Skip to content Faith and the Tabernacle: Lessons from Exodus 37-38 Feb 24 · 11 min ...more
Faith and the Tabernacle: Lessons from Exodus 37-38
February 24, 2026 · 11 min
Unearth the nuggets of truth in Exodus as God guides the Israelites to build the Tabernacle.
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Building the Tabernacle: Details and Divine Significance 0:10 Good morning. Welcome to Stand on the Word. Thanks for joining me this morning as we continue in our journey through the bible. Today, we're in Exodus chapters 37 and 38, verse 21 of chapter 38. This0:22 is the inventory of the tabernacle, the tabernacle of the testimony, which was counted according to the commandment of Moses for the service of the Levites by the hand of Ithamar, the son of Aaron, the priest. Now for0:33 most of us, the engineering types may be, excluded. These last chapters of Exodus are kind of an uphill climb. They're laborious. So let me just say good0:44 job in sticking with it. But let me just remind you, it's often these portions of scripture that are the most difficult to make our way through where we find some real nuggets of0:56 truth. Today, we're coming to the end of the beginning of the way out. Okay? We, we're at the end of the book of Exodus, which recounts the children of Israel leaving Egypt1:08 and beginning what became an unnecessary 40 year journey in the wilderness. I can assure you it's not gonna take us that long. Now in chapters 37 and 38, we have the actual work on the tabernacle,1:20 the altars, and all the items that, were contributed to the project. Verse 1, chapter 37. Then Bezalel made the ark of the of made the ark of1:32 acacia wood, 2 and a half cubits, it was its length, a cubit and a half its width, a cubit and a half its height. He overlaid it with pure gold inside and out and made a molding of gold all around it, and he cast1:44 for it 4 rings of gold to be set in its 4 corners, 2 rings on 1 side and 2 rings on the other side. Now we've seen most of this in chapters 25 and 27.1:56 Okay? We we we got this description before. God did not leave anything to chance. He covered every little detail of the tabernacle, and those called by god to2:08 do the work were expected to pay attention to all of this elaborate detail that was recorded. Now Bezalel is named here, but, obviously, he did not2:19 do all the work. He oversaw it. He was, like, the the superintendent of the project. God gave Moses the design and the and the command. Moses identified Bezalel2:31 and designated him. And Bezalel trained and oversaw the craftsmen who were also gifted by god to do this work. Now, we we we won't get into it today,2:43 but, in the next chapter, Moses actually inspects the work to ensure that it was done just as god had designed it. Okay? Verse 42 chapter2:55 39. According to all that the lord had commanded Moses, so the children of Israel did all the work. Then Moses looked over all the work, and indeed they had done it as the lord had commanded.3:07 Just so they had done it, and Moses blessed them. Alright? We'll, we'll look at that again tomorrow. But I find a basic diagram helpful.3:19 And so I've 1 of the books I have, this is the as you can see, the tabernacle here kinda well, it's on the other side. The, sometimes to me, a picture, a diagram3:31 helps me kind of understand the picture. So we have, this is the veil. This is the the holy of holies here. This is where the ark would be. Anyway, you can look this up. Some3:43 of some of your bibles may have these descriptions in it. But bottom line was this was no circus tent. Based on the gold and the silver used in the construction of the3:54 tabernacle, the best estimate, alright, best estimate is that it would cost over 150000000 dollars today. Now to put that in perspective,4:07 that would be about 265 dollars per adult man. Remember, they brought all the things together. They took up all the things that were needed for this collection. These were the peep but these were people coming out of4:18 slavery. No jobs, no economic forecast, only the promise of god. Okay? So now remember, they did plunder the Egyptians on the way out, but did they need this for the4:30 for the trip? Did they but remember, we read that god moved on their hearts to give. They had no jobs. They had no, as I said, no economic forecast, but they gave. This was an act of4:41 faith to build this tabernacle. By now by comparison, if every American adult gave 265 dollars, that would be about 680000000004:54 dollars that would be collected. So this was a lot when you'd consider the size of their nation at this point at the start. Now, the tabernacle, it was 45 feet long, 15 feet5:06 wide, 15 feet high. It was made of perpendicular boards of of hard acacia wood overlaid with gold. The tabernacle faced east no matter where they