This morning we're going to begin studying the tabernacle. The first section about the tabernacle takes up three chapters from Exodus chapter 25 to 27. You can go ahead and begin turning there. And while you're turning there I'd like to explain a couple of things. I have these pamphlets published by Rose Publishing about the tabernacle. This will match some of the images that I'm showing on the screen. So you're welcome to look at them as they come to you. I'm gonna put one in each section to pass around. And then also to tell you about this book. This is a great resource. This is called The Rose Book of Bible Charts, Maps, and Timelines. And I have a little post-it note where the section on the tabernacle begins. So we'll rotate that as well. so that you can see in your lap what I'm showing on the screen, because I think that a picture is worth a thousand words, maybe more than that. And as we read through this, my goal is for us not to get caught up in all the details, but to get an idea in our minds of what this might have looked like, and more importantly, get an idea in our hearts of why this is in the Bible at all, why this is important to us. because the tabernacle was important. It was a big deal. And not just because it would be a fancy tent. It was. Not just because it would hold beautiful furniture and fabrics. It did. Not even just because it would hold a copy of the covenant that had just been ratified by God and his people. It did. But the most significant reason the tabernacle mattered was that it was the place God chose to dwell among His people. Now, tabernacle may be a word you're familiar with, it may not. But for those of you not familiar with that word, you can always substitute the word tent. if that makes more sense to you. So tabernacle is the same as tent. But here's the one word I want you to remember as you look at the tabernacle or tent of meeting here in Exodus, and that is the word to dwell. God had always intended to dwell among his people. He had done so with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Remember, he walked with them in the cool of the day. But God hadn't dwelt with his people in that way for any significant length of time or on any regular basis ever since Adam and Eve sinned. They had to leave the garden. They couldn't walk with God on a daily basis, literally, physically, any longer. Now how can we tell that the tabernacle is important, that it's important to God? And the answer is that there are actually 50 chapters in the Bible that mention, that describe the tabernacle. I didn't know there were that many until I was studying it this week. But there are 50 chapters, there are 13 here in Exodus, there are 18 in Leviticus, 13 in Numbers, two in Deuteronomy, and then over in the New Testament we have four chapters in the book of Hebrews. Someone said, the tabernacle served as the place where God met with his people, and it prefigured the perfect approach to God through the blood of Jesus Christ, who tabernacled among men. That's why it's important. It's what it's pointing to in the word Jesus. There are lessons for us here. Not so that we can make our own model of the tabernacle. If you would like to do that, if you're a craft person, you go right ahead. But that's not my goal here. My goal is for us to learn more about God, and specifically Jesus, and then how God wants his people to worship him even today. Before we dig into this, I'd like you to join me in prayer, and then I'll explain sort of the main ideas and the format of the way we're going to study through this. First, let's pray. Our Father, How great a privilege it is to be in your presence. It is amazing that we have the opportunity to have a relationship with God, the God who created us. And Lord, we thank and praise you again for that this morning. Lord, we thank you that you want to dwell with your people. You want to be with your people. And Lord, as we study this passage today, I'm asking for your help, the help of your Holy Spirit to help me teach this as clearly as I can, and that you really would be the one teaching what you want us to see and hear in this section. Lord, I'm praying that those who hear will have ears to hear. Father, may we not take for granted the opportunity to come into your presence. There are probably people in this room today who don't think they can come into your presence. There may be some people here who think they are unworthy of being in your presence. And Lord, truthfully, we are unworthy. Without the shed blood of Christ, we could not enter your presence. We would have no right, we would have no basis on which to enter your presence. But you have provided a way, a new and living way through the shed blood of your son. And Lord, because we are in Christ, we know that we are worthy. Not because of anything in us, but because we are in Christ and we have his robes of righteousness. And when you see us, you do not see our sinfulness and our frailty. You know that we're dust. But if we are in Christ, you see your Son. You see us clothed in His righteousness, and therefore we can boldly enter into your presence and receive grace to help in time of need. So we thank you for that. And ask for your help and your blessing on this time, in Jesus' name, amen. I have three main ideas that go with this overall section of chapters 25 to 27. Here's the first one. God invites his people to bring him an offering. We're going to look at that in the first nine verses or so this morning in chapter 25. Number two, God chooses to dwell among his people. And then number three, God specifies how his people worship him. So number one, God invites his people to bring him an offering. Number two, God chooses