Memory gem:  "Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle"  (Exodus 40:34).

Thought for today:
In the holy tabernacle made by Moses at the command of God and carried by Israel through the desert wanderings, we have a perfect picture of the cross.  Notice the arrangement of the altar of sacrifice, the laver, the golden altar of incense, and the ark of the covenant in a straight line from east to west.  Then the table of shewbread, the altar of incense, and the golden candlestick, running at right angles to this in another straight line from north to south, formed the arms of the cross.  This made a perfect cross, which was displayed wherever the sanctuary was set up.

And the teachings of the sanctuary with its sacrifices of slain lambs and ascending incense pictured, beforehand, the redemptive work of Christ our Sacrifice, offered before God for us.

If we have exalted views of Christ's atoning work, we must study the New Testament and have some knowledge of its deep bloodstained foundation in the Old Testament gospels of Moses and the prophets.  In every sacrifice Christ's death was shown.

A visitor said to a wounded soldier of World War II, who lay dying in a hospital, "What church are you of?"

    "I'm of Christ's church," he replied
    "I mean, of what persuasion are you?"
    "Persuasion?" said the poor dying boy, as he looked heavenward beaming with the love of His Saviour.  "I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord"  (Romans 8:38, 39).

Is that your persuasion, friend?  Do you believe it?

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Difficult or obscure words:
Exodus 38:8.  "Looking glasses"--better mirrors.  They were highly polished bronze plates.

DAY 38    Read Exodus 35 through 38.

Today's reading describes more of the beautiful furnishings for the tabernacle.  One interesting sidelight mentions the time when people brought too many gifts to church!

Memory gem:  "They spake unto Moses, saying, The people bring much more than enough for the service of the work"  (Exodus 36:5).

Thought for today:
As we study this great tabernacle in the desert, we pass within the veil to the sacred stillness of the most holy place.  Here rests the ark of the covenant, within which are the Ten Commandments written by the finger of God on tables of stone.  The ark is surmounted by two golden angels with their wings outstretched over the mercy seat, which is between them.  This represents the throne of God in heaven, the very center of the universe.  The mercy seat resting over the tables of God's law helps us to understand that "righteousness and judgment are the establishment of his throne"  (Psalm 97:2, margin).

Here on the mercy seat, the holy presence of God shone forth in blinding light.  No one but the high priest could sprinkle the blood of the sin offering for all the people before the mercy seat, and he could do that only once, at the end of the yearly services.  In like manner, Christ appears in the very presence of God for us as our High Priest, our "advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous"  (1 John 2:1).

Friend, will you not send your sins on beforehand to judgment in Christ?  Will you not accept Him as your Mediator, the Man Christ Jesus?  He is the One who is touched with all the feelings of our infirmities (see Hebrews 4:15).  He understands what it is to live in this world, He knows what it is to be a man, for as the Son of man He has carried our humanity with Him to the very throne of God.  Does your hope enter into that within the heavenly veil, whither our Forerunner, the Lord Jesus Christ, has entered there in heaven above to appear in the presence of God for us? (see Hebrews 6:19, 20).

DAY 37    Read 29 through 31:17.

Today's reading, among other things, introduces two men with heaven-imparted abilities.  The work of preparing God's house demanded careful and skillful workers.

Memory gem:  "I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will be their God"  (Exodus 29:45).

Thought for today:
What about God's plan for our lives?  Have we tried to find out what it is?  Have we been willing to follow it as He has led us step by step?  Remember, we are responsible for all the talents the Lord has loaned to us.  The Holy Spirit, knowing every heart, divides spiritual gifts "to every man severally as he will"  (1 Corinthians 12:8-11).

What would happen today if every professing Christian were ready to do every good work?

God is willing to reveal His plan for us, but there are two requirements if we would know what it is.  First, there must be the sympathy of trust; and second, the faithfulness of obedience.  There must be sympathetic trust, or we shall never have spiritual insight.  God reveals Himself to the trustful, loving heart, and He makes His ways clear to those who obey Him.

