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SERIES D --- YHVH’S TABERNACLE --- LESSON 01

THE TABERNACLE

THE TABERNACLE FURNITURE

From Exodus 25

While Moses was in Mount Sinai, Adonai instructed him to make a beautiful tent where the people would worship Him. This is what Adonai told Moses: [Every person who wants to give toward My tent of worship shall bring an offering for it. This offering should include gold, silver and bronze metals, as well as blue, purple and scarlet cloth. Ask them for fine linen, goats’ hair, rams’ skins dyed red, goat leather and acacia wood. You will need olive oil for the lamps and spices for the anointing oil, perfumed incense and onyx stones and other precious stones to mount on the ephod and breast piece. With all these beautiful materials you and your people will make a sacred tent where I can live among you. I will tell you exactly how to make it and you must follow My plans for the tabernacle itself and for its furniture. Make an Ark of acacia wood, three and three-quarters feet long, two and one-quarter feet wide and two and one-quarter feet high. Cover the wood with gold inside and outside and put a golden moulding around it. Make four golden rings and fasten them to the four corners, with two rings on one side and two rings on the other side. Make two long poles of acacia wood, cover them with gold and place them through the golden rings. These golden poles will be left in place permanently and will be used to carry the Ark. Inside the Ark you will place the tablets of stone which I will give you, with the Laws of My Covenant engraved on them. Make a mercy seat of pure gold, which will serve as the lid or cover for the Ark. It will be the same length and width as the Ark itself and will be a place where you may receive mercy for your sins. On the mercy seat, make two golden cherubim, fashioned from beaten gold. Place the cherubim at each end of the mercy seat, facing each other. Their heads shall be turned slightly downward so that they will be looking toward the mercy seat itself. The two cherubim shall spread out their wings above the mercy seat to cover it. After you put My testimony, the Ten Commandments, into the Ark, place the mercy seat on the Ark as a lid. I will come above the Ark, which contains My Covenant, between the two golden cherubim. I will meet with you there and will tell you of My Commandments for the people of Israel. Make a table of acacia wood, three feet long, one and one-half feet wide, and two and one-quarter feet high. Cover it with pure gold and place a golden moulding around it. Place a frame the width of your hand around it, with a golden moulding around the frame. Make four golden rings and fasten them at the four corners of the table by the legs. The rings must be near the frame to hold the poles which will be used to carry the table. Carve poles from acacia wood and cover them with gold. Make plates, bowls, pitchers and flasks of pure gold. Keep some Bread of the Presence, the showbread, on the table before Me at all times. You shall also make a lamp stand of pure gold, with its base and shaft of beaten gold. The lamp stand shall be made of one piece of gold, including its base, shaft, flowers and lamps. Six branches shall come from the sides of the shaft, three from one side and three from the other side. Each branch will have three cups decorated like almond blossoms with a calyx and petals on each blossom. The centre shaft of the lamp stand will have four almond blossom cups. Another blossom will be on top of each pair of branches and still another on the bottom of each pair of branches. The entire lamp stand, including its decorations, will he of one piece of pure, beaten gold. Make seven lamps for the lamp stand and fasten them so that they will shine to the front. The snuffers and ashtrays shall be of pure gold. This entire lamp stand will require a talent of gold, about a hundred pounds. It must be made exactly the way I am telling you here on this mountain.]

COMMENTARY

THE ARK OF THE COVENANT

When Joshua and Moses came down from Mount Sinai, they carried with them two stone tablets on which were written the Ten Commandments. These tablets of the Law expressed YHVH’s wishes for the Israelites’ behaviour, both toward Him and their fellow man. They were the sign of YHVH’s Covenant; most solemn mutual agreement; with the Hebrews. If they believed in Him and obeyed Him, they would be redeemed and become His special chosen people. The tablets, the most precious thing in the world to the Israelites, had to be kept in something that reflected their importance. Whatever held them should remind the people of their Covenant. It should make them remember to honour, respect and fear the Power of YHVH. And it had to be a powerful physical sign of the invisible YHVH’s Spiritual reality, because the Israelites were in a part of the world where everyone else worshiped idols that could be seen and touched. YHVH told Moses exactly how to make the chest to hold the Ten Commandments; the Ark of the Covenant {Exodus 25}. The Ark was made of acacia wood, which is also used in some dyes, perfumes and medicines. It was plated with gold, inside and out. Two gold-plated poles were inserted through a gold ring at each of the four corners and used to carry it. Gold moulding ringed the top. The lid of the chest was made of pure gold. It was called the {mercy seat,} for there YHVH offered mercy for His people because of their sins. Two gold cherubim faced each other, wings open, at opposite ends of the mercy seat. They were creatures with large wings, human heads and animal bodies. YHVH was present between their wings, and there He spoke to Moses. At first, the Ark contained only the two tablets. Later, a golden jar of manna, a piece of Aaron’s rod {which had budded in front of the Ark}, and Moses’ full Book of the Law were added. The Ark was kept in the innermost part of the tabernacle, in a most holy place called the {Holy of Holies.} It could be entered by the high priest only once a year on the Day of Atonement; Yom Kippur; when the mercy seat was sprinkled seven times with blood. The tabernacle was a portable tent of worship that was moved when the Israelites continued their march. The Ark, carefully wrapped and held by its poles, was carried exactly two-thirds of a mile in front of them.

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