325: Sanctuary — Waking Up in the Mishkan

BEMA Episode Link: 325: Sanctuary — Waking Up in the Mishkan
Episode Length: 1:16:38
Published Date: Thu, 06 Apr 2023 01:00:00 -0700
Session 6
About this episode:

Marty Solomon and Brent Billings are joined by Josh Bossé to begin a series on the tabernacle of Exodus and the parallels it has to the Creation story, turning those spiritual principles into tangible practices.

Presentation for Sanctuary — Waking Up in the Mishkan (PDF)

Tabernacle — Wikipedia

“What’s So Special About the Tabernacle?” — BibleProject Podcast

BEMA 286: John — The Test of Bread

Notes

*Note: The following notes are handwritten by me, Adam, and I reserve the right to be wrong.

Title & Source Summary

Episode: 325: The Mishkan and Creation, Day One (Josh Bosse Anthology) Hosts: Marty Solomon and Brent Billings, with guest Josh Bosse Focus: Genesis 1:1–5 (Day One of creation) and Exodus 25 (the Ark, the Table of the Bread of the Presence, and the Menorah)

This episode opens a new series on the Mishkan (the Tabernacle). Guest teacher Josh Bosse leads it, and the series looks at how the building of the Tabernacle mirrors the creation story in Genesis 1. Josh’s aim is to turn those parallels into practices people can actually live out. He starts by breaking Day One into its basic parts: darkness, light, God hovering, God speaking, and the ordered cycle of evening and morning. He then shows how each part shows up in the first instructions God gives Moses on Mount Sinai in Exodus 25. The dark, closed Ark holds testimonies of God’s faithfulness. The Table holds bread that sits before God’s face. The Menorah is a flowering golden tree on fire that echoes the burning bush and shines light “toward its face.” The episode ends with four practical reflections on testimonies, bread, lamp, and the dance that ties them together. Taken together, they describe a life that receives God’s light and then passes it on to others.

Key Takeaways

The Tabernacle mirrors creation. The first thing God tells Moses alone on Sinai (Exodus 25) is about building the Mishkan, and its design follows the pattern of Genesis 1. God is not building “cool little dioramas.” The Tabernacle exists so that people can learn to do what God does.
Day One has a simple structure. It has two elements, darkness and light, and God relates to each one differently. God hovers over the darkness, and God speaks light into being. God then sets the two into an ordered cycle of evening and morning.
Light is how God reveals who God is. Speech is self-expression, bringing out what is inside. God’s first spoken words are “Let there be light,” which says in effect: “If you want to know who I am, I bring light and understanding.”
“Truth” here means relational truth, not abstract correctness. In darkness you cannot tell how you relate to anything around you. Light lets you see what is around you, what is good, and where you stand.
God orders darkness rather than getting rid of it. Light and darkness become a “dance,” a partnership that invites people to take part in shaping creation.
The Ark matches the darkness with God hovering above it. It is a closed box, dark inside even though it is lined with gold. It holds testimonies (the tablets, the manna, Aaron’s budding staff), and God’s presence rests between the cherubim above it.
The Table of Presence shows that God’s presence nourishes. The word panim means “presence” or “face,” and it echoes the “face of the deep” in Genesis 1. When you truly know (yada) that God is present, that knowledge feeds you.
The Menorah is Day One’s light, and it looks like the burning bush. It is a golden tree with flowering branches, on fire but not consumed. It points back to Sinai, where Moses is now standing and fulfilling the sign God gave him in Exodus 3:12.
Tavnit (“pattern”) is the key word of the chapter. God tells Moses twice to build according to what he saw on the mountain. The lamp lights what is in front of it, and in the same way people are called to reflect Sinai onto whoever they are facing.
Giving is voluntary. The materials are a terumah, a “raised-up” offering given freely. The practices in this series are invitations, not obligations.

Main Concepts & Theories

1. The Literary Anatomy of Day One (Genesis 1:1–5)

Josh reduces the passage to its basic story elements and asks two questions: what is God interacting with, and how?

