阅读经文 

以色列人在埃及度过了四百多年之后，神最大的成就不是让人们离开埃及，而是让埃及离开人们的心。他们需要操练敬拜神，学习不一样的世界观，这样才能向世人分享真神的祝福。神藉着水给了他们一个新的开始。

《出埃及记》二十五至三十一章记载了神设立会幕作为敬拜场所的相关指示。会幕的三个主要部分提醒人们宇宙具有的三个基本层次（按照当时的理解）。外院代表大地——旱地和海洋。人们可以在那里的盆或“海”中洗濯，（参王上 7:23-28）这提醒人们神曾实施拯救使他们过了红海。圣所是会幕内的一个房间，代表天。会幕内的另一个房间是至圣所，代表神在最高的天上的宝座。从本质上讲，天地在会幕中融为一体。这也是被更新的世界的模型，神将再次来临，与祂的子民同住。（参启 21-22）

神希望人类与祂一起更新世界，因此祂为以色列人设立祭司，使他们成为被更新的一群人，象征性地被洁净和赎罪，并为了神的工作受膏。祭司用水来行洁净礼，身穿华美的袍子，这提醒神的子民，他们是按照神的圣洁荣美的形像被造的。

After Israel had spent over 400 years in Egypt, God's biggest task was not so much to get the people out of Egypt but to get Egypt out of the people. They needed to worship God and learn a different view of the world so that they could share God's blessings with the world. And God used water to get them started.

God's instructions for setting up the tabernacle as a place of worship are in Exodus 25-31. The three main parts of the tabernacle reminded the people of the three basic levels of the cosmos (as understood in that day). The outer courtyard represented the earth—its dry land and sea. There people would wash in the basin, or "sea" (see 1 Kings 7:23-28), and be reminded that God had rescued them through the Red Sea. The Holy Place, a room inside the tent, represented the heavens. Another room, further inside, was the Most Holy Place, representing God's throne room in the highest heaven. In essence, heaven and earth came together in the tabernacle. And this served as a model of the renewed world where God will come to live with his people again (Revelation 21-22).

God wants humans to work with him in renewing the world, so he gave priests to Israel as a sort of renewed humanity, symbolically cleansed of sin and anointed for God's work. The role of the priest, purified by water and wearing royal robes, reminded God's people that they were created in his image.