Welcome to another Exodus study this is number 69 and we're going to cover two chapters Exodus 36 and 37 after we give out a hillbilly holla out to brother Charles Wiegmann in the land down under here's your hillbilly holla Hope you can hear that all the way down there The brother Charles a longtime listener and we hear from him every once in a while. We appreciate Brother Charles and all we have several longtime listeners down there in Australia and We love each and every one now in this Bible study. We want to open with a word of prayer father. We thank you and for this time in your word. Help each listener as you help me. Help me to teach and help them to learn. And Lord, we thank you for every Bible believer out there. May their number increase. And we thank you for salvation through Jesus Christ. And he is the main point of the tabernacle. The types and shadows showing us more about Jesus. We thank you for each thing we've learned in Jesus name. Amen. So we return to the tabernacle and see the instructions given previously in chapters 25 through 31 are now being followed and the tabernacle is being built. And that's basically what we're seeing from 36, 37, 38, even into 39 and 40. We're going to see that. So that means we're not going to spend a lot of time rehashing what we've talked about. But there's a very important reason why God went to the trouble and repeated this where what was Instructed is now being made and one of the big reasons because of all the apostates out there Trying to convince everybody that this didn't actually happen There's a conspiracy theory. I was reading recently Carl Sagan's book our demon haunted world and he claimed that or at least insinuated very strongly that when Josiah found the books, the Torah, the Pentateuch, that it was just awful coincidental that it agreed with Josiah's personal beliefs and that all this stuff was just something that in reality Josiah and his men had cooked up. that is just absurd. I mean a man who calls himself a scientist like Carl Sagan spouting such nonsense. It's a shame and he probably went to hell based on his rejection of the Word of God because of such ridiculous ideas that are They're not scientific. It's completely ignoring the evidence. So let's get into this and we'll see that God obviously knew what was going to happen. He knew about these apostates and what they would say. And so he went to meticulous detail and repeated not only giving the instructions, but when they were made and we'll see many, many references. with details that couldn't be and would not be involved in a fictional tale, showing that the tabernacle was real. All these things were made, as we're about to see, as instructed, which we saw in chapters 25 through 31. So let's pick up in verse 1. It says, Then wrought Bezalel and Aholiab. and every wise-hearted man in whom the Lord put wisdom and understanding, to know how to work all manner of work for the service of the sanctuary, according to all that the Lord had commanded." So we appreciate men like Bezalel and Aholiab and these others. who use their God-given skill for God's glory. Not every minister is a preacher. Not every ministry is preaching. There are many different ways to minister in the Old Testament. Here we see these men using their skill. If you use your abilities to help out in the ministry, whether it's at the church meeting place, you're a plumber and you help plumb, you're an electrician and you help with the electricity, if you're janitorial services, if you just show up on work days and vacuum and wipe things down or whatever it is, if you're doing that for the Lord and for His glory, it's a ministry. And then when you turn around and help others, other believers or just the lost people. I've talked about men who had a ministry where they'd go help people change tires when they get a flat out on the highway. They actually would listen for the scanner and drive around looking for people to help out. And then they would tell them they did it because of Jesus and they would present the gospel. It's a great way to minister. And too many people think the ministry is just in the pulpit. And that's false. But there's also a real important fact that we shouldn't miss. And that is that it's one of the saddest things to behold when someone is gifted and skilled and they don't use those gifts and skills. And another sad case is someone who used their gifts and skills for selfish pride and not for the glory of God. Keep those things in mind. But have you noticed how many people represent a third case, and that's being people who do use their gifts and skills for the work of the ministry, but forget that God deserves the credit and the glory and the thanks for it. And by contrast, Bezalel and Aholiab and all these men seem to be very humble, meek, and thankful. Thankful for what God has gifted them to do and for the opportunity to do it. So verses two and three say, And Moses called Bezalel and Aholiab and every wise-hearted man in whose heart the Lord had put wisdom, even everyone whose heart stirred him up to come unto the work to do it. And they received of Moses all the offering, this is verse three, which the children of Israel had brought for the work of the service of the sanctuary to make it withal. And they brought yet unto him free offerings every morning. Now, the giving just continued. And Moses loads up these men, Bezalel and Aholiab and all these others, and women, With the materials, they'll need to do the work. Now, if you want to build, you have to have the ability, skills, the gifts that God gives to enable you to do those things. You have to make plans. You have to have tools. You have to have materials. And in most cases, you need to work together. Basil could not have done this on his own. As we continue, we see in verses four and five, and all the wise men that wrought all the work of the sanctuary came every man from his work, which they made. And they spake unto Moses saying, the people bring much more than enough for the service