Exodus Chapter 30 Verses 1 – 5
 One thing we’ve read and learned as we have studied and watched the
Tabernacle and all of its elements being built is that the only wood
used in the project was acacia wood. We see it here again in the
construction of essentially the prayer table within the Tabernacle. I
want to encourage you because this encourages me.
 Acacia wood is basically a trash wood. It is not a tree but rather a
bush. It’s dense, very difficult to work with, the grain of the wood is
not uniform, and typically it’s thorny. Even the wood burrowing and
plant eating bugs pass it by. That’s one of the reasons it was so
resilient and resistant to decay. It’s a stubborn sort of wood. Why?
Because its root system absorbs and assimilates waste substances
from within the soil and deposits that waste into its heartwood.
 It even comes from a place of idol worship. We read in Numbers 25:1-
3 that the place called the Acacia Grove was where the people of Israel
bowed themselves to other gods…
 So, its dense, stubborn, thorny, comes from a place of great idolatry
and tends to pick up a lot of waste…sounds a lot like my mirror,
HA! BUT, it becomes not the primary wood of the Tabernacle, it is
the only wood commanded by God to be used. However, notice, all of
the elements of the Tabernacle and the Tabernacle itself…it’s not all a
bunch of unruly bushes. The wood is stripped, it is trained, it is
brought together and it is overlaid, in most cases with gold. There is
an element of being able to work with it that creates from the trash
this palace of immeasurable worth and significance.
 Here’s why that encourages me…God says, “I want that for a
dwelling place.” Bring it here, redeem it, teach and train that wood to
be useful and make from it the Ark of the Covenant, the frame of the
Tabernacle, the Table of Showbread (Faces), the Altar of Burnt

Offering and the altars of incense. One moment folks are passing by
discarding and discrediting the common useless acacia bush and the
next they are honoring, worshipping and fellowshipping with God via
that same substance.
 You and I, no matter our issues, personality defects and
pedigree…can be used greatly by the Lord even unto the point of
immeasurable worth and significance just like the acacia…but there is
one major difference. The acacia wood can’t say no…you can. You
have the choice whether to be taught and trained or not…you can say
yes, or you can say no. Those that the Lord cannot teach and train,
He cannot use. That’s what I know.
 Things mess you up, inconvenience you, get under your skin, and you
get in the flesh…those are the moments of training. Will you honor
God and choose humility or will you honor yourself and choose
complaint and conceit? Just one example…the point is that God has
taken my life, my heart, my mind from absolute trash to an overlaid
with gold element of worship that is useful to Him and to others…and
that I proclaim in adoration of God and in truth…knowing it’s nothing
I could have done…all I did was say yes…change me…not with my
mouth, with my actions.
Exodus Chapter 30 Verses 6 – 10
 The altar of incense stood outside the veil in the Tabernacle with the
Ark of the Covenant inches away from it, just on the other side of the
veil. The altar of incense represented the prayers of the
people…incense is a type, a picture, a symbol of prayer in the Bible.
Revelation 5:8 says, “Now when He had taken the scroll, the four
living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb,
each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the
prayers of the saints.”

 The altar of incense was in the company of the Table of Showbread
and the Golden Lampstand. The Table of Showbread represented
communion with God and the Golden Lampstand represented the
testimony of the light of God to the world. Now, check this out…
 Those three things, the prayers of the people, the communion of the
people with God and the power of the testimony of God…all blocked
from the very presence of God…by the veil. Until Jesus paid for all of
the sin of the world…Matthew 27:50-51 says, “And Jesus cried out
again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit. Then, behold, the
veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.” It is Jesus that
is the Mediator between God and man. The Joiner, the Bridge, the
Span…the distance between sinful man and a sinless God is the
Savior, Jesus Christ. And by Him, your prayers are heard. Your
presence is welcome with God Most High…and you receive the power
to live unto God throughout your life, a testimony of God’s power,
love, mercy and grace.
 But, put the veil back up, without Jesus…no communication…prayers
blow away like the smoke of the burnt incense…and the testimony
unto God is yet blocked…now, here’s the thing…the veil IS torn! It IS
gone…the WAY HAS ARRIVED. But just like the acacia wood, you
have to come into the service of the Lord…and your part is to do it of
your own free will…you have to say yes, or you yourself, thread by
thread, construct your own veil blocking you from a God that has
unblocked Himself.
Exodus Chapter 30 Verses 11 – 16
 Moses was not to number the people. A census was not allowed. But
this was a sort of a count of the people without taking a census.
Everyone 20 years and older would bring this half shekel and in the
end the amount of money could be used to determine the number of

people. Everyone gave something and everyone gave the same thing.
One, that shows that all of the people acknowledged that they had a
debt to the Lord and two that all people had the same debt. Later this
most likely became the basis for the annual temple tax.
Exodus Chapter 30 Verses 17 – 21
 This wash basin of sorts was between the brazen altar and the
tabernacle in the courtyard. There is significance here as it goes from
sacrifice, to cleansing, to entrance into the Holy Place. Also, the
metal of bronze we will learn later in Exodus 38 came from the
mirrors of the women of Israel. I dare say that everything in our
society is obsessed with the outward appearance. But this wonderful
picture is that of forsaking vanity for service to the Lord.
 Proverbs 31:30 says, “Beauty is passing, but a woman who
fears/serves the Lord, she shall be praised.” While everyone and
everything is obsessed with outward appearance, are you? Here’s a
good way to tell. If you think your appearance is lacking…does it
curse those around you by your attitude, your mood, your way? I want
to remind you of Proverbs 31:30 and also of 1 Peter 3:3. That
incorruptible beauty, beauty that does not pass, is a gentle and a
peace-filled spirit, close to the Lord.
 There’s also a picture here of fellowship with God that ought to be
mentioned. The sacrifice is made, the atonement has been achieved,
and yet the priests still needed to be washed before coming into the
presence of God. As a Christian you have fellowship with God
because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ…but…when you still walk in
sin, or simply when you do sin, that fellowship can become
interrupted. Not interrupted unto a loss of the sacrifice, that’s
already accomplished. But interrupted as in not entering into worship,
communion, fervent prayer and receiving the full measure of the

presence of God…your hands and feet still yet must be washed. Our
wash basin today is humility, repentance and confidence in Jesus.
Exodus Chapter 30 Verses 22 – 33
 The anointing received at the tabernacle and the anointing of the
tabernacle itself was unlike any other anywhere else. How the Lord
works in your life is better and unlike any other force or power. His
work in your life leaves you smelling sweeter.
Exodus Chapter 30 Verses 34 – 38
 It’s interesting to me how men and women will take what the Lord has
done and use it for their own advancement. God has done this thing,
directed this thing, and yet men will say, “We have worked so hard for
this…” God ought to be glorified alone. The oil and the incense
wasn’t for the people, for their adornment or their enjoyment…it was
greater than that.
 James 1:17 says, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above,
and comes down from the Father of lights…” If you’re having a hard
time in terms of a difficult season in your life, it could be that you
have forgotten to give God the glory during the good seasons in your
life. You applauded yourself for the good things and therefore your
dependence is upon you in the hard season. And hope is hard to hold
on to…
 Recognize all that God has done…stop taking the pure and sweet oil
outside of the Tabernacle…God is good. Recognize that in the good
things and that will carry you in the bad things.