2023.06.02 Hopewell @Home ▫ Exodus 37:1–38:20

Read Exodus 37:1–38:20

Questions from the Scripture text: Which items are made in this passage? How does Exodus 37:1-24 compare to Exodus 25:10–40? How does Exodus 37:25-28 compare to Exodus 30:1–5? How does Exodus 37:29 relate to Exodus 30:22–37? How does Exodus 38:1–7 compare to Exodus 27:1–8? What information does Exodus 38:8 add to Exodus 30:17–21? How does Exodus 38:9–20 compare to Exodus 27:9–19? 

What does this passage show about the construction of the tabernacle’s furnishings and utensils? Exodus 37:1–38:20 looks forward to the evening sermon on the coming Lord’s Day. In these forty-nine verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that the construction of the tabernacle’s furnishings and utensils shows that God mercifully provided all that was necessary for the carrying out of His worship.

In the previous passage (Exodus 36:8–38), we considered the construction of the place of worship. Exodus 37:1–38:8 details for us the construction of the furniture and utensils of the worship, before returning to the construction of the place, this time with respect to the court.

Then, we had learned that the Lord’s provision for our worship is not only a provision of His presence in a place where we can be present. Now, we learn that the Lord’s provision for worship is also a provision of His acting upon us in worship, in conjunction with enabling us also to act upon Him.

Again, as you look up the passages for the questions above, you realize how exactly all of the Lord’s instructions were followed. The passage gives us the joy of knowing that it was He Himself Who has devised how we will act upon Him (and He upon us) and has then supplied what He devised. 

Specifically, we remember that these furnishings and utensils indicated:

• God gives us to act upon Him by having at the heart of our worship His glory, His covenant, His atonement, and His authority (Exodus 37:1–9).
• God gives us to act upon Him by engaging in table-fellowship with Him (Exodus 37:10–16).
• God gives us to act upon Him by enjoying His light and life (Exodus 37:17–24).
• God gives us to act upon Him by calling upon Him in prayer (Exodus 37:25–29).
• God gives us to act upon Him by pleading the atonement that He has provided (Exodus 38:1–7).
• God gives us to act upon Him by coming as those prepared and cleansed (Exodus 38:8).

And God impresses His glory upon us by the greatness of the size and the costliness of the materials even of the tabernacle court. For us, God Himself in Christ is the material of worship, making the size and costliness infinite. Since we must enter heaven to worship, worship must now be done in Spirit. But, as we gather Lord’s Day by Lord’s Day in His commanded assemblies, we realize an amazing thing. God has spread out the courts of heaven to gather in the nations!

In our public worship, how do we have table fellowship with God? When does He especially smile His light and life upon us? When do we call upon Him in prayer? How do we plead the atonement that He has provided? How do we come to worship prepared and cleansed.

Sample prayer:  Lord, we thank You for providing us the way of acting upon You in Your public worship. Otherwise, how would we the creature presume to come and act upon You, the Creator? And we see, by how You furnished the tabernacle that You have now given Christ not only as the way by which You have come near us, but the way by which You give us to come near You. So, receive us in Him, week by week, as well as for all eternity, we ask in His Name, AMEN!

ARP24 “The Earth and the Riches” or TPH152 “Safely through Another Week”