of the Old Testament
The Tabernacle
The Tabernacle was the center place of Israel’s worship activities during the wanderings and until the building of the temple in Solomon’s day. The tabernacle was in fact a portable temple. It included an inner tent, the area available for sacred purposes (Ex. 26:7; 36:14) that was 30 cubits in length (about 45 feet) and 10 in breadth and height (about 15 feet). Its north, west, and south sides were made of 46 boards (10 cubits tall by 1½ cubits wide) and two narrower corner ones all made of acacia wood (Ex. 26:15), overlaid with gold (26:29). These boards were fitted with golden rings through which were passed bars of acacia wood overlaid with gold to fasten firmly together. Suspended over them, and serving as an inner lining to the tent covering, was the fabric covering—10 curtains (each 28 cubits by 4 cubits) made of fine twined linen, and blue and purple and scarlet, embroidered with figures of cherubim (Ex. 26:1).
Over the tabernacle the tent was spread. Its length was 40 cubits, or 10 cubits longer than the tabernacle. The entrance toward the east was closed by a drape of blue, purple, and scarlet and fine twined linen.
The tent stood in a court 100 cubits by 50 cubits (150 feet by 75 feet), surrounded by a fence (Ex. 27:18) five cubits high, composed of pillars and hangings of fine white linen. The entrance toward the east was 20 cubits wide (Ex. 27:16) and was closed by a screen of linen of four different colors on four pillars.
The tabernacle with all its furniture was brought to Moses when complete, and on the first day of the first month of the second year (one year less 14 days from the Exodus) he reared it up and finished the work.
When the whole building was set in order, a cloud covered the tent and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle (Ex. 40:34). The cloud, a token of Jehovah’s presence, had the appearance of a fire by night, and by its movement, determined the journeyings and encampments of the children of Israel (Ex. 40:34; Num. 9:17–18). The tabernacle accompanied the children of Israel during their wanderings in the desert and in the different stages of the conquest of the land of Canaan. When the conquest was completed, it was fixed in Shiloh as the place that the Lord had chosen (Josh. 18:1). Here we find it in the earliest (Judg. 18:31) and latest days of the Judges (1 Sam. 1:3). At the time of the capture of the ark, God forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh (Ps. 78:60). The ark never returned to the tabernacle. It was removed from Shiloh and we find it some years later with its priests and its table of shewbread at Nob (1 Sam. 21:1), and in Solomon’s reign with its altar of burnt offering and ministered at by Zadok the high priest at Gibeon (1 Chr. 16:39–40). After the building of the temple it entirely disappears from the history.
Isaiah uses the figure of the tabernacle as a foreshadowing of Zion and the holy city of Jerusalem when it will be built up at the Lord’s Second Coming (Isa. 33:20).