Let's hear God's word now from Exodus chapter 38 beginning with verse 1. He made the altar of burnt offering of acacia wood. Five cubits was its length and five cubits its width. It was square and its height was three cubits. He made its horns on its four corners. The horns were of one piece with it and he overlaid it with bronze. He made all the utensils for the altar, the pans, the shovels, the basins, the forks, and the firepans, all its utensils he made of bronze. And he made a grate of bronze network for the altar under its rim, midway from the bottom. He cast four rings for the four corners of the bronze grating as holders for the poles. And he made the poles of acacia wood and overlaid them with bronze. Then he put the poles into the rings on the sides of the altar with which to bear it. He made the altar hollow with boards. He made the laver of bronze and its base of bronze from the bronze mirrors of the serving women who assembled at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. Then he made the court on the south side. The hangings of the court were a fine woven linen, 100 cubits long. There were 20 pillars for them with 20 bronze sockets. The hooks of the pillars and their bands were silver. On the north side, the hangings were 100 cubits long, with 20 pillars and their 20 bronze sockets. The hooks of the pillars and their bands were silver. And on the west side, there were hangings of 50 cubits with 10 pillars and their 10 sockets. The hooks of the pillars and their bands were silver. For the east side, the hangings were 50 cubits. The hangings of one side of the gate were 15 cubits long with their three pillars and their three sockets. And the same for the other side of the court gate. On this side and that were hangings of 15 cubits with their three pillars and their three sockets. All the hangings of the court all around were fine woven linen. The sockets for the pillars were bronze, the hooks of the pillars and their bands were silver, and the overlay of their capitals was silver, and all the pillars of the court had bands of silver. The screen for the gate of the court was woven of blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and a fine woven linen. The length was 20 cubits, and the height along its width was five cubits, corresponding to the hangings of the court. And there were four pillars with their four sockets of bronze, their hooks were silver, and the overlay of their capitals and their bands was silver. All the pegs of the tabernacle and of the court all around were bronze. This is the inventory of the tabernacle, the tabernacle of the testimony, which was counted according to the commandment of Moses for the service of the Levites, by the hand of Ithamar, son of Aaron, the priest. Bezalel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, made all that the Lord had commanded Moses. And with him was Aholiab, the son of Ahissamach, of the tribe of Dan, an engraver and designer, a weaver of blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and of fine linen. All the gold that was used in all the work of the holy place, that is the gold of the offering, was 29 talents and 730 shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary. And the silver from those who were numbered of the congregation was 100 talents and 1,775 shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary. A becca for each man, that is half a shekel, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, for everyone included in the numbering from 20 years old and above, for 603,550 men. And from the hundred talents of silver were cast the sockets of the sanctuary and the bases of the veil, 100 sockets from the hundred talents, one talent for each socket. Then from the 1,775 shekels, he made hooks for the pillars, overlaid their capitals, and made bands for them. The offering of bronze was 70 talents and 2,400 shekels. And with it, he made the sockets for the door of the tabernacle of meeting, the bronze altar, the bronze grating for it, and all the utensils for the altar. the sockets for the court all around, the bases for the court gate, all the pegs for the tabernacle, and all the pegs for the court all around. Amen. We'll end our reading there at the end of Exodus chapter 38. Let's once again ask for God's help in a word of prayer. Our gracious God and heavenly Father, we thank you. We rejoice before you that again we can come. we can hear your word. Lord, it is our pleasure, it is our food, it is such a strengthening to us to receive your word. And yet, Lord, there are so many obstacles, so many difficulties with our understanding, with our distractedness, with the weakness of our faith. We pray, Lord, that today your spirit would enable us to overcome all those difficulties. May the words of my mouth May the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer, because we ask this in Jesus' name, amen. At the beginning of trying to prepare this message, I was a little worried that there wouldn't be enough to say, and by the time I got through studying and preparing, I was thinking that I should probably have split it up in order to have time to get in everything that there is to say. So we'll have to try to work through this fairly quickly, but hopefully at least touch on most of the major points that are visible here. In a text like this one, a text that is repetitive of a large part of what came before in Exodus, where you had the instructions to do this, and now you have the record of the fulfillment of those commands being carried out. But that's also repetitive within itself because every time you're told about pillars, you're also told that the hooks were silver and the bands were silver and the bass was bronze and so forth. So you get that information repeated every time you're told about a different group of pillars. So it's a repetitive text in terms of Exodus overall and then just in terms of the text itself. When you have a repetitive text like that one, One of the things you're looking for are little details that are different or unique expressions that are brought out. And then of course, a large part of what the text has to teach you is contained in the