All right, everybody. Exodus 25, back to Exodus 25 tonight. I know we only missed one Wednesday, and I know I say this every time I miss a Wednesday, but it feels like we missed a lot more than just one Wednesday, not having church last Wednesday, for sure. Marty was more up to speed on where we were than I was, and I couldn't remember exactly where we stopped as of Sunday morning, but he was right. What verse did you say, brother? 23rd, 23. We start with 23 tonight. That's what I was thinking we got to. So with all that being said, I won't put Marty on the spot since he got the verses right at least. What did we talk about two weeks ago at the beginning of Exodus 25? Does anybody remember that? Marty knows. Well, we'll get Marty off the hook. He knew what verse we were in, so. He knows where we're going to. He might not remember where we came from, but he knows where we're going. Anybody remember what the start of Exodus 25 is talking about? That was a big part of it, yeah. I like the way you used the word wager there. No wagers, just one wager. All right, so yeah, last week we talked about contributions for the sanctuary and how it was not a commandment or requirement that they give, but there was this stipulation about those whose heart was right to give, that their heart was leading them to give, to give, and that that would go to the contribution. For all these things, they were gonna have to put together and build, and last week, as we said, or like what was said, the Ark of the Testimony, also known as what? the Ark of the Covenant. And so we, if you go back and look, listen to two weeks ago, kind of laid out that, or you could just read it and you know, what are some of the unique things that we might remember about the Ark of the Covenant or the Ark of Testimony? Anybody? Yeah. There was an inventory list of what needed to come, so if you had what was on the inventory list, you were kind of compelled to come and bring it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I see what you're saying. Yeah, so yeah, that did stand out because remember, how do they get all this stuff to begin with? He got some of it from the Egyptians. Yeah, they got a lot of it from the Egyptians. Some of the animal hides they would have gotten later, but a lot of the other stuff, the stones and the jewels and the gold and that kind of thing would have come from the Egyptians, which was prophesied about back in Genesis that that would happen to begin with. Yeah, God provided all this of what he's going to have them use and what we're reading through tonight. Anything else about the Ark of the Covenant that jumps out at y'all that may be worth a reminder for us as we go forward? We're not gonna be talking about it anymore tonight or for the next week or two, except for where it's placed at, I guess. What else about it jumped out as a reminder? One solid piece. One solid piece of gold, okay. Cherubim on each end. Cherubim. Wings extended. Yep, wings extended, faces kind of down in an act of praise or worshipful type thing. What else about it? We're going to look at the table here in just a moment that the showbread goes on and how it's made and laid out. And we're going to do something unique about it. So I'll give you this hint about something else I was looking for. These rings that were to be placed around the Ark of the Covenant, the Ark of the Testimony, was to have acacia wood poles ran through it, if you might remember. And what is interesting about that, he hasn't given them the commandment yet to not touch it, but we know, because we know what's to come next, that these poles were what? They weren't to be taken in and out, right? The poles were to stay in the rings, and we know because nobody can touch it and there's a risk of, you know, trying to put the pole on there and touching it. Just keep that in the back of your mind. Anything else about the Ark of the Covenant, the Ark of Testament before we go? What, what? He hasn't told us this yet, but what will go in here? Ten Commandments. Ten Commandments. Aaron's rod that budded. Aaron's rod that budded, and what else? Manna. Manna, okay. Anything else? All right, y'all all up to date on your Indiana Jones and your Ten Commandments, huh? We know where it's at. You know where it's at, okay, well. Is it Smithsonian or something? Okay, that gets us pretty close to being caught up to where we are. What is that area called on top of the Ark of the Covenant? The mercy seat, yeah. And what would the high priest be, what was a part of his responsibilities in regards to the mercy seat? Yeah, the blood would be sprinkled on the mercy seat pointing to Christ once a year, the day of atonement. Okay, all right. Any other thoughts on what we looked at two weeks ago? Everybody up to speed now? You got everything right, tracking from verses 1 to 22? All right, let's pick up in verse 23 tonight. And, you know, before we jump in and before we go to the Lord in prayer, something struck me as I read through this again this evening. We've talked about this many times, about the details that God gives. And you're going to see some extreme details over the next chapter or two about how to build these things and how to make them. I'm very minute details and it made me think um when we think about the details and a kind of a common phrase used and I got to wondering I'll see if any of y'all know the answer to this question I looked it up so I had the kind of have the answer the devil's in the details anybody ever heard that before the