S. Michael Houdmann Supporter Got Questions Ministries

The tabernacle of Moses was the temporary place of worship that the Israelites built according to God's specifications while wandering the desert and used until King Solomon built a temple. The wor...

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July 01 2013 • 2 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report

John Appelt

The tabernacle was actually the “tabernacle of the Lord” which Moses made in the wilderness, I Chronicles 21:29. The unique pattern of this portable tent was shown to Moses when he was on the mountain, Exodus 25:40, Acts 7:44, Hebrews 8:5, 9:23.

The tent itself speaks of the dwelling presence of God. It symbolized Jesus tabernacling or dwelling with His people, John 1:14. Everything inside the tabernacle was covered with solid gold speaking of the Deity of Christ. In fact, each item pictures the Person of Christ. In the holy place at the east end was the table of shewbread which showed Christ as the living bread, the candlestick showed Him as the light of the world, the table of incense showed Him as the sweet fragrance of God. 

Then behind the veil in the holy of holies at the west end of the tent the ark of the covenant showed Him as the presence of God between the cherubim being the word of truth (the tablets of the ten commandments), being the High Priest (Aaron’s rod that budded) and being the bread from heaven (the gold pot of manna). 

All that was outside the tabernacle was made of bronze. The bronze altar and the laver of water speak of the judgment of sin taken care of by the sacrifice and cleansing through Christ. 

Four curtains covered the tabernacle. First was the fine linen embroidered with cherubin in blue, purple, and scarlet. On top of that was another curtain of goat’s hair fabric likely black. That was covered by rams’ skins dyed red. The final curtain is uncertain. While translations have sealskins and badgers’ (or some other animal) skins, there are translations, such as the Septuagint, Vulgate, Syriac, Arabic, and Coptic versions that denote the word is a color instead of an animal. They cite blue, hyacinth, or indigo. The verses then can be understood as, “rams’ skins dyed red and [rams’ skins] dyed blue,” Exodus 25:5, 26:14, 35:7, 23, 36:19, Numbers 4:6, 8-14, 25. The word (Hebrew “tahash”) is found in one place outside the tabernacle passages, in Ezekiel 16:10. The sense is of luxurious fashionable clothing and attire as worn by women of upper society. It may be possible to render it “sandals of blue or purple [skin].” Considering this meaning, Josephus wrote about the tabernacle, “… great was the surprise of those who viewed these curtains at a distance, for they seemed not at all to differ from the color of the sky.”

The surrounding curtains speak of those who are God’s people joined together. The silver sockets represent redemption. 

When the tabernacle was finished, it was brought to Moses, Exodus 39:33-41. The compiled list of all the things made for the tabernacle is not haphazard but orderly, from the tent of meeting to the garments of the priests of ministry, the gold items before the bronze items. The order is from God, in His holiness and purity, to sinful man, judged, cleansed, and sanctified by God.

October 26 2022 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report