When it was time to build the tabernacle, “Everyone who could make a contribution of silver or bronze brought it as the Lord’s contribution. And every one who possessed acacia wood of any use in the work brought it.” (Exodus 35:24)
The following items were made of acacia wood: the ark and
its poles, the table of showbread and its poles, the brazen altar and its
poles, and the incense altar and its poles, all the poles for the hanging of
the curtains as well as the supports. In short, all the structural features of
the tabernacle were constructed of acacia wood. For the most part, this wood
was covered with gold, silver or bronze.
All the gold used for the work in the construction of the
sanctuary was twenty-nine talents and 730 shekels. The silver given by the
congregation was a hundred talents and 1,775 shekels . . . about half a shekel for everyone who was
listed in the records, from twenty years old and upward; 603,550 men. The
hundred talents of silver were for casting the bases of the sanctuary and the
bases of the veil; a hundred bases for the hundred talents, a talent a base. The
1,775 shekels were made into hooks for the pillars, their capitals and fillets.
The bronze that was offered was seventy talents and 2,400 shekels. It was used
for the bases for the entrance of the tent of meeting, the bronze altar and the
bronze grating for it and all the utensils of the altar, the bases around the
court, and the bases of the gate of the court, all the pegs of the tabernacle,
and all the pegs around the court. (Exodus 38:24–31)
Acacia wood made me curious. Why this wood? Apparently
some have tried to attach a spiritual power to it, but the Bible says nothing
like that. Acacia was simply the main tree available during the wilderness
journey. However, God knew. He provided a tree with wood dense and strong. It was
ideal for a structure that would endure for generations. Even though it was not
plainly visible, this wood was a valuable and important part of this place of worship.
The next reading also points to a valuable part of
worship. The Song of Solomon is a love poem, yet it points to the love of Christ
for His bride and the love of the church for her Groom, with myrrh as an
expression of that love . . .
I came to my garden, my
sister, my bride, I gathered my myrrh with my spice, I ate my honeycomb with my
honey, I drank my wine with my milk. Eat, friends, drink, and be drunk with
love! . . . I arose to open to my
beloved, and my hands dripped with myrrh, my fingers with liquid myrrh, on the
handles of the bolt. (Song
of Solomon 5:1, 5)
Oil of myrrh is fragrant and was often used for burials.
It symbolized death,
and suggests the greatest expression of the love of God — His death for our sin.
A mixture of wine
and myrrh was offered to Jesus during his crucifixion. This oil is extremely
symbolic, even to the price of it. Today, pure oil of myrrh is nearly $10 for a
mere teaspoon.
The cost of our salvation was not in dollars, but in the
precious blood of Jesus Christ. It is not a huge leap for me to link the
enduring qualities of acacia wood to eternal life, nor the oil of myrrh to the
death that secured it.
In the NT reading, Jesus tells it like it is to the crowds
that followed Him after He fed them with five loaves and two fishes. He said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not
because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work
for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life,
which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his
seal.”
Then they said to him, “What
must we do, to be doing the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the
work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” (John 6:26–29)
Jesus said to them, “I am the
bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me
shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not
believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me
I will never cast out . . . I am the living bread that came down from heaven.
If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will
give for the life of the world is my flesh.” (John 6:35-37, 51)
Jesus could have said He was like the precious oil of
myrrh, but instead He compared Himself to the ordinary staff of life, bread;
bread that everyone needs, bread that everyone can afford. But He did talk
about everlasting life and about giving His life so we could have that life that
will endure forever.
From these verses, I’m thinking that of that expensive oil
— it isn’t really much compared to the priceless Son of God and His priceless
gift available to whoever comes to Him asking for it.
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