devil's in the details and I got to thinking well isn't that kind of contrary to what we've been studying in The Bible that God, I mean, the devil is a God of, is it not a God, but he is a author of confusion and discord and that kind of thing. So really there's not the details there. God is the author of the details and the details of everything intricately in the universe. So anybody know where that came from or have any idea of where that phrase came from? You all weren't even thinking about that tonight until I brought it up, were you? I mean, so I looked it up and really didn't start being prominently used a lot until like the 50s or 60s, but it really is a derivative of an old theologian that would say God is in the details. And he'd reference back to scriptures like we're doing to say God's in the details. And so what they would do is whenever they thought they had the perfect plan or details of building something, and something would break or fall apart, and they were like, this little small thing over here is why it broke or fell apart, they would say, well, the whole devil made me do it type thing. That's kind of where it comes from. So there you go, we're done for tonight. Let's pray. Father God, we thank you that you in fact are not a god of confusion, you are a god of details. And it's not monotonous for the sake of monotony, it's because you're intricately connected to everything, that you are creator, you are savior, you are altogether glorious and wondrous. God, we should look to you as our author in everything. So God, let us give you honor and praise as we look at the details that you gave down to this fledgling nation in the ways in which they are to build and design these instruments and this tent that would be used in their worship of you, Lord, and how it all pointed to the sending of your son, Jesus. So God, give us clarity of thought, clarity of speech, Lord, let all that we do and say be done in a way that brings you honor and glory. In Christ's name, amen. Now, for the next chapter or two, there's gonna be some details. Let's see, three or four chapters at least. Some of these minute details, we can get lost in that and we can read through them. These can be flyover verses sometimes, can't they? I mean, if you ever tried to do a Bible reading plan and you get to like Leviticus or something like that where these laws are laid out and there's one difference here or one thing here different, you're tempted to just fly over them, aren't you? Because they're just... Why do I care about all these little intricate details? And we've all been guilty of it. Many of us have done it. Okay. So we're going to look at these details. And specifically, I passed out this piece of paper and on one side of it, it's kind of a rough, you know, boxy 300 foot view of what it would look like looking down on the bare bones of the Tabernacle or the Tent of Meeting. And we're not gonna get quite that far tonight. The other side of the piece of paper though is this fancy looking candelabra thing. What is that called? Menorah. So we will get into that tonight. I feel pretty confident in that. But before we get there, we gotta talk about this bread of the presence. Does anybody have a title above verse 23 that says something like, mine says bread of the presence. Does anybody say like show bread or something like that? What's that? The table, okay. The table for the show bread, okay. Okay, all right, so let's dive in, verse 23. You shall make a table of acacia wood, two cubits long, one cubit wide, one and a half cubits high. Before we go any further, do y'all remember how long or how big a cubit is? 18 inches roughly. It's from the elbow to the hand of a grown man. You shall overlay it with pure gold and make a gold border around it. You shall make for it a rim of a hand breadth around it. You shall make a gold border for the rim around it. You shall make four gold rings for it and put rings on the four corners which are on its four feet. The rings shall be close to the rim as holders for the poles to carry the table. You shall make the poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold so that with them the table may be carried. You shall make its dishes and its pans and its jars and its offering bowls with which to pour drink offerings. You may say, y'alls might say libations there. You shall make them of pure gold. You shall set the bread of the presence on the table before me at all times. A lot there, some details there. We've dealt with the only piece of furniture, if we even are bold enough to call it furniture, the only thing that goes into the Holy of Holies, if you look on your picture there at the tabernacle, the Holy of Holies, the most holy place there, only one thing goes in there. That's the Ark of the Covenant, or the Ark of the Testimony. Now as we are outside of that in the holy place, or does it say, yeah, the holy place, Now we're gonna be dealing with the things that go there. Right outside of there, the holy place, priests could go in there. The most holy place with the Ark of the Covenant, only one person could go in there, and they could only go in there one time a year, and that was the high priest that was serving that year, okay? So now we're going to look at the stuff that goes in there. There's two things. That's why that picture there, this table, I didn't, I guess I could have printed a picture of the table too, or an artist's rendering of the table would go in there. And then the menorah would go in there. And we're