[0:00] And really from Exodus right through to Matthew for being really broad this evening but thankfully just one chapter for us is enough for a base for us. We're carrying on our series looking at gardens throughout scripture and seeing how the theme of the garden is one that God uses to just to show his love and to show his care for his people. I think well you're going very abstract tonight. I don't see many gardens in chapter 25. Of course last two times we were in Genesis. We were in the Garden of Eden. Last week sadly we had to leave the garden with Adam and Eve in their fall, with the fall of Adam, with mankind falling into sin, with the covenant being broken by man. We found ourselves being expelled from the garden. We saw sin into the world. We saw the destruction, the reality, the pain of where and of what we are today become reality for us. And here we join back into scripture. We find ourselves here in Exodus and the people of God are gathered around and God in Exodus and the people of God. We find ourselves here in Exodus and the people of God. We find ourselves that we find ourselves in the garden. We find ourselves in the garden. We find ourselves in the garden.
[1:24] A hope is given to them. A hope is given to them. That he, in verse 8, that he will what? He will dwell in their midst. Verse 8, let them make a sanctuary that I may dwell in their midst. Our goal tonight, if that's the right word to you, is our hope tonight, is that together as we look just at this chapter, just as a base for us, we can see that through all the years of travel throughout the desert, throughout the wilderness, that God still appeared to his people and still dealt with his people in, we can say, a travelling garden.
[2:10] And that could be our title, perhaps this evening if we had a title. The travelling garden. But the sanctuary, the tabernacle as it moved and later on the temple when it was situated, the times the temples were situated, again and again we see that the tabernacle and the temples, they're all, in essence, they're all gardens. Or at least they were made to look like, or to look back onto, the garden. Now, a wee bit different perhaps tonight for us, because tonight we're going to take a very short, a very short tour, and this is not going to be a study into all the parts of the temple, all the parts of the tabernacle I should say. It's more just a short study and seeing how the tabernacle clearly was designed and given by God to remind the people that he is still with them.
[3:08] But also to remind them that they're no longer in Eden, that Eden is gone. The promise and the hope and the joy of Eden, the promise is still there but it's tainted.
[3:21] The promise is veiled. The hope is gone. The joy is gone. And now as these people, these exiles, travel in the wilderness, as they face all the confusion and pain and sin and backsliding, God again and again meets with them in this travelling garden.
[3:42] So with that in mind, we have to understand that as we approach this topic, there's no time in half an hour, 20 minutes. There's no time in ten sermons for us to fully cover this.
[3:52] And I know we always say this, but the hope this evening is, as we spend just a short time looking at this chapter, we can go away perhaps and have a starting point.
[4:06] Read the rest of the chapters. Read 25 down to 31. And again and again, as you read these five chapters, there's plenty more. But start here, verse 25 to 31, you'll see that the throwing back to Eden, the garden images are strong and are repeated again and again and again.
[4:26] But just to touch on a few this evening, God takes great care, doesn't he? We see that. He takes great care in the precision of this temple.
[4:37] He doesn't just give general commands. We see that. He gives specific commands. Very specific commands. As we begin the study, our mind should go back to one of the first things we said in Genesis.
[4:51] When God made the garden, how did he make it? Was it just cold and bland? Was it just useful? Just practical? No. God made the garden of Eden beautiful.
[5:04] He made it with care. He made it with real planning, precision and purpose. Of course he did. And here we see the repeat here that the temple and its furnishings, the temple and its objects, the temple and its whole structure is mapped out precisely.
[5:23] And if we're being very honest, to our shame perhaps, maybe it's just me, but sometimes we come to read these sections of instructions. And we might read them, but we tend to just keep reading and get back onto the story, back onto the narrative.
[5:40] We read them perhaps. Some of us perhaps skip over even these sections to our shame sometimes and we think, what fame, what use is it for me to really read of the dimensions of an altar, of the dimensions of a bowl made out of gold.
