Exodus 25. I mentioned Isaac earlier. This is going to be the largest block of narrative I've ever dealt with and it may be the shortest Bible study we've ever had on a Wednesday night. So we're not going to go jot and tittle through the entirety of the tabernacle. I'll read the section that I read last week and then we'll skip over to chapter 31. But beginning in chapter 25 at verse 1, then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, that they bring me an offering. From everyone who gives it willingly, with his heart, you shall take my offering. And this is the offering which you shall take from them, gold, silver, and bronze, blue, purple, and scarlet thread, fine linen and goat's hair, ram skins dyed red, badger skins and acacia wood, oil for the light and spices for the anointing oil and for the sweet incense, Onyx stones and stones to be set in the ephod and in the breastplate and let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them according to all that I show you that is the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all its furnishings just so you shall make it and then turn over to chapter 31. 31, beginning in verse 1. Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, See, I have called, by name, Bezalel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah. And I have filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship, to design artistic works, to work in gold, in silver, in bronze, in cutting jewels for setting, in carving wood, and to work in all manner of workmanship. And I, indeed I, have appointed with him Aholiab, the son of Ahissamak, of the tribe of Dan. And I have put wisdom in the hearts of all the gifted artisans, that they may make all that I have commanded you, the tabernacle of meeting, the ark of the testimony and the mercy seat that is on it, and all the furniture of the tabernacle, the table and its utensils, the pure gold lampstand with all its utensils, the altar of incense, the altar burnt offering with all its utensils, and the laver and its base, the garments of ministry, the holy garments for Aaron, the priest, and the garments of his sons to minister as priests, and the anointing oil and sweet incense for the holy place. According to all that I have commanded you, they shall do. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak also to the children of Israel, saying, Surely my Sabbath you shall keep, for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you. You shall keep the Sabbath, therefore, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death. For whoever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people. Work shall be done for six days, but the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. Therefore, the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed. And when he had made an end of speaking with him on Mount Sinai, he gave Moses two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God. Amen. Well, as we have noted throughout our study thus far in the book of Exodus, there are three main sections. They begin with D's. You have the section that deals with deliverance, chapters 1 to 18. God delivers Israel out of bondage from Egypt. The second section is an emphasis on demand. God commands his people from Sinai in chapters 19 to 24. And then this latter section of the book, 25 to 40, deals with dwelling. And so you have the ratification of the covenant in chapter 24, and at the end of chapter 24, it ends with Moses up on the mountain with God, receiving this detailed legislation concerning the building of the tabernacle. So you've got the instructions in 25 to 31, and then the actual construction takes place in chapters 35 to 40. Now, there is similarity with this sort of trajectory and what we've been seeing in our Sunday night services in the book of Ephesians. If you turn to the book of Ephesians, you'll see a similar sort of a thing. You'll see God's deliverance of his people with the goal of his dwelling in their midst. So, specifically in Ephesians chapter 2, the emphasis is upon the salvation of individual sinners, specifically in verses 1 to 10. You have that sort of before picture of what they were outside of Christ in verses 1 to 3, and then you have this emphasis, but God, in verse 4, and then you see that come to culmination in verses 8 to 10. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." So there's deliverance by the grace of God and the mercy of God. And then when we move through chapter 2, we see the emphasis on God's dwelling amongst His people. Notice in verse 13, but now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. We've been brought near to God Most High through the blood of Jesus. And then you see in the corporate worship, specifically in verse 18, for through Him, Christ, we both, Jew and Gentile, have access by one Spirit, the Holy Spirit, to the Father. So the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, as a delivered people, are now a people who get the privilege of dwelling in the midst or with God. Verse 22, same emphasis, "...in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit." So