Exodus – God’s Way Out
As easily distracted humans, we don’t always “get it” the first time we are told what to do and how to do it. Advertisers know this and for ages knew they must repeatedly put their sales message in front of us. They work hard to make you think you need what they have to sell. Many years ago, I was told, “It takes six to stick”, from a public relations friend. That meant you had to put the pitch in front of people at least six different ways before they will consider what you have to say. In today’s world, advertisers consistently bombard us with their pitch, even if it annoys us. They know how easily we forget.
God’s people are back in God’s graces after abusing every law God had written in stone the first time. But God has not forgotten the ease by which His people are distracted. So he makes it clear, once more, what they are not supposed to do so that their relationship with Him is made holy by His consistent love for them. God calls Moses up the mountain to meet with Him for a remedial lesson. Instead of the finger of God penning the Ten Commandments and their intent, Moses will painstakingly carve the message of The Laws of God himself as God dictates. God’s people get a “do over”, a second chance, to do what is best for them in God’s way of thinking. The relationship has been restored.
As God speaks, Moses chisels.
Exodus 34, The Message
1-3 God spoke to Moses: “Cut out two tablets of stone just like the originals and engrave on them the words that were on the original tablets you smashed. Be ready in the morning to climb Mount Sinai and get set to meet me on top of the mountain. Not a soul is to go with you; the whole mountain must be clear of people, even animals—not even sheep or oxen can be grazing in front of the mountain.”
4-7 So Moses cut two tablets of stone just like the originals. He got up early in the morning and climbed Mount Sinai as God had commanded him, carrying the two tablets of stone. God descended in the cloud and took up his position there beside him and called out the name, God. God passed in front of him and called out, “God, God, a God of mercy and grace, endlessly patient—so much love, so deeply true—loyal in love for a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, rebellion, and sin. Still, he doesn’t ignore sin. He holds sons and grandsons responsible for a father’s sins to the third and even fourth generation.”8-9 At once, Moses fell to the ground and worshiped, saying, “Please, O Master, if you see anything good in me, please Master, travel with us, hard-headed as these people are. Forgive our iniquity and sin. Own us, possess us.”
10-12 And God said, “As of right now, I’m making a covenant with you: In full sight of your people I will work wonders that have never been created in all the Earth, in any nation. Then all the people with whom you’re living will see how tremendous God’s work is, the work I’ll do for you. Take careful note of all I command you today. I’m clearing your way by driving out Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. Stay vigilant. Don’t let down your guard lest you make covenant with the people who live in the land that you are entering and they trip you up.
13-16 “Tear down their altars, smash their phallic pillars, chop down their fertility poles. Don’t worship any other god. God—his name is The-Jealous-One—is a jealous God. Be careful that you don’t make a covenant with the people who live in the land and take up with their sex-and-religion life, join them in meals at their altars, marry your sons to their women, women who take up with any convenient god or goddess and will get your sons to do the same thing.17 “Don’t make molten gods for yourselves.
18 “Keep the Feast of Unraised Bread. Eat only unraised bread for seven days in the month of Abib—it was in the month of Abib that you came out of Egypt.
19 “Every firstborn from the womb is mine, all the males of your herds, your firstborn oxen and sheep.
20 “Redeem your firstborn donkey with a lamb. If you don’t redeem it you must break its neck.“Redeem each of your firstborn sons.
“No one is to show up in my presence empty-handed.
21 “Work six days and rest the seventh. Stop working even during plowing and harvesting.
22 “Keep the Feast of Weeks with the first cutting of the wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the turn of the year.
23-24 “All your men are to appear before the Master, the God of Israel, three times a year. You won’t have to worry about your land when you appear before your God three times each year, for I will drive out the nations before you and give you plenty of land. Nobody’s going to be hanging around plotting ways to get it from you.
25 “Don’t mix the blood of my sacrifices with anything fermented.
“Don’t leave leftovers from the Passover Feast until morning.
