Exodus 25:8
And they are to make a sanctuary for Me, so that I may dwell among them.
Sermons
A Divine Plan for BuildingGreat ThoughtsExodus 25:1-9
Badgers' SkinsW. Brown.Exodus 25:1-9
BrassW. Brown.Exodus 25:1-9
Design and Use of the Ceremonial LawE. W. Hengstenberg, D. D.Exodus 25:1-9
Gifts of Materials for the Construction of the TabernacleW. Brown.Exodus 25:1-9
Goats' HairW. Brown.Exodus 25:1-9
God Dwelling with MenA. Raleigh, D. D.Exodus 25:1-9
GoldW. Brown.Exodus 25:1-9
Means of InterpretationE. E. Atwater.Exodus 25:1-9
Nature and Design of the TabernacleR. Newton, D. D.Exodus 25:1-9
Offerings Accompanied with DevotionS. S. ChronicleExodus 25:1-9
Rams' SkinsW. Brown.Exodus 25:1-9
SilverW. Brown.Exodus 25:1-9
Symbolism of ColourE. E. Atwater.Exodus 25:1-9
Symbolism of MineralsE. E. Atwater.Exodus 25:1-9
The Basis of SymbolismE. P. Humphrey, D. D.Exodus 25:1-9
The ColoursE. F. Willis, M. A.Exodus 25:1-9
The Divine Purpose in the Erection of a TabernacleJ. Ridgeway, M. A.Exodus 25:1-9
The Edifice of the TabernacleE. E. Atwater.Exodus 25:1-9
The Holy TentT. Champness.Exodus 25:1-9
The Oneness of the TabernacleH. Macmillan, D. D.Exodus 25:1-9
The Pocket ConvertedExodus 25:1-9
The Rearing of the Lord's SanctuaryJ. Urquhart Exodus 25:1-9
The TabernacleW. Roberts, M. A.Exodus 25:1-9
The Tabernacle a Symbol of Holier ThingsR. E. Sears.Exodus 25:1-9
The Tabernacle a TentG. Rodgers.Exodus 25:1-9
The Tabernacle and PriesthoodD. C. Hughes, M. A.Exodus 25:1-9
The Tabernacle EntireW. Mudge.Exodus 25:1-9
The Tabernacle of the TestimonyW. Seaton.Exodus 25:1-9
Typical Import of MaterialsH. W. Soltau.Exodus 25:1-9
The Command to Build a SanctuaryJ. Orr Exodus 25:1-10
God's Dwelling-Place Among His PeopleD. Young Exodus 25:8, 9














God announces to Israel that he is about to take up his abode in their midst, and that various offerings are to be used in the construction of a suitable dwelling-place. Observe here -

I. JEHOVAH'S CONDESCENDING REGARD FOR THE WANTS OF ISRAEL. This tabernacle with all its belongings was not constructed for any real need that Jehovah had of it. The people had to construct tents for themselves because they needed them, and the making of a tent for Jehovah was also in condescending compliance with their need. This thought is brought out still more clearly by the parallel reference to the incarnation in John 1:14, where it is said that the Word tabernacled among us. Something in the shape of an ever visible dwelling-place of God was given to the people, that thus they might comfort their hearts with the assurance that he was constantly near them, sympathising with them in their changing circumstances and requirements. The people had been compelled to go to Sinai, there to be impressed with the majesty of God and receive his commandments; but at Sinai they could not stay. With all its glories and revelations, it was but a halting place on the way to Canaan. God had indeed already given an assurance of his daily providence in the manna; but he now added a further sign than which none could be more expressive, none more illustrative of the desire of God to adapt himself to the spiritual blindness and infirmity of men. He took for himself a tent like the rest of the travellers through the wilderness. Where a dwelling place is we look for an inhabitant, and especially where it is manifestly kept in order and regularly attended to. If at any moment an Israelite was in doubt whether God was indeed with the people, here through the sight of the tabernacle was his readiest resource to expel all doubt. God's own house with its services and attendants was continually before him to rebuke and remove his unbelief.

