Today we begin Chapter 26 and the study of the tabernacle itself. This passage goes into a great deal of detail and it may take us several days to complete it. At times I am not sure there is a way to "spiritualize" every aspect of the materials and their construction, but I'm not sure we need to do that. While I believe the Lord has a very specific purpose for every single instruction and for even the smallest element of the tabernacle's design, we are not always going to be certain what each of these things symbolize. I think one of the main things we will be able to take away from this portion of Scripture is an image in our minds of the structure where the Lord met with Israel during the years before the temple was built.
"Make the tabernacle with ten curtains of finely twisted linen and blue, purple and scarlet yarn, and cherubim woven into them by a skilled worker." (Exodus 26:1) The outside of the tabernacle will be covered with thick goatskins, as we'll see later in this chapter, so this means these brilliant colors were visible only from inside the tent. The images of the cherubim could only be viewed by the priests who go inside the tent. Some commentators point out that the interior of the tabernacle is meant to make the priests think of heaven and to cause them to behave with the reverence they'd display if they actually were standing before God in heaven. The gorgeous colors and the woven tapestry of cherubim are earthly copies of the heavenly reality. Earlier in the week we discussed how the Bible says the tabernacle and the items within it are "copies of the heavenly things". (Hebrews 9:23) The colors inside the tent may be related to the colors the Apostle John saw surrounding the throne in heaven when he received the visions of Revelation. (Revelation 4:3) The Lord was surrounded by such glorious and colorful light that John could barely describe even a little bit of what he saw. Also, when men like the prophet Isaiah, the prophet Ezekiel, and the Apostle John were given glimpses of the Lord seated on His throne, they saw His throne surrounded by angelic attendants. I believe this is why the interior fabric of the tabernacle is woven with the images of cherubim, to reflect something that is going on in heaven every hour of every day.
"All the curtains are to be the same size---twenty-eight cubits long and four cubits wide." (Exodus 26:2) The Lord does everything in a neat and orderly fashion, so the people are to make certain that each curtain is exactly the same size. Imagine how awful it would have looked if some of them were longer or shorter than others. Have you ever bought sets of sheer drapes, for example, and noted after hanging them that they aren't exactly the same length? That happened to me with two sets of lace bedroom curtains. I had four panels in all and one panel was at least a half inch shorter than the others. There were two windows in that room and a chest was sitting in front of one window so I had to move the panel that was a little short to the window behind the chest. That way I couldn't see the bottom of it and wouldn't be bothered by it being a little shorter than it should be. But imagine if you had ten panels and some or all of them didn't exactly match in length. How unsightly and unattractive this would have looked! A thing like that could be very distracting to the priests while they go about their work. We all have our quirks, and one of mine (and a lot of other people's too) is that I like things to match and to be very precise. For example, there's a decorative wooden piece in the middle of the wooden fireplace mantel we purchased for our gas log set and I kept looking and looking at it thinking it wasn't exactly in the center. My husband thought it was smack dab in the middle and he got out a measuring tape to find out for sure. It turned out to be just under 1/8" off center and I laughed and said, "I knew it!" That might not seem like much of a difference but some people are just wired to notice such things, and I have no doubt that some of the priests who served at the tabernacle through the years would have been bothered every time they entered the tabernacle if some of the curtains were uneven, no matter if the measurements were only off by 1/8".
"Join five of the curtains together, and do the same with the other five. Make loops of blue material along the edge of the end curtain in one set, and do the same with the end curtain in the other set. Make fifty loops on one curtain and fifty loops on the end curtain of the other set, with the loops opposite each other. Then make fifty gold clasps and use them to fasten the curtains together so that the tabernacle is a unit." (Exodus 26:3-6) The ten curtains are divided into two sets of five and each set of five curtains is sewn together. Then the two sets are joined to each to other with gold clasps down the sides. When joined together in this way they will surround the inner part of the tabernacle as one whole piece.
One commentary I consulted suggested that the joining together of all these panels may represent the joining together of all the people in worship. In a crowd this size, there are going to be people of all sorts of different personalities and quirks. There are going to be people at various spiritual levels too. Some will be living their daily lives in close relationship with the Lord, some may be a bit distant from Him, and the rest are going to fall somewhere in between. But when they come near the tabernacle to worship, they are joined together in one purpose. The Lord views them as one people---as His people----and though they are not yet what can truly be called a "nation" here in Exodus 26, in the Lord's mind Israel has been a nation ever since the day He promised Abraham a son. The Lord meets them where they are but at the same time He sees who they are going to be. And aren't we glad? When the Lord looks at us, He isn't thinking about our past. He meets us right where we are today but also sees His plans and dreams for our future. He interacts with us in the here and now but it's always His goal for us to continually draw closer to Him and to become stronger, day by day, in our faith.
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