Today's DB Exodus 37 ***** ++

Scripture selections are taken from the Rock Church Daily Bread Reading schedule for each month. “Lena’s Journalin’” are Lena’s comments on the specific passages from her Daily Journal.

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Exodus 37:1-29
Building the Ark
1Next Bezalel made the Ark out of acacia wood. It was 3 3/4 feet long, 2 1/4 feet wide, and 2 1/4 feet high. F76 2It was overlaid with pure gold inside and out, and it had a molding of gold all the way around. 3Four gold rings were fastened to its four feet, two rings at each side. 4Then he made poles from acacia wood and overlaid them with gold. 5He put the poles into the rings at the sides of the Ark to carry it.
6Then, from pure gold, he made the Ark's cover—the place of atonement. It was 3 ¾ feet long and 2 1/4 feet wide. 7He made two figures of cherubim out of hammered gold and placed them at the two ends of the atonement cover. 8They were made so they were actually a part of the atonement cover—it was all one piece. 9The cherubim faced each other as they looked down on the atonement cover, and their wings were stretched out above the atonement cover to protect it.
Building the Table
10Then he made a table out of acacia wood, 3 feet long, 1 1/2 feet wide, and 2 1/4 feet high. 11It was overlaid with pure gold, with a gold molding all around the edge. 12A rim about 3 inches F77 wide was attached along the edges of the table, and a gold molding ran around the rim. 13Then he cast four rings of gold and attached them to the four table legs 14next to the rim. These were made to hold the carrying poles in place. 15He made the carrying poles of acacia wood and overlaid them with gold. 16Next, using pure gold, he made the plates, dishes, bowls, and pitchers to be placed on the table. These utensils were to be used in pouring out drink offerings.
Building the Lampstand
17Then he made the lampstand, again using pure, hammered gold. Its base, center stem, lamp cups, blossoms, and buds were all of one piece. 18The lampstand had six branches, three going out from each side of the center stem. 19Each of the six branches held a cup shaped like an almond blossom, complete with buds and petals. 20The center stem of the lampstand was also decorated with four almond blossoms. 21One blossom was set beneath each pair of branches, where they extended from the center stem. 22The decorations and branches were all one piece with the stem, and they were hammered from pure gold. 23He also made the seven lamps, the lamp snuffers, and the trays, all of pure gold. 24The entire lampstand, along with its accessories, was made from seventy-five pounds F78 of pure gold.
Building the Incense Altar
25The incense altar was made of acacia wood. It was eighteen inches square and three feet high, with its corner horns made from the same piece of wood as the altar itself. 26He overlaid the top, sides, and horns of the altar with pure gold and ran a gold molding around the edge. 27Two gold rings were placed on opposite sides, beneath the molding, to hold the carrying poles. 28The carrying poles were made of acacia wood and were overlaid with gold.
29Then he made the sacred oil, for anointing the priests, and the fragrant incense, using the techniques of the most skilled incense maker.
FOOTNOTES:F76: Hebrew 2 1/2 cubits [1.1 meters] long, 1 1/2 cubits [0.7 meters] wide, and 1 1/2 cubits high. In this chapter, the distance measures are calculated from the Hebrew cubit at a ratio of 18 inches or 45 centimeters per cubit. F77: Hebrew a handbreadth [8 centimeters]. F78: Hebrew 1 talent [34 kilograms].


Copyright Statement: Holy Bible, The New Living TranslationCopyright © 1996 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.

~ Lena’s Journalin’~
An Ark is a container made for a specific purpose. Noah’s Ark was a place of refuge for the salvation of Noah’s family and the gathering of what would be able to reproduce after destruction hit earth.
Bezalel made the ark out of acacia wood…… Bezalel is a worker with a trade, a craftsman, one who carves for another, works the works of another. Who does he work for and what is he doing? He’s making, he’s carving, he’s crafting the ark. The place which will contain something of value. In this case, God’s presence. We are the ark. This craftsman is anyone who works for and with God to help form Christ in us so that we’d be able to contain the presence of God, presenting Him to a world which needs to be saved.
Acacia means scourged. Doesn’t that make you think of Jesus on His way to death on the cross? He was scourged. Scourge means to take on a punishment, being beaten (up) for the punished. Inflicting severe punishment, dreadful affliction and devastation, to whip and chastise.
Bezalel used acacia wood, wood is representative of an object of death, judgment executed upon the guilty. Remember this Bezalel is a messenger of God, a trainer in God’s hands. His mission to be accomplished. To make a container which will be able to be filled with the presence of God.
That container is us. Why the scourging? To bring what needs to be punished and disciplined into the subjection to the master of the containers.
Isn’t it so cool that He takes that stuff- suffering, guilt, punishment, me me me’s and helps it to become silent before God, overlaying it with a high value item which has also been altered into another form, liquefied to be molded around me? There He set heavenly hosts on top to cover and to protect the presence of God within me.
He made and set a table in the presence of God. If I am in Him, I am a table for the Lord’s presence to come to and eat and drink of my poured out life. If I pour my life out as an offering to Him, to the doing of His will, He’s actually nourished, fed, satisfied through me.
Light must be within, so that the presence of God may be seen by any who can come. If the lamps are not lit, there is no light there, there would be stumbling and a mess made of God’s presence. The light comes from the word of God mixed with the spirit of God, which gives us understanding of the word of God. When we have understanding of the word of God, we can do the word of God, doing the word of God brings forth the wisdom of God in a visible form that can be copied. This all stems from seeing light.
Only seeing the word of God is not enough to sustain the living word of God, only understanding the word of God is not enough to sustain and maintain the word of God, doing the word which is both seen, and understood, is what brings, sustains, maintains and grows the living word of God in His body.
Incense is smoke from what is burnt up. It’s the leftovers being consumed. All of You in all of me. What was me is becoming what is You. What a glorious scent before God when one gives one’s life to His work, over to the Bezalel’s in his life, set there by the desired work of God in each of us. What an awesome fragrance that makes when not only one of us is able to offer hard things of life and life’s changes to God, allowing them to be done away with for His kingdom, but a whole gathering of us do so, WOW- what a fragrance! WOW! Holy- Anointing- OIL, something that has been made pure enough to heal a hurt world. Something so refined it will change a world, save a world.
Ever feel crushed? By God? Good stuff may come forth, depending on your responses. If we butt against its work, we are goats, if we follow after it, we are sheep. Sheep are made for sacrifices unto God, given up for the sins of others. Isn’t that something that we’d get all cleaned up from the residues of our own sins only to be led to bear or take away the sins of others? Did not Jesus Christ Himself do this very thing? He was the ultimate sacrifice for sin, the sins of the whole world. Why would we do anything less if we are as He is in this world? Why are goats not sacrificed for sins? Ever ask yourself questions as these? Which are you/we today, a goat or a sheep or something else? We can be changed by His presence and His word.

Daily Repetitive Verses:

Proverbs 27:17-19
17 You use steel to sharpen steel, and one friend sharpens another. 18 If you care for your orchard, you'll enjoy its fruit; if you honor your boss, you'll be honored.
19 Just as water mirrors your face, so your face mirrors your heart.
Psalm 122:1
1 When they said, "Let's go to the house of God," my heart leaped for joy.