to dwell among his people. And if you don't get any other point, get that one. That's probably the most important. Number two, God chooses to dwell among his people. And then number three, God specifies how his people worship him. Now, I don't know how many of you have studied through the tabernacle before. I've never studied through it to teach it until this past week. Some of you in the room may know lots about the tabernacle. There may be somebody here who knows more about it than I do. Great. But the way I'm going to approach this is that we're going to go a section at a time. so that when we get to a good stopping point, we'll just stop and we'll pick it up next time. But I'll read a paragraph. We're not gonna try to go verse by verse. I'm not gonna go very deep into discussing what the colors of the threads mean or any of those very minute details. There are books and other studies that do that and look for symbolism in all of it. I'm gonna try to keep this at a higher level than that, but I'm gonna read a paragraph at a time and then comment and define some things for you and try to explain some things, and then we'll move on to the next one. I do wanna explain the handout that I gave you, that's a table, it's a chart that shows the different furniture items, the different sections of the tabernacle. And my point in giving that to you, I'll tell you at the end of each section what I took away from that symbol. I'll tell you that, but I didn't give you the answers and I'm not gonna put it up on the screen because I really want you just to write down, here's what the Holy Spirit showed me, here's what stood out to me about that section. And make your own notes. So here we go, chapter 25 of Exodus, hopefully you've had a chance to find it now, starting with verse one. Then the Lord spoke to Moses saying, speak to the children of Israel that they may bring me an offering. From everyone who gives it willingly with his heart, you shall take my offering. And this is the offering which you shall take from them, gold, silver, and bronze, blue, purple, and scarlet thread, fine linen, and goat's hair, ram skins dyed red, badger skins, and acacia wood. Oil for the light and spices for the anointing oil and for the sweet incense. Onyx stones and stones to be set in the ephod and in the breastplate. So where do we start off here? With an offering. This is voluntary. This is free. They are given an opportunity to contribute. And this is personally. Each person is invited to participate in this offering, and there are 14 different components to this offering, different materials involved in the building of the tabernacle. And we're not going to get there for several weeks, but when we get to chapter 35, chapter 36, we're going to read that they gave so much that Moses had to tell them, enough! Stop! Don't bring any more. We have enough. We have more than we need. And I don't know about you, I've never been in a church where the pastor got up and said, please don't give anymore. I haven't seen that yet. Maybe the Lord will allow me to. But this paragraph reminds me of a verse in 2 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians 9, 7. So let each one of us give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity. Why? Because God loves a cheerful giver, literally a hilarious giver, someone who's enjoying giving to God, giving to others. Several weeks ago, when we studied the Eighth Commandment, I shared with you that the Bible teaches us to give regularly, primarily, willingly, cheerfully, sacrificially, and proportionately. We looked at those six different adverbs of ways we are supposed to give to the Lord and His work, and we looked at references for each of those. My purpose is not to re-preach that today. You can go back and study it on your own or listen to that message. And for any of you who are newer to our congregation, we have an offering box in the back. We don't talk about it much. I don't bring up giving most of the time, unless it's in our passage, like it is today. But since it's in our passage today, let me take just a brief moment to encourage you to ask yourself, are you giving willingly, voluntarily, cheerfully? Let me also specify, the New Testament never says we're supposed to give a tie of 10%, or any other percentage for that matter. But the expectation, the command, is that we give something. As Tony Morita put it, God does not force your worship and giving, but he does call for it. Now, let me talk about some of the elements, some of the items that they were invited to give. First, we have three precious metals. We have gold, silver, and bronze. That's familiar to us, like from the Olympics or from other competitions, the different metals. So gold, when it comes to the tabernacle, building the tabernacle, gold symbolizes purity and holiness. It's gonna be used in the holiest and in the holy place the places that represent God the most. So we're gonna see gold, some solid gold items, some gold overlaid items, represents purity and holiness. Second, silver, it symbolizes redemption. Redemption when you see people being sold like Joseph being sold by his brothers into slavery in Egypt when you see in the New Testament Jesus being betrayed it was measured in silver silver represents redemption and then third bronze which is an alloy of copper and tin it represents judgment or wrath and we won't get there today, but we will eventually study the bronze altar and so that is a picture of judgment and of wrath and Now the other thing I wanted to point out is badger skins, because you can probably guess, make a pretty good guess on what the other things are, but when I say badger skins, some of you are thinking of