READ: Ex. 25:1–40: … According to all that I show you, that is, the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all its furnishings, just so you shall make it …
On the mountain the LORD instructs Moses to ask the Israelites for voluntary offerings for the materials needed for the tabernacle and the worship service.
The Israelites left Egypt richly supplied, with gold, silver, and clothing (Ex. 11:2–3; 12:35–36), and can use these to obtain other materials from traveling merchants.
Moses must use the designs that the LORD shows him on the mountain (see also Acts 7:44; Heb. 8:5).
The LORD begins with the model for the tabernacle of durable acacia wood (described in more detail in chapter 26), including the ark of acacia wood with the mercy seat, the table for the showbread of acacia wood, and the golden lampstand. The wood must be overlaid with gold.
With the ark it is already stated that Moses must place in it the Testimony which the LORD Himself will give him (v.21). These are the two tablets of the law, which God will write with His own finger and give to Moses at the end of his stay on the mountain (31:18). The ark in the Most Holy Place symbolizes God’s throne.
In verse 22 the LORD states what will happen after the Testimony is placed in the ark: “And there I will meet with you, and I will speak with you from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are on the ark of the Testimony, about everything which I will give you in commandment to the children of Israel.”
In the future the LORD will often receive Moses as mediator in His house to give him commands intended for the Israelites.
On the table of showbread twelve loaves are placed as a continual consecration offering of the twelve tribes to the LORD from the fruits of the land.
The golden lampstand with six branches and seven lamps symbolizes the entire congregation, which is nourished and enlightened by the Spirit (oil): it lives through and for the LORD.
Does the function of the showbread still have meaning for us?
Sing: Ps. 96:4