you see that emphasis, not just in the book of Exodus, but throughout Scripture. This covenant promise, or pinnacle of covenant promise, I will be their God and they shall be my people. Now the latter half of the book of Ephesians deals with demand. God will command his people how they are to live in light of the salvation that they have freely by God's grace. So, God's dwelling in the midst of his people is a theme throughout scripture. It begins in the book of Genesis in the Garden of Eden. God dwells with Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve, obviously, through their sin, forfeit that privilege. The rest of scripture is all about how God will restore that, and he does so through the last Adam, even Jesus Christ our Lord. So going back to Exodus chapter 25, I just want to go over what the tabernacle looked like. Now you probably have in your Bible, or you might have in a book at home, or you might have seen before sort of a pictorial representation of what the tabernacle looked like. It was just sort of a rectangular building or edifice. You had two compartments in the inside. You had the holy place and then you had the holy of holies. And it's set up in such a way as to be a dwelling place for God. Now the various aspects that we see in that particular tabernacle are symbolic, the showbread that's placed on the table. It's not because God eats, it's not because God gets hungry, but rather it is symbolic of what goes into dwelling. You see the various aspects of the furnishings, you see the various ways that it's structured together, and you see that it's designed so that God and his people can meet together. just like in our own homes. We try to make them comfortable. We try to make them smell good. The emphasis on incense in a ancient Near Eastern world where there was lots of bad smells and lots of filthy things, the idea of incense, it obviously represents more than just that. But what you see in terms of the furnishings and the accoutrements is that God is going to meet with his people and there's going to be this interchange of fellowship and communion. So last time, in chapter 25, we saw the emphasis on the offerings for the tabernacle in verses 1 to 7. It was to be the people of God that ponied up from their own resources that which would go into the building of the tabernacle. Literally, it's that they bring me, God, an offering. Not that God needs these things. God owns the cattle on a thousand hills, but it is an expression of and an act of worship, and it demonstrates our thanksgiving to God for the various things He has blessed us with. So you've got the offerings for the tabernacle in verses 1 to 7, and then the purpose for the tabernacle in verses 8 and 9. In fact, verse 8 is sort of a summary statement of the entirety of 25 to 40. Let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them. And then the tabernacle, or the instructions, begins with the construction of the Ark of the Testimony. So instead of the outward edifice, instead of the outer court, instead of the laver, the altar of incense, instead of the actual holy place, and then the Holy of Holies, it goes into the Holy of Holies to that most crucial element, which is called the Ark of the Covenant. And so that's the emphasis in chapter 10, I'm sorry, 25 verses 10 to 22. Now, from then, it indicates the table for the showbread. And again, the idea here is not that God needs food, it's not that, you know, the Israelites, the common Israelites, are going to go chill out in the holy place and just eat that bread there. It's representative, it's symbolic, but again, I think it speaks concerning that intimacy and communion and fellowship that God has with his people. Then you move on to the golden lampstand. The golden lampstand is described, and then the specific lamps and accessories are described. There's a necessity laid there in verse 40 in chapter 25, again, on compliance in accordance with the commandments. And then in terms of the purpose, it is to illuminate. It is, again, when we have our lights on, that typically means that we're open for business. When we have our lights on, that means people are free to stop in. When the lights are on, it means that we're wanting to engage in that communion and fellowship. When the lights are off, that typically means we're asleep. So this light was to be on. This was to burn. This was to be constant. It was to be always when the tabernacle was up. And then it moves to the outer structure itself, in terms of the tabernacle structure, in chapter 26, verses 1 to 37. Deals with the inner curtains in verses 1 to 6, and then the protective curtains in verses 7 to 14. Remember, this was going to be sort of a mobile temple. When they get planted in the land, when they receive the land of promise, when they get established there, and their enemies are vanquished by King David, then they'll build, or Solomon will build the temple, which will be a permanent structure. It's not going to be mobile. It's not going to be something that you take down and erect at another place. But at this particular instance, or in this particular