BibleProject | One Story: Foundations of the Bibleნიმუში

What do you think a Heaven-on-Earth space smells like? Today’s reading introduces the aroma of the tabernacle. The priests are to burn sacred incense before the holy of holies, shrouding the entrance to God’s throne room with sweet smoke.

God tells Moses to mark the holy status of tabernacle furniture and priests by anointing them with fragrant oil. Anointing oil was the concentrated product of garden trees, the essence of Eden distilled into liquid form. Today’s video explains the purpose of anointing: to mark people and objects as bridges between Heaven and Earth.

After telling Moses to consecrate the priests as sacred representatives and the tabernacle as sacred space, God instructs Moses to consecrate the seventh day as sacred time. Consecration sets these people and objects apart from the average world, identifying them as uniquely connected to God’s own holiness.

God rested on the seventh day of creation, and he invites his covenant people to pattern their lives according to his own divine wisdom and rhythms. All of the laws, tent blueprints, priestly clothing, aromatic recipes, and rhythms of rest and worship serve a single purpose: to mark Israel as God’s chosen people who reflect God’s character to the world.

Moses has been receiving God’s instruction for 40 days and 40 nights, veiled in thick clouds at the top of the mountain while the people wait below. Now, he picks up the stone tablets inscribed with the covenant code and walks back down to the camp. It’s time for Israel to put their covenant identity into action. How will they respond?

Reflection questions:

• Look closely at each of the ingredients in the anointing oil recipe from Exodus 30:22-33. While there is no specific reference to them in the Eden narrative, they symbolically connect to Eden as lush, beautiful, and good garden plants. What point do you think God is making here? Why instruct the people to use Eden-like plants to make anointing oil?
• God’s Spirit fills the workers responsible for building the tabernacle. Where else have you seen the Spirit of God involved in an act of creating? How does this hyperlink help you understand the tabernacle?