Exodus 37

Exodus 37:1 . The house of God being thus finished, the furniture is next made for it. The several articles and ornaments of this the people were not admitted to see, but the priests only; and therefore it was requisite that they should be largely described, as they are in this chapter, particularly to them. And Moses would thus show the great care which he and his workmen took to make every thing exactly according to the pattern showed him in the mount. Thus he appeals to every reader concerning his fidelity to him that appointed him, in all his house. And thus he teacheth us to have respect to all God’s commandments, even to every jot and tittle of them. Bezaleel made the ark of shittim-wood — The ark, with its glorious appurtenances, the mercy-seat and the cherubim, was the principal part of the furniture of the tabernacle. It was placed in the most sacred apartment of the house, and was the great symbol of the divine presence and protection. “It represented,” says Henry, “the glory of a holy God, the sincerity of a holy heart, and the communion that is between them by a Mediator. It is the glory of a holy God, that he dwelleth between the cherubim, that is, he is continually attended by the blessed angels, whose swiftness was signified by the wings of the cherubim, and their unanimity in their services, by their faces being one toward another. It is the character of an upright heart, that, like the ark of the testimony, it hath the law of God hid and kept in it.

(25-28) And he made . . . — The order of the instructions given on Mount Sinai is here departed from. In them the directions for the altar of incense were separated off from those concerning the table of shewbread and the golden candlestick. Here the construction of the three pieces of furniture belonging to the Holy Place is given consecutively. The present passage corresponds with Exodus 37:1-5 of Exodus 30, with which it is in the closest agreement.