time, it was mobile. They were not set and tethered in their land. So there had to be a durability about the items used in terms of the tabernacle. So that's what's going on in terms of the structure. You've got the inner curtains, you've got the protective curtains, you've got framing uprights, framing crossbars for the curtains. Again, a reference to the plan, notice in 2630. you shall raise up the tabernacle according to its pattern which you were shown on the mountain." So the idea is that Moses was given this directly by God on the mountain and then he rehearses it and relates it to the children of Israel. As well, you've got the curtain in front of the Holy of Holies in verses 31 to 35. Now that was the most important part of the structure. The Holy of Holies, again, is where the Ark of the Covenant was. And in that Ark of the Covenant, you had the two tablets of stone. You had the testimony of God. And that functioned not simply to remind the children of Israel concerning the law, but it served as copies to the parties in the Covenant. Both tables had the entirety of the Ten Commandments on them. One was God's copy, one was the people's copy, and that was then deposited into that Ark of the Covenant. On top of that was the mercy seat where atonement would be wrought one time out of the year. When we get to the Book of Leviticus, we'll see that central to Leviticus is chapter 16, and that deals with the Day of Atonement. That's the one day out of the year that the High Priest goes into the Holy of Holies. So the common Israelite didn't go even into the holy place. You had to be a Levite to go into those places and even then there were specific directions. The passage that I read in chapter 31, the men that are responsible for building The artisans, Bezalel and Aholiub, they're not from the tribe of Levi. One's from Judah, the other is from Dan. But what you have is that once those men finished the building, they had to get out. They couldn't go back in there because they were not authorized. So you had to be a particular tribe, the Levites, to engage in the sort of priestly functions. The rest of them could participate, but not in the same manner. And so the Holy of Holies was sort of the main place, and you had that veil that separated the holy place from the Holy of Holies. And then in verses 36 and 37 in chapter 26, you have the design of the entrance curtain to the main tabernacle itself. The description then goes on to the altar of burnt offering. Now, when we get to Leviticus, we will see in more detail the nature of the offerings, and some of that is spoken to here in the passages in Exodus, but the primary emphasis is that sinful man cannot enter into the presence of God without the shedding of blood. There had to be offerings. There had to be burnt offerings, sin offering, peace offering, the various things again that we'll see in more detail in the book of Leviticus. Then you have the main courtyard in chapter 27 verses 9 to 21. Now notice in chapter 27, specifically at 20, It says, "...you shall command the children of Israel that they bring you pure oil of pressed olives for the light to cause the lamp to burn continually." Again, that's signification that God is present among His people. It's not just sometimes. When the light's on, then God is with us. No, it's continually. God is with his people. What a wonderful expression of his faithfulness and his kindness to his people. The fact that this was mandated and stipulated to be done continually emphasizes God's nearness to his people. So in the tabernacle of meeting, outside the veil which is before the testimony, Aaron and his son shall tend it from evening until morning before the Lord. It shall be a statute forever to their generations on behalf of the children of Israel. Now, I think it was last time somebody asked about forever, or perhaps that would have been on a Saturday morning. Was that Saturday morning, theology? Sometimes forever doesn't mean eternally. Forever is conditioned by context, and forever here means, in terms of the old covenant, as long as the legislation stood relative to the tabernacle and to the temple. It doesn't mean that it's binding upon the church today. Rather, it is for that particular era. But notice the reference to Aaron and his sons in verse 21. That then leads into the discussion, or rather the legislation, concerning the priesthood. So in chapters 28 and 29, you have specific emphasis with reference to the priests. And much of that has to do with their garments, what the priests wore. So notice in chapter 28, you have this identification of the priests in verse 1. Now take Aaron, your brother, and his sons with him from among the children of Israel, that he may minister to me as priest. Aaron and Aaron's sons, Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. And then notice, you shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother. Notice the next language, for glory and for beauty. For glory and for beauty. The God of heaven and earth deserves glory and beauty by those who attend to him, by those that are engaged in cultic worship. Cultic