going to talk about both of those tonight for sure. I don't know if we'll get past that or not, but if we do, then we do. So what, As we look at this first bit here, we've already talked about a cubit is about 18 inches. So these first, you know, three verses, 23 through 25, he gives them what wood to make it out of, the size and dimensions to make it out of, to overlay it with pure gold. So how's that different from the Ark? Marty kind of gave us a hint of that early. The arc was to be hammered out from one, or the covering, the mercy seat, I should have said, is to be hammered out from one solid piece of gold. Yeah. Yep, make it out of wood and cover it. Yep, because pure gold is a very soft metal. The, Both are made of acacia wood. Both are totally overlaid with pure gold, with the exception being the mercy seat, which was hammered out of one solid piece of gold. And they both have a golden border around them. Now there's an additional command for this construction of the table is to have a rim above it, or some translations I read, I think in verse 24, make a gold border around it. Verse 25, you shall make for it a rim of a hand breadth around it, and you shall make a gold border for the rims around it. So what's the difference? What else is around the table that's not around the arc? They both have this crown thing that goes around the top of it, but this is something different here. What is this? So the Hebrew word used here, segor, literally means encasement or enclosure. And what most commentators think, Hebrew commentators think, is probably a lip that protruded above the top of the table, almost like a lip to keep something from coming off of the table, especially if it's being carried. And this hand breath, what is that? You may know what size that is. Anybody's translation say something besides a hand breath? Everybody says hand breath. Two hands. Hand breath all around. A hand breath all around. Did you say hand breath too? Two hands. Not quite that big. Not quite that big. It would be more. They equate it to about three inches, which is a little thicker than most hands and shorter than if you hold your hand straight up. So. Is that solid gold? Doesn't tell us. Gold border for the rim about. I mean, I don't think they made it out of wood and then overlaid it. Yep. Basically, what it equals is 1 6th of a cubit. So 3 inches. Actually, I saw, read a commentator that said, there's no evidence to support that the rim was actually a frame of wooden boards that held the feet of the table together. There are some people that try to say that. There's no evidence of that, he says, though. So as we go on, verse 26 through 28, the first three verses are pretty self-explanatory. Now we move into these making four gold rings for it, where to put the rings at, on the corners, that'll be close to the rim as holders for the poles to carry the table. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? Should make the poles, in case you would, sound familiar. Overlay them with gold. To Marty's point, you couldn't make them out of pure gold because they'd be too soft and the table would fall or bend the gold. What else is different here? That's the way you're to carry it. They're not supposed to be picking it up. They're supposed to carry it with these poles, not to be touching it. But what's different? It doesn't say that they should be made He does not say that they should remain in there, does it? So it was a move that they should remain in there like they are for the Ark. He's very clear in the Ark of the Covenant that those poles are supposed to stay there or else somebody would touch it, because what rule is not gonna take place here with this table? He's not gonna give the same commandment that if you touch this one, you'll die. He will for the Ark of the Covenant. Diane brings a point, I think we talked about this two weeks ago about the size of the poles and the size of the area of Holy of Holies it would be in, is that once you got them through there and you got it in there, there's not a lot of room in there to be pulling these poles in and out to carry it around. And as heavy this thing's gonna be and the length of these poles. But here at the table, there's more room and the area's bigger. It's gonna make these rings out of solid gold to carry these things with. Solid gold is soft. Yeah. Well, all this stuff's going to be packed up and carried with them from place to place to place because they're a semi-nomadic people at the very least for the next 40 years. They don't know that yet, but they're about to be a semi-nomadic people for the next 40 years. It doesn't say pure gold there for sure. Yeah, yeah it does. Yeah, we know they carried it for 40 years. So even, so again, you know, we talk about from a practical standpoint, we know how soft gold is and we know how these things can happen. But then again, we have the supernatural aspect of God's going to make it last. Look, their clothes are going to last for four. I mean, these other things are going to last for 40 years. So it's not a hindrance for God. But that's a good point, though, Mike, that those rings, if they were solid gold, would be. soft for sure. They turn into egg-shaped after a while wouldn't they? They wouldn't look that round anymore. What's that? I said it's a strong precious metal but it would probably be egg-shaped. Yeah. Yeah. The Table of Showbread is holy, but it doesn't have the same level of holiness that the Ark has. And as you move further away from that, you see that, and