26 “Bring the finest of the firstfruits of your produce to the house of your God.“Don’t boil a kid in its mother’s milk.”
27 God said to Moses: “Now write down these words, for by these words I’ve made a covenant with you and Israel.”
28 Moses was there with God forty days and forty nights. He didn’t eat any food; he didn’t drink any water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Words.
29-30 When Moses came down from Mount Sinai carrying the two Tablets of The Testimony, he didn’t know that the skin of his face glowed because he had been speaking with God. Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, saw his radiant face, and held back, afraid to get close to him.31-32 Moses called out to them. Aaron and the leaders in the community came back and Moses talked with them. Later all the Israelites came up to him and he passed on the commands, everything that God had told him on Mount Sinai.
33-35 When Moses finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face, but when he went into the presence of God to speak with him, he removed the veil until he came out. When he came out and told the Israelites what he had been commanded, they would see Moses’ face, its skin glowing, and then he would again put the veil on his face until he went back in to speak with God.
WHAT WE LEARN
This is God’s response to Moses’ plea to reaffirm the covenant. In many ways this is a brief reenactment of The Law being given to Moses the first time. God miraculously wrote it the first time, but now it is Moses’ turn.God manifests himself, offers his presence and protection, stipulates what the people’s side of the agreement will entail, and directs that the covenant be put in writing.
Interestingly, this proclamation of the covenant is one-sided. God merely states that he is willing to go on with the previous relationship even though it has been technically dissolved by disobedience. The stipulations deal specifically with two aspects: the response of the people to idol worshipers and true worship. This is as might be expected in view of the recent bout with idolatry.
As a parent would be with their disobedient children, they are reminded by God of what will get them into trouble. I AM your God and you will be My people. You will not have any other gods before me. None.
Compassion is not the dissolution of moral cause and effect. Unless there are real consequences for guilt, there is no such thing as mercy.
However, it should not be thought that God arbitrarily punishes the descendants of sinners. This statement means that a person’s actions have long-term consequences because God has made the world that way. God’s mercy is in his limiting the deadly effects of sin to three or four generations. The effects of righteousness he extends to a thousand generations (see Dt 7:9).
Ex 34:11-17 provides a theological explanation for the destruction of the peoples who lived in the land of Canaan. Any attempt to coexist with them would result in an acceptance of their false religions.
Jealousy (34:14) has an unsavory connotation in English. It is petty and possessive. That is not the case in Hebrew. It is the same word as is sometimes translated “zeal.” So it was because Jesus was jealous for the house of God that he drove out the money changers (Jn 2:17). God’s jealousy is on our behalf, not His. God is “jealous” of anything that keeps us from an intimate, loving relationship with Him.
Worship is specifically designed for God alone. In lieu of their past worship of idols, God makes it clear they are to worship Him alone and no one or nothing else. Worship was designed to be different from their old way of life. Hebrew worship would be set apart from the pagan worship practices of the Canaanites.
HOLY PAUSE
How easily distracted we are as humans. God knows that and so does our enemy.
Who do you worship above all? Who do you talk about most in this life? Do we really believe what we say we believe?
Who or what we worship can be reflected in our bank accounts. Where do most of our funds go? Do we give God the leftovers or the “first fruits” of our labor? How “cheerful” are we in our giving? Do we begrudgingly and dutifully give our “tithes and offerings”?
Who or what we worship can also be reflected in our time. Where do we spend the most time and who benefits from that time?
Do we set apart times of worship daily, weekly or is worship a lifestyle? In other words do we have “God-time” or is God all the time?
Dear Heavenly Father,You have incredibly provoked our thinking to going deeper into our intimate relationship with You. To be more like you we need more of you in our lives. I need you every hour. I worship you with my life. I am yours and you are mine. May everything within me give you praise, glory and honor. May your glory be reflected from me so others will know that I know you. May your glory in me draw others to you. You are God and I am not. Transform me still.
