It Was All About Jesus

It was all about Jesus Exodus 36-39 Background • Tabernacle construction began with a free-will offering: see 36:6 and 38:24 ($8M in gold [2170 lbs]; $250K in silver [7500 lbs]). • Completion of the project took approximate six months (dating backward using Exodus 40:16) • The Tabernacle was always supposed to be: 1) Temporary (see 2 Samuel 7:1ff) 2) Preparatory (Hebrews 3:1ff) General Observations • Literary Structure: Moses follows the construction plan of Bezalel and Oholiab – Tent (37), Interior Furniture (37), Exterior Pieces and Exterior Fence (38), and the Priestly Items (39). • Word-for-Word: Moses recounts that Bezalel and Oholiab fulfilled his instructions verbatim. • Leadership: Moses was ultimately responsible for the inspection and completion of the project (39:43; 40:33). • Christological: The New Testament shows how the Tabernacle pointed entirely to Christ. Christological Symbolism 1. The Tabernacle – the entire structure pointed to the Person and work of Jesus Christ. • “The glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle” (40:34) • “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as the only Son” (John 1:14) • “For in Him the whole fulness of deity dwells bodily” (Colossians 1:9) Christological Symbolism 2. The Furniture: • Ark – see Hebrews 9:6-11 (pg 1005) • Lampstand – “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12) • Table of Bread – “I am the bread of life” (John 6:35) • Altar of Incense – “He always lives to make intercession” (Hebrews 7:25) • The Veil – “I am the way” (John 14:6); “the curtain of the Temple was torn in two, from top to bottom” (Matthew 27:51); “we have confidence to enter the holy places by the new and living way that He opened for us through the curtain, that is, his flesh (Hebrews 10:19-20) Christological Symbolism 2. The Furniture (cont): • Bronze Altar: “for if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God” (Hebrews 9:13-14) • Bronze Basin: “Husbands, love your wives as Christ love the Church and gave himself up for her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word” (Ephesians 5:25-26) Christological Symbolism 3. The Priestly Garments: • The Garments of a Royal Priest: see Hebrews 5 (pg. 1003) • The Heart of an Intercessor: see John 17, especially v. 20 (pg. 903) • The Ephod of Knowledge: “I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just because I seek not my own will but the will of Him who sent me” (John 5:30) Reflections • The Writer of Hebrews has two thoughts (2:1-3): 1. “Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard lest we drift away” 2. “How shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?”