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“Let them construct a sanctuary for Me, that I may dwell among them. According to all that I am going to show you, as the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all its furniture, just so you shall construct it.”
Exodus 25:8-9 NASB
God first called Abraham from Ur of the Chaldeans to establish a family who would be His emissaries. From that small family, they became a commonwealth of people who God called to build Him a sanctuary so His presence could be more evident, until the coming of the Messiah Yeshua (Christ Jesus), Who is God dwelling with man.
The “commonwealth of Israel” (Eph. 2:11–13) today is made up of “ambassadors of Messiah” (2Cor. 5:20) who help bring the world closer to Heaven.
An ambassador is expected to faithfully represent the one who sent him or her out and a good ambassador does faithfully represent his or her leader. A bad ambassador represents themselves while pretending to represent their leader and the people end up with an inaccurate understanding of the leader’s message.
When people who claim to represent the Messiah don’t represent Him accurately in their teachings and actions, they blaspheme (make nothing special — or worse) Messiah’s name (reputation) and dismantle His name among the people.
The people had debased themselves with the golden calf. What Moses and HaShem did after that was to drag them back up toward righteousness. The experience caused Moses to want to be a better ambassador of HaShem than he had been before, and he pleaded with HaShem to see His glory so he would even better understand and represent HaShem to the people (Ex. 33:18–34:9).
In the earlier Torah readings (Terumah, Tetzaveh and Ki Tisa) the instructions on how to build the Tabernacle had been presented to Moses alone. Now in Torah reading ויקהל Vayaq’hel (“and he assembled,” Exodus 35:1–38:20), Moses is presenting God’s detailed instructions directly to the children of Israel, then they respond with an abundance of gifts to build the Tabernacle.
Recall that immediately after the 10 Commandments were given, Moses immediately went up to the mountain and the people were impatient to figure out how to respond to and communicate with Him, but instead of exercising patience and waiting for further instruction, they decided to take it upon themselves to build a place for God to dwell with them. They used what they had learned in Egypt to built a golden calf to represent HaShem and tried to commune with Him that way, which was very wrong. God does not want us to worship Him the way the nations worship their false gods, which the children of Israel learned the hard way.
The purpose of the Tabernacle was to enter the presence of HaShem. The orientation of the children of Israel were encamped so the Tabernacle was the center of their community. The people had to learn how to approach God just as people have to learn a certain protocol to meet with earthly dignitaries.
“ ‘But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain You, how much less this house which I have built!’ ”
1Kings 8:27 NASB
Enter by the narrow gate
All who wanted to approach the LORD must do so through the designated door. No one enters the tabernacle anyway and anytime they want. One does not waltz into the presence of God. One waits to hear God’s message. The witness to the world is there is a living Tabernacle/Temple (John 1:14). There is one Door to approach the Presence (John 10:7–10).
The court boundary separates the טָהוֹר tahor (H2889; fit to approach the Presence) from the טָמֵא tameʾ (H2931; unfit). If the earthly Tabernacle had to maintain a distinction between clean and unclean, how much more should the “living stones” of the Presence to maintain this separation (2Corinthians 6:13–7:1).
Just as people, both on an individual level and a national level, have boundaries that should be respected, God also has boundaries that should be respected. The body of believers need gatekeepers. Our congregation’s boundaries cannot be like “Swiss cheese,” full of holes.
We see in the book of Revelation that the “pearly gates” of the city are the 12 Apostles (Rev. 21:12–14, 21), who Yeshua sought out and collected, just as the person in His parable sought for the “pearl of great price” (Matt. 13:45–46).
So Jesus said to them again, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”
John 10:7-10 NASB
How to become good ambassadors of Heaven
We want to be faithful Apostles of Messiah Yeshua, and the Apostle Paul gives us some sage advise on how to be faithful ambassadors of the Messiah Yeshua in our generation.
Our mouth has spoken freely to you, O Corinthians, our heart is opened wide. You are not restrained by us, but you are restrained in your own affections. Now in a like exchange — I speak as to children — open wide to us also.
Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever?
Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, “I will dwell in them and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people” [Ex. 29:45; Lev. 26:12; Ezek. 37:27].
Therefore, “Come out from their midst and be separate” [Isa. 52:11; 43:6], says the Lord. “And do not touch what is unclean” [Isa. 52:11]; And I will welcome you.
“And I will be a father to you, And you shall be sons and daughters to Me,” [Isa. 43:6; 2Sam. 7:14], says the Lord Almighty.
2Corinthians 6:11–18 NASB
When we are told to “not be bound with unbelievers,” He is not calling all of us to join a commune. Because as Messiah Yeshua prayed in John 17, that we are to be in the world, but not of the world. You can’t be an ambassador in isolation from the people you have been sent to proclaim the message of the leader who commissioned you.
Yeshua faced many who did not believe Him, chiefly among the leaders of the temple, and the leaders of the Sanhedren, the ones who should have been the most prepared to meet the Messiah, were unprepared.
One can expect King Herod to be jealous of someone who might usurp his authority and the Roman emperors were the same way. One would have expected the religious authorities to be above those petty jealousies and power plays, but they weren’t.