symbolism of the items that are constructed. And that's why maybe it would have been good to divide this into two parts and tackle one thing first and then another thing. But we'll see if we can tackle it all together today. You notice that it begins with a description of making the altar of burnt offering and making the laver or the wash basin or the round tub where the priests would wash before and after offering sacrifices and so forth. Now on the inside of the tabernacle, and just for the sake of clarity, you remember what we're talking about here is if you were approaching from the outside, you'd see a fence made of white linen. At the entrance, there would be a multicolored embroidered curtain that blocked that, and you'd have to either push it aside or kind of go around it to get in. Once you were inside the courtyard, you'd see a big, altar made of bronze and past it there would be a giant bowl or laver and then there was the tabernacle proper. There was a covered tent with two divisions and on the inside of that tent, on the inside of God's tent, all the furniture was made of gold. You have a table and you have a lamp stand and you have an incense altar And then if you went through another curtain, if you went through the veil, then on the inside of that you'd find the Ark of the Covenant all covered in gold and with the Ten Commandments inside of that Ark or chest. So what we're talking about right now is They're moving outwards. They've built the ark. They've built the table and the incense altar and the lamp stand. And now they're outside of God's tent. They're in the courtyard and they're building the furniture that goes there. And this is bronze rather than gold. Bronze is obviously a little bit at least less valuable than gold. The exchange rates can fluctuate to be sure. But gold, because it represented that this was the place of God's presence, that God was uniquely manifested there in a way that wasn't true in other places. So on the inside, the furniture was golden. On the outside, the furniture was bronze. Because on the inside, so to speak, the furniture was kind of for God's use. It was saying something about God and his dwelling with his people. But now, this furniture that priests and Levites are coming into contact with, this is something that sinners are using. And so it's not as majestic, it's not as precious. And of course, that point about the difference in the metals comes out very clearly when you consider what were these items of furniture and what was their function? Well, you have an altar for sacrifice and you have a laver for washing. So think about the symbolism of this. If you were able to go back there and you were able to approach the tabernacle, go around or through the curtain that blocked it off, you come in, before you can set foot inside God's tent, there's a giant bronze altar blocking your way. Now I say blocking, but it would also be true to say that there's a giant bronze altar on the way to God's presence. The symbolism of that could hardly be any clearer. On that altar, sacrificial victims were presented to God. If there was no sacrifice to present to God, there was no access to the tent beyond. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins. Here are a sinful people, a depraved people, as we heard about in our catechism reading this morning. How are they supposed to come to God's presence? They're not righteous, they're not holy, they're not pure, they're not what they should be. Well, there is a way. God's presence isn't completely inaccessible. There's a gate. or an opening, and beyond the gate, there's an altar. God is approachable, but only through sacrifice. Obviously, the meaning of this altar was fulfilled when Christ bore our own sins in his body onto the tree, onto the altar that was Calvary's cross. That's when he opened for us a new and a living way into God's presence by the shedding of his own blood. The altar tells us it's good news. God can be approached through a sacrifice. If you were thinking that you could waltz up to God without a sacrifice, it might come across as bad news. But if you were thinking that, you don't know God very well. There is a way to approach, it's a way of sacrifice. Now beyond the altar was the laver or the washtub. Our sin alienates us from God and we need to be reconciled to him. Justice must be satisfied through death. That's what the altar was about. But over and above that, we also need to be cleansed from our sin. We need to be suited for communion with God. The legal obstacle needs to be taken away, but so does the moral obstacle need to be taken away. And A Place to Wash spoke of that. It spoke from cleansing from sin, it spoke of being purified, of being born again, as we heard in the catechism. Without the sacrifice, there would be no being born again. There is no cleansing from sin apart from the basis of Christ's work. So Christ's work has this double aspect. It accomplishes something outside of us, and then it's also the basis on which a necessary work can be done in us as well. And these bronze items of furniture Tell us that. They tell us that in Christ, God has done everything necessary for us to be reconciled to God, for us to be welcomed into his family, for us to enjoy communion with him. The barriers are serious. We need to be clear about that. There was no question. This was not automatic. The barriers are serious. But in Christ, God has overcome them. And of course, it's important to remember that part as well. We didn't overcome them. God overcame them for us. Salvation by grace alone is proclaimed in these furnishings of bronze. Speaking of barriers though, we come to the outer courtyard. And here, as already described, you had all of these posts, between which were stretched white linen curtains, and then you had a gap, and that gap was covered or shielded by a curtain that was done in many colors, in blue and scarlet and so forth. What was the reasoning there? Well, the fence showed that you couldn't just approach God, however, there was an entrance. The whiteness there indicated, of course, that God is pure, that God is holy there, that you need to be holy in order to