you're gonna see it when we start looking, we probably won't get to it tonight, but the curtains and stuff that we're gonna talk about and the way that they're designed and intricately, the closer you are to the Ark of the Covenant, the more holy, precious these items are. The mercy seat is absolutely inaccessible by humans without benefit of a perfect sacrifice. the blood of Christ or the blood of the perfect lamb, couldn't you touch it or you would die? Absolutely. Which kind of tells us a little bit about getting the whole, the judgment to come and those that aren't covered by the blood that come before Christ, they will be sent into eternal torment, for sure. Verse 29 and 30 starts talking about the utensils that are gonna go on top of this table. shall make its dishes and its pans and its jars and its offering bowls with which to pour drink offering you should make them a pure gold so now we do have a designation that this is pure gold here whereas it didn't give us that designation earlier of the rings you shall set the bread of the presence on the table before me at all times so anything Specific about those utensils, I kinda wanna walk through a little bit. I say utensils, these are more like, well, they're dishes. I mean, the first term he uses, excuse me, is dishes. This word is only used in the Old Testament, the Hebrew word for it, to refer to sacred vessels for dedication of gifts. This Hebrew word for dishes is only used for that purpose. So it's not talking about a common dish used for household use. And it's a pure go, which further separates it from all of that. The second thing, the pans there, as I read it, the Hebrew word there comes from the basic word meaning palm of the hand or sole of the foot. So it's talking about it having that little bit of a dip in it, that little bit of a groove into it, like the palm of your hand would. It's also only used in connection with the religious ritual in the Old Testament. There's other words for pans and for dishes and bowls in Hebrew, but the word used here is specific for this kind of task. The third one is I read, my translation said, and it's jars. Some of y'all might have a translation that says, Jug or something like that? Basin, maybe? Pitcher, okay. Same thing, jug, pitcher, jug, a jar. Again, this Hebrew word is only used for these kind of things and instruments. What's that? The final class, hold that thought. The final class listed here and it's offering bowls with which to pour out drink offerings, you should make them a pure gold. So that word, again, is only limited to religious ceremony in Israel as it relates to service to God. Those are all the technical terms for these very specialized utensils used for worship. They're set apart as holy vessels that'll be made of pure gold. Diane asked, what are they pouring out? What are they used for? Anybody? It says for a drink offering. Well, they would sprinkle that. Yeah. All we know is it says for the drink offerings. At this point, God doesn't feel the need to enlighten us anymore on it. However, You have verses like Numbers 4-7. Over the table is the bread of presents. They shall also spread a cloth of blue, put on it the dishes and the pans and the offering bowls and the jars for the drink offering, and the continual bread shall be on it. We're gonna talk about the bread in just a minute. Jeremiah 52-19. And the captain of the guard also took away the cups, the fire pans, the bowls, the pots, the lamp stands, the pans, and the offering bowls, what was fine gold and what was fine silver. And when we get to Exodus 37, 16, he made the utensils which were on the table, its dishes, and its pans, and its offering bowls, and its jars, with which to pour out drink offerings of pure gold. That's all it tells us that'll be used for the drink offerings. I'm sure she doesn't have the drink offerings in. That's why I didn't know that. The originals got it. Sorry. Verse 30, and you should set the bread of the presence on the table before me at all times. Well, hold on a second. Is that the first time we've read about this bread of the presence? Some of y'all been here for every Wednesday night since we started Exodus. Is this the first time we've heard about this bread of the presence? First time I remember seeing it. Y'all tell me of another time, then I'll, you know. Yeah. So on top of the table, bread is to be said at all times. Leviticus 24, which we ain't got there, verses 5 through 9, tell us this. Then you shall take fine flour and bake twelve cakes with it. Two-tenths of an ephod shall be in each cake. You shall set them in two rows, six to a row, on the pure gold table before Yahweh the Lord. You shall put pure frankincense on each row, that it may be a memorial portion for the bread, even an offering by fire to Yahweh the Lord. Every Sabbath day he shall set it in order before Yahweh continually is an everlasting covenant for the sons of Israel, and it shall be for Aaron and his sons, and they shall eat of it in the holy place. He doesn't tell us what it's for here yet. He doesn't even explain what it is here yet. Moses writing this after the fact, they would have known by the, perhaps, but as he told them, they wouldn't know. That's to come later, but it's this bread that's put on the table and 12 rows or 12 loaves representing what? 12 tribes of Israel before God, and who would eat it? The Levites. The Levites, the priests would eat it, but they replaced it every Sabbath. So they got to eat it seven days after they ate it. Seven