there doesn't mean like Jehovah's Witnesses. It just refers to the external approach to God that is dictated by God himself. When you get to Solomon's Temple, there was no cost, you know, there was no shaving off the budget. There was no sort of cheaping out. There was no, well, you know, we can save a few bucks over here if we don't use gold. No. No, it was to show and demonstrate and to point the people of God to the reality that our God is worthy of such things. And so the priests that serve are clothed in such a way as for glory and for beauty. And then there's sort of this hat tip to what we saw in chapter 31. So you shall speak, verse 3, to all who are gifted artisans whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom. It's intriguing that spirit there is not capitalized, but spirit is capitalized in chapter 31. I think that some people are a bit afraid to indicate that the Spirit of God is responsible not only for the sacrificial system, but for the guys, you know, nailing nails into the structure and having that sort of ability to take what raw materials have been donated by the Israelites and fashion it into that specific edifice required by God for his dwelling amongst them. I think it is a capitalist spirit. I think the Holy Spirit is responsible for fitting and enabling Bezalel and Aholiab with that wisdom so that they could engage in that sort of thing. The reality is is that the Spirit of God works in the sacred. The Spirit of God works in the profane. And profane doesn't mean nasty or bad. It means non-sacred at its basic root meaning. And so the Holy Spirit gifts men, not just in terms of preaching or teaching, but he gifts men in terms of building things for the kingdom of God most high. So in terms of the actual articles of clothing involved with reference to the priest, you have the ephod in verses 5 to 14, those memorial stones in verses 12 and 13 for the sons of Israel, and then the breastplate in verses 15 to 30. And in verses 29 to 30, you see this reference to the judgment of the Urim and the Thummim. Now you see that later in the Pentateuchal legislation. It's a bit of an enigma. I'm not exactly sure how it all functioned, but it was a means by which the priests determined or ascertained the mind of God with reference to specific judgments. And then from there you've got other garments in verses 31 to 43. You've got the high priest's robe, you've got the turban forehead plate, the tunic, the turban, and the sash, and then the sons of Aaron specifically in verses 40 to 43. And then notice the emphasis on compliance. Again, verse 43, they shall be on Aaron and on his sons when they come into the tabernacle of meeting or when they come near the altar to minister in the holy place that they do not incur iniquity and die. It shall be a statute forever to him and his descendants after him. So this was serious business. You didn't just wander in and engage in whatever you thought was fitting and appropriate for the living and true God. No, you had to march in obedience to the script. You had to do specifically what God commanded in terms of our approach to Him in worship. And as I tried to point out last time, that's not changed in the New Covenant. We don't have the same trappings in terms of the external edifice. We don't have the same trappings in terms of the priesthood and the garments and all that sort of thing. But we're not free to just enter into the worship of God in any old way that we want. We're supposed to obey God as He reveals Himself in the New Covenant relative to our approach to God. We need to engage in acceptable worship, according to Hebrews 12, with reverence and godly fear. Now that acceptability is not how we see it or define it, but it's how God sees it and defines it. So there is this oughtness that Paul brings to bear on Timothy in 1 Timothy 3, on how he ought to conduct himself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. Timothy is not free to create. He's not free to innovate. Timothy rather must be obedient to the divine mandate in terms of how sinners approach God in New Covenant worship. So while the positive law aspects have changed between the Old and the New Covenant, We see the continuity or the consistency in the reality that God demands that we worship Him according to His plan, according to His mind, and according to His will and word. And then the next chapter deals with the consecration of the priests. So they're clothed, they're ready to go, but again, they don't just wander in. There's a specific procedure involved. There's overview, verses 1-9. You've got the bowl as a sin offering in verses 10-14. You've got the first ram as a whole burnt offering in verses 15-18. and then you've got the blood of the second ram and the rest of the second ram, and then specific instructions for cooking and eating the animal portions that were allotted to the Levitical priests. They didn't get to eat everything, but they got to eat some stuff, and the some stuff that they got to eat, it was regulated and dictated how they were to go about that. And then you've got a summary statement concerning