of the work, which the Lord commanded to make. So wouldn't that be a great problem to have? Not very many churches or ever had to say, you know, stop giving. You've given way more than we need. But in this case, that's what happened. So verses 6 and 7 we read, And Moses gave commandment, and they caused it to be proclaimed throughout the camp, saying, Let neither man nor woman make any more work for the offering of the sanctuary, so that people were restrained from bringing. For the stuff they had was sufficient for all the work to make it, and too much. Again, that's just something you're not going to see very often in church history and throughout human history when it comes to the work of the Lord. Now let's read the description of the making of the curtains. Again, we talked about these when the instructions were given. But verses 8 through 13, they're short verses, but let's read the whole thing. And every wise-hearted man among them that wrought the work of the tabernacle made ten curtains of fine twine linen and blue and purple and scarlet, with cherubims of cunning work made he them. The length of one curtain was twenty and eight cubits, and the breadth of one curtain four cubits. The curtains were all of one size. And he coupled the five curtains one unto another, and the other five curtains he coupled one unto another. And he made loops of blue on the edge of one curtain for the selvedge in the coupling. from the salvage in the coupling likewise he made in the uttermost side of another curtain in the coupling of the second verse 12 50 loops made he in one curtain and 50 loops made he in the edge of the curtain which was in the coupling of the second the loops held one curtain to another so it's just as we discussed previously and the instructions were to give this brought it together made it one big long curtain and And verse 13 says, and he made 50 tashes of gold and coupled the curtains one unto another with the tashes. So it became one tabernacle. And so that's how God works. His whole plan of salvation comes together. And the tabernacle, there's different things about Jesus Christ that we see, different characteristics about Jesus that all are important. You can't separate one from another, and they have to come together as one. He's the creator God. He's from eternity. He is the virgin born son of God, but he's not just a man. He is God in human form He was sinless born without sin lived without sin. He did many miracles He made the blind to see the lame to walk. He raised the dead, but then he himself crucified fulfilling all these sacrifices we see in the temple we're going to look at in detail in our study of Leviticus if the Lord tarries and and leaves me here to do so, and he then fulfills those sacrifices with his own blood shed on the cross. He was buried and not only had raised others, but raised himself, and you'll see that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are all said to be one and raising Jesus from the dead. And that's what the tabernacle declares for us. You can find illustrations, descriptions and demonstrations of how these different things are being made. But one thing to emphasize again is the detail given that totally refutes all the nonsense the skeptics and apostates out there want to fill your mind with the lies about this being fictitious and all that. Just pay attention to the fact. That's why we're not skipping any of this. Some preachers do. They'll just skip over these passages. We want to at least read them and be reminded of the meticulous detail given, given by God to ensure the reader, and assure the reader that this really happened just as we're reading it. So we pick up in verse 14. Let's read through 18. Again, short verses, but let's read through the whole thing. Verse 14 says, and he made curtains of goat's hair for the tent over the tabernacle. 11 curtains he made them. The length of one curtain was 30 cubits, and four cubits was the breadth of one curtain, and 11 curtains were of one size. So these are all the same size, but then they're brought together. And verse 16, and he coupled five curtains by themselves and six curtains by themselves. And he made 50 loops upon the uttermost edge of the curtain in the coupling and 50 loops made he upon the edge of the curtain, which coupleth the second. in verse 18, and he made 50 tashes of brass to couple the tent together that it might be one. So with some imagination and thought, you can see how these curtains were brought together into a single connected unit using the couplings. And we must remember that the tabernacle speaks of Christ, but that we are each a walking tabernacle as Christ is in us. We are also called the Temple of God in various places, demonstrating the same truth. I just want to quote one, 2 Corinthians 6, 16, And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God. As God hath said, I will dwell in them and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. As we continue now in verse 19 and he made a covering for the tent of Rams skins dyed red and a covering of badgers skins above that So there are four coverings in total. We spoke in more detail again verse chapters 25 through 31 specifically of these coverings in chapter 26 So we're not going to repeat all the detail that we went into, but we remind you of the simple list. There's the linen covering, which was decorated with blue, purple, and scarlet cherubims. And that would go first, which would mean it's on the bottom of these coverings. And then when you'd walk inside the holy place, that's what you would see covering. the tabernacle. Then you have the next layer would be of goat's hair and it's dark gray or black and it would be longer than the first to enclose everything and then it would make it pitch dark except for as we see the candlestick and the candlestick would reflect off the gold and just light the place up brilliantly. But the third covering would be the ram skin dyed red and then the badger skin on top and All of that as we mentioned before