You’re invited to God’s big tent (Exodus 25:1–27:19)

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Parallel passages: 1Kings 5:26-6:13; 2Corinthians 9:1–15 Luke 7:18–8:3

In the Torah reading תְּרוּמָה Terumah (“contribution,” Exodus 25:1–27:19), we learn how the Tabernacle is a testimony of Immanu-El (“God with us”). The God Who is with us is the Liberator of Israel, Who led Israel out of Egypt and into “His rest” (the Promised Land).

This God also offers us deliverance from our own bondage. When we cry out to God in our enslavement, He delivers us out, but in the process, He has to break the strongholds and the power that hold us to that which enslaves us. We are also shown that when God liberates from slavery, the evil power will pursue us. We may be tempted by this evil power to forget why were were crying out for freedom. We might even believe that slavery is better than freedom.

God, the liberator of Israel, first made a special place for humanity in the Garden of Eden (Gan Eden). In Genesis, it records how God would walk in the Garden. He was not just taking a stroll. He was there because He wanted to be with His people.

Is Terumah a non-sequitur?

Is this reading misplaced in Exodus? Did Moshe or later editors mess things up?

יִתְרוֹ Yitro (Ex. 18:1-20:26)

• Israel prepares to receive the LORD’s covenant.
• The LORD gives Israel the Ten Words (Ten Commandments).

מִשְׁפָּטִים Mishpatim (Ex. 21:1-24:18)

• Laws on:
  • slavery
  • animals
  • property
  • miscellany Sabbaths and feasts
• Covenant promises (23:20-33)
• Israel affirms the covenant (24:1-18)
• Moshe goes up Sinai for 40 days and nights

תְּרוּמָה Terumah (Ex. 25:1-27:19)

• Mishkan and its furnishings:
  • Fundraising
  • Ark of the Testimony
  • Bread of the Presence
  • Menorah
  • Frame and curtains
  • Holy Place and Most Holy Place
  • Court and the altar

תְּצַוֶּה Tetsaveh (Ex. 27:20-30:10)

• Oil for the Menorah
• Priests and their ministry:
  • Garments
  • Consecration of the priests and the altar
• Altar of incense

כִּי תִשָּׂא Ki Tisa (Ex. 30:11-34:35)

• Census and temple tax
• More Mishkah furnishings and instructions:
  • Washing basin
  • Incense recipe
  • Appointing the build team
• More detail on hallowing Shabbat
• Israel plays as Moshe delays: The golden calf
  • Moshe intercedes and pleads for mercy on the people
  • Moshe breaks the Tablets of the Testimony
  • Moshe’s office with God moves outside the camp

No, I submit to you that Terumah is just in the right place in Exodus, because this is a preamble of gratitude for forgiveness of grievous sin. The Golden Calf was a slap in the face to God after all He had done to liberate them from the slavery, oppression and genocide they suffered in Egypt, yet they rebelled against Him. Like Yeshua taught, “Those who are forgiven much love much.” The outpouring of gifts for the tabernacle were a response to the forgiveness God gave them after Moshe’s intercession.

We later read that even though God had broken the back of the greatest superpower of the time (Egypt), the children of Israel were not willing to trust that same God to conquer the land of Canaan for them, whose leaders were not nearly as militarily or politically powerful as Egypt.

What we are reading here is not just a picture of what happened in the past, but a pattern of how repentance for great sins and forgiveness of sin brings overflowing gratitude.

A Tabernacle by any other name

The Bible has five names given for God’s embassy on earth:

1. הַמִּשְׁכָּן haMishkan (the Dwelling Place)
2. אֹהֶל מוֹעֵד ’Ohel Mo‘ed (Tent of Meeting)
3. מִשְׁכַּן הָעֵדֻת Mishkan ha-Eydut (Dwelling Place of the Testimony)
4. אֲרוֹן הָעֵדֻת ’Aron ha-Eydut (Ark of the Testimony)
5. לֻחֹת הָעֵדֻת Lukhot ha-Eydut (Tablets of the Testimony)

God’s embassy was not just built as a nice building to look at and marvel over. The Tabernacle as a place where the Creator of Heaven and Earth was built in the midst of the people of Israel so the people of Israel could draw people from all the nations towards God. God’s commissioned the Tabernacle so His people could have a place to meet with Him and with others in holy fellowship.

The difference between a covenant and a contract

Covenants and contracts are not synonyms for each other. A contract between two people can be many pages long with detailed definitions of each of the terms within the contract itself. Read your auto insurance policy or a software update (that most of us don’t read before we click “agree” and you will see that every important word is defined within the contract so there’s no doubt of what the two parties are agreeing to do for each other. Contracts are between two roughly equal parties.