approach. But it also didn't tell you a whole lot beyond that, right? It was just white. But then when you came to the entryway, when you were standing at the gap where you could get in, what you saw there blocking the way was a curtain that looked a lot more like the inside of the tabernacle. It was telling you, this is the way into God's presence, and it was communicating visually, this is the kind of thing you're gonna see on the inside. You remember, of course, that most people didn't go in, at least not very frequently. The courtyard was not that big. And, of course, priests and Levites were buzzing in and out of the courtyard, but other people only went in at stated times. So for them, that curtain was in terms of their own observation, that was the closest they got to seeing what it was like inside of the tabernacle, at least most of the time. And so it reflected there is an entryway. There is access to God's presence for God's people, but there's only one way. Now, of course that doesn't mean that God was confined inside of this little tent or this little courtyard. Instead, what this meant is that God, in mercy, in kindness, to a sinful people, restricted or limited the manifestation of his presence. Sinners can't take God straight and undiluted. They need to be protected from the consuming fire of his holiness. And so the courtyard was a reminder that sin is serious, and it was also a reminder that God is merciful. And of course, that curtain, as we said, let them know that through this one means of approach, you could come into God's presence and it communicated visually something of what that was like. And that brings us to the inventory or the tally of the materials that were used. Obviously it's talked about wood. Obviously it's talked about cloth of various kinds, but the number one thing that is of interest in this section is clearly the metal because we're given the weights for the gold and the silver and the bronze. And also in this chapter, we're given the source of these different metals that were used. And so that's where we'll focus our attention as we go through these verses 21 to 31 and also make reference to verse eight. Now a little bit about weights and measures. Obviously there can be differences of opinion because archeologists have found different You know, they found weights that are labeled a shekel and they're not all the exact same size. So there's a certain measure of uncertainty here. You might've noticed in the reading that it keeps emphasizing according to the shekel of the sanctuary. So apparently in the sanctuary, there was a standard measure and either other weights were supposed to measure up to that or it was supposed to be a little bit distinctive for sacred purposes. This was the meaning of a shekel or a beka or a talent and so forth. So bear in mind, all of these numbers are approximate for these various reasons. But in general terms, if you just look it up in a Bible dictionary, a shekel, it takes 3,000 shekels to make a talent. And a talent is about 75 pounds. So I'll let you do all the math in your head, but wait until after the service is over because otherwise you won't catch anything else. So when I did the math on my calculator, there's over a ton of gold, if those numbers are roughly accurate, there's about three and three quarters tons of silver, and there's somewhat more than two and a half tons of bronze. Well, when you just think about that weight, you realize, okay, this structure was movable, it was portable, they did pack it up and move it, but boy, that had to have been a lot of work. This was heavy. You think about these pillars. Each one of the pillars that held up the linen fence around the courtyard was in a base of one talent. There's 75 pounds of silver securing that post to the ground. And then, of course, there's the securing with ropes and the bronze pegs that keep getting mentioned as well. This was not going anywhere. It might have been movable, but only on purpose. You weren't gonna accidentally move it. You had to work at it. Of course, it also represented that this was tremendously expensive. It was heavy, it was solid, it was expensive. I mean, how much money would it take these days to get over a ton of gold? three and three quarter tons of silver, two and a half tons of bronze. That's a lot of money. And all of that was something that the Israelites had dedicated to the Lord. Now the gold came from a voluntary offering, from a wave offering. It was presented freely. And probably most of the cases, it represented people surrendering the most valuable thing they had because they knew that the Lord was worthy of it. They gave their most precious possession, the most convenient store of value that they had, They turned that over to the Lord. They knew he'd been good to them. The silver came from the census of fighting men, men who were over the age of 20, who were eligible to go out to battle. Each one of them was supposed to pay half a shekel. So that would be about two tenths of an ounce. And they were supposed to pay that. And from that, you get these 75, or you get these multiple, thousand pounds of silver that went into the bases and then that went into the hooks and the bands that went around the pillars where the hooks were secured. And then there's a note. We don't know where all of the bronze came from but we know where some of the bronze came from. We know where the bronze for the laver came from and that's in verse eight. He made the laver of bronze and its base of bronze from the bronze mirrors of the serving women who assembled at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. Now there's several interesting things in that verse. First of all, it bears pointing out just so that everybody knows what's happening here, that at this time mirrors were something of a luxury item and mirrors were made out of polished metal. Obviously, the more reflective the metal is, the better it's going to serve as a mirror. Obviously, if you can silver some glass, that works better than polishing copper or bronze or silver or steel. But that technique was not known to them. And Egypt was famous in the ancient world for