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Exodus 25:1–9
“Exactly as I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle, and of all its furniture, so you shall make it” (v. 9).
Joshua ascended Mount Sinai with Moses when the Lord called Moses to come back into His presence, but we are not to think that he drew as close to the Lord as Moses did. The sense of Exodus 24:12–18 is that Moses alone entered the cloud of glory where God manifested His presence while Joshua came near the cloud but did not go into it. As the mediator of the old covenant, Moses alone was going to have an audience with the Lord. As we see in today’s passage, this meeting had a vital purpose: to provide Moses with the instructions for the tabernacle. This tabernacle, a portable tent sanctuary, would serve as Israel’s place of worship for about five hundred years, from the time of its construction in the days of Moses until its replacement by the temple in the days of Solomon (see 1 Kings 7–8).
No tabernacle could be constructed without first gathering the materials necessary for building it, so the first thing the Lord told Moses to do was to go to the people of Israel to collect everything needed for the sanctuary and its furniture. In Exodus 25:1–2, we see that God directed Moses to make an appeal to the Israelites for materials, but interestingly enough, we do not find a command to give. Our Creator, of course, would give many commands related to worship, but right at the outset He sought gifts only from those “whose heart move[d]” them (v. 2). This signals the Lord’s delight in worship that is freely given and from the heart. In other words, it is not enough simply to fulfill God’s commands in corporate worship in an external fashion, though that is vital. Instead, worship that pleases God involves also our thoughts, desires, and affections. He wants worship that is given freely, not merely out of a sense of obligation, even though worship is indeed a duty that we owe to Him.
The materials that Moses was to collect included both natural resources and items that the Israelites owned. The wood from acacia trees, for example, was abundant in the Sinai wilderness where Israel was sojourning. The people had precious metals and fine linens because the Egyptians had handed such things over to the Israelites when they departed the land of the Nile (vv. 3–7; see 12:35–36). After gathering these items, Israel would have to use them to build the tabernacle exactly according to God’s design (25:8–9). This design, Hebrews 8:1–5 later reveals, was based on the heavenly tabernacle itself. God was giving them a picture of eternal realities, and those who approached Him by faith would get a glimpse of heaven.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
John Calvin comments on today's passage that the Israelites could give nothing that had not first been given by God, and that principle is true for all that we have. Thus, we should not hesitate to offer from the heart what we can, for even if we think it is meager, the Lord blesses it. Calvin says, “None is so poor or humble but that his offering is acceptable and pleasing, however small it may be, and almost worthless in the eyes of men.”
For Further Study
- Exodus 35:4–29
- Haggai 1
- Ephesians 4:1–16
- 1 Peter 4:10–11