CHAPTER 25 Feb.14 
Preparations to Make the Tabernacle
Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 2Speak to the children of Israel, that they take an offering for Me. From everyone whose heart makes him willing you shall take My offering. 3This is the offering which you shall take from them: gold, silver, brass, 4blue, purple, scarlet, fine linen, goats’ hair, 5rams’ skins dyed red, sea cow hides, acacia wood, 6oil for the light, spices for the anointing oil and for the sweet incense, 7onyx stones, and stones to be set for the ephod and for the breastplate. 8Let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them. 9According to all that I show you, the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all of its furniture, even so you shall make it.
The Ark
10They shall make an ark of acacia wood. Its length shall be two and a half cubits, its breadth a cubit and a half, and a cubit and a half its height. 11You shall overlay it with pure gold. You shall overlay it inside and outside, and you shall make a gold moulding around it. 12You shall cast four rings of gold for it, and put them in its four feet. Two rings shall be on the one side of it, and two rings on the other side of it. 13You shall make poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold. 14You shall put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark to carry the ark. 15The poles shall be in the rings of the ark. They shall not be taken from it. 16You shall put the testimony which I shall give you into the ark. 17You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold. Two and a half cubits shall be its length, and a cubit and a half its breadth. 18You shall make two cherubim of hammered gold. You shall make them at the two ends of the mercy seat. 19Make one cherub at the one end, and one cherub at the other end. You shall make the cherubim on its two ends of one piece with the mercy seat. 20The cherubim shall spread out their wings upward, covering the mercy seat with their wings, with their faces toward one another. The faces of the cherubim shall be toward the mercy seat. 21You shall put the mercy seat on top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the testimony that I will give you. 22There I will meet with you, and I will tell you from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are on the ark of the testimony, all that I command you for the children of Israel.
The Table of Shewbread
23You shall make a table of acacia wood. Two cubits shall be its length, and a cubit its breadth, and one and a half cubits its height. 24You shall overlay it with pure gold, and make a gold moulding around it. 25You shall make a rim of a handbreadth around it. You shall make a golden moulding on its rim around it. 26You shall make four rings of gold for it, and put the rings in the four corners that are on its four feet. 27The rings shall be close to the rim, for places for the poles to carry the table. 28You shall make the poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold, that the table may be carried with them. 29You shall make its dishes, its spoons, its ladles, and its bowls to pour out offerings with. You shall make them of pure gold. 30You shall set bread of the presence on the table before me always.
The Lampstand
31You shall make a lampstand of pure gold. Of hammered work shall the lampstand be made, even its base, its shaft, its cups, its buds, and its flowers, shall be of one piece with it. 32There shall be six branches going out of its sides: three branches of the lampstand out of its one side, and three branches of the lampstand out of its other side; 33three cups made like almond blossoms in one branch, a bud and a flower; and three cups made like almond blossoms in the other branch, a bud and a flower, so for the six branches going out of the lampstand; 34and in the lampstand four cups made like almond blossoms, its buds and its flowers; 35and a bud under two branches of one piece with it, and a bud under two branches of one piece with it, and a bud under two branches of one piece with it, for the six branches going out of the lampstand. 36Their buds and their branches shall be of one piece with it, all of it one beaten work of pure gold. 37You shall make its lamps seven, and they shall light its lamps to give light to the space in front of it. 38Its snuffers and its snuff dishes shall be of pure gold. 39It shall be made of a talent of pure gold, with all these accessories. 40See that you make them after their pattern, which has been shown to you on the mountain.

Commentary

25:2 Willing hearted giving to God is important- the giving must never be from a sense of unavoidable obligation. In appealing for generosity to our poorer brethren, Paul uses this idea- speaking of how a willing heart in a cheerful giver is so loved by God (2 Cor. 8:19; 9:7).
25:21 The blood of atonement was sprinkled each year upon the top of the ark, the place known as “the mercy seat” or ‘atonement cover’. This blood represented the blood of Christ. The Angel cherubim shadowed the blood on the cover, representing how the Angels watched over Christ in His sacrifice and especially upon the cross. Hence His temptation to call Angels to deliver Him from it (Mt. 26:53). Peter alludes to this in saying that the Angels intently look down upon the things of the blood of Christ (1 Pet. 1:12). Pagan religions typically had a throne in their temples, on which their God sat. The throne of the true God was empty- there was a “mercy seat”, but no god or idol sat upon it. Faith is about believing in the God who cannot be seen (Heb. 11:1,2), and whose saving mercy to us is confirmed in the blood of His Son.
25:22 God meets with us over the blood of Christ, and from there His voice is heard. Hence Heb. 12:18-29 likens the blood of Christ to a huge voice; we cannot imagine Him there on the cross and be passive, we hear, as it were, God’s voice for us. This is why we must regularly remember Christ on the cross, replaying the scene continually before our eyes. For there we hear God’s voice and we have our meeting with Him. The breaking of bread service is a practical help to this end.
25:36 The candlestick represents the assembly of believers (Rev. 1:20). It was made of beaten work, representing how all those in the true church will be beaten into a shape through which they can be lights for God.
25:38 Gold wasn’t the strongest or most practical material for these instruments. But it represents faith (1 Pet. 1:7). We aren’t the best instruments for God to use in His house, but He prefers to use the soft and those who aren’t humanly qualified for His work- because He works by faith in us, and by our faith in Him rather than our human strength.