We are in chapter thirty-seven of Exodus with our word for today. קַשְׂוָה jug, jar, cups, pitcher, flagon. It is used 4 times in the Old Testament. Our word is used in the sense of a type of vessel, usually with a tapered, narrow neck, and likely containing some kind of plug device. All of our uses are used at the early tabernacle worship then in the temple. Let’s look all of our uses. Exodus 25:29 you shall make its plates and dishes for incense, וּקְשׂוֹתָיו֙ and its flagons and bowls with which to pour drink offerings; you shall make them of pure gold. Numbers 4:7 over the table of the bread of the Presence they shall spread a cloth of blue and put on it the plates, the dishes for incense, the bowls, and the קְשׂ֣וֹת flagons for the drink offering; the regular showbread also shall be on it. 1 Chronicles 28:11, 17 Then David gave Solomon his son the plan of the vestibule of the temple, and of its houses, its treasuries, its upper rooms, and its inner chambers, and of the room for the mercy seat … the basins וְהַקְּשָׂוֺ֖ת and the cups; for the golden bowls and the weight of each; for the silver bowls and the weight of each. This is exactly how our word is used in our chapter today. Exodus 37:16 And he made the vessels of pure gold that were to be on the table, its plates and dishes for incense, and its bowls and הַקְּשָׂוֺ֔ת flagons with which to pour drink offerings. It is interesting that our word used as part of the tabernacle worship that helped people connect to God is used by Paul as an analogy of being God’s temple. The word in the New Testament that is translated jar is used by Paul to describe God’s greatness living in us. The beauty of the new agreement is that we don’t go to the temple to connect with God anymore like they did in the Old Testament because we are God’s temple as believers because God’s spirit lives inside of us. I’ll close with this great passage about God being seen in our weakness. 2 Corinthians 4:7-10, 16-18 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our bodies … So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
