Exodus 25:1-22 Click here for Bible Verses
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Today’s passage is Exodus 25:1-22. Let’s go!
Exodus 25:1-22 (NIV)
1 The LORD said to Moses,
2 “Tell the Israelites to bring me an offering. You are to receive the offering for me from each man whose heart prompts him to give.
3 These are the offerings you are to receive from them: gold, silver and bronze;
4 blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen; goat hair;
5 ram skins dyed red and hides of sea cows; acacia wood;
6 olive oil for the light; spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense;
7 and onyx stones and other gems to be mounted on the ephod and breastpiece.
8 “Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them.
9 Make this tabernacle and all its furnishings exactly like the pattern I will show you.
10 “Have them make a chest of acacia wood–two and a half cubits long, a cubit and a half wide, and a cubit and a half high.
11 Overlay it with pure gold, both inside and out, and make a gold molding around it.
12 Cast four gold rings for it and fasten them to its four feet, with two rings on one side and two rings on the other.
13 Then make poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold.
14 Insert the poles into the rings on the sides of the chest to carry it.
15 The poles are to remain in the rings of this ark; they are not to be removed.
16 Then put in the ark the Testimony, which I will give you.
17 “Make an atonement cover of pure gold–two and a half cubits long and a cubit and a half wide.
18 And make two cherubim out of hammered gold at the ends of the cover.
19 Make one cherub on one end and the second cherub on the other; make the cherubim of one piece with the cover, at the two ends.
20 The cherubim are to have their wings spread upward, overshadowing the cover with them. The cherubim are to face each other, looking toward the cover.
21 Place the cover on top of the ark and put in the ark the Testimony, which I will give you.
22 There, above the cover between the two cherubim that are over the ark of the Testimony, I will meet with you and give you all my commands for the Israelites.
At this chapter begins an account of the orders and instructions God gave to Moses upon the mount for the erecting and furnishing of a tabernacle to the honour of God. We have here.
- I. Orders given for a collection to be made among the people for this purpose (v. 1-9).
- II. Particular instructions,
- 1. Concerning the ark of the covenant (v. 10-22).
- 2. The table of showbread (v. 23-30).
- 3. The golden candlestick (v. 31, etc.).
We may suppose that when Moses went into the midst of the cloud, and abode there so long, where the holy angels attended the shechinah, or divine Majesty, he saw and heard very glorious things relating to the upper world, but they were things which it was not lawful nor possible to utter; and therefore, in the records he kept of the transactions there, he says nothing to satisfy the curiosity of those who would intrude into the things which they have not seen, but writes that only which he was to speak to the children of Israel. For the scripture is designed to direct us in our duty, not to fill our heads with speculations, nor to please our fancies.
In these verses God tells Moses his intention in general, that the children of Israel should build him a sanctuary, for he designed to dwell among them (v. 8); and some think that, though there were altars and groves used for religious worship before this, yet there never was any house, or temple, built for sacred uses in any nation before this tabernacle was erected by Moses, and that all the temples which were afterwards so much celebrated among the heathen took rise from this and pattern by it.
God had chosen the people of Israel to be a peculiar people to himself (above all people), among whom divine revelation, and a religion according to it, should be lodged and established: he himself would be their King. As their King, he had already given them laws for the government of themselves, and their dealings one with another, with some general rules for religious worship, according to the light of reason and the law of nature, in the ten commandments and the following comments upon them. But this was not thought sufficient to distinguish them from other nations, or to answer to the extent of that covenant which God would make with them to be their God; and therefore,
I. He orders a royal palace to be set up among them for himself, here called a sanctuary, or holy place, or habitation, of which it is said, A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary. This sanctuary is to be considered,
- 1. As ceremonial, consonant to the to the other institutions of that dispensation, which consisted in carnal ordinances; hence it is called a worldly sanctuary, God in it kept his court, as Israel’s King.
- (1.) There he manifested his presence among them, and it was intended for a sign or token of his presence, that, while they had that in the midst of them, they might never again ask, Is the Lord among us or not? And, because in the wilderness they dwelt in tents, even this royal palace was ordered to be a tabernacle too, that it might move with them, and might be an instance of the condescension of the divine favour.
