Exodus 26

Hey, hey friends. Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This is where every day you and I we get together. We have a little bit of coffee. We get into God's Word and we grow in our love for the Lord together. And this year 2023, Lord willing, we'll make it from Genesis through Leviticus. We are roughly halfway through Exodus and I'm so glad to be at this passage. This is such a cool scene. So many people kind of get a little bit bored with what's going on with the tabernacle, but so much of it is meant to show us the gospel. So let's have some coffee.
We'll pray and we'll get into God's word. Let's pray. Father, what a great blessing it is that you have given us your word. You have allowed us to hear from you and to learn from you. God, we pray that your spirit would help us now. Teach us Lord, we pray in Jesus's name. Amen. All right, grab my glasses and my Bible here. We are at Exodus chapter 26. Exodus chapter 26.
I'm going to give you a little bit of heads up on this. If while we're reading this, you want to reach over and grab a study Bible. You know, this is my ESV study Bible, but there's a whole bunch of study Bibles that have these pictures in them or jump on line. And as you read through this, look at the pictures of how the sizes of the tabernacle and stuff are, you know, so there's all sorts of measurements and stuff like that. Sometimes it's easier to visualize this than it is just to read it. So even in the margin of my Bible, I have a journal Bible here, and in the margin of my Bible, you know, I make little drawings of what's going on, so I gotta picture it, right? So, here we go. Exodus chapter 26. Moreover, you shall make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine woven linen and blue, purple, and scarlet thread. With artistic designs of cherubim you shall weave them.
The length of each curtain shall be twenty-eight cubits, and the width of each curtain four cubits, and every one of the curtains shall have the same measurements. Five curtains shall be coupled to one another, and the other five curtains shall be coupled to one another.
And you shall make loops of blue yarn on the edge of the curtain on the selvedge of one set. And likewise you shall do on the outer edge of the other curtain of the second set. Fifty loops you shall make in the one curtain, and fifty loops you shall make on the edge of the curtain that is on the end of the second set, that the loops may be clasped to one another.
And you shall make fifty clasps of gold and couple the curtains together with the clasps. so that it may be one tabernacle. You shall also make curtains of goats' hair to be a tent over the tabernacle. You shall make eleven curtains. The length of each curtain shall be thirty cubits, and the width of each curtain four cubits, and the eleven curtains shall all have the same measurements. And you shall couple five curtains by themselves and six curtains by themselves. And you shall double over the sixth curtain at the forefront of the tent.
You shall make fifty loops on the edge of the curtain that is outermost in one set. and fifty loops on the edge of the curtain of the second set, and you shall make fifty bronze clasps. But put the clasps into the loops, and couple the tent together, that it may be one. The remnant that remains of the curtains of the tent, the half curtain that remains, shall hang over the back of the tabernacle. and a cubit on one side and a cubit on the other side of what remains of the length of the curtains of the tent shall hang over the sides of the tabernacle on this side and on that side to cover it. You shall also make a covering of ram skins dyed red for the tent and a covering of badger skins above that.
And for the tabernacle you shall make the boards of acacia wood standing upright. Ten cubits shall be the length of a board, and a cubit and a half shall be its width of each board. Two tenons shall be in each board for binding one to another. that you shall make for all the boards of the temple. And you shall make the boards for the temple twenty boards for the south side. You shall make forty sockets of silver under the twenty boards, two sockets under each of the boards for its two tenons. And for the second side of the tabernacle, the north side, there shall be twenty boards, and there forty sockets of silver, two sockets under each of the boards. For the far side of the tabernacle, westward, you shall make six boards, and you shall also make two boards for the two back corners of the tabernacle.
They shall be coupled together at the bottom, and they shall be coupled together at the top by one ring. Thus it shall be for both of them. They shall be for the two corners. So there shall be eight boards with their sockets of silver, 16 sockets, two sockets under each of the boards.
And you shall make bars of acacia wood, five for the bars, boards on one side of the tabernacle, five bars for the boards on the other side of the tabernacle, and five bars for the boards on the side of the tabernacle, for the side, for the far side westward. The middle bar shall pass through the midst of the boards from end to end. you shall overlay the boards with gold make their rings as gold as holders for the bars and overlay the bars with gold and you shall raise up the tabernacle according to its pattern which with with which you were shown on the mountain okay we're almost there let's keep moving You shall make a veil of blue, purple, and scarlet thread and fine woat linen. It shall be woven with an artistic design of cherubim. You shall hang it upon the four pillars of acacia wood overlaid with gold. Their hooks shall be gold upon the four sockets of silver.
And you shall hang the veil from the clasps. Then you shall bring the ark of the testimony in there behind the veil. The veil shall be a divider for you between the holy place and the most holy place. You shall put the mercy seat of the ark of the testimony in the most holy place. You shall set the table outside the veil and the lampstand across from the table on the side of the tabernacle toward the south, and you shall put the table on the north side.
You shall make a screen for the door of the tabernacle woven of blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and fine woven linen made by a weaver. And you shall make for the screen five pillars of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold. Their hooks shall be gold, and you shall cast five sockets of bronze for them.
Whew, right, it's a long passage. What is God doing here, right? God is saying, I'm building a house, right? This is how I want my tent to be made. Oh hell, right, this is a tent. This is a tabernacle for God. It's a palace for God amongst a people in the desert. And so he says to them, right, this is how I want it to be made. And he's peculiar about that. He's specific about it. He wants things done in a certain order.
You have red and scarlets and purples. You have badger skins and you have goat skins. You have woven things you have Essentially you have a large rectangular building The entrance is facing the east towards the sunrise. And in the first part, you're going to have an altar of incense and you'll have the lampstand and the showbread. We saw that last week. But then on there, you'll have a veil. And then on the inside of the veil, that's where they're to put the Ark of the Covenant. And that's the most holy place, right? So you have the holy area of the tabernacle, and then you have the holy of holies in the back.
And so there's really this distinction where God is in the holy of holies, but the whole place is holy, but then surrounding that is the rest of the people. And so there's only one way to approach God, and that's on his terms. When the Israelites thought about coming to God in the temple or in the tabernacle, they didn't think of coming straight into his presence. No, there were degrees of access.
And that's where I think we get the biggest picture of the beauty of what Jesus has done in the new covenant, right? We're just going to jump straight into seed calling to be thankful that Jesus has torn the veil, that He tells us to boldly come to His throne of grace.
We are received into the Holy of Holies. The angels stand there and allow us to enter in because the Lamb is sitting on the throne and He has welcomed us into the presence of the King. So we have a lot to be thankful for. We don't just stand behind the soreck. We don't just get to enter into the court of the Gentiles. We don't just get to go into the court of the priests, but we get to go into the Holy of Holies. We have direct access because Jesus Christ intercedes for us continually.
He's given us that access. He's earned it by his own blood. He's called us his royal children. He's given us his spirit. We have so much to be thankful for. These things are pictures of what is true in heaven. Let's pray. Father, we pray that you would make us more thankful for the goodness you have shown to us in Jesus Christ. We pray that we would follow you. We pray that we would not neglect your throne of grace, but we would come to you with our prayers and petitions, knowing that you welcome us as your children in Jesus's name. Amen. May God bless you. May you be filled with thankfulness and joy that God has received you into his presence. I'll see you tomorrow. Bye.
Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith and your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue. Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.