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In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
All those who were skilled among the workers made the tabernacle with ten curtains of finely twisted linen and blue, purple and scarlet yarn, with cherubim woven into them by expert hands. All the curtains were the same size—twenty-eight cubits long and four cubits wide. They joined five of the curtains together and did the same with the other five. Then they made loops of blue material along the edge of the end curtain in one set, and the same was done with the end curtain in the other set. They also made fifty loops on one curtain and fifty loops on the end curtain of the other set, with the loops opposite each other. Then they made fifty gold clasps and used them to fasten the two sets of curtains together so that the tabernacle was a unit.
They made curtains of goat hair for the tent over the tabernacle—eleven altogether. All eleven curtains were the same size—thirty cubits long and four cubits wide. They joined five of the curtains into one set and the other six into another set. Then they made fifty loops along the edge of the end curtain in one set and also along the edge of the end curtain in the other set. They made fifty bronze clasps to fasten the tent together as a unit. Then they made for the tent a covering of ram skins dyed red, and over that a covering of the other durable leather.
They made upright frames of acacia wood for the tabernacle. Each frame was ten cubits long and a cubit and a half wide, with two projections set parallel to each other. They made all the frames of the tabernacle in this way. They made twenty frames for the south side of the tabernacle and made forty silver bases to go under them—two bases for each frame, one under each projection. For the other side, the north side of the tabernacle, they made twenty frames and forty silver bases—two under each frame. They made six frames for the far end, that is, the west end of the tabernacle, and two frames were made for the corners of the tabernacle at the far end. At these two corners the frames were double from the bottom all the way to the top and fitted into a single ring; both were made alike. So there were eight frames and sixteen silver bases—two under each frame.
They also made crossbars of acacia wood: five for the frames on one side of the tabernacle, five for those on the other side, and five for the frames on the west, at the far end of the tabernacle. They made the center crossbar so that it extended from end to end at the middle of the frames. They overlaid the frames with gold and made gold rings to hold the crossbars. They also overlaid the crossbars with gold.
They made the curtain of blue, purple and scarlet yarn and finely twisted linen, with cherubim woven into it by a skilled worker. They made four posts of acacia wood for it and overlaid them with gold. They made gold hooks for them and cast their four silver bases. For the entrance to the tent they made a curtain of blue, purple and scarlet yarn and finely twisted linen—the work of an embroiderer; and they made five posts with hooks for them. They overlaid the tops of the posts and their bands with gold and made their five bases of bronze.
Exodus 36:8-38
This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
With all the materials gathered, we see in Exodus, chapter 36 where “all those who were skilled among the workers” got to work building the tabernacle and its accessories, just as God had directed and exactly per His specifications.
Now, it would be easy to simply gloss over this section of the scriptures that will span through chapter 39 but in doing so, we would miss a lot in regard to really appreciating all the work that went into constructing God’s portable worship center and the materials that were used. So in this series of messages, we’ll drill down a little and my hope is that we’ll glean a lot of knowledge as well as admiration for all that was done well over 2,000 years ago.
Let’s start there, with the fact that all the labor of the skilled workers was done without the benefit of refined tools or technology that we have today. Everything was done by hand.
Consider the process of overlaying wood with God, for example. The craftsman would first need to purify the gold donated by the Israelites because nothing but the best quality materials would be suitable for a place where God would be worshipped and honored. Pure gold would reflect the purity of the Lord and the skilled workers would pound it into thin, pliable sheets that would be affixed to the wooden frames and crossbars. These parts of the tabernacle were made of acacia wood, known for its strength, durability, and resistance to rotting.
Then, we read about the tabernacle curtains.
Ten of them were made of “finely twisted linen” and “blue, purple and scarlet yarn”. This fine linen was made from the flax plant and again, remember that there wasn’t any industrial-quality mechanical looms to make these curtains. Ditto for getting the fibers from the flax plants which involved pulling fibrous strips from the stalk much like we can do with celery today. It was tedious work to say the least.
Now these curtains weren’t small by any means. We read where they were “all the same size”, measuring “twenty-eight cubits long and four cubits wide”.
How much is a cubit?
Well, the ancient measuring unit was essentially the length from one’s elbow to the end of the middle finger, approximately 18 inches. So if we convert to a standard we can better understand, the curtains were 504 inches or 42 feet long and 72 inches or 6 feet wide.
We read where there was also some intricate embroidery done on the curtains as “cherubim were woven into them by expert hands”. Once done, the curtains were fastened together with fifty gold clasps so the two sets of five curtains could form one unit in the tabernacle.
There were some additional curtains to form the tent over the tabernacle. These eleven curtains were made out of “goat hair” and were of the same size, thirty cubits or 45 feet long and, like the other curtains, 4 cubits or 6 feet wide. Five of these curtains formed one set and the other six, the second. These two sets of curtains were joined by bronze clasps so to fasten the tent together as a unit. This was followed by making a tent “covering of ram’s skins” that were dyed red and then “over that a covering of the other durable leather”.
In sum, this was an incredible undertaking by many people who had wonderful, specialized skills, skills that we know were bestowed by the Lord Himself. I pray that we will step back from this passage and the ones that are to follow, and truly appreciate the incredible craftsmanship that went into making God’s commands a reality.
Tomorrow, we’ll continue this series by looking at chapter 37.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.
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