In Jesus Name, Amen
And we’re singing…
Bless the Lord oh my soul
Oh my soul
Worship His Holy name
Sing like never before
Oh my soul
I’ll worship Your Holy name
The sun comes up
It’s a new day dawning
It’s time to sing Your song again
Whatever may pass
And whatever lies before me
Let me be singing
When the evening comes
Bless the Lord oh my soul
Oh my soul
Worship His Holy name
Sing like never before
Oh my soul
I’ll worship Your Holy name
You’re rich in love
And You’re slow to anger
Your name is great
And Your heart is kind
For all Your goodness
I will keep on singing
Ten thousand reasons
For my heart to find
Bless the Lord oh my soul
Oh my soul
Worship His Holy name
Sing like never before
Oh my soul
I’ll worship Your Holy name
Bless You Lord
And on that day
When my strength is failing
The end draws near
And my time has come
Still my soul will
Sing Your praise unending
Ten thousand years
And then forevermore
Forevermore
Bless the Lord oh my soul
Oh my soul
Worship His Holy name…
Can you imagine making God so angry that He doesn’t want to be in the same place with you?
Anger comes from extreme hurt. It grieves God when we sin because He doesn’t want anything coming between our relationship with Him. We cannot continue to sin and have a relationship God at the same time. One has to go.
7-10 Moses used to take the Tent and set it up outside the camp, some distance away. He called it the Tent of Meeting. Anyone who sought God would go to the Tent of Meeting outside the camp. It went like this: When Moses would go to the Tent, all the people would stand at attention; each man would take his position at the entrance to his tent with his eyes on Moses until he entered the Tent; whenever Moses entered the Tent, the Pillar of Cloud descended to the entrance to the Tent and God spoke with Moses. All the people would see the Pillar of Cloud at the entrance to the Tent, stand at attention, and then bow down in worship, each man at the entrance to his tent.
12-13 Moses said to God, “Look, you tell me, ‘Lead this people,’ but you don’t let me know whom you’re going to send with me. You tell me, ‘I know you well and you are special to me.’ If I am so special to you, let me in on your plans. That way, I will continue being special to you. Don’t forget, this is your people, your responsibility.”
15-16 Moses said, “If your presence doesn’t take the lead here, call this trip off right now. How else will it be known that you’re with me in this, with me and your people? Are you traveling with us or not? How else will we know that we’re special, I and your people, among all other people on this planet Earth?”
19 God said, “I will make my Goodness pass right in front of you; I’ll call out the name, God, right before you. I’ll treat well whomever I want to treat well and I’ll be kind to whomever I want to be kind.”
Jesus has the power and authority from God to forgive us immediately and completely. Yes, Jesus, who loved us so much He died and rose again in power, talks to God on our behalf! 
Remember Jesus’ prayer for His disciples AND for us just before going to the cross to exchange His life for our lives? 
HOLY PAUSE
Do you like continuing education courses provided by your company employer? Do you dread training presentations or get excited about what you could learn so you could do your work more productively? It depends on the timing of the training, doesn’t it? If you are not overwhelmed with the work at the moment, you are more likely to accept time out to learn better, smarter ways of doing your work.
“Make gods for us” scream God’s chosen to Aaron. We want to go back to what we knew. That’s easier.
When the people realized that Moses was taking forever in coming down off the mountain, they rallied around Aaron and said, “Do something. Make gods for us who will lead us. That Moses, the man who got us out of Egypt—who knows what’s happened to him?”
6 Early the next morning, the people got up and offered Whole-Burnt-Offerings and brought Peace-Offerings. The people sat down to eat and drink and then began to party. It turned into a wild party!
11-13 Moses tried to calm his God down. He said, “Why, God, would you lose your temper with your people? Why, you brought them out of Egypt in a tremendous demonstration of power and strength. Why let the Egyptians say, ‘He had it in for them—he brought them out so he could kill them in the mountains, wipe them right off the face of the Earth.’ Stop your anger. Think twice about bringing evil against your people! Think of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants to whom you gave your word, telling them ‘I will give you many children, as many as the stars in the sky, and I’ll give this land to your children as their land forever.’”
