Today as I worked at the Messiah Congregation building, I was struck by how much has changed in that space over the years. Not only the space itself, but the people. The building may not be a stadium or a gothic cathedral, but the people who grow there, together, are tabernacles of incomparable beauty to the structures of man’s imagination.
I am not so concerned with building a cathedral in space, as I am in time, in presence, in sanctity, and eternity, together.
Rabbi Dr Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote, “The sabbath is to time what the temple and tabernacle are to space. The sabbath is a cathedral in time. On the seventh day we experience in time what the tabernacle and temple represented as spaces which is eternal life, God in the complete creation.”
This cathedral in time, the Shabbat, is a raptured experience of stepping out of our hurried time, into the holiness of His time. The physical worship of the Living God in rest, refreshment, and communion. Leaving behind the restrictions of the harried schedule, and stepping into the cathedral in time where He and we are present.
Voices lifted, arms raised, hearts open, and adoration of the Risen Lord mirrored in the face of the other. Who sits enthroned in this cathedral in time? But the Lord of the Sabbath Himself: Messiah Yeshua/ Jesus. As He taught, “For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath” (Matt. 12:18).
It matters not, the opulence of the space, but the presence of the Sabbath Lord. He reigns in His majestic cathedral fabricated not by brick and mortar, but heart and soul knit together by the Holy Spirit (Eph. 4:16).
Step out, and step in, and in Him you will find rest for your soul (Matt. 11:28-30). You are a renewed body in space, experiencing a timeless, abiding rest in King Messiah.
There is a strange shift in the Torah narrative, from the legal matter of Mishpatim (Judgments), to the constructive narrative of the Tabernacle. What is the Lord showing us? Can we understand the nature of “contribution,” or terumah, differently when we understand the nature of giving itself? We find a teaching on transformation, not destruction, and a transformation from being selfish to being more selfless. Give a listen.
The Torah portion called תְּרוּמָה/terumah, meaning offering or contribution, reveals a cure provided before an illness. The illness, in this case, is the sin of the Golden Calf. Some rabbinic commentators see the construction of the Tabernacle, beginning in Exodus 25, as the remedy for the sin recorded in Exodus 32: the Golden Calf. Why did Moses choose to record one event before the other?
The sin of the Golden Calf was a national catastrophe. This newly formed nation of holy priests (Ex. 19:5-6) quickly descends into sin. Moses, in his wisdom, gives future generations hope. The way of reconciliation was provided before the sin: the cure before the illness.
“Speak to the children of Israel, that they take for Me a contribution. From every man whose heart moves him you shall receive the contribution for Me” (Ex. 25:2).
While it would appear that this is the first mention of a contribution associated with the construction of the Tabernacle, or the Ark, we do find allusions to it previously, as well as the “testimony” or more specifically the tablets of the yet to be given law (Torah) from Sinai.
After the Lord miraculously provides bread from heaven (Ex. 16:4), He commands Moses and Aaron to collect an “omer” of manna in a צִנְצֶנֶת/ṣinṣeneṯ, meaning a jar, pot or vessel of some unknown type. From the daily miracle of manna, the Lord takes a memorial portion to be a remembrance throughout the generations (Ex. 16:32) of His provision. The memorial portion was to be set לִפְנֵי הָעֵדֻת לְמִשְׁמָרֶת, “before the testimony to be kept (safe).” The testimony is a reference to the yet given tablets of the law (Torah), which will be set in the yet constructed, or even commanded, Ark (Ex. 40:20; cf. Heb. 9:4). This command seems to stand in sharp contrast to the expected expiration of the manna itself, as it could not be kept overnight (Ex. 16:19-21). Here is another miracle, one relating to the enduring nature of God’s provision and promise.
The manna, provision from the heart of God, as a memorial “before the testimony” becomes the first “contribution” for the yet to be constructed wilderness Tabernacle. Why?
As the instruction for the Tabernacle is given, it seems that Moses begins with what should be accounted for last: the Ark. Would it not have been better to start with the outer posts and curtains? Even the coverings of the Tabernacle itself? Why the Ark?
The Ark is not only the heart of the Tabernacle, it is also the cornerstone of it, as everything else is built out from the set Ark. The presence of the Lord rests upon the Ark, with His voice speaking from between the two covering angels. The ministry of the Tabernacle flows from the Ark, and back to the Ark. Still, the heart of the Ark itself is what it contains. The Tablets of the Torah from Sinai, but what is לִפְנֵי הָעֵדֻת לְמִשְׁמָרֶת, “before the testimony to be kept (safe)?” The manna.
Before the Ark receives the Tablets, it receives a jar; an enduring omer of memorial bread from heaven. As I have written and taught previously, the Lord provides the manna before the mandate (tablets). Then, as the priests set the items in the Ark (Ex. 40:20), they place the tablets of the law inside, but set immediately “before” the tablets, the jar of manna: the Lord’s memorial testimony. The manna is the testimony before the testimony. Yet, the physical memorial and testimony are fading, but, as they fade, the eternal shines.
As those in messianic faith know, Messiah Yeshua/Jesus is the “Word made flesh” (Jn. 1:1-3, 14). Moreover, in John 6:41 He says of Himself, “I am the bread (manna) that came down from heaven.” In Messiah we see the “tented” living Word, but also, the living bread from heaven (Jn. 6:51). In the person of Yeshua/Jesus we have the fullness of the bread and the testimony set in the Ark as a witness in the heart of the Tabernacle as it cornerstone. Yeshua is the provision before the need, the cure before the illness, the forever settled Word, and the atoning blood (Heb. 9:12); and in His face, we behold the glory of God (2 Cor. 4:6; cf. Ex. 40:34). The unfading, unchanging eternal Savior.
The apostle Paul explains, we in faith have been “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone” (Eph. 2:20). By faith, the redeemed and exodused of the Lord are made into a living tabernacles of His presence (1 Cor. 3:16). We are being formed and fitted, covered by His righteousness becoming a type of the pot of manna.
As Paul explains, “But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us” (2 Cor. 4:7). What is this treasure? As Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 4:6, “For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Yeshua Messiah.” Or, elsewhere, “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27).
For those written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, from before the foundation of the world (Rev. 13:8), the Lord provides, by His grace and mercy, real food, the living manna from heaven, Christ, and His Word that is “forever settled.” This is the “glory of God in the face of Yeshua Messiah” that is in you, dear reader, as the covered tabernacle of His presence whose heart is filled with living bread and eternal testimony, illuminated by His marvelous light so that as you go out on the Great Commission (Matt. 28:18-20), you will be His testimony before the testimony.
He contributed you, as a gift to His Son, and now you are a living memorial of His faithfulness in the earthen vessel that is you. Amen.
the mountain mensch 