Day 2: What is it, and is it really THAT important?

According to all that I show you, that is, the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all its furnishings, just so you shall make.” 
Exodus 25:2-9

To start, scripture has 50 CHAPTERS devoted to it. Exodus has 13, Leviticus 18, Numbers 13 and Deuteronomy 2. But not just in the Old Testament. Even Bob, the author of Hebrews has 4 CHAPTERS dealing with it. So, yeah, it’s a pretty big deal. Even more to the point, God is very exacting in everything from how big it was to be, to the items used in it (both material and how they were done) even going so far as to outline who camped where outside of the Tabernacle! If nothing else when we consider that this was used for WORSHIP that maybe, just maybe God takes worship for Him very seriously and maybe, just maybe we should reconsider how WE approach God in worship! But that’s another issue, entirely.

In one of the more humorous comments I found in researching this, was the fact that although God supplied everything for the Israelites to use, God had the Egyptians pay for the whole thing! Which makes sense in a ‘poetic justice’ sort of way…they used Israels for construction workers with no pay for 400 years so…Exodus 12:36 uses the term ‘plundered them’ which means they took a lot. A WHOLE lot. But since God owns everything He can do with it as He sees fit. And in this case He saw fit to use it to point to Him and the salvation that was coming.

In all honesty it really wasn’t very big, the whole thing being enclosed within a 150X75 foot area, the height of the walls about 7.5 feet tall held up by 60 poles. This is at least close, as they used the term ‘cubit’ which (as close as we can figure) is about 18 inches in length. This whole area was surrounded by a curtain-with only one way in. We know that this curtain surrounding the court was pure white linen, which was a sign of purity (Mark 9:3, Rev. 19:8). If we attempted to climb over or under it, we would soil the purity and it would be obvious what we were attempting and the priests would make sure we didn’t get in. Because there was one and ONLY one way-a door on one end. And we are going to talk about that door tomorrow!

Scripture reading for today:

Hebrews 9:1-5
Now the first covenant had regulations for worship and also an earthly sanctuary. A tabernacle was set up. In its first room were the lampstand and the table with its consecrated bread; this was called the Holy Place. Behind the second curtain was a room called the Most Holy Place, which had the golden altar of incense and the gold-covered ark of the covenant. This ark contained the gold jar of manna, Aaron’s staff that had budded, and the stone tablets of the covenant. Above the ark were the cherubim of the Glory, overshadowing the atonement cover. But we cannot discuss these things in detail now.