this animal. It probably wasn't that. Probably wasn't that. Instead, here's a photo of what a lot of people think it was, some sort of marine animal, seal-like animal, or maybe even like we think of a manatee. Apparently there were some species of manatee that were in the Mediterranean at that time, and whatever that animal was, its hide must have been tough and waterproof because that's the outer layer of the tent that we'll get to when we study that section, the different coverings of the tabernacle. And then acacia wood. Apparently that was plentiful for them. Acacia, I learned, is a hard and durable desert wood, and it's especially suitable for framework and furniture for the tabernacle. It was considered good for cabinet making, is what I read somewhere. So what have we seen so far? We've seen that God invited his people to give him an offering made up of more than a dozen types of items. Why? Why did he invite them to contribute? Is it that God's wallet was empty, that his funds were running low? Low on cash? No. Of course not. The reason he invited them to give, the reason he invites us to give today, is that he wants us. He wanted their hearts and he wants our hearts. Because he knows that wherever we invest our money, our material possessions, our hearts will naturally follow. Here's another question. Where did the Israelites probably get what they offered to the Lord? And the answer is from Him. Do you remember twice, earlier in the book of Exodus, before they left Egypt, God prophesied and then told them to ask to borrow from their neighbors? And it doesn't mean borrow like, I'm going to give this back later. It actually means, would you give this to me? They're asking. And God allowed them, the way it's worded in our translations, they plundered the Egyptians. God gave them a bunch of stuff on their way out from slavery, and now he's saying, would you give some of that back to me? Because he knew all along that he was gonna ask them to contribute toward the tabernacle, his dwelling place. James 1.17 says, gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning everything we have every good thing we have is from God and he invites us to give back to him now this is a simple question but i'm going to ask it why were all these items being offered why did he say bring these items because they were going to build the tabernacle verse 8 and let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them, according to all that I show you, that is, the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all its furnishings, just so you shall make it." Now when you read the word sanctuary, literally that means holy place. It means holy place, and other names that we see in scripture, particularly in other parts of Exodus, a little bit in Numbers, we see other names for this structure. The tabernacle is also called the tent, the tent of meeting, the tabernacle of congregation, the tabernacle of witness. So it goes by different names, but it's the same thing, because it is God's dwelling place. See the statement there? I may dwell, if you mark in your Bible, I'd encourage you to underline circle, in verse eight, the word sanctuary, then the phrase I may dwell, and then in verse nine, the word tabernacle. Because in the same way that believe is a verb, and faith is a noun, same idea here. To dwell is a verb, and the corresponding noun is tabernacle. What was this tabernacle? I've said multiple times already, and I'll keep saying, it's a dwelling place for God. But practically speaking, it was a portable worship center. And it was always placed at the geographical center of the nation. So I have a slide here that's showing how it was structured, and you can see in the middle of their camp, they would have the different tribes camped three per side, north, south, east, west. The tabernacle always opened facing the east. And what we see there is that right in the middle of everything is God's dwelling place. It's a portable worship center. What do I mean by that? Well, sometimes they would stay in a place for a long time, But when that cloud that represented God's glory, God's presence, the Shekinah, when the cloud, remember the pillar of cloud, pillar of fire we've talked about, when that lifted up off the tent, that was their clue, pack it up, it's time to go. And so all of the individual families would pack up their tents and get ready to travel, and they even had an order in which they were supposed to go out of the camp. But the Levites were responsible for packing up the tabernacle. And so we're gonna see some of the items in the tabernacle, some of the furniture pieces actually had poles, had ways to carry them, to transport them because it all had to be movable. And I've gotta be honest with you, a little confession here. I was studying at my desk in my office on Wednesday when a thought occurred to me that had never occurred to me before, and that is the Israelites did portable worship for 40 years. Now, no, it didn't look quite like what we're having to do today as far as bringing stuff in and setting it up and then tearing it down a few hours later and taking it all back to storage and that kind of thing. It wasn't that because I just described to you there sometimes they were in a place for months. But nevertheless, it was portable. Now the first item God described to Moses was the Ark of the Covenant. And God could have done any order that he wanted to. Maybe if you and I had been writing this passage, we would have started with the outer area, what made the perimeter of the courtyard, and sort of moved our way in. That would be one way to do it. But God starts with one piece of furniture in particular, because it's so important. We