Message 182
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Scripture Reading: Exo. 35:1-10, 20-35; 36:1-7; 39:32, 42-43
In this message we shall begin to consider a section containing five chapters, chapters thirty-five through thirty-nine. In these chapters we have a record of the making of the tabernacle with its furniture and the holy garments for the priests. Since we have covered most of the details related to these matters in previous messages, we do not need to consider all these details again. Rather, in this message and in the message following we shall consider certain basic matters found in these chapters.
Exodus 35: 1-3 says, “And Moses gathered all the congregation of the sons of Israel together and said to them, These are the words which Jehovah has commanded to do. Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day there shall be to you a holy sabbath of rest to Jehovah; whoever does work on it shall be put to death. You shall not kindle a fire in all your dwellings on the sabbath day.” At the beginning of this section we have a word concerning the Sabbath. It seems that this has nothing to do with the making of the tabernacle with its furniture and the garments for the priests. Why does this section begin with a serious word about the Sabbath? According to 35:2, working on the Sabbath was a crime punishable by death. The failure to rest with the Lord on the Sabbath was a capital offense. According to verse 3, not even cooking was allowed on the Sabbath.
Apparently these three verses, 35:1-3, have nothing to do with the making of the tabernacle with its furniture and the priestly garments. Actually there is an important connection here, but we need adequate spiritual experience in order to understand this point in the Word.
As a help to understanding why a command about keeping the Sabbath is mentioned at the beginning of chapter thirty-five, let us review some points from the messages on chapter thirty-four. There we covered three main matters: the feasting and resting with the Lord, the five conditions for enjoying the Lord, and God’s infusion of Himself into Moses.
We have seen that the first of the five conditions was the redeeming of a donkey with a lamb and that the last was the requirement not to boil a kid in its mother’s milk. When I read this portion as a young Christian, I was not able to understand why such matters were included in the Bible. God had called Moses to the mountain for the purpose of recovering the broken covenant. If God wanted to review with Moses the details of the law, why did He not speak about honoring parents or the commandment related to murder? Why did He instead speak about redeeming a donkey and about not boiling a kid in its mother’s milk? It seemed to me that such matters were not important.
By means of human reasoning we cannot understand why these five conditions were given or what they mean. But these conditions were very important requirements related to the enjoyment of the feasts by God’s people. If the children of Israel did not fulfill these conditions, they would lose the enjoyment of the feasts. These conditions are also meaningful for us today in their spiritual interpretation according to our experience.
To redeem a donkey with a lamb indicates that we as fallen ones who are unclean, are redeemed by Christ. Do you intend to enjoy feasting and resting with the Lord? If you do, you need to remember that according to your old man, your natural man, your flesh, and according to the fact that you are a descendant of Adam, you are a “donkey.” No matter who you may be, in the sight of God your natural man is a donkey. If you intend to enjoy Christ as your feast and your rest, you need to realize this. We have seen that in John 3:14 the Lord Jesus indicated to Nicodemus that he was a serpent. In Exodus 34 we see that, according to the natural life, all those who would enjoy Christ are donkeys needing to be redeemed. Leviticus 11 says that a donkey is an unclean animal. Furthermore, a donkey is a beast of burden. In our natural man and according to our natural life, we can be compared to beasts under a heavy burden. We are unclean, and we are heavily burdened. The best way for a donkey to be free from its burden is to die. In a similar manner the way for us, unclean beasts of burden, to enjoy Christ and rest with Him is for us to be replaced by Christ.
The second condition mentioned in Exodus 34 is not to mix leaven with the redeeming blood. Verse 25 says, “You shall not offer the blood of My sacrifice with leavened bread.” Immediately after having our natural person replaced with Christ, we must clear away all leaven. Do you want to enjoy the blood of Christ? If this is your desire, do not mix the redeeming blood with the leaven of your sinful life.
First our natural man needs to be replaced by Christ. In Paul’s words, “I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me”(Gal. 2:20). This means that the “donkey” has been crucified and the Christ who replaces us now lives in us. Now we must go on to clear away all the leaven. We need the redeeming blood, but we cannot offer this blood along with our sinful life. Such a thing is strictly prohibited.
Exodus 34:25b says, “Neither shall the sacrifice of the feast of the passover remain until the morning.” Here we have the third condition for enjoying Christ. After we have been replaced by Christ and have cleared away all leaven, we need to exhaust today’s portion of Christ. This means that we must enjoy Christ to the uttermost today, not leaving anything of today’s portion for the future. However, many Christians do not have an appetite to enjoy Christ fully today. They can be compared to naughty children who do not eat all their food at dinnertime. These believers have a portion of Christ, but they do not enjoy it. The requirement that the sacrifice of the feast of the Passover not remain until the morning means that we need to exhaust the portion of Christ we have for our enjoyment today. We should not postpone the enjoyment of Christ until tomorrow or until the next age. Instead, we must fully enjoy the portion of Christ that has been given to us today.