stopped. It was5:17 covered with a, 3 layered tint. There was 3 layers. The first layer was goat hair, goat hair cloth. The second, red leather from the ram5:29 from rams' hides, And the third was badger skin, which may have been, porpoise, based upon some of the biblical scholars. So that would have made it the first porpoise driven church.5:42 Alright. The west 50 the the the west 15 feet of the tabernacle was, as I pointed out a moment ago, the Holy of Holies where the presence of god would dwell. It contained only the ark5:54 of the covenant. The high priest would enter there once a year. This was a a a shadow of of heaven. In fact, Hebrews 9 24, for Christ has not entered the holy place made with6:06 hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of god for us. That's a fascinating verse for a couple of reasons. 1,6:17 Christ hasn't entered into a place made with hands. Okay? The Holy of Holies, which, as we said, is pretty elaborate. I mean, 150000000 dollars. I mean, that's that's a lot of money. This was6:29 an elaborate structure that god had them put together. But the writer of Hebrews says, you know, this this is just a copy of6:41 the real thing. You know, what we see in the natural is really just a is just a a very weak representation of reality that6:53 we'll see in the spiritual. Alright. Okay. The moving on. The ark was 3 and 3 quarters feet long, 2 and a quarter feet wide, and 2 and a quarter feet high. It was made of7:05 acacia wood and overlaid with gold. Now the mercy seat was on top of the ark with the cherubim on each side. Inside were the 2 tablets of the 10 commandments, a pot of manna, and7:16 Aaron's rod. The ark was a picture of truth and mercy meeting. It was a shadow of Jesus Christ, the law, and the provision7:28 of God, the manna. Now they used this tabernacle for a long time, but it was still temporary. I mean, it's for centuries, they used this. A temple built by Solomon would7:40 eventually replace it, and that would cost even more, a a whole lot more, but even that was temporary. But we will see that god was concerned with the detail of that7:52 edifice as well. So I I wanna return to something I mentioned in a previous session. Paul wrote that because of the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross, when you and I accept Jesus as our8:03 savior and lord, we become what? We become the temple of the Holy Spirit of God. Look what Paul says to to the Corinthians. In first Corinthians8:15 chapter 3 verse 16, do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy. And you are8:27 that temple. In verse 19, or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you whom you have from God? You are not your own. For you were bought with a8:39 price. So, glorify God in your body. What's the point? Okay. Here it is. Here's our takeaway for for today. If god was so concerned about the8:51 details of a temporal dwelling place of his presence was gonna pass away, don't you think he would be as concerned or even more concerned about a delt a9:02 dwelling place of his Holy Spirit that has an eternal destiny? That's you and me. We're not going away. Our spirit is eternal.9:14 So just as the workmen called by God to build the tabernacle were to pay close attention to every detail of God's design and do it according to his9:26 design, we are called by God as followers of Christ to have become the temple of the spirit of the living God to pay close attention to every detail of our lives,9:38 making sure that it follows god's design and that it is consecrated and set aside for the purpose of the dwelling of the presence, the9:50 holy spirit of god. Wow. What a fascinating passage of scripture. Father, thank you for your word, and we do ask for the holy spirit to continue to teach us on this journey.10:02 That, lord, we would understand your word and its application to our lives in this world in which we're living. And I pray that, lord, as the details were so specific about the building of the tabernacle,10:15 the setting it up, the making sure that it remained a place of holiness and set apart for your presence, That, lord, god, as we are the temple of the living god, may we10:26 too pay close attention to the details. We pray and ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Alright. Thanks for joining me this morning, and until next time, keep standing on the word.10:40 Today's study comes from the stand on the word bible reading plan, available for free at f r c dot o r g slash bible. By following along in just a few minutes a day, you10:52 can read through the entire Bible in just 2 years. Learn more and request the free reading guide at f r c dot o r g slash bible.In this video 0:00 Building the Tabernacle: Details and Divine Significance93.9K followers
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