The Tabernacle, The Curtains Of The Tabernacle, Exodus 26:1-6, Part 2 - Lesson 38

Today we continue our lessons concerning the coverings that God specified to Moses for His dwelling place in the wilderness.

Remember there were to be four coverings:

the first covering, closest to the inside of the Holy Places was to be of fine twined linen embroidered with cherubim’s,

the next was to be a covering of woven goat’s hair,

covered by a third covering of ram’s skins dyed red,

with the final covering, a covering of badger’s skins, which was the covering exposed to the elements and seen from the outside

Notice how detailed God is in His instructions to Moses as to the first covering as given in:

Exodus 26:1-6,  Moreover thou shalt make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twined linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet: with cherubims of cunning work shalt thou make them. The length of one curtain shall be eight and twenty cubits, and the breadth of one curtain four cubits: and every one of the curtains shall have one measure. The five curtains shall be coupled together one to another; and other five curtains shall be coupled one to another. And thou shalt make loops of blue upon the edge of the one curtain from the selvedge in the coupling; and likewise shalt thou make in the uttermost edge of another curtain, in the coupling of the second. Fifty loops shalt thou make in the one curtain, and fifty loops shalt thou make in the edge of the curtain that is in the coupling of the second; that the loops may take hold one of another. And thou shalt make fifty taches (a knob or belaying pin, like a button) of gold, and couple the curtains together with the taches: and it shall be one tabernacle.

So Moses, the law giver, exemplified in the giving of the ten commandments, is given orders to make ten curtains.

Moses came down from the mount with two tablets upon which were ten commandments with five commandments one each tablet.

Five commandments on one tablet speak of man’s relationship with God while the five commandments on the second tablet speak of man’s relationship to others.

So here he is instructed to make ten curtains but the ten curtains are to be so made as to be five curtains together and another five curtains together joined by loops and taches almost resembling a hinge.

So it is obvious that God intended for the ten curtains, five and five to be seen as a picture of the law.

And in picturing them as the law we also see them in the position of a covering of the Holy places.

I believe then that these curtains speak to us of our Lord Jesus Christ as the fulfillment of the law for He is our covering.

For without Him we would be totally exposed to the consequences of breaking God’s law in all points for we are without excuse.

We know that Jesus Christ is that singular man, that one and only Man who ever kept the Law and the Commandments of God entirely.

The entire Law, the Moral, the Civil the Ceremonial Law were fulfilled in Him and Him alone.

He is the only one who can say that which is recorded in:

Psalm 40:7-8,  Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.

And as sons of God in Jesus name, we too will be conformed to Christ in this way for the law will indeed be written upon the tables of our heart.

Now the ten curtains were to be made of fine twined (which means twisted) linen.

Clean, fine, white linen is one of the clearest symbols in Scripture, for fine linen is always a symbol of righteousness.

It speaks first of the righteousness of Christ as the Son by whom all other sons are to be conformed, and second, it points to the righteousness of the saints, called saints not by declaration of the church for they are only composed of those who are in Christ.

The church does not have the right to declare a person a saint, for all believers are declared saints by God.

The saints are only righteous by being in One who is righteous, the Man Christ Jesus.

This is not self-righteousness for we are clearly and boldly told in Isaiah, with absolutely no care for political correctness, that all self righteousness is as filthy rags.

Isaiah 64:6,  But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness is as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

That is the contrast, any righteousness we claim, to God, is as filthy rags but Christ’s righteousness is as clean, white, fine linen and therefore we can only have righteousness by faith in one who is righteous.

When I think about this contrast it reminds me of the passage in Matthew about the woman who had an issue of blood for 12 years.

Matthew 9:20,  And, behold, a woman, which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind him, and touched the hem of his garment: ²¹For she said within herself, If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole.

That is the picture of sinners whose righteousness is as filthy rags and whose only hope is to touch the garment of Christ, to cling to the only One who is righteous, totally shedding any self righteousness that they may have had.

Now fine linen is the clothing and garment of the PRIESTS.

As we come in faith to the Lord we are ordained to be KINGS AND PRIESTS before God and will wear the same garments.

This is not something we put on, on the basis of our own merit!

Revelation 19:7-8,  Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.

For to her was granted the she should be arrayed in fine linen, for she wore the righteousness of the groom of the marriage.

On the earth brides take great pride in choosing the wedding dress but when the marriage of the Lamb is come the Lamb chooses the garment for the bride and it can only be fine linen, clean and white.

God not only specifies it be fine twined linen but He also specifies it’s colors.

Exodus 26:1-6,  Moreover thou shalt make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twined linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet:

As we have said in previous lessons, BLUE is the color of HEAVEN.

It speaks to us of the Lord Jesus Christ as the SECOND ADAM, the LORD FROM HEAVEN:

1 Corinthians 15:47,  The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.

It is interesting that the Children of Israel were to have a RIBBON OF BLUE upon the border of their garment as a constant reminder of the Heavenly Commandments and the fact that their citizenship was not an earthly one. (Numbers 15:32-41).

PURPLE is the color of royalty and kingship.

Jesus Christ is not only the Second Adam; He is the KING of KINGS and Lord of LORDS.

Blending blue and scarlet produces purple.