Element	God’s Interaction	Meaning
Darkness (and tohu va’vohu, “formless and empty”)	God’s Spirit hovers (merachefet)	God is present even in chaos, whether or not anyone can see it
Light	God speaks it into being and names it	God’s first self-disclosure, which reveals God’s character
Light and darkness together	God separates and orders them into a cycle	A “dance,” a partnership that invites participation

The purity of the first speech. In Hebrew, yehi or, va-yehi or (“let there be light, and there was light”) mirrors itself exactly. It is pure expression. God is not addressing some existing part of creation or building on it. Something wholly new appears.
The cycle repeats every day. Every day of creation ends with “there was evening and there was morning.” Day One becomes the building block, and the pattern for the rest of the week, both in how creation works and in how the text is written.
Why speech matters. Marty describes speech as “the incarnation of an idea.” Josh calls it self-disclosure, since other people cannot see inside you. God made the darkness too, and “the predator in the night,” but the text passes over it quickly. What God chooses to say about God’s own character is light.

2. Relational Truth and the Problem of Evil

Picture a lone human with nothing around him in the wilderness. For that person darkness means being unable to see, not knowing, and feeling afraid. He cannot tell whether there is a cliff edge in front of him or a predator in the bushes.
Josh calls the episode’s theme truth, but he means relational, Hebraic truth: knowing how you stand in relation to things, people, and God. He contrasts this with the Greek or Hellenistic idea of truth as a single correct proposition.
Josh reads Genesis 1 as speaking to the problem of evil relationally rather than logically. God effectively says: “Yes, darkness exists. I made it. I am still here, hovering. But if you want to know what I want in the world, it is light.”
Marty’s addition: In some rabbinic thought, tohu va’vohu was not pure darkness but a mix of everything, light and dark together in chaos. When God brings light, God does more than add something good. God also orders the darkness. The cosmos taking shape out of chaos is itself reassuring.
Josh’s distinction: Light (seeing and understanding) and order (the dance) are two separate gifts. God does not need either one, since Psalm 139:12 says darkness is as light to God. Both exist for human beings.

3. Seeing the Good

“God saw that it was good.” Light is what makes it possible to recognize goodness.
In chaotic seasons, and Josh points to the last few years, it becomes hard to tell good things from bad ones, or habits from intentional choices. Light brings back the ability to see and name what is good.

4. The Mishkan and Its Fractal Structure

Mishkan means “dwelling place.” It is the Hebrew name for the Tabernacle.
Brent mentions that The Bible Project traces concentric zones. Eden, the garden, and the tree at the center correspond to Sinai: the people at the base, the elders partway up, and Moses at the top.
Josh calls the Tabernacle’s structure fractal. The same relational pattern appears at every scale: God and Moses, Moses and the people, high priest, priests, Levites, people, and Gentiles. It applies equally to the church and the world, to local communities, and to individual relationships.
David Fohrman (via Marty) and other rabbis note that the Tabernacle is sometimes read as a body, something like a living organism. That supports reading it as more than an architectural blueprint.

5. The Preamble of Exodus 25:1–9: Offerings and Pattern

Offerings as chaos. The Genesis 1:1–2 preamble sets out raw material before it is ordered. Here too there is a list of ingredients (metals, yarn, skins, wood) with no clear sense yet of how they fit together. Josh suggests this pile of materials plays the role of the “chaos” that God will slowly order. Marty wonders whether the divine council, the heavenly beings present at creation, stands in a similar role.
Terumah. The contribution is “raised up” and voluntary. People bring only what they feel called to bring.
Tavnit (“pattern,” from the root banah, “to build”). God tells Moses to build according to the pattern he is shown.
- The Hellenistic reading: Later Hellenistic Judaism and the Book of Hebrews (8:5) read tavnit in Platonic terms. In that view Moses saw a heavenly original, and the earthly Tabernacle is a copy. Brent compares it to the scale model of Masada displayed at Masada itself.
- Josh’s reading: God cares less about precise measurements than about keeping the essential functioning parts. The purpose becomes clear when tavnit comes back at the end of the chapter.