The fourth requirement for feasting with Christ and enjoying Him is found in 34:26a: “You shall bring the first of the firstfruits of your ground to the house of Jehovah your God.” As we are enjoying today’s portion of Christ, we need to bring the firstfruit, the top portion, to the meeting to offer to God for His satisfaction. We need to bring the topmost experience of Christ to the house of God, to the church meetings, and there offer this portion to God.
Exodus 34:26b gives us the fifth condition: “You shall not boil a kid in its mother’s milk.” A mother is for producing life, and milk is for the nourishment of life. We should not produce young ones and then turn around and kill them. After producing them, we need to nourish them. This means that when we are enjoying Christ, we should not cause anything of death to enter into the realm, the sphere, of the nourishing life.
Recently in a meeting some of the saints were declaring, “Eating Jesus is the way!” While they were declaring this, I was saying to myself, “You say that eating Jesus is the way. But have you eaten Him?” Yes, eating Jesus is the way. But we need to consider how much of the Lord we ourselves have eaten. For some of us, the proclamation that eating Jesus is the way may simply be a slogan. If we would enjoy Christ, we need to fulfill the five conditions. We need to be replaced by Christ, we need to clear away all leaven, we need to exhaust our present portion of Christ, we need to bring the topmost experience of Christ to the church meeting and offer it to God, and we need to keep death away from the sphere of nourishing life.
In Exodus 34 three feasts are mentioned: the feast of unleavened bread, the feast of weeks, and the feast of ingathering. Although according to Leviticus 23 there were seven annual feasts celebrated by the children of Israel, only these three are mentioned here. The first of the yearly feasts was the feast of Passover, and the second was the feast of unleavened bread. In the chapter concerned with the recovery of the broken covenant, God does not mention all the feasts, and the first of the feasts mentioned is not the Passover. According to the record of the seven annual feasts, the most crucial feast was the Passover, which was for salvation. But in this record of the recovery of the broken covenant, there is no mention of the Passover. Rather, the first feast mentioned is the feast of unleavened bread. We know that the feast of unleavened bread was actually a continuation of the Passover. The Passover lasted one day, but the feast of unleavened bread continued for another six days. However, all seven days are called the feast of unleavened bread. Therefore, the feast of unleavened bread includes the Passover.
Why does Exodus 34 mention the feast of unleavened bread but not the feast of Passover? The reason is that the record here is not related to salvation, but is related to the enjoyment of Christ following salvation. This enjoyment begins with the feast of unleavened bread. Do you intend to enjoy Christ after your salvation? If this is your intention, you need to clear away all leaven. You cannot live a sinful life and at the same time enjoy Christ. If we want to enjoy Christ and rest with Him and with God, the first thing we must do is have a clearance of the past. We must eliminate all leaven. We need to have an unleavened life so that we may enjoy Christ.
Exodus 34:22 says, “And you shall observe the feast of weeks, the firstfruits of the wheat harvest, and the feast of the ingathering at the turn of the year.” The feast of weeks is the feast of Pentecost, which means fifty days. Pentecost is the rich issue of the harvest of the firstfruit. Concerning the enjoyment of Christ, we first need to eliminate all leaven by clearing up our sinful life. Then we shall enter into the rich enjoyment of Christ as the firstfruit. First Corinthians 15 reveals that Christ is the firstfruit in resurrection. Pentecost came fifty days after Christ’s resurrection. After Christ was resurrected, He stayed with His disciples for forty days. Then He ascended to the third heaven, and the disciples prayed for ten days. Following those ten days, Pentecost came, and Christ was poured down upon the disciples in the form of the Spirit. This Spirit is the rich issue of the resurrected Christ.
As I consider the feasts in the Old Testament and how they fit in with the New Testament and our spiritual experience, I am again convinced that the Bible is truly inspired by God.
After we are saved and have a clearance of the past, purging the leaven away, we enter into the enjoyment of the riches of Christ in resurrection. This is our Pentecost. Our Pentecost is not a matter of speaking in tongues. For us, Pentecost is to enter into the full issue of the resurrected Christ. Pentecost is the result of enjoying Christ as the firstfruit. The feast of Pentecost is enjoyed by those who have been saved and who are now living a clean life, a life without leaven.
The last of the feasts in Exodus 34 is the feast of ingathering, which is also the feast of tabernacles. The feast of tabernacles was the time when the full harvest was brought in. This feast signifies the rich, full, and ultimate enjoyment of all that Christ is. We begin the enjoyment of Christ from the feast of unleavened bread, we continue by enjoying the riches of the resurrected Christ, and eventually we come to the ultimate enjoyment of Christ as the feast of tabernacles.