II. THOUGH JEHOVAH CONDESCENDED TO DWELL IN A TENT, YET THAT TENT HAD TO BE A HOLY PLACE. The condescension was simply a condescension in circumstances. God himself remained the same. He who was holy and jealous, when removed to a distance from the people, amid the clouds and sounds of Sinai, was not the least altered as to his vigilant holiness by coming down to the apparent limitations of a tent. Coarse and humble though the tent appears, there is an unspeakably glorious inhabitant within whose presence exalts and sanctifies the tent. God himself thus furnishes an illustration of the truth that those who humble themselves shall be exalted. He needs not to preserve his glory by extraneous and vulgar pomps. And just because this dwelling-place of God was a tent, the people needed to remember its function with peculiar carefulness. Though it was only a tent, it was God's tent. A very mean tent, that in ordinary circumstances would excite no attention, would be carefully guarded if the king happened for a night to make his abode therein.

III. THIS HOLINESS WAS MADE CONSPICUOUS BY THE CHARACTER AND FORM OF THE TABERNACLE AND ITS FURNITURE. Just imagine if, instead of prescribing an exact pattern for everything, God had left the people' to make any sort of structure they liked. In the first place there would hardly have been unanimity. Those who might have been very willing and united in the bestowal of raw material would at once have split asunder in attempting to settle how the material was to be used. Then, even if a majority had proceeded to action, they would probably have introduced something idolatrous, assuredly something that savoured rather of human error than Divine truth; and the error would have been none the less because those who committed it, committed it in a spirit of cordial devotion to what they believed was best. What an exposure is thus made of the plausible notion that if only men are in earnest, God will accept the will for the deed! As to the supply of the raw material, God stipulated for free will there - perfect liberty either in giving or withholding. But the raw material once gathered, the freedom of the givers was at an end. God himself supplied the moulds in which the gifts were to flow. A dwelling-place for God must supply all his wants for the time being. He must have just exactly those ordinances of worship and those channels of Divine distribution which he deems best. God's wants, as we see more and more from a careful study of the Scriptures, are not as man's wants; and therefore we must wait humbly for him to reveal what it is impossible for man to conjecture. The materials for the tabernacle and the instruments thereof were human and earthly, but the patterns are Divine and heavenly. We know not into what beautiful, glorious, and serviceable forms man and his belongings may be wrought, if only he will humbly and attentively wait for directions from God above. These Israelites, when all was finished according to the pattern in the mount, had then something to show which would make an impression on men of the right sort in the outside world. Here was an answer to the question, "Where is now your God?" Visible he himself is not; but here is a dwelling-place not in anything constructed after art and man's device, but entirely of Divine direction. All our institutions are nothing unless we can trace them to the inspiration and control of God. - Y.

Their pattern, which was shewed thee in the mount.
I. THAT NOTHING IS TOO TRIVIAL FOR GOD TO NOTICE.

II. THAT WE SHOULD SPEAK TO GOD ABOUT ORDINARY WORK, EVEN IN OUR SEASONS OF HIGHEST SPIRITUAL COMMUNION.

III. THAT EVEN SLIGHT DEVIATIONS FROM GOD'S DIRECTIONS ARE FORBIDDEN.

IV. THAT WHAT WE ARE CALLED UPON TO DO HAS FAR MORE DEPENDING UPON IT THAN WE SUPPOSE.

(A. Rowland, LL. B.)

Homilist.
I. THE NECESSITY OF A DELIBERATE PURPOSE IN LIFE. When an architect, or builder, or engineer, undertakes the construction of a house, the first thing he does is to get perfect his plans, and to be sure they are correct, so that he knows well what the future house, or bridge, or railway, will be like. If he went at his work in a haphazard manner, it would end in failure and disappointment. So with life.

II. THIS PURPOSE OF LIFE SHOULD BE FORMED ON THE MODEL SHOWN US BY GOD.

1. The highest life is the holiest life, for it is nearest to the model set us by God.

2. The plan by which we are to mould our temporal concerns is already given us. Look at Mount Sinai for laws to obey; at the Mount of Olives for loving directions: at the Mount of Transfiguration for anticipation, hope of glory; at Mount Calvary for forgiven sin.

(Homilist.)

I. MOSES DID HIS WORK FROM A PLAN, AND DID NOT GET HIS PLAN FROM HIS WORK. Reality is prior to the show of itself. There are no planless seeds. A far-reaching plan is the best one. Calculation is better than caprice. We are wiser in the long reach of thought than in the short reach. We are lost in the woods because we have no room for a long look. You say life is short. Better live on the short arc of a long circle than describe a little circle with the same line. Immediate results are meagre results. Plan solidifies. Power is measurable by purpose. Shiftlessness is a name for aimlessness. To-morrow depends on to-day, but to-day depends on to-morrow also. Past and present sustain each other. Plan gives moral safeguard. Adam fell because he had nothing to do, and the first act in the redemptive scheme was to set him to work. Satan recruits his ranks from the vagrants. The apostles were working men. The drifting boat drifts down stream. Young aimlessness is the beginning of old iniquity. Employment is a subsidiary means of conversion. Character, purpose and apprenticeship are not far apart.