6. The Ark as Darkness Under God’s Hovering Presence (Exodus 25:10–22)

The parallel: God’s presence is “above the cover, between the two cherubim.” The cherubim’s spread wings echo merachefet, a word that suggests fluttering wings. Underneath is the darkness: the inside of the closed box.
Contents, the testimonies (edut):
- Tablets of the covenant. Josh suggests the broken tablets were kept there. Their message would be: “You broke the covenant, but I didn’t call it off.” (Rabbinic tradition, e.g., Talmud Bava Batra 14b, holds that both the whole and the broken tablets were kept in the Ark. Josh himself hedged on this point.)
- Manna. God did more than give bread. It was a lesson in Torah: commandments that nourish rather than force obedience.
- Aaron’s staff (Numbers 17). Dead wood that budded almond blossoms, life coming out of death.
The insight: From inside the box you do not know that it is lined with gold, or that God’s presence rests on top of it. In the same way, someone living in chaos cannot see that creation is good or that God is looking after it. The testimonies are God’s gift to people in that darkness: reminders of what kind of God is hovering just overhead.
Translation note: Brent points out that the NIV’s “give you all my commands” is better rendered “speak with you” (as in the NET). That links the Ark to God’s speech. Josh notes that the Hebrew says “the testimony,” not specifically “tablets.”

7. The Table of the Bread of Presence (Exodus 25:23–30)

Lechem ha-panim means the bread of the Presence, or the bread of the Face. Panim means both “face” and “presence.” It echoes Genesis 1:2, where darkness is over the face of the deep and the Spirit hovers over the face of the waters.
Marty shares an image he was taught: merachefet pictured as a near-kiss, with faces so close in relationship that they almost touch.
The meaning: When you really know God is present, you are nourished even while darkness remains. God’s presence is bread.
Yada: The testimonies are more than ideas on paper. They are artifacts of experiential knowledge: “This happened to me and to my people.” That knowing is what makes the presence nourishing. Josh ties this to John 6, where Jesus is the bread from heaven, and Brent notes that Israel already connected manna with God’s provision.

8. The Menorah as Burning Bush and Light Turned Outward (Exodus 25:31–40)

The design: Pure gold, hammered from a single piece, with almond-flower cups, buds, blossoms, and branches. The effect is organic and flourishing, a tree.
One piece: A single, unified expression, like God’s first utterance.
Sevens: Three branches on each side plus a central shaft make seven lamps. This echoes the seven-day structure and the fractal pattern again.
A tree on fire: Marty notes that an ordinary tree gives shade, but this one gives light. Oil, wick, and flame on a golden bush that is not consumed recall the burning bush.
The sign fulfilled: In Exodus 3:12 God tells Moses that the sign will be that he returns and worships God at this mountain. In Exodus 25 Moses is on that mountain, living out the sign.
“To light the space in front of it.” Literally, the lamp lights “toward its face.” Josh asks why God would need to say something so obvious. The answer is tavnit: “See that you make them according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.” The verb “see” appears twice. God wants Moses to remember what he saw.
The main claim: People receive light and nourishment and then risk forgetting to become what they saw on the mountain. Believers are meant to carry Sinai down the mountain, so that their faces look like the burning bush. They shine on whoever is in front of them and tell that person, “You can meet God here too.” This is kingdom language: building what God showed at Sinai.

9. A Possible Chiasm and the Ark as a Miniature

Marty notices a possible chiastic structure, a mirrored arrangement: Testimonies (Ark) → Presence (Table) → Testimony (Menorah as Moses’s witness), with the Presence at the center.
Josh adds that the Ark itself is a miniature of the whole Tabernacle:

Inside the Ark	In the Holy Place
Manna (bread)	Table with the Bread of Presence
Aaron’s staff (almond branch)	Menorah (almond-branch design)
Tablets (covenant testimony)	The testimony and covenant relationship as a whole

Brent sums up: the pattern is at least as much about relationships as about structure.