[5:55] But there's no wasted words in Scripture. And everything here, as we'll see this evening, is precise and for a precise purpose. As we look to this travelling garden, we see that every interaction God has with his people, he takes them back to where they're no longer, takes them back to where they once were, this place of hope, this place of promise, this place of peace, but also in the garden, this travelling garden, in the temple we see, and the objects and the arrangements and the details that God was showing his people with a greater hope that was still to come.
[6:34] So first of all, I'll have to use your imaginations this evening, as best you can use your imaginations based on what we have here in Scripture. We come to the tabernacle. Now before we enter the tabernacle, the name itself is where we must begin.
[6:50] The name itself takes us right back to the garden. Tabernacle. Literally, and we've all heard this plenty of times before, but it's a reminder for us.
[7:01] Literally, a place of dwelling. A place of dwelling. Mishkan, in Hebrew if you want to know that. It's a place of dwelling.
[7:12] A place where God chose to spend and interact and be with his people. In that verse, verse 8, The people have wandered, the people have sinned.
[7:38] The perfect garden has long since gone. And yet, And yet, God here is reminding his precious people that despite their waywardness, despite the messy many things, despite their wanderings and backslidings and so on, yet, he is happy and willing and desiring to be in their midst.
[8:04] They couldn't go to him. They can't go back to Eden. The chance is long since gone and long since barred by the cherubim.
[8:15] We'll see that in a second. So God instead comes down to them. I want to remind back to what we said in the first time, our first study in the garden.
[8:26] Where God walked, God was present with Adam and Eve. We see a first debate on how we understand that. Was he there physically? Or was he there in his presence spiritually?
[8:39] Was it both? That's for ourselves to ponder and discuss in our own time perhaps. But God was present in the garden. God was present with Adam and Eve in the garden.
[8:51] Covered that. And here, in a sense, in a different way, but also, in reality, God is still present with his people.
[9:02] He led his people via his presence, didn't he? The fire, the cloud of smoke, the pillar of smoke, the pillar of fire.
[9:13] We know he led his people via the tabernacle. It placed in the centre of the camp. The camp gathered around it. And there God met with his people.
[9:26] A throwback to Eden. But we see various differences. In Eden, we get the sense of, oh, Scripture doesn't give us too much information because it's beyond our understanding.
[9:38] But we get the sense, don't we, that in Eden, it was almost a free, perhaps, relationship. A more free, we could say, relationship that man had with God.
[9:50] The access seems to be more open and more easy. Of course it was. A sinless man was able to interact in a sinless way with a God who cannot bear to see sin.
[10:01] He cannot see sin. Can't be near to sin. But here, man has long since fallen. Man is now covered in sin. Sin now permeates all that we are and all that we do.
[10:12] But yet, God is still present with his people. He is still tabernacling. He is still making himself known in the presence, in the midst of his people, in the midst of them.
[10:26] Despite all the sin and all the chaos and all the broken families and broken situations and all the nonsense in the camp of Israel, God still places himself in the middle of his people.
[10:40] Right in the middle. So the name itself takes us back, as it were, to the garden. Takes us back to Eden. Now, we approach the tabernacle.
[10:55] How do you approach it? You're me with you. We're the Israelites and we're wanting to go near the temple, near the tabernacle. How do we approach it? Which direction do we come to it from?
[11:06] We have to travel and enter the gate that faces east. I don't know which way I'm pointing actually. East, east. The gate that faces east. Why?
[11:19] And it's very specific. Again and again, the tabernacle and later on the temple, the main door that people enter into, it must face east. If we're thinking just now, we think, well, last time, last week, east feature, didn't it?
[11:36] As Adam and Eve were cast out of the garden, where have they gone to? Cast out east. Away from the presence of God.
[11:47] in our time, looking at poor Jonah, where is evil to be found? Where is the place away from God to be found? East.
[11:58] Away from God is symbolised by being east. And the temple entrance, the tabernacle entrance, it faces east. Everyone outside the entrance are in the world tainted by sin, ruined by sin.
[12:16] But as you and I wish to get closer to God and approach the presence and the place of God, you must walk which direction?
[12:27] Or west. The temple door, the tabernacle gate door faces east. And to approach God, we must walk into it, towards his presence.
