Tabernacle – משכן – Mishkan

The central idea of the tabernacle is: Exodus 25:8: And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying: „And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.”

The tabernacle of Moses or MISHKAN מִשְׁכָּן, as it is called in Hebrew, is not just a structure used for the performing of religious tasks or a simple place of worship. It is a valued tool given to us by God Himself to show us how He wants to live with us. Each color used for materials, each animal skin, each building material, each spice and stone, each hook and every single embroidery as well as every one of the six objects found inside tells a story of a redemption plan for all of mankind and shows us more of how God wants to dwell among us. The tabernacle is extremely important: 50 chapters in the Bible talk about the tabernacle and four books have the tabernacle as main subject, meaning: If we want to interpret the meaning of those books, we need to understand the tabernacle. The books are: Exodus, Ezekiel, Hebrews and Revelation.

To fully understand the Mishkan and the concept of God dwelling with man, we need to use the Hebrew language, where every letter has ascribed to itself a sound, a pictorial and a numerical value. When a number was used in Hebrew, everyone immediately knew the numerical value and had the picture in their mind to go with it. When we look at the measurements, we’ll see that they are not chosen randomly, but rather tell us an extraordinary tale.

Description

Different materials were used to build the tabernacle. Each material represents a specific idea and has a specific meaning and the meaning remains the same throughout the whole Bible. Through the meanings of the materials we can again see how God wants to dwell among us.

The shape of the objects in the tabernacle also represent very specific meanings. Round has a meaning and square has a meaning and these meanings don’t change. They remain the same throughout the Bible.

Measurements

The measurement used to build the tabernacle is a cubit. A cubit is measured from the tip of a person’s fingers to his elbow. Each person’s cubit is different, and you can easily verify this by holding your cubit next to another person’s. Why would God use such a measurement for this extremely important dwelling place of His? The reason is quite simple and yet brings liberty and shows the importance of a personal relationship with our heavenly Father: God wants to dwell with you according to your cubit! That means that you will obey the commandments He gives you by doing them. The hand and forearm are a representation of your deeds. And it will be different than the way He dwells with another person. The cubit used for the tabernacle is approx. 40 – 42cm which we know because of the golden ratio used to build it and because of Hezekiah’s Tunnel in the City of David in Jerusalem. The tunnel is approx. 500m long, but the Bible tells us that it is 1200 cubits long. 500m /1200 = approx. 42cm
Further measurements used were SPAN (21cm) and PALM (10,5cm)

Measurement used:

• 1 cubit = 42 cm
• 1 span = 21 cm
• 1 palm = 10,5 cm

The tabernacle was built according to a specific ratio called the golden ratio φ. This is important to know, because our bodies are also made according to the golden ratio which is used when something is in perfect harmony. The golden ratio is found all over nature like in leaves and the rainbow. Because of the golden ratio we can calculate the measurement of the cubit used for the tabernacle. The Golden Ratio (also known as the Golden Section, Golden Mean, Divine Proportion or Greek letter Phi) exists when a line is divided into two parts and the longer part (a) divided by the smaller part (b) is equal to the sum of (a) + (b) divided by (a), which both equal 1.618…

Material

Moses didn’t build the tabernacle. He received the instruction to TELL THE PEOPLE to build it. It is the only structure in the Bible where we see that God instructs the people to bring contributions or gifts of different materials for the building of His dwelling. These gifts are called TERUMAH תְּרוּמָה in Hebrew.

Components

According to Hebrews 6:1-2 we have six parts to the foundation of our faith: “Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Messiah, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of (1) repentance from dead works, and of (2) faith toward God, (3) of the doctrine of baptisms, and of (4) laying on of hands, and of (5) resurrection of the dead, and of (6) eternal judgment.” These six are in a direct relationship to the six different objects or furniture pieces in the tabernacle.

1. Brazen altar is associated with the repentance from dead works;
2. The laver is associated with faith towards God;
3. The menorah is associated to the doctrine of the baptisms;
4. The table of shoven bread is associated to the laying on of hands;
5. The incense altar is associated to the resurrection of the dead and
6. The ark of the covenant is associated with eternal judgement.

Found in the Outer Court was the Brazen altar and Laver
Found in the Holy Place was the Menorah, Table of Showbread and the Incense Altar
Found in the Most Holy was the Ark of the Covenant

Applied Spiritual value to our lives

The tabernacle is a shadow of a heavenly tabernacle where Yeshua is the High Priest. “Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; A minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man. For every high priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices: wherefore it is of necessity that this man have somewhat also to offer. For if he were on earth, he should not be a priest, seeing that there are priests that offer gifts according to the law: Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount.” (Hebrews 8:1-5) “According to all that I shew thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it.” (Exodus 25:9) From the tabernacle built on earth by Moses, we can now learn and understand the heavenly tabernacle or, in other words, from the shadow, which Moses (and the people of Israel) pitched we can learn more about the reality, which no man pitched, but our covenant God Himself.