December 4, 2016 - Building the Tabernacle

TONY AND MICHELLE PAWLAK

MEMORY VERSE

So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, 

do it all for the glory of God.

I Corinthians 10:31  

Have you worshiped God lately?  I hope so.  How did you do it?  Where did you do it? Did you sing? Did you dance? Did you pray? Were you in church?  How and where we worship God is very different for us today than it was almost 3,500 years ago for the Israelites.  Let's talk about how...

Last time we talked about how God had sent the Israelites into the wilderness for forty years because they had disobeyed Him.  They had almost stoned Joshua and Caleb but God showed up in the Tabernacle.  Wait, what? The Tabernacle? What's that?  Well, I'm going to tell you.

After God gave Moses the Shema and the Ten Commandments, He had Moses give the people a very special job to do.  God knew the Israelites were going to be traveling around a lot and they needed a place to worship Him.  So God decided to have them build a movable Temple that they could take with them and set up wherever they were.  

So Moses told the people that God wanted them to make a

special Tabernacle (or tent) where they would worship God. He also told people to bring their gold and silver and give it to make things for the tabernacle.  The people were more than happy to give what they had (much of which they had gotten from the Egyptians when they left) so they could worship God. 

This was a big job and Moses needed talented people with special skills to do it.  God found two men, Bezalel and

Oholiab, who He Gave special abilities in wood carving, metal working, sewing, engraving, and many other things.  These men taught others and together they made everything for the Tabernacle just as God told them to.  They made a

 

 
bronze altar for burned sacrifices, a laver 

(or water basin) for the priests to wash their hands, a table for show-bread which only the priests could eat, a seven-tiered lamp stand called a Menorah, a smaller altar on which they burned incense, as well as special clothes for the priests to wear.

The most important thing they made, however, was a very special box called the Ark of the Covenant. This box was made of acacia wood and completely covered in gold,  The lid, which was called the Mercy Seat, was made of solid gold and had to special angels called cherubim on it.  The Ark of the Covenant was placed in the innermost place in the

Tabernacle called the Holy of Holies. Only the high priest could go into the Holy of Holies and offer the blood of sacrifices on the Mercy Seat for the sins of the people. 

God would meet with Moses in the Tabernacle, also called the Tent of Meeting, to tell him how to govern the people of Israel.  This is where the people worshiped God for many years until a permanent Temple was built in Jerusalem.  

Would you be willing to go through all that to worship God today?  Would you happily give whatever you have to accomplish what God wants?  How much is God worth to you.  Maybe we should think of worship as WORTHSHIP; showing God how much He's worth to us.