Clean Hearts

Exodus 38

All this talk about building makes me want to go to Home Depot or something. We are reading the continuation of the building of the tabernacle. We will see that there are a couple of other items of furniture that need to be made as well as the walls of the court of meeting and the materials used in the tabernacle. We are coming to the last few chapters of Exodus and will be moving to Leviticus. It could seem somewhat overwhelming when getting into the books of the law but they do serve a purpose and can encourage the student to grasp more of God’s great plan for mankind.

The Altar of Burnt Offerings

Yesterday we read and learned about the altar used for incense but now we are going to look at another altar used for the sacrifices. We read about this and learned a little about it in chapter 27. It would be made with wood and then overlaid with bronze around the whole thing. The purpose of the altar was for the sacrifice of the animals for the forgiveness of sins. Israel would bring different animals (sheep, goats, bulls, doves) to be sacrificed before God. The altar was not necessarily a good thing. Something had to die, blood had to be shed for the forgiveness of ones sins. Death was on the altar for life of someone to live.

The Bronze Basin

 This basin was used to hold water was first mentioned in chapter 30. There is more mentioned in that chapter then in this one. Aaron and his sons, the priests, were to use the water in the basin to wash their hands and feet in order for them to be clean to offer the sacrifices to God. This was the first thing an individual needed to do after entering the only entrance to the tent. The only thing that chapter 38 shares about the bronze basins were that they were given by women who used the highly polished bronze as a mirror. During this time there was not a mirror like what we have today, reflective glass. Instead they would use bronze that was finely polished which acted as a mirror.

Materials used for the tabernacle

We recently went to Magic Mt. as a group for the Jr. High Ministry. I was in line for Colossus and read a sign that said it was made with over some crazy amount of nails. It was ridiculous the amount of nails that would have been used. When it is all said and done you can believe the amount because of the size of the roller-coaster.  In verses 24-31 we see the amount of silver, gold, and bronze that was given to the building of the tabernacle. Scholars have added up what the amount of a shekel and a talent is. The amount of gold used alone in the tabernacle was 2,210.65 pounds. The amount of silver used was 7,601 pounds.  The amount of bronze used was 5,350 pounds. That is a lot of silver, gold, and bronze used in this building. The cool thing is that all of it was given by the people.

We come with clean hands. 

Israel needed to come clean before God in order to offer the sacrifice for the atonement of sin.  Today we do not need to clean our hands and feet before offering a sacrifice to God.We should clean our hands before we eat and wash our feet daily. We are saved as dirty wretched sinners and are considered cleansed by the blood of Christ. The sacrifices for Israel was how they would be considered clean (Hebrews 9:22). We do not go and kill a goat because we said something that we shouldn’t. We do go and get a sheep ready because we lied. We have a sacrifice that pleased the Lord forever. That was His Son, Jesus Christ (1st John 2:2).