“BRING ME A HEAVE-OFFERING”
A. Thomson
Exodus 25: 2, 8, 9; 35: 29; 34: 1, 2 (to “for the morning”), 4, 10–12 (to “come”); 40: 34–What is in mind is to speak about the sanctuary—a heave-offering and the sanctuary. The heave-offering involves our affections. God has in mind in this chapter that He might have dwelling conditions among His people, a dwelling-place, and the appeal is to our affections.
The proposal is that the saints in their affections will provide dwelling conditions for God. So the word is, “Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring me a heave-offering: of every one whose heart prompteth him, ye shall take my heave-offering”. What develops in the book affords an outlet for our affections, regulated affections; affections moving rightly is what one has in mind, as we find in the rest of this book. It was said in the reading that there may be profession of love for Christ, but associated with evil; but what this section brings out is God’s appeal to our affections and the importance of our affections being regulated. God having in mind that the affections of His saints would rise to the opportunity, that they would make Him a sanctuary.
There are two words used—the footnote to the word “sanctuary” (Exodus 25: 8) says, ‘holy as to place’, then the word “tabernacle” (Exodus 25: 9) means ‘habitation’, God having in mind to be amongst His people, securing dwelling conditions amongst His saints. Solomon said, “But will God indeed dwell on the earth?”, 1 Kings 8: 27. The question is raised as if it were incredible that God should dwell with men. Well, what is the answer? Revelation 21 is the answer; He will dwell eternally with men by means of the tabernacle, the assembly, “the tabernacle of God is with men, and he shall tabernacle with them” (Revelation 21: 3)—that is the answer to Solomon’s question. There is no incredibility—this book shows just the very opposite. It is a prime thing in the heart and mind of God that there should be conditions secured amongst the saints that will provide Him with a dwelling place.
So the heave-offering is described. It springs from the affections, but it is not anything—no, it is all prescribed, the materials necessary for the composition, the construction of a dwelling place for God. He says, “And they shall make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them”.
Think of God’s desire! What was said then will be secured eternally—by means of the assembly God will be near to men. But then in Ephesians 2, as to Ephesus, Paul is saying, “in whom”—that is, in Christ, in the Lord—“ye also are built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit” (Ephesians 2: 22). God is here in the Spirit at the moment. You would think that Exodus 25 was the first reference to it, but if we go back to Exodus 15 we find that Moses and the children of Israel speak about the thing as an accomplished fact. There was nothing built and as yet no suggestion from God, but the saints in their song speak about the sanctuary, the place that His hands had prepared. Well, that would be light, I suppose. The saints seemed to apprehend what God had in mind and spoke of it as if it were accomplished.
I suppose they were looking right on, you might say, to Solomon’s day—the saints in the land, the house built, and the glory in residence.
Now, dear brethren, I believe that though that was light, there was something that corresponded in the saints. We read in Psalm 114 that when Israel went out of Egypt “Judah was his sanctuary, Israel his dominion”. How do we explain it? There was something in the saints that corresponded with the light of God’s thoughts. Possibly that was related to the cloud, because we get the cloud in chapter 14 before there was the tabernacle—a protective element. So in the book of Exodus we get the tabernacle, we get the pattern, but as yet nothing made. Then we get the breakdown; then we get recovery; then we get the pattern over again, and then the thing brought to pass—that is the book of Exodus. So, “they shall make me a sanctuary”. God had in mind that there would be conditions amongst the saints that would be suitable to His presence “that I may dwell among them”. And all was to be “according to … the pattern”.
In Exodus 34 we read about the two tables. What I had in mind as to that scripture is simply this, that it indicates that God is going on with His thoughts. The breakdown has just come in, nevertheless God is going on with His thoughts. They are unchanged, they are unaffected by the ruin. His thoughts, His mind, are the same. So the two tables are made, like the first. Then in Exodus 35 there is a fresh appeal for the heave-offering, a fresh appeal to the affections of the saints. What that chapter brings out is the full answer in the saints, God’s willing people, the wise-hearted and the willing-hearted, their affections rising to the divine mind, answering to God’s desire, and providing more than enough, so that in chapter 36 they had to be restrained.
I refer to these scriptures as indicating just what God is after in the way of willingness, and wisdom too. Both these elements are in chapter 35. So it says, “This is the word which Jehovah has commanded, saying, Take from among you a heave-offering to Jehovah—every one whose heart is willing, let him bring it, Jehovah’s heave-offering” (Exodus 36: 4, 5). Then it says, “The children of Israel brought, a voluntary offering to Jehovah, every man and woman whose heart prompted them to bring for all manner of work, which Jehovah, by the hand of Moses, had commanded to be done”. There it is, the answer in the saints. All the material necessary is at hand; nothing is yet built, but all the material is available. What stimulation is in that for you and me; God is going on with His thoughts despite the breakdown, cherishing His own thought that He would have dwelling conditions amongst His people. Then we get four chapters, 36 to 39, of labour, of work, and everything is made, and everything conforms to the pattern.
