Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 30:17-19

17 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,

18 Thou shalt also make a laver of brass, and his foot also of brass, to wash withal: and thou shalt put it between the tabernacle of the congregation and the altar, and thou shalt put water therein.

19 For Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet thereat:

One last article of the tabernacle remains to be detailed: the laver for washing the hands and feet of the priests. This item was to be placed out in the courtyard, and keeping with the pattern of everything in the courtyard it was overlaid with brass. The laver was to be placed between the altar and the entrance to the tabernacle, showing the context in which it would be used: washing the priest as he moved from the former to the latter.

It is curious why we did not hear about the incense altar and the laver for washing in the previous chapters that detailed all the other articles of the tabernacle. There is no prevailing theory that I could find for why this would be. Perhaps there was some symbolic significance that is lost on our modern culture. Perhaps there is something in the cosmic laws of consecration that deems this order to be appropriate, but which is imperceptible to us. Perhaps these details were given by God in the mountain in a different order, but a clerical wrinkle saw it transposed here. Whatever the reason, now at last we have the description for the last temple piece. Tomorrow we will hear more of how it was to be used.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 26:34-35

34 And thou shalt put the mercy seat upon the ark of the testimony in the most holy place.

35 And thou shalt set the table without the veil, and the candlestick over against the table on the side of the tabernacle toward the south: and thou shalt put the table on the north side.

We have a brief two-verse interlude to describe the placement of the previously described instruments within the constructed tabernacle. The Ark of the Covenant is to go behind the curtain that divides the holy place from the most holy place and have its mercy seat affixed on top of it. Then the table of shewbread and the candlestick will be placed on the other side of the curtain.

When walking into the tabernacle, the priest will be on the eastern side, with the candlestick on his left hand (on the south side of the tabernacle) and the table of shewbread on his right hand (on the north side of the tabernacle). There may be some significance to that placement. The left hand has been traditionally associated with the conceptual, the creative, and the spiritual, which is better represented by the transcendent, immaterial quality of light. The right hand has been associated with order, structure, and certainty, which is better represented by the physical, deliberately-constructed quality of bread.

Even the shape of the candlestick with its odd angles and curves and the table with its squared corners and edges speaks to that duality of chaotic potential and ordered reality. Standing between them both would be the priest, representing man who has ever had a foot in both the conceptual and literal world. Opposite the man, and also resting between the conceptual and literal world, would be the veil and the Ark of the Covenant on the other side. This, of course, represents God. He is ahead of us, forward in the way that we want to go. To cross the tabernacle and reach him we must follow a straight path, keeping the conceptual left and the literal right in proper balance, which we will do so long as where we are walking is towards Him.