T’rumah
Torah: T’rumah (Contribution/offering), Sh’mot (Exodus) 25.1-27.19
Haftorah: M’lakhim Aleph 1 Kings 5.26(12)-6.13
Suggested Messianic Writings: 2 Corinthians 9.1-15
Shalom,
We now begin the section with the instructions for the building of the מִּשְׁכָּן mish-kahn, the Tabernacle. From Sh’mot 25 through chapter 30, where these instructions are found, a comparison can be made with creation – this is in essence a re-creation, a new beginning of the relationship between the Creator and the created. Here is a look at some of the similarities.
In B’resheet (Genesis), after each act of creation, we read, “Elohim said….” At the construction of the Tabernacle, we read, “Adonai said….” The Tabernacle can be seen as a return to the Garden of Eden. B’resheet 2.12 tells us that, “The gold of that land [Eden] is good; aromatic resin and onyx stone are also found there.” In Sh’mot 25.3-7 Adonai said “The contribution you are to take from them is to consist of gold, silver and bronze; blue, purple and scarlet yarn; fine linen, goat’s hair, tanned ram skins and fine leather; acacia-wood; oil for the light, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense; onyx stones and other stones….” The best could be found in Eden; the best was to be given for the Tabernacle. Notice also that acacia wood was to be used in the construction. The Hebrew term for the tree is שִׁטִּים sheet-teem, and is generally translated acacia. “The acacia is really the only tree that would have been plentiful in the Sinai Desert. Acacias are commonly found in Israel’s and neighboring deserts, often being the only trees in an otherwise empty landscape. For this reason some believe that the Burning Bush spoken of in Exodus Chapter 3 was an acacia tree” [from bibleandtrees.com]. The Targum (Aramaic translation and commentary) to the Song of Songs associates שִׁטִּים sheet-teem trees with the trees in the Garden of Eden. The Septuagint translates שִׁטִּים sheet-teem in this Sh’mot passage as “incorruptible trees,” thus inferring an association with the “Tree of Life”. And so the Creator chose, nay, designed this particular hardy wood for the construction of the Tabernacle and its contents.
The sanctuary inside the Tabernacle was intended to be a dwelling place for the Creator, His home among the people (Sh’mot 25.8). The Holy of Holies inside the Tabernacle was a place that only one mediator could enter, that being the High Priest. The Ark inside the Holy of Holies was guarded, as it were, by k’ruvim (cherubim) and we know that after man was sent out of the Garden, the way back to the Holy abode of the Creator on earth was also guarded by k’ruvim (Gen 3.24).
After the creation, “Elohim blessed the seventh day and separated it as holy; because on that day Elohim rested from all his work which he had created, so that it itself could produce” (Gen 2.3). The last instruction from Adonai to Moshe concerning the Tabernacle construction is found in Sh’mot 31.13-17, “You are to observe My Shabbats….” Again the seventh day was blessed and set apart, just as at creation.
After the close of the account of creation, we read of the fall of man. In Sh’mot 32, following the commandments of Tabernacle construction, we have the account of the golden calf, another “fall”. There is a slight difference now. Following the fall from the Garden, Elohim promised man that He would send a redeemer, an interceder as it were, to rescue them; after the golden calf incident, Moshe filled the role of the interceder, sparing Israel from total destruction at that time. Thus began the progression to reach the ultimate interceder, who is now sparing all who call upon Him from eternal destruction.
Moshe was to construct the Tabernacle “according to the design you have been shown on the mountain” (Sh’mot 26.30). This is reiterated in Hebrews 8.5, concerning the items and services in the Tabernacle, “But what they are serving is only a copy and shadow of the heavenly original; for when Moshe was about to erect the Tent, God warned him, ‘See to it that you make everything according to the pattern you were shown on the mountain.’” Moshe’s Tabernacle was a facsimile of the heavenly tabernacle, the heavenly abode of the Creator; thus, a Moshe’s Tabernacle gives us a picture of heaven come to earth. And being a copy of the heavenly, then every piece of furniture and every feature was a copy of the heavenly. However, the purpose of each of the items in their heavenly usage is not explained, thus we are given a great mystery of which we “see through a glass darkly,” that is, we understand little at this point of the supernatural realm.
As believers in Yeshua haMashiakh (the Messiah), we know that He is what all this was pointing to. Hebrew 9.11-14 gives an explanation: “But when the Messiah appeared as cohen gadol [high priest] of the good things that are happening already, then, through the greater and more perfect Tent which is not man-made (that is, it is not of this created world), he entered the Holiest Place once and for all. And he entered not by means of the blood of goats and calves, but by means of his own blood, thus setting people free forever. For if sprinkling ceremonially unclean persons with the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer restores their outward purity; then how much more the blood of the Messiah, who, through the eternal Spirit, offered himself to God as a sacrifice without blemish, will purify our conscience from works that lead to death, so that we can serve the living God!”
Notice that the above passage said that the Messiah has entered the Holiest Place, the Holy of Holies, once and for all, thus setting people free forever. We noted earlier that inside the Tabernacle there was to be a sanctuary, where the Creator would live. The term in Hebrew for sanctuary is מִקְדָּשׁ meek-dahsh, “a place set apart from the rest for a special function”. This was where the Shekhinah glory of the Creator would dwell, and only one who was purified from sin could enter. In the case of man, the High Priest was the one, and only once a year could he enter. Yeshua, as the Great High Priest, entered in once and has remained.
Now we come to a point that might make us pay attention closely to this picture from the Tabernacle and its purpose. 1 Corinthians 3.16 reads, “Don’t you know that you people are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?” Bible scholar William Morford points out that the proper translation should be “sanctuary,” that is, “you are God’s sanctuary….” His reasoning was that the Tabernacle (and the later Temples) “had a court where sin was welcome and an altar where sin was dealt with. Sin had to be dealt with before entering the sanctuary or the priest who entered was dead.” In other words, sin was welcome in that in the outer court, all were welcome to enter; the inner court was the place to deal with that sin, and have it “washed away”. Yeshua entered the Holiest Place, and if in essence that means where He now abides, that is, in His people, then as believers we are now the sanctuary of the Creator. He can only abide in, dwell in, inhabit, a Holy Place. Thus we see our duty to be sure that sin is dealt with, our sanctuary swept clean, and the ashes removed to outside the camp. And since we are weak humans, this has to be a constant daily house cleaning. When Sha’ul said to put on the full armor of G-d, I don’t think that referred to a one-time fitting, but to a daily “getting dressed and ready”.
And all this to say that there is purpose in what we read in Torah and the rest of the Tanakh. The Creator works outside of time, so what may seem like a long time to unfold a plan to us, is an instant to Him. If Moshe was given a heavenly pattern of what to do, then there must be a heavenly purpose for all that we see and read. The B’rit Khadashah, or Messianic Writings (New Testament) should never be seen as a separate entity, but rather a continuation of what had come previously. In Sh’mot 25.8, Adonai said, “They are to make me a sanctuary, so that I may live among them.” The Hebrew for make is עשׂה ah-sah, which can also be translated, “accomplish, achieve, become”. Thus the constructed Tabernacle is a picture of the spiritual Tabernacle, wherein we find the sanctuary of Elohim: “They are to become a sanctuary, so that I may live among them”.
You are God’s temple. The Biblical Temple at times fell into disarray and disuse, and the Shekhinah departed. We must ask ourselves, “What is the condition of my temple?” Looking deeper, “Who is abiding in the sanctuary within me?”
שַׁאֲלוּ שְׁלוֹם יְרוּשָׁלִָם – Sha’alu shalom Yerushalayim – Pray for the peace of Jerusalem!