II. MOSES BROUGHT DOWN HIS PATTERN FROM THE MOUNT. There is a celestial way of doing earthly things. Earthly success is a quotation from overhead. Our ideals are from patterns in the mount. There is something in them we never put into them. Whence are our ideals? We have never seen a perfect thing. What do we mean by using the word? We must go with Moses to the mount for the answer. In nothing do men have so much faith as in their ideals, and there is nothing which it is so hard to explain. We do not make laws, but find them. We cannot enact truth any more than gravity. There may be a myth about Sinai, but it is one we were bound to invent if it never was reality. The problem of life is to make the ideal real. Once it was done in Galilee. The two meet in Jesus.

(C. H. Parkhurst, D. D.).

People
Israelites, Moses, Shoham
Places
Mount Sinai
Topics
Construct, Dwell, Holy, Midst, Present, Sanctuary, Tabernacled
Outline
1. What the Israelites were to offer for the building of the tabernacle
10. The dimensions of the ark
17. The mercy seat, with the cherubim
23. The table of show bread, with the furniture thereof
31. The golden candlestick, with the instruments thereof

Dictionary of Bible Themes
Exodus 25:8

     1680   types
     5340   house
     7021   church, OT anticipations
     7922   fellowship, with God
     9110   after-life

Exodus 25:1-9

     8421   equipping, physical

Exodus 25:1-16

     4528   trees

Exodus 25:3-9

     5399   luxury
     7459   tabernacle, in OT

Exodus 25:8-9

     5207   architecture
     5578   tents
     7382   house of God
     7438   sanctuary
     7474   Tent of Meeting
     8626   worship, places

Library
The Bread of the Presence
'Thou shalt set upon the table shew-bread before Me alway.'--EXODUS xxv. 30. I suspect that to many readers the term 'shew-bread' conveys little more meaning than if the Hebrew words had been lifted over into our version. The original expression, literally rendered, is 'bread of the face'; or, as the Revised Version has it in the margin, 'presence bread,' and the meaning of that singular designation is paraphrased and explained in my text: 'Thou shalt set upon the table, bread of the presence before
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Golden Lampstand
'Thou shalt make a candlestick of pure gold....' --EXODUS xxv. 31. If we could have followed the Jewish priest as he passed in his daily ministrations into the Inner Court, we should have seen that he first piled the incense on the altar which stood in its centre, and then turned to trim the lamps of the golden candlestick which flanked it on one side. Of course it was not a candlestick, as our versions misleadingly render the word. That was an article of furniture unknown in those days. It was a
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Eighth Day. Holiness and Indwelling.
And let them make me a holy place, that I may dwell among them.'--Ex. xxv. 8. 'And the tent shall be sanctified by my glory, and I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will be their God.'--Ex. xxix. 43, 45. The Presence of God makes holy, even when it descends but for a little while, as at Horeb, in the burning bush. How much more must that Presence make holy the place where it dwells, where it fixes its permanent abode! So much is this the case, that the place where God dwells
Andrew Murray—Holy in Christ

April the Thirteenth Pure Gold
"Thou shalt overlay it with pure gold.... And there I will meet with thee." --EXODUS xxv. 10-22. I must put my best into my preparations, and then the Lord will honour my work. My part is to be of "pure gold" if my God is to dwell within it. I must not satisfy myself with cheap flimsy and then assume that the Lord will be satisfied with it. He demands my very best as a condition of His enriching Presence. My prayers must be of "pure gold" if He is to meet me there. There must be nothing vulgar
John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year

Concerning Jonathan, one of the Sicarii, that Stirred up a Sedition in Cyrene, and was a False Accuser [Of the Innocent].
1. And now did the madness of the Sicarii, like a disease, reach as far as the cities of Cyrene; for one Jonathan, a vile person, and by trade a weaver, came thither and prevailed with no small number of the poorer sort to give ear to him; he also led them into the desert, upon promising them that he would show them signs and apparitions. And as for the other Jews of Cyrene, he concealed his knavery from them, and put tricks upon them; but those of the greatest dignity among them informed Catullus,
Flavius Josephus—The Wars of the Jews or History of the Destruction of Jerusalem

