THE TABERNACLE 4

Exodus 25:9; 26:3

God "shewed" Moses the "pattern" of the entire tabernacle arrangement, See Exodus 25:9; 26:3; and Numbers 8:4. This is not to be thought of as a blueprint; but rather the actual model of it, or perhaps a vision, for that is one of the translations of the word rendered "shew"; others are: forsee, look on, perceive, see, and view.

Moses was warned to make it precisely as he had seen it, Exodus 25:40. Dimensions will be discussed later. This became an awesome responsibility. We have a saying like this: 'one picture is worth a thousand words.' In Moses' case, he had both.

We mentioned last time about the the people giving of the precious materials necessary to make the Tabernacle. Exodus 35:4-5 tells us of the general things required; but 25:1-7 gives a more detailed list - - - but even it doesn't include things like the lumber material from the Shittim or Acaia trees. This was gathered locally.

Raw material is one thing; but getting a finished product requires workers and workmanship skills, see Exodus 35:30-35. All the raw material could not fashion this masterpiece - - - it took spirit filled folk to construct this spiritual masterpiece. Perhaps some had acquired skills by working with,and for, the Egyptians.

The importance of the proper material, workmanship, and arrangement, and practice is most important in the tabernacle project. Moses was cautioned to make it exactly as "shewed" for this would be "the pattern of things in the heavens . . .", Hebrews 9:23. It ". . . was a figure for the time then present, . . ." Hebrews 9:9, Hebrews 9:5 says two words about this arrangement - - - that it served as an "example and shadow of heavenly things, . . .", Hebrews 8:15.

The "shadow" gives a quaint slant to our understanding - - - a shadow is not the real thing, as the shadow of death is not the real death.

Oh, how vital this structure was to the preaching of the gospel unto those of that time. We today bask in the days of when it was fulfilled at Calvary by Jesus, the Lamb of God. DDH.