the sanctuary from God. More than that, he saw the pattern of it while he was up there with God. So, as Hebrews reminds us (9:24), the earthly tabernacle was not the original but the copy of the true one. Moses saw the heavenly one, the pattern to which the earthly one was to correspond. No one in the human race could have designed that structure unless God taught him, as He taught Moses. One must have known the pattern to have made the copy.
The forty days on the mountain are often remembered only for the law. One writer says Moses came back with far more.
When Moses went up into the mountain and spent those forty days with God, the people thought he was going to get the law. Not that alone. He had gone to get God's mind and to see lovely pictures of Christ. He received the tables of stone, but far better than that he saw many shadows of Christ. He walked through God's picture gallery… The tabernacle and all its furniture spoke of Christ in one way or another.
Israel had just come out of Egypt, a land full of temples. Some have claimed the tabernacle borrowed from them. One writer denies it.
This left nothing to the natural mind of Moses. Real or imagined resemblances between the tabernacle and Egyptian temples have no place here… Blessed be God, He has left nothing to the mind of fallen man. He has revealed everything fully in His Word — no longer a "pattern," but Him who is His very image. The "pattern" will be full of Him in its smallest details. May it be our desire in all this pattern to see the Lord; to say, "We wish to see Jesus."
Every part carried a meaning. So changing one part would have said something false about God.
All was to be according to the pattern shown to Moses. How else could it have represented what was in the mind of God, who always had Christ before Him? He was the great original in the mind of God. All that God gave to Israel was only a shadow of the things to come, but the body (or substance) is of Christ. Any departure from the pattern shown to Moses would have made that picture false. It was a picture of the ordered scene where God was pleased to dwell and reveal Himself.
God repeats this charge to Moses more than once. One writer moves from Moses to how believers order the life of the church.
Once again God warns Moses to do everything according to the pattern he had been shown in the mountain. It was truly to be a copy and shadow of heavenly things, and so there was no room for human thoughts or imaginations. Obedience was the part of Moses, and faithfulness in carrying out the heavenly design. So now God requires the same from believers about His church: faithfulness to His word, obedience to every part of it. Admit human rules and human authority, and the church stops being a true witness for God. God has now given this instruction three times, showing how much obedience matters to Him.
- Pattern, not preference. God supplied every detail; Moses and the people had only to keep to it and not turn aside to ideas of their own.
- Pattern from above. What Moses copied he had first seen on the mountain — the earthly tent made to correspond to the true one in heaven.
- Pattern full of Christ. Moses came down with more than the tables of stone. The tabernacle and its furniture spoke of Christ throughout.
- Pattern altered, picture falsified. Christ was the great original in the mind of God. Any change would have misrepresented the place where God dwelt.
- Pattern still binding. What obedience was to Moses, faithfulness to God's Word is now. Admit human authority into the church and it stops being a true witness.