Exodus 37:1-29--Making the Ark, Table, Lampstand, and Altar of Incense

Making the Ark
37 Bezalel made the ark of acacia wood. Two cubits and a half was its length, a cubit and a half its breadth, and a cubit and a half its height. 2 And he overlaid it with pure gold inside and outside, and made a molding of gold around it. 3 And he cast for it four rings of gold for its four feet, two rings on its one side and two rings on its other side. 4 And he made poles of acacia wood and overlaid them with gold 5 and put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark to carry the ark. 6 And he made a mercy seat of pure gold. Two cubits and a half was its length, and a cubit and a half its breadth. 7 And he made two cherubim of gold. He made them of hammered work on the two ends of the mercy seat, 8 one cherub on the one end, and one cherub on the other end. Of one piece with the mercy seat he made the cherubim on its two ends. 9 The cherubim spread out their wings above, overshadowing the mercy seat with their wings, with their faces one to another; toward the mercy seat were the faces of the cherubim.

Making the Table
10 He also made the table of acacia wood. Two cubits was its length, a cubit its breadth, and a cubit and a half its height. 11 And he overlaid it with pure gold, and made a molding of gold around it. 12 And he made a rim around it a handbreadth wide, and made a molding of gold around the rim. 13 He cast for it four rings of gold and fastened the rings to the four corners at its four legs. 14 Close to the frame were the rings, as holders for the poles to carry the table. 15 He made the poles of acacia wood to carry the table, and overlaid them with gold. 16 And he made the vessels of pure gold that were to be on the table, its plates and dishes for incense, and its bowls and flagons with which to pour drink offerings.

Making the Lampstand
17 He also made the lampstand of pure gold. He made the lampstand of hammered work. Its base, its stem, its cups, its calyxes, and its flowers were of one piece with it. 18 And there were six branches going out of its sides, three branches of the lampstand out of one side of it and three branches of the lampstand out of the other side of it; 19 three cups made like almond blossoms, each with calyx and flower, on one branch, and three cups made like almond blossoms, each with calyx and flower, on the other branch—so for the six branches going out of the lampstand. 20 And on the lampstand itself were four cups made like almond blossoms, with their calyxes and flowers, 21 and a calyx of one piece with it under each pair of the six branches going out of it. 22 Their calyxes and their branches were of one piece with it. The whole of it was a single piece of hammered work of pure gold. 23 And he made its seven lamps and its tongs and its trays of pure gold. 24 He made it and all its utensils out of a talent of pure gold.

Making the Altar of Incense
​25 He made the altar of incense of acacia wood. Its length was a cubit, and its breadth was a cubit. It was square, and two cubits was its height. Its horns were of one piece with it. 26 He overlaid it with pure gold, its top and around its sides and its horns. And he made a molding of gold around it, 27 and made two rings of gold on it under its molding, on two opposite sides of it, as holders for the poles with which to carry it. 28 And he made the poles of acacia wood and overlaid them with gold.
29 He made the holy anointing oil also, and the pure fragrant incense, blended as by the perfumer.

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We've already talked about each piece individually, so I won't do that again, but Bezalel first makes all the objects that are gold or gold-plated working from the inside-out (The Ark of the Covenant in the Most Holy Place towards the Table of Showbread, Golden Candlestick, and Altar of Incense that were in the Holy Place) along with all of their accompanying utensils and dishes.  Everything was made exactly as God had commanded--even the incense that had a specific recipe that was not to be used anywhere else or used for anything else and no other recipe would be allowed to be used in its place.

All of these items in the Holy Place and Most Holy Place focus on atonement--the central theme of the gospel.  Even what we will study tomorrow--the objects of bronze that were in the courtyard--also focus on atonement, and you can't get away from the idea that there was a substitutionary atonement--the innocent, unblemished animal died in the place of the guilty, sin-stained individual.  "22 Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins." (Hebrews 9:22).

That is what we see when we look at the Tabernacle--not a vengeful, wrathful God that is all about justice and killing and death--yes, He is all those things, but this is the same God with the same gospel of grace, love, and forgiveness that we think of as a "New Testament thing."  The thing that's "new" and "better" about the New Covenant is that one Sacrifice was paid once for all.  The penal, substitutionary atonement that was made not only covered our sins, but took them away, as Christ became sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God.  21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.  (2 Corinthians 5:21).

That is what we should walk away from the Tabernacle seeing.  A "Wow, this has always been the plan!," but also a "I'm glad that God always had an even better plan in store!"  And His plan is to unite all who belong to Him in the New Heavens and the New Earth in a time of eternal worship where we will serve Him as members of a holy, royal priesthood.  There will be no more Courtyard for sacrifices to be made but we will dine at the Table of Showbread together as Jesus will once again eat of the bread and drink of the cup again when He comes into His kingdom, and while the "little light of the world," the Church, will not need to shine their light as Jesus is the light of that city, the Golden Lampstand of the Church will stand before Him, and we will offer our praise at the Altar of Incense in Heaven, but we will even live in perfect communion with God with no veil between God and Man for Christ's body was that veil that was torn so that we could have access to God and we will live with Him in the New Jerusalem--the Most Holy Place because it is where God will once again dwell among men in His new creation, just like He had intended in the original creation, and we will be free from the penalty of sin, the power of sin and the very presence of sin.  Oh, how we long for that day, but we have much work to do today to be His ambassadors and share this message of reconciliation with the whole world.  Let everything we say, do, and think be honoring and glorifying to God and be gospel-centered so that we speak and live God's most important message to man.  We are now playing the role of the Tabernacle as the Holy Spirit lives in and through us and we are to display the story of the gospel in and through our lives for all to see and to know God and make Him known to all the world.