...eternity in heaven...

Offerings for the Tabernacle

1 The Lord said to Moses: 2 Tell the Israelites to take for me an offering; from all whose hearts prompt them to give you shall receive the offering for me. 3 This is the offering that you shall receive from them: gold, silver, and bronze, 4 blue, purple, and crimson yarns and fine linen, goats’ hair, 5 tanned rams’ skins, fine leather, acacia wood, 6 oil for the lamps, spices for the anointing-oil and for the fragrant incense, 7 onyx stones and gems to be set in the ephod and for the breast-piece. 8 And have them make me a sanctuary, so that I may dwell among them. 9 In accordance with all that I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle and of all its furniture, so you shall make it” Exodus 25:1-9.

In preparation for this historic moment when God gifts the world the ten Commandments, God asks Moses to take an offering from the Israelites.

Now this “offering” was invited from everyone but required only from those who were willing to give (“from all whose hearts prompt them to give”). 

God is not requiring a gift, but only those who are willing made them available for the tabernacle and the worship that would take place. Note that the offering is “for me,” that is, for God, and not merely for a thing, that is, the tabernacle. The tabernacle was symbolically God's house, intrinsically His property, and not merely a place He and the Israelites would conveniently use.

Then God gave Moses an overview of the construction, fabrication, and materials. The materials required for the tabernacle and worship. Then in v.8 God demands that “they must make Me a holy place so that I can dwell among them.” This verse is the simplest and perhaps also the strongest statement in Exodus — a book often described as specially reflecting the theme of the presence of God. Perhaps more than anything else, Exodus wishes to express God's concern to center Himself among His people and to have them organize themselves around Him. Exodus isn’t primarily about getting the Israelites their freedom from Pharaoh as much as it is about God’s desire to be the center of life for Israel.

This is so revealing for our lives today as well. God is not interested so much as freeing us from the grasp of Satan as He is in being the center of our lives for eternity. You see, we are children of God, and so we belong to the family of God. Good Friday is not so much about freeing us from Satan as much as it is about bringing us into an eternal relationship with God. God wants us to live with Him and remain a part of the family of god — for eternity!

Just as God had a “pattern,” or plan, for the tabernacle and the things that were to go in it (see v.9), is there not is another tabernacle, a heavenly one, of which the earthly one was a symbol? Are not the ten commandments intended to be the path towards eternal life with God?

Take time today in your prayer and open your hearts to Christ and His Spirit. beg God to give you His grace to live faithfully so that you may live with Him eternally!

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner.