Exo 25.1-39 begins to tell us about the construction of the Mishkan, or “tabernacle.” Mount Sinai is “adamat kodesh” or holy ground, just like Eden. In other words, it has a Kedusha, which is something set apart for the service of God by formal, legal limitations and restrictions. Up to now, individuals had encounters with God (Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, etc). What happens at Sinai is an entire nation encountered God. The Mishkan will allow them to take the kedusha that is on Mount Sinai with them into the land of Canaan. Yehovah will manifest himself to them. This gives the people a place to meet God without going all the way back to Sinai (Josephus, Antiquities, Book 3, Chapter 5.8), and it will allow the Lord to teach them about what mankind has lost, the kedusha that was in Eden. We will find that the creation in Gen 1 and 2 will have some of the same terms used in the building of the Mishkan. The Mishkan will move from Sinai to the wilderness. Then it crosses into Canaan to Gilgal. It will move to Shilah, then to Nob. Finally it will move to Jerusalem. Once it arrives in Jerusalem it will never move again. Moses will be shown the “house” that the bride will dwell in and a “replica” is to be made so the bride will feel “comfortable” before the actual time came to dwell with her bridegroom and not foreign to her (John 14.1-2).
v 1…Then the Lord spoke to Moss, saying,
v 2…”Tell the sons of Israel to raise a contribution (terumah meaning to separate or lift off)) for me (this is the first actual command on the mountain); from every man whose heart moves him, you shall raise my contribution (take what was offered (this is what they took out of Egypt in Exo 3.22).
v 3…And this is the contribution which you are to raise from them: gold, silver and bronze,
v 4…blue (techelet or heaven), purple (argamon or royalty) and scarlet (tolat shanni or serrvanthood), fine linen (shesh or humanity), and goat hair (these teach Messiah),
v5…rams skins dyed red, sealskins (“tachash” which is some sea creature, and the Brown, Driver, Briggs Lexicon says it was probably the Dugong, a sea cow that can be found in the Gulf of Aqaba, very large and feeds in shallow waters), acacia wood (shittim; very durable wood),
v 6…oil for lighting, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense,
v 7…onyx stones and setting stones for the ephod and for the breast piece.
v 8…And let them construct a sanctuary (mikdash; related to kedusha) for me, that I may dwell within them (Hebrew “asooli mikdash shkanti b’tawcham”; not “it” but them).
v 9…According to all that I am going to show you as the pattern (Hebrew “tavnit” or blueprint) of the mishkan and the pattern (tavnit) of all its furniture, just so you construct it.
v 10…And they shall construct an ark (aron, box, and alludes to the heart) of acacia wood (speaks of humanity and a believer; it is a crooked tree but inside there is potential use as we will see; it needed to be cut and marked for its potential; God sees us hidden in Messiah even though on the outside we look rough; the tree must be severed from its roots by a sharp saw, a type of the word of God; it then lays a helpless log and put through a process where the branches are cut off, bulges are removed and the crooked places are made straight; the tree must die to be used in the Mishkan; we must die or this process would be too painful; every workman seems “irksome”; the sap inside, which symbolizes anger, bitterness, and sin in our hearts, etc, must be dried out; further hewing must take place until the wood fits together; then it is clothed with gold which alludes to the kivod of God-Eph 4.16) two and half cubits wide and one and a half cubits high (a cubit used is 19.2 inches most likely; about three foot nine inches in length and two feet three inches in depth; notice they are starting from the inside, out; alludes to how the Lord saves us).
v 11…And you shall overlay it with pure gold (speaks of deity) inside and out (all God) you shall overlay it, and you shall make a gold molding (crown speaking of a king) around it.
v 12…And you shall cast four gold rings for it (rings speak of eternity and the four corners of the earth where the basar will go, and fasten them on its four feet, and two rings shall be on one side of it, and two rings on the other side of it (alludes to the balance of the Law and the Prophets, the two witnesses-Rom 3.21).
v 13…And you shall make poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold (the poles speak of what carries the message of the two witnesses)
v 14…And you shall put the poles into the rings (a wheel within a wheel like in Ezek 1.15) on the sides of the ark, to carry the ark with them (mobile; the ark was seen as the throne of God, so it was like carrying a throne)
v 15…The poles shall remain in the rings of the ark, they shall not be removed from it (it had a kedusha).
v 16…And you shall put into the ark the testimony (two tablets) which I shall give you (the Torah is placed in the heart of a true believer (Jer 31.31-34; 1 John 2.3-4).
v 17…And you shall make a mercy seat (Hebrew (“kipporet” or covering; alludes to Yeshua’s work of redemption-Rom 3.25, where “propitiation” is “hilasterion” in Greek, where we get “hilarious” from) of gold (mercy is all God) two and a half cubits long and one and a half cubits wide.