[12:39] by entering into the courtyard, the outer courtyard of the tabernacle.
[12:51] We are doing what we can presume Adam and Eve must have done plenty of times throughout our lives. Now we can't say for certain, and we must be very careful here. I can't add to scripture.
[13:03] But Adam and Eve were human like us, and it's likely, if not more than certain, we can say, that Adam and Eve would have gone pretty close to that place, that place they once stood and the cherubim and the flaming sword guarded the door.
[13:21] They faced west. They faced the place of peace, of joy, of happiness they once existed in, and all they could do was look towards it. They couldn't touch it, they couldn't get into it, they could see it.
[13:36] The place where they had everything they ever wanted from the God who made them, and yet they're outside of it. Outside of it. They can only get so close, they can only, as a word, just touch it.
[13:51] We approach God, as we come to the tabernacle, we approach him from the east, confessing that we have sinned, confessing that in of ourselves we have no hope and no help, that as the poor Israelites that we are, we must come towards the one whose presence is in the tabernacle to say that we've come from the east, we've come from the place which shows to be evil, the place which shows us that we're undeserving of him, and yet God has made his home, his presence known in the middle of the camp.
[14:24] We deserve nothing from him but he has made himself accessible. God has shown his mercy, although we're out east, God in his mercy now allows us to approach him, not in the same way as Eden, but still we can approach him as we head towards the Holy of Holies, as we make our way in towards the courtyard.
[14:53] And as we think of this we soon realise how fortunate we are, how fortunate we are, and we'll see this more in a second, but the truth is that God here is setting up the reality that everyone who knows and loves the Lord we all benefit from, just as those who knew and who loved the Lord who are Israelites, they could approach God here this evening, as we stand here in the light of our risen Saviour.
[15:24] We have no worries of how far we go towards that entrance. There is nothing stopping us. There is no cherubim, there is no angel, there is no sword, flaming sword, there is no guard, as we're at the temple doors, at the tabernacle doors, we have full and free access brothers and sisters this evening.
[15:45] Full and free access. We don't stand at the east entrance longing to get closer. What keeps us this evening as brothers and sisters, what keeps us this evening from enjoying our full access with God?
[16:01] It's no obstacle that God has placed in our way. It's ourselves, isn't it? It's our own lack of prayer, our own lack of reading, our own lack of meditation, of actual reading, of spending time in God's word.
[16:16] prayer. As we often find, as we are, the east entrance somewhat blocked to us, we must think and take our minds to scripture as we remind ourselves that there is no east entrance for the people of God.
[16:36] There's no east entrance for those who have been purchased with the blood of our Saviour. We have free, open, eternal access to the throne of grace, to the very, as it were, feet of our Saviour.
[16:49] We can come and face him face to face, knowing we have the access he has bought for us with his precious blood. The Israelites didn't have that.
[17:01] They head towards the entrance and they go into the courtyard, the outer courtyard. And this is open to all of Israel. All the camp can go into the outer courtyard, as it were.
[17:13] As we leave the outer courtyard, we now enter a holier area by far. We enter as it were the holy place. Only select priests are now allowed into this part.
[17:29] As you enter into the holy place, and again there's not time this evening, but you're surrounded, at least the tabernacle days and the temple days, but with colour, with vibrancy.
[17:42] The decoration is not just random, it's not just beautiful. The decoration is specific, and again there's tens of sermons, but for our purpose here this evening, how did the decoration of the tabernacle point back to Eden?
[18:00] Down to the very colour of the fabric used, the Lord is painting a picture of what the people once had. Blue. Blue.
[18:11] We see mentioned first of all here in verse three, the colours of gold and silver and blondes, verse four, sorry, blue and purple and so on, and that blue was used to be eye level and up.
[18:24] So blue was used for around eye level and up in the sides, in the walls, in the tapestry, we could see, in the coverings that was used.
[18:36] So you walk in at your eye level and up, it's blue. No coincidence. No coincidence. In this holy place, as you enter this special building, this special area set aside for the few priests to enter, you are very quickly, very suddenly outside again.