19-20 And that’s what it was. When Moses came near to the camp and saw the calf and the people dancing, his anger flared. He threw down the tablets and smashed them to pieces at the foot of the mountain. He took the calf that they had made, melted it down with fire, pulverized it to powder, then scattered it on the water and made the Israelites drink it.
25-26 Moses saw that the people were simply running wild—Aaron had let them run wild, disgracing themselves before their enemies. He took up a position at the entrance to the camp and said, “Whoever is on God’s side, join me!” All the Levites stepped up.
At the same time God was giving Moses instructions for meeting the people’s need for a tangible center for worship and guidance, the people despaired of having that need met by God and insisted that Aaron meet it for them. 
Close behind deification comes misuse of resources and the uninhibited expression of sexuality as the worship of the life force. In many ways this brief and poignant story teaches us the heart of the biblical drama as clearly as any other portion of Scripture. 
Reverting back to the old ways of life, they shout, “build us an idol!” When we don’t know what to do, we go back to what we knew. The idol was probably of a full-grown bull, similar to idols the Israelites had known in Egypt. The bull idol represented life, fertility, and power. 
Ex 32:24 is one of the great expressions of the human tendency to make excuses and deny personal responsibility. The results of Aaron’s inability to stand up to the people in their demand for a god to manipulate are threefold: brother set against brother, a plague, and the distance of God. God had planned for brother to serve brother, for health and abundance, and for his presence in their midst, but all that is jeopardized by the people’s efforts to achieve these things for themselves.
The most serious problem is the distance of God. Moses’ concern is seen in his attempt to maneuver God into an “or else” situation (32:31-32). God, in effect, tells him to calm down (v.33)
One of the results of the golden calf incident was a new level of intimacy between Moses’ and God (33:7-34:35). The central issue is whether God will go with the people to the Promised Land. Moses argues that without God’s presence for himself personally and with the people as a whole, the whole enterprise is pointless.
HOLY PAUSE
If Moses is to lead God’s people, then he must have an intimate knowledge of God and his ways. It is the experience and evidence of the presence of God that distinguishes biblical religion from all others. For believers today it is the encounter with Christ that makes the difference in our lives before God. In Christ, the cleft rock of our salvation, is our way out of the bondage of sin and whose protection we have as sinners saved by grace can come into the presence of God and live.
Great leaders look around constantly for those God has empowered and equipped with special gifts needed to do what God has given them to be and do. 
The words here in Hebrew are not just words for skilled labor but for divinely gifted craftsman so the work will be done beyond regular human skills. God always takes what we have and takes it to a higher level than we ever imagined or thought possible. That’s why we still pray Paul’s prayer of praise to God, 
Israel’s keeping of the Sabbath was a reminder of her very identity as a people liberated from slavery to the Egyptians and for a special role in the cosmic drama of human salvation. 
12-17 God spoke to Moses: “Tell the Israelites, ‘Above all, keep my Sabbaths, the sign between me and you, generation after generation, to keep the knowledge alive that I am the God who makes you holy. Keep the Sabbath; it’s holy to you. Whoever profanes it will most certainly be put to death. Whoever works on it will be excommunicated from the people. There are six days for work but the seventh day is Sabbath, pure rest, holy to God. Anyone who works on the Sabbath will most certainly be put to death. The Israelites will keep the Sabbath, observe Sabbath-keeping down through the generations, as a standing covenant. It’s a fixed sign between me and the Israelites. Yes, because in six days God made the Heavens and the Earth and on the seventh day he stopped and took a long, deep breath.’”
As the Sabbath is the only ceremonial observance mentioned in the Ten Commandments, it is the only one mentioned here in connection with the tabernacle instructions (31:12-17). Surely this is not accidental but speaks to the special significance of this observance. 