the priesthood in chapter 29, verses 35 to 46. And then notice the specific reminder and promise in verses 42 and following. So verse 42, this shall be a continual burnt offering throughout your generations at the door of the tabernacle of meeting before the Lord, where I will meet you to speak with you. And there I will meet with the children of Israel. And the tabernacle shall be sanctified by my glory. So I will consecrate the tabernacle of meeting in the altar. I will also consecrate both Aaron and his sons to minister to me as priests. I will dwell among the children of Israel and will be their God. And they shall know that I am the Lord their God, who brought them up out of the land of Egypt, that I may dwell among them. I am the Lord their God. We cannot miss the emphasis throughout this section on this dwelling concept of God with his people, which that in and of itself is cause for wonder and worship and glory given to God. When we understand what's happened up to this point in the Bible, we've got man created in the image of God, but man falling from that, man seeking out many devices. We see God purging the earth with a universal worldwide flood, with the exception of Noah and his family. We see that the earth was exceedingly corrupt and filled with violence. We see the specific imposition of civil government in Genesis chapter 9, given the sword to regulate conduct in civil polity, to execute criminal offenders, those that would transgress God's law and engage in murder. You see, you know, sort of a less than stellar representation of godly living throughout the book of Genesis right up into the book of Exodus. The people of God cry out in bondage, not so much because they're wanting to repent and get right with God, but because they're hurting. Now God, according to chapter 2 in the book of Exodus, is pitying them, shows compassion to them, delivers them, demands from them, and now promises to dwell with them. The reality is that our God is good. He's gracious. He's present with his people. This concept of this God that wants no truck with his creatures. Now, there's obvious abuse to that when we think of the universal fatherhood of God to all men. There's no sort of redemptive distinction. That's not righteous. That's not godly. But in terms of redemption, every tribe, tongue, people, and nation, There's a great multitude that no man can number. The Bible is so specific and so conspicuous with this reality that God sent His Son into this world sinners to save. And when He saves those sinners, guess what they get to do? They get to commune with God. They get to be part of churches. They get to read His Bible. They get to pray to Him. They get to commune with Him in corporate worship. They get baptism. They get the supper. They get all these things that show them God's presence and nearness in their lives. That's an overarching theme, and I would suggest one of the overarching themes. You've got paradise lost in Genesis 1-3, paradise restored in Revelation 20-22. And what is it? It's God with his people. It's his people knowing their God. It's that close communion of the saints with their blessed creator. It is a wonderful movement that we find throughout scripture. And then notice you've got the altar of incense in chapter 30, and then the ransom money, the census. As far as I can tell later from the legislation, census was only for the purpose of war. and taxation. I'm sure we'll see that concept as we move forward after the book of Exodus. And then you have the bronze laver in chapter 30 verses 17 to 21, the washing of the priest as he comes into the courtyard before he gets close to the holy place. and then the use and misuse of the anointing oil in chapter 30, verses 22 to 33, and then a summary regarding incense in chapter 30, verses 34 to 38. Well, before we look specifically at chapter 31, and we're not gonna spend a lot of time there, there's just a few lessons that I think we ought to glean from this sort of overview of the tabernacle as a whole. In the first place, we ought to appreciate the importance of the legislation. This isn't suggestive. This isn't a recommendation. This isn't, you know, if you really want to know the spirit-filled life, you might try this. We see this movement in terms of the threefold division of God's law. You see, moral law emphasized in Exodus chapter 20. Moral law refers to the Ten Commandments, the Decalogue. It's abiding, it's perpetual, it doesn't go anywhere. It is trans-covenantal. Whether you're in the Old Covenant or you're in the New Covenant, you are always bound by moral law. The moral law is a reflection of God's perfections. The moral law is what God thinks concerning our responsibility or duty to Him and our responsibility or duty to man. So Exodus chapter 20 deals with the moral law. Exodus chapters 21 to 23 deals with what we call the judicial law of Moses, or political laws of Moses. So you've got 21 to 23, which takes the general principles of the Ten Commandments and applies it to civil polity. In other words, why do you put a roof or a fence around your flat roof? Because if somebody falls