days after they ate it, yep. Frankincense put on each row, we read in Leviticus. Probably gonna be in one of these vessels we just read about. One of these golden vessels. They're not just gonna throw it up there, it's gonna be in one of these vessels that we talked about. Every Sabbath the loaves are replaced. They're not thrown out, they're eaten by the priest. And they replace them. There's somewhere else in scripture, a couple of places, but one place in particular that these play another significant role in the life of a certain king of Israel. David ate it. And some of his men too, right? Jesus said it was okay later on, you're right. But yeah, they were hungry, they were being chased by Saul at that point, and that's all they had, and they ate the shewbread. First Samuel 21 four tells us, which is around the area in which what we're just talking about that happened with David, and the priest answered David and said, there is no ordinary bread on hand when he asked him for food, but there is consecrated bread if only the young men have kept themselves from women. So it's set apart for a specific purpose, and it's to be placed before the Lord, and so it's consecrated, it's a holy purpose. What does it mean, though, that he's got those 12, representing the 12 tribes before on this table? We haven't got very far into this yet, but what do you think it might symbolize here, other than it being the 12 tribes for sure? He says, place them before me at all times. It could be a connection to that. I really think what it has something to do with, especially as we get further into some of the rituals that would take place, is there's this aspect of God being their God, and the 12 tribes being represented in front of God, and he being their God, and they being his people, kind of aligned with the covenant. Leviticus 24 8 tells us this. Every Sabbath day he shall set it in order before Yahweh continually. It is an everlasting covenant for the sons of Israel. So Leviticus kind of tells us what it is, which is called in alignment with a principle that's a theological principle called the Immanuel Principle. I think we talked about that before, which means what? Anybody know what the Immanuel Principle is? We know what Immanuel means, right? We're getting close to that time of year when everybody should know what Immanuel means. God with us. So the Immanuel Principle is I'll be your God, you'll be my people. And it's kind of represented that way. It could, yeah, it could, for sure. Somebody turn that thermostat up. I'm getting toasty now. So Diane and I referenced 1 Samuel 21 forward, David comes in and was on the run from Saul. He needed provisions. The priest, it goes to the priest, asks the priest for food. The priest says, all I have is consecrated bread. We just kind of read that verse. Jesus referenced it too, Diane said. Where did that happen, and what's the events around that story? Does anybody remember how, where Jesus referenced back to that event in 1 Samuel? What was going on? Something to do with the Pharisees were fussing because they didn't wash their hands or something. One of those times, and he's saying, well, look, you know, the Old Testament, there were things where things weren't quite like they thought they should be. That's close, it's real close. Matthew 12 is where you find this account, one of the places you find this account. It's when the disciples were hungry, And they plucked the grain on the Sabbath day. And they tried to corner Jesus and thought they had him caught in something else. And Jesus actually references back to this event, where David is on the run and hungry, and his men were on the run and hungry. And of course, they held David in high esteem, didn't they? He said, David was able to do this. Just that Matthew 12, I think it's a large portion, the early part of Matthew 12 handles this. Yeah, they were accused of breaking the Sabbath. Matthew 12, three and four says this specifically, Marty. But he said to them, Jesus, to the Pharisees, have you not read what David did when he became hungry, he and his companions? How he entered the house of God and they ate the consecrated bread, which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those with him, but for the priest alone. So what was God saying there? In that time of distress, the mercy overtook that point. Yeah. Yeah. Any other questions there? You got the table and the showbread and all that stuff figured out, right? Let's talk about this thing that's on the other side of that piece of paper I gave y'all. We start hearing about the gold and lampstand beginning in verse 31. So let me read this. Diniah shall make a lampstand of pure gold. The lampstand, its base, and its shaft are to be made of hammered work. Its cups, its bulbs, and its flower shall be of the same piece. Here we go again, they're gonna make, that menorah that you see is made out of one piece of gold. Six branches shall go out from its sides. Three branches of the lampstand from its one side, three branches of the lampstand from its other side. Three cups shall be shaped like almond blossoms in the one branch, a bulb and a flower. Three cups shaped like almond blossoms in the other branch, a bulb and a flower. So for the six branches going out from the lampstand. And in the lampstand, four cups shaped like almond blossoms, its bulbs and its flowers. So let's stop right there for now. So he tells him now to oversee this second piece of furniture that will go into the holy place, not the most holy