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Exodus 25

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1 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

2 "Speak to the children of Israel, that they take an offering for me. From everyone whose heart makes him willing you shall take my offering.

3 This is the offering which you shall take from them: gold, silver, brass,

4 blue, purple, scarlet, fine linen, goats' hair,

5 rams' skins dyed red, sea cow hides, acacia wood,

6 oil for the light, spices for the anointing oil and for the sweet incense,

7 onyx stones, and stones to be set for the ephod and for the breastplate.

8 Let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them.

9 According to all that I show you, the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all of its furniture, even so you shall make it.

10 "They shall make an ark of acacia wood. Its length shall be two and a half cubits, its breadth a cubit and a half, and a cubit and a half its height.

11 You shall overlay it with pure gold. You shall overlay it inside and outside, and you shall make a gold molding around it.

12 You shall cast four rings of gold for it, and put them in its four feet. Two rings shall be on the one side of it, and Two rings on the other side of it.

13 You shall make poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold.

14 You shall put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark to carry the ark.

15 The poles shall be in the rings of the ark. They shall not be taken from it.

16 You shall put the testimony which I shall give you into the ark.

17 You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold. Two and a half cubits shall be its length, and a cubit and a half its breadth.

18 You shall make two cherubim of hammered gold. You shall make them at the two ends of the mercy seat.

19 Make one cherub at the one end, and one cherub at the other end. You shall make the cherubim on its two ends of one piece with the mercy seat.

20 The cherubim shall spread out their wings upward, covering the mercy seat with their wings, with their faces toward one another. The faces of the cherubim shall be toward the mercy seat.

21 You shall put the mercy seat on top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the testimony that I will give you.

22 There I will meet with you, and I will tell you from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are on the ark of the testimony, all that I command you for the children of Israel.

23 "You shall make a table of acacia wood. Two cubits shall be its length, and a cubit its breadth, and one and a half cubits its height.

24 You shall overlay it with pure gold, and make a gold molding around it.

25 You shall make a rim of a handbreadth around it. You shall make a golden molding on its rim around it.

26 You shall make four rings of gold for it, and put the rings in the four corners that are on its four feet.

27 the rings shall be close to the rim, for places for the poles to carry the table.

28 You shall make the poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold, that the table may be carried with them.

29 You shall make its dishes, its spoons, its ladles, and its bowls to pour out offerings with. You shall make them of pure gold.

30 You shall set bread of the presence on the table before me always.

31 "You shall make a lampstand of pure gold. Of hammered work shall the lampstand be made, even its base, its shaft, its cups, its buds, and its flowers, shall be of one piece with it.

32 There shall be six branches going out of its sides: three branches of the lampstand out of its one side, and three branches of the lampstand out of its other side;

33 three cups made like almond blossoms in one branch, a bud and a flower; and three cups made like almond blossoms in the other branch, a bud and a flower, so for the six branches going out of the lampstand;

34 and in the lampstand four cups made like almond blossoms, its buds and its flowers;

35 and a bud under two branches of one piece with it, and a bud under two branches of one piece with it, and a bud under two branches of one piece with it, for the six branches going out of the lampstand.

36 Their buds and their branches shall be of one piece with it, all of it one beaten work of pure gold.

37 You shall make its lamps seven, and they shall light its lamps to give light to the space in front of it.

38 Its snuffers and its snuff dishes shall be of pure gold.

39 It shall be made of a talent of pure gold, with all these accessories.

40 See that you make them after their pattern, which has been shown to you on the mountain.

   

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Ark

  
Depiction of Noah sending off a dove from the ark by DREUX, Jean;   MASTER of Margaret of York;   HENNECART, Jean

The third ark represents the third or inmost heaven where the angels are closest to the Lord, and the Lord Himself is represented by the two tables of stone which had on them His law, written by His finger. For this reason it was the most holy possession that the children of Israel had and it had power to affect the Jordan river and to discomfit Israel's enemies. It was kept in the closed part of the tabernacle where only Moses and Aaron could go. From the ark in its chamber the holiness rested in a lower degree in the outer room of the tabernacle, which represented the second or middle heaven, and in an even lower degree in the courtyard, inside the curtain fence, which represented the first or outer heaven.The ark for Moses, made of rushes was also sealed inside and out. Moses represents the Lord's Word, and because he was then an infant, our first ideas about the holiness of the Word when we are very young. So it isn't a solid and lasting structure, but a crude one because our young ideas are so unformed as yet. It also represents the first ideas of the Word in the mind of JesusAt the time of Noah the very first church, represented by Adam, had come to its end, and a new one had to be opened by the Lord. The minds of the people that were in that church are represented by the ark, and all the animals represented loves and affections, both good and bad, that those people had. The minds of these people were not the same as those of the people of the former church. The old selfish will inherited from their ancestors is represented by the gopher wood from which the basic ark was built, but which was sealed off inside and out by the bitumin. Their ancestors, the Adamites, didn't have this "sealing off" and so couldn't divide what they knew from what they desired. Noah and his family represent the ruling loves and the wish to follow the Lord. The ark keeps the flood of falsities from drowning those minds, and the door and window represent the hearing and seeing of truth from the doctrines that remained from the Adamic church. And so, held safe, they could use those principles, learned from doctrine, to form a conscience, which if followed would allow the Lord to build a new will for good in the mind. This separation of the will and understanding that can be made in the mind still reflects today the way we are, and still allows us to build a conscience, despite our own selfish will.There are three arks mentioned in the Word, the ark of Noah, the ark of bulrushes for the baby Moses, and the ark of the covenant in the tabernacle. All three of these represent the human mind at some point in its development