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Good morning friends, today we are reading Exodus 27, a continuation of God’s description to Moses of a place, unlike any other place in the world at that time…a place designed by God for encounters with His people!
Now think for a moment about the kinds of places where we gather together as human beings for particular purposes. . .school classrooms for education / clinics & hospitals for health care / offices for business / construction sites for building / factories for manufacturing / mines for excavating from the earth precious resources God has placed there / restaurants for eating & friendships / stadiums for entertainment & sport / homes for life with family. . . and what would you say is our purpose when we gather at churches all around our world?
Exodus 27 is another of those chapters which may require some effort to read every verse. It’s a construction project detail and probably won’t awaken a passion within you. But may I point out three things I believe are important and quite fascinating?
First, God designed a large courtyard to surround the Tabernacle. Why? As we’ll learn later, the “Tent of Meeting” was not open to one and all, it was reserved for the priests and especially the High Priest. But there were 2 million run away slaves at Mount Sinai with Moses…what about them? Ah, the courtyard was intended for them… all of them, of course not all at one time. It was about 150′ long and 75′ wide surrounded by curtain walls 7.5 ft high to keep the blowing dust, wandering animals away from the Tent of Meeting.
God wanted the people to know He loved the idea of a crowd of friends gathered to meet with Him and each other. Do you see how this is a picture, 3500 years ago, of the gathering of God’s people when we come to our churches? Can you put yourself in the refugee city, and today you feel the need to gather with friends in the courtyard around the Tabernacle? Why would you gather there? What would you talk about there? What would you do there? What type of talk or activity would seem inappropriate there? When you take your children to spend some time in the Tabernacle Courtyard, what would you tell them about who they are, what the cloud is that hover over the Tent of Meeting and who God is? Can you make the application my friends to what happens when you gather at your church?
Here’s a YouTube video I found, which is a modern day reproduction of this Tabernacle, in a desert setting, to help us see what it was really like. . .
Secondly, would you notice God’s instructions to Moses in Exodus 27:1 “Build an altar of acacia wood, three cubits high, it is to be square, five cubits long and five cubits wide. Make a HORN at each of the four corners, so that the horns and the altar are of one piece, and overlay the altar with bronze.” I wonder what picture comes into your mind as you imagine this huge out-door grill. We love to BBQ don’t we? This ‘bronze altar’ was kind of for that purpose. Daily, on that altar, burnt sacrifices were offered up to God as the priests did their work of interceding for the sinful people before a holy God. If it were not for Jesus, we would still be doing the same thing today. But HE became our sacrifice, and HE is our advocate with God. Romans 8:33,34 tell us “Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died – more than that, who was raised to life – is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.”
So, if you gathered with family or friends in the Tabernacle courtyard, you’d want to watch which way the wind was blowing, so you stay out of the smoke! But also, no matter where you stood in the courtyard, it would be impossible to not be fully aware of the presence and purpose of the bronze altar. It reminded everyone of the reality of their sin and their unworthiness to approach Holy God, and their desperate need for a Savior!
Did you notice God instructed Moses to have them craft ‘horns’ on the four corners of the bronze altar? Why? Horns, of course, are remarkable things God has designed on certain animals like elephants or rhino’s or wart hogs or deer or antelope or rams and goats. Think for a moment about horns. What are their purpose on the animals who grow them?
Consider for a moment the use of horns in the Bible, especially the story of Israel, God’s people, in the Old Testament:
* Remember God said to Samuel “Fill your HORN with oil and be on your way, I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king.” (1 Samuel 16:1) And the prophet Samuel did so, and anointed young David to be king of Israel, as he poured oil from that horn over David’s head remember? That horn flask represented power, anointing a king!
* Or even today the “Shoffar”, the rams’ horn, is blown in Jewish worship and festivals, as it was throughout Jewish history. That horn represents authority as people are called to worship Almighty, Sovereign God.
* Psalm 18:1,2 “I love You LORD my strength. The LORD is my rock,my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the HORN of my salvation, my stronghold…” Do you see here the horn is a symbol of the power of God, in protecting, defending, empowering the person who wrote this Psalm.
* In Luke 1:69, Zechariah the father of John the Baptist, born to he and Elizabeth in their old age, is celebrating at the circumcision and naming ceremony of his son John, and he proclaims “Praise be to the LORD, the God of Israel, because He has come and has redeemed His people. He has raised up a HORN of salvation for us, in the house of His servant David.” Do you see Zechariah is thanking God for conceiving and birthing a special son who would be the forerunner of the Messiah, Jesus, who would be the Savior, both for Israel, the house of David, and for all mankind. John’s life focus, you may remember, was calling people, especially Jews, to recognize their long awaited Messiah had come and was Jesus. He pointed at Jesus one day and announced “Look, the Lamb of God who take away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29)
So why would God design the altar in the courtyard of the Tabernacle with four horns, one on each corner? I believe, my friends, they represented the Power and Authority of God, whose Presence the Tabernacle was inviting. As people would gather, the horns reminded them of God’s Sovereignty and His unlimited power as displayed in the plagues and Red Sea destruction of Pharaoh’s army, which both defended God’s people and defeated their enemies! The horns symbolized God’s commitment to protect His people from anything that would seek to destroy them. The horns represented God’s commitment to to deliver them from danger or attack. Their sacrifices on that altar reminded them of their absolute inability to live life successfully, without God’s strength, His sustaining of their lives and His leading them through life. The horns reminded them of their total dependence upon God.
So, what do we have my friends, in our lives, our homes, our churches, which remind us of those wonderful attributes of God at work in our lives? When we gather for worship in our churches, how much time do we spend thanking and praising God for His Sovereignty, His power, His authority in our lives, and out total reliance upon Him for every aspect of our lives?
The final thing I’d like to point out in Exodus 27 is the golden Lampstand in the Tabernacle and the pure oil for those wicks. Exodus 27:20,21 says “Command the Israelites to bring you clear oil of pressed olives for the light, so that the lamps may be kept burning…before the LORD from evening till morning.” A special, virgin, olive oil was to be produced for the lampstand and kept burning all night, each night. Why? Normally the priests would not be working in the Tabernacle at night… so why the light at night?
May I ask you, do you have a night light on in your house, perhaps your bathroom at night, especially in your guest bath… if so, why? When you had little children at home, did you have a night light in their room? Why?
There is something ominous about the black darkness of night, isn’t there? And something very comforting about a soft light where we are at night, right? For these people in the desert, the pillar of fire in the cloud above them, was like a Divine night light, assuring them of God’s Presence, and that they were camped exactly where He wanted them that night. When the “Tent of Meeting” was finally built, God wanted a night light inside the Tent, to remind everyone God was both watching over them, and among them in the camp! His Presence was Sovereign and Powerful over them, as well as a Comforting Presence with them, reminding them that they are His people, a Holy Nation, and He is their Holy God, and the Tabernacle in the middle of the camp defined their Identity…a People of God!
So, what reminds you of God’s Sovereign Presence with you, especially at night…and His calling to you, to see yourself as part of the global family of God, a Holy people of God?
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Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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