Chapter 13

Please read Exodus, chapter 25.

In this chapter we will see that the most holy God of glory, desires to be in the midst, to dwell amongst His sinful people. We may admire His grace.

Exodus 25:1,2 “The Lord said to Moses, ’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.”

Do you see why these words are so wonderful? ‘The offering for Me from each man whose heart PROMPTS HIM TO GIVE. No rule of law, no demand, no enforcement but ’ whose heart prompts him to give’. Not an offering of innocent blood, not one word about sin, but about loving responses to a loving God.

Exodus 25:3 “These are the offerings you are to receive from them: gold, silver and bronze; blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen; goat hair; ram skins dyed red and hides of sea cows; acacia wood; olive oil for the light; spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense; and onyx stones and other gems to be mounted on the ephod and breast plate.

v.8 “Then have them make a sanctuary for Me, and I will dwell among them. Make this tabernacle and all its furnishings exactly like the pattern I will show you.”

Yes, it was the same Holy God. At the top of the mountain the pavement under His feet was like sapphire, clear blue, like the sky. Simultaneously His holiness was revealed to a sinful man, but hidden in dark smoke and fire and at the bottom of the mountain His people must stay behind the fences, never move one foot to climb up. And now this Holy God desires to have defiled desert sand under His feet. To dwell among them. He owns the cattle on a thousand hills, the wealth in every mine. He created rams, sea cows, acacia wood and olive oil and now He grants a privilege to each man whose heart prompts him to give back to Him. Each of those men may make Him welcome to dwell among them. God, most Holy, God most loving, most gracious, the God of the Bible.

Already in the Garden of Eden, He did not allow sinful Adam and Eve to come and climb back up to Him. But He did come down to them. In His Son Jesus, He did the same for you and for me. The God of the Bible!

In the following verse we find a sudden surprise.

Exodus 25:10 “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.

v.11 Overlay it with pure gold, both inside and out, and make a gold molding around it

“Have them make a tabernacle for me, and I will dwell among them “

One would expect them to start with a foundation, some walls and a roof. But that type of foundation was not on the mind of God. Pure gold indicates the spotless purity of God’s holiness. In that holiness God had a different foundation. There were His promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. For Adam and Eve there had been the shedding of innocent blood. That Holy God, dwelling among a sinful people cannot be approached without innocent blood. Not in their days, neither in ours. As long as that chest of acacia wood covered in pure gold was in the tabernacle, any ordinary Jew would not dare go there and approach it. From the top of the mountain, covered in smoke and fire, the Holy God would come down and dwell with His people, on a defiled earth. That chest would be His throne amongst the Israelites.

Exodus 25:17-19 “Make an atonement cover of pure gold – two and a half cubits long and a cubit and a half wide.

v.18 And make two cherubim out of hammered gold at the end of the cover.

v.19Make one cherub on one end and the second cherub on the other;

In the Bible cherubim appear as heavenly servants of God. In Genesis, chapter 3:24 they served as guardians to close the way to the tree of life.

In our chapter today a cherubim at either end of the atonement cover or so called mercy seat, were regarded as the protectors of the contents in the gold covered chest under that ‘mercy seat’. They stood there, facing each other with their wings close to, or touching each other. As they stood there, they also did, as it were, protect the throne of God, now in the midst of a hostile world and a sinful, rebellious nation. A holy throne of mercy and grace, yes, on the defiled ground of a wicked world. The cherubim were looking down at ‘the atonement cover’ the mercy seat. They were seeing the innocent blood which once a year was sprinkled there, by Aaron the high priest. And inside the gold covered box, under the blood covered lid, and under the feet of the Cherubim, Israel was to preserve the two stone tablets into which God had engraved His Ten Commandments. The cherubim always looked on the blood of atonement, never on the Laws.

“ make the cherubim of one piece with the cover; at the two ends.”

The separation between God and unrepentant, sinful humanity is as wide as heaven is from earth. No such thing between God and His heavenly servants.

Exodus 25:20 –22 “The cherubim are to have their wings spread upward, over shadowing the cover with them. The cherubim are to face each other, looking toward the cover.

v.21 Place the cover on top of the ark and put in the ark the Testimony which I

will give you.

v.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.”

From the top of the mountain, down to the sand of the desert, God desires to be where His people are. In all the ups and downs of life, wherever His people are, let them sing glory to Him, glory for His power and patience, glory because all His ways are ways of divine wisdom. Let us sing glory to Him, when singing is the most difficult thing to do. That atonement cover was to be God’s foundation for His dwelling place amongst His people. Once a year Aaron, Israel’s High Priest, was to enter God’s holy dwelling place, but never without blood. That blood was sprinkled on the ‘atonement cover’, ‘the mercy seat’. There the two mighty cherubim saw the seat of a merciful God. covered with blood, in which atonement was made, between the merciful God and His sinful people, the foundation for peace (Please read Leviticus 16:23-34). And you my find peace in Jesus, by reading Hebrews 9:11-14.