The Tabernacle, The Materials For The Tabernacle, Part 1 - Lesson 10

In coming weeks, as the Lord allows, we will study each part of the tabernacle, the Ark Of The Covenant, the Mercy Seat, the Table of Showbread, the Golden Candlestick, the Altar Of Incense, the Framework Of The Tabernacle, the Curtains Of the Tabernacle, the Brazen Altar, the Brazen Laver and the Veil.

We will learn in this study a pattern of God in that in His revelation of himself to man He always moves from the lower to the higher.

The tabernacle is not the end in itself for it is the beginning of a progressive process designed by God to reveal himself to man.

As you study the Bible and in particular the tabernacle, you will find that God moves from the ritual to the reality, from the shadow to the substance, from the type to the anti-type, from the prophecy to the fulfillment, from the symbol to the spiritual from the earthly to the heavenly.

So many times religion gets stuck in the ritual, or the shadow and will not move from the earthly to the heavenly.

However before we get into such details of the furnishings I would like to teach a few lessons concerning the materials needed for the aforementioned parts, for in this study of the materials we can see much of the character of God and His Son.

We will also see that God intends for those whom he calls to be His sons to participate fully in His work for in the building of the tabernacle it is easily seen that God desires to share His work with co-laborers.

In fact God our Creator has so made his creatures to share in the work.

Everything that God has made is purposeful from the smallest of cells to the largest of animals, to every man, woman, and child.

God intends for his creation to be co-laborers with him and he has put this intention into our makeup.

It is our very nature to fit into this plan, however sin and Satan has brought confusion and blindness to God’ will for men, women, boys and girls.

But the fact remains that man’s greatest need is to find the place where God intends for him to be, doing the work that God intends for him to do.

It is indeed a fact that men and women, boys and girls need God for a life without God is a life without hope.

And it also is a fact that God has chosen to need men and women, boys and girls in carrying out his work and his will.

I said God has chosen to need!

He doesn’t have to need but this is what He has chosen by his sovereign will.

As an aside here you know for a fact that your children need you and you ought to follow God’s pattern by choosing to need your children.

So many children are not needed in homes today for many parents say, "I’d rather do it myself" and do not take the time to teach the children in order that they become valuable members of the family.

Under these circumstances they simply become a liability and not an asset, takers and never givers.

But children need to be needed and as scripture teaches us it is good for a man to bear the yoke in his youth.

You as a parent are to make it so in the home that your children are needed to make that home function.

They are to be given purpose throughout their rearing by being co-laborers with you.

They are not to be left without purpose for God’s pattern is for all of us to have purpose.

God could have spoken the word and every part of the tabernacle would have appeared before the children of Israel but he did not do that, instead giving the children a task of participation in its construction.

Our God is like that for within us we all have a need to know God in an intimate way and being a co-laborer together with God provides that way.

We know that being co-laborers in a task brings people together, and so God chooses to use you as a co-laborer that you might know Him in an intimate way, for He knows that knowing him this way will bring you to where you love him with all your heart.

God choose to reveal himself to the children of Israel though the tabernacle.

For the tabernacle revealed a desire on God’s part for a place where He could live among His people, a place where a special manifestation of His presence would dwell, a place where His people could come to Him for worship and help, a place where people received forgiveness of God and committed their lives to God and a place set aside or sanctified for God.

But the finished tabernacle was not the only thing that revealed Himself to the children but the provision of its materials and the actual building of it were major parts of that revelation.

For its beginning starts with a call for co-laborers for the provision of its needed materials.

This call is recorded by Moses in Exodus 25:1-9,  And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, ²Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring me an offering: of every man that giveth it willingly with his heart ye shall take my offering. ³And this is the offering which ye shall take of them; gold, and silver, and brass, ⁴And blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and goats’ hair, ⁵And rams’ skins dyed red, and badgers’ skins, and shittim wood, ⁶Oil for the light, spices for anointing oil, and for sweet incense, ⁷Onyx stones, and stones to be set in the ephod, and in the breastplate. ⁸And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them. ⁹According to all that I show thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it.

In this passage we see the heart of God and that heart includes you.

He does not wave the magic wand and produce the finished product but he deigns to include the multitudes that have been redeemed from slavery in Egypt in the work.

He does not see them as incompetent, not meeting His standards.

He does not say I’d rather do it myself but he assumes the position of Architect of the Tabernacle.

And as the Architect he brings into the process these rebellious people, these people who desire to return to Egypt, and gives them the responsibility of gathering all the materials.

And later He will give them the responsibility of taking those materials and fashioning the tabernacle according to the architect’s exact standards.

Being an engineer I have had much experience with architects.

Engineers at times think they are the big cheese but I must admit that when making plans for the construction of any building, the most important person in that planning is the Architect.

When I worked in the engineering field we hired architects even though our project had needs for the services of electrical, mechanical and civil engineers.

But the Architect hired the engineers for they are incidental to the project.

The Architect was the overall planner, determining the area needed, layout for that area, the interior furnishings, and what materials were to be used.

This describes perfectly the acts of God with reference to the tabernacle.

The Tabernacle was so important and so desperately needed by God’s people, that God Himself chose to be the architect of the Tabernacle.

Only God knew what kind of building he needed and wanted for the manifestation of His presence.

He knew what kind of building He needed to receive man’s worship, what kind of building He needed to teach people about Himself and His plan of redemption.

He had no intention of them worshipping the structure for the structure was only a teaching tool about Himself.

The writer of Hebrews reminds us of this when he speaks of Jesus Christ in:

Hebrews 3:3,  For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honour than the house.

And another in Psalm 27:4, reminding us of whom we are to worship, One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in his temple.

We are to behold the beauty of the Architect, first above any beauty of the building.

Certainly when we get to heaven we will be dazzled by what we see but we are not there because of the beauty of heaven but we are there because of the beauty of the Lord.

So the Architect makes a Bill of Material and calls Moses to it.

Moses is privileged to enter into the process for he was to speak to the children of Israel that they bring the Architect an offering but that offering was to come from every man that would give it willingly with his heart.

The word for "offering" has the idea of a present, a gift that is given sacrificially; the giving of a special gift, a valuable, costly gift.

As slaves in Egypt for nearly 400 years the Israelites had accumulated little.

But now they had enough to give offerings to build the Tabernacle.

For they had gotten their wealth from the Egyptians!

God had so stirred up the Egyptians they were willing to pay the Israelites to just get rid of them!

They paid them in gold and silver and raiment that would help the nation of Israel as they journeyed to the promised land of Canaan.

We read of this in Exodus 12:35,36,  And the children of Israel did according to the word of Moses; and they borrowed of the Egyptians jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment: ³⁶And the LORD gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they lent unto them such things as they required. And they spoiled the Egyptians.