The next seven chapters will be rather interesting, all of them establishing how to set up the tabernacle, the mobile dwelling of God while the Israelites are in the wilderness. Frequently it reads like an instruction manual. So at times I will be flirting with structural analysis; please bear with me.
Think of it this way: books like Melville's Moby Dick and Hemingway's Death in the Afternoon contain lengthy descriptions of processes and structures. At times it is like reading an instruction manual. These authors felt some great need to establish perfectly in the reader's mind exactly what they were talking about. The biblical authors felt these need, though probably more keenly. What we have here is an actual instruction manual with detailed descriptions. Melville and Hemingway created a world for their readers by describing the world they knew. The biblical authors created a world for their readers (especially for us, separated by so much time) by describing, in explicit detail, the world they knew.
If you're having any trouble visualizing the tabernacle, check out the model on Bible Places.
Offerings for the Tabernacle: Exodus 25.1-9
God tells Moses that the Israelites are to bring him offerings of the following:
- Metals
- Gold
- Silver
- Bronze
- Yarns and fine linens in the following colors
- Blue
- Purple
- Crimson
- Animal Products
- Goats' hair
- Tanned rams' skins
- Fine leather
- Acacia wood
- Oil for the lamps
- Spices for anointing and incense
- Stones to be set in the ephod for the breast-piece
- Onyx stones
- Gems
The Ark of the Covenant: Exodus 25.10-22
The Ark
The Israelites shall make an ark of acacia wood overlaid inside and out with solid (translates as "pure" but meaning what we would call "solid") gold, with a gold molding all around. Each of the four feet will have a gold ring, through which poles of acacia wood overlaid with gold may be placed in order to carry the ark. The poles should not be removed. The ark is to contain the covenant that God will give to the Israelites
Dimensions (in cubits): 2.5 long x 1.5 wide x 1.5 high. [=3.75' x 2.25' x 2.25'; one cubit = 18 inches]
The Mercy Seat/Cover
A mercy seat/cover of solid gold on which God will sit
Dimensions (in cubits): 2.5 long x 1.5 wide
Two cherubim of hammered gold shall extend from the sides of the mercy seat, one at either end. They should have wings spread and face one another.
The mercy seat shall be placed atop the ark, and God will sit on it and deliver commands.
[Cherubim, according to the HaperCollins Study Bible, are "winged sphinxes with the body of a bull or lion and a human head.]
The Table for the Bread of the Presence: Exodus 25.23-30
Dimensions (in cubits): 2 long x 1 wide x 1.5 high
Overlaid with gold and featuring a gold molding.
The rim should be one handbreadth wide, and should have gold molding around it.
Rings and poles should be created and fastened in the same fashion as the ark for carrying.
Plates and dishes for incense, as well as flagons and bowls for drink offerings, should be made of solid gold.
"You shall set the bread of the Presence on the table before me always" (Ex. 25.30).
The Lampstand: Exodus 25.31-40
The lampstand should be hammered of one talent (3,000 shekels or 170,100 carats or 34 kilograms or 74 pounds) of solid gold (no soldering allowed!).
Its base and shaft hammered, its cups, calyxes and petals all of the same piece of metal.
There should be six branches, three to either side, each branch with three cups shaped like almond blossoms, complete with calyx and petals.
Four cups shape like almond blossoms should adorn the lampstand itself.
Beneath each pair of branches (branches presumably side-by-side) there should be a calyx.
Seven lamps shall be made for it.
Accessories (snuffers and trays) should be made of solid gold.
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