[19:02] The design of the building is such that you are in a sense outside again. Sky blue is used, a sense, sky blue is used to show something is going on here in this part, something strange taking place here.
[19:22] Onyx is used and gold is used. Onyx and gold, the two, the two gems, the two precious metals, the two glorious colours described in Genesis 2.
[19:35] chapter we covered before, the two words are used to describe what flowed out of Eden, onyx and gold, tying us again back to the garden.
[19:47] Onyx was used and inlaid into the breastplate of a high priest, it was inlaid into the fabric itself, into the furnishings, and gold, we saw that, gold everywhere, everything covered in fine gold.
[20:04] If you were to walk around Eden, you saw onyx and you saw gold. As you walk around this part of the temple, the tabernacle, you see onyx and you see gold.
[20:17] Sky blue above you, onyx and gold around you. Eden, back to Eden. Not just the furnishings, also the furnishings themselves, tell us, and point back to Eden.
[20:32] And one part of the furnishing in particular, the glorious reality, the glorious picture we have in verses 31 down to the end of our text really, where we saw the lampstand.
[20:47] As you walk into this holy place, you see the lampstand. And this lampstand is described very specifically, a very specific style. It is made to look like a tree.
[21:01] Made to look like a tree. And this is not just my theory, not just even modern Christian thinking. The rabbis right from the start, as far back as we can know, as they taught their own people about the history of the temple, it is clear again and again.
[21:22] They taught that scripture teaches it was meant to remind the people of one very special tree, tree of life. This lampstand which would burn day and night without end, without end, it could never go out, on all the time, replenished all the time, the oil used was a scented oil, an incensed oil, this sweet smelling, burning, glorious, bright gold lampstand, all its branches, literally the word branches, made to look like almond blossom.
[21:58] This was a reminder as you stood in this holy of holies, before you stood, this glorious, glowing, gold reminder, the tree of life, you once had access to it, it's gone.
[22:13] All you have now is this man-made, wood and gold, reminder of it. it's not real, it's beautiful, it's glorious, it's God-given, but it's just metal, metal and man-made flame.
[22:32] But it reminds you what you once had, once that your forefathers stood in a place where they could touch the tree, you couldn't eat of it, but they could touch the tree, be close to the tree, and as we said in the first week, that tree which represented God's presence with man, what represented God being close to his own created creatures, and now all you have is just a lump of gold to remind you what you once had.
[23:03] The tree of life pointing again back to Eden. So as you leave this holy place, you now look forward and in front of you, well, there's nothing, in front of you is a curtain, and for us, the common Israelites, we never saw this.
[23:21] For those of us perhaps who are the select few priests, this is as far as we ever saw too, but if we were to become of course the high priest and arguably some others too, we could, on the special occasions that we know, enter into the final area of the tabernacle, the holy of holies.
[23:44] But before you enter the holy of holies, you face a curtain, same in the tabernacle, same in the temple, but in the tabernacle also, there was a curtain. What was on this curtain?
[23:58] What objects, what creatures were embroidered on this curtain? Two huge cherubim placed in this curtain, not just for decoration, not just for decoration.
[24:13] temptation. As you face the cherubim, you're reminded that you have no access past this curtain. Access is gone. Like Adam and Eve, as they faced the garden they once stood in, as the cherubim blocked the way of the east entrance, they are reminded us, as we're reminded, we face this curtain this far and no further.
[24:37] Your sin, your rebellion, it has stopped your access to what lies behind this curtain. What lies behind the curtain? Behind the curtain there's a room filled with incense, a room filled with smoke.
[24:53] And in that smoke, as we read, we find, verses 10 down to here, verse 21, we find the Ark of the Covenant.
[25:05] The Ark of the Covenant. this wooden and gold box, this wooden and gold box which represented the very presence of God in the midst of the camp.
[25:23] And more than that, this wooden and gold box which God in his mercy and God in his glory and God in his wonder did make his presence known as he, as we can say the Shekinah Gloria, as his tangible presence, if a little bit of word, and we run out of words here, his felt presence existed above the mercy seat as God made himself known to his people.
