SERIES D --- YHVH’S TABERNACLE --- LESSON 16

GLORY IN HIS PRESENCE

ASSEMBLING THE TABERNACLE

From Exodus 40

[Assemble the tabernacle on the first day of the first month, Adonai told Moses. Place the Ark of the Testimony in it and screen the Ark from view with the veil. Put the table in its place and set its utensils on it. Then bring in the lamp stand and light its lamps. Set the golden altar of incense in its place before the Ark and hang the curtains at the entrance to the tabernacle. Place the altar for burnt offerings before the entrance. Put the laver between the altar and the tabernacle and fill it with water. Set up the courtyard around the tabernacle and hang the entrance curtain in its place. Sprinkle the anointing oil upon the tabernacle and all that is in it to consecrate it and all its furnishings to Adonai. Anoint the altar for burnt offering and its utensils, consecrating them to become most holy. Anoint also the laver with its pedestal, and thus consecrate it. Bring Aaron and his sons to the doorway of the tabernacle and wash them with water. Put the sacred garments on Aaron and anoint him, consecrating him to serve Me as My priest. Place robes on Aaron’s sons and anoint them as you have anointed their father Aaron, so that they may serve Me as My priests. This anointing will set them apart for many generations to serve Me as priests.] Moses did everything as Adonai Commanded him. In the first month of the second year the tabernacle was assembled. Moses set up the sockets and put the boards in place in them. He inserted the bars and erected the pillars, then spread the coverings over the top of the frame, just as Adonai had told him to do. Moses put the stone tablets with the Ten Commandments into the Ark, attached the carrying poles and placed the mercy seat, the golden lid of the Ark, into place. He brought the Ark into the tabernacle and set up the veil to screen it from view, just as Adonai had told him to do. Next, Moses put the table on the north side of the tabernacle, outside the veil and arranged the Bread of Adonai’s Presence on it, as Adonai had Commanded him to do. He also set the lamp stand on the south side of the tabernacle, opposite the table. Then he arranged the lamps on the lamp stand, exactly as Adonai had told him to do. He put the golden altar in the tabernacle in front of the veil. When it was in place, he burned incense on it, as Adonai had Commanded him to do. At the tabernacle entrance, Moses hung the curtains and placed the altar for burnt offerings near the entrance. On this altar he offered a burnt offering and a cereal or meal offering, as Adonai had Commanded him to do. He placed the laver between the altar and the tabernacle and filled it with water for washing. Moses and Aaron and Aaron’s sons washed their feet in this laver whenever they entered the tabernacle and whenever they came to the altar, as Adonai had Commanded Moses to do. Moses set up the courtyard fence around the tabernacle and the altar and hung the curtain for the entrance to the courtyard. With this, Moses completed the work of assembling the tabernacle. When the work was finished, the pillar of cloud covered the tabernacle and the glory of Adonai filled it. Moses could not enter the tabernacle because the cloud covered it and the glory of Adonai filled it. Whenever the cloud arose from the tabernacle, the people of Israel would move ahead on their journey. But when the cloud did not move from the tabernacle, they would stay where they were until it lifted. By day Adonai’s cloud rested upon the tabernacle and by night the pillar of fire was there. It remained throughout their journeys, so that all of the people of Israel could see it.

COMMENTARY

ARRANGEMENT OF THE TABERNACLE AND ITS FURNISHINGS

The tabernacle was always set up in the centre of the Israelites’ camp. The entrance to the courtyard was on the east, hung with blue, purple and crimson curtains. The front of the courtyard was generally filled with people and the animals they had brought for sacrifice. They waited, holding their frightened animals and talked, in sight of the bronze-plated altar that stood in the centre of the courtyard. The bronze laver, full of water, glistened in the sun behind the altar. In back of the laver was the entrance to the tent of the tabernacle itself. It was a magnificent construction of blue, purple and crimson curtains hung from five gold covered pillars. The people wound their way to the right of the altar. There they would stand as the priest went to the laver and washed his hands and feet in the holy water, purifying himself before he performed a ritual of sacrifice. The priest then killed the animal presented for sacrifice and took the part to be sacrificed over to the altar. The sacrificial portion was placed inside the altar on a bronze grating. Then he performed the ritual. The tabernacle’s entrance with its embroidered curtain and gold pillars was directly behind him. The gold-plated wooden boards of the tent’s sides gleamed in the light. The heavy roof was four layers thick. The top covering of goats’ skins was followed by one of rams’ skins. The next one of goats’ hair protected the innermost layer of linen. Blue, purple and crimson, it was richly embroidered with figures of cherubim. Only priests could enter the tabernacle tent and then only after they had cleansed themselves at the laver. Three things stood toward the front of the tent.

First, on the right, was the table of showbread, holding its twelve loaves. Each Shabbat, the priests entered the tabernacle, ate the loaves and replaced them with fresh bread.

Second, the seven-branched gold menorah stood on the left. Its seven gold lamps burned with the rich glow of the finest olive oil.

Third, the gold-plated incense altar toward the rear filled the area with a sacrifice of holy fragrance.

Behind the incense altar hung a special veil embroidered with cherubim. It hung from four gold-plated posts. Only the high priest was permitted to enter that room. It was the Holy of Holies. The gold Ark of the Covenant rested there, holding the two tablets with the Ten Commandments, a cup of manna and a piece of Aaron’s rod. The high priest was allowed to go into the room only one day of the year, the Day of Atonement. He would enter and leave three times.

First, he carried burning incense, which was to protect him from the power of the presence of YHVH.

Second, he carried the blood of a bull that had been sacrificed on his behalf. He sprinkled the mercy seat seven times for his own sake.

Third time he carried the blood of a goat that had been sacrificed on behalf of all the people of Israel. This too he sprinkled seven times on the mercy seat. In this way the tabernacle was divided into three basic parts; the outer courtyard, the tent of the tabernacle proper and the Holy of Holies.