call it the Ark of the Covenant. There's an image here, an artist's rendering. This is not necessarily exactly what it looked like, but I'm trying to give you some images so that you understand. It could have looked like this. It was probably something like this. So you can see behind me the Ark of the Covenant, gold. You see the top there with the angels, the cherubim on top. Let me read, starting in verse 10. And they shall make an ark of acacia wood. Two and a half cubits shall be its length, and a cubit and a half its width, a cubit and a half its height. and you shall overlay it with pure gold inside and out. You shall overlay it and you shall make on it a molding of gold all around. You shall cast four rings of gold for it and put them in its four corners. Two rings shall be on one side and two rings on the other side. You shall make poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. You shall put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark that the ark may be carried by them. The poles shall be in the rings of the ark They shall not be taken from it, and you shall put into the ark of the testimony which I will give you." The testimony which I will give you, that last phrase I just read, that's talking about the Ten Commandments. We'll talk about what goes in this ark in just a second. Here's how I want you to think of the ark of God's, the ark of the covenant. It's God's throne. According to 1 Chronicles 28 2, this chest, this box that's wood covered with gold, is the footstool of God's heavenly throne. Elsewhere we read that the Lord is enthroned between the two cherubim, those two angels up on the lid. Someone said at this point heaven and earth are linked. with God seated in heaven and his feet resting on the earth. So what do we have? We have a box. To give you the dimensions, and any time we read a cubit, that was typically 18 inches from the elbow to fingertips, so we use 18 inches to calculate. So you got a three foot nine inch length, a two foot three inch width, and a two foot three inch height for this box. And what did it hold? As I mentioned before, it held the testimony. It held the two stone tablets on which God wrote the law for Moses. So that's in there, and that seems to have stayed in there. At least at one point, there were two other items that we learned from Hebrews chapter nine. There was a pot of manna. You remember manna? What is it? It's manna. Manna is the bread-like substance. They could bake it. They collected it every day. And then the other thing was Aaron's rod that budded. And we can study that another time. But those are the items that were in the box, in the Ark of the Covenant. The box itself I mentioned was wood covered with gold. So even there we have a picture of Jesus Christ. The gold represents his deity. He is and was God, has always been God. That's the overlayment, but he became a man. That's the wood in this picture. So we have his humanity and his deity right there in the Ark of the Covenant. And I mentioned the rings for the poles, because the Ark could only ever be covered, carried by its poles. No human being could touch it and live. Some of you remember the story of Uzzah in 2 Samuel 6. Good intentions. The ark is on a cart, which is not the way they were supposed to move it, but that's how they were moving it, and it was about to fall off the cart, so he reached out his hand to steady it and keep it from falling off, and what happened? Bam, he died. Why? Because no one was allowed to touch it. It had poles so that the Levites could carry it by its poles. Now, I didn't give you a different section on your chart for this, but the next item is the lid of the ark. We call it the mercy seat. This is verse 17 and following. You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold. Two and a half cubits shall be its length and a cubit and a half its width. and you shall make two cherubim of gold. Of hammered work you shall make them at the two ends of the mercy seat. Make one cherub at one end and the other cherub at the other end. You shall make the cherubim at the two ends of it of one piece with the mercy seat. and the cherubim shall stretch out their wings above, covering the mercy seat with their wings, and they shall face one another. The faces of the cherubim shall be toward the mercy seat. You shall put the mercy seat on top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the testimony that I will give you. And there I will meet with you, and I will speak with you from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are on the ark of the testimony, about everything which I will give you in commandment to the children of Israel." This is the mercy seat, or some translations may call it atonement cover. It's the lid of the box. Because literally this means a covering. It was the place of covering. Of what? The box? Yes, of the box, but it was the covering for sin. There's a fancy Bible word for that, it's called propitiation. We read it in 1 John and some other places. But propitiation has two ideas, the appeasement of wrath and satisfaction. So God sees this and his wrath is appeased and he is satisfied. Why? So that we can be reconciled to him, so that we can be forgiven of our sin. Because if you know about the Day of Atonement, the high priest would go and once a year he would bring the blood of a sacrifice, a substitutionary sacrifice, and he would sprinkle blood on this solid gold mercy seat. First for himself, for his sin, and then a second time for the people. He did this one time a year. And God saw that substitutionary death And that satisfied Him for that time. He saw their faith and obedience, and He said, I will overlook your sin. But