off, you're going to be criminally negligent because you were not careful to put a fence around your flat roof. Well, that's a violation of the Sixth Commandment. So all of the moral law is at the root of or the basis of the judicial law. So we worked our way through those chapters, but then here in chapter 25 you have what's called ceremonial law. Ceremonial law is conditioned by the Old Covenant. It is that ceremonial approach to God. It deals with the priesthood, it deals with the structure, it deals with the method, it deals with the sacrifice, it deals with everything involved in Old Covenant worship. And much of this prefigures and is typical of our Lord Jesus Christ. So in John 1.29, for instance, when the Baptist sees Jesus and says, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, you'll notice that people around him didn't say, What are you talking about? Of course, they understood what he was talking about. They may not have perhaps agreed with him that it was Jesus that was the Lamb of God, but that language, Lamb of God, is reminiscent of the Old Covenant legislation. It is reminiscent of the Levitical priesthood. It is reminiscent of that sacrificial approach to a thrice holy God. So that when we see that statement, and then many others like it, in the New Testament where we see that Jesus Christ himself fulfills the ceremonial law. He fulfills the moral law by never having committed adultery, by never having engaged in idolatry. He fulfills the judicial law. He's an old covenant citizen living in an old covenant polity in his life and ministry. He does everything jot and tittle perfect. But as well, he fulfills and realizes the ceremonial law. And with reference to the ceremonial laws, I said that is conditioned specifically by the covenant you find yourself in. The moral law is not that way. It's trans-covenantal. Whether you were in the old covenant or the new covenant, it was always wrong to go into your neighbor's wife. But in the Old Covenant, you couldn't eat jackdaw. You couldn't eat bacon. In the New Covenant, you can eat jackdaw, if you're so inclined. I think you're probably inclined to eat bacon. You're free to do so in this New Covenant arena. So the ceremonial law, as I said, conditioned by the Old Covenant, is no longer binding upon the New Covenant people of God. So the moral law remains, the judicial law expires technically with the Commonwealth of Israel, but the general equity principle abides. So what we learn from Exodus 21-23, we extrapolate into this New Covenant era, and we say, wow, our government should actually be killing people. They just happen to be killing the wrong people. They're killing the elderly. They're killing the unborn. They're killing the infirm. They should be killing criminal offenders. They should be executing criminal offenders. They should be doing what God calls them to do in terms of civil magistrates, the function of the civil magistrate. And then notice, so we've got the importance of the legislation, but then secondly, the necessity of compliance with the legislation. I've already read a couple of those verses, 25.9 for instance. According to all that I show you, that is the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all its furnishings, just so you shall make it. Notice in 25.40, and see to it that you make them according to the pattern which was shown you on the mountain. 26.30, you shall raise up the tabernacle according to its pattern which you were shown on the mountain. 27.08. The same emphasis in terms of obedience to the law. You shall make it hollow with boards, as it was shown you on the mountain, so they shall make it. 28.4. 28.4. These are the garments which they shall make, a breastplate, an ephod, a robe, a skillfully woven tunic, a turban, and a sash. So they shall make holy garments for Aaron, your brother, and his sons, that he may minister to me as priest. 2843, 2843, they shall be on Aaron and on his sons when they come into the tabernacle of meeting, or when they come near the altar to minister in the holy place, that they do not incur iniquity and die. It shall be a statute forever to him and his descendants after him. I think there's a Jewish tradition, I've never seen it in the written word of God, but a Jewish tradition that they would put a rope around the priest when they went into the holy place or holy of holies so that if he did die, they could drag him out without having to go in there. Now, whether that was the case or not, as I've said, I've never seen that in the Mosaic law, but I think that was a Jewish tradition, that you made sure that you didn't breach the commandment if you had to fetch out a dead priest. You just yanked him by that rope that was on him. And then chapter 30, verses 20 and 21. Chapter 30, verses 20 and 21. Now all that to say, In the absence of an Exodus 25-40 in the New Testament, that still does not mean we're free to worship any old way that we want. There has not been a radical change in God. God is without change. There is no variation or shadow of turning within. James tells us that in James chapter 1. He says to the