อพยพ 25:23 วิจารณ์

At this chapter begins an account of the orders and instructions God gave to Moses upon the mount for the erecting and furnishing of a tabernacle to the honour of God. We have here. I. Orders given for a collection to be made among the people for this purpose (Exo 25:1-9). II. Particular instructions, 1. Concerning the ark of the covenant (Exo 25:10-22). 2. The table of showbread (Exo 25:23-30). 3. The golden candlestick (Exo 25:31, etc.).

Here is, 1. A table ordered to be made of wood overlaid with gold, which was to stand, not in the holy of holies (nothing was in that but the ark with its appurtenances), but in the outer part of the tabernacle, called the sanctuary, or holy place, Heb 9:2, Heb 9:23, etc. There must also be the usual furniture of the sideboard, dishes and spoons, etc., and all of gold, Exo 25:29. 2. This table was to be always spread, and furnished with the show-bread (Exo 25:30), or bread of faces, twelve loaves, one for each tribe, set in two rows, six in a row; see the law concerning them, Lev 24:5, etc. The tabernacle being God's house, in which he was pleased to say that he would dwell among them, he would show that he kept a good house. In the royal palace it was fit that there should be a royal table. Some make the twelve loaves to represent the twelve tribes, set before God as his people and the corn of his floor, as they are called, Isa 21:10. As the ark signified God's being present with them, so the twelve loaves signified their being presented to God. This bread was designed to be, (1.) A thankful acknowledgement of God's goodness to them, in giving them their daily bread, manna in the wilderness, where he prepared a table for them, and, in Canaan, the corn of the land. Hereby they owned their dependence upon Providence, not only for the corn in the field, which they gave thanks for in offering the sheaf of first-fruits, but for the bread in their houses, that, when it was brought home, God did not blow upon it, Hag 1:9. Christ has taught us to pray every day for the bread of the day. (2.) A token of their communion with God. This bread on God's table being made of the same corn with the bread on their own tables, God and Israel did, as it were, eat together, as a pledge of friendship and fellowship; he supped with them, and they with him. (3.) A type of the spiritual provision which is made in the church, by the gospel of Christ, for all that are made priests to our God. In our Father's house there is bread enough and to spare, a loaf for every tribe. All that attend in God's house shall be abundantly satisfied with the goodness of it, Psa 36:8. Divine consolations are the continual feast of holy souls, notwithstanding there are those to whom the table of the Lord, and the meat thereof (because it is plain bread), are contemptible, Mal 1:12. Christ has a table in his kingdom, at which all his saints shall for every eat and drink with him, Luk 22:30.

INTRODUCTION TO EXODUS 25 In this chapter an order is given for a freewill offering towards various things for the worship and service of God, and the materials to be offered, which would be useful and acceptable, are mentioned particularly, Exo 25:1, as also another order to build a sanctuary for God, after a model that he would give, Exo 25:8, and, an ark to put in the law on tables of stone, the fashion of which, and the various things belonging to it, are described, Exo 25:10, and a mercy seat with cherubim on it to be set over the ark, where the Lord promises to meet Moses and commune with him, Exo 25:17 and a table with various appurtenances to it to place the shewbread on, Exo 25:23 and a candlestick of gold, whose parts are described, and all the instruments relative to it, Exo 25:31.

And thou shalt make unto it a border of art hand's breadth round about,.... Jarchi says, their wise men are divided about this; some say it was above, round about the table; others say it was below, fixed from foot to foot at the four corners of the table, and the board of the table lay upon the border: and thou shalt make a golden crown to the border thereof round about; this was not the same spoke of in the former verse, but another; that was above, and upon the table, this below and under it; or rather that was, as it may be better expressed, a lip, rim, or border, that went round within the table (u); and this crown, surrounded that on the edge of it. (u) So R. Sol. Urbin. Ohel Moed, fol. 61. 2.

A dividing wall of cedar planks, twenty cubits high, was built in the temple to separate the inner sanctuary, that is, the Holy of Holies, from the forepart of the temple. The innersanctuary was twenty cubits deep, twenty cubits wide and twenty cubits high. The [part of the temple] in front of the inner sanctuary was forty cubits long, and in it were tables and the golden candelabrum, as well as the golden altar near the door of the inner sanctuary. This was done so that when incense was offered upon it, the cloud of smoke might rise up and cover the inner sanctuary, where the ark of the covenant was, “and above it the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat.”

The Lord addresses Moses out of the Divine glory, and commands him to speak unto the Israelites, that they may give him free-will offerings, Exo 25:1, Exo 25:2. The different kinds of offerings, gold, silver, and brass, Exo 25:3. Purple, scarlet, fine linen, and goats' hair, Exo 25:4. Rams' skins, badgers' skins, (rather violet-coloured skins), and shittim wood, Exo 25:5. Oil and spices, Exo 25:6. Onyx stones, and stones for the ephod and breastplate, Exo 25:7. A sanctuary is to be made after the pattern of the tabernacle, Exo 25:8, Exo 25:9. The ark and its dimensions, Exo 25:10. Its crown of gold, Exo 25:11. Its rings, Exo 25:12. Its staves, and their use, Exo 25:13-15. The testimony to be laid up in the ark, Exo 25:16. The mercy-seat and its dimensions, Exo 25:17. The cherubim, how made and placed, Exo 25:18-20. The mercy-seat to be placed on the ark, and the testimony to be put within it, Exo 25:21. The Lord promises to commune with the people from the mercy-seat, Exo 25:22. The table of shew-bread, and its dimensions, Exo 25:23. Its crown and border of gold, Exo 25:24, Exo 25:25. Its rings, Exo 25:26, Exo 25:27. Staves, Exo 25:28. Dishes, spoons, and bowls, Exo 25:29. Its use, Exo 25:30. The golden candlestick; its branches, bowls, knops, and flowers, Exo 25:31-36. Its seven lamps, Exo 25:37. Tongs and snuffers, Exo 25:38. The weight of the candlestick and its utensils, one talent of gold, Exo 25:39. All to be made according to the pattern showed to Moses on the mount, Exo 25:40.

