6.2 From Pillars to Skins
© 2016 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
The most important parts of the Tabernacle for our knowledge of the Covenant are the seven pieces of furniture, along with an understanding of the three main spaces in their application to the three great experiences with God in the Christian life, and more specifically, the passages into those three experiences, the Gate, the Door, and the Veil.
Nonetheless, there are also the pillars and bases, the cloth hangings, the coverings of various types of skins or fiber, the boards and their sockets, and the rods and cords tying everything together as well. The garments and functions of the priests are also an essential part of the Tabernacle layout, though we will not include them in this present study.
Finding Christ and Covenant. In this lesson, we will cover the lesser physical parts of the Tabernacle and the materials of which they were made. In the next session, we will compare the materials of which the seven pieces of furniture were made as well as the different elements placed upon them and the different essences coming from them.
I am not one to seek out all the nuances of “truth” found in every tiny element or distinction in the metaphors of the Old Testament. I seek for one thing only, to know this Christ who lives in my heart. In this course, we seek to know Him as Covenant. Thus it is for Covenant alone that we are searching. Yet the entire context of the Ark does shape our understanding.
Construction Actualities. As a building designer and a builder from blueprints, I see many questions raised by the specific instructions found in Exodus 26 and 27 regarding the layout of both court and Tabernacle, questions related to specific construction actualities. Those questions cannot be answered by centuries of debate, but only by onsite decisions. The point is that our purposes require drawing only from what Moses wrote, and not from any subsequent human attempt to “make the numbers work.”
First, the outer court is set off from the camp of Israel by a wall of linen cloth five cubits high, or about 7½ feet. This wall of linen cloth is held up by bronze pillars set in bases of silver and linked together with a strong band of silver, we must assume woven, and silver cords tying the pillars to the ground.
Three Metals. There are three metals used throughout the Tabernacle and its court, bronze, silver, and gold. Bronze is copper with about 12% tin added to harden it plus a few other minor ingredients. These three metals represent specifically: bronze – judgment, silver – Christ as redemption, and gold – the Person of God. I was always taught that gold is the “nature” of God, but God’s nature never shows up without God Himself in Person. Using the term “nature” is a convenient way to keep God Himself at arm’s length, a God NOT all here now.
Notice that in the outer court, everything is mostly bronze, including the Altar and Laver. Yet this bronze is tied together with and anchored by silver, that is, redemption.
Judgment and Righteousness. From the point of view of the outer court, gold is seen only in the strong front of the Tabernacle. Inside the Tabernacle itself, however, there is no brass, only gold set in silver bases. Thus we see that in the outer court judgment is everywhere, judgment capped with redemption. The gold of God at the entrance of full immersion into the Holy Spirit, however, beckons all believers – in the outer court of their natural minds trying to figure out God – into the experience of God Himself. The white linen of the outer wall speaks of the righteousness of Christ clothing the saints. Yes, in the outer court, sin and sinfulness are dealt with by judgment and redemption, and such believers are clothed with righteousness as much as they are willing to believe.
The Same Entrance. But look at the picture of the outer court on pages 16-19 in the Rose Guide, note the Door facing the Gate. These two, according to Exodus 26 and 27, are the same material and colors. In God’s order for Christians in our entrance into the knowledge of God, God made it apparent that the entrance into Jesus as Redeemer is clearly followed by the same entrance into Jesus as Holy Spirit Baptizer. Why do so many Christians have so little interest in knowing God? This is a puzzle I have never comprehended.
When we, as a fully successful Christian Church, arrive with God back into the outer court, we will see how all this judgment is found in the Covenant – giving an account for every deed done while in the body.
Giving an Account. Giving an account of one’s every deed from the outer court marks the five foolish virgins of Jesus’ parable.
Here is the judgment. For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again (1 Corinthians 5:14-15). And again. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this present age (1 John 4:17).
Is the deed not I, but Christ? Those who remain in the outer court of their own intellectual knowledge about God retain their own story of self and their own false judgment.
Either Christ or Self. We are the ones who give an account, not God. The judgment is not God declaring something against us, but you and me declaring either Christ or self. Paul said that if we judge ourselves, we are not judged with the world. In other words, if we call forth Christ as all that we are, acknowledging the good things of Christ inside of us, we no longer judge ourselves by false outward appearance. We give an account every day.
Back to pillars and skins. Look at the picture again on pages 16-19 in the Rose Guide. Notice the significant DIFFERENCE between the outer court and the Tabernacle itself. What is that striking difference?
Covering. If you move the plastic page to the left, you see the Tabernacle interior opened up to view. The great difference between the Tabernacle and the outer court is COVERING. The Tabernacle is fully covered over by four layers of different types of material. The outer court has no covering at all.
Before setting forth what that covering might be in the Covenant, let’s go through the specifications in Exodus 26. God prescribed four separate coverings for the Tabernacle, first linen, then goat hair, then ram skin, then badger skin over all. You can see a layout of the coverings by flipping through the plastic pages on pages 38-49 of the Rose Guide. However, they present the linen incorrectly, I think.