In chapter thirty-four the feasts are mentioned in verses 18 and 22 and the Sabbath is mentioned in verse 21: “Six days you shall work, and on the seventh day you shall rest; in plowing time and in harvest you shall rest.” The fact that the word concerning the Sabbath is inserted between the word concerning the feasts indicates that, while we are enjoying Christ, simultaneously we rest with Him. In our feasting, in our enjoyment of Christ, there should be the Sabbath. Therefore, the feasting and the resting are mingled.
For the children of Israel the feasts were held yearly and the Sabbath was kept weekly. But what is portrayed in Exodus 34 describes our daily experience of Christ. Every day we should have three feasts. In the morning we should have the feast of unleavened bread. When we take Christ as our sin offering and trespass offering, we cleanse away the leaven. This is our feast of unleavened bread. Then during the day we should enjoy Christ richly. If we have such an enjoyment of Christ during the day, then at the end of day we shall enjoy Christ to the fullest. Furthermore many times during the day, perhaps every fifteen or twenty minutes, we should take a short break to rest with Christ. I realize that because we are not in the habit of doing this, we may not find it as easy at first. Nevertheless, let us try to remember the Lord during the day and rest with Him. We have seen that the Sabbath signifies resting with the Lord in remembrance of Him. Let us not forget the Lord during the day, but let us remember Him and rest in Him.
In the light of the foregoing let us now consider 35:1-3. When God was about to charge His people to make the tabernacle with its furniture and the garments for the priests, the first thing He told them to do was to keep the Sabbath. This means that before they worked in building the tabernacle they should rest. This corresponds to the record in Genesis 2:2 and 3: “And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.” We have seen that after man came forth from the creating hand of God, the first thing he did was rest. Man’s first day was the Creator’s seventh day. The first thing man did after he was created by God was to rest with God. This indicates that before we can do anything for God, we must first rest with Him. If you intend to work for God, you must receive grace, enjoy grace, and rest with God. Then you may proceed to do something for God. We should not first work for God and then enjoy grace and rest. That way is according to the law. According to grace, we first enjoy grace and then we work. First we rest with the Lord, and then we work for Him.
This principle should be applied in our daily living. Often I will pray before I do a certain thing. For example, I take a walk every day. Before taking my walk, I may pray, “Lord, I thank You for the peace I am now enjoying. You know that I intend to go out to take a walk. Lord, grant Your blessing upon my walk.” If I do not pray like this, I may not have peace when I take my walk, for in that case I do not rest with the Lord before doing the little work of taking a walk.
We can apply this principle to many things. Suppose you need to write a letter to your parents. Before writing the letter, take a minute to rest with the Lord. You may say, “Lord, I thank You that I can be with You. Lord, I need to write a letter to my parents. Lord, be with me as I write this letter. I would like to rest with You and then write the letter with You. Lord, I ask You to write this letter with me.” This is an illustration of the principle of resting with the Lord before we work with Him and for Him.
Resting with the Lord in this way may even affect the way we dress ourselves in the morning. If you rest with Him before you dress yourself, I believe that you will clothe yourself according to the image of the Lord. Suppose a brother has recently purchased a worldly item of clothing. If he rests with the Lord before putting on that article of clothing, he may realize that he should not wear it.
I can testify that regarding resting with the Lord, I know what I am talking about. From experience I know what it means to rest with the Lord before doing things.
Do you know the real significance of the Sabbath? According to Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 12, the significance of the Sabbath is to remember the Lord as our Creator and Redeemer. When we remember the One who created us and redeemed us, we keep the Sabbath. If we are busy day and night, we shall forget the Lord and push Him aside. But there is a principle, a spiritual regulation, that before doing anything we need to remember the Lord and rest with Him. Let us rest with Him in remembrance of Him as our Creator and Redeemer and also as our Savior, Lord, Master, and life. How wonderful it would be if we did this regularly!
This understanding of the word concerning the Sabbath in 35:1-3 comes not only from my experience, but also from the sequence of the record in chapters thirty-four and thirty-five. When Moses was on the mountain with the Lord, the Lord spoke to him concerning three feasts to be held yearly and the Sabbath to be kept weekly. Then Moses came down to tell the people to make the tabernacle with its furniture and to make the garments for the priests. Moses, however, did not forget what the Lord had told him. Therefore, charging the children of Israel to make the tabernacle for God, he told them first to rest with Him and thereby to remember Him as their Creator and Redeemer. I believe that this is the reason the record concerning the making of the tabernacle with its furniture and the garments for the priests begins with a word concerning the Sabbath.