place, but the holy place, right outside of the veil where the Ark of the Covenant would be at. Does anybody's translation say lampstand in verse 31? In the Bible? Does anybody's literally say menorah right there? Well, it could, and it would be perfectly applicable because the Hebrew word is menorah. So the word menorah that we know that thing sticking up there with the seven branches or the six branches and the one post literal word for lampstand. That's what it's called. This is the lampstand. The word comes from a word meaning flame. So it's an instrument to bring flame or bring light. So it's made out of one piece of gold. We've already, I'm not gonna belabor this point. I think there would have probably been chisels involved too, but it's just not mentioned. But yeah, hammer and chisel are kind of tools that are synonymous. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's unbelievable. It's unbelievable. the artisans working on these things weren't they inspired or guided by the holy spirit i don't think there's really any other way to be able to do and make some of the things they made out of a solid piece without that for sure you can do a lot with i've seen body workers straighten the car that's been wrecked and you couldn't tell it Yeah, Billy does that stuff. He hammers out them dents in them vehicles. I don't know if he can make a golden lamp stand, but he can do, he can get the dents out of a car. I mean, y'all have seen, you know, there's these artists today that have a giftedness. You know, we have spiritual gifts and we have just this ability that God gives to people too. They can make some amazing things with a hammer and a chisel. Out of wood, out of, look at some of the sculptures that are in the world today. But you wonder what they did in Egypt that would have prepared them for that. I mean, yeah, they may have had, I mean, there were statues and stuff all over Egypt, so maybe they employed some Hebrews to learn that trade as a slave in Egypt. And they would have been working with a lot of old, A lot of gold in Egypt, too, because they thought a lot of gold, too. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I think so, too. No, absolutely not. And because of the preciseness of the way these things were made, too, and the intricate details. Weren't they hollowed, too, to get the oil into them? The cup or bowl on top could have just held it there, too. It wasn't like it came up from someplace. No, it didn't have to. And this thing, no, that's a good point, Diane. Something else to keep in mind here, we're going to see in a minute how heavy this piece of gold was they made this from. It's almost an 80-pound piece of gold. This thing is not a small candelabra we set on the table. If you look at artist renditions, it was big. It was massive. Yeah. Yeah, they would have been. They would have been. So it's made out of pure gold, one piece of pure gold, hammered out. The first part mentioned is the base. It literally means thigh. So like the leg of the candelabra or the leg of the menorah, I should say. The central shaft, it increases in size as it gets down towards the base. The second item is the shaft, and it's the word used for stalk or reed. So that's where it gets smaller, goes up. I read in my translation that I'm using, Cups, at the end of verse 31, hammered work, its cups, its bulbs, and its flowers shall be of the same piece. Does anybody's translation say knobs there somewhere? Yep, Megan's got her hand halfway raised. Ornamental knobs, okay. So it's the ornate stuff on top of the pillars. This is some of the stuff Diane's talking about, these very intricate details involved in this, for sure. And then the word cups, it references there is the Egyptian. It's actually a word loan from Egyptian and it means libation vessel. So it would have been like a, like a literally like a cup to hold the oil that we were talking about. These three branches on each side, if you just read this and you don't know what the picture looks like, and maybe this is just my faulty way of thinking. If I didn't know what a menorah looked like when I hear this, I'm thinking it's almost like a tree that's got branches going off in every direction. That's not the case. You know, there's two that come up that are longer on the ends and then two in the center and two closer to the middle. And that's how you get the three on each side. Why seven? Where there's seven of them, there's three on each side and one in the middle. What's that, Marty? Completion. Seven's the number of completion. Anything else? Seven days of creation. So seven days of creation, yeah. Okay. And then I read, I think verse 33 through 34. We have a detailed description of the lamp stand. Some of the specifics of the design aren't all here. So an exact reproduction, I've showed y'all a picture. There's still some details that are left out that we don't know 100% about. No measurements are provided. Remember I told you, there's no measurements provided in here, in this text. Later on, we'll see how heavy it was, the piece of metal it came from, how heavy that would be. Give us a little bit of indication maybe. Most pictures, when I was looking for that picture to print out for y'all, there's a couple of pictures, artist renderings, that show going in there and like this thing being the size of the priest, like about six foot tall. If it was to shine a light on there, it kind of makes sense, right? It's supposed to shine a light on, and it's on opposite sides. The showbread's on one