To KNOW that God is the LORD (31:13) it is necessary not only to experience his power and providence, but also to live in a state of covenant obedience with him. That truth is expressed here in the specifics of Sabbath obedience. The harshness of the punishment for Sabbath-breaking reflects the extreme importance of the lessons being taught here. It is important to God to remember Him and the love he has for them (us).
How shall we find peace with a holy God? 
Mm, just thinking out loud here…Paul said our bodies (sanctuaries for God’s abiding) are like tents on this earth. “For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands.”
HOLY PAUSE Batman, just feeling silly, quarantine, you know 
1-5 “Make an Altar for burning incense. Construct it from acacia wood, one and one-half feet square and three feet high with its horns of one piece with it. Cover it with a veneer of pure gold, its top, sides, and horns, and make a gold molding around it with two rings of gold beneath the molding. Place the rings on the two opposing sides to serve as holders for poles by which it will be carried. Make the poles of acacia wood and cover them with a veneer of gold.
The Atonement-Tax
Holy Anointing Oil
26-29 “Use it to anoint the Tent of Meeting, the Chest of The Testimony, the Table and all its utensils, the Lampstand and its utensils, the Altar of Incense, the Altar of Whole-Burnt-Offerings and all its utensils, and the Washbasin and its base. Consecrate them so they’ll be soaked in holiness, so that anyone who so much as touches them will become holy.
Aaron was to burn sweet incense upon this altar, every morning and every evening, about half a pound at a time, which was intended, not only to take away the ill smell of the flesh that was burnt daily on the brazen altar, but for the honor of God, and to show that His people accepted their work to God with pleasure. 
OUR PRAYERS
When the priest was burning incense the people were praying (Luke 1:10), to signify that prayer is the true incense. This incense was offered daily, it was a perpetual incense signifying that we must pray always, that is, we must keep up stated times for prayer every day, morning and evening, at least, and never omit it, but “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). 
FINAL THOUGHTS (With the help of Matthew Henry, Commentator)
The ceremonial sacrifices for the sins of God’s people and the ordination process of His chosen priests is all made holy by God’s glory. Only God can ordain and anoint holiness in humans. We are made holy only by God and His righteousness brought about by the final sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ. Believing in Jesus, we are made holy. Following Jesus, we follow Him in being holy and living holy lives. We are not perfect, but we are perfectly forgiven and strive to live to please God.
Keep this in mind as we struggle through this new, seemingly complicated system of atonement for sins and ordination of His priests. The last message from God declares who God is and what He will do. It was important to God that His people remember…
1-4 “This is the ceremony for consecrating them as priests. Take a young bull and two rams, healthy and without defects. Using fine wheat flour but no yeast make bread and cakes mixed with oil and wafers spread with oil. Place them in a basket and carry them along with the bull and the two rams. Bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting and wash them with water.
9-14 “This is how you will ordain Aaron and his sons: Bring the bull to the Tent of Meeting. Aaron and his sons will place their hands on the head of the bull. Then you will slaughter the bull in the presence of God at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. Take some of the bull’s blood and smear it on the horns of the Altar with your finger; pour the rest of the blood on the base of the Altar. Next take all the fat that covers the innards, fat from around the liver and the two kidneys, and burn it on the Altar. But the flesh of the bull, including its hide and dung, you will burn up outside the camp. It is an Absolution-Offering.
22-23 “Take the fat from the ram, the fat tail, the fat that covers the innards, the long lobe of the liver, the two kidneys and the fat on them, and the right thigh: this is the ordination ram. Also take one loaf of bread, an oil cake, and a wafer from the breadbasket that is in the presence of God.
26 “Now take the breast from Aaron’s ordination ram and wave it before God, a Wave-Offering. That will be your portion.
