Read Exodus 25:23–40
Questions from the Scripture text: What else must they make (Exodus 25:23)? Out of what? With what dimensions? Overlaid with what (Exodus 25:24)? With what all around? What must they make for it (Exodus 25:25)? With what all around it? What else shall they make for it (Exodus 25:26)? Out of what? And put them where? How should the rings be attached (Exodus 25:27)? Why? What must be made in Exodus 25:28? Out of what? Overlaid with what? What four other items must be made for the table (Exodus 25:29)? What are the bowls for? What are these items to be made of? What will be set upon the table (Exodus 25:30)? Before Whom? When? What else shall they make (Exodus 25:31)? Of what material? And what type of work? What five features will it have? How many pieces total? How many branches in what arrangement (Exodus 25:32)? How many bowls per branch (Exodus 25:33)? What two things will each bowl have? How many bowls on the main shaft (Exodus 25:34)? What will each have? Where else will there be knobs (Exodus 25:35)? What aspect of its design is repeated again twice in Exodus 25:36? What material? How many lamps will it have (Exodus 25:37)? To give light where? What else will be made for servicing the lampstand (Exodus 25:38)? Of what material? How much total gold will be used on it and its utensils (Exodus 25:39)? What does Exodus 25:40 remind us about the principle by which this construction is regulated?
What do we learn from the construction for the furnishings of the Holy Place? Exodus 25:23–40 looks forward to the p.m. sermon on the coming Lord’s Day. In these eighteen verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that furnishings of the Holy Place communicate heavenly fellowship and blessing.
The Lord now moves the description out of the Holy of Holies into the Holy Place, just outside.
The table is similar in size and construction to the ark. It’s slightly smaller, and the poles don’t remain in it at all times. But there’s an intentional similarity. It conveys heavenliness, and just as the blood of the covenant and book of the covenant (cf. Exodus 24:7–8) led to table fellowship from near enough to view the presence of the Lord (Exodus 24:10–11), so also now the Lord communicates both heavenliness (in all the gold) and fellowship (in a table with bread) in the tabernacle. The table is “before [Him],” one loaf per tribe, just as there was one pillar per tribe in chapter 24.
The description of the lampstand is very intricate because it’s describing something more than a furnishing. This would have looked to them like a tree of light, implying a restoration of that life and blessedness in the garden. Just as it shines upon the table (Exodus 25:37) that is before the Lord (Exodus 25:30), so also the Lord will establish the blessing in Israel of His face shining (cf. Numbers 6:25–26).
This blessing past and blessing present, as represented just outside the Holy of Holies, look forward to blessing future where the heavenliness will be represented not so much by gold as by the most immediate and most glorious display of the presence of God Who Himself will be their light, and every one of His people will have unending fellowship with Him.
Even now, the Lord has brought believers into fellowship with Himself and communicates heavenliness and fellowship and life and light and blessing to them, especially when His congregations gather to Him through Christ. What was a glorious picture in the tabernacle has been obsoleted by the glorious reality of the Bread of Life on the throne of heaven, feeding us the hidden manna on earth (cf. Revelation 2:17).
Where (in Whom!) is your fellowship with God centered? What is its glory? What is its intimacy? What is its light? What is its life?
Sample prayer: Lord, thank You for bringing us near in Christ and giving table fellowship to every single one of Your people. Forgive us for failing to appreciate the light and life of nearness to You in Jesus. Make us to know Him, and feed upon Him, and enjoy the light of His blessing, we ask in His Name, AMEN!
Suggested songs: ARP73C “Yet Constantly, I Am with You” or TPH332 “Songs of Thankfulness and Praise”
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