picturing Christ and his physical body And now we see the boards that made up the walls of the holy place and most holy place beginning verse 20 All of which were located inside the walls of the tabernacle complex. He'd have the the outer fencing, then the outer court, and then you'd have the coverings over top of the holy place and most holy place. And we have the boards here that held those coverings up. The boards are what the coverings laid over top. Verse 20 says, And he made boards for the tabernacle of Shittimwood, standing up. The length of a board was ten cubits, and the breadth of a board one cubit and a half. One board had two tenons, equally distant one from another. Thus did he make for all the boards of the tabernacle. We explained how all these went together in our study of Exodus 26. I think that is study number 52, by the way. If you want to look that up, if you missed it. Verse 23 through 26 says, and he made boards for the tabernacle, 20 boards for the south side, southward. and 40 sockets of silver he made under the 20 boards, two sockets under one board for his two tenons, and two sockets under another board for his two tenons. As we read this, you just think of these prefab homes and prefab buildings they put together, and God made the original. Verse 25, and for the other side of the tabernacle, which is toward the north corner, he made 20 boards. Verse 26, and there are 40 sockets of silver, two sockets under one board, and two sockets under another board. Silver would have been a much more durable material to make the sockets out of if they'd been made out of gold. Gold is not as durable. So that makes just common sense there. And again, I ask, Where in ancient sources do you find a work of fiction that not only goes into such intricate detail, but whose instructions have been followed and found to be precisely accurate as these? And as a matter of fact, a number of tabernacle replicas have been built over the years. As of the recording of this, I just recently heard that Ken Ham at the Ark Exhibit is going to build a Tower of Babel. But I still hope he'll add that. I'd like to see that. So we pick up in verse 27. Let's read a few verses again. These are short, but they're all about the boards. Verse 27, and for the sides of the tabernacle westward he made six boards and two boards made he for the corners of the tabernacle in the two sides. Verse 29, and they were coupled beneath and coupled together at the head thereof to one ring. Thus he did to both of them in both the corners. And verse 30, and there were eight boards, and their sockets were 16 sockets of silver under every board, two sockets. Verse 31, and he made bars of shedim wood, five for the boards of the one side of the tabernacle. Verse 32, and five bars for the boards of the other side of the tabernacle, and five bars for the boards of the tabernacle for the sides westward. verse 33 then says he made the middle bar to shoot through the boards from one end to the other and then verse 34 says and he overlaid the boards with gold and made their rings of gold to be places for the bars and overlaid the bars with gold so now all of this Resulted after being made here. We read their instructions again chapters 25 to 31 here in 36 through 39 and into 40 there it's being made and it's a free-standing tabernacle. An outer wall which separates the world sinners from the brazen altar of sacrifice inside the outer walls obviously. And also then would separate them from the holy place and the most holy place. It's staked out with thick curtains to keep out the critters as well. And it would force all to enter through that eastern gate. They would be walking east to west. Now this is the direction the tabernacle would always face. It's the direction that Solomon's temple and Herod's temple would also face. You would have to come from the east into the eastern gate in order to get into the temple. The back of the temple would face westward. Now the inner court is where the sinner would enter from the east facing westward and had to offer a sacrifice on the brazen altar and then in his place or as his mediator the priest would then enter the holy place again from the east and that just happens to be the direction Jesus will return at the end of the tribulation period. He'll enter from and then enter through the eastern gate facing westward after he lands on the Mount of Olives. And he's gonna rip that eastern wall open. It's all blocked up, concreted up by the Muslims and remains that way. And the Jews can't open it up or the Muslims would throw a fit that it'd be a holy war. So it's left that way until the return of Jesus Christ. And folks, if you think this is all big, Just a big coincidence, you are sorely mistaken, and I hope none of our listeners are making that mistake. But we pick up now in verse 35, and he made a veil of blue and purple and scarlet and fine twine linen with cherubims made he it of cunning work. And he made thereinto four pillars of shiddim wood, and overlaid them with gold. Their hooks were of gold, and he cast for them four sockets of silver. Verse 37, and he made a hanging for the tabernacle door of blue and purple and scarlet and fine twine linen of needlework. And verse 38, and the five pillars of it were their hooks, and he overlaid their chapiters and their fillets with gold, but their five sockets were of brass. And of course, this veil, when Jesus died on the cross, the veil in the temple of Herod's day, called Herod's temple, It would be rent in half, opening the way for us symbolically into the Holy of Holies. So we're just going to keep reading now. Chapter 37, a shorter chapter, 25 verses. And verse 1 says, And Bezalel made the ark of Shittimwood. Two cubits and a half was the length of it, and a cubit and a half the breadth of it, and a cubit and a half the height of it. Verse two also says, and he overlaid it with pure gold, within and without, and he made a crown of gold to it round about. So, as with the rest of the tabernacle furniture, we