38-41 “This is what you are to offer on the Altar: two year-old lambs each and every day, one lamb in the morning and the second lamb at evening. With the sacrifice of the first lamb offer two quarts of fine flour with a quart of virgin olive oil, plus a quart of wine for a Drink-Offering. The sacrifice of the second lamb, the one at evening, is also to be accompanied by the same Grain-Offering and Drink-Offering of the morning sacrifice to give a pleasing fragrance, a gift to God.
42-46 “This is to be your regular, daily Whole-Burnt-Offering before God, generation after generation, sacrificed at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting. That’s where I’ll meet you; that’s where I’ll speak with you; that’s where I’ll meet the Israelites, at the place made holy by my Glory. I’ll make the Tent of Meeting and the Altar holy. I’ll make Aaron and his sons holy in order to serve me as priests. I’ll move in and live with the Israelites. I’ll be their God. They’ll realize that I am their God who brought them out of the land of Egypt so that I could live with them. I am God, your God.”
The work to be done was the consecrating of the persons whom God had chosen to be priests, by which they devoted and gave up themselves to the service of God. The Hebrew phrase for consecrating is “filling the hand”. This could mean that ministers have their hands full; they have no time to trifle, so great, so copious, so constant is their work.
Priests were distinguished from common men, sequestered from common services, and set apart for God, fully focused on doing what God told them to be and do.
“This is the secret”, ways Paul to the church, “Christ lives in you!” “This gives you assurance of sharing his glory.” Colossians 1:27
“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” 1 Peter 2:9 NIV
Dear Heavenly Father,
How did the Israelites come up with all they needed to create, sew, craft the The Dwelling place and now the beautiful priestly garments? They are in a wilderness setting! And then another thought occurs to me. Because God is God, I remember that He told His people before leaving Egypt! God said to ask for these materials, the valuables from all their Egyptian neighbors! 
Exodus 28, The Message
Aaron’s vestments, to set him apart as holy, to act as priest for me. These are the articles of clothing they are to make: Breastpiece, Ephod, robe, woven tunic, turban, sash. They are making holy vestments for your brother Aaron and his sons as they work as priests for me. They will need gold; blue, purple, and scarlet material; and fine linen.
The Ephod
The Robe
That Someone was Jesus, The Messiah, whom the prophets foretold in the dark times. Jesus, our High Priest, above ALL earthly priests, took all our sin once and for all and nailed to a cross. Jesus, God’s Son, the only perfect One, who knew no sin became sin for us. This perfect Lamb of God, sent and set apart to be holy and perfect, had a mission from God “to seek and to save the lost”. Because He was God in human form, He willingly laid Himself down on the “altar of sacrifice” called a Roman cross of cruelty. 
Now, as believers, we are the priests, all of us, set apart by God, to tell others of salvation through Jesus Christ. How will others know who we are? Because of Jesus, there are no priestly garments that we wear on the outside to let people know who we are. We don’t need them.
“Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. And when Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory.”
WHAT TO WEAR…
“Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony. And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful.”
HOLY PAUSE
Exodus 27, The Message
linen, embroidered by a craftsman, and hung on its four posts and bases. All the posts around the Courtyard are to be banded with silver, with hooks of silver and bases of bronze. The Courtyard is to be 150 feet long and seventy-five feet wide. The hangings of fine twisted linen set on their bronze bases are to be seven and a half feet high. All the tools used for setting up The Holy Dwelling, including all the pegs in it and the Courtyard, are to be made of bronze.
What was done by the priests in the sanctuary what done for the Lord and before the Lord. It mattered not what the people were ignorant of what the priest was doing, because God saw it all, and their task was to please Him. 
Dear Heavenly Father,
7-11 “Next make tapestries of goat hair for a tent that will cover The Dwelling. Make eleven panels of these tapestries. The length of each panel will be forty-five feet long and six feet wide. Join five of the panels together, and then the other six. Fold the sixth panel double at the front of the tent. Now make fifty loops along the edge of the end panel and fifty loops along the edge of the joining panel. Make fifty clasps of bronze and connect the clasps with the loops, bringing the tent together.
