Okay, everybody, it is one minute after the top of the hour. So, if you were here last week, I think most of you were, but if you weren't here, we finished Exodus 25 last week, so we are starting in Exodus 26 tonight. Of course, Exodus 25, we looked at some of the quote unquote furniture, or the objects that go within the tabernacle area. Tonight, chapter 26 of Exodus, we really start seeing some of the building plans for erecting the tabernacle itself, the tent in which these things would go. And again, I was just, we were at a thing Monday night for the association, and Brother Dan Richard out of Pinewood was asking me, saying something about being in Exodus, and I told him kind of where we were, and how neat it is to look through these details, because as I shared with y'all, sometimes these are the chapters that are kind of flyover chapters from time to time, or maybe we read through them so fast we don't see some of the intricacies, or perhaps the intricacies are why we go so fast to get through it, but there's some very cool things about it. He and I had a little conversation about the God of order and how that God is not a God of chaos and how he is detailed in how he does everything. And we see it in all of creation, don't we? I mean, they tell us that there's no two snowflakes that are alike, no two people are the same fingerprint. I mean, the details are important and God is a God of details. You'll see something as we open this up tonight that jumped out at me, and I don't think it really even hit me until I read through it all again last night, or was thinking about it last night, read through it again today. So I'll touch on that when we get to it. But anyway, let's go to the Lord in prayer before we get started. Father, now we find ourselves coming to chapter 26 of the book of Exodus, as you handed it down to Moses. God, we're continuing to look at these details of your creation of your glory, of how you directed those that are yours. God, I don't want us to get lost in the details, but I also want us to see the importance of them at the same time. God, more than any of that, how all of this points to you, it points to our Lord and Savior Jesus, how Grateful we should be that you've provided this and preserved this for us to look at all these thousands of years later and how all these things were shadows of our Lord in which we are in the season of Advent and we think of his first coming, Lord, that perhaps this puts even more weight behind our look at these things as we think upon you taking on human flesh for us. So God, I pray that you'd be with those who couldn't be with us tonight. We have several that are out for sickness, some that are traveling. Lord, that you would be with them in whichever situation they find themselves in. Lord, that you would protect them. And Lord, I'm grateful once again for those that are here with us tonight. Lord, I ask that you would guide us and direct us in our study of your word. And it's in Christ's name I pray, amen. So I've already said the totality of chapter 26 is talking about the details specifically of the tabernacle. We know the tabernacle was somewhat of a picture of the temple that was to come later, but it's the place where the Holy of Holies would be, and it's where God would come and meet with his people. And he's just preparing them for that, telling them how to build it, how to do that. And they would be a nomadic people for quite some time, moving from place to place. So some of these concepts, at least, I don't think would be foreign to them. However, we don't have evidence of them pitching tents before, but that's probably what they would have been doing. But this is not a foreign concept to them, but the scale of what he's about to tell them to do is much beyond what they had been doing for sure. So with all that said, let's just dive right in and we'll probably, I'm trying to think of how to best piece this apart, but probably the first six verses is what we'll look at to start with. So beginning in verse one. Moreover, you shall make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twisted linen and blue and purple and scarlet material. You shall make them with cherubim, the work of a skillful designer or some translations may say artisan there. The length of each curtain shall be twenty-eight cubits, and the width of each curtain four cubits. All the curtains shall have the same measurements. Five curtains shall be joined to one another, and the other five curtains shall be joined to one another. You shall make loops of blue on the edge of the outermost curtain in the one set, and likewise you shall make them on the edge of the curtain that is outermost in the second set. you shall make 50 loops in the one curtain and you shall make 50 loops on the edge of the curtain that is in the second set the loops shall be opposite each other you shall make 50 clasps of gold and you shall join the curtains to one another with the class of the tabernacle will be a unit very easy to just read those verses and keep going isn't it i mean really it is the He says the tabernacle, but God is starting, and he's explaining in directions of what to build, from the most sacred place first, the holy of holies, outward to the holy place, and then we'll be outside of that. So y'all, I gave y'all that piece of paper last week where you know that innermost place and the place closest to God. in regards to the physical realm and how he has laid it out. So we're looking