v 18…And you shall make two cherubim (keruvim) of gold (the Law and the Prophets are two witnesses to the atonement), and make them of hammered work at the two ends of the mercy seat (two angels sat at the two ends of the place where Yeshua’s body laid for three days-John 20.12).
v 19…And make one cherub (keruv) at one end and one cherub at the other end (John 20.12); you shall make the cherubim (keruvim) one piece with the mercy seat at its two ends.
v 20…And the cherubim shall have wings spread upward, covering the mercy seat with their wings (so that no man can see the mercy seat because of the wings) and facing one another (literally “his brother”); the faces of the cherubim are to be turned toward the mercy seat.
v 21…And you shall put the mercy seat on top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the testimony (two tablets of the Law) which I shall give to you.
v 22…And there I will meet with you (the Shekinah remained a passenger on top of the ark until the Temple-1 KIngs 6.23-28 says two 14 foot high cherubim was planted on the floor of the Kodesh Ha Kodeshim) and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are upon the ark of the testimony I will speak to you (God speaks between the two witnesses of the Law and the Prophets) about all that I will give you in commandment for the sons of Israel.
v 23…And you shall make a table (this will be the “shulchan ha lechem ha pannim or the “table of the bread of the faces”) of acacia wood (speaking of humanity), two cubits long and one cubit wide and one and a half cubits high.
v 24…And you shall overlay it with pure gold (all God) and make a gold border (crown) around it.
v 25…And you shall make for it a rim of a handbreadth (about three inches) around it, and you shall make a gold border (crown) for the rim around it (two crowns, alluding to the Messiah being both king and priest-Zech 6.11-13).
v 26…And you shall make four gold rings for it (eternity) and put rings on the four corners (alluding to the earth) which are on its four feet.
v 27…The rings shall be close to the rim as holders for the poles to carry the table (alludes to carrying the word of God).
v 28…And you shall make the poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold, so that with them the table may be carried (the wood alludes to humanity that is covered with the Lord to carry the word of God).
v 29…And you shall make its dishes (in which the bread was taken to and from the table) and its pans (cups for the frankincense) and its jars and its bowls (used for the wine libation), with which to pour libations; you shall make them of pure gold.
v 30…And you shall set the bread of the presence (lechem ha pannim)on the table before me at all times (it cannot be outside the inner court because of kedusha, so a tent had to be adjoining the outer curtain of the mishkan).
v 31…Then you shall make a lampstand (menorah) of pure gold. The lampstand (“menorah” is feminine in Hebrew and it alludes to the bride who carries the light to the nations) and its base and its shaft are to be made of hammered work; its cups, its bulbs and its flowers shall be of one piece with it (the menorah will represent the olive tree in Rom 11.17-24).
v 32…And six (number of man) branches shall go out from its sides; three branches of the lampstand from its one side (the central shaft), and three branches of the lampstand out of the other side (of the central shaft).
v 33…Three cups shall be shaped like almond blossoms (Jabal Al Lawz may be Mount Sinai in Arabia and it means “almond mountain”; Aaron’s rod was almond) in the one branch; a bulb and a flower, and three cups shaped like an almond blossom in the other branch (the almond is called the “hastening fruit or awakening fruit” because it is the first fruits of spring-Jer 1.12; Zech 4.1-14), a bulb and flower-so for six branches going out from the (central shaft of the) lampstand,
v 34…and in the lampstand four cups shaped like almond blossoms, its bulbs and its flowers (the middle shaft had four cups and they symbolized the Messiah who was born in the year 4000 from dreation, the fourth tribe of Judah, symbolized the “sun” which was created on the fourth day, etc).
v 35…And a bulb shall be under the first pair of branches coming out of it, and abulb bunder the second pair of branches coming out of it, and a bulb under the third pair of branches coming out of it, for the six branches coming out of the lampstand.
v 36…Their bulbs and their branches shall be of one piece with it; all of it shall be one piece of hammered work of pure gold.
v 37…Then you shall take its lamps, seven in number (alluding to the complete kahal); and they (the priests) shall light its lamps as to shed light in the space in front of it (over to the Table of Showbread because there was no natural light in the Holy Place; alludes to the Scriptures, the light that foretells and teaches about the Messiah).
v 38…And its snuffers (tongs for drawing out the wick) and its trays (to put the burnt wicks) shall be of pure gold.
v 39…It shall be made from a talent of pure gold (about one hundred pounds), with all these utensils.
v 40…And see (to it) that you make them after the pattern (model he had been shown, nothing was left to the imagination and will of man) for them, which was shown to you on the mountain.
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