Terumah “heave offering”
It is customary for religiously practicing Jews to read from an annual cycle of weekly Old Testament readings called Torah Portions. This is said to be the same reading schedule that was taught every Sabbath in the Synagogues during the times of Jesus in the first century.
As Christians exploring the Torah portion cycle we must maintain a balance of including the Old Testament, the prophets, and the gospels in our weekly bible study.
Torah Portion Name and Readings-
Terumah is the Hebrew word for “heave offering”, this is the name for the weekly Torah Portion reading for the Exodus starting in chapter 25 verse 1 and going through chapter 27 and verse 19.
Prophets and New Testament-
It is also important to point out that along with the Torah portion readings and teachings, there are what are called Haftarah portions which are readings from the Bible in the books of the prophets. This week’s haftarah readings come from the book of 2 Kings in chapter 11 verse 21 through chapter 12 verse 16.
The gospel readings incorporated with the weekly Torah portion readings come from the book of Matthew in chapter 17 with verses 22 through verse 27.
Torah Portion Overview-
In this torah portion, we receive a substantial portion of the commandments related to the tabernacle and the elements of worship. This starts with the form of worship we call giving. God lists all the elements that will be needed and commands that the people come and give. Indeed, the people gave so much that Moses had to instruct them to stop giving! Next comes elements of worship, instructions for the Ark of the Covenant, the Table of the Bread of the Presence, and the Lampstand. Moses was then given the law for building the Tabernacle itself, the dwelling that would contain all these elements. Instructions then continue for more elements of worship. We get the veil, which was to separate and protect the Most Holy Place, the location of the Ark. Then the Altar of Burnt Offerings and lastly the court of the Tabernacle.
Today I want to focus on the reason and purpose of the Tabernacle.
“And they shall make me a sanctuary so that I may dwell among them. In accordance with all that I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle and of all its furniture, so you shall make it.”
Exodus 25:8-9 (NRSVue)
In the beginning there was no tabernacle or temple, however, there was a shadow of one. In Genesis we see a sacred garden created by God. The sacred garden had a river that flowed through it that split into four rivers. This symbolized that the water would water the “four corners of the whole earth”. In other words, this water was to give life to the whole earth. In this sacred garden were special trees; the tree of life which would give eternal life, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil which would eventually bring death (whether because of the nature of it’s fruit or more probable, just because of disobedience). In Ezekiel we learn that the garden was either next to, or on, a mountain.
“You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering, sardius, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, emerald, and carbuncle; and crafted in gold were your settings and your engravings. On the day that you were created they were prepared. You were an anointed guardian cherub. I placed you; you were on the holy mountain of God; in the midst of the stones of fire you walked.”
Ezekiel 28:13-14 (ESV)
The mountain, with the water of life going through a sacred garden that contained sacred trees was language used to describe ancient temples. Yet here we do not see a physical temple like the Tabernacle or Temple in Israel, but we see a kind of natural temple where the earth itself formed the temple structure, with Adam as it’s center, him being the image of God.
Adam was created in the “image” of God. The word “image” here can be compared to idols. In the Ancient Near East, idols were considered to be the image of a god that could transfer the worship to that god. In the same way, when Adam was created in the image of God, one of the possible meanings is that Adam would represent the Most High and convey His glory to earth and the worship on earth to Yahweh. Yet Adam failed. He fell and sinned and gave into temptation. God separated from him and banished Adam from the sacred garden.
Yet God desired to dwell with man. That was the entire plan, that the Most High would dwell with his creation. And so He set about creating a nation and setting up a priesthood and Tabernacle. The purpose of the Tabernacle is stated, “that I may dwell among you”. The Tabernacle or Temple was not the end goal, but the means to get to that goal. The goal was that God would dwell among His people. Relationship was what He desired. Yet to do that He decreed that Israel build for him a place to dwell. As T. Desmond Alexander explains in of Apollos Old Testament Commentary, vol. 2 Exodus:
“The vast majority of EVV translate miškān as ‘tabernacle’, which comes from the Latin tabernaculum, meaning ‘tent’. The Hebr. term, however, does not denote specifically a ‘tent’: it refers more generally to a ‘dwelling place’ (cf. NJB, which used ‘Dwelling’ to translate miškān). Since the miškān, ‘dwelling place’, in Exodus is constructed as a tent, the designation ‘tabernacle’ is not entirely inappropriate, but it is should be noted that ‘tabernacle’ is not an exact translation of the Hebr. term miškān (see Hendrix [1991: 213–223],”
Tabernacle is not a perfect translation, but indeed, nothing can be. We don’t have a way to perfectly translate word for word what the Hebrew word expresses. That is not a problem, for this is the way languages work when you translate. When translating the goal is to find the closest translation possible. Different translations take different strategies to do this. Some, such as the ESV try to translate each word as accurately, called a “word for word translation”. In this you get close to the original sentence structure, but you may miss some of the nuance. Other translations, such as the NRSVue try to translate each idea as accurately as possible, called a “thought for thought translation”. This means that each word may not be exact, but the general idea is presented. This is why I use both of these translations. It is a good idea to read the Bible using a “word for word” approach as well as a “thought for thought” strategy. Both are valid and important.
