I apologize for the lateness of this post. I haven't had the internet in a few days. Couple that with two very (very) busy days, and I'm all out of steam. If you've read my other blog, Wordisbawn, then you know we are hard at work on what will be our house in so many weeks. And I'm so, so tired. I may have to postpone today's post until tomorrow, as I will be taking a day off (if you count doing laundry, cleaning the bathroom, and vacuuming a day off; at least it's not stripping wallpaper) and will have more time to work up a decent post (and a coherent thought) at that time.
If you're like me, you have to read this passage rather carefully to take in all the minute, detailed instructions the Lord gave concerning His Tabernacle. How long are the tabernacle curtains? And what about the tent of goat hair? And why is there a covering of ram's skin over the goat hair tent? And why does this really matter, all these cubits and rings and clasps??
Do they really matter? I think so. When these instructions were given to the Israelites, they were given so that they would know exactly how to construct the House of God. For that's what the Tabernacle was, right? This is the place the priests came to meet with God and do the business of the people. But for us, now, we can begin to understand, at least a little bit, what the Tabernacle looked like. If I was given the opportunity to go back and see one Biblical place or site, I would be hard-pressed to choose. Would I want to see Egypt in Joseph's day? Possibly. Would I have wanted to see Mt. Sinai? I think so. What about the Temple, especially as the Shekinah glory came down to inhabit the Holy of Holies? Yes. When the curtain ripped in the Temple? (I get a thrill just thinking about it.) I'm a history buff, so I would love to go back and see so many things as they were. But really, I think if I really had to choose, it would be a coin toss between the Temple and the Tabernacle. Ironic, isn't it? The two places as a woman and Gentile I would not be permitted are of course the places I want to go. But that's not really why I would want to.
The Tabernacle had to have been beautiful. The curtains are woven with linen and blue and purple and scarlet yarns. Like a tapestry, depictions of angels are woven into the fabric. The curtains are clasped together with gold and hung on frames with bases of silver and columns covered in gold. It surely was a thing of beauty. But to see that beauty, you would have to be on the inside, because the goat's hair tent we mentioned earlier? It's so large, that it will hang past the flaps of the interior curtains. The tent would cover the whole thing, and not only would it cover the whole thing, but that tent would then be covered with a protective layer of animal skins. From the outside you would only seen the animals skins and goat hair. Something, I imagine, not too extraordinary. But from the inside, it's a different story. There you see the profusion of color, the artistry in the weaving, the frames of silver and gold. Within, also, are these gorgeous religious emblems, The Vessels, as they are called in later Old Testament books: the Table for the Show Bread, the Lampstand, the Ark of the Covenant, all made of pure gold. How beautiful would it be? But as beautiful as all of that would be, there's something else that draws me: the Presence of God. At the end of Exodus it describes the actual making of all these things, and what do you suppose happens? The glory of God inhabits this little tent. The glory of God. How much more wondrous would that be? I would have loved to see it. But again: I wouldn't have been allowed to. The priests entered the Tabernacle to do their work, and women couldn't be priests. It was handed down from father to son. And I am a Gentile: the Tabernacle was for Israelites.
How blessed am I, then, that I have been granted entrance to Heaven because of Jesus Christ, my Savior and Lord, where the original the Tabernacle was patterned after stands? BLESSED. Someday, when God see fits, He will call me from this Earth. And I will join the multitude praising before His throne. Do you think He'll let me take a poke around the Tabernacle up there, instead?
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