Exodus25chapter 25

Exodus 25:1-2

The tabernacle is delivered in seven divine speeches across chapters 25 to 31, and this is the first of them. The seventh is the sabbath at 31:12, which is where the seventh day falls in Genesis 1 and 2. What God asks for first is an offering taken only from a man who gives it willingly with his heart, so the dwelling place starts with a gift nobody is taxed for.

Exodus 25:3-7

The metals are named in an order the whole structure keeps to, gold then silver then brass, and chapter 26 grades them the same way by how far a thing sits from the ark. The gold and the silver came out of Egypt at 12:35 and 12:36, handed over by the people who had held Israel as slaves. Incense occurs here for the first time in Scripture, listed as a raw supply four chapters before the altar it burns on is given at 30:1.

Exodus 25:8-9

The purpose is stated at the end of verse 8, that I may dwell among them, and everything from here to chapter 40 serves that one clause. The word tabernacle occurs here for the first time in Scripture. Moses is told he is copying rather than designing, since what he works from is a pattern he has been shewn, and verse 40 says the same again at the close.

Exodus 25:10-13

The first object described is the ark, and the chapter works outward from it to the mercy seat above it and then to the table and candlestick that stand outside the vail. It is acacia wood overlaid with pure gold within and without, so the gold runs over a surface no one would ever see. The rings and the staves are commanded in the same breath as the box, before anyone has been told where it is going.

Exodus 25:14-16

The staves go in and are never to be taken out, which keeps the ark ready to move at any hour. Into it goes the testimony, the two tables God writes at 31:18 and Moses breaks at 32:19. Nothing else is named as going inside here, and Hebrews 9:4 reports the golden pot of manna and Aaron's rod alongside the tables.

Exodus 25:17-19

The mercy seat occurs here for the first time in Scripture. The Septuagint renders the word with the Greek hilasterion, and Romans 3:25 uses that same word of Christ set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, a link an English reader has no way to see unless he is told. This piece is solid gold with no wood under it, and the two cherubims are beaten out of the same block rather than fastened on.

Exodus 25:20-22

The cherubims face one another with their wings spread and their eyes on the seat between them. Genesis 3:24 set cherubims at the east of Eden to keep the way of the tree of life, and here they stand over the one place God names as where he will meet with Moses and commune with him. The meeting place is the lid of the chest that holds the law, and the chapter sets those two facts side by side and explains neither.

Exodus 25:23-28

The table is built on the ark's own plan, acacia wood overlaid with gold, a crown of gold round about, rings at the four feet and staves to bear it. Everything in the holy place is made to be carried, and Numbers 4 sets out who carries what. Gill and Keil read the border of a hand breadth as a rim that held the loaves in place while the table was on the move.

Exodus 25:29-30

Bowls and covers for pouring are named, so drink offerings stood on this table beside the bread. The shewbread is to be set before God alway, and Leviticus 24:5 to 9 gives the working detail, twelve loaves renewed every sabbath and eaten by the priests in the holy place. David eats those loaves at 1 Samuel 21:6, and Jesus cites that scene at Matthew 12:4 when his disciples are charged over the sabbath.

Exodus 25:31-36

The candlestick is one piece of beaten gold, shaft and branches and bowls and knops and flowers together, with nothing joined to it. Its bowls are made like unto almonds, and the almond is what buds on Aaron's rod at Numbers 17:8 to settle which tribe holds the priesthood. The same Hebrew word stands behind the almond tree Jeremiah is shown at Jeremiah 1:11 and behind the watching God says he is doing in the verse after it, a play the English cannot carry.

Exodus 25:37-39

Seven lamps burn on it and they are the only light in the holy place, because the tent has no window. Leviticus 24:2 to 4 puts the priests under a standing order to dress them and keep them burning before the LORD continually. The candlestick and all its vessels are made of a talent of pure gold, and Revelation 1:12 and 1:20 set seven golden candlesticks around the risen Christ and name them seven churches.

Exodus 25:40

The speech ends with an order to copy rather than to invent. Hebrews 8:5 quotes this verse and calls the service of the earthly priests the example and shadow of heavenly things, so the tabernacle as a copy of something already existing is stated by the New Testament and may be said plainly. Reading each item of furniture as a separate figure of Christ is a tradition, taught by Chuck Missler and by Sir Robert Anderson, and it is given here with their names on it.