Session plan 90 min
- Opening — Last Week’s Thread 5 min
- Day 2 — Genesis 1:6–8 15 min
- Exodus 26 — The Curtains and Coverings 20 min
- The Application: The Door 30 min
- Closing 20 min
Where We Are
| Week | Episode | Day | Focus |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 325 | Day 1 — Light & Darkness | Ark, Table & Menorah · Testimonies, bread, lamp |
| 2 | 326 | Day 2 — Separation of Waters | Curtains & Coverings · The door |
| 3 | 327 | Day 3 — Land & Vegetation | Altar & Courtyard · Community |
| 4 | 328 | Day 4 — Luminaries | Priestly Garments · Orientation |
| 5 | 329 | Day 5 — Birds & Sea Creatures | Ordination & Offerings · Presence |
| 6 | 330 | Day 6 — Humanity | Incense, Oil & Basin · Image & likeness |
| 7 | 331 | Day 7 — Sabbath | Sabbath Commands · Rest |
Last week’s thread: The Ark holds testimonies in the dark. The Table nourishes. The Menorah carries light outward. The rhythm: gather, receive, give, repeat.
This week’s central claim: Day 2 builds a door — not a wall — in the middle of creation, with God at the threshold. The tabernacle’s layered coverings embody the same truth: God’s separations are built to be crossed in love.
Opening — Last Week’s Thread 5 min
Opening Question: Last week you were asked to read Luke 16:19–31 — the rich man and Lazarus — in a single sitting and hold one question: Where is the door in this story, and who is refusing to walk through it? What did you find? Answer in a sentence or two; we’ll return to this story later in the session.
Day 2 — Genesis 1:6–8 15 min
Genesis 1:6–8:
“And God said, ‘Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.’ So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. God called the vault ‘sky.’ And there was evening, and there was morning — the second day.”
Q1: Day 2 is the only one of the six days not called “good.” On every other day, God separates opposites — light from darkness, land from sea. On Day 2, God separates water from water — the same substance from itself. Josh reads this as an image of human isolation: we start out cut off from what we were meant to be connected to.1 What does it mean that loneliness is built into the creation account — not as a failure or a curse but as the starting condition before the door is built?
Q2: Josh offers two readings of the separated waters: the individual reading (we can’t share our inner life perfectly) and the ancient communal reading (some have fresh water above; others wait for rain below).2 Which reading is more pressing for you personally right now — the loneliness of the individual, or the gap between those who have and those who lack?
Exodus 26 — The Curtains and Coverings 20 min
Exodus 26:1, 6:
“Make the tabernacle with ten curtains of finely twisted linen… fasten the curtains together with fifty gold clasps… so that the tabernacle is a unit.”
Q3: The inner curtains are joined by gold clasps “so that the tabernacle will be one” — echad.3 Gold, throughout this series, is the material of Day 1: the ark, the table, the menorah — presence, nourishment, and light. What binds separated people into echad is the same set of tools from last week. What does it mean that unity is not achieved by eliminating the separations, but by binding them with gold?
Q4: Josh argues that the tabernacle’s divisions are not about keeping people out — they give people a space that matches where they are. The outer room (lamp and table) offers bread and light before the inner room offers mystery and weight.4 The word for glory, kavod, also means “heavy.” Who in your life might need bread and light from you right now — before they are ready for the heavy things?
The Application: The Door 30 min
Q5: Josh says: “Love is what draws us through that door.”5 The group was asked to read Luke 16:19–31. Lazarus lies at the rich man’s gate — the door — and the rich man steps over him every day. In death, the rich man still wants someone else to cross over for him. Who in your life is lying at your gate? Not metaphorically — a specific person or group. Who have you been stepping over?
Q6: Optional Josh critiques the “elevator pitch” model of faith sharing as a product of binary thinking (lost/saved) and capitalist efficiency logic.6 What does the tabernacle — two rooms, the water cycle, the priest who must come back out — suggest about the pace and order of introducing people to God’s presence?
Q7: The water cycle is the episode’s image of the tabernacle’s rhythm: water rises, is cleansed, and falls as rain to nourish the earth.7 Priests enter and must come back out. Josh’s warning: rain that stays in the sky is not doing its job. Where in your spiritual life are you “staying in the sky” — receiving, being nourished — but not coming back down to nourish others?
Closing 20 min
“Day 2 builds a door in the middle of creation — and places God at the door, not at the top. The tabernacle builds layers of covering — and joins them with gold. Neither is a wall. Both are built to be passed through in love.”
Closing Question: One sentence —
“The door I most need to walk through right now is ___.”
Looking Ahead — Week 3: Day 3 and the Courtyard
Ep. 327 — Sanctuary: Feasting at the Mishkan (1:29:43)
Day 3 pairs with the bronze altar and outer courtyard of Exodus 27. Josh reads gathered waters as community: stable dry ground where varied life takes root. The altar is hollow, portable, and filled with uncut local earth and stones. The peace offering’s time limit turns worship into a spontaneous feast with strangers.
Before Week 3: Come ready to answer: Think of a community that made you feel like you belonged without asking you to change first. What did it feel like, and what made it possible?
References
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Ep. 326 notes. Day 2’s separation of water from water as an image of the starting condition of human isolation. ↩
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Ep. 326 notes. Two readings: individual (imperfect communication) and communal (inequality between those with fresh water above and those waiting for rain below). ↩
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Ep. 326 notes. Exodus 26:6. Echad — “one” or “a unit” — the same word as in the Shema. ↩
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Ep. 326 notes. The two rooms: outer (ministry, hospitality) and inner (mystery, weight). Kavod = both “glory” and “heavy.” ↩
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Ep. 326 notes. Josh’s direct statement on love as the mechanism for crossing the heavenly door. ↩
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Ep. 326 notes. The “elevator pitch” critique. ↩
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Ep. 326 notes. The water cycle as the unifying image for the tabernacle’s in-and-out rhythm. ↩
This discussion guide was developed using these notes and is aligned with the content and approach of the BEMA Discipleship Podcast (opens in a new tab) by Marty Solomon and Brent Billings.