what's all this pointing to? This is pointing to Jesus, because He is the one ultimate final sacrifice, the perfect sacrifice, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. So when He shed His blood on the cross, that satisfied the wrath of God, turned away his wrath, it appeased his wrath. That's the propitiation for our sins. We are forgiven because of the shed blood of Jesus, and that's what's pictured here. There is no forgiveness apart from the shedding of blood, Hebrews tells us. And the picture we have here, God is dwelling between the cherubim on top there. That's where he's going to talk to Moses, when Moses comes to talk to him. So that picture's God. What's in the box? Most importantly, the testimony. The Ten Commandments. We have broken the Ten Commandments. So what's between God, who is completely holy, and the broken covenant? It's Jesus. Jesus is the covering. John MacArthur said, blood from the sacrifices stood between God and the broken law of God. And we understand that all points to Jesus and his sacrifice for our sin on the cross. Now, there are these two angels at the top. They are cherubim, that's plural. Cherub is singular. Cherubim is plural. It's an order of angels that guard the holiness of God. After Adam and Eve sinned, God posted angels so that they could not come back into the garden to eat of the tree of life. Those were cherubim. Satan, or we would say Lucifer, was a cherub, a covering angel. When we get to Revelation, and I believe we read about them in Ezekiel as well, there are four creatures, or four living creatures, four living ones, and they are cherubim. What are they doing? They are guarding, protecting the holiness of God. It's not that He needs protecting in that way, but just as a president has the secret service, any international leader is going to have bodyguards. That's how God set it up, that there are cherubim that guard His holiness. Now before we leave this first section, what is the significance of the ark and the mercy seat? I would say that first, God is holy. He is inapproachable and untouchable. The lid of this thing is made out of gold, the box is covered with gold, and we can't touch, we can't approach, we can't come to Him. Another word that describes that covering is mercy, the mercy seat. So God is a merciful king. He allows us to approach him, not because we're so good or worthy of it, but because Jesus has made a way for us. And that brings us to another point here, that God dwells among his people. He's enthroned in the chair of him. using this box as the footstool of his throne, connecting heaven and earth, dwelling among his people. And then the other thing we have to see here is that God provides atonement, or we would say covering for our sins. So the ark symbolizes God the Father and his presence with us, particularly the chair of him above the mercy seat. And then the mercy seat itself symbolizes Jesus and his sacrifice for us, as does the box, shows us Jesus. So there's lots of symbolism here, even as we get started. The next piece of furniture is a table. You say a table? Yes, a table. And what's on the table? Bread. So there's an image of what this might have looked like. Verse 23, you shall make a table of acacia wood, two cubits shall be its length, a cubit its width, and a cubit and a half its height. And you shall overlay it with pure gold and make a molding of gold all around. You shall make for it a frame of a hand-breadth all around. You shall make a gold molding for the frame all around. And you shall make for it four rings of gold and put the rings on the four corners that are at its four legs. The rings shall be close to the frame as holders for the poles to bear the table. And you shall make the poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold, that the table may be carried with them. You shall make its dishes, its pans, its pitchers, and its bowls for pouring. You shall make them of pure gold. And you shall set the showbread on the table before me always. This table was about three feet by a foot and a half, so not huge, maybe more the size of a tray for us, but this held showbread, or you might see it translated as bread of the presence. Literally, I believe it's bread of the face. And what was this? These were 12 cakes, and I'm a huge fan of pancakes. I like to make pancakes and I like to eat pancakes. But this was not quite that. This was thicker than that and bigger than that. I was talking to Rochelle this week trying to figure out, how do I explain this? What are those pans called that you make layer cakes out of? That's what I asked her. And she said, they're called nine-inch round pans. OK, well. I probably could have been able to figure that out, but I didn't. So she told me they're round pans. So imagine that you're making cakes or bread, cornbread maybe would be a way for us to envision this, in a round pan making 12 of them, and they made 12 new ones every week, and they sat there. They sat on the table in two stacks of six, 12 loaves of bread, if you will, sitting there all week long. Why? Why were there 12? We believe it was to represent the 12 tribes of Israel. And at the end of the week on the Sabbath, this provided food, the priests were able to eat these loaves of bread. Now, I want you to understand here, even back then, there were temples for false gods and they would put food there. If you can visit other countries in the world, And they'll have shrines and people will set out food for these false gods, these idols. Can the idols eat that food? No, they cannot. Did God have this bread put in place because he was hungry, because he needed something to eat? No, he doesn't have need of that. So why was it there? Well, it