Thou shalt also make a table of shittim wood - The same wood, the acacia, of which the arkstaves, etc., were made. On the subject of the ark, table of shew-bread, etc., Dr. Cudworth, in his very learned and excellent treatise on the Lord's Supper, has the following remarks: - "When God had brought the children of Israel out of Egypt, resolving to manifest himself in a peculiar manner present among them, he thought good to dwell amongst them in a visible and external manner; and therefore, while they were in the wilderness, and sojourned in tents, he would have a tent or tabernacle built to sojourn with them also. This mystery of the tabernacle was fully understood by the learned Nachmanides, who, in few words, but pregnant, expresseth himself to this purpose: 'The mystery of the tabernacle was this, that it was to be a place for the shechinah, or habitation of Divinity, to be fixed in;' and this, no doubt, as a special type of God's future dwelling in Christ's human nature, which was the True Shechinah: but when the Jews were come into their land, and had there built them houses, God intended to have a fixed dwelling-house also; and therefore his movable tabernacle was to be turned into a standing temple. Now the tabernacle or temple, being thus as a house for God to dwell in visibly, to make up the notion of dwelling or habitation complete there must be all things suitable to a house belonging to it; hence, in the holy place, there must be a table, and a candlestick, because this was the ordinary furniture of a room, as the fore-commended Nachmanides observes. The table must have its dishes, and spoons, and bowls, and covers belonging to it, though they were never used; and always be furnished with bread upon it. The candlestick must have its lamps continually burning. Hence also there must be a continual fire kept in this house of God upon the altar, as the focus of it; to which notion I conceive the Prophet Isaiah doth allude, Isa 31:9 : Whose fire is in Zion, and his furnace in Jerusalem; and besides all this, to carry the notion still farther, there must be some constant meat and provision brought into this house; which was done in the sacrifices that were partly consumed by fire upon God's own altar, and partly eaten by the priests, who were God's family, and therefore to be maintained by him. That which was consumed upon God's altar was accounted God's mess, as appeareth from Mal 1:12, where the altar is called God's table, and the sacrifice upon it, God's meat: Ye say, The table of the Lord is polluted; and the fruit thereof, even His Meat, is contemptible. And often, in the law, the sacrifice is called God's לחם lechem, i.e., his bread or food. Wherefore it is farther observable, that besides the flesh of the beast offered up in sacrifice, there was a minchah, i.e., a meat-offering, or rather bread-offering, made of flour and oil; and a libamen or drink-offering, which was always joined with the daily sacrifice, as the bread and drink which was to go along with God's meat. It was also strictly commanded that there should be salt in every sacrifice and oblation, because all meat is unsavoury without salt, as Nachmanides hath here also well observed; 'because it was not honorable that God's meat should be unsavoury, without salt.' Lastly, all these things were to be consumed on the altar only by the holy fire which came down from heaven, because they were God's portion, and therefore to be eaten or consumed by himself in an extraordinary manner." See Clarke on Exo 25:22 (note).

CONCERNING AN OFFERING. (Exo. 25:1-40) the Lord spake unto Moses, &c.--The business that chiefly occupied Moses on the mount, whatever other disclosures were made to him there, was in receiving directions about the tabernacle, and they are here recorded as given to him.

table of shittim wood--of the same material and decorations as the ark [see on Exo 25:5], and like it, too, furnished with rings for the poles on which it was carried [Exo 25:26]. The staves, however, were taken out of it when stationary, in order not to encumber the priests while engaged in their services at the table. It was half a cubit less than the ark in length and breadth, but of the same height. [See on Exo 25:10.]

The Table of Shew-Bread (cf. Exo 37:10-16). - The table for the shew-bread (Exo 25:30) was to be made of acacia-wood, two cubits long, one broad, and one and a half high, and to be plated with pure gold, having a golden wreath round, and a "finish (מסגּרת) of a hand-breadth round about," i.e., a border of a hand-breadth in depth surrounding and enclosing the four sides, upon which the top of the table was laid, and into the four corners of which the feet of the table were inserted. A golden wreath was to be placed round this rim. As there is no article attached to זר־זהב in Exo 25:25 (cf. Exo 37:12), so as to connect it with the זר in Exo 25:24, we must conclude that there were two such ornamental wreaths, one round the slab of the table, the other round the rim which was under the slab. At the four corners of the four feet, near the point at which they joined the rim, four rings were to be fastened for בּתּים, i.e., to hold the poles with which the table was carried, as in the case of the ark.