Each of us, then, has his work; and how important are those individual peculiarities which God has given to each of us for the accomplishment of that task!  How reverently we should guard the diversities that are really revelations of God's will concerning our work!  Our service to Him is not a by-product of life; it is life itself.  So, working and watching, happy will be the servant whom the Lord shall find so doing--that is, doing the work that is God's plan for him.  He is not merely idly looking for Christ, but doing His will here and now, knowing that every man's life is a plan of God.

DAY 36    Read Exodus 26 through 28.

Today's reading has more of the detailed instructions for making the various items for the tabernacle.

Memory gem:  "Thou shalt make a plate of pure gold, and grave upon it, like the engravings of a signet, HOLINESS TO THE LORD"  (Exodus 28:36).

Thought for today:
What a perfect picture this is of Christ and His work of redemption!  No wonder we read in Psalm 77:13:  "Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary."

The central feature of the Christian religion is the mediatorial work of Jesus Christ as our High Priest in the heavenly sanctuary.  His sinless life might have been lived.  His sacrifice might have been made.  He might have risen triumphantly from the tomb.  But if it were not for His mediatorial work in the heavenly sanctuary--the sanctuary "which the Lord pitched, and not man" (Hebrews 8:2), which was the original after which the earthly sanctuary was copied--we would not share in the benefits of that redemptive work.  It is as a priest that Christ ministers salvation and grace to us.  His ability to save to the uttermost is based on the fact that "he ever liveth to make intercession" for us (Hebrews 7:25).

So we see that this tabernacle in the desert carried with it the form of the cross and the teaching of the cross.  There were sacrificed the bleeding lambs which pointed to Jesus, the Lamb of God.  These animals were brought to the altar of sacrifice, and those who had sinned laid their hands upon them, confessing their sins.  They did this to show their faith in the innocent Lamb of God who would someday come to this earth and die for them.  By faith they, as we, could say:

Christ has for sin atonement made
    What a wonderful Saviour!
We are redeemed! the price is paid!...
What a wonderful Saviour is Jesus my Lord!
          --Elisha A. Hoffman.

DAY 35    Read Exodus 34; 24 and 25.

Today's reading takes up the instructions for building the sanctuary, or tabernacle--the center for worship.

Memory gem:  "Let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them"  (Exodus 25:8).

Thought for today:
When God's chosen people came out of the land of Egypt under the leadership of Moses, they were instructed by the Lord to make a sanctuary, or movable church, as the center of their worship.

The sanctuary is a dramatized parable of God's dealings with men.  In fact, it is the pictured history of the universe in the age of eternity which we call time.  It was moreover "the gospel in substance, salvation in epitome," as Robert Thurber says.  It was a figure, but more than a form.  As we study it, we will find shadows, but not darkness; in fact, the shadows turn into reflections of the very light of heaven.  As we study the sanctuary, we think God's thoughts after Him.

It was to be the house of God on earth.  During the famous Exodus of the tribes of the Hebrew people from slavery in Egypt, they stopped in their wanderings toward the land of their adoption and camped for nearly a year at the foot of Mount Sinai.  There, in obedience to the instructions of the divine Architect, they built the tabernacle or sanctuary of God.  It was in tent form so it could be put up and taken down as they moved from place to place in the desert for forty years before entering the Land of Promise.

Every detail of its construction was ordered and described by God Himself.  Skilled workmanship was employed.  The skins of animals, beautiful woods, fine linen, precious metals and stones--all were blended in the artistry of the great Designer, working through human hands.

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Difficult or obscure words:
Exodus 25:5.  "Badgers skins"--better: seal skins, probably the hides of the dugong, common in the Red Sea.
Exodus 25:5.  "Shittim wood"--acacia wood.
Exodus 25:31.  "Candlestick"--lampstand possessing the shape of the traditional Jewish menorah.

DAY 34   

Read Exodus 31:18 through chapter 33.
Today's reading, in order to put the sequence of events in order, skips several chapters.  We read today about the disgraceful worship of the golden calf and related events.

Memory gem:  "Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Who is on the Lord's side? let him come unto me"  (Exodus 32:26).

Thought for today: This is great apostasy at Mount Sinai, this worship of the golden calf, has a message for every soul today.  Whatever comes between us and obedience to God is an idol.  It can be some affair of the daily life.  It can be something in reference to our direct worship of God, as it was in this case.  It could be a person, plans, property, or money.  What is first in my life?  Who is first in my life?  Who is my god?  What is my god?  Am I an idolater?  These are the big questions.

