Exodus 25.23-40-The Lord Gives Moses Instructions Regarding Construction And Use Of Lampstand And Tabernacle
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Sunday April 1, 2012
Journey Through The Bible Series: Exodus 25:23-40-The Lord Gives Moses Instructions Regarding Construction And Use Of Lampstand And Tabernacle
Lesson # 29
Please turn in your Bibles to Exodus 25:23.
Exodus 25:23-30 presents to us instructions regarding the construction and use of the table of showbread.
Exodus 25:23 “You shall make a table of acacia wood, two cubits long and one cubit wide and one and a half cubits high. 24 You shall overlay it with pure gold and make a gold border around it. 25 You shall make for it a rim of a handbreadth around it; and you shall make a gold border for the rim around it. 26 You shall make four gold rings for it and put rings on the four corners which are on its four feet. 27 The rings shall be close to the rim as holders for the poles to carry the table. 28 You shall make the poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold, so that with them the table may be carried. 29 You shall make its dishes and its pans and its jars and its bowls with which to pour drink offerings; you shall make them of pure gold. 30 You shall set the bread of the Presence on the table before Me at all times.” (NASB95)
In these verses, we have another piece of furniture which would be placed in the tabernacle.
In addition to the ark would be a table, which the Israelites were to set the bread of the Presence on.
In verse 23, the Lord instructs Moses to construct a table which is to measure two cubits long and one cubit wide and one and a half cubits high.
In our day and age this would measure three feet long, one foot six inches wide and two feet three inches in height.
In verse 24, Moses was instructed to overlay it with gold and make a gold border around it.
In verse 25, the Israelites were to make a surrounding frame for the table about three inches broad and they were to make a surrounding border of gold for it.
So the table had two moldings with one at the bottom edge of the top of the structure and the other just inches above it, at the top edge of the top.
In verses 26-28, we have information with regards to the rings and carrying poles for the table which parallels verses 12-14, which provide information with regards to the rings and carrying poles of the ark.
The only contrast between the two is that the poles used to carry the ark were fixed whereas the poles for the table were more than likely removable.
Verse 27 makes clear that the carrying rings were not to be too low on the legs, which would have given it a high center of gravity and made it difficult to carry upright.
Thus, by having the rings high on the table legs, most of the height of the table would be carried below the poles, hanging.
This would use gravity to stabilize the table in an always upright position when it was transported.
This would be important since the tabernacle was to travel along with the Israelites throughout their wilderness journeys.
In verse 29, the Lord instructs Moses to make plates, ladles, pitchers and bowls, which were all to be made of gold which would make them fit for a king, which the Lord was.
However, the Lord would not be using these articles but rather those who served in the tabernacle.
These utensils would be used by the priests who served the Lord in the tabernacle.
The Lord instructs Moses in verse 30 to place the bread of the presence on the table on a regular basis.
“The bread of the presence” derives its name from the fact that this bread was to always be in the presence of the Lord.
This bread was symbolically offered to the Lord as His food.
Interestingly, the old bread on the table was not removed until the new bread was ready for placement on the table (1 Samuel 21:6).
By way of implication, the high priest more than likely replaced the twelve old loaves with twelve new ones loaf by loaf rather than removing all twelve at the same time and then putting down the new ones.
This means that there was never a time when there was no bread on the table.
So this offering was continual unlike the other offerings to the Lord, which were presented at certain times a year, week, month or day.
This would teach the Israelites that the Lord was always present.
Also, Numbers 4:7-8 presents how the utensils were wrapped in a particular way with the showbread on the top of the table and then covered with protective hides.
The Kohathites carried these utensils along with the table as a unit when the Israelites were moving from place to place.
This would ensure that the bread of the presence never ceased from being in contact with the top of the table.
1 Kings 7:48 tells us that in the temple of Solomon, this practice of a bread of the presence table was employed.
2 Chronicles 4:19 refers to “tables” in the plural indicating that there were probably more than one table in the temple of Solomon.
Actually, 2 Chronicles 4:6 says that the temple of Solomon had ten bronze lavers, 2 Chronicles 4:7 says that it had ten lampstands and 2 Chronicles 4:8 and 18 reveal that there were ten tables.
However, 2 Chronicles 4 does not indicate that all ten tables were used for the bread of the presence.
In fact, nine may have been employed for supporting shorter lampstands.
But more than like likely with the expansion of the priesthood by Solomon and the temple worship, more bread may have been needed than when Israel wandered in the desert of Sinai with the tabernacle.
The table of the bread of the Presence (or showbread), the golden lampstand, and the altar of incense were located within the Holy Place.
The table of the bread of the Presence, or showbread (Hebrew: shulhan lehem panim, “table of the face,” i.e., of Jehovah) was placed on the north, or right, side, facing the lampstand (Exodus 26:35; 40:22).
Again, it was made of acacia wood, two cubits long (3 feet), one broad (1 foot, 6 inches, and one and a half high (1 foot, 6 inches).
This proportion between the length and the height is accurately maintained in the sculptural form on the arch of Titus in Rome.
The surface, or top of the table, rested on a frame a handbreadth deep; around it ran a rim with a border of gold projecting above the top to keep articles from slipping off the table.
The legs were apparently mortised into the sides (as is usual today), with rings near each corner for the carrying staves (25:23-30; 37:10-16).
The bread placed upon the table (Hebrew: “bread of the Presence”) was made of fine wheat flour (unleavened), baked in twelve loaves (cakes), each containing one fifth of an ephah of flour.
These, according to Jewish tradition, as well as the dimensions of the table, would seem to have been placed upon plates in two piles of six each.
They were renewed every Sabbath, were to be eaten by the priests exclusively (and that in the sanctuary only), and were then replaced by fresh loaves (1 Sam. 21:6), which had been prepared overnight by the Levites (1 Chron. 9:32).