at just the innermost place right now where what would be the only thing in this place he's explaining to them right here? The Ark, the Ark of the Covenant. It's the only thing that would be in here. Now, there's some interesting things here. I mean, he talks about lengths and sizes and how many of this and that. this innermost layer. So this is the layer that would only be seen once a year by one person. And it's going to be the most detailed, intricate, beautiful of all of them. Now, the thing that I made a comment about, well, first of all, the tabernacle appears here first in the Hebrew senate structure, so it emphasizes the subject is no longer the furniture, but now the subject is the tabernacle itself, and the building of the tabernacle. From outside the tent of meeting, the Hebrews are to make curtains. Now, that word in Hebrew points to, refers to tent coverings used by nomadic or semi-nomadic people, so they would have understood what he's saying there. And by calling it that, it emphasizes that this is to be temporary. He's not saying build the walls out of this. He's saying the curtains. So from the very outset, it's to be temporary. Here's the point that I want to make on this that jumped out at me initially because of the obvious point, the cherubim are to be stitched into this. that linen, that innermost piece, the most visible piece for the one person that goes in there once a year, the high priest on the day of atonement is the only one that'll be in there on that one day. Now, taking it down and setting it up, they would see this, of course, but when it was all constructed, he's the only one that would see it. And I think about that, what does that mean that the cherubim are stitched in the curtains? So what is that symbolizing? We've already talked about the cherubim last week or the week before, maybe two weeks ago, because we had a week we missed in between there. The ark, they're the ones that are carved out of that gold piece that'll be over the top of the ark. It's symbolizing the closeness and the presence of God is what it's symbolizing, that the cherubim are there. Now, a skillful artisan, that should go without saying, really, right? If we're going to have somebody stitch these cherubim into this linen curtain, I mean, yeah, they were very skilled. Thought? OK. In my mind, I'm picturing this. And here's what I want to make a point about here, or make a connection, perhaps, to. Now, think about this. In the Holy of Holies, the innermost place, this tent that would be only seen on the inside, there's this curtain with cherubim, with angels, stitched, I almost said carved, stitched into it all around. I think specifically, if we think about that's where God would come and dwell, it makes me think of an event that would happen a little bit later that we're in the season of right now in Advent. For whatever reason, it drew my attention to when the angel came to the shepherds in the field and this angelic host was all around them. It just, in my mind, I drew a picture because that was to announce what? Emmanuel was here. The presence of God was with his people. Maybe I'm looking too much into that, maybe I'm not, but it drew my mind to that thought, perhaps because we're in the season of advent. Maybe I wouldn't have thought about it had we not been in the time of the year we're in, but it did draw my mind to that at least. Yeah, they actually thought they'd gotten the dwell above the mercy seat. Yeah. That's what he looks at. Yeah. They were doing it for him. Yeah, absolutely. Can I ask a simpler question? You can ask a simpler question. Curtains are joined together, fridges are joined together. Are they all four joined together then? Are they just two sides of the room? I'm not visualizing it. Yeah, we're going to... So, yeah, as we move into verse two and on, it helps a little bit. Yeah, it does help a little bit. Yeah, I got hung up on the first verse there, so yeah. That's okay. I'm just telling you. So I had to look into this a little bit too, because the flow of it and everything else, so here's what I came through some people smarter than me, how it's laid out. Basically says each of the 10 curtains, so tell them 10 curtains, with the same measurement, 28 cubits by four cubits, so that's 42 foot, 42 feet by six feet. That's how big this is. They'll then be divided into two sets of five, and they'll be connected together. Yes. And so that would cover in totality of this piece. Yes. Because when I saw the 42 feet gives you that, a little further along, it tells us how the tent post would be built. I'm not going to, you know, we're going to get to it anyway, I think in this chapter, but six feet tall, basically. So that would cover it completely. But there's more, because some of y'all know, and again, we're gonna get into this as we continue in the chapter, but there are other layers of different material laid on top of them, which would help extend it, make it longer and longer as well. Are all four layers end up together? On top of another. Okay, so it's four layers, two together, two together, and you stick all of them together. Yeah, but you're gonna see in a moment, 10 sets here, as we move to the next set, it says there's 11 sets. which would add to the covering, and plus you're getting thicker too, so you need more of a covering. That's a good question. One to the other, so they're connected there, three times in this passage they're connected, and then you have these loops and these