Robert Browning used to please the children and amuse them by displaying a strange microscopic ability of one of his eyes.  He could inscribe the Lord's Prayer inside a small circle, then cover it up completely with a shilling.  The Lord's Prayer can be covered up with a coin.  We can cover up the words of the Lord's Prayer, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven," with a pile of money; or a few bills may cover them up in our hearts.
This worship of the golden calf is very popular today.  We need some plain teaching on this subject.  The subject of money is a ticklish one.  Talk about heaven; talk about hell; talk about things long ago and far away--but don't talk about my checkbook, my bank account, my property, or what I do with my money.  But why not?  These things represent life.  In a sense money is congealed life.  How do we use it?  How do we consecrate it?  In the secret temple of our hearts many of us still worship the golden calf.

Are you a dedicated man or woman, boy or girl?  God loves you.  He proved that in Christ.  The Saviour died for you upon the cross.  Let us all bring our hearts, our lives, as gifts to God.  How about it, friend?  Will you not make your life a golden gift to Him?

DAY 33    Read Exodus 17 through 20.

Today's reading covers various adventures encountered by the wandering Isrealites.  When they arrive at Mount Sinai, the Lord appears in awful majesty to speak to His people.

Memory gem:  "I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage"  (Exodus 20:2).

Thought for today:
God's law was not put into written form until the days of Moses, but that holy law was for all men not only from Adam to Moses, but from Moses to Christ, and throughout the gospel dispensation.

Jesus was faithfully and perfectly obedient to all His Father's commandments, for He said, "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love"  (John 15:10).

And then notice these words of the apostle John: "He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him"  (1 John 2:4).

God's law is for God's remnant people in the last days, and they will keep it under great difficulties, even under the attacks of Satan.

"And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ"  (Revelation 12:17).

They will keep the law of God and have the faith of Jesus.  This proves that they are Christians and are living by faith.

Sometimes it is said that no man can keep the law; however, this is but half-truth.  The full truth is that no man in his own strength can keep the law and satisfy God's holy demands.  Our righteousness is not of ourselves, but of Him, not of our works, but His.

"For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure"  (Philippians 2:13).

And so, friend, will you not by God's grace be one of those who follow the path that leads to the city of God--one of those who "keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus"?

DAY 32    Read Exodus 14 through 16.

Today's reading:  The host of Israelites (and large numbers of followers in the camp of Israel--the "mixed multitude") flee from Egyptian bondage, cross the Red Sea, and enter the wilderness.

Memory gem:  "Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord"  (Exodus 14:13).

Thought for today:  We had traveled two long days from Cairo, Egypt, across the Suez Canal and along the shore of the Red Sea.  We camped there by the sea, not far from where Israel camped, at a place called Abu Zenima.  The next morning we plunged into the real wilderness.  The Bible speaks of it as a "waste howling wilderness" (Deuteronomy 32:10), and no description could be more accurate.  Several times we started up dead-end canyons before we finally got into the main canyon of the Wadi Feiran.  We were crossing the very wilderness in which the Israelites had wandered.  No wonder they needed a pillar of cloud to guide them and to shelter them from the burning heat of the day, and the pillar of fire by night.  No wonder they needed water from the rock, miraculously provided by God.  No wonder  they needed manna every morning.  There certainly would be no food or water for that great convoy of men, women, and children, except as provided by God.

We finally passed the beautiful oasis of Feiran.  There are the ruins of an ancient Christian city, now inhabited by a few Arabs who gather dates from the palm trees near the springs.  We pushed on up through the sand and stone, often damaging the car.  In fact, we had to stop for repairs almost every mile of our way through the desert.

Nightfall came, and it was about ten o'clock and very dark when we finally pulled up to the foot of Mount Sinai, beside the gigantic stone walls of St. Catherine's Monastery.  This ancient edifice was built by the Roman emperor Justinian I about 1,450 years ago.  It was a mighty fortress, and for over 1,200 years had no gateway or door.  All the people who wished to enter, and all food supplies, had to be lifted up by a windlass to the top of the wall.  This was to protect the men inside from attack by the desert tribes.