This whole chapter is God's instruction to Moses about how to fill the hands of the priests, as in the expression "You've got your hands full." To ordain a priest is to fill his hands — to give him plenty and more than enough to do. My wife and I have five children, and we hear it all the time: "You've got your hands full." Presumably when people saw Aaron trying to wrestle yet another bull into the sacrificial position, they would say "You've got your hands full." In short, the core idea of ordination as summarized in the Hebrew name for it is that ordination means you're commissioned to do a lot of work. The ordained priest is a hard-working man. Doing everything necessary to maintain the presence of God among His people is not a sinecure. Aaron did not work merely one hour per week; the junior priests did not spend most of their time watching TV or dusting the sanctuary furniture. In our polity, it is axiomatic that there is no ordination without call to a definite work. Unless a church or mission society or school has called you to pastoral work in their midst, you cannot be ordained. This is not only a very wise principle; it is a very biblical principle. Indeed, as we will see the chapter emphasizes the ordination to a definite work by closing with a list of the priests' main tasks — and indeed, as we saw last Sunday evening, the previous chapter also implies quite a bit about the priests' tasks. The priests don't play. They work. This chapter shows us that both priests and altar were set apart — ordained — for the religious work of maintaining God's presence among His people.

The priesthood of Christ is incredibly important; indeed, it is every bit as much at the heart of Scripture as His Kingship. We need a King to rule us, but we also need a priest to save us and represent us before God. In Christ, we have such a priest. That, in turn, should motivate us to study the pre-history of priesthood. What was priesthood like before Christ? Because the answer to that question, in turn, will tell us more about what our great High Priest is like. We will see that a priest is a man called by God to represent the people to God, and the priest is fitted for the presence of God by the special robes of holiness which he wears.

What can we learn from the passage we just read? To most of us, it sounded like some rather boring details about an altar and a courtyard. But brothers and sisters, there is very much a spiritual lesson present within this chapter. We are going to talk not only about the physical items of furniture or landscaping that are presented here, but also about their meaning. What we'll see is that the altar teaches that one cannot enter God's presence without blood sacrifice, while the courtyard fence teaches us about holiness by physically setting God's space apart from the outside world.

Why, when the church has fought about issues of all kinds, do we have 37 verses on the fabric and frame and furniture of the tabernacle, but no chapter on church government or the mode of baptism or the advisability of contraception? Brothers and sisters, God's ways are not our ways. God wanted to come and live with Israel, and all this material on His dwelling place is here because, well, it's His dwelling place and He cares what it's like. I daresay all of you spend a lot of time on and in your home. You don't talk about it much because you've found that most people really don't care about how you wired that snazzy new outlet or what color you painted your bathroom. But rather than the Almighty saying "Well, people don't care about my home so I won't say anything about it," His attitude is "People should care about my home." The most important point in this part of Exodus is that God has come down to dwell with us, and He did it first by moving into the tabernacle as a prefiguration of the day when the Word would become flesh and tabernacle among us. We will see that God came and tabernacled among His people, but the quadruple-thick covering under which He dwelt emphasized His inaccessible holiness.

You don't really know a man until you've been in his home. When you see how he lives, that explains a lot. That reveals a lot. That makes many other things clear. Well, in the same way, to take this tour of Yahweh's home, or tent, reveals to us things about Him that we couldn't learn in any other way. So let's dive in.

I'm sure you're all groaning to see the word "give" in the title of this evening's sermon. "Not another round of begging for money! It's not PBS fundraiser week again, is it?" Thankfully not. I am indeed going to encourage you to give, but I'm mostly going to do so in terms of ancient history and in light of the God who never changes. Yes, our passage this evening talks about seven different materials that God's people needed to bring, and we're going to talk briefly about each of them. But the key points tonight are very much the willing heart, that giving is always and only voluntary, and then the reason that our giving should be willing, which is that we get to participate in God's dwelling with us. His residence with His people does not take place apart from our willingness to host Him. As incredible as that is, it is true, and it is wonderful. God dwells with His people on His terms, yes — but also with our heartfelt participation in His plans for us and His holiness.

Israel is in covenant with God now. We're going to look at some of the same territory we covered last week, but speak more about the end of the chapter (which we didn't cover) and notice the three different levels of access to God that the chapter clearly mentions. Above all, we will be looking at this chapter in light of its climactic statement that the glory of Yahweh was on Mt. Sinai like a consuming fire, and the chapter's role as an introduction to the sprawling revelation of the tabernacle that comes next. God revealed His glory to Israel, to the elders, and to Moses through cloud, fire, and above all, through His Word describing His Tabernacle.

The invitation to come into God's presence is to be answered in multiple ways. There is a literal fulfillment for Moses and the 73 that involves a fair bit of mountaineering. But the covenant ratification ceremony, bracketed as it is by God's invitation to ascend into His presence, must also be read as a way of ascending to the Divine presence. If you are Joe Israelite, saying "I'm not one of the seventy-four elders; will I never get to meet with God?" the answer is "Yes, you will get to meet with God — not by physically climbing the mountain, but by spiritually participating in the covenant ratification ceremony that is about to take place." In short, brothers and sisters, God invites us into His presence by participation in the covenant. That does not mean mystical experience of God in this life for every Christian — but it most certainly does mean that through the blood of the covenant, you are united to God and have the privilege of access to His presence. That's why the covenant ratification ceremony on the ground is sandwiched between the invitation for the elders to come into God's presence and the moment when they actually do. Some spiritual superstars do indeed go into God's presence in a physical way in this life — but every Christian can and should participate in the corporate worship of God's people whereby we come into His presence together through participation in the covenant.

Suddenly we move from laws about life in the land to a description of the journey to the land, a description that focuses closely on the company along the way — the mysterious and awesome figure of the Angel of Yahweh. Also, this section is largely taken up with promises instead of demands. How does it fit in the book of the Covenant, which, as we have posited for several weeks now, is largely concerned with the themes of justice and piety? The answer is that justice and piety are only possible through the Mediator. Though the Pentatuech is popularly called "law," and it does indeed contain a number of laws, it is also about the Messiah, the Mediator. It deals with the coming Prophet, Priest, and King who is Yahweh but who is also distinguished from Yahweh—and this is one of the places where it does so. Moses is reminding us that though law is real and important, law exists and is meaningful only in the context of a lawgiver who is a Savior and Mediator. Thus, this passage describes walking with God the place He has prepared, and how it brings enormous blessings but also demands perfect obedience. Talking about Jesus is not some way of talking about how we can be as wicked as we please. Nor is talking about obedience some way of avoiding the glorious Angel of Yahweh and pretending that He has nothing to do with our obedience. Actually, the Christian life, our walk with God, is all about being with Jesus — but being with Him requires perfect obedience from us too.

We come this evening to look at the holidays listed here in the book of the covenant. Now, in one sense, Christ has fulfilled all of these holidays. No longer are they holy (except for the weekly Sabbath); no longer do these days exist specifically for God. So what is there to learn here? We can still learn about holiness from these days — ritual holiness, as we talked about back in Ch. 13, which God specifically gave to His people of old in order to teach them about real holiness. Remember, holiness means existing for God. Yahweh set apart various times as holy for His covenant people to help reinforce their holiness. In the new covenant, it is primarily persons that are holy — though also the Sabbath is holy by creation and remains holy to this day. So in order to be His holy people, we need to recognize that God demands a seventh of our time as His, and that He tells us how to celebrate holidays as His people.