side, the table, and then the menorah's on the other side. There's some really big menorahs Malia and I saw in Israel in certain places. So. So if it was 75 pounds or whatever, it would be worth $4.8 million. You ready to go on an Indiana Jones type adventure? Now, we're gonna see in just a minute, part of this gold was used to make a couple of other little utensils that we're gonna read about in just a minute, but most of it went into the menorah. So yeah, that's significant. Very valuable in more ways than one for sure. Verse 35, and 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. You kind of see that between the branches on the picture that I found for you guys. I keep saying picture, it's an artist rendering. It's not really a picture if y'all didn't know that. That's not the real one. Their bulbs and their branches, verse 36, shall be of the same piece. All of it shall be one piece of hammered work of pure gold. I'm telling you, I don't know anybody that's got that kind of skill, so yeah, you wanna talk about divinely inspired, divinely empowered as well to be able to do this. It's just amazing. Well, later on, like, they're directed for the curtains, and they're selected who's to do them. I'm thinking probably this was selected also. Yeah, I went ahead and prepared through verse chapter 26. I didn't think we'd get there, but I wanted to be prepared just in case. I don't know how much this would enthrall y'all, but I'm grateful it has, because I thought it was pretty cool to look at all these details. Again, y'all know I'm a theology nerd and a history nerd. Not everybody likes that, but y'all do, so I'm grateful. But yeah, I read it all through all that again this week. And yeah, when it gets to the curtain stuff here in just a little bit, some of the stuff in the curtains, the detail that's supposed to be involved in that, God tells them get a very skilled person. and the closer it is to the Holy of Holies, he says that, and in the holy place he says that, but when they get, I'm giving y'all a little bit of preview of next time, Lord willing that we gather for this, but when he talks about some of the other stuff that's further away from the Holy of Holies, he doesn't get as detailed about how skilled that person is supposed to be. So yeah, that's a good point, Mary, I'm glad you brought that out. Bring it out again when we get to the curtain if you want to. All right. what's that? I said well they're about six inches thick on the curtain. We're gonna when we get to that you're gonna see there's layer upon layer upon layer. Yeah. Some of them yeah yeah yeah and we're gonna see the whole porpoise sea cow language come back into play again about why those Those hives were made out of that, so yeah. So y'all, we got four more verses in this chapter, y'all. Four more verses in this chapter. We'll get to the curtains next time. I know. Everybody's interested in the curtains, and I think a lot of it's because of what Marty said, because we know about the curtain being torn when the Lord was hanging on that tree. And so it interests us, and it should. Yeah. We'll get to some of that next week. Verse 37. "...then ye shall make its lamps seven in number." So what's he saying there? Well, it looks like he's already built it with seven lamps. Now, when he says lamps, he means to be illuminated. At this point is when he said this is to be illuminated. And they shall mount its lamps so as to shed light on the space in front of it and its tongs. I know some of y'all's translations say something different right there. Some of y'all's translations, if you go to King James, it says snuffer there, I think. Wick trimmer. Y'all got snuffer in there somewhere. I remember looking at the translations. I see, yeah, there's snuffers in there. And its tongs and their trays shall be of pure gold. And it shall be made from a talent of pure gold with all these utensils and see that you make them after the pattern for them, which was shown to you on the mountain. The talent of pure gold, there's where I get this weight. It could possibly be 80 pounds because their weight measurement system wasn't as precise as ours is today. but most people say that a talent would be 57 to 80 pounds in that range usually north of 70 pounds a little bit different and even if it's the same their way of measuring and weighing stuff was basically cutting off pieces of some kind of metal and see how it fit into a scale and so you could have different impurities and different metals and it was a very not it wasn't a very precise system um anyway you shall make his lamp seven a number they shall mount its lamps so so he's getting always the point of the top of and the lamps the They're containers for wicks and for oil. They'll be set up so that they produce light. The verb here literally means one will bring up. So maybe referring to an attendant who will display the lamps and the lights and the wicks and the oil in them and all that kind of thing. Oh, I thought you had something there, brother. They are to be positioned so that the table in front of the menorah will receive the light. That's their purpose, is to shine the light on this table that we read about in a few verses ago. It is. Yeah, they're slightly tilted. Yes. So I made the comment, unattach these things that go with the lamp stand, but they're not part of the construction. Like I said, some translations say snuffers, some say snuff dishes, some say, would y'all say wick something? Wick trimmers, okay. These things that will go along