Exodus 25:23-40 - Shadow Copies of the Heavenly Temple

Exodus 25:23-40

The Table for the Showbread (Exodus 37:10–16)

23 “You shall also make a table of acacia wood; two cubits shall be its length, a cubit its width, and a cubit and a half its height. 24 And you shall overlay it with pure gold, and make a molding of gold all around. 25 You shall make for it a frame of a handbreadth all around, and you shall make a gold molding for the frame all around. 26 And you shall make for it four rings of gold, and put the rings on the four corners that are at its four legs. 27 The rings shall be close to the frame, as holders for the poles to bear the table. 28 And you shall make the poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold, that the table may be carried with them. 29 You shall make its dishes, its pans, its pitchers, and its bowls for pouring. You shall make them of pure gold. 30 And you shall set the showbread on the table before Me always.

The Gold Lampstand (Exodus 37:17–24)

31 “You shall also make a lampstand of pure gold; the lampstand shall be of hammered work. Its shaft, its branches, its bowls, its ornamental knobs, and flowers shall be of one piece. 32 And six branches shall come out of its sides: three branches of the lampstand out of one side, and three branches of the lampstand out of the other side. 33 Three bowls shall be made like almond blossoms on one branch, with an ornamental knob and a flower, and three bowls made like almond blossoms on the other branch, with an ornamental knob and a flower—and so for the six branches that come out of the lampstand. 34 On the lampstand itself four bowls shall be made like almond blossoms, each with its ornamental knob and flower. 35 And there shall be a knob under the first two branches of the same, a knob under the second two branches of the same, and a knob under the third two branches of the same, according to the six branches that extend from the lampstand. 36 Their knobs and their branches shall be of one piece; all of it shall be one hammered piece of pure gold. 37 You shall make seven lamps for it, and they shall arrange its lamps so that they give light in front of it. 38 And its wick-trimmers and their trays shall be of pure gold. 39 It shall be made of a talent of pure gold, with all these utensils. 40 And see to it that you make them according to the pattern which was shown you on the mountain.

The show read and golden lampstand were designed by God and their construction and placement were also spell our specifically to Moses according to the pattern from Heaven given to him when he met the LORD on the mountain (Acts 7:44) and received His word.  We read in Hebrews 8:3-4 how the high priest work was also insufficient and that Jesus as the eternal High Priest was alone able to offer the perfect and lasting sacrifice and ministry.  In Hebrews 8:1-2 we see that He is the “Minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man.”  He rules and ministers from heaven itself and built the true tabernacle just as these bodies of the saints are being built up together into the temple (1 Corinthians 3:16, Ephesians 2:21-22, 1 Peter 2:4-5) of true worship according to the heavenly plan of eternal salvation and worship.  We see the symbolic foreshadowing of the heavenly showbread and lampstand in Hebrews 9:1-2 preparing the way for the final and complete atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ as our High Priest in Hebrews 9:11-12 as in the perfect temple not of this creation but of the hand of God in heaven above.  In Hebrews 9:23-24 we see further that the true unseen temple has the sacrifice which the copy here described cannot fulfill all God’s promises and plan unless it is done in the true temple where God lives.  Therefore, “(Hebrews 9:26-28) once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.” and, “as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.”  That is the true ministry in the heavens for our sacrifice once and for all for our sin which the shadow temple copy here described could never do, yet was made at God’s instruction to point us to the necessary work of Christ for us to anticipate.  These then are shadow copies of the heavenly, for the showbread and lampstand are but Shadow Copies in the earthly shadowland of the Heavenly Temple we see Christ ministering to us from in heaven.  Jesus has come and fulfilled (Ga latians 4:4-5) all things.  It is finished (John 19:28, 30)!