The colours of the holy garments of Aaron as priest to God, blue and purple and scarlet, remind me of the veins and arteries in the body and the twined linen of skin and the gold of God the creator who is entwined in our making. We are precious to God in all our being and inseparable from his life and love though we are free to reject Him and ignore HIm and even to hate Him because he is a just God and has given us free will, the right to choose freely.

Some might say but God is not just because He has not been made known to everyone. God chose the church and the nation of the Israelites to make Him known but we have done very poorly in this mission. Nevertheless, God has made Himself known to all people through creation, the heavens and the earth and everything in them which he made, so no one has an excuse not to respond to Him.

The ephod is made with the stones marked with the names of the sons of Israel set on the shoulders of the ephod, so that Aaron carries them as a shepherd carries a lamb on his shoulders and as all things in Scripture point to Jesus, we know that He is carrying us on His shoulders as our great High Priest continually before the face of God interceding for us and as he died on the cross, He carried us on his shoulders as he stretched out his arms for us.

Notice that the ephod and the breastplate are joined together, "and they bind the breastplate by its rings unto the rings of the ephod, with a ribbon of blue, to be above the girdle of the ephod and the breastplate is not loosed from off the ephod,". They are inseparable.

Note also that the wreathed chains of the breastplate, and the rings are made of pure gold, for it is God himself who carries us in His heart and on His shoulders, all our sins and griefs to bear, and to delight in us as a father delights in his child, twirling in a dance of joy over us.

We are precious stones, even as the twelve sons of Israel were represented by individual precious stones each marked with their name, as we who respond to the call, who rise up and follow Him, are also. "I have called you by name. You are mine." Isaiah 43:1

If we hold fast to Jesus to the end, in the strength of the Holy Spirit overcoming the evil we are confronted with, we will be given a new name, even as Jacob was, and be as a white stone engraved with a new name that no one knew except him who is receiving it. (Revelation 2:17) and as priests of God, be "Holy to Jehovah" (Exodus 39:30)

When reading the Scriptures, the Holy Spirit brings to our attention words or verses that we might pause and consider them more deeply.

It struck me in reading how many times in these two chapters of Exodus the words, "as Jehovah commanded Moses" so it was done, firstly by Bezeleel and those making the garments of beauty and honour for Aaron and his sons and then by the sons of Israel for all the work of the tabernacle "according to all that Jehovah hath commanded Moses, so they have done"

This unity of obedience, this complete obedience in accordance with what God had commanded Moses is pleasing to Moses, "Moses seeth all the work, and lo, they have done it as Jehovah hath commanded; so they have done. And Moses doth bless them".

The chain of command has been followed from God, to Moses, to Bezeleel and the craftsmen and to the sons of Israel. And Moses saw that it was very good and blessed them. What a delight it is to us when those we are in authority over do as we command!

The tabernacle was to be raised up on the first day of the month in the first month - so we also should start every day in the presence of our God who chooses to tabernacle in us and with us. Remember to bring everything into order before Him, our heart, our will, our emotions, our minds, our bodies and our prayers speaking to God from the heart.

How beautiful the ark is, gold without and within and the mercy seat upon it all of gold and the two cherubs above it facing each other inwards and wings outstretched over the ark made of beaten gold all of one piece and the golden altar with the spice-perfume

But surpassing it all this by far, the honour, the glory of Jehovah which fills the tabernacle when all is completed!

And God's guidance is for us at all times. Do not journey until the cloud of God has gone up. In all our journeyings, do not go up ahead of the Lord, for the cloud of His honour is on us by day and fire is in us by night. For God says, I will never leave you not forsake you.

Only one person who has ever lived and has chosen to follow God has been alone without God, and he is our saviour Jesus - My God, my God why hast thou forsaken me? - surrounded me have dogs, a company of evil doers have compassed me, piercing my hands and my feet

Jesus, the wisdom of God, "Jehovah possessed me - the beginning of his way" before all things were made, through whom all things were made: "Then I am near him, a workman, And I am a delight - day by day. Rejoicing before him at all times,"

This is the Jesus condemned to be destroyed by human beings, silent before Pilate, handed over to be scourged and crucified,

The Tabernacle represents the human being in all its detail.

The ark, made of shittim (acacia) wood, overlaid within and without with gold, represents the human heart, where the law of God will be written in our hearts. This is the most holy place, the holiest of holies, where God meets with us by His Holy Spirit. The mercy-seat is placed on top of the ark, for though our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart (I John 3:20) and His mercy and loving-kindness protects us, who give our lives to Him, from the judgement that leads to death. The cherubs with their wings covering the ark, are the covering spiritual beings who guard over our heart in the presence of God. God desires our heart to be the throne where he is enthroned.