- (2.) There he ordered his subjects to attend him with their homage and tribute. Thither they must come to consult his oracles, thither they must bring their sacrifices, and there all Israel must meet, to pay their joint respects to the God of Israel.
- 2. As typical; the holy places made with hands were the figures of the true, Heb. 9:24. The gospel church is the true tabernacle, which the Lord hath pitched, and not man, Heb. 8:2. The body of Christ, in and by which he made atonement, was the greater and more perfect tabernacle, Heb. 9:11. The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, as in a tabernacle.
- II. When Moses was to erect this palace, it was requisite that he should first be instructed where he must have the materials, and where he must have the model; for he could neither contrive it by his own ingenuity nor build it at his own charge; he is therefore directed here concerning both.
- 1. The people must furnish him with the materials, not by a tax imposed upon them, but by a voluntary contribution. This is the first thing concerning which orders are here given.
- 2. God himself would furnish him with the model: According to all that I show thee, God showed him an exact plan of it, in miniature, which he must conform to in all points.
The first thing which is here ordered to be made is the ark with its appurtenances, the furniture of the most holy place, and the special token of God’s presence, for which the tabernacle was erected to be the receptacle.
- I. The ark itself was a chest, or coffer, in which the two tables of the law, written with the finger of God, were to be honourably deposited, and carefully kept. The dimensions of it are exactly ordered; if the Jewish cubit was, as some learned men compute, three inches longer than our half-yard (twenty-one inches in all), this chest or cabinet was about fifty-two inches long, thirty-one broad, and thirty-one deep. It was overlaid within and without with thin plates of gold. It had a crown, or cornice, of gold, round it, with rings and staves to carry it with; and in it he must put the testimony, v. 10-16. The tables of the law are called the testimony because God did in them testify his will: his giving them that law was in token of his favour to them; and their acceptance of it was in token of their subjection and obedience to him. This law was a testimony to them, to direct them in their duty, and would be a testimony against them if they transgressed. The ark is called the ark of the testimony (ch. 30:6), and the tabernacle the tabernacle of the testimony (Num. 10:11) or witness, Acts 7:44. The gospel of Christ is also called a testimony or witness, Mt. 24:14. It is observable,
- II. The mercy-seat was the covering of the ark or chest, made of solid gold, exactly to fit the dimensions of the ark, v. 17, 21. This propitiatory covering, as it might well be translated, was a type of Christ, the great propitiation, whose satisfaction fully answers the demands of the law, covers our transgressions, and comes between us and the curse we deserve. Thus he is the end of the law for righteousness.
- III. The cherubim of gold were fixed to the mercy-seat, and of a piece with it, and spread their wings over it, v. 18. It is supposed that these cherubim were designed to represent the holy angels, who always attended the shechinah, or divine Majesty, particularly at the giving of the law; not by any effigies of an angel, but some emblem of the angelical nature, probably some one of those four faces spoken of, Eze. 1:10. Whatever the faces were, they looked one towards another, and both downward towards the ark, while their wings were stretched out so as to touch one another. The apostle calls them cherubim of glory shadowing the mercy-seat, Heb. 9:5. It denotes their attendance upon the Redeemer, to whom they were ministering spirits, their readiness to do his will, their special presence in the assemblies of saints , and their desire to look into the mysteries of the gospel which they diligently contemplate, . God is said to dwell, or sit, between the cherubim, on the mercy-seat , and thence he here promises, for the future, to meet with Moses, and to commune with him, . There he would give law, and there he would give audience, as a prince on his throne; and thus he manifests himself willing to be reconciled to us, and keep up communion with us, in and by the mediation of Christ. In allusion to this mercy-seat, we are said to come boldly to the throne of grace(Heb. 4:16); for we are not under the law, which is covered, but under grace, which is displayed; its wings are stretched out, and we are invited to come under the shadow of them,** excerpt from Commentary of Matthew Henry on Exodus 25:1-22