Continuing on with the main idea, the point of the Tabernacle was that God may dwell among us. But why not just dwell with us like He did with Adam? With Adam no physical temple or tabernacle was built (by man). Why did God change to the tabernacle/temple approach?
I believe that the reason that God transitioned from mankind as the “image” to a tabernacle is because of sin. When Adam sinned and fell he was filled with sin. This sin made him unclean, and thus, unfit to represent Yahweh. He became unclean. And so a system was needed that would teach man to stay clean from sin and remain pure. Thus Yahweh decreed a new way to worship, first a moveable Tabernacle, and then later once they were stationary, a Temple. In this worship system a way to remain “clean” and “pure” would be taught. It would protect the sacred space. Yet I believe the goal of all this was not in itself the temple or tabernacle, but relationship. The point of the sacrificial system, the cleanliness laws, and the temple itself, was to teach mankind to be holy so that they would be fit and suitable for God to dwell with, not in a building but in them!
This is why after the cross and resurrection we see a shift to a spiritual temple. It is not that the earthly temple didn’t have value, it was that the earthly temple was not the goal. Thus, shifting from an earthly temple to a spiritual temple was God moving the line closer to His ultimate intention. And that is what God did. After the power of sin was destroyed Yahweh had the ability to dwell with men. And so the Holy Spirit came and dwelt in us! This is why we all are the temple. The Holy Spirit dwells in us. We are the new pattern, we are the temple that God desires!
“And you are living stones that God is building into his spiritual temple. What’s more, you are his holy priests. Through the mediation of Jesus Christ, you offer spiritual sacrifices that please God.”
1 Peter 2:5 (NLT)
The point of us being a temple is not that we are better in any way, but that God desires relationship. The entire point of this transition was that God may dwell with us. But now we do not need to go to a temple, an earthly destination. No, wherever we go, God is there with us. Every place we go, everything we do, God is dwelling with us. Thus we should take note, and seek to walk in righteousness and the fear of the Lord. For we are not separated from His presence, we have His presence within us. He desires a clean people, a people free of sin! Thus we should seek to stay pure and clean and be free from sin.
“If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are.”
1 Corinthians 3:17 (NASB95)
Torah Portion Scriptural Highlights-
Exodus 25:1 Moses instructed an offering to be taken up to build the Tabernacle.
Exodus 25:10 The instructions for building the Ark of the Covenant.
Exodus 25:23 The instructions for building the Table of the Bread of the Presence.
Exodus 25:31 The instructions for building the lampstand.
Exodus 26:1 The instructions for building the Tabernacle.
Exodus 26:31 The instructions for making the veil.
Exodus 27:1 The instructions for building the Altar of Burnt Offerings.
Exodus 27:9 The instructions for making the court of the Tabernacle.
Haftarah (Prophets) Scriptural Highlights-
2 Kings 11:21 Jehoash reigns righteously in Judah.
2 Kings 12:4 Jehoash taxes the people and raises money to pay to repair the temple and pays for the repairs.
Brit (Gospel) Scriptural Highlights-
Matthew 17:22 Jesus warns the disciples that He will die and resurrect.
Matthew 17:24 Jesus pays the temple tax by instructing Peter to catch a fish with the money in it’s mouth.
Bibliography
T. Desmond Alexander, Exodus, ed. David W. Baker and Gordon J. Wenham, vol. 2 of Apollos Old Testament Commentary (London; Downers Grove, IL: Apollos; InterVarsity Press, 2017), 571-572.
Eugene Carpenter, Exodus, vol. 2 en of Evangelical Exegetical Commentary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016), 173–174.
To Watch an overview of this week’s Torah Portion CLICK HERE