The table on which the bread of the presence is to be put before God continually, represents our strength, our will, the direction we go in which must be continually nurtured by the bread which God gives, for man doth not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God. Not my will but thine be done. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak (Matthew 26:41)

The candlestick with its six branches represents the human mind, our thinking, our decision making, our reasoning, which Proverbs again and again urges us to nurture with wisdom and understanding, and teaches that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

We can see the six branches of the candlestick, one branch opposite another (Exodus 25:32) and fed by the central conduit of the Holy Spirit, in the prophesy of Isaiah :

"Rested on him hath the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and fear of Jehovah" (Isaiah 11:2)

"and thou hast made its seven lamps and hath caused its lights to go up and it hath given light over-against its front" for Thy word shall be a light to my path and a lamp to my feet.

The golden altar of perfume, which Moses was commanded to put 'before the ark of the testimony with the veil over it', (Exodus 40:3) - that is the curtain to separate the holiest place where the ark rests, from the holy place, - represents our emotions which enable us to carry forth the thoughts of the mind and the strength of the will into action. The perfume which rises up to God is pleasing to Him if it is uniquely made as commanded for this purpose only: our prayers, taught by Jesus the Word of God, rise to God as sweet incense. for the censer is placed on the golden altar which is before the throne. (Revelation 8:3)

Thou shalt love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all thy soul and with all thy might. (Deuteronomy 6:5)

The details for making the tabernacle are so clear and precise, instructions that will not be deviated from. This is the perfect design of the human body also, with its amazing structure of bones and veins and arteries and flesh and skin. How can we not wonder at the brilliance of the human body and not worship the creator, our God, who has made heaven and earth and all things in them?

Surely I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Thou knit me together in my mother's womb.

The miracle of the growth of a baby in all its detail in the womb is astonishing.

For such a work as the Tabernacle, God gave wisdom and understanding and knowledge to Bezeleel and Aholiab even as in Isaiah 11:2-3 in the prophesy about Jesus:

Rested on him hath the Spirit of Jehovah, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and fear of Jehovah.

Note also the willingness of the hearts of the people to give to the work of the God in the provision for all that was needed for the tabernacle. So also should it be with the church of God, that none should be in need. So much is given that those working to make the Tabernacle had to come to Moses and request that he command the people to stop bringing to the work as there was too much!

Would that such generosity, such reverence of God, such a longing to give to Him would abound in the church today.

Psalm 22 prophesies the suffering of Jesus at the crucifixion and in the synchronising of readings Jesus suffers in the garden at Gethsemene, the garden echoing the garden where Adam and Eve rejected God and disobeyed His clear command, but Jesus, the second Adam, praying that this cup might be taken from Him, says, Yet not my will, but yours be done.

How terrible that Judas betrays Jesus with a kiss, a sign of the bond of love and honour, of worship - Serve ye Jehovah with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Chosen One, lest he be angry and ye lose the way, when His anger burneth but a little, O the happiness of all trusting in Him! (Psalm 2:11-12)

Judas rejected every gesture of love towards him shown by Jesus, even dipping his hand in the same bowl as Jesus at the last Passover meal, a sign of intimacy and friendship, even knowing that Jesus knew that Judas would betray him but not turning from his decision to do so. For the sake of 30 silverlings? For his anger against Jesus and rejection of Him because Jesus was so different from him and spoke and acted with grace and truth.

What happens to the human heart when it will not soften before the love of God?

What causes us to close our minds to Him, to reject Him, to seek a life without Him?

The fool says in his heart, there is no God. How terrible to go it alone. What can one give for the soul? What good is it if we gain the whole world but lose our soul? Trust in Him with all your heart and forget not all His benefits. He is worthy of your life, your soul, your all, To whom should we go? You have the words of eternal life. (John 6:68)

What a contrast between the woman who anointed Jesus with the very precious ointment, and Judas Iscariot who goes to the chief priests and asks what they will give him to deliver Jesus up to them, and accepts 30 silverlings.

She will be remembered "wherever this good news may be proclaimed in the whole world, what this one did shall also be spoken of - for a memorial of her."

Of Judas he says"Son of Man doth indeed go, as it hath been written concerning him but woe to that aman through whom the Son of Man is delivered up! good it were for him if that man had not been born."