children of Israel and the prophet Malachi, I Yahweh do not change. So he hasn't changed in terms of the demands with reference to worship. It's not our innovation or creation, it's our obedience. And so in the absence of a 25 to 40 in the New Testament, we ought to be diligent to see those passages that do speak to worship, and we ought to regulate our conduct in light of those particular passages. We're not free to worship in whatever way we choose. And then thirdly, in terms of a lesson, the blessing of the legislation. The blessing of the legislation. So all of the specific emphases in terms of texts where God says, I will dwell among you, but then the structure itself. It's not a slaughterhouse. It's not an industrial complex. It's a dwelling place. It's where God, with bread and with light and with all of the accoutrements, shows his presence among the people of Israel. As well, we see the absolute holiness of the occupant in the tabernacle. Hence the legislation concerning the need for sacrifice, and hence the legislation concerning the need for priesthood. You don't just wander into the presence of this holy God. You are a sinful man. You are a sinful woman. There are means appointed by God so that you may dwell with God. Again, it's alluded to here in the legislation. It's going to be sort of center stage in the book of Leviticus, and the emphasis is upon that bloody knife and a smoking altar. That's the means by which sinners enter into the presence of God. And then finally, the sinfulness and uncleanness of the ones meeting with God. Notice we're not dealing with a scenario like we face in our lives. I come over to your house and it's a common courtesy for me to take my shoes off and not track mud all through your house. That's just a common decent thing. They're not just taking their shoes off to enter into the tabernacle. They've got to come with blood, atonement. They've got to come in a manner consistent with the reality that they are sinful men and women, and they're approaching a thrice holy God. And as I've said, the end of Exodus is with God dwelling in the midst of them, but nobody able to access Him. Moses himself cannot enter in. And so Leviticus comes and prescribes the way, the means by which these sinners can enter into the presence of God Almighty. Now, in terms of the actual appointment of the craftsman, notice in chapter 31, verses 1 to 11, Stuart makes the observation, only the best materials were to be used in the manufacture of the tabernacle and its furnishings, according to the instruction of chapters 25 to 30. Here in 31, 1 to 11, God insists as well that only the best workmanship be assigned to the actual task of construction. I don't want to get too far afield and say, well, you know, when you plumb, do it in such a way that God would be pleased. But when you do plumb, do it in such a way that God would be pleased. God's not about, you know, shoddy workmanship. God's not about, you know, bad workmanship, specifically in His house as we see here. There is this man called Bezalel and he is equipped by God. He is filled with the Spirit of God, according to verse 3. I have filled him with the Spirit of God in wisdom. I think this is what's called apexegetical. It explains. I have filled him with the Spirit of God. That is, with wisdom, understanding, knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship. That's what it means to be filled by the Spirit of God, or with the Spirit of God, if your baits allow. It means that you have the ability to take these raw materials that have been given by the freewill offerings of the children of Israel, and then construct the tabernacle, not trying the best that you can, but doing it in compliance with God's law. Look at 3922. 3922, wonderful testimony concerning these workmen. I'm sorry, it's not 3922. I didn't write it down. I thought it was 3922, but it can't be 3922. Oh, try 32. Yeah, 32. Thus all the work of the tabernacle of the tent of beating was finished, and the children of Israel did according to all that the Lord had commanded Moses. So they did. That's impressive. If you read through this section of material, there's a lot going on. There's a lot of details. There's a lot of, you know, I's to dot and T's to cross and jots and tittles and a whole host of things that they complied with this, that it's commended by God through Moses. That is a good thing. That's not least of all owing to Bezalel and to Aholiad. Now notice, as I mentioned, you had to be a Levite in order to function in the tabernacle, but you didn't have to be a Levite in order to build the tabernacle. And then 7 to 11 duplicates the order that chapters 25 to 30 give. Just in, you know, a small summary statement in 7 to 11, it goes in the same order as we saw or as we, you know, did an overview or flyover in 25 to 30. And then notice the next section, the law concerning the Sabbath. Why? Well, the where of worship has now been specified. We need to be reminded about the when of worship. It's a very appropriate conclusion to the construction or the instructions concerning the tabernacle itself, this emphasis