Covenants, on the other hand, are usually between two parties who are not equals. Usually one party is much more powerful than the other, such as an emperor and a vassal king. A covenant is usually written by the one with more powerful status and the vassal only has the option of accepting the terms or rejecting them. The vassal does not have an option to negotiate or change the terms of the agreement. Covenants are also blood oaths, which means that if the vassal does not follow the terms of the covenant, the emperor has the right to punish the vassal by spilling his blood.

God is the sovereign and we are His vassals, but the difference is that God showed us, through His interaction with Abraham in Genesis 15:9-21, that if we violate the covenant, God is the one who will take the bloodguilt for disobedience, and not us. When God walked between the bloody animals, He is saying that if this deal goes bad, it will come upon Me. I will take the punishment for it.

Yeshua said in Matthew 21:44, “And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and on whomever it falls, it will crush him,” which can be summarized in more modern English as “Blessed is he who falls upon the rock. But don’t be the one that the rock falls on you.”

This is God’s character and through the Tabernacle and the ceremonies that happen inside of it, we learn more about God’s holy character and as He draws us to Himself, we are transformed more and more into His image.

The biggest tent of all

The original tabernacle was not very large at all, but when Solomon made a permanent temple, he supersized it. When we read about the final version of the temple as recorded in both Ezekiel and Revelation, that temple is so large, it will encompass most of the landmass of the middle east. This is God’s “big tent.” This is God’s testimony that He wants to bring in as many people as possible.

The Tabernacle, when we look a map of the layout of it, it looks like a face. It’s an expression of the face of God:

• The ark represents the mind of God.
• The menorah represents the eye of God.
• The bread of the presence with the 12 loaves of bread represents the people of Israel, showing us that God always has His eyes on His people. This is also revealed to us in Revelation 2–3.

Growing closer to the One who liberated us

Heaven doesn’t need lukewarm people or “quiet quitters.” They do just enough work to avoid getting fired but they are a drag on the organization and hamper its mission. Heaven wants people who are on fire and eager to implement His mission in the world. The widow who put in the last two coins she had in her possession gave much more than the rich people, who skimmed off the top of his bucket load of cash. Her gift touched Yeshua’s heart because it was an outpouring of her heart, and thankfulness to God. Because it came out of huge amount of what she had. She was not merely skimming off the top.

All the functions of the Tabernacle are a “show and tell” of what God wants to do for us. The priests who work in the tabernacle are not exempt, but are held to an even higher standard of conduct. The book of Isaiah is a book that testifies about what happened in Israel when the priests became lukewarm and/or cold in regards to their duties in God’s temple and how their lukewarmness infected the people and caused such a disintegration of the culture, that they ended up in exile.

The woman who poured out her expensive ointment on Yeshua’s feet, and drying them with her hair, also expressed an outpouring of gratitude for God’s mercy. She was down in the depths of sin and despair and God lifted her up. She was forgiven much and loved much.

Keep them separated

Each one of the section of the Tabernacle is called havdalah, which means “separation.” We have heard this word before which is used to describe the ceremony at the end of Shabbat that separates the holiness of the seventh day from the rest of the week. As the priests move through the different zones of the Tabernacle, there are checkpoints with greater requirements of purity and more restricted access until you get to the holy of holies, which is a place that only one man, the High Priest, enters by invitation only once a year.

God also erected a “wall of separation” with two cherubim wielding flaming swords at the gate of the Garden of Eden after Adam and Eve sinned by deciding to seek the knowledge of good and bad by eating from the tree rather than from God Himself.

We all have walls of separation in our life and checkpoints to examine what comes into our bodies, our homes, etc., just like a virus scanner or a firewall on our computers, which are constantly checking what is entering our electronics. If it’s malicious, it blocks it. If it’s good, it allows it to enter.

The Bible is our firewall, it’s our virus checker which we us to judge what should be allowed to enter us and what should be blocked.

If we are in recovery from alcoholism, for example, we do not allow any alcohol to enter our homes. We only allow beverages in our homes that nourish us.

If we are in recovery from gluttony, we do not allow bags of potato chips, Oreos and unhealthy foods into our pantry and only bring in foods that nourish our bodies. We also train ourselves to eat in moderation, eating enough to feed our bodies and not to excess that is wasteful or harmful to our bodies, which are temples of the Holy Spirit.

Those walls of separation are important for walking in righteousness.

Summary: Tammy