Introduction
I’m not very handy. Compared to the members of Patty’s family, men and women alike, I’m just not in their league. I remember when we both graduated from university and one of our presents was a substantial gift of money to help us renovate our kitchen. We had longed for a serious upgrade to the cabinetry, to the wiring, to the whole flooring, well, the entire kitchen needed a makeover. And this was in the days before Renovation television shows, so we had to do it ourselves. Only my expertise is not in such renovations. So my wife’s uncle and father traveled each day for about an hour to our home to help me build and rebuild the kitchen. This lasted over a week, and we got it done. It was a wonder that I didn’t die, doing rewiring and plugging things into the junction boxes and switching the lines a bit early. I got quite a jolt a time or two, but the men kept their patience and kept our lives. And our kitchen was finally redone. All that to say-- unless a master carpenter or electrician is in the house, unless a craftsman is nearby-- a dream house begins to look like a sukkah, always leaning, always needing repair.
Bezalel and Oholiab were the two masters of the Tabernacle of Moses. They had the gift like my uncle and father-in-law. They were appointed to build the tent to the specifications God gave Moses on Mt Sinai. And today’s text gives us many more of those details. It is a bit cumbersome, that is, the details, so let us back out our lens a bit, and see the bigger picture of this structure and what God is saying to the Jewish people, and maybe to us in the 21st Century as well.
God wanted Moses to build a worship center. This building was to be mobile, and it was to be precise. Each ring and pole had to be made just so. Each curtain had to be of certain colors and length. Even the width of the boxes of furniture had to measure exactly. This is not a job for an unhandy guy. I’m so glad God didn’t choose my ancestor to do the work.
This worship center was a mirror of another, however. Remember in chapter 25 we read, ““And see that you make them after the pattern for them, which was shown to you on the mountain.” (.40) In other words, the one blueprint that Moses received a couple chapters ago was really like another which is elsewhere. This heavenly tabernacle is not revealed to humanity until much later, in fact, not until the consummation of everything in the book of the Revelation, chapter 21.
In Lancaster, Pennsylvania in the East of the US, there is a place where a Christian community has built the Tabernacle to the specs. They can do this because of the meticulous detail that God gives in this 15-chapter section of the book of Exodus.
Now today we see several major details of the overall worship center. We see the curtains, the altar where sacrifices would be offered, and the ner tamid, about which I want to speak later.
The curtains and the altar
Today we read of the 10 curtains to surround the place, including the veil to separate the Holy Place (sanctuary) from the Holy of Holies. Curtains of both fine linen and also curtains of goats’ hair. Fifty loops, fifty rings, the whole thing might appear to us as a giant shower curtain on the poles that are also described. The curtains (11 of them) for the roof were to be made of goats’ hair.
Then sockets, bars and boards to make the whole place manageable as the priests would have been working daily. The veil that would separate the holy ark and Holy of Holies was to be made of
“blue and purple and scarlet material and fine twisted linen; it shall be made with cherubim, the work of a skilful workman.”
The plans called for a box to be built. This box is to be covered with bronze and netting. It was made of acacia wood, very common in the Sinai Peninsula and a hard wood, harder than oak. It also resisted insects quite well. The box is called an altar and as such then would be useful in the sacrificial system, which had been prototyped, or hinted at, but had not yet been as developed as it would in the continuing chapters especially of Leviticus.
Sacrifice is a major part of the story of this worship center. Perhaps in modern days we think of stages and lights at a worship center. We think of offices and telephone lines. But in the old days, when God thought of worship, he thought of elaborate furniture, which was designed to teach the people about Him and about our relationship to Him.
The first piece of furniture to put into the tented and curtained structure was the altar. An altar is a place of sacrifice. It’s a place for blood. It’s not a sanitary place, it’s non-hygienic. It’s messy. It’s unnecessary for the modern worship center. How many of you have seen altars in synagogues or churches these days? No? Why not? It’s probably a matter of law, that you cannot butcher or slaughter an animal without a license or without a location of sanitation. But the Jewish people are given instructions primarily to make an altar to remind us of something.
That something is sin.