producing many mirrors. A lot of them were just handheld mirrors. You know, there's a wooden or a bone handle or something like that. And then there's a disc, an oval or something like that of polished metal. Well, there were a group of women who assembled, who lined up in an orderly way at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. And those women apparently saw the need and they surrendered their luxury items to the service of God. Likely this was the highest quality bronze that they had available to them because it was the kind that would take the highest polish and work best as a mirror. And they sacrificed that ability to see themselves in the mirror for the service of the Lord. Now that's interesting in multiple ways. It's interesting because you notice that God does not lose sight of that. People did different things. People contributed in different ways. But God saw, God valued all of those contributions. However large or small a sacrifice it was to give up your precious handheld mirror, the Lord recognized that. The Lord was pleased by that. It also confirms, if we needed confirmation, that women participated in the worship and service of the Lord, that their contributions were valued by the Lord as well as by the leadership of God's people at that time. Now you notice the silver came from the census of the fighting men. The men were the ones who fought. They didn't send the women out to battle. But that didn't mean there was nothing for the women The men brought silver, the women brought bronze mirrors. It's also interesting that it describes serving women who assembled at the door of the Tabernacle of Meeting. They had a organization, they had a structure, they got together. Now, why they got together and did that, Some people think it was for work, to do something of the service of the tabernacle. You think about keeping all of these hundreds of cubits of white linen curtains clean in a desert, I wouldn't be surprised if there was a fair amount of work to do to keep them presentable. But I think they also, and perhaps even primarily, assembled for worship. Because you notice a little detail here, it's called the door of the tabernacle of meeting. Now, a lot of times it's called the tabernacle, or it's called the tabernacle of this or that. For instance, later on in this chapter, it's called the tabernacle of the testimony. But here it's specifically called the tabernacle of meeting. Why did they assemble at the door of the tabernacle of meeting? They assembled there to meet with the Lord. They were having, so to speak, a ladies' meeting where they came to worship God. Well, you can find something similar to that in the New Testament, where Lydia is hosting prayer meetings down by the riverbank. prayer meetings which even Paul attended. So it's clear from all of this that there's tremendous scope within the worship and service of the church for women to contribute, to participate, and even to take part, if you will, sort of separately under their own parallel organization. As I said, it might have been good to split this up into multiple sermons in order to be able to go into all of these things in detail. So here's a tabernacle, a tabernacle that's been equipped through the generosity, the self-sacrificing service of God's people as they respond to Him. A tabernacle that teaches about God. It shows us that God is holy, but it also shows us that God is gracious. He can be approached. In fact, He has created, He has made the way of approach. He's given instruction about it. If we don't approach God in the way that He's commanded, we can't blame God for that. done everything so that we can approach. It's, of course, then a tabernacle that teaches us about Christ, because it is teaching us about the way to God. It reminds us that Christ is the only way to God, just as there was one door into the tabernacle, one opening in the tent. And it reminds us that that way is a way of sacrifice, of the shedding of blood, and it's a way of cleansing. We are cleansed by the blood and spirit of Christ. The guilt of our sins is forgiven, and the corruption of our sins is washed away. But because it was for the people of God, the tabernacle also teaches us about the church. It teaches us about the assembly of the saints. Now, there's different elements that you could draw out of this, but certainly one of the things we're seeing here is that although not everybody contributes to the tabernacle, to the church, in the same way, yet God has value, God has opportunity for everybody to contribute. And so that's one of the takeaways for us here. You know, you can ask yourself the questions of application. Do I understand that God is holy and gracious? You can ask yourself, do I approach God only through Christ, but do I approach confidently through Christ? And you can ask yourself, what is my opportunity or opportunities? What are the ways that I can serve and contribute to the church. And if you want to have a conversation about that, believe me, very little would make me happier than for you to give me a call and say, I want to know how to serve. Well, we'll talk about it. We'll figure something out. We value your contributions. We're taught to do so by this passage. But then just very quickly to wrap up, you notice this tabernacle is called the tabernacle of meeting. It's also called, verse 21, the tabernacle of the testimony. The tabernacle of the testimony relates to the fact that within the ark there were the Ten Commandments, that God had spoken, that God had communicated with his people. He'd given them his law, his testimony. The Tent of Meeting relates to the reality of fellowship with God. Both are happening at the tabernacle. Well, you can apply that to church. We come here to hear the word of God. We come here to enjoy fellowship with God. You also, though, can apply that just simply to what God does for us. What does God do for us? He speaks to us, he gives us his law, but it's not a one-sided relationship. He invites us into fellowship with himself so that we truly walk with the Lord, so that we truly enjoy his company. on our pilgrimage. That's part of the meaning of the tabernacle. Amen.