How Intent the Ruler Ought to be on Meditations in the Sacred Law.
But all this is duly executed by a ruler, if, inspired by the spirit of heavenly fear and love, he meditate daily on the precepts of Sacred Writ, that the words of Divine admonition may restore in him the power of solicitude and of provident circumspection with regard to the celestial life, which familiar intercourse with men continually destroys; and that one who is drawn to oldness of life by secular society may by the aspiration of compunction be ever renewed to love of the spiritual country.
Leo the Great—Writings of Leo the Great

Solomon's Temple Spiritualized
or, Gospel Light Fetched out of the Temple at Jerusalem, to Let us More Easily into the Glory of New Testament Truths. 'Thou son of man, shew the house to the house of Isreal;--shew them the form of the house, and the fashion thereof, and the goings out hereof, and the comings in thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the laws thereof.'--Ezekiel 43:10, 11 London: Printed for, and sold by George Larkin, at the Two Swans without Bishopgate,
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3

The Work of the Holy Spirit in Prophets and Apostles.
The work of the Holy Spirit in apostles and prophets is an entirely distinctive work. He imparts to apostles and prophets an especial gift for an especial purpose. We read in 1 Cor. xii. 4, 8-11, 28, 29, R. V., "Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.... For to one is given through the Spirit wisdom; and to another the word of knowledge, according to the same Spirit; to another faith, in the same Spirit; and to another gifts of healings, in the one Spirit; and to another workings
R. A. Torrey—The Person and Work of The Holy Spirit

The Kingdom Forming
Exodus Page Leviticus Page Deuteronomy Page EXODUS I. Pictorial Device. Originate one, or omit. II. III. IV. V. 1706 B.C. to 1490 B.C., making 216 years. VI. 1. 1 to 18. Israel Delivered. 2. 19 to 34. Israel Taught at Mount Sinai. 3. 35 to 40. Israel Prepared for Worship. VII. Chapter 20.2. VIII. God Delivering a Nation. IX. 12:13: "And when I see the blood I will pass over you." 15:11. X. 1. Bondage. 2. 3. Burning Bush. 7-11. 12. 14. Red Sea. 15. 16. Manna. 20. 25 and 35. The
Frank Nelson Palmer—A Bird's-Eye View of the Bible

The Word
The third way to escape the wrath and curse of God, and obtain the benefit of redemption by Christ, is the diligent use of ordinances, in particular, the word, sacraments, and prayer.' I begin with the best of these ordinances. The word . . . which effectually worketh in you that believe.' 1 Thess 2:13. What is meant by the word's working effectually? The word of God is said to work effectually when it has the good effect upon us for which it was appointed by God; when it works powerful illumination
Thomas Watson—The Ten Commandments

Man's Chief End
Q-I: WHAT IS THE CHIEF END OF MAN? A: Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him for ever. Here are two ends of life specified. 1: The glorifying of God. 2: The enjoying of God. I. The glorifying of God, I Pet 4:4: That God in all things may be glorified.' The glory of God is a silver thread which must run through all our actions. I Cor 10:01. Whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.' Everything works to some end in things natural and artificial;
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

An Advance Step in the Royal Programme
(Revelation, Chapters iv. and v.) "We are watching, we are waiting, For the bright prophetic day; When the shadows, weary shadows, From the world shall roll away. "We are watching, we are waiting, For the star that brings the day; When the night of sin shall vanish, And the shadows melt away. "We are watching, we are waiting, For the beauteous King of day; For the chiefest of ten thousand, For the Light, the Truth, the Way. "We are waiting for the morning, When the beauteous day is dawning, We are
by S. D. Gordon—Quiet Talks on the Crowned Christ of Revelation

Exodus
The book of Exodus--so named in the Greek version from the march of Israel out of Egypt--opens upon a scene of oppression very different from the prosperity and triumph in which Genesis had closed. Israel is being cruelly crushed by the new dynasty which has arisen in Egypt (i.) and the story of the book is the story of her redemption. Ultimately it is Israel's God that is her redeemer, but He operates largely by human means; and the first step is the preparation of a deliverer, Moses, whose parentage,
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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