The Ceiling. The first inner covering was made of linen of the finest quality. This white linen embroidered with colored threads depicting cherubim, individual tapestries coupled together with gold loops, would then be the visible ceiling inside both Holy Place and Holy of Holies. Cherubim are on the ceiling of both places, on the Veil between, and as part of the Mercy Seat. We will wait until the chapter on the Mercy Seat to discover what these Cherubim are doing in the Covenant. These linen curtains are long enough to span across the top of the Tabernacle and then down almost to the ground. However, the remaining layers went farther, down to the ground.
A Goat’s Hair Covering. The goat’s hair curtain is also specified in a similar way as the linen curtain. However, there is one more of these with half a curtain width doubled over itself in front, thus hanging down about 18 inches over the top of the Door into the Holy Place. In the back of the Tabernacle, the goat skin curtain would overhang about 36 inches. That doubled goat skin speaks of the two goats of the Day of Atonement, one dead and one living, set for our knowledge in the entrance into the full experience of the Holy Spirit.
The goat skin curtain was then covered over with ram skins dyed red. The final covering was of “badger” skins, though no one really knows what the Hebrew word actually means. That final covering was waterproof and covered everything. There are no specifications given for those two outer coverings.
What Are the Coverings? Why four coverings? And what is the meaning of each of those four coverings for the Covenant? All four of those coverings rested over the Mercy Seat as well as everything in the Holy Place.
Most Christians, including in the move of God of which I was once a part, consider those coverings to be a hierarchy of ministry over every believer in each local church, whether that hierarchy be Pope, bishops, and priests, or apostles, prophets, and elders, or superintendent, board, and pastors.
I fully concur that everything that is Christ is found in His Body, given differently to each member according to the election of God. But seeing God through Christ and not the serpent requires a different understanding of “covering.”
The Boards. Yet there is no covering over the outer court. Rise and measure the temple of God, the altar, and those who worship there. But leave out the court which is outside the temple, and do not measure it (Revelation 11:1-2).
Let’s go on, now, to the structure of the Tabernacle walls. The Tabernacle walls are made up of large wooden boards covered with gold. These boards are acacia wood, 27 inches wide and 15 feet long. That means they would have to be made of many small pieces of wood tenoned together. Then these planks were covered with a thin layer of pure gold.
In all the layout of the Tabernacle, wood depicts our humanity and gold depicts God in Person. We will look more closely at acacia wood in the session on the Ark of the Covenant.
The Bars. The large boards of the Tabernacle are seated each in two large “sockets” of silver, bases that help to hold them upright. Two tenons proceeding down from each board fit into the two silver sockets or “feet.” Then, the artisans made five bars, also of acacia wood covered with gold. These five bars spanned the entire three sides of the upright gold-covered boards, tying everything together. You can see those bars fitting through rings on each board on page 49 of the Rose Guide. Except they show only four, and they add a top header of wood along with beams spanning across the top of the Tabernacle, things not found in Moses’ description.
One Becomes Many. Finally, we have the Door of the front of the Tabernacle and the Veil dividing the Holy Place from the Holiest. The Door is hung across five pillars, and the Veil is hung across four. All nine of these pillars are acacia wood covered with an overlay of gold.
This construction is strikingly different from the pillars of the outer court. Those are solid bronze. In fact the only wood in the outer court is found in the Altar of Sacrifice, acacia wood overlaid with bronze and in the burning of the fire on that Altar. Thus we see that the Sacrifice for sins was Jesus alone, yet we in Him. On the other hand, the Tabernacle is many boards and pillars together, Christ as us joined together.
All Three the Same. The Veil is described by Moses first, a veil woven of blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and fine woven linen. It shall be woven with an artistic design of cherubim (Exodus 26:31). This veil is hung from gold hooks at the top of the four pillars.
Then the Door of the Tabernacle consists of a “screen” hanging from five pillars. These gold-covered pillars are set in bronze sockets, not silver. Those bronze sockets are visible to those in the outer court, yet they are the last appearance of judgment. Everything else of the Tabernacle boards and pillars rests only upon silver, upon the completed redemption of Christ. This screen over the Door is made the same as the screen over the Gate into the outer court. The Veil also is of the same.
Passing Under. This is interesting. The Gate, Door, and Veil screens are made of the exact same cloth in materials, design, and appearance. They are the same.
The Gate screen is hung from four pillars of solid bronze, set in bronze, but topped and held by silver. The Door screen is hung from five pillars of acacia wood overlaid with gold, set in bronze, but capped by gold. The Veil screen is hung from four pillars of acacia wood overlaid with gold, set in silver and capped by gold.
In all three, the screen is the same. And to pass through each of the three, each individual person passing through must bend down, pick up the cloth, and go through stooped over, sliding the screen over his or her back.
Our Path Forever. Now, if that isn’t Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, I don’t know what is! Each passage into each next experience in God happens only by complete surrender to the Lord Jesus Christ, a bending over, a placing of Him upon ourselves, and then, in that fully yielded position, we step through into the next brand new level of knowing God. And the goat skin flung over the back of the Tabernacle tells us that we will walk through Christ into ever further knowing of Father forever.
And all of this is the context of the Covenant, a Path we will walk together with God from the Holy of Holies on out.