[25:51] This Ark, just to hammer home the point, this Ark which of course had walked on both ends, cherubim, protecting the place of God's presence to cherubim.
[26:02] Then on the curtain, you get past the curtain, then on the Ark, this reminder that you are barred, that we are completely barred from access to who God is, to what he is doing, we are barred completely to the God we have sinned against.
[26:24] A terrifying reality really. We often perhaps read Exodus, we think what a glorious thing it was for the people to have God in their midst. But again and again we see the fear of the people, the fear of the people that God was in their midst.
[26:38] We'll see this perhaps in future studies if the Lord gives us time and strength because it was a terrifying thing for the people, they were a sinful people.
[26:50] And the question that Exodus asks and never really answers again and again is how can a sinful people begin to survive with a holy God in their midst.
[27:02] And here we're reminded in the very centre of the camp was the Holy of Holies. And above that gold box was the very presence of the living God.
[27:17] That presence of the living God which the people had no access to. And how could that presence be accessed?
[27:30] How could God, how could the priests and the high priests throughout the temple days, how could they gain access? Blood, blood, blood, so much blood.
[27:47] When you begin to read and perhaps we lose sight as the reality that we think of these things as we think of the temple, we think of the gold, it was glorious, it was beautiful, but it's all covered in blood.
[28:03] As animal after animal are sacrificed to atone for the ongoing constant sins of the people, as the animals are burnt and burnt and burnt for the ongoing sins of the people.
[28:20] The blood buys access, we could say, for a short time. The atonement needs to be re-atoned for again and again and again, re-bought again and again and again, purchased again and again and again as they sacrifice, carry on and carry on.
[28:36] And yet God's presence remains untouchable for the people. And this was the reality, wasn't it? As we travelled throughout the desert, as we travelled in the wilderness for those many years, that was our ongoing reality.
[28:52] God led them, God guided them, God made clear he was still their God, they were still his people, he still cared for them. Every time they stopped, they were reminded that their access is limited, that access was not what it once was in Eden.
[29:12] When the temple is built, it's the same reality, the access is limited, the access is not what it was in Eden. And that's the reality until what point? We'll cover this in a few years.
[29:25] weeks time, but I'll talk about it just now briefly because it's a glorious point, because otherwise we end on a sad note, don't we? We end on a note where the people have no access to a holy God, where they stand at a distance from a holy God, where they stand away with access completely closed to a holy God.
[29:47] As we said, the curtain in the temple was the same design as the curtain almost, different design, the same objects were placed in the curtain in the temple. This curtain which represented of course the very physical and real separation between man and God.
[30:04] God, what took place? We know the answer. The finish work of our Saviour on that cross, as the curtain is torn from top to bottom, as the untouchable access of a holy God is made accessible through the finish work of a willing, glorious, beloved Saviour, access is restored.
[30:31] As we said, our access for this evening, and this should blow our minds, this should cause us to worship and it doesn't as much as it does for me and I wish I did more.
[30:43] At this very moment, brothers and sisters alike, public or private prayer, as you pray to the Lord God just now, you have greater access majority, near enough for totality of the people of the thrill.
[31:09] As you close your eyes now and you pray to the Lord your God this evening, as you sleep perhaps, as you drive home just now, as you throw up a quick prayer just now perhaps as we all do at times, you can know something that they did not know, that you have instant, complete, certain, assured access to the very throne room of heaven, the Lord your God is hearing the prayers of you and me, his people.
[31:36] We'll look before at length in Hebrews and we'll get there again God willing in time, the reminder that we have that place of mercy, that place of grace, that mercy seat where we are not just told we can approach, we're instructed to approach, this evening we don't come to a closed off east gate, we don't come to a thick curtain with no access, we don't come to a garden of God's presence closed with flaming swords and terrifying angels, we come to God's presence, a God who has given us full access to his people, full and open access, as we come to him in prayer, because of the finished work of our Saviour, who made that tear, who united what was separated by our sin, whose blood provided that full, eternal, once and for all, atonement for our sin, that grants us access, continual, eternal access, place, and the presence of
[32:53] God. That's our hope this evening. As I read about the travelling garden, the travelling garden, the tabernacle, and the temple later laterally afterwards, it features in the background, again and again, scripture, and it's always there, it appears and disappears, as part of the narrative of scripture, that people's access to the living God was limited, and always looking forward to the day when God will dwell with his people, and his people will dwell with him, and that is the day we live in.