hooks, and these are only used exclusively in the Bible, these Hebrew words for the items of the tabernacle, these hooks and loops there. So these curtains symbolize the characteristic, the temporary nature of the tabernacle. It makes you think, when David came to power, when all the power was consolidated, he was king of Israel. Do you remember, there's a statement he made to the prophet Nathan. In 1 Chronicles 17.1, he says this. Now it happened when David inhabited his house that David said to Nathan the prophet, behold, I inhabit a house of cedar, but the Ark of the Covenant of Yahweh is under tent curtains. He recognized that he, a man, was in this beautiful building, and God's Ark was still resting there. So David had inclinations or desires to build the temple for God, but why could he not build the temple for God? Man of war, blood on his hands. Solomon was able to, but David would not be able to. I don't wanna go too far on a sidetrack here, but this made me think of something else. In the way that God dwelling in curtains, dwelling in this tent covering, with his people that way at least. This language is used elsewhere in scripture. Maybe I'll wait till we get a little further along. There's something else that talks about how God spreads out his creation that way too. We'll get to that in just a moment. So, let's move on. Verse seven of Exodus 26. Then, so the inner area is been laid out. At least the curtains, he didn't get to the post and stuff yet. Verse seven, then you shall make curtains of goat's hair for a tent over the tabernacle. You shall make 11 curtains in all. So there's that addition of one. The length of each curtain shall be 30 cubits and the width of each curtain four cubits. The 11 curtains shall have the same measurements. And you shall join five curtains by themselves and the other six curtains by themselves. And you shall double over the sixth curtain at the front of the tent. You shall make 50 loops on the edge of the curtain that is outermost in the one set and 50 loops on the edge of the curtain that is outermost in the second set. You shall make 50, well, let's stop there. So these additional layers of material laid on top of the linen, more fragile inside cover. Goat's hair. Now goat's hair, rough, coarse, but not quite yet if unless it was the hides themselves. We're getting the next two layers will help with the thing you're thinking about, but it will help to act as a moisture barrier though. Stretch it lengthwise over the breadth of the tabernacle. It's larger than the linen cover. It covers the entire area They're going to be secured to the ground using pegs and cords. On top of this will be the ram skin. On top of that will be the porpoise or sea cows that we talked about. There's, you're definitely, you're adding layers of waterproof protection as you go up closer to the elements as well. Now God ordered Moses to produce that layer of goat's hair. So linen decorated the cherubim, inside only, the less costly goat's hair is not open to the eye and it's gonna be covered on top of it also, but 11 curtains. That explanation is given in verses eight through 10. Number and size. You may not have been keeping up with your cubits there, but not only is there an additional layer here or additional curtain here, they're a little bit larger too. Which makes sense, as you're going up, you need more material, right? The width is the same, four cubits. The length is 30 cubits, whereas the first layer was 28 cubits. So what did we say a cubit was? Roughly 18 inches. So how much longer is this? A little more than three feet, longer. It's to be doubled over with another curtain at the entrance to the tabernacle. Part of the surplus is then to overhang on the back of the tabernacle. So not only are we starting to create layers, but we're creating runoff or areas of protection to protect what's below it as you're going up as well. Not just to the edge, because you want it to cover a little bit further, so you're going over it and beyond it a little bit. Now, something else to notice there. We didn't go far enough yet. Verse 11. You should make 50 clasp of bronze and you shall put the clasp into the loops and join the tent together so that it will be one unit. The overlapping part that is left over in the curtains of the tent, the half curtain that is left over shall lap over the back of the tabernacle. The cubit on one side and the cubit on the other, which I told you there's two more cubits there. So there's the cubit on one cubit on the other. of what is left over in the length of the curtains of the tent shall lap over the sides of the tabernacle on one side and on the other to cover it. You shall make a covering for the tent of ram skins dyed red and a covering of porpoise skins above." So the layer that covers is overlapping. The next two don't have to because you've already got the overlapping started. You just continue to overlap. The thing I want to point out there, did you notice what these clasps were made out of compared to the clasp of the thing that's closest to it? Bronze instead of gold. Bronze instead of gold. As you're moving away, it's not as close to the glory there. So it's bronze. These things have got to be heavy to haul around. They would be extremely heavy to haul around. Plus they're all strapped together. A whole tribe was inside with the copper back then. Yeah, it's a good thing there was, you know, a couple men that come out of Egypt, so it's a good thing. For