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Naked Bible Podcast Episode 296: Exodus 25, Part 1 Naked Bible Podcast Transcript Episode 296 Exodus 25, Part 1 November 2, 2019 Teacher: Dr. Michael S. Heiser (MH) Host: Trey Stricklin (TS) Episode Summary Exodus 25 begins the book’s description of the Tabernacle and its furnishings. The most prominent item is the Ark of the Covenant (Exod 25:10-22). In this episode, we briefly discuss some of the preliminary comments about the Tabernacle (Exod 25:1-9) before turning our attention to the Ark’s nature and purposes. Transcript TS: Welcome to the Naked Bible Podcast, Episode 296: Exodus 25, Part 1. I’m the layman, Trey Stricklin, and he’s the scholar, Dr. Michael Heiser. Hey, Mike. How are you doing? MH: Pretty good. Busy. Our move is really sneaking up on us here, even though we’ve had 10 months or whatever it was. We’re just feeling the pressure. TS: Yeah. And you say Drenna is on her way to look at a house, hopefully? MH: Yeah, she is. At the time of this recording, she is probably still on the plane. So I’m letting her pick the house. I don’t need to be there. Of course I’ll need to be there to sign papers and all that stuff. But yep, that’s what she’s doing. So Lord willing, she’ll come back with something really concrete. That’s pretty sweet. TS: You’re only months away, Mike, from being a Jacksonville Jaguar. MH: Yeah… no. [laughter] I don't think that’s going to happen. [laughs] TS: Are you watching the World Series going on? Any comments on it? MH: I’ve watched a little bit of both games. So I’m kind of shocked… TS: Ugh, very disappointing. MH: …Washington. Are you disappointed? 1 Naked Bible Podcast Episode 296: Exodus 25, Part 1 TS: At the time… I root for all Texas teams, so Astros… MH: Yeah, well, I’m hoping the Astros… Yeah, I like them too. But I guess if Washington wins, it’s not awful because I kind of like to see teams win that haven’t won either ever or for 100 years, or whatever it is. But yeah. I’m just kind of surprised at the way it’s going. TS: Yeah, absolutely. And did we mention last show what the outcome of our Fantasy Football between you and I was? MH: No, we didn’t. TS: No, this is the first time. Yeah. MH: I’ll let you mention it. TS: No, please, the honor is… The glory is yours. MH: The Pugnacious Pugs finally picked up a win against Trey. TS: Barely. It was a close one. It came down to… MH: It wasn’t like micro-points. I don't know. It was, what, 10 points or something like that? TS: It was 10 points. It was pretty close. Considering I was up by 3 points going into Monday night. I had Edelman, too. And he did good, but your running back had three touchdowns that night. It was rough. MH: Yep. Sony Michel. I picked the right guy. So yeah, I’ll take it. It might be the only other win I have this year. But that would be a good win. [laughs] TS: Well, Mike, did you do your homework that I assigned to everybody, which was to watch Raiders of the Lost Ark? MH: I did not watch Raiders, but people will see a picture of me wearing my jacket. And maybe even the hat. TS: Well, I’m excited, because we’re going to get into the face-melting Scripture part of the Bible, right? MH: [laughs] Right. Yeah, in Part 1 we’re going to talk about what the Ark was and its purposes. And I know I’ve got face-melting somewhere here in the notes. So yeah, that’ll be today. 2 Naked Bible Podcast Episode 296: Exodus 25, Part 1 TS: We’re going to be here for a little bit, right? There’s going to be three parts of this. MH: Yep. We’re going to have three parts in Exodus 25. So today we’re going to begin the discussion of the tabernacle and the items in it, but specifically we’re going to start with the Ark of the Covenant. The next episode is going to be the Ark of the Covenant again. And that episode is going to be the whole question of, “Are there ancient Near Eastern parallels or antecedents to the Ark” (other arks in ancient Near Eastern cultures)? And then the third part will be the rest of the furniture. So we have Ark, Ark, and then the rest of the stuff [laughs] coming up in three parts. We’re not going to talk—either today or any of those other episodes—about what happened to the Ark. We’re not going to do that at all. The reason is, we already did that. We’ve already done that on the podcast. That’s an earlier episode— Episode 158 for people who want to hear that sort of thing (theories as to what happened to the Ark of the Covenant). Was it destroyed or not? Where is it? All that stuff. So we’re not going to repeat that here. That is Episode 158. So let’s jump in to Exodus 25 here. I’m going to read the first nine verses. There 5:00 are a few things to say here before we actually get to the Ark in verse 10. The Ark stuff is verses 10-22. So let’s just read Exodus 25:1-9, and then I want to say a few things before we actually get into the Ark of the Covenant. The LORD said to Moses, 2 “Speak to the people of Israel, that they take for me a contribution. From every man whose heart moves him you shall receive the contribution for me. 3 And this is the contribution that you shall receive from them: gold, silver, and bronze, 4 blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen, goats' hair, 5 tanned rams' skins, goatskins, acacia wood, 6 oil for the lamps, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense, 7 onyx stones, and stones for setting, for the ephod and for the breastpiece. 8 And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst. 9 Exactly as I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle, and of all its furniture, so you shall make it. So that’s the first nine verses of Exodus 25. It’s kind of odd that it mentions the ephod and the breastpiece, because the reader wouldn’t know what those are, because they’re not made yet. That’s going to be afterwards. But you get one of these little anachronistic kinds of things going on, and we’ve encountered this in the book of Exodus a number of places. But other than that, there are a few things that I want to note real briefly. The wording of “take for me”… It’s very clear from Exodus 25 that the materials 3 Naked Bible Podcast Episode 296: Exodus 25, Part 1 that are being gathered are for holy use. God’s the speaker and he says, “This is for me. This stuff is for me.” The things are referred to as a contribution. The Hebrew word here is terumah, which is elsewhere translated and basically generally means “gift.” So it’s something given. And of course, if it’s a gift, you’re not expecting to take it back. It’s not a loan; it’s a gift. So these are things that are for the Lord. They’re given freely by the people and with no expectation that they were going to be using these things again. They are for the Lord. Sarna combines those two thoughts that I just mentioned this way. He says that: Terumah is a technical term referring specifically to that which is set aside by its owner and dedicated for sacred use. That certainly fits the context here. We had a reference to gold, silver, and bronze. Sarna notes in his commentary that: The metals are listed in descending order of value. This, in turn, determines their use for various objects; the closer the object is to the Holy of Holies, the more valuable the metal of which it is made. [MH: That’s intentional.] Iron is notably absent, either on account of its great rarity at this time or because its utilization for more efficient weapons of death made it incompatible with the spiritual ends that the sanctuary was intended to serve. I thought that was an interesting observation because we had this in Leviticus on a number of occasions, where the presence of God is associated with life and not death. So Sarna is suggesting, “Hey, maybe the exclusion of iron, since that’s going to be a warfare metal… Maybe that’s why it’s excluded—because it’s associated with death implements.” It’s possible. We don’t know for sure. But it’s a coherent possibility. There’s another reference in verse 4 to “blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen, goats’ hair, tanned rams’ skins, goatskins, acacia wood.” I’m going to read another excerpt from Sarna here. He says: These are the most expensive dyed yarns of antiquity. The sequence, once again, reflects their relative value and thus the degree of sanctity that attaches to the objects in which they are used, starting with the Holy of Holies.