There has always been only one way to God. Israel’s Heaven-patterned Tabernacle teaches that: It had one doorway into each of its three compartments of increasing exclusivity. Only one intercessor could enter its Most Holy Place, where the Ark of the Covenant and God’s presence were, and that was allowed only once a year. 

This study of the Torah section כי תשא Ki Tisa (“when you take”; Exodus 30:11–34:35) will focus on the similarities in the missions of three different intercessors at critical moments of corruption: Noakh (Noah), Moshe (Moses) and Yeshua (Jesus). Each righteous intercessor went further than the one before — and at greater cost. 

The Torah section (parashah) כי תשא Ki Tisa (“when you take”; Exodus 30:11–34:35) seems like a grab bag of instructions, with no overarching theme. Rather, we find that the elements in this reading are carefully arrange to lead us to the pinnacle of Exodus — the dwelling place of God with people and how we are transformed in the process.

Here are Ki Tisa teasers: The census teaches us that we aren’t just a number, but we do need to be cleaned up to be made holy to approach God. The washbasin, anointing oil and incense teach us that our deeds and the groaning of our soul must be cleansed, set apart from normal direction of the world. From the Shabbat (Sabbath) we remember where we come from, where we are going and Who’s taking us there. The first 40-day trip to get the tablets of the (10 Commandments) testimony, rebellion with the golden calf, intercession for the rebellious and second 40-day trip to get the replacement tablets helps us learn that we will to face a test as to whether we trust the testimony of the LORD or the testimony of people.

Ki Tisa begins with more description of how to make Tabernacle furniture and elements: A recap of the teachings of the Tabernacle are in order, because they point us to Whom it’s patterned after — Yeshua the Mashiakh (the Christ) — and how He takes us into God’s Presence. There was one entrance into the Tabernacle courtyard, into the Tabernacle Holy Place and into its Most Holy Place, where the Ark of the Testimony and its mercy seat are to be. You don’t just hop over the courtyard boundary or crawl under it. Permission is also more restricted as one gets closer to the Most Holy Place. 

The recipe for the anointing oil and the incense were to be an olfactory calling card for the Tabernacle itself. The recipes were not to be used in the home. They were only associated with the Tabernacle. 

What is the Shabbat (Sabbath)? What sign does the Shabbat pass on to us? The Shabbat was a sign of God’s creation (Gen. 2:2–3; Ex. 20:8–11), sanctification (Ex. 31:12–17), and sustenance (Ex. 16). 

When did the change from Sabbath to Sunday begin? It began very early, as early as the end of the first century A.D. (see this excerpt from Samuele Bacchiocchi’s seminal doctoral dissertation, From Sabbath to Sunday). For example, Ignatius of Antioch wrote in a Epistle to Magnesians circa A.D. 110 that believers abandoned Shabbat for “the Lord’s day” and Epistle of Barnabas in the early second century reworks the Torah instruction for the Eighth Day (Shemeni Atzeret; Lev. 23:33–44) and the symbol of eight teaching a new beginning into a new perpetual Shabbat centered on Yeshua’s resurrection on the eighth day of the week, i.e. Sunday (see William Shea, “The Sabbath in the Epistle of Barnabas”). The idea of Sunday as the new Eighth Day and the Messianic Age spread, and by the fourth century,