3. The tabernacle furnishings 25:10-40

One writer identified three major problems the interpreter faces as he or she seeks to understand God's revelation concerning the tabernacle.⁴³⁸

1. What was the length of the cubit, the standard measure of length? This is a problem because various nations had different lengths for their cubits. A cubit was the distance between the elbow and the middle fingertip. The length ranged from about 17 inches to 21 inches, but there is good reason to believe the Hebrew cubit at this time was 17.5 inches or about one and a half feet.

2. What about the information omitted in the text? Anyone who has tried to make a model or detailed drawing of the tabernacle and its furnishings has experienced frustration. The data given in the text is incomplete. Undoubtedly God revealed all the details to Moses. However, He has preserved only those details necessary for our understanding of the fundamental significance and functioning of the tabernacle in Scripture.

3. What was the exact shape of the tabernacle? The text does not enable us to know for certain if it had a flat roof or a gabled roof formed by a ridge pole. Both possibilities have problems connected with them, but the flat roof design seems more probable all things considered. A gabled roof would increase the measurement of the roof beyond the width of 15 feet so the curtains over the roof and sides would not fully cover the sides.

Another problem is the extent of typological teaching that God intended. A "type"is a divinely intended illustration. Thus all types are illustrations, but not all illustrations are types. How much detail did God intend to illustrate His character and relationship with His people?

We know the major aspects of the tabernacle and its furnishings are types because the New Testament writers identified them as such (Heb. 5:4-5; 8:5; 9:23-24; 9:8-9; 10:20). However the amount of detail Moses preserved and the obvious correspondence of certain details not identified as types have led many commentators to conclude that God intended these details to be instructive too. Some commentators have taken this teaching to extend to the numbers and colors used that, in some cases in scriptural usage, do have symbolic significance. Some commentators have taken this too far in the judgment of other students of Exodus.

I prefer a cautious approach myself. It seems to me that there are many illustrations of New Testament truth in the Old Testament. This seems clear in view of the amount of detail God preserved here. It also seems clear since the illustrative significance of some features of the tabernacle is so obvious even though the New Testament does not identify them as types. An extremely conservative approach would be to identify as types only those things that the New Testament calls types (Gr. typos, cf. antitypos). These would include Adam (Rom. 5:14), the wilderness wanderings of Israel (1 Cor. 10:6, 11), the holy place in the tabernacle and temple (Heb. 9:24), and the flood in Noah's day (1 Pet. 3:21). We could refer to other foreshadowings simply as illustrations.⁴³⁹

Josephus, following Philo, interpreted the tabernacle, its furniture, and the priests' garments allegorically. He wrote that the seven branches of the lampstand represent the courses of the planets. The colors of the curtains and clothing represent the four elements (earth, water, air, and fire). The two shoulder stones stand for the sun and moon. The 12 breastplate stones represent the 12 months or the 12 signs of the Greek zodiac.⁴⁴⁰His suggestions do not seem to be the best interpretations of the significance of these things.

Note that the order in which Moses described the things associated with the tabernacle in the text is not what one would normally expect. For example, we would expect that after the description of the altar of burnt offerings we would have a description of the laver. The altar of burnt offerings was the major piece of furniture in the courtyard and the first one the Israelite would meet as he entered the courtyard. The laver was the second most prominent item. It would catch the Israelite's eye next. It was also the object between the altar and the tabernacle. However instead we read about the altar of burnt offerings, then the priestly vestments, then the consecration of Aaron, and then the laver. This order is due to the two emphases in the revelation. First, Moses described things that primarily manifest God, and second, things dealing with His people's fellowship with God. The author described first things in the holy of holies where God dwelt, then things in the holy place, then things in the courtyard. This order focuses attention on the presence of Yahweh among His people, which was the most important feature of Israel's life. The tabernacle itself also reflects the importance of Yahweh's presence at the center of His people.

"The tabernacle was built on a ratio of 2:1 and on a radiating decrease value of metal: gold, silver, bronze, from the center [where God dwelt] to the outer edges."⁴⁴¹

The materials that the Israelites were to use in the construction of the tabernacle and its worship were the finest and rarest available. This reflected the fact that nothing but the best was appropriate for response to Yahweh. What was at the center of priestly concern was not a building or a ritual but the Lord Himself, present as a gift to His people.⁴⁴²

 The ark of the covenant 25:10-22 

The ark was the throne of Yahweh where He dwelt in a localized way and met with the Israelites through their high priest. It was the seat of His sovereignty but also the place where He met with His people (v. 22). This is why directions for its construction come first. The testimony (Ten Commandments, vv. 16, 22) lay inside the ark, which was a box. God's dwelling among His people and His relationship with them thus quite literally rested on the Ten Commandments. The mercy seat (v. 17) was the "lid"of this box and was solid gold. It was there that the high priest offered sacrificial blood once a year to atone for (cover) the sins of the Israelites as a nation. This offering made propitiation (satisfaction) for their sins for one year (cf. Lev. 16).

The Greek word used to translate "mercy seat"here in the Septuagint (hilasterion) is essentially the same word used to describe Jesus Christ as our propitiation in 1 John 2:2 (hilasmos). The mercy seat was for the Israelites temporarily what Jesus Christ is for all people permanently: the place where God found satisfaction.

