Making the Stuff

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, milk, and tea. 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 the book of Exodus through Leviticus.
Leviticus. Alright. Now it's Genesis. Oh, Genesis! You're right. Genesis through Leviticus. I messed that up. By the way, I have some coffee. Apparently I need it. We'll pray and we'll get into God's Word. Let's pray. Father, thank you. Thank you for your Word. Thank you for blessing us with the gift of getting to read your word. And we pray now Lord that you would watch over us, that you would teach us, and that we would follow after you in Jesus' name. Amen. Alright, so we are at Exodus chapter 38. Exodus chapter 38, we're going to read the first eight verses.
He made the altar of burnt offering of acacia wood. Five cubits was its length, and five cubits was its width. It was a square, and its height was three cubits. He made its horns on its four, where do you think the horns were? Corners. On the four corners. The horns were of one piece with it, and he overlaid it with?
Gold. Nope. Nope. Silver? Nope. Bronze. So it's acacia wood, but this is overlaid with bronze. That's interesting. And I have a gold white table. So the gold table was in the holy place. The gold lamp stand was in the holy place. The altar of incense was in the holy place. The ark with the cherubim was in the holy place. All of that was gold.
But now we're in the courtyard of the tabernacle. Oh, right. And it's a case of wooden bronze. And it's bronze, that's right. He made all the utensils for the altar, the pans, the shovels, the basin, the forks, and the firepans. All its utensils he made of bronze. That's right, of bronze. And he made a gate of bronze, sorry, a grate of bronze, network for the altar under its rim, midway from the bottom.
He cast four rings. Where do you think the four rings went? On the corners. On the corners? And what do you think they were for? To put the poles through. To put the poles through? And what do you think they were made out of? Acacia wood. Nope, not out of acacia wood. Bronze. Bronze, that's right. He cast four rings for the four corners of the bronze grating as holder for the poles. And he made the poles of what type of wood? Acacia. Acacia wood. And overlaid them with? Bronze. Bronze. Then he put the poles into the rings on the sides of the altar, with which to bear it. He made the altar hollow with boards. He made the laver of bronze and its base of bronze from the bronze mirrors of the serving women who assembled at the door of the tabernacle of meeting.
Well, we need to ask ourselves three questions. What is this? about? What's the best verse to summarize this in? C, what are we called to do? Sometimes we also want to look at the covenant connection or maybe where do we see Christ in this? So C can be a few things. But what is this about?
Well, what is Bazaalel making? Stuff out of bronze. He's making stuff out of bronze? Well, acacia and he'll plate it with bronze. Okay, what type of stuff did he make here? Lots of stuff. Lots of stuff. Tables. Oh no, not tables. Silverware. What he made utensils, yep, silverware. Bronze silverware. Yeah, bronze silverware. Bronzeware. Bronzeware.
But this is, he made the altar for burnt offerings. He had the altar for incense, and that was acacia wood and gold in the holy place. But outside the holy place, in the courtyard, is the altar for burnt offerings. What do you think you would burn on the altar for burnt offerings?
Lambs. Rams. Pigs. Goats. Not pigs. Never pigs. Pigs were unclean animals. Right, but you might also... Cows. Cows. You might even offer grain. Or a dog. Never a cat. Why? Because they didn't offer cats. Dog. Nope, not dogs. Why? But the point is it was, well dogs were unclean animals. The point is that... There were a lot of unclean animals. When we go through Leviticus, we'll talk about those unclean animals. Were sheep unclean animals? Sheep were clean animals. How about rams? Rams were clean animals.
What about... Whoa, whoa, whoa. You're getting a preview. Hold on. We'll get to that... Snakes? No. Snakes are unclean. We'll get to that in Leviticus. But right now we're in Exodus. Pancakes? The point is that they made the altar for... Pancakes? Okay. Stop being silly. They made the altar for burnt offerings.
And that was outside in the courtyard made of bronze. That's what this is talking about, but it's also talking about the bronze laver. Which is kind of like a big bowl that held water. And they would wash, the priests would wash the animals and wash themselves with this water. Well, I think the best verse to underline is verse 1 and verse 8. He made the altar of burnt offerings and he made the laver of bronze.
Now, how does this affect our lives? What are we called to do? Do you need to go make an altar? No. No? Yes. You do? What altar should you go to? Where's God's altar? In heaven. In heaven, that's right, in heaven. And who is our high priest ministering in that altar in heaven? Jesus. Jesus, that's right.
And what was the sacrifice offered there? Do you think there's There's a whole bunch of sheep being sacrificed in heaven right now in the heavenly tabernacle? No, Jesus was sacrificed. There would be sheep jumping. You're silly. I don't think they're counting sheep in heaven to fall asleep.
But yeah, I think that this teaches us to look to Jesus and to go to the altar of praise. Alright, why don't we go ahead and pray. Father we thank you so much that you have given us a high priest that even though they made this really, it was a real altar. Lord the blood of bulls and goats could never take away sin, but you have given us Jesus Christ who takes away the sins of the world. The Father, we pray that we would look to you and have comfort and trust in you. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, may God bless you. May you walk in the joy and peace of Jesus Christ. And we'll see you next time. You guys want to say bye? 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.