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Shabbat Shalom, this week’s parasha is Terumah, which means, “contributions,” and covers Exodus 25:1-27:19. This passage discusses the building of the tent of meeting. This is where God is going to speak to our people. However, before that happens, the materials to build it must be acquired. God tells Moses to take a contribution from every man whose heart moves him and that Moses will receive the contribution for God. The list for this is as follows: Gold, silver, bronze, blue and purple scarlet yarns, fine-twined linen, goats hair, tanned rams skins, goatskins, porpoise skins, acacia wood, oil for lamps, spices for anointing oil, fragrant incense, onyx stones, precious stones for the ephod setting and breastplate. Moses is to make God a sanctuary to Adonai’s exact specifications so He can dwell among them.
The first thing that God tells Moses to build is the Ark of the Covenant. It is to be built of acacia wood and is to be overlaid with pure gold, on the inside and out. 4 rings are attached, 2 on either side, and poles to be put inside the rings to carry the Ark. The poles are not to be taken out. Inside the Ark, sit the stone tablets of the Commandments. On top of the Ark of the Covenant is the mercy seat. On that are 2 cherubim, made of gold, facing each other with their wings spread out overshadowing the mercy seat. This is the place where God will speak to Moses. The Ark was made mobile to signify that God will move with the people of Israel. He is not going to leave them and will be with them wherever they go. I can imagine, that to our people, this is a comfort knowing that God will be with them. Of course, Adonai has never left His people; God doesn’t need the Ark to talk to His people, he used a bush when talking to Moses. So we know that there is a greater meaning that He wants us to take from it.
Next is the Table for Showbread of the Presence, which is made of acacia wood and overlaid in gold. This also will have rings and poles so that it can be carried. The plates and dishes on it are made only of gold. The priests are to regularly set bread on the table. The bread that was to be placed were 12 loaves, to signify the 12 tribes. Then, in the same room was the Golden Lampstand, made of pure gold. This lampstand weighed around 75 lbs. In today’s dollars, this would be worth around $2 million. It is to always be lit to give light to what is in front of it. The table of the Showbread with the 12 loaves was in front of it. Showbread literally translates as, “bread of faces,” so this is a beautiful description of how there was 1 loaf of bread representing each of the tribes of Israel.
In chapter 26, the tabernacle, or the actual tent, is described. It is split into 2 sections, the Most Holy Place and the Holy Place. In the Most Holy Place was the Ark of the Covenant separated from the Holy Place by a curtain of fine-twined linen with 2 cherubim on it. In the Holy Place were the table of the Showbread, Golden Lampstand, and the Altar of Incense. There are no walls, but a wooden frame of acacia. Then, covering the frame, layers of curtains of goat’s hair and tanned ram skins and goat skins. All of the wood in the Most Holy Place is overlaid with gold and connected together with bars of wood overlaid with gold. After each item is mentioned, God tells Moses to do this according to the plan that Moses was shown on the mountain.
Turning to the outer court area, in chapter 27, we find that the bronze altar is made of acacia wood and overlaid with bronze. This is where the priests will offer the sacrifices that God commands Israel to bring to Him. The court of the tabernacle is overlaid with gold, bronze and silver.
The tent of meeting is just a shadow of the heavenly place of God. Each piece that is to be made holds meaning and significance that sometimes we do not see. They were to point to a greater heavenly place, a greater covenant through Yeshua. Jeremiah 31:31 says, “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah…”.
Hebrews 9:11-14 says, “So Yeshua has now become the High Priest over all the good things that have come. He has entered that greater, more perfect Tent in heaven, which was not made by human hands and is not part of this created world. With his own blood—not the blood of goats and calves—he entered the Most Holy Place once for all time and secured our redemption forever. Under the old system, the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer could cleanse people’s bodies from ceremonial impurity. Just think how much more the blood of Yeshua will purify our consciences from sinful deeds so that we can worship the living God. For by the power of the eternal Spirit, Yeshua offered himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for our sins.”