on worship, this emphasis on Sabbath. and basically it rehearses for us again the fourth commandment, but does stipulate that it's a capital offense if somebody violates the fourth commandment relative to the worship of God. To notice, the Sabbath functions as a sign. That's not all it functions as, but certainly it does function here as a sign. It is mentioned here in verses 13 and then again in verse 17. Gill comments, it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations. A token of the covenant between them, of his being their God and they his people in a peculiar sense. Seeing they observed the same day as a day of rest now on which he had rested at the finishing of the works of creation. which other nations of the world did not observe, of his sanctifying and separating them from all other people. For this was not a sign between him and other nations, but between him and the people of Israel, and was to be observed throughout their ages as long as their civil and church state lasted." So you've got this emphasis on Sabbath as the day of worship, or the days of worship. I don't think it's confined simply to the weekly Sabbath. There were other occasional Sabbaths. in Israel's calendar, and those certainly needed to be abided by as well. But notice, it rehearses what we find in the Decalogue. The rationale is given in verse 15, work shall be done for six days, but the seventh is a Sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. Therefore, the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever, for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed." So it's this concept of God's work of creation, Genesis chapter 2, wherein He sabbathed, He rested, He prevailed over, or He looked upon all that He had created. The creature is to imitate Him and cease from His labor and enter into the worship and praise of God Most High. And then the chapter ends, or the section ends on the conclusion of the instructions. We've got the end of God's words, verse 18a. When he had made an end of speaking with him on Mount Sinai, we then have the record of God's words in 18b. He gave Moses two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone. Notice the next clause, written with the finger of God. As far as I can tell, that's only ever applied to the Ten Commandments. Not that he's not the author of the judicial law, not that he's not the one who gave the ceremonial law, but I think that it speaks to what I mentioned earlier. The moral law, the Ten Commandments, is trans-covenantal. It abides in all places at all times over all people. In fact, Poole says as much. Tables of stone, whereby was signified both the durable and perpetual obligation of the moral law. whereas the ceremonial law was to end with the Jewish polity at Christ's coming and the stoniness of men's hearts by nature in which the law of God could not be written but by a divine and omnipotent hand. And so that language written with the finger of God, you see it again in chapter 34, at verse 28, and then in Deuteronomy 4.13, 5.22, 9.10, and 10.4. So the argument is not that God is not the author of the ceremonial and judicial, but rather He does, in a special way, write with His own finger the Ten Commandments that function in the Ark of the Covenant as the testimony between God and Israel. Well, there's the tabernacle. So we'll probably do the same thing when we get to the construction. But we've got a bit of an interlude. We've got to watch Israel sin and break the covenant that they just swore fidelity to before God Most High. So in chapter 24, they say, all that God has commanded we will do. And here in chapter 32, even before Moses comes down from the mountain, they're dancing before a golden calf. And remember, one of the purposes for this tabernacle was that they not only dwell with God, but that they remember that it was God who brought them out of Egypt, brought them out of the house of bondage. What is it that they worship in chapter 32? These golden calves, and they predicated the calves that they were the ones that brought them out of the land of bondage. So, it's an unfortunate reality when we claim that we're going to serve God most high, we're not always as good as our claim may be, makes out to be. Well, let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for your word. We thank you for this emphasis on the dwelling of God with his people. We see it not only here in Exodus, we see it in Ephesians, we see it all throughout the Bible. The pinnacle of covenant promise is that you will be our God and we will be your people. We look forward to that new Jerusalem, that new heavens, and that new earth. We look forward to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ in glory to judge the living and the dead. We look forward to that consummated kingdom. But until such time, help us to be faithful, help us to enjoy the means of grace that you give us here and now, help us to love the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, help us to love your word and prayer, and help us to grow in the grace and knowledge of our blessed Savior. And we ask in his name,