_A.M. 2513. B.C. 1491._ At this chapter begins an account of the instructions God gave Moses for erecting and furnishing the tabernacle. Here are, (1,) _ Orders given for a collection to be made among the people, Exodus 25:1._ (2,) _ Particular instructions, Exodus 25:1, Concerning the ark of the... [ Continue Reading ]
_Speak unto the children of Israel_ Doubtless when Moses went into the midst of the cloud, and abode there so long, he saw and heard glorious things, but they were things which it was not _lawful_ or _possible_ to utter, and therefore in the records which he kept of the transactions there, he saith... [ Continue Reading ]
_Blue, and purple, and scarlet_ Materials of those colours. _Shittim-wood_ A kind of wood growing in Egypt and the deserts of Arabia, very durable and precious.... [ Continue Reading ]
_A sanctuary_ A place of solemn worship; that I may dwell among them. Not by my essence, which is every where; but by my grace and glorious operations.... [ Continue Reading ]
_According to all that I show thee_ God showed him an exact plan of it _in little_, which he must conform to in all points. And God did not only show him the model, but gave him also particular directions how to frame the tabernacle, according to that model, in all the parts of it. When Moses was to... [ Continue Reading ]
The _ark_ was a chest or coffer, in which the two tables of the law, written by the finger of God, were to be placed. If the Jewish cubit was, as some learned men compute, three inches longer than our half yard, (twenty-one inches in all,) this chest or cabinet was about fifty-two inches long, thirt... [ Continue Reading ]
The _mercy-seat_ was the covering of the ark, made exactly to fit the dimensions of it. This _propitiatory covering_, as it might well be translated, was a type of Christ the _great propitiation_, whose satisfaction covers our transgressions, and comes between us and the curse we deserve.... [ Continue Reading ]
The _cherubim_ (_cherubim_ is the plural of _cherub_, not _cherubims_) were fixed to the mercy-seat, and of a piece with it, and spread their wings over it. It is supposed these were designed to represent the holy angels, (who always attend the _Shechinah_, or divine majesty,) not by any effigies of... [ Continue Reading ]
_Thou shalt make a table of shittim-wood_ This table was to stand, not in the holy of holies (nothing was in that but the ark with its appurtenances) but in the outer part of the tabernacle, called the sanctuary, or holy place.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Thou shalt set upon the table the show bread_ Hebrew, _Bread of the face_ or _presence_, because it was set before the ark, where God was peculiarly present. We call it _show bread_, because it was _showed_, or exhibited before God upon the sacred table, as a national weekly oblation, in the name o... [ Continue Reading ]
This candlestick had many _branches_ drawn from the _main shaft_, which had not only _bowls_ to put the oil and the kindled wick in for necessity, but _knops_ made in the form of a pomegranate and _flowers_ for ornament. The tabernacle had no windows, all its light was candle-light, which denotes th... [ Continue Reading ]