We read the word in chapter 34, “Behold, I make a covenant—before all thy people I will do marvels that have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation; and all the people in the midst of which thou art shall see the work of Jehovah”, and then, “Take heed to thyself, that thou make no covenant with the inhabitants of the land”. I am impressed by these two references—first, God committing Himself to deal with their enemies, committing Himself to it on the basis of a covenant—that is our God. That is 1 Corinthians 1: 9, “God is faithful”.
No matter what has come in, “God is faithful”. That is His side of the covenant. But then there is our side, “make no covenant …”. The covenant is the bond between God and His people and admits of no other covenant. I say this, dear brethren, in relation to what is in mind; it is all on the way to dwelling conditions for God. “Make no covenant”—trade unions, professional associations—no other covenant is admitted in the light of the bond between God and His people. I just refer to it because it is on the way to what is to be secured for God Himself.
Then, as I said, you get these four chapters of work, everything done, everything made, but not yet put together. You get the sanctuary first of all—the curtains and the boards, in that order. If you or I were building a house we would start on the foundations, build the walls, and put the roof on, would we not? But the order that is given is the curtains and then the boards and then the bases. Why is that, dear brethren? We have been taught that the curtains are the principles; the boards are the persons; the curtains take precedence. Is that not what we were speaking about earlier in 2 Timothy—the principles? There are four of them in 2 Timothy 2: 22—“righteousness, faith, love, peace”—the principles; then the persons, “those that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart”. What is in one’s mind is that these things are all on the way to dwelling conditions for God being realised among the saints.
In Exodus 37 we get the ark, the table, the candlestick, the furnishings internally; it is all on the way to what we have in mind—the sanctuary, a habitation for God. Nothing is put together so far; it is instruction for us as to what is involved in this matter of there being a sanctuary, a habitation for our God. Then we get the court in chapter 38, and then in chapter 39 we have the garments of Aaron and his sons—how much could be said about them. These are four chapters of labour; as I said, things not yet put together, but all there, conforming fully to the pattern. How important that our affections should be set in this direction, regulated in this way, and how important that there should be wisdom so that our affections are in right channels, all on the way to a habitation for God.
In chapter 40 Moses is told to put the whole tabernacle together, to set it up—and then we are told that he did set it up, all according to commandment. There are eight references in chapter 40 to “as Jehovah had commanded”. All is set up, conforming fully to the divine thoughts. It was said in the reading that the work of God by the Spirit conforms perfectly to God’s designs in love, His purpose. How wonderful! Well, the point is this—is that our standard? Is the pattern the thing that regulates us? Is this what we have before us? God has His own objective in His purpose and in His ways, but He realises His purpose by means of His ways in His operations by the Spirit in your heart and in mine. That is how the thing will come about, by His subjective operations by the Spirit. But then, on the other hand, we need to recognise that God has a standard. He is not content with anything—He has His pattern and the obligation is upon us to go by the pattern.
So we find that the tabernacle is set up, and then the glory fills it. There was the pattern, then the breakdown, then recovery. That is what we had in London—things reached on the basis of recovery, recovered persons, and God securing an answer in them, an answer to His original thought that He should have dwelling conditions among His saints. So there it is, the thing set up, and it says, “the glory of Jehovah filled the tabernacle”. I think the glory in that sense is the indication of divine approval. Well, how we would covet to have a sense of that, individually and collectively, a sense of divine approval. We will have it in the measure in which our affections are right, undivided, and pure, on the one hand, and on the other hand regulated so that things conform fully to the divine pattern.
So it says, “The cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of Jehovah filled the tabernacle. And Moses could not enter into the tent of meeting, for the cloud abode on it, and the glory of Jehovah filled the tabernacle”. There is a certain finality about that. In Hebrews 8: 2 we read about “the true tabernacle, which the Lord has pitched”. I think this would be the foreshadowing of it. Moses, could we say, typical of Christ in this chapter as the One who pitched the true tabernacle. I judge that is the testimonial position at the present time. I judge that the pitching took place in Acts 2; the thing was pitched there. I think there is the foreshadowing of that in this chapter in which God signified His approval of what had come about in the affections and in the labours of His people.
Labour is a Corinthian word. “Your toil”, Paul says—local toil. He says, “Your toil is not in vain in the Lord”, 1 Corinthians 15: 58. What does that mean? “In the Lord” refers to His dominical name, which bears upon our position down here. There is a sphere here where that authority, that dominical name, operates. Is it operating in my heart? That is what it means.
Paul says, “So then, my beloved brethren, be firm, immovable, abounding always in the work of the Lord”—that is Exodus 36 to 39—“knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord”. It is God’s willing people, God’s wise-hearted people, answering fully to His thoughts in relation to His being amongst them in conditions suited to Himself. So, as I said, the thing is there, put up, a foreshadowing of “the true tabernacle, which the Lord has pitched, and not man”. There it is, filled with the glory—God signifying His approval of what had come about responsively, and all stemming from the affections of the saints rising to the occasion and answering God’s appeal to them. May the Lord bless the word.
Address at Kilmarnock
25 March 1978