discussed the ark previously when it was instructed, and now Bezalel is constructing it, he's making it. First three words, and Bezalel made. So, it was done, no matter what your seminary professor tells you. beginning verse three through five, and he cast for it four rings of gold to be set by the four corners of it, even two rings upon the one side of it and two rings upon the other side of it. Verse 4, and he made staves of shiddim wood and overlaid them with gold. And he put the staves into the rings by the sides of the ark to bear the ark. Now these staves or poles that were used to carry it, and by the way, there is also to be carried by the Levites, the Levites using the poles or the staves. Now this seemingly unimportant detail was ignored by King David and it cost Uzzah his life. See 2 Samuel 6, 1 Corinthians 13, and that gives real meaning to Deuteronomy 8.3 that says that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live. So I encourage you, don't ignore God's word or you die and read every word of it as we're doing in our studies. And we pick up in verse six through nine. And he made the mercy seat of pure gold. Two cubits and a half was the length thereof and one cubit and a half the breadth thereof. And he made two cherubims of gold, beaten out of one piece made he them on the two ends of the mercy seat. verse eight one cherub on the end on this side and another cherub on the other end on that side out of the mercy seat made he the cherubims on the two ends thereof and the cherubims verse nine and the cherubims spread out their wings on high and covered with their wings over the mercy seat with their faces one to another even to the mercy seatward were the faces of the cherubims of course in heaven God on his throne, this mercy seat, and the cherub will face him. Now if you ever wonder about these graven images of cherubim and what they're doing in God's temple, go back to our study in Exodus 20. It's study number 30. And the fact that graven images are allowed unless you use them, you worship them or use them as the Roman Catholic cult does as what they call aids to worship. That's a violation of the law. But graven images used properly, there's nothing biblically wrong with it. So let's go ahead and continue. We wanna finish this chapter beginning in verse 10. We're gonna read a few verses down to 15. And he made the table of Shittimwood two cubits of gold. Or I'm sorry, two cubits was the length thereof, and a cubit the breadth thereof, and a cubit and a half the height thereof. And he overlaid it with pure gold and made thereunto a crown of gold round about. And he also, verse 12, made there unto a border of an hand-breadth round about, and made a crown of gold for the border thereof round about. And he cast for it four rings of gold, and put the rings of the four corners that were in the four feet thereof. Over against the border were the rings, the places for the staves to bear the table. Verse 15 and he made the staves of Shittim wood and overlaid them with gold to bear the table So you see everything is not to be manhandled. It's it's the God set it up. So they'd have these holes on each corner staves would put be put through there and carried by the Levites and Again, such amazing detail specific pieces of furniture with very clear instructions none of this represents a work of fiction and by the way once in a while a fiction writer would attempt to give such detail but he was proving the case here in ancient times you didn't find such detail and works of fiction. Verse 16 says, And he made the vessels which were upon the table, his dishes, and his spoons, and his bowls, and his covers to cover with all of pure gold. Verse 17, And he made the candlestick of pure gold. Of beaten work made he the candlestick. His shaft, his branch, his bowls, his knops, and his flowers were of the same. We discussed this back in study number 50. And some protest that the tabernacle is only about Christ and not about the church. We generally agree, but we want to remind you there's one sense in which we find the tabernacle speaking of the church, the body of Christ. And that's the connection with the candlestick and Christ and his body in Revelation chapters two and three. So we continue and complete the chapter. Verse 19 says, three bowls made after the fashion of almonds in one branch, a knop and a flower, and three bowls made like almonds in another branch, a knop and a flower. So throughout the six branches going out of the candlestick. Verse 20, and then the candlestick were four bowls made like almonds, his knops and his flowers. 21 And a knop under two branches of the same, and a knop under two branches of the same, and a knop under two branches of the same, according to the six branches going out of it. 22 Their knops and their branches were of the same. All of it was one beaten work of pure gold. 23 And he made his seven lamps and his snuffers and his snuff-dishes of pure gold. Verse 24, of a talent of pure gold made he it, and all the vessels thereof. So now we come to the close of the chapter, and he made, verse 25, the incense alder of Shittim wood, the length of it was a cubit, and the breadth of it a cubit. It was four square, and two cubits was the height of it. The horns thereof were of the same. Verse 26, And he overlaid it with pure gold, both the top of it and the sides thereof round about, and the horns of it. Also he made unto it a crown of gold round about. Verse 27, And he made two rings of gold for it under the crown thereof, by the two corners of it upon the two sides thereof, to be places for the staves, to bear it withal. Verse 28, And he made the staves of shiddom wood, and overlaid them with gold. and verse 29, and he made the holy anointing oil and the pure incense of sweet spices according to the work of the apothecary. Our next study will be much the same as this one. We're going to cover chapters 38 and 39, which confirms that Basilil made all these things and do not underestimate the importance of every word of God.