SERIES D --- YHVH’S TABERNACLE --- LESSON 02

WALLS OF CLOTH

CURTAINS OF FINE-TWINED LINEN

From Exodus 26

At the top of Mount Sinai, Moses listened to Adonai’s Instructions for the tabernacle and its furniture. This is what Adonai told him: [Make the tabernacle from ten curtains of fine-twined linen dyed blue, purple and scarlet, with cherubim embroidered in them. Each curtain shall be forty-two feet long and six feet wide. Sew five curtains together for one side of the tabernacle and five for the other side. On each edge of these large curtains, put fifty blue loops, which will be used to join them together. The fasteners to hook the blue loops together will be fifty golden clasps. The wall of the tabernacle, YHVH’s dwelling, will become one complete piece. The roof of the tabernacle will be made from eleven large goats’ hair curtains. Each curtain will be six feet wide and forty-five feet long. Five curtains will be sewed together to form one side of the roof. The other six will be sewed together to form the other side of the roof, with the sixth piece hanging across the front of the tabernacle. The two large pieces will be fastened together by fifty bronze clasps, which will join fifty blue loops on each of the two sections. One and one-half feet of this roof section will hang over the front and the same amount will hang over the back. Add to the roof a second layer made of rams’ skins dyed red and a third layer made of goats’ skins. The frame which holds the tabernacle together will be made of acacia wood. Each upright piece or board, will be fifteen feet high and two and one-quarter feet wide, with two tendons in each to fit it tightly to the next upright. Put twenty uprights on the south wall, twenty on the north, six on the west wall, and two at each corner. Two silver bases will hold each upright. The corner frames will be fastened at the top and bottom with clasps. The entire west wall will have eight uprights with sixteen silver bases. To fit across these uprights, make five bars of acacia wood for each side of the tabernacle. The west wall of the tabernacle will also have five bars. The middle bar will run along the uprights from end to end. Cover all the uprights and bars with gold. Make rings to put on the uprights, which will hold the bars in place. You will make the entire tabernacle as I have told you here on this mountain. Make another curtain or veil, for the inside of the tabernacle. It will be made of blue, purple and scarlet fine-twined linen with cherubim figures embroidered on it. Hang this veil by golden hooks on four pillars made of acacia wood, each covered with gold and set in a silver socket. Place the Ark, with the stone tablets on which My Laws are engraved, behind this veil. The veil will separate the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies. Put the mercy seat on the Ark in the Holy of Holies. Set the table on the north side of the Holy Place and the lamp stand on the south side. Make another curtain of embroidered blue, purple and scarlet fine-twined linen and hang it on five posts of acacia wood, covered with gold, with golden hooks. Each pillar will be set in a bronze socket. This veil will be used as a screen for the doorway of the tabernacle.]

COMMENTARY

THE TABERNACLE-ITS CURTAINS, WALL HANGINGS AND VEIL

The Israelites knew very well how powerful YHVH was. They had witnessed the plagues in Egypt, and had seen the pillar of fire and cloud. Preparing a place to worship YHVH was complicated and hard. He had given Moses precise instructions for His place of worship. It was to be an elaborately constructed tent, called a tabernacle. The purpose of YHVH’s design for the tabernacle was to remind the Israelites that YHVH is Holy; separate and different from people in His absolute purity and strength. No one but the priests could worship YHVH in the tabernacle, and only the ritually purified could enter the courtyard around the tabernacle. Most of all, only the high priest was allowed in the Holy of Holies where the Ark of the Covenant was kept. Three sets of curtains were used to separate each of the three sections from the other. The first set of curtains was the outer one. It served as a fence around the courtyard. These curtains were made of the finest linen and dyed blue, purple and scarlet. The side curtains were each a hundred and fifty feet long, and hung on silver hooks attached to twenty gold-plated wooden pillars standing in bronze sockets. The back curtains were seventy-five feet long and needed only ten pillars. On the front, two curtains came out from the sides for some distance; each curtain hung from three pillars. The opening between the curtains was the entrance. Only Israelites who had gone through certain purifying rituals could go into the courtyard. Inside the courtyard was the tabernacle. Its sides were made from ten curtains that were forty feet long and six feet wide. The edge of each curtain was attached to the others by fifty blue loops fastened together with fifty gold clasps. The linen was dyed a rainbow of blue, purple and scarlet. It was embroidered with cherubim, and hung on a wooden frame to form the walls. The ceiling was made of eleven goats’ hair curtains. Five each were laid side to side. The extra one hung over the front toward the side to mark the entrance. These in turn were covered with a layer of rams’ skins dyed red. The third layer was of tanned goats’ skin. Only the Levites and priests; Moses, Aaron and other descendants of Levi; could pass through the woven linen screen that covered the entrance to the tabernacle. This screen, also of blue, scarlet and purple, was hung from hooks of gold on five gold-plated wooden pillars that stood on bronze bases. Deep inside the tabernacle was the most holy place of all, the Holy of Holies, which held the Ark. The veil that separated it from the rest of the tabernacle was made of the same dyed and embroidered cloth as the walls. It hung from four gold-plated wooden pillars with silver bases. The Holy of Holies was so sacred that the high priest was permitted to enter only once a year, on the Day of Atonement. When Solomon built the temple many years later, he used walls and stairs in place of the original curtains of the tabernacle. But the veil in front of the Holy of Holies was designed the same way; it was the only veil in Solomon’s temple. It was this most secret veil, the veil that separated the Holy of Holies that was torn in two when Yeshua was crucified.