We don’t like to talk about it in modern days. Karl Meninger, the great American psychiatrist, and founder of the Meninger Clinic, wrote a very unpopular book in the 70s titled, “Whatever became of sin?” His thesis was that all the psychobabble that was popular then, and has only increased to this day, dismissed a very real problem in clinical psychiatry. That problem was wrong-doing. In other words, what the Bible called ‘sin.’ People are responsible, Meninger argued, for their wrong-doing, and thus for the associated problems they experienced. He said when people look to the root of their problem and find their own errors, it would behoove them to acknowledge that and fix what they could. I say this theory was not popular among his peers. Evidence today is mounting in his favor, but too little too late for many.
Sin is still a major problem whether the medical community agrees or not. It was God’s idea from the beginning as He initiated a fix-it solution to the problem of disobedience in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve failed God and did their own thing. God wanted them to admit their sin and to return to Him. He made an item of clothing for the first couple. Remember what it was? That’s right, a garment of skins. Animal skins that portended the sacrificial system which would come later. Sin is dealt with in sacrificing an animal. And blood is required. And blood is smelly and blood is messy.
Animal rights people may not like this message. But I can live with folks not liking my message. I cannot live with God not liking my message. He wants us to know of our sin and the first piece of furniture in God’s building was to reflect this. It will cost Israel much to repair our relationship with God. We must admit our sin, we must acknowledge it and we have to see to it by killing animals and performing God’s commands.
The courtyard and the one way in
Concerning the courtyard, we read the rectangular space design and think it seems reasonable. And it is. But one thing struck me in this reading. Verse 13 says,”Kaidma mizraha”
This expression, “to the east, to the sunrise,” seems redundant. The NASB translators don’t even put in the 2nd thought. But as the day begins in the morning with the sun, so the Tabernacle is to ‘face’ to the east, with the entrance placed there. No other openings are allowed. This seems very surprising. If it’s for all Israel, if it’s to be a witness in the way of the presence of God, why are there not 2 or 5 or 10 doors? I believe this teaching of the ‘one way’ is to help us understand God’s plans for coming to Him. There are many peoples gathered outside the Tabernacle. There are 12 nations in one nation, but there is only one way to approach God. Each of us can have our own relationship with God, but each of us must come to God in the God-way, in the one way He declares. This doesn’t sound fair in this multicultural world of the 21st Century, but it is what works in God’s economy. Fight it if you want, but you will lose.
The eternal lamp
Verses 20 and 21 teach us about the ner tamid This eternal light is the second most recognizable item in the Jewish religion after the menorah. Both are light bringers.
Where does the light come from? The Bible uses the phrase, “clear oil of beaten olives”…describe the process of beating. It is in the beaten olives that light emerges. Squeezed. Oppressed. Pounding. Imagine being an olive. Not that olives have emotions, but project with me, ok? You are growing on a tree, and you are happy. Your life seems full and then all of a sudden some madman, with a clippers takes you on. He collects you and then starts beating you in a vat. Along with other formerly happy olives. And in this squeezing and beating comes out some oil. In fact, much oil.
In fact, the only way that oil comes out is for the olives to be damaged. It’s really their purpose to be damaged/beaten, and then to produce the precious oil. Their purpose is not to be growing, although without their growth they don’t achieve their full purpose.
In fact, Yeshua had a purpose to come and to live and to die for us. He grew as a tender olive shoot (Isaiah 53), and yet his growth was not the purpose of his coming. He came to die.
Listen, when you have problems in your life, maybe your first thought ought to be ‘what is God doing in making oil to come out of me?” Squeeze me, Lord. Make something good come out of my life, in all my pain and in all my dilemmas.
The oil was used to be a memory eternally. That is, every day, the priests would attend to the altar and to the lamp stand, trimming the wicks. The Bible will make this role clear in a few chapters, but for now, the oil is more significant.
Lessons learned
I believe we should see applications from our chapter today.
1) God’s way to Himself if opened for us in the cross of Yeshua and there is no other way to Him
2) God will use troubles, real tsuris in our lives, to make oil by which others will see more clearly.
3) God’s design needs to be followed in our building and in our living
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