Exodus 27:9–21

Hey, hey, good morning, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This is for 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, make it from Genesis through Leviticus. So glad to be with you today.
Why don't we have some coffee? We'll pray. We'll jump into God's Word. Pray. Father, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you for the blessing it is to get to read your word. We pray that you would give us wisdom, that you would help us, Lord, to understand your word and that we would, Lord, that we would have it applied to our hearts, but we need your Holy Spirit to teach us. We pray these things in Jesus's name. Amen. Okay. Exodus chapter 27, beginning at verse nine. Here we go. You shall also make the court of the tabernacle.
But the south side there shall be hangings for the court made of fine woven linen, 100 cubits long for one side. And its 20 pillars and their 20 sockets shall be bronze. The hooks of the pillars and their bands shall be silver. Likewise, along the length of the north side, there shall be hangings 100 cubits long. with its twenty pillars and their twenty sockets of bronze, and the hooks of the pillars and their bands of silver. And along the width of the court on the west side there shall be hangings of fifty cubits, with their ten pillars and their ten sockets. The width of the court on the east side shall be fifty cubits. The hanging on one side of the gates shall be fifteen cubits, with their three pillars and their three sockets. And on the other side shall be hangings of fifteen cubits, with their three pillars and their three sockets. For the gate of the court there shall be a screen twenty cubits long, woven of blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and fine woven linen, made by a weaver.
It shall have four pillars and four sockets. All the pillars around the court shall have bands of silver, their hooks shall be of silver, and their sockets of bronze. The length of the court shall be one hundred cubits, the width fifty throughout, and the height five cubits, made of fine woven linen, and its sockets of bronze. All the utensils of the tabernacle for all its service, all its pegs, and all the pegs of the court, shall be of bronze.
And you shall command the children of Israel that they bring you pure oil, of pressed olives for the light. To cause a lamp to burn continually in the tabernacle of meeting outside the veil Which is before the testimony Aaron and his son shall tend it from evening until morning Before the Lord it shall be a statute forever to their generations on behalf of the children of Israel Oh, we need to ask ourselves, A, what's this about?
B, what's the best verse to summarize this? And C, what are we called to do in response to these words, right? So, A, what's this about? This is two parts. The first part versus nine through, let's see, 19. So nine through 19, that section's about the courtyard, right?
So you really have three different parts of the tabernacle. It's facing eastward. and the most central part of it is the Holy of Holies and then just outside that is the Holy Place and inside the Holy of Holies is the Ark and then just outside the Holy of Holies that's where you have the Lampstand and you have the Showbread and that's got its own tent right so around the Holy of Holies is a tent and then around that is a tent so it's a holy place only Aaron and his sons are allowed to enter the holy place and only Aaron once a year the high priest alone once a year is allowed to enter into the Holy of Holies but outside that there's almost like a wall of curtains right no roof but a wall creating a courtyard And in that courtyard, that's where we're going to find the altar, the basin.
This is where the people are going to be able to go and worship. The Levites are going to be able to be there. And so this is the much larger space, the whole courtyard. All of this together is what we consider the tabernacle. But it's really those three different parts, right? The courtyard, Holy and the holy of holies, right?
So there's three different parts of the tabernacle again I would encourage you to go pick up a study Bible or look it up online There's there's a lot of great pictures of how this probably looked but this is a tent that God is pitching and it's a it's a sign of That he is in the midst of his people. We're going to get to the place where it's going to actually show that the different tribes camp around the tabernacle, that God was to be central in their lives. And he was directing Moses. That just as he dwells in heaven. So the tabernacle would be this picture of him dwelling in the midst of his people. It was a copy, a shadow, a type of what was in heaven. And then in verses 20 through 21, we have this command that they're to bring pure olive oil. It's not to have any particulates, no mixtures of stuff with it. It's got to be pure olive oil. And that's what they're going to burn on the lampstand. What does that symbolize, right? That is God being with his people. God being their light. And so this is a sign that he's dwelling in their midst.
They are allowed to come not into the holy place, not into the holy of holies, but they are allowed to enter into his courtyards. and there he is their light burning in their midst the holy one of israel is there and so what's the best verse to summarize all this well in in my bible i probably underline verse nine you shall also make the court of the tabernacle And then Let's see I think I would also underline the second half of verse 21 Aaron and his son son shall tend to it from evening until morning before the Lord It shall be a statute forever to their generations on behalf of the children of Israel That's talking about the lampstand the oil to be brought to the lampstand What's this call us to do though, right?
How does this point us to Christ? Jesus Christ is the Light. Jesus is the one who is in our midst. He is the one who has sent us his Holy Spirit that dwells in our hearts. God has made for himself a new tabernacle. There's a new temple of God, and it's not of stones anymore like what Solomon would build, but it's living stones to people. Jesus is the chief cornerstone. But this tabernacle is also picked up in the book of Hebrews. That is Jesus Christ now who enters into the holies. But not just into the holy place, but into the holy of holies.
As he has ripped the veil in two and he ushers us in. He invites us into communion. He is the one who fulfills all of these things as our prophet, our priest and our king. He is the one who dwells in our midst and invites us to dwell with him. To rest in him. Go to Christ. Follow after him. Trust in him as your high priest. Let's pray.
Father, we thank you so much that these patterns on earth that you have given us here in the book of Exodus are picked up, shown and given meaning throughout the rest of the New Testament. And that you are the one who walks amongst the lampstands. You are the one. who is our light. You are the one who dwells in our midst.
Lord, we thank you. We pray that you would teach us to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus and to walk in his ways. Thank you so much, Lord, for all you have done in Jesus's name. Amen. May the Lord bless you. May you have comfort and peace knowing that the God of heaven sent his only begotten son, that he might tabernacle amongst us, that we might have peace. And may you have comfort today. I'll see you next time. 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.