sure. So these layers are going up. He didn't go into great detail with those because they're the same size, but you've got... Now, don't ask me. I thought this question was coming of why they were dyed red. I don't know. I could find no commentator that knew why the ram skins were red. Not just that they were red, but they were dyed red. Symbolizing what? That's the only thing I could think of, but I couldn't find any. It's all speculation. Under the footnote that says tanned. Tanned? Yeah. So I think the dye in red is just tanning the hides. Yeah. That's very possible. Yeah. Because that's, you do the same, we'll do the same thing today with hides to make them useful. Yeah. Yeah. And to stretch them out and get the moisture out of them and all that kind of stuff. The porpoise skins or sea cows or what did we say? Badgers, there we go. Yeah, I'm going to go with sea cow or porpoise. So here's where I want to speak on this because now we've got multiple layers of curtains. I found a footnote, or not a footnote, but a commentary. They're referenced to Psalm 104.2 here. Psalm 104.2 is that Psalm that talks about how God stretched out heaven like a tent covering. And the heavens from a habitation for the king being described as a canopy or a tent is pretty common, but it made me think of something else because I heard somebody ask this question to someone. We studied this way back in Genesis, like early on in Genesis. Like two years ago in Genesis, within the first six days of creation, I believe we probably talked about this. So some of you were here, some of you weren't here, some of you might remember, some of you might not remember. From an apologetic standpoint, there are these highbrow individuals that will say, well, there's no way God could have created it the way he said in the Bible from the light year aspect alone, because we know there are stars that are X amount of millions of light years away. Everybody tracking? However, the principle that God unfolded it at creation as like a tent, from an apologetic standpoint, I've heard it argued that if you put a dot here, And if God expands it out, as if like an accordion, then you've solved that problem already. Does that make sense? Because you put a hole through a fan or something, or a photo fan, then you open it up, well guess what, it's there. on both ends, but yet it's far away. I mean, you put a mile long fan on top of itself, pieces of paper that are connected, stick a hole through them, you expand that thing out a mile long, it's there, here and here. And I'm not just saying that to be saying that, Isaiah Chapter 40, verse 22, says this. This is found about four places in the Old Testament that I found pretty quickly. Psalm 104 is one of them, or Proverbs, I'm sorry, Psalm 104. Isaiah 40, verse 22, says this. It is he, God, who inhabits above the circle of the earth. Again, flat earthers, sorry, God said the earth is a circle. And his inhabitants are like grasshoppers. It is he, God, who stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them out like a tent to inhabit. And then also in Isaiah 42, I didn't mark this one exactly, but I know it's in that chapter. Yeah, verse five, Isaiah 42, verse five. Thus says God, the God, Yahweh God, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and its offspring, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it. There's also another Psalm, I think, that references it, and I forgot to write that one down. So anyway, interesting sidetrack, but thinking about curtains and tents and that kind of thing, I think it's interesting, especially if you are a nerd about that stuff like I am. If you're not, then sorry, you knew you were gonna get it from me probably anyway. Verse 15, back to chapter 26. Then ye shall make the boards. So hold on, he's got the coverings set, right? Now he backs up and says, okay, here's what they're gonna sit on. Then you shall make the board for the tabernacle of acacia wood standing upright. 10 cubits shall be the length of each board and one and a half cubits the width of each board. There shall be two tenons for each board fitted to one another. Those you shall do for all the boards of the tabernacle. You shall make the boards for the tabernacle, 20 boards for the south side. You shall make 40 bases of silver under the 20 boards, two bases under one board for its two tenons and two bases under another board for its two tenons. For the second side of the tabernacle, on the north side, 20 boards, and there are 40 bases of silver, two bases under one board and two bases under another board. For the rear of the tabernacle, to the west, you shall make six boards. You shall make two boards for the corners of the tabernacle at the rear. They shall be separated beneath, but together at their completion at its top, at the first rung, thus it shall be with both of them, they shall form the two corners. There shall be eight boards with their bases of silver, 16 bases, two bases under one board and two bases under another board. Really easy to fly through that, isn't it? And just keep on going. We're not gonna spend a tremendous amount of time here, but we're gonna pause for a second. Some of the things that are interesting, some of it's pretty self-explanatory. the size and the boards, there's a little bit of debate in that very first verse I read, verse 15, then you should make the boards for the tabernacle of Acacia wood standing upright. Does everybody's translation basically say that? You