[33:26] But even now we look forward to a greater day, don't we? And we'll see this, I keep stealing each week from next week's sermons, and it's not good for me the next week, but we'll see this later on, and we'll see the reality that the future ahead of us is not just Eden, not just Eden restored, but a new heavens, and a new earth, we have access and presence in God's presence, that Adam and Eve didn't even have access, that they didn't even participate in, or couldn't participate in, and we'll see that in the weeks ahead.
[34:03] We don't come to a temple with a curtain closed, we come to a throne of grace, with no separation, with no barrier between God and his blood-bought people.
[34:15] Our heads now, a word of prayer. Lord, we come and we thank you for the great and glorious reminder we have in your word, that you are a God who is gracious throughout the many, many years, the years of rebellion, the years of desert travelling, that you maintained with your people, you persisted with them, you kept a hold of them, and in your mercy you provided for them access, even in that limited way, but access nonetheless, to come and offer their sacrifice towards you, to know that you're a God who led them and guided them, Lord, by that pillar of fire by night, or by the smoke, Lord, during the day, a God who cared for your people so much, that even in their rebellion, you did not forget them, or leave them behind.
[35:03] We come this evening, we praise you for the same thing for our own lives, despite perhaps our own waywardness at times, despite our own rebellion at times, that we come not just to a temple, not just to a tabernacle veiled with gold and veiled by a heavy curtain, we come this evening, enjoying the full and free and open access to the throne room of heaven this very moment, knowing that as we offer up our prayers, short and small and tainted by sin as they are, that our prayers, that they are taken and that they are made holy and made glorious and made perfect and made acceptable through the glorious work of our risen saviour, that his final hope, all our assurance, all our peace, all our joy in him, the access he has purchased for us as his beloved people, would help us to understand these things, that we confess that we often find ourselves treading in water so deep for us, but we give you praise that you've enabled us to understand even a small portion of it through the working of your word.
[36:09] Lord, open our hearts and our ears with this evening, we ask. Help us to leave this place not just having grown in our understanding, but also having grown in our love for you and for our brothers and sisters around us.
[36:21] Help us as we sing our final item of praise, we do also pray for the one who leads us in worship. We thank you, Lord, for those who do lead the sung worship. Thank you for their willingness to serve you in this capacity.
[36:34] We ask you would give them the tune and give them the ability to praise your name well. We ask all these things in and through and for Jesus, his precious name, sing.
[36:45] Amen. Amen. Let's sing to God's praise. I managed to away the last psalm.
[36:56] Psalm 78, Scottish Psalter, Psalm 78. Scottish Psalter, Psalm 78. Verses 12 down to verse 19.
[37:13] 19. Scottish Psalter, Psalm 78, verses 12 down to verse 19. Things marvellous he brought to pass.
[37:23] Their fathers then beheld within the land of Egypt, done even in Zoan's field. By him divided was the sea. He caused them through to pass and made the waters so to stand as like an heap.
[37:37] It was Psalm 78, verses 12 to 19. To God's praise. Kings marvellous he brought to pass.
[37:55] Their fathers then beheld within the land of Egypt, done gave him so and still.
[38:17] By him divided was the sea. He caused them through to pass and to stand as like an heap it was.
[38:52] With cloud by day will the can breaths.
[39:13] It may be från man any state we qui From the rock, rock streams like floods, midwaters to run down.
[39:43] Yet sinning hund in desert day provoked the highest one.
[40:00] For in the heart they tempted God, and speaking with mercy, If they deleted me, required to satisfy their lust.
[40:33] Against the Lord himself is paid, and family except us.
[40:50] A table in the wilderness can God prepare for us.
[41:08] May the love of God the Father, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, for now and forevermore. Amen. Amen.
[41:22] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.