"It [mercy] is a sweet word! A seat of mercy, baptised [sic] in mercy, from which mercy flows forth. Not wrath, not judgment, not indignation, but mercy is pouring forth from its original fountain in the heart of God."⁴⁴³

The cherubim (v. 18) were angels who "apparently have to do with the holiness of God as violated by sin."⁴⁴⁴They may have looked like winged human-headed lions.⁴⁴⁵Josephus wrote that Moses saw these creatures around God's throne when he was on Mt. Sinai.⁴⁴⁶

 The table of showbread 25:23-30

This piece of furniture stood on the north side of the holy place, the right side as the priest entered from the courtyard. The priests placed twelve loaves (large pieces) of unleavened bread in two rows or piles on this table where they remained for seven days.⁴⁴⁷They substituted twelve fresh loaves for the old bread each Sabbath (Lev. 24:5-8). The term "bread of the Presence"(v. 30) means these loaves lay before God's presence in the tabernacle. The Israelites did not offer this food for Yahweh to eat, as the pagans offered food to their gods.⁴⁴⁸

They did so "as a symbol of the spiritual food which Israel was to prepare (John 6:27; cf. 4:32, 34), a figurative representation of the calling it had received from God."⁴⁴⁹

"The twelve loaves constituted a perpetual thank offering to God from the twelve tribes for the blessings that they received from Him day by day."⁴⁵⁰

"By its opulence as by the containers and the food and drink placed continuously upon it and periodically renewed, this Table announces: He is here,' and there as one who gives sustenance."⁴⁵¹

Perhaps the bread signified both God's provisions and Israel's vocation. Israel was to be a source of spiritual food for the world (19:5-6).

". . . the table and the bread of the Presence have been taken as a type of the church which stands in Christ's (the ark) presence."⁴⁵²

 The lampstand 25:31-40

This piece of furniture was probably similar in size to the table of showbread (v. 39). It stood opposite that table in the holy place against the south (left) wall. It weighed about 75 pounds. The tabernacle craftsmen fashioned it in the form of a stylized plant or tree. It connoted life and fertility.

"The signification of the seven-armed candlestick is apparent from its purpose, viz. to carry seven lamps, which were trimmed and filled with oil every morning, and lighted every evening, and were to burn throughout the night (chap. xxvii. 20, 21, xxx. 7, 8; Lev. xxiv. 3, 4). As the Israelites were to prepare spiritual food in the shew-bread in the presence of Jehovah, and to offer continually the fruit of their labour in the field of the kingdom of God, as a spiritual offering to the Lord; so also were they to present themselves continually to Jehovah in the burning lamps, as the vehicles and media of light, as a nation letting its light shine in the darkness of this world (cf. Matt. v. 14, 16; Luke xii. 35; Phil. ii. 15). The oil, through which the lamps burned and shone, was, according to its peculiar virtue in imparting strength to the body and restoring vital power, a representation of the Godlike spirit, the source of all the vital power of man; whilst the oil, as offered by the congregation of Israel, and devoted to sacred purposes according to the command of God, is throughout the Scriptures a symbol of the Spirit of God, by which the congregation of God was filled with higher light and life. By the power of this Spirit, Israel, in covenant with the Lord, was to let its light shine, the light of its knowledge of God and spiritual illumination, before all the nations of the earth. In its sevenarms the stamp of the covenant relationship was impressed upon the candlestick; and the almond-blossom with which it was ornamented represented the seasonable offering of the flowers and fruits of the Spirit, the almond-tree deriving its name . . . from the fact that it is the earliest of all the trees in both its blossom and its fruit (cf. Jer. 1:11, 12). The symbolic character of the candlestick is clearly indicated in the Scriptures. The prophet Zechariah (chap. 4) sees a golden candlestick with seven lamps and two olive-trees, one on either side, from which the oil-vessel is supplied; and the angel who is talking with him informs him that the olive-trees are the two sons of oil, that is to say, the representatives of the kingdom and priesthood, the divinely appointed organs through which the Spirit of God was communicated to the covenant nation. And in Rev. 1:20, the seven churches, which represent the new people of God, i.e., the Christian Church, are shown to the holy seer in the form of seven candlesticks standing before the throne of God."⁴⁵³

"In company with the Table attesting Yahweh's Presence in bounty and the Ark attesting Yahweh's Presence in mercy and revelation, the Lampstand symbolized Yahweh's Presence in perpetual wakefulness, through the reminder of the almond tree and the continual brightness of the living fire (cf. Num 17:16-26 [17:1-11]). The watcher over Israel never nodded, much less slept (Ps 121:4)."⁴⁵⁴

As the showbread, the burning lamps may have symbolized both the character of God and the calling of Israel.

The seven-branched lampstand (menorah) has been and is a popular symbol of Judaism and Israel even today.

A bas relief of the lampstand that stood in Herod's Temple is still visible on an inside panel on the Arch of Titus that stands in Rome. The Romans built this arch following Titus' destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70.

"The lampstand is commonly taken to be a type of Christ, usually on the basis of Revelation 1:4. It has also been taken as a symbolic image of the Law."⁴⁵⁵