So I have read Exodus. It was easy at first with the plagues and all to read about and then the ephods and cubits and instructions were a little difficult. It's like reading an owner's manual. Our pastor says when you read it to recognize that worship is important to God. I had a hard time understanding why all the finery would matter to God. Our pastor spoke on Leviticus on Sunday. Here's what I took from it.
There were three free will offerings in Leviticus:
the Burnt offering
the grain offering
and the peace offering
Here's our free will offerings in the New Testament:
"Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased. (Hebrews 13:15-16)
So... what I intend to do this week and onward... praise, do good, and share.
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When thinking about why God would care about all the finery, there are two things that help understand that:
1 - In the Old Testament, that building is literally where the presence of God is and where He is to be worshiped. Since the Holy Spirit hadn't been poured out on all believers, the Temple was a physical, localized place. In the New Covenant, the Temple are believers united to Jesus Christ by faith, so we can meet in a sewer tunnel and still have real, spiritual worship (although I wouldn't recommend it) in the actual heavenly courts. This wasn't an option in the OT.
2 - Because what you're looking at is the precursor to spiritual worship in the heavenly courts, and this precursor is a physical building, it was designed to resemble those courts. So, you have a room layout that represents the holy presence of God separated from His own, sinful people. You have rich, scarlet and gold cloth surrounding the area which is how God appears (pillar of fire) to his people. You have scenes from Eden on the walls. Everything is sparkling and radiant. It's supposed to be a physical representation of coming into the very court of God Himself.
Once again, in the NT, we do come into the very court of God Himself, so an elaborate physical representation of this is not only unnecessary, but kind of backward.
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