One doesn’t have to have absolute power for power to be a corrupting influence, just join a homeowners association board.
Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
2Corinthians 7:1 NASB
The priests had to cleans themselves before going into the holy place. They cleansed their hands (their actions) and their feet (their walk) before entering the holy place. We need to have clean action and how we walk needs to be clean, too.
“For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law.”
Galatians 5:17-18 NASB
Did Paul say we’re not under the Law?
Does this mean we should stop having these Torah readings? Let’s look more closely as to what the Apostle Paul told Timothy:
“As I urged you upon my departure for Macedonia, remain on at Ephesus so that you may instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines, nor to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies, which give rise to mere speculation rather than furthering the administration [oikonomos, “house rules”] of God which is by faith. But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. For some men, straying from these things, have turned aside to fruitless discussion, wanting to be teachers of the Law, even though they do not understand either what they are saying or the matters about which they make confident assertions.”
1Timothy 1:3-7 NASB
The problem is that they were teaching Torah but had no idea what they were talking about. The Apostle Paul was calling this out.
As Paul goes on in 1Timothy 8-11, what are the house rules of God? The Torah teaches us God’s house rules, just as restaurants have signs that say, “No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service,” so too God’s house has rules.
“But we know that the Law is good, if one uses it lawfully, realizing the fact that law is not made for a righteous person, but for those who are lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers and immoral men and homosexuals and kidnappers and liars and perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, with which I have been entrusted.”
1Timothy 1:8-11 NASB
This list of sins seems like a short list. If you aren’t a murderer of your parents, kidnapper, liar or “homosexual,” this means you’re righteous and have no need of the Law, right? Not even close, according to Paul.
“Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.”
Romans 7:4 NASB
Just as there was one gate to the Tabernacle, there is only one Gate, one Door to the Kingdom of God, which is the Messiah Yeshua. He is the only one who can make us, who are not fit to approach God, into someone who is able to approach God — someone who is “holy,” set apart for His service. The first generation of Israel had to die because they didn’t trust the One who brought them out. That is why the second generation was Israel “born again” to enter the land.
Please keep in mind when reading the New Testament that the apostle Paul was the apostle of the Messiah, not the other way around. As an ambassador for Messiah, Paul would have to have faithfully represented the words of Yeshua, the Word of God made flesh.
“Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill [πληρόω pleroo, G4137]. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 5:17-20 NASB
For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
So what does it mean to “fulfill” the Law or to fulfill righteousness?
“Then Jesus arrived from Galilee at the Jordan coming to John, to be baptized by him. But John tried to prevent Him, saying, “I have need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me?” But Jesus answering said to him, “Permit it at this time; for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill [πληρόω pleroo, G4137] all righteousness.”
Matthew 3:13-15 NASB
Fulfilling something, using this Greek word, does not mean to bring something to an end. Otherwise, Yeshua would have been telling Yokhanan (John) the baptizer that He had come to end or stop performing all righteousness.
We met two people in the Torah portion today, Betzalel, whose name means “shadow of God” and Oholiab, which means “tent of the father.” Their names were prophetic of the offices they would hold in the construction of the original Tabernacle. This text isn’t here to get lost in the minutiae of the Tabernacle furnishings. Leading up to the Messiah Yeshua, God gave us hints and shadows of His revelation to mankind. When you see a shadow, you look to see what is casting the shadow.
Are we followers of Paul or of Messiah?
Yeshua’s words trump Paul’s words. Those who interpret Paul in contradiction to Yeshua’s words are using Paul’s words and the Torah in the wrong way.
(E)ach one of you is saying, “I am of Paul,” and “I of Apollos,” and “I of Cephas,” and “I of Christ.” Has Christ been divided? Paul was not crucified for you, was he? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?
1Corinthians 1:12–13 NASB
Torah: ‘House rules’ for Heaven on Earth
So, as long as we are wearing a shirt in a restaurant, do we have the right to treat the waitress with disrespect, or to refuse to pay for the food and drinks they brought to us? Of course not. “No shirt, no shoes, no service” are just the bare minimum. We should act better than the bare minimum, but we still need to know the bare minimum.
“Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
Galatians 5:19-26 NASB
If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another.”
We need to know both what is fit and what is unfit. This is how our thoughts and action can be complete. Do we want to be fit only one day of week, on Shabbat, or do we want to be fit everyday?
Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not be partakers with them; for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light (for the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth), trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them; for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret. But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light.
Ephesians 5:6-13 NASB
If you want to know how to get to know someone, find out who they are, what they like and dislike. Fortunately for us, God has given us plenty of information in his Torah, so we get to know who God is and to understand what He likes and what He doesn’t like.
There are those who treat some of the words of God as though they were strychnine rather than bread, but Yeshua Himself said that all the words of God are food for us. If you are looking for loopholes in God’s house rules, consider that there is a problem in your heart before God.
What Vayaq’hel teaches us yet again is that God longs to dwell with His people He is building up the Body of Messiah to be proper ambassadors of His kingdom.
Summary: Tammy