with dealing with these kind of burning lamps are to be added gold too. How they trim the wicks, how they remove this stuff and replace this stuff is all to be done with gold instruments. Whatever term you use for them, a tong, a wick trimmer. When I think of a snuffer, I think of something you put over it to put the fire out. Probably that too, yeah. All of these things would be in play, but they're all to be made out of gold also. Yeah. Made from one talon of goat. Would I tell y'all earlier that it's 50 pounds to about 80 pounds? So in pounds, so here's the precise, recovered shekel weights from Palestine. Now Malia and I saw some of these shekel weights in the Jerusalem Museum, pretty cool. These pieces of metal where they just cut off pieces of metal to weigh things out and see the value of things. those weights from Palestine leave room for conjecture regarding the precise weight. Like I told you already, they weigh anything from eight to 12 grams in pounds, 3000 shekels equals anything from 52.8 pounds to 79.2 pounds. So there's how wide the gap is and how unprecise the measurement system was in those days, but that's, Pretty dang good for that long ago too when you really think about it. We might think it archaic, but they had to have some kind of system and that's the system they had. Verse 40. And see that you make them after the pattern for them which was shown to you on the mountain. So before the individual items of the tabernacle were discussed, Moses was told or it was explained to Moses by God to erect the tabernacle according to the pattern shown to him. We read that elsewhere. This is kind of including this in the articles of furniture that go in it. What is it really saying to us here though? Is it saying, Moses, you have creative liberty to do this way you want to do it. Absolutely not. You're going to do it after the pattern in which I'm telling you to do it. Again, God's not a God of chaos. God's a God of these details. Later here that this is a model of the one that exists in heaven that Moses saw it on that mountain. We don't know how that happened, but he saw it. Yeah, so the pattern that's Roy's kind of I'm getting into my teaching here a little bit, but that's all right. After the pattern which was shown to you on the mountain. So it doesn't say it was told to you on the mountain, does it? Shown to you on the mountain. Did y'all catch what Brother Roy said there? Moses had some kind of glimpse, some kind of view into the temple, the tabernacle, the city of God. So all this gold means more there too, because what do we read about in Revelation about what this looks like? This purest gold, this gold, gold, gold. The lamp stand is highly symbolic. The number seven is highly symbolic. The light doesn't just refer to the communication of higher knowledge or something like that, There's a connection to the blessing of the priest. Number 625, the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you. So there's that connection there too, that symbolism there. There's vision of Zechariah 4, Revelation 1. For the believer today, what significance does this menorah have to the believer today? It's kind of a trick question. There is that point, Diane, for sure. The lampstands of the churches. But what does that represent? We could get into a deep discussion about that, can't we? Yeah, and if they're representative of God, then there's this light to shine on them, but to shine on through them as well. There's a lot to make connections between here and the Book of Revelation, for sure. But this menorah that they made here, if we wanna get under brass tacks, it's an unnecessary object for us today, unless Mike finds it and has all that gold, but I don't know that God would look too favorably if he went and made a couple million dollars off that gold. John 8, 12 tells us what? What did Jesus say about this light? I am the light of the world. He who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. But this is pointing to Christ here too, isn't it? I mean, all this is pointing to Christ, the mercy seat we've talked about pointing to Christ. The menorah shining, all these things. This verse is actually quoted, verse 40 of chapter 25 is quoted in Hebrews 8, 5. And it's in the context of arguing that the offers brought to the tabernacle according to the Torah have always been merely shadows and foreshadows of Christ. And in Hebrews, that work had been completed. Hebrews 8, 5. Speaking of these things that we're looking at tonight, who serve a copy and a shadow of the heavenly things. Just as Moses was warned by God when he was about to erect the tabernacle, foresee, he says, that you make all things according to the pattern which was shown to you on the mountain. So the author of Hebrews, is referencing back to this, and he's also referencing back to all of this that he's telling Moses to do and build as representative of Christ and the eternal kingdom and the tabernacle that's not made by hands. So what was given to Moses on Mount Sinai was not just blueprints for a new structure, was it? It was the pattern of what the permanent structure, the heavenly structure, is. And this is just a tent that would be representative of that greater thing that Moses was shown. So what does that tell us? That wasn't the first tabernacle, was it? That wasn't the first temple? That wasn't the first anything? That was an earthly representation of what is heavenly. Don't you wonder what else God showed Moses up there on the mountain in 40 days? I don't know.