In Christ there is a blending of the Human and Divine natures in ONE PERSON.

He is both the Son of God and the Son of Man (Luke 1:30-33 and Revelation 19:1-6).

This qualifies Him to be our MEDIATOR before God for none other is qualified to do that!

SCARLET is the color of Blood and speaks to us of sacrifice and humanity.

All through the Old Testament the Israelites were reminded of atonement on the basis of the shedding of blood.

But the shedding of animal blood was not sufficient to satisfy the Father and only pointed to the blood of Christ.

All of their thousands and thousands of offerings pointed to the coming of the LAMB OF GOD for this is the one and only sacrifice for sin.

For the Father has ordained that only His blood has the power of ATONEMENT!

Now the four colors that we see prescribed for the ten curtains are no accidental choice.

In fact the very order of these colors is not even arbitrary.

This same order for these same colors is repeated about 24 times in the book of Exodus.

These four colors are typical of the four Gospels that present Jesus Christ as the TRUE TABERNACLE.

In relation to the gospels we see:

WHITE portrayed in the Gospel of Luke where Jesus is the Sinless Man, in contrast to the first Adam, white symbolizing righteousness.

BLUE portrayed in the Gospel of John where Jesus is the Son of God, The Heavenly Man.

PURPLE portrayed in the Gospel of Matthew where Jesus is the Son of David, The Royal Man, the KING.

SCARLET portrayed in the Gospel of Mark where Jesus is Son of Man, the Servant Man who gave himself.

Now the fine twined linen was to be adorned with cunning work.

Exodus 26:1-6, Moreover thou shalt make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twined linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet: with cherubims of cunning work shalt thou make them.

This word cunning means to plait or interpenetrate which means to weave or contrive into the linen, forms of cherubims.

This linen with the inwrought Cherubim would then comprise the ceiling for the Sanctuary and perhaps even the walls.

From the description of the Mercy Seat, these Cherubim had wings.

They would stretch forth their wings above the Sanctuary under which the Priest ministered.

The Priest would in effect be walking, ministering, and enjoying fellowship under the shadow of the wings of the Cherubim.

It was a beautiful type and picture of us as New Covenant believer priests ministering "under the shadow of the Almighty."

Psalm 91:1-4,  He that dwells in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. [2] I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust. [3] Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence. [4] He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.

Now as to the details of the linen curtains God is careful to command in an exacting way.

Exodus 26:2-6, The length of one curtain shall be eight and twenty cubits, and the breadth of one curtain four cubits: and every one of the curtains shall have one measure. The five curtains shall be coupled together one to another; and other five curtains shall be coupled one to another. And thou shalt make loops of blue upon the edge of the one curtain from the selvedge in the coupling; and likewise shalt thou make in the uttermost edge of another curtain, in the coupling of the second. Fifty loops shalt thou make in the one curtain, and fifty loops shalt thou make in the edge of the curtain that is in the coupling of the second; that the loops may take hold one of another. And thou shalt make fifty taches of gold, and couple the curtains together with the taches: and it shall be one tabernacle.

There were TEN CURTAINS, which were arranged in two groups of FIVE.

These two sets of FIVE CURTAINS were joined together by 50 clasps (taches) of gold and 50 loops of BLUE.

When all was joined together it formed and covered ONE TABERNACLE.

Each of these 10 curtains was 28 cubits in length and 4 cubits in breadth.

When these were all joined together as we have just described, they formed a COVERING of 28 cubits wide and 40 (4 x 10) cubits long.

This was placed over the framework of upright boards.

The Board Structure was 10 cubits wide by 30 cubits long by 10 cubits high.

When the Curtains were placed over the framework there was 30 cubits of the 40 cubit length above the holy places with the remaining 10 cubits hanging over the west or back wall of the Most Holy place.

In this configuration the joining of the five curtains to five curtains by loops and taches would be over the inner veil.

So five of the curtains would be over the Most Holy Place with the other five over the Holy Place.

Remember the first five commandments were of man’s relationship with God while the second five were mans relationships with man.

Since the North side (10 cubits) and South side (10 cubits) and the ceiling (10 cubits across) totaled 30 cubits, we see that the Curtains which were 28 cubits long were suspended one cubit above the ground on either side of the Framework.

With the curtains so arranged, they would cover the full length of the Framework with an overhang on the West end of 10 cubits.

The full length of the joined Curtains was 40 cubits while the length of the Tabernacle was 30 cubits.

Since there was a door for the EAST end of the Tabernacle, the curtains covered the 10 cubits of the west wall as well.

In the very couplings used in these ten curtains there are three important symbols:

The loops were to be of BLUE. Blue speaks of the Lord Jesus FROM HEAVEN. It always attests to Deity.

The taches were made of GOLD. Gold is typical of the DIVINE NATURE or Jesus as the DIVINE MAN.

There were to be 50 loops and 50 taches. This spoke in type of the 50th Year or Jubilee Year of Israel and the Feast of Pentecost, which was celebrated FIFTY days after Calvary/Passover. The number 50 is therefore significant of FREEDOM, LIBERTY, PENTECOST and JUBILEE. There are FIFTY names and titles (taches) of JESUS CHRIST in scripture.