shall make the boards standing upright. The debate is, is it referencing the boards are gonna stand upright, or does it mean that you are to take it from a standing upright Acacia tree, so a new tree or fresh tree? I firmly believe, because I've built enough stuff in my life to know that he's talking about it standing upright. But I don't have a problem with him if he was to say go take them from trees that are standing too. All this stuff's being made out of acacia wood, so there must be an acacia wood nearby. Yeah, to stand them up. And then you couple them together and there's gonna be bars later that he's gonna talk about. And you don't need the bars to come down if the boards are horizontal. You need the bars to come down if the boards are vertical to fit them into place. Go track him with that. He was talking about standing trees. He was talking about live trees, not dead trees laying on the ground. Absolutely. So I think both could be true. That he's talking about vertically placed boards, but also they need to come from live trees. Building anything out of wood, if you think about it, Which way do you have to bring it in? Straight up? It's going to be a standing up period. And also, why the wood would be trickier because it might warp or something when it dries up? Because you have to kind of treat wood before you build it a lot of times. Yeah, unless you're building it and then you're doing it again when you come somewhere else. But I get the impression they're carrying this stuff with them because they don't know that they could find the wood the next place they went to. What else about all that stands out to you? I made a comment about the outer frame here. You're talking about the outer frame here. The board's approximately 15 foot by two foot, three inches. Two tenons. We already kind of referenced that. What is a tenon? It's like a mortise joint type thing. They weren't, they didn't pull out the cordless drills and we're, you know, screwing stuff into place. Yeah. Yes, it would have been. Yeah. What else in that part of the text that jumped out at you guys? Instead of going verse by verse through this, what else jumped out? What are the bases made out of? Silver. What'd you say, Marty? Continues, yeah. Yep. Well, and the other thing about the precision of building anything is that if you're not precise about it, it's not going to stand as strong and as firm and last as long either. Any of y'all have ever worked in construction work, you know, every person that comes behind the next person, whether it be the framer, they got something that's a little bit out of whack, a little bit, well, then they say, well, the sheet rocker will fix that. And the sheet rocker doesn't, you know, there's a little gap here. They're like, well, the painter will fix that. It's always that handoff because somebody, the next person's got to fix it. Well, no, God said, this is going to be exactly right. It's the cornerstone. It's the cornerstone, yes, absolutely. Absolutely. Anything else there? What is a CAO? What is a kale? When God's given these instructions, we don't know if these trees have to be cut down right then, which they would be green. What I was getting at is some woods don't warp as bad as others. That's true, too. That's true, too. Which is kind of the hardwood versus the softer wood, right? A softer wood's gonna... Like, we consider cedar to be a soft wood, but it hardly... You don't see it warp very much. Right. But whereas like a pine, like a pine 2x4... Yeah. Poplar? Yeah. My understanding was it would have been a harder wood. But again, one of the things we learned in Israel was so much of the trees and the stuff they talk about in the Old Testament, especially as you move forward and conquesting armies would come through, and even up to the time of the Crusaders and stuff, whenever they would come through and they had to build stuff, where did they have to get their build materials from? They would level forest after forest after forest in the area. So after Israel came back into the land after World War II, actually at, Shoot, where's the place that I thought so much of out in the desert? Anyway, they found jars that were from the 70 AD revolt that still had some seeds that they preserved there from 2,000 years ago that they were used to try to put back into the land. There's a ton of eucalyptus trees there now. There weren't eucalyptus trees there in these times. But the thing is, the climate is so similar to Australia. And eucalyptus tree is a fast growing tree. They've put a lot of eucalyptus trees there. We're reading the Bible about these cedars and these mighty oaks of Israel. When you're in Israel, you don't see hardly any oak trees or cedar trees, but they've been transplanting them back in there and trying to reintegrate them to them. Because when you go to the Valley of Megiddo, we know about Megiddo because we think about it in relation to Armageddon, right? There's been more battles fought in that valley than anywhere in the history of the world. just battle after battle after battle from all these different armies because of where it was, a major thoroughfare from Africa up into Asia and Europe. When these armies come through, they got to build their war machines and all this stuff they have to build, they're cutting trees down left and right. And so they wiped out a lot of the trees over the years. Y'all wasn't asking for that, but you got it anyway. No, that's a good question about the trees