15-25 “Frame The Dwelling with planks of acacia wood, each section of frame fifteen feet long and two and one-quarter feet wide, with two pegs for securing them. Make all the frames identical: twenty frames for the south side with forty silver sockets to receive the two pegs from each of the twenty frames; the same construction on the north side of The Dwelling; for the rear of The Dwelling, which faces west, make six frames with two additional frames for the rear corners. Both of the two corner frames need to be double in thickness from top to bottom and fit into a single ring—eight frames altogether with sixteen sockets of silver, two under each frame.
26-30 “Now make crossbars of acacia wood, five for the frames on one side of The Dwelling, five for the other side, and five for the back side facing west. The center crossbar runs from end to end halfway up the frames. Cover the frames with a veneer of gold and make gold rings to hold the crossbars. And cover the crossbars with a veneer of gold. Then put The Dwelling together, following the design you were shown on the mountain.
God’s plans for his residence among his people take into account a number of factors relating to our human condition. We need some tangible means of recognizing and celebrating God’s presence; we seem to need beauty and majesty; we need a sense of dignity and worth that genuine involvement in a great undertaking can bring; we need to feel that each one’s gifts and abilities have significance. God’s place needs to be set apart from everything else.
Paul expresses that concept well to gathered believers in Ephesus, “Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.” Ephesians 4:11-13
THE CURTAIN TO THE HOLY OF HOLIES
“Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need”. Hebrews 4:14-16
God’s Holy spirit now DWELLS in us! We don’t have to wait for a special time and place to commune with God and BE with God! We are His Sanctuary. We are the body of Christ who can come boldly to God and talk to Him with whatever is on our minds. He already knows, so why not talk it out with Him?
Dear Heavenly Father, Savior and Lord,
I wonder if we listen to all that He wants (instructions for living) from us? 
1-9 God spoke to Moses: “Tell the Israelites that they are to set aside offerings for me. Receive the offerings from everyone who is willing to give. These are the offerings I want you to receive from them: gold, silver, bronze; blue, purple, and scarlet material; fine linen; goats’ hair; tanned rams’ skins; dolphin skins; acacia wood; lamp oil; spices for anointing oils and for fragrant incense; onyx stones and other stones for setting in the Ephod and the Breastpiece. Let them construct a Sanctuary for me so that I can live among them. You are to construct it following the plans I’ve given you, the design for The Dwelling and the design for all its furnishings.
10-15 “First let them make a Chest using acacia wood: make it three and three-quarters feet long and two and one-quarter feet wide and deep. Cover it with a veneer of pure gold inside and out and make a molding of gold all around it. Cast four gold rings and attach them to its four feet, two rings on one side and two rings on the other. Make poles from acacia wood and cover them with a veneer of gold and insert them into the rings on the sides of the Chest for carrying the Chest. The poles are to stay in the rings; they must not be removed.
The Table
31-36 “Make a Lampstand of pure hammered gold. Make its stem and branches, cups, calyxes, and petals all of one piece. Give it six branches, three from one side and three from the other; put three cups shaped like almond blossoms, each with calyx and petals, on one branch, three on the next, and so on—the same for all six branches. On the main stem of the Lampstand, make four cups shaped like almonds, with calyx and petals, a calyx extending from under each pair of the six branches, the entire Lampstand fashioned from one piece of hammered pure gold.
God is teaching His people to be set apart for Him. “I am your God and you will be My people” is the mantra on the journey from their past life in worship of many gods in the land of Egypt to a new way of life with Him as the One and Only God.
In wonderful ways the tabernacle and its equipment served these purposes while also providing a valuable teaching aid for the whole theology of salvation. 
In it was the “Testimony”, the two tablets of the law that testified to the commitment made to the covenant by both parties. On its top was the atonement cover. The Hebrew word kipporet may mean simply “cover” or “lid,” but the verb “to cover” is also used with a theological meaning: to atone for (cover up) sin. 
