Exodus Chapter 38

Exodus 38:1 And he made the altar of burnt offering of shittim wood: five cubits was the length thereof, and five cubits the breadth thereof; it was foursquare; and three cubits the height thereof.

I know it is hard in this day and age to understand the need of the Old Testament animal sacrifices.

First of all it shows that the law of God says the soul that sins shall die. Death came upon all mankind when Adam sinned against God in the garden. Adam was warned that this would happen but he took the risk and for the one time pleasure of forbidden fruit, he sinned and brought death upon all mankind. This was not just physical death of the body but spiritual death of the soul. The soul and spirit of course do not actually die but are lost without hope and without any way of being saved from eternal torment.

So something was given to suffer death in the place of mankind until the time when God was going to provide the ultimate perfect sacrifice.

Christ was to come and make Himself the sacrifice for sins for all mankind. Animal sacrifices could not remove sin. The law was given to show us what sin was but it could not remove sin. The sacrifice of Christ if believed by the recipient, can remove sin. When one believes in the Son of God who God sent to take away our sins, one is "born again" by the spirit of God. Sins are forgiven and cast away. All things become new. The person, male or female can then be baptized with the Holy Spirit. He or she is changed.

If one sins after these things, they must repent and do the first works as soon the Holy Spirit brings them under conviction without delay. No person must continue in sin after receiving God's ultimate free gift of salvation. It is the same as crucifying Christ all over again. Jesus Christ is the only way to be changed spiritually in the inner being. All other religions or methods of worship cannot change the inner man, it is only a religion. If we die without knowing Jesus Christ, we die in our sins and are lost forever.

The burnt offerings in the Old Testament were provided only for Israel and any people from foreign nations who dwelled with them and served the God of Israel. Since they sinned continually, sacrifices had to be made continually. Until Jesus Christ there was no salvation available for any other nation other than Israel. We see though the mercy of God and we see many times when the preaching of repentance was granted to others. One example is Nineveh in the time of Jonah. There are other incidents when Gentiles were saved by faith in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Israel). Examples were Ruth, daughter-in-law of Naomi and Rahab in the days of Joshua. So we see that it is faith in the true God that saves. Without faith in the salvation God provides, there is no salvation.

Exodus 38:2 And he made the horns thereof on the four corners of it; the horns thereof were of the same: and he overlaid it with brass.
3 And he made all the vessels of the altar, the pots, and the shovels, and the basins, and the fleshhooks, and the firepans: all the vessels thereof made he of brass.
4 And he made for the altar a brazen grate of network under the compass thereof beneath unto the midst of it.
5 And he cast four rings for the four ends of the grate of brass, to be places for the staves.
6 And he made the staves of shittim wood, and overlaid them with brass.
7 And he put the staves into the rings on the sides of the altar, to bear it withal; he made the altar hollow with boards.
8 And he made the laver of brass, and the foot of it of brass, of the looking glasses of the women assembling, which assembled at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.

It seems that the women offered their looking glasses for the materials used for building this tabernacle for the worship of God. Even today we build our places of worship from offerings of those who give from their hearts in order to provide a place of worship.

Exodus 38:9 And he made the court: on the south side southward the hangings of the court were of fine twined linen, a hundred cubits:
10 Their pillars were twenty, and their brazen sockets twenty; the hooks of the pillars and their fillets were of silver.
11 And for the north side the hangings were a hundred cubits, their pillars were twenty, and their sockets of brass twenty; the hooks of the pillars and their fillets of silver.
12 And for the west side were hangings of fifty cubits, their pillars ten, and their sockets ten; the hooks of the pillars and their fillets of silver.
13 And for the east side eastward fifty cubits.
14 The hangings of the one side of the gate were fifteen cubits; their pillars three, and their sockets three.
15 And for the other side of the court gate, on this hand and that hand, were hangings of fifteen cubits; their pillars three, and their sockets three.
16 All the hangings of the court round about were of fine twined linen.
17 And the sockets for the pillars were of brass; the hooks of the pillars and their fillets of silver; and the overlaying of their chapiters of silver; and all the pillars of the court were filleted with silver.
18 And the hanging for the gate of the court was needlework, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen: and twenty cubits was the length, and the height in the breadth was five cubits, answerable to the hangings of the court.
19 And their pillars were four, and their sockets of brass four; their hooks of silver, and the overlaying of their chapiters and their fillets of silver.
20 And all the pins of the tabernacle, and of the court round about, were of brass.
21 This is the sum of the tabernacle, even of the tabernacle of testimony, as it was counted, according to the commandment of Moses, for the service of the Levites, by the hand of Ithamar, son to Aaron the priest.
22 And Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, made all that the LORD commanded Moses.
23 And with him was Aholiab, son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, an engraver, and a cunning workman, and an embroiderer in blue, and in purple, and in scarlet, and fine linen.

We see from these chapters that all was made according to the pattern that God gave to Moses. He gave the blueprints for this tabernacle and all the curtains, engravings and so forth. Notice that God is not a dull, drab or boring God. He likes color, decoration and pretty things. It is not wrong to make beautiful things. It is only idolatry when the things become our objects of worship instead of God.

It is okay to build a beautiful building to worship in as long as we don't start using the building as an object of worship. We have to be especially careful when it comes to images. Images may represent something but people have misused them so many times and bow down to images thinking they represent God.

Since the coming of Christ though, we do not need to have things representing God because we now have access to the Holy Spirit living within each believer and we can now worship God in spirit and in truth. We do not need to see a picture of Christ or an image of Him to be able to pray. We do not know what Jesus looked like anyway and there is no image we could make to represent Him. Definitely we should never make an image of Mary, any past saint or any image to kneel down before or pray to. We are not to pray to anyone except Jesus the Son or God the Father. All other worship in idolatry.

Exodus 38:24 All the gold that was occupied for the work in all the work of the holy place, even the gold of the offering, was twenty and nine talents, and seven hundred and thirty shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary.
25 And the silver of them that were numbered of the congregation was a hundred talents, and a thousand seven hundred and threescore and fifteen shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary:
26 A bekah for every man, that is, half a shekel, after the shekel of the sanctuary, for every one that went to be numbered, from twenty years old and upward, for six hundred thousand and three thousand and five hundred and fifty men.
27 And of the hundred talents of silver were cast the sockets of the sanctuary, and the sockets of the veil; a hundred sockets of the hundred talents, a talent for a socket.
28 And of the thousand seven hundred seventy and five shekels he made hooks for the pillars, and overlaid their chapiters, and filleted them.
29 And the brass of the offering was seventy talents, and two thousand and four hundred shekels.
30 And therewith he made the sockets to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and the brazen altar, and the brazen grate for it, and all the vessels of the altar,
31 And the sockets of the court round about, and the sockets of the court gate, and all the pins of the tabernacle, and all the pins of the court round about.

This tabernacle was the only legitimate place in the whole earth where the true God could be worshipped. God made the plans and instructed the work in every detail. God provided the place of worship from their offerings. Everyone who believed at this time could give willingly and be part of the building of this place of worship. It was a way to welcome the presence of God.

As God provided the first covenant and only He can save any soul from sin and eternal death, God had to provide the second covenant. God made the way of salvation and there is no other way. Jesus is the way to God and the only way of salvation. The good news is that the way of salvation is opened up to all tribes and people in the entire earth. It's open to women as well as men. It's open to children as well as adults and it is open to Jews, Gentiles and all who would believe calling upon the name of the Lord. DC

Exodus 39

Exodus Index