represented the 12 tribes, so it represented his people. He knew each person by name. He knows every one of you here today. He knows you by name. He knows about you. He created you. He loves you. And then there's another picture here. He's the provision. We studied manna that God provided their needs daily. So this is a reminder of God's provision. He is looking out for you. The psalmist said, I was young, now I'm old. I've never seen the righteous forsaken or his seed, his children, begging bread. What does that mean? That means that God provides for his people. We don't think that way. In our culture, in our economy, most of us have refrigerators and pantries at home, and a lot of the time, they're filled or we replenish them on a regular basis. We don't, we aren't lacking for food. normally. But this picture is that he is the provider. That's what they were depending on for the manna, for the daily bread from heaven. Speaking of bread from heaven, when we read in the book of John, how did Jesus describe himself in one place? It's in John chapter 6. Jesus is the bread which came from heaven. He's the bread of life. So as we finish this section, what's the significance of the table? I would say that it's that God is our provider. I would also say that God recognizes every member of his family. He was the bread of the presence, the bread of the faces. They are there. to represent those 12 tribes that God has chosen to be his people and he knows and cares for every member of his family. And then God is our source of fellowship because there's one other extension. After saying that he was the bread of life, we get to what we call the Lord's Supper, that night of his betrayal. Jesus took elements of the Passover, we've already studied the Passover, so there's bread, there is juice, wine, the fruit of the vine, and He took the bread and said, what, this is my body broken for you. So that bread represents Him, particularly in His suffering on the cross. So I would say further, That meal, we've talked about meals in Exodus, haven't we, with Jethro, and then the meal that the elders ate in God's presence. We studied that recently. That represents fellowship. So God is our source of fellowship. And this table, this portable table, symbolizes Jesus, the bread of life. Next, we have the lampstand. You can see an image of what that might have looked like. Verse 31. You shall also make a lampstand of pure gold. The lampstand shall be of hammered work. Its shaft, its branches, its bowls, its ornamental knobs, and flowers shall be of one piece. And six branches shall come out of its sides, three branches of the lampstand out of one side, and three branches of the lampstand out of the other side. Three bowls shall be made like almond blossoms on one branch. with an ornamental knob and a flower, and three bowls made like almond blossoms on the other branch with an ornamental knob and a flower, and so for the six branches that come out of the lampstand. On the lampstand itself, four bowls shall be made like almond blossoms, each with its ornamental knob and flower, and there shall be a knob under the first two branches of the same, a knob under the second two branches of the same, and a knob under the third two branches of the same, according to the six branches that extend from the lampstand. Their knobs and their branches shall be of one piece. All of it shall be one hammered piece of pure gold. You shall make seven lamps for it, and they shall arrange its lamps so that they give light in front of it. And its wick trimmers and their trays shall be of pure gold. It shall be made of a talent of pure gold with all these utensils, and see to it that you make them according to the pattern which was shown you on the mountain." We're studying the lamp stand. It's a long description, isn't it? So this gold lampstand, there's a different word that we think of in terms of a lampstand that we use today. It comes to us from Hebrew, it starts with an M, that's menorah. So this is a menorah, it's a big one. We don't have the dimensions of this, because God didn't give them to us, but a lot of people think this might be five feet or even six feet high, so it's a tall lampstand, single shaft with branches coming out. What was its purpose? Now this is one of the tough questions I'm going to ask you today. What was the purpose of the lampstand? Exactly. The purpose of the lampstand was to give light. If there hadn't been a lampstand there, the priest wouldn't have been able to do anything. They didn't have flashlights. And we haven't gotten there yet, but there are four layers of coverings on this tent. And there was no light shining through. There was no door, there was no window in this section where the lampstand was gonna be. So they needed light if they were gonna do what God had called them to do. What we see here is a lampstand showing us Jesus. Why? Because elsewhere in the book of John, we read, I am the light of the world. In his first letter, 1 John, John wrote that God is light, in him is no darkness at all. So we have literal light coming from this lampstand. But figuratively, light in the Bible means understanding, it means knowledge, it means the truth of God coming to us. Darkness is associated with ignorance. It's also sometimes associated with evil. And yet, there is light. And Jesus said, I am the light of the world. What else did he say? He said, we are the light of the world, that he's gonna shine through us. What's the purpose of him shining his light through us? That others would see that and glorify his father in heaven? I'm gonna point out one other thing while we're looking at this, and that's these knobs and blossoms and different