Tag: Exodus 25

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Exodus 25 Listen: (4:20) Read: Luke 7 Listen: (7:14)

Links for this weekend’s readings:

Read: Exodus 26 Listen: (4:18) Read: Luke 8 Listen: (8:09)
Read: Exodus 27 Listen: (2:52) Read: Luke 9 Listen: (8:05)

Scripture Focus: Exodus 25.19-22

19 Make one cherub on one end and the second cherub on the other; make the cherubim of one piece with the cover, at the two ends. 20 The cherubim are to have their wings spread upward, overshadowing the cover with them. The cherubim are to face each other, looking toward the cover. 21 Place the cover on top of the ark and put in the ark the tablets of the covenant law that I will give you. 22 There, above the cover between the two cherubim that are over the ark of the covenant law, I will meet with you and give you all my commands for the Israelites.

Reflection: At The Mercy Seat

By John Tillman

The presence of the Lord went with Israel from the time they left Egypt. The pillar of cloud and fire was the visible sign of God’s presence.

In the instructions for the Ark of the Covenant, God defined a new physical representation of God’s presence. The Spirit of God would “rest” or sit above the mercy seat between the wings of the angels on the cover of the Ark.

The Ark was the centerpiece of the Tabernacle and the liturgy of worship that began in the wilderness journey. Before this time, followers of God sacrificed to him wherever they were, building altars and offering worship in place after place, even in foreign lands. The Tabernacle and the Ark represented a shift. God was still God out on the hilltops and under every spreading tree. But after the Ark and Tabernacle, God called all the people to worship under one roof, at one place, and in one specific way.

The Ark’s mercy seat was a throne for God’s presence. At the mercy seat, God’s people, represented by Moses, Aaron, and the prophets to follow, met with God. Moses met with God for guidance, wisdom, and to seek God’s will. Aaron and the priests met with God to confess and atone for their own sins and the sins of the people.

The access to the Ark was tightly controlled. Very few people ever directly entered God’s presence there. But today, every follower of Jesus has this level of access. Jesus made a new covenant that tore open the curtain hiding the mercy seat.

Instead of a gold-covered lid, Christ’s mercy seat is a blood-soaked hilltop. Instead of hovering between angels’ wings, Jesus hung between two thieves. Instead of us bringing blood to atone for our sin, the atoning work is finished in Jesus. Instead of a representative going to the mercy seat once a year, we can go directly to him at any time.

Through the Holy Spirit, go to Christ’s mercy seat today. Like Moses, speak to God face to face.

Make Jesus the centerpiece of your daily and weekly liturgy of worship. Find forgiveness and mercy. Find friendship and acceptance. Find guidance and wisdom. At Christ’s mercy seat, fulfill your priestly and prophetic role. Confess the sins of your nation, then speak to your community the commands and wisdom of Jesus.

Divine Hours Prayer: A Reading

Then, speaking to all, he said, “If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross every day and follow me.” — Luke 9.23

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle.

Read more: Mercy Seat and Manger

The mercy seat and the manger represent God’s throne. In the gold-covered room, we glimpse his glory and worth. In the humble manger, he shows us ours.

Mercy Seat and Manger — Readers’ Choice

Read more: Bread and Oil

In the Tabernacle and the Temples, only priests could eat the bread or tend the lamps. But Jesus tore down the curtains and barriers.

Bread and Oil

Scripture Focus: Exodus 25.23, 30
23 “Make a table of acacia wood—two cubits long, a cubit wide and a cubit and a half high. 24 Overlay it with pure gold and make a gold molding around it…30 Put the bread of the Presence on this table to be before me at all times. 

Exodus 27.20-21
20 “Command the Israelites to bring you clear oil of pressed olives for the light so that the lamps may be kept burning. 21 In the tent of meeting, outside the curtain that shields the ark of the covenant law, Aaron and his sons are to keep the lamps burning before the Lord from evening till morning. This is to be a lasting ordinance among the Israelites for the generations to come.

Reflection: Bread and Oil
By John Tillman

Every ordinance and ornamentation in the Tabernacle, and in the Temples that followed it, were weighty not just with gold but with symbolism.

We will focus on two—oil and bread. The oil and the bread are both, in their own way, symbols of God’s presence.

The lampstands and the oil were instrumental in shining out the light of God’s presence into the courtyard. Isaiah and John both tell us that, eventually in Heaven, the Lord will be our “everlasting light” and no lamps will be needed for there will be no more night. (Isaiah 60.19-20; Revelation 22.5) 

Like Israel, we aren’t there yet. We live in the shadowy now, where night is always coming and shadows grow long. We live in a world that needs light.

The bread is symbolic of God as the source of life. Jesus was likely thinking of this bread when he said that he was the bread of life, the true manna from heaven. (John 6.57-58) Many disciples left Jesus because of this difficult teaching, but Peter recognized and explained that it was Jesus’ teachings, the words that he gave them, that were life.

For the priests and the people, bread represented that God’s words were the sustenance of life that the community needed. As Jesus would say to Satan in the desert, we live by words from the mouth of God. The lamps, faithfully tended and lit each evening, represented that God’s light was with them in the darkness. 

In the Tabernacle and the Temples, only priests could eat the bread or tend the lamps. But Jesus tore down the curtains and barriers. We are each a temple of the Holy Spirit. We are all priests serving under Jesus, our high priest. 

The bread and the oil remind us that we have a responsibility to to partake of the wisdom of God so we may shine in the darkness. 

We are both eligible to stand in the light and responsible to shine it.
We are eligible to partake in the bread and to waft its fragrance to others and invite them in.

We must keep our lamps lit, faithfully bringing the oil.
We must partake in the bread that is true life, the word of God.

We need to make Jesus’ words our food. He is the true bread of life. 

“Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” (John 6.68)

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence
May God be merciful to us and bless us, show us the light of his countenance and come to us. — Psalm 67.1

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle.

Today’s Reading
Exodus 25 (Listen 4:20)
Luke 7 (Listen 7:14)

Read more about Manna or the Man?
What are our motives for pursuing Jesus? Do we want the man or just the manna?

Manna or the Man?

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