The Book of Exodus

Hebrew Study

Explanation

The innermost layer of the tabernacle was the most beautiful. Ten curtains of "fine twined linen," richly woven with "blue, and purple, and scarlet," and figured with "cherubims of cunning work," formed the ceiling and inner walls of the holy place. These curtains were joined in two sets of five, then coupled together by fifty loops of blue and "fifty taches of gold," so that "it shall be one tabernacle." The beauty of this inner tent was hidden from the outside world; only the priests who ministered within could look up and see the glorious colors and the cherubim above them. The many curtains, each of one measure, were fastened into a single dwelling by the golden clasps. What looked from without like a plain tent was, within, a place of woven splendor.

Gospel Focus

The colors of the inner curtains have long been seen as a portrait of Christ: the fine white linen of His spotless righteousness, for "the fine linen is the righteousness of saints" (Revelation 19:8); the blue of heaven, for He came down from above; the purple of royalty, for He is King; and the scarlet of blood, for He was slain. Woven through it all were the cherubim, the guardians of God's holiness. And note that the beauty was within, unseen from outside. So it is with God's people and with Christ Himself, whose glory was veiled in ordinary flesh; the true splendor is inward, seen by those who draw near. Note too that many curtains were coupled by golden clasps into "one tabernacle." God's dwelling is one, made of many joined together. This points to the church, many members knit into one body, one house for God, held together not by their own strength but by the golden bond God supplies. What is plain to the world is glorious within, and the many are made one in the dwelling of God.

Explanation

Over the fine linen came three more layers. First a tent of eleven "curtains of goats' hair," the common material of the herdsman's tent; then "a covering ... of rams' skins dyed red"; and outermost "a covering above of badgers' skins," a tough, weatherproof hide. Layer by layer the coverings grew plainer and more durable toward the outside. A traveler passing by would see only the drab outer skins, nothing to suggest the woven glory hidden beneath. The most beautiful layer was deepest inside, next to the presence of God, and the plainest was outermost, facing the world. God's dwelling was protected by humble, ordinary coverings, and its glory reserved for those who entered.

Gospel Focus

The layered coverings preach a beautiful truth about Christ. To the outward eye He had "no beauty that we should desire him" (Isaiah 53:2), plain as the badgers' skins, a man of sorrows with nothing outwardly to attract the world. But beneath that unremarkable exterior was the glory of God, the fine linen and the woven colors, seen only by those who drew near in faith. Men who judged Him by the outside saw only a carpenter from Nazareth; those who came close beheld "his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father." The rams' skins dyed red speak of consecration and blood, for He gave Himself wholly to God and shed His blood for us. And there is a lesson for God's people, too. The world often sees only the plain and weathered outside of a believer's life, the ordinary and the suffering, and misses the glory of Christ within. Do not despise the humble covering; the glory of God dwells beneath it. What matters is not the badgers' skins the world sees, but the presence of God within.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

The walls of the tabernacle were made of "boards ... of shittim wood standing up," each ten cubits tall, overlaid with gold. Every board stood upright on "two sockets of silver," and the boards were held together by five bars of gold-covered wood, with "the middle bar in the midst of the boards" reaching "from end to end," binding the whole wall into one. The silver for those sockets came, as later chapters show, from the atonement money each Israelite paid, so every board rested on a foundation of redemption. Each board stood on its own silver base, yet all were joined by the bars into a single structure. When it was finished it was to be "rear(ed) up ... according to the fashion ... which was shewed thee in the mount," exactly as God designed.

Gospel Focus

The boards are a striking picture of God's people. Each was a tree cut down, then lifted up and overlaid with gold, dead wood made to shine with glory, as a sinner is redeemed and clothed with the righteousness of Christ. Each stood upright on sockets of silver, the metal of redemption, for every believer's standing before God rests not on himself but on the price that was paid to redeem him. And no board stood alone; all were bound together by the bars into one tabernacle, just as believers are "as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house" (1 Peter 2:5) and "builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit" (Ephesians 2:22). We stand individually on redemption, yet we are meant to be joined to one another, held together into one dwelling where God lives. The middle bar running the whole length pictures the unseen bond, the Spirit binding the whole house into one. No believer is meant to be a lone board leaning in a corner; we are fitted together, redeemed, glorified, and joined, into the house of God.

Explanation

The most solemn furnishing of the tent was the veil. Woven of the same rich colors as the inner curtains and figured "with cherubims," it hung on four gold-covered pillars and divided the tabernacle into two rooms: the holy place, where the table, lampstand, and altar of incense stood, and the most holy place, behind the veil, where the ark and mercy seat rested in the presence of God. Into that inner room only the high priest could go, and only once a year, on the Day of Atonement, with blood. The veil, beautiful as it was, was a barrier. Its cherubim recalled the cherubim that guarded Eden, warning that the way to God's immediate presence was closed to sinful man. A second, plainer "hanging for the door" screened the entrance to the holy place itself. Access to God was real, but restricted; the veil said, in effect, "not yet, not freely, not for all."

Gospel Focus

The veil is one of the most wonderful shadows of Christ in all the tabernacle, and the New Testament tells us plainly what it meant. When Jesus died, "the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom" (Matthew 27:51), torn by God from above, not by man from below. The barrier into God's presence was ripped open at the very moment Christ gave up His life. Hebrews explains why: we now have "boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh" (Hebrews 10:19-20). The veil was His flesh; when His body was broken on the cross, the way into the very presence of God was opened. What the high priest could approach only once a year with blood, every believer may now enter freely and always, through the blood of Jesus. The cherubim no longer guard the way; the torn veil bids us come. Under the law the veil said, "keep out"; at the cross God tore it in two and said, "come in." Draw near, then, with boldness, for the way to God stands open in Christ.