and what kind of trees were they. And I think Jim, this Jim, Well, I think the bottom line is God is telling them what to use, so he's going to provide it for them. You've got a pretty good sauce to some of this stuff. Yeah, I tell you what, I'm not as worried about any of that as I am the fact that he had these guys that had the skill to be able to weave a chair of them into these curtains. I mean, that's... Okay, yeah, fair point. Fair point. For me, that seems much more, yeah. The slaves in Egypt, they would have had different skill sets. They had to develop them to do the work that they didn't want to do, which cutting down trees would be some of the work that the fancy Egyptians wouldn't want to do. They could have been, yeah. And again, God gives these talents and abilities to people too, and sometimes you don't even know you have it until He taps you and says, go do this. And the next thing is, what were they cutting the trees down with and cutting these boards out with? They had the tools somehow or another. They didn't have the walls. No, they didn't have the walls. Yeah. Where did we stop at? Verse 23, 22? Somewhere in there, right? Okay, eight boards with their bases of silver, 16 bases, two bases under one board, two bases under another board, verse 26. Then you shall make bars of acacia wood, so there's that wood again, five for the boards of one side of the tabernacle, and five bars for the boards of the other side of the tabernacle, and five bars for the boards of the west side of the tabernacle, for the rear side to the west. The middle bar in the center of the board shall pass through from end to end. You shall overlay the boards with gold and make the rings of gold as holders for the bars, and you shall overlay the bars with gold. Then you shall erect the tabernacle according to its plan, which you have been shown in the mountain. So they had to figure out what north and west was in order to set it up right. I mean, I know some of it's just to say, this is the short side, this is the long side, because they don't talk about southeast. Right. I absolutely think they would have. Of course, we all concede that God supernaturally could have, but also think of where they've been at. Egypt, Egyptians, Egyptologists, the astrology and stuff there, they knew north, south, east, and west because their stuff was built according to direction of the compass for sure. And I think they understood the concept of the sun rising in the east and setting in the west. You got those two, then all you need is one of those and you figure the rest of them out. What's that again? They would have understood it, I think, And again, I've said this before, and I know you weren't saying this, Diane, at all, so don't misinterpret what I'm saying here. I think oftentimes people think of these people being, like the further you back in history, people tend to think of them as being more primitive and dumber. They were a lot smarter than us because they had to use their wits about them a lot more. They didn't have stuff handed to them like what we do today. I mean, they were smart folks. I know you weren't. I know you weren't. I didn't. And it's also, I think y'all were at this place close to this the the adults class that meets in here at least and acts because Tony was asking me some questions about the temple last Sunday so maybe y'all talked about the temple or you're getting close to talking about some things about the temple or something about the temple and the direction of where the walls were what's still there and what's not there anymore from the tearing down all that kind of stuff I think y'all maybe we're getting into that or about to get into that and you know the the holy of holies ark of the covenant is in the western westernmost point that's why whenever you think about the western wall or the wailing wall where the people go and put the prayers in the wall and Malia and I got to go do that actually was um the back side of this so when you think about this that's the easiest way to remember the position of it is the back of the temple the back of the tabernacle where the ark was was was is always in the western part facing east I mean, that's the easiest thing I can think of to help, as you think about it. Another way that we can know that they were smarter than we are is when God said it, then you wouldn't say it. When we read it, our heads spin. That's pretty good, Brother Charles. That's pretty good. It is another reference to that. Did y'all catch up with what Brother Roy said there that we talked about this last week, that there's another reference that there was more given and shown to Moses on the mountain than what we have in the word here. And again, we have those references in Hebrews that's talking about he saw that this was going to be a reference to that which is the eternal. And I think it's even interesting that this is such a, not like a building. In our thinking, we think of a building as being closer to what that thing, what the heavenly one is, but it's really not. But this makes it even further where God's comparing it to a temporary tent. So about as far down the structural semblance you can think of, because it's not a permanent structure. in regards to it being a shadow of the eternal glory of the temple. You can really just see God's sovereignty and just kindness to them in that before they would have been slaves. I mean, if they hadn't have been slaves, they would have been farmers and all