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.