things. They're ornamental, they're to look pretty, And a lot of Bible scholars believe that this was supposed to describe a flowering almond tree. It seems like it's almond blossoms. That's what God is saying it should have. So looking like an almond tree. It's a lampstand. It looks like an almond tree. Why an almond tree? John Corsten suggested this was because an almond blossom is pure white. And even today, the almond tree is the first in Israel to blossom and the first to bear fruit. And this speaks of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. According to 1 Corinthians 15, he is called the first fruit of the resurrection because he is the first one who rose from the dead, never to die again. And this lampstand was all one piece of gold, hammered is what it says, and it weighed, the range is from 58 to 80 pounds, but the most common number I found for a talent is 75 pounds. So I did not do the math. You can do it if you want to. Figure out how much an ounce of gold was worth today. Multiply that by 16, multiply that by 75, and figure out the fortune that this thing would be worth. What is the significance of the lampstand? We said that God is light. That he illumines our darkness. and that he shines his light through us. And what does the lampstand symbolize? It symbolizes Jesus, the light of the world. So that's a good stopping point for us today. That finishes chapter 25, and we'll pick it up on a future Sunday with chapter 26 and 27. Keep studying the tabernacle, but what is the purpose of this? What are we wanting to see through this? Well, some symbolism to show us God, right? But the main points from today, we start off with the first nine verses of this chapter, that God invites his people to bring him an offering. And then that very important truth, that God chooses to dwell among his people. And what we're seeing, down to the very fine details, is that God cares about how his people worship him. He gives very clear guidance on that. And if he cared that much, down to that level of detail with them, don't you think he cares how we worship him today? So we go to the New Testament and we figure out, God, what does it look like to worship you in spirit and in truth today? Now, it could be that there's someone here, either joining us online or someone here in the room, child or adult, who has never begun a relationship with God. You say, I can't approach God. Well, if you don't have a relationship with Jesus, you're right, you can't. But you're invited. You are welcome to come. What does that look like? That means that I tell God, I am a sinner. I know I've broken your laws. I know I have. And I know there's nothing I can do about that, and there's nothing I can do to be worthy of coming into your presence. But God, I believe that you have sent a rescuer, your son Jesus, to pay the penalty for my sin, to live a perfect life I couldn't live, to die the death that I deserved, and to rise again so that I have the hope of eternal life with you. You tell him that, the Bible says, those who call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. There's no question about it. In that instant that you believe that and you cry out to him, he will save you. And you can begin a relationship with him and you have access to God. Believers. I am not the Holy Spirit. I don't know how he may have spoken to you today, but I believe he did because this is his word that we're studying. It is alive, it's powerful, it shows us ourselves. So how has God spoken to you today? Is there some aspect of his character that he's revealed to you or reminded you of through the design of the tabernacle? Are you in awe today that God chooses to dwell among us? Or we could say dwell in us. We have verses in Corinthians that tell us we are the temple or we could say tabernacle of the Holy Spirit. We're the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. God is dwelling in us if we are in Christ. Have you thought about that? It can and should change the way we think about what we say, what we do, what we think, what we listen to. Because the Holy Spirit is dwelling in us. Are you thankful that Jesus is the final offering for sin? Have you spent any time praising God for the access that we have to God's throne room through Christ? And I realize that some of you won't be with us perhaps when we get to this later, so we've seen Father and Son today, but until we finish, In chapter 27, we see that oil that goes to give light in the candlestick we studied today. That's the picture of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, like I just said. Maybe the Holy Spirit has moved in your heart today to give a free will offering of some kind. To give that to our church or to some missionary, to some kingdom work. All I would ask is that whatever God has shown you, if he's shown you something specific to stop, something to start, just obey. Talk to him about it. And if you'd like one of us to talk with you or pray with you, we'd be glad to do that. Let's close in prayer. Our Father, we are grateful for this access that we have to a relationship with you. You are our Father because you have adopted us. You are our Father because You sent Your Son to die in our place. And how amazing that is, Lord. We're thankful for the pictures we see here of the finished work of Christ on Calvary. The blood that provides us forgiveness of our sin. How amazing You are, Lord. That You would dwell among men. and we thank you and praise you. May we be faithful to you, to live for you, to share your good news with others, to be generous in giving back to you from what you've given us. Or may we obey. May we trust you. May we thank and praise you in Jesus' name, amen.