It would seem that the tipping point for Judas is the waste, as he perceives it, of this very expensive ointment, "which could have been sold for much and given to the poor" Matthew does not attribute these words to Judas, but John does in his gospel and adds that Judas didn't say this because he cared about the poor but because he held the common purse and stole from it.

Thou cannot serve God and Mammon. Beware the hold that money can have on us and our decisions, indeed our very life.

The chief priests and the scribes and the elders to the people gather together at the court of the chief priest called Caiaphas and they consulted together that they might take Jesus by guile and kill him and they said, "Not at the feast, that there may not be a tumult among the people"

The time they plan to avoid is the very time in which it will happen for God does not follow man's plans but His own in working out his purposes within our history. Jesus will be the Passover lamb and will die at the time of the evening sacrifice.

God is a God of justice and of mercy. While his righteous anger against the people he had brought out of Egypt who, in the absence of Moses had pressed Aaron to make them gods to go before them, demanded that He consume them and make Moses become a great nation, yet Moses pleads with God to relent from harming His people.

He reasons with God as an advocate for the people, that the Egyptians would think that He had brought the people out in order to slay them among the mountains. Moses reminds God of his promise to Abraham, Isaac and Israel, "thy servants", that he would multipy their seed as stars of the heavens and all this land, he would give to their seed.

And God repenteth of the evil which he hath spoken of doing to His people.

Those who say that God is immutable, that He does not change, are wrong.

God is a God of relationship, and He changes His mind when persuaded by righteous argument, to repent from the evil he intended. This is a God of mercy who longs to do good for His people.

While Jonah was a man of justice who wanted God to destroy the people of Nineveh because of their great evil, but God is love, and wants people everywhere to repent and to come to a knowledge of the truth, that He is God and there is no other.

Moses so loves the people of God that while he knows of their evil, he pleads for them and asks God to take away their sin and if not, blot me out of Thy book which thou hast written. He is a man of mercy.

How much we see of Jesus in this servant of God, Moses, who for the sake of the children of Israel, offers his own life in their place. What great love is this! Moses is angry and grinds the golden calf to dust and pours it on the water which he makes the people drink, yet he goes back to God to plead for them that God will not destroy them.

Jesus fulfilled this mercy by offering HImself in our place, for God is not willing that any should perish. For God so loved the world that He gave His only son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.

Jesus came into the world not to condemn it but to save it.

In the New Testament reading, the people who say that we go to heaven when we die do not know the truth from the Scriptures.

Jesus speaks of the time when he will separate the goats from the sheep and to those who lived righteously, looking after the hungry and thirsty, the stranger and those without clothes and the infirm and those in prison, he says: "Come ye, the blessed of my Father, inherit the reign which hath been prepared for you from the foundation of the world".

All of Chapter 25 speaks of this future time when Christians are judged according to how they have lived during their time on the earth, and rewarded or punished in order that those who are rewarded will rule and reign with Jesus to establish God's rule upon the earth, when God will put the nations under Jesus' feet (psalm 2) and the earth will be brought into the order God planned for it from the foundation of the world, for which time "all creation groans for the revealing of the sons of God (Romans 8:9)

Surely the god of this world has blinded the eyes, even of believers, so that this time when Satan is held chained for a thousand years and Jesus establishes his reign upon the earth (Revelation 20) is hidden from our knowledge, teaching and expectation.

Pray that God will open our minds and hearts to read the Holy Scriptures with wisdom and understanding, for we now have the Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth.

All chapter 29 of Exodus points to Jesus and what he has done for us before God.

In order to hallow us, for being priests to God, there had to be a sacrifice of a bull from the herd and two perfect rams. Jesus, in order to hallow us for being priests to God, gave himself, a man in his prime and perfect being, We lay our hands on the head of Jesus as Aaron and his sons did on the head of the bull and it was slaughtered before Jehovah.

The blood is put on the horns of the altar and the rest poured out at the foundation of the altar.

Surely this is pointing to, foreshadowing, the death of Jesus when his blood was on the cross and fell at the foot of the cross. The innards and liver and kidneys symbolise the emotions, the pain of rejection by man and God as Jesus carried our sins in his own body, and experienced the loneliness and isolation and mockery of the crowd and soldiers and the grief of Mary his mother and John who stayed beside him in his dying. But for the joy set before him he endured the shame of the cross and God saw the obedience of his perfect son and it was as a perfume, a sweet fragrance, acceptable to God,

It is easy to think of this sacrifice as being like the sacrifices made by the peoples who did not know God, who sacrificed burnt offerings to Baal and to foreign gods, and who sacrificed their sons in the fire, a thing which God did not command nor did it come into his mind, Jeremiah 19:5.

