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Jesus in the Tabernacle VIII The last thing described in the tabernacle instructions in Exodus, is the bronze basin that sits in the courtyard. It’s a large basin made of bronze, on a stand, that is placed between the tent of meeting and the altar. Essentially that means that as you enter the courtyard you… Continue reading The Sea
Jesus in the Tabernacle VII We turn to the altar for incense in Exodus 30. This slightly complicates the flow I’d described from inside to outside, as we step back from the courtyard—perhaps with the high priest we’ve just met—into the holy place to a new, third, item. They are instructed to make a small… Continue reading Let Incense Arise
It’s a dreary winter Saturday. Frost has limned the limbs of trees with a stark outline against the grey sky. The house is slow and lazy as we sleep and read and emerge into the world. A small bowl of hastily made dough has been waiting overnight, doubling in size as it prepares itself for… Continue reading The Story of Bread
Jesus in the Tabernacle VI Next the narrative moves through two sections I included earlier in this series, the boundaries of the courtyard and then the oil to burn in the lampstand. The instructions for the construction of the tabernacle then seem to be interrupted in Exodus 28 for a digression on the clothing of… Continue reading High Priest’s Clothes
Jesus in the Tabernacle III Next, Moses is instructed to build the lampstand, which sits in the holy place with the table for bread. The lampstand is shaped like a styilsed almond tree. Picture a menorah, but with the cup each like an almond flower, seven of them. It is made of pure, hammered gold… Continue reading The Lampstand
Jesus in the Tabernacle II The tabernacle instructions continue with a table made of the ubiqutuous Acacia, of tabernacle wood. This is again overlaid with gold with a moulding around the edge (Exodus 25). It also has rings to allow it to be carried with poles. The tabernacle furniture is not for touching in the… Continue reading The Table of Bread
Over the next eight weeks I’m going to explore the tabernacle in Exodus and the way we find Christ represented in it. The conviction that this is appropriate comes first, because Jesus is described as ‘tabernacling’ amongst us in the incarnation (John 1), second because he refers to himself as the Temple—a later, larger, developed… Continue reading The Ark of the Covenant
The seed that dies is the one that bears fruit. That’s what Jesus said in John 12, Truly, truly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. John 12.24 A biologist might take issue with us saying… Continue reading Bearing Fruit
We don’t like the ten plagues in Exodus, they feel like exactly the sort of thing we secretly wish wasn’t in the Old Testament because they afflict our innate sense of fairness and our unexpressed desire for God to be kind to everyone—even those who hate and afflict his people. Our affections there are out… Continue reading Thinking about Plagues
The Exodus 'motif' is one the Bible's recurring patterns or 'jokes.' We're supposed to spot it when we see it. The Biblical authors often play with the literary shapes they employ and they want us to notice when they subvert our expectations as well as use them. Jonah is a case in point: the author… Continue reading Jonah’s Backwards Exodus
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