that. But because he allowed them to be slaves for 400 years, I mean, it was his kindness that they were prepared. I mean, he didn't just take them to the wilderness and be like, I'll do this. he had prepared them with those skills and gave them that chance to learn all that for 400 years. I mean, like, he doesn't just bring us to a point and be like, all right, now do it. But like, you know, even through the hard times, he is gracious and he's teaching us and using those hard times for our good. That's good, Angel. I was wondering if you could get to the part about being a hard time too. You just, for 400 years they were slaves, you know, what do we do with you? But you made the point that it was hard times. It was struggle. It was toil and learning and, Getting strong. Getting stronger, yeah. For sure. That's good, that's good. So Roy made a comment there about this is another time that it's referenced that to Moses of this is what you learned on the mountain. This is what you saw on the mountain. This is actually the third time in this account that that has happened. If you just want to know, Exodus 25.9, Exodus 25.40 and then right here, he makes that reference. that he doesn't tell us everything here, but God says, like I taught you on the mountain. The words are here, but they've also seen pictures. Moses had for sure. Moses had for sure. The other interesting thing about that is when it says, the word used in verse 30 here for what Moses sees is different from the one used previously. The word for plan is the common Hebrew word that means judgment or ordinance. So the idea is that Moses is to construct the tabernacle exactly the way he is told to construct it, and not just the way he's told, but the way he's been shown to construct it also. The book of Revelation tells us the glory of New Jerusalem far exceeds this tabernacle, or even the temple that would They were told us the temple would have been this white, gleaming thing, and the way Jerusalem's situated is you come over the hills, and it just overtook everything. Today, we see the Dome of the Rock sitting there, and it's gold, and it stands out. The temple was much larger than the Dome of the Rock, and these white walls, and you come into Jerusalem, that temple would be glorious and shining and gleaming. That pales in comparison to the heavenlies. Did y'all see the miniature temple? Uh-huh. It was scale. It was scale, yeah. But they showed us all that, which was really cool, because you can see like, here's where the Pharisees stayed, here's where this part was and that part was, and here's the part of the city that was this and that. And then we also, they took us when we were in the kind of the foundational area, the foundations of around the Temple Mount, they showed what the mountain looked like right before everything was built on top of it. And then how that structure sits on top of it. And you get those two places where the mountain actually peaks out. And Done With The Rock covers one of them, of course. Yeah, so in the city, New Jerusalem, Revelation 21, 18, the city itself is what? Pure gold, like pure glass. Let me just turn to that. In Revelation 21, 21, the street of the city is what? pure clear gold. John says later Revelation 21, 22. I can get to it. You're a lot. You've got a computer right in front of you. Why are you turning? So he's given this view 21, 21, the 12 gates were 12 pearls, each one of the gates was a single pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold, light transparent glass. 21, 22, and I, John, saw no sanctuary in it. For the Lord God, the Almighty, and the Lamb are its sanctuary. Let's continue and conclude this chapter. Verse 31. You shall make a veil of blue and purple and scarlet material and fine twisted linen. You shall be made with cherubim, the work of a skillful designer. So there, we got that in there again. You shall hang it on four pillars of acacia overlaid with gold. Their hooks are also being of gold on four bases of silver. You shall hang up the veil under the clasp. You shall bring in the ark of the testimony there within the veil and the veil shall separate for you the holy place and the holy of holies. You shall put the mercy seat on the ark of the testimony in the holy of holies. You shall set the table outside the veil and the lamp stand opposite the table on the side of the tabernacle toward the south. you shall put the table on the north side. So this is that distinction from the most holy place and the holy place. And the holy place, we said about that last week, didn't we? That's where the table would be and these utensils and the menorah, the first menorah would be in that place. And it's not just going to put them wherever you want to. This one's on the south side, this one's on the north side, and you've got this veil between here and there. There's similarities there between the first covering or ceiling of the tabernacle and this veil. Same material, same colors, cherubim embroidered on them, sewn by skillful artisans. The word here used for curtain is used exclusively in the Hebrew language of the hanging curtain in front of the most high holy place in the tabernacle. And it's not even an original Hebrew word. It's an Akkadian word and it means to shut off or out. It's distinctive to show the separation between the areas. And not just the areas, but God and man. Sinfulness, the sinfulness of man and God, I should say. Four gold pillars, we're close to the most holy place. Four