Examples & Applications

The lone human in the dark. Josh’s thought experiment grounds abstract theology in something concrete. At night a person does not know what is out there, so sleeping and fear become the defaults. Light brings the ability to find shelter under a rocky outcrop or tell safe berries from poisonous ones.
Chaotic seasons. In turbulent times people lose the ability to separate the good from the bad and habit from intention. “Light,” meaning clarity from God, restores that discernment.
The broken tablets as grace. Carrying reminders of our failures together with God’s faithfulness shows that the covenant still holds.
Josh’s personal testimony. After Jacob wrestles with the angel and becomes Israel (Genesis 32), God appears to him again and renames him (Genesis 35:10). Josh heard God saying, “I care enough about you that I’d come down just to say your name.” Now, when he is with people who are struggling, he tries to “name” who they are and what they are going through, and to simply show up. That one experience served as his testimony, nourished him, and now shines outward as a lamp.
Marty’s verse, “Take words with you” (Hosea 14:2). Carry testimonies and God’s word into and out of seasons of captivity. They bring light into suffering and doubt.
Standing stones (matzevot). Physical memorials of God’s acts, one ancient form of testimony.
Modern testimonies: Many people have no inherited heirloom like “great-great-granddad’s flowering staff.” Josh suggests making your own: an object, a Bible verse, a spiritual practice, a set daily prayer, visiting the grave of someone important to you, even picking up a leaf. “God can speak from anywhere.”
Brent on speaking versus presence: Incarnating God for others means learning God’s own rhythm of hovering (being present) and speaking. The hard part is knowing when to do each.

The Four Reflection Practices (as Marty summarized them)

Testimonies: What physical objects or practices remind you of the felt reality of God’s presence, even in times of darkness?
Bread: What tangible actions, spaces, or objects genuinely nourish your spirit?
Lamp: How are you turning these personal spiritual tools outward to incarnate God’s presence for others?
Dance: How can these be woven into a natural, restful, intentional rhythm, like breathing in and out, or evening and morning?

Potential Areas for Further Exploration

The other days of creation. Josh notes that the entire Tabernacle could be read through the lens of any single day, for example Day Five alongside the priestly sacrifices and their sevens.
The waters of Genesis 1:2. Mentioned but set aside as a “rabbit trail.”
Naming the days. The significance of God naming “day” and “night.”
Concentric holiness. Eden, garden, and tree; Sinai’s base, middle, and summit; courtyard, Holy Place, and Holy of Holies. See The Bible Project’s Exodus series.
Hebrews 8–9 and Platonic forms. How Hellenistic Judaism and the New Testament read tavnit as a heavenly pattern.
David Fohrman on the Tabernacle as a body. Aleph Beta material on the Mishkan’s anatomy.
The Menorah as Tree of Life. Links to Genesis 2–3 and the cherubim guarding the way to the tree.
The contents of the Ark. Exodus 16:33–34, Numbers 17:10, Deuteronomy 10:1–5, Hebrews 9:4, and rabbinic traditions about the broken tablets.
Earlier BEMA episodes: “Making Space for God” and the John 6 “Bread of Heaven” episode.
Chiastic structure in Exodus 25. Test Marty’s proposed chiasm against the full text.

Comprehension Questions

What are the two story elements of Day One, and how does God interact differently with each? What does each interaction reveal about God’s character?
Why does Josh describe the Genesis 1 idea of “truth” as relational rather than Hellenistic? How does darkness distort a person’s relationship to the world?
How does the closed, gold-lined Ark match the darkness of Day One? Why are its contents, the tablets, the manna, and Aaron’s staff, called “testimonies”?
What does the word panim add to the meaning of the Table of the Bread of Presence, and how does it echo Genesis 1:2?
What does the Hebrew word tavnit mean? How does its repetition, together with the Menorah lighting “toward its face,” shape the episode’s call to mission?

Personal Summary

This episode shows that the Tabernacle is a lesson in how God works in the world, not a set of building instructions. On Day One God hovers over the darkness, speaks light into being, and weaves the two into an ordered dance. In Exodus 25 the same pattern appears in the Tabernacle’s furniture. The dark Ark holds testimonies of God’s faithfulness. The Table holds bread that sits before God’s face, and it shows that knowing God is present nourishes us. The Menorah, a flowering tree burning like the bush at Sinai, turns that light outward to “whatever is in front of it.” The word tavnit carries the call: remember what you saw on the mountain and build it for others. The practice that follows is a rhythm of four steps. We hold on to our testimonies, let God’s presence feed us, shine that light onto the people we face, and keep moving through that cycle of evening and morning, freely and without obligation.

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S6 325: Sanctuary — Waking Up in the Mishkan

The Testimonies of Light and Darkness [1:16:38]