To each pile of loaves incense was added, probably placed in bowls beside the bread, for a “memorial portion for the bread, even an offering made by fire to the Lord” (Lev. 24:5-9).
The utensils belonging to the table were as follows: (1) Dishes for the showbread. (2) Pans or spoons for the incense. (3) Jugs or jars for making wine with a spout for pouring. (4) Cups of pure gold.
The table of the bread of the Presence, or showbread, was a reminder that God fed His people Israel.
It was also a type of Christ as the Bread of Life, the Sustainer of each individual believer-priest (1 Pet. 2:9; Rev. 1:6).
The manna portrayed the life-giving Christ and the showbread of the Presence the life-sustaining Christ.
Christ is the Bread that came down from heaven (John 6:33-58).
The bread prefigured the “grain of wheat” (12:24) pulverized in the mill of suffering (cf. 12:27) and subjected to the fire of divine judgment for sin (12:31-33).
Exodus 25:31 “Then you shall make a lampstand of pure gold. The lampstand and its base and its shaft are to be made of hammered work; its cups, its bulbs and its flowers shall be of one piece with it. 32 Six branches shall go out from its sides; three branches of the lampstand from its one side and three branches of the lampstand from its other side. 33 Three cups shall be shaped like almond blossoms in the one branch, a bulb and a flower, and three cups shaped like almond blossoms in the other branch, a bulb and a flower—so for six branches going out from the lampstand; 34 and in the lampstand four cups shaped like almond blossoms, its bulbs and its flowers. 35 A bulb shall be under the first pair of branches coming out of it, and a bulb under the second pair of branches coming out of it, and a bulb under the third pair of branches coming out of it, for the six branches coming out of the lampstand. 36 Their bulbs and their branches shall be of one piece with it; all of it shall be one piece of hammered work of pure gold. 37 Then you shall make its lamps seven in number; and they shall mount its lamps so as to shed light on the space in front of it. 38 Its snuffers and their trays shall be of pure gold. 39 It shall be made from a talent (75 pounds) of pure gold, with all these utensils. 40 See that you make them after the pattern for them, which was shown to you on the mountain.” (NASB95)
The word “lampstand” is the noun menô∙rā(h) (מְנוֹרָה) (men-o-raw´), which was composed of a base, a stem-shaft and holder for the lamp.
The lamplight symbolized to the Israelites that the Lord was home.
The description of the lampstand in verses 31-40 indicates that it was a floor-standing candelabra-like structure made of pure gold with six branches and a trunk made to resemble an olive tree, which is used in Scripture a designation for the nation of Israel (Jeremiah 11:16-17; Hosea 14:4-6; Romans 11:17-24).
The trunk resembled an olive tree but had almond tree features.
The lampstand not only provided light for the tabernacle but also symbolized that the nation of Israel was to be a light to the nations (cf. Zechariah 4:1-14; Isaiah 42:6; 49:6).
It also typified Christ as the light of the world.
Verses 31-32 tell us that the lampstand was made of hammered gold all joined into a single piece with a base which gave it stability on the floor of the tabernacle.
From the shaft arose decorated branches made to resemble tree branches.
Three were on one side and three on the other and one branch in the middle.
Verses 33-36 describe the lampstand as having three cups shaped like almond flowers with buds and blossoms on each branch.
On the lampstand there were to be four cups shaped like almond flowers with buds and blossoms with a bud under the first two branches from it and a bud under the next and so on.
The buds and branches are to be one piece and all of it one hammered piece of gold.
The cups were to support the actual lamps that would hold the oil.
The lamps were to sit cradled in each cup.
The cups were to resemble almond flowers with each one having a bud.
This would indicate that the oil lamps would sit in a gold flower on a gold tree.
There might have been a total of twenty-two places where oil lamps could be placed since each branch had three flower-shaped cups and the shaft or trunk has four cups (see verse 34).
Verses 37-40 say that there were to be seven lamps which were to be made of gold.
The purpose of the seven lamps was to give light to the area in front of it.
The lamps were not to be directed at the holy of holies, which contained the ark but rather the Lord wanted these lamps to light the holy place for the benefit of the priests who would minister to Him.
So the Lord was telling the Israelites that He didn’t need the light but rather those who served Him.
Stuart has an excellent comment with regards to the command in verse 40, he writes “Note the command in v. 40 that the lampstand and its accessories were to be constructed ‘according to the pattern shown you on the mountain’ (HCSB more explicitly bring out the present progressive tense, ‘according to the model [NRSV “pattern”] of them you have been shown on the mountain’). This implies two considerations. First, the verbal description given here and supplemented elsewhere in the Old Testament of the lampstand is only a summation. The actual pattern was being shown to Moses and was later surely communicated by him to Bezalel and the other craftsmen who built the lampstand. We cannot therefore know exactly what the lampstand was to be like; what we can know is generally its structure and motifs. The particulars were in the oral ‘blueprints’ Moses conveyed to the craftsmen from images revealed to him by God. Second, the lampstand, like the rest of the tabernacle, was intended to reflect precisely God’s design, not merely a human design from general guidelines (25:9; cf. Num 8:4). This theme receives considerable emphasis in the New Testament (Acts 7:44; and esp. Heb 8:5). The tabernacle, in other words, pointed to heaven—to the eternal home of God in which his redeemed people were intended eventually to dwell without distance from him (Rev 11:19) and as members of his own household (John 14:1–6). The tabernacle was, in other words, a training device for orienting the Old Covenant people toward their New Covenant heavenly home.”
The golden lampstand symbolized the nation of Israel being a light to the nations and typified Christ as the light of the world, bringing to us the full radiance of divine life (John 8:12; 9:5).