But this command to sacrifice the bull and the two perfect rams in order to hallow the priests was a foreshadowing of the sacrifice to come and the Son who died on the altar of the cross who gave himself to die: the sons of the sacrifices to Baal did not choose to die. It is hideous and horrific and sickening to think of the worship of these foreign Gods being appeased by the sacrifice of human sons. The Aztecs did likewise - it was not a thing done only in the deep in the far distant past.

The suffering Jesus experienced in his flesh was as a burnt offering, searing burning physical agony as a burning with fire, and outside of Jerusalem as the bull's flesh and skin were burned with fire at the outside of the camp.

For such a Saviour as this, should we not give our life, our soul, our all?

The word "shittim" translated correctly by Young is a type of Acacia tree, the wood of which is known for its durability.

The ark in the Holiest of Holies was made of this wood and in it was placed the ten commandments, the law of God. The ark represents our hearts and God says there will be a time when He will write His law in our hearts.

In chapter 27, God gives His instructions for the altar, where the burnt sacrifices will be offered to God, also to be made of shittim wood. The altar of our lives where we give ourselves as a living sacrifice to the service of God, sacrifice which is obedience to His will and His laws.

The outer court is our bodies which are visible in the world with the symbolic meaning of the hangings, pillars, pegs and sockets, the astonishing physical structure of our bodies, visible to the world and fearfully and wonderfully made.

The children of Israel are to be commanded by Moses to bring pure beaten olive oil for the light to cause the lamp to go up continually, in the tent of meeting, at the outside of the veil,

It is to be tended by Aaron and his sons, from evening to morning.

This oil in the lamp is the light we need to make good decisions in life, to train our intellect to gain wisdom, to see the path we should walk on: for God's word is a light to our path and a lamp to our feet.

In the day we see by the light of the sun, but in the night we need the light of God's Spirit to illumine our way. There will be times when we cannot see clearly what to do: we are surrounded in confusion and darkness and difficulty. But God says that we must keep the light burning continually so that even in the darkness we are not lost.

Aaron and his sons are to have holy garments made: for honour and for beauty. We are called to bring honour to God and to be beautiful before him. As priests we should carry on our shoulders the names of the families we are part of, to remember them before God and on our hearts to bear the judgement of the sons of Israel before Jehovah continually. Our prayers for our families that God might bless and keep them, turn His face towards them and be gracious to them, to lift up His countenance upon them and grant them His peace. Our prayers for any sin or wrong doing that we may know of or not know of, we carry on our hearts and in prayer to God to be merciful to me a sinner and to those I pray for, in your justice remember mercy, Lord.

And as priests we are to wear on our foreheads Holy to Jehovah that even the holy gifts we give to God, which are set apart for him, require us to remember before God that everything in heaven and earth is yours and of your own do we give you. May there be no pride or pomposity or showing off, as the Pharisees did who love to be seen, when we offer our gifts to God.

"You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God and they will reign on the earth" (Revelation 5:10)

"Ye yourselves, as living stones, are built up, a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to bring up spiritual sacrifice acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 2:5)

"...you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of HIm who has called you out of darkness into his marvellous light. (I Peter 2:9)

"You shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation." (Exodus 19:6)

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God wants to live amongst His people. He commanded Moses to make the tabernacle so that He could tabernacle in the midst of the community of the Hebrews, the children of Israel.

God's desire, repeated throughout Scripture, is that "they will be my people and I will be their God"

The tabernacle may be seen as a symbol of the human being, the outer court is the body, the inner court, the holy place, is the soul, made up of our emotions, our will and our minds, and the holy of holies beyond the curtain is our heart. God says he will write His law in our hearts.

In the Holy of Holies, in our heart, when we want to meet with God, he will fill us with his presence as with living water and from our hearts will flow this living water towards others. It is the living water of love which heals and restores and tenderly cares for and protects and does all good things on this earth.

The Holy Spirit convicts of sin, of righteousness and of judgment. Jesus in Matthew 23 confronts the Scribes and Pharisees and tells them directly their wrong doing. In Exodus 23, God tells the people how they must live in society with justice and righteousness and gives many examples of what the people must not do. Psalm 19 declares the honour of God, and that nothing is hid from His heat, His righteousness and his judgment are in His hands for he is the maker of heaven and earth and all that is in them. Proverbs 6 says that the thief who steals to fill his soul when he is hungry is not despised but judgment requires him to repay sevenfold.