silver bases. Gold pegs to support the curtains. Now there's a belief of two veils separating the holy of holies from the holy place in the tabernacle. It seems that's an older Jewish tradition. Josephus kind of brought that up here. It says one veil right here at this place in the tabernacle. By the time we get to the temple, that's a little different, but here is that one. Then he says, here's where you put the furniture I told you to build last time. Here's where the furniture goes, or the table for the showbread and the menorah. There's where it goes. Then there's another curtain. Verse 36, you shall make a screen for the doorway of the tent of blue and purple and scarlet material and fine twisted linen, the work of a, my translation says weaver. Some of y'all said something different there. It's not the same word as the skillful artisan. 37, you shall make five pillars of acacia for the screen and overlay them with gold, their hooks also being of gold, and you shall cast five bases of bronze for them. We're further out now, so you can go back to bronze. Further away from the Holy of Holies in the type, in the Ark. So there's that second curtain. No cherubim on this one. To get into that first. No cherubim there. Same material, but just not the cherubim there. The cherubim are only for that area where the ark is at. What did, Ms. Judy, you said your translation where I said a skilled weaver, or the work of a weaver. What did your translation say? Embroiderer. That's close enough. So the veils of these tabernacles symbolize the separation between God and sinful humanity. And then you've got this other one separating where you can go part of the way. We said to get in the one where the cherubim are at. That's one man once a year. The most elaborate, beautiful thing in this tent. Make no mistake about it. It's still a tent. It's a very elaborate tent. It's got gold and other stuff on it. It also actually kind of made me think a little bit about the video that we played for, that Malia wanted us to play with the IMB missionaries in that place, with those places, those were nomadic people. Y'all remember that video that we showed last Sunday that they set these little tent structures up and they take them down and they have to go somewhere else and they got to set it all up again type thing. This was going on with this too. So how, Or what else jumps out to y'all there? Again, we don't have to go into every nook and cranny of every detail of this. It's important to look at the big things. The most precious is closest. One person can go in there, the angel, the cherubims are embroidered there. These details are important for them especially. But at the death of Christ, what happened to the inner veil of the temple? It was ripped from top to bottom. Matthew records that, Mark records that, Luke records that. What does that symbolize to us? All this work they're doing right here, all the work they're gonna have to do every time they have to take this thing down and go set it up somewhere else, all the work that was put into the temples that were built, and this veil is torn. He makes a big deal about the veil being a separator, doesn't he? And one man once a year can go in there. When Jesus died, the veil was torn from top to bottom, symbolizing what? access to Christ. So no man's going in there. Christ went in there once for all of his people. And the Holy of Holies would have been exposed to be seen that Christ had completed the work in which he had set out to do before the foundation of the world. It remained perfectly clean over a year while the Holy of Holies, the sacrifices that were represented, the sins that were represented by the blood of the sacrifices were on the horns of the altar. And it got nasty during the year. But with the perfect atonement, they were allowed to clean the sanctuary on the day of atonement as well. So they cleaned it up, get rid of all of that. So that also shows us what the termination of the efficacy of that sanctuary, of the sacrifices for these people, for all the things that bulls and goats had never fully paid for, that had to be done year after year after year, it's torn down. It had its place, and it was pointing to the greater. So we enter into the holy place by the blood of Jesus, in a new and living way, through the veil. Is there anything else you can think of symbolic of the veil also here? In relation to Jesus himself. Yes, we get that access. We get that we understand the sacrifice of him as if the sacrifice of the blood of the bulls and goats that were sprinkled on the mercy seat. We get all that. Hebrews 10. 19 and 20, we read this. Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus. We've covered that already, right? Verse 20. By a new and living way which he, Christ, inaugurated for us through the veil that is his flesh. He's equating the veil, the entrance into the presence of God, Now, I'm not saying this, Scripture's saying this. The veil is if it's his flesh and we enter in through the flesh that he took on. We don't need a priesthood anymore. He's our high holy priest forevermore. The system of sacrifice, the tabernacle, all those things have been fulfilled in Christ. So when people ask you, would a Jews need Christ to be saved? Yes, we can quote the verses that say, Jesus is the way, the truth, life. You must confess and believe the gospel. Guess what? Their whole system has no meaning anymore because Christ fulfilled it all. Thoughts, comments, questions, Marty?