Lesson 16 – His worship-picture in the Tabernacle
Read Hebrews 9 - www.bible.com/bible/59/heb.9.esv

In Chapter 9, we begin by again looking at the Tabernacle, the picture of Jesus God made for us as the only center of worship ever designed completely by God. In this lesson we will look at the Tabernacle. In the next lesson we will talk about how this is one of the most complete pictures God ever painted of Jesus before Jesus was born as a human.

God designed the Tabernacle with an outer courtyard that had only one entrance, a gate on the east side. The walls of this courtyard were made of white linen curtains hung on brass pillars that were set into silver bases on the sand. The doorway-curtain was embroidered with purple, scarlet, and blue. The whole was held together with ropes and pins.

Just inside the doorway stood an altar built of wood and overlaid entirely with brass. It was about 7.5 feet square and 4.5 feet high (2.3 meters square by 1.4 meters tall). Horns with rings, all of brass, were placed at the four corners so poles could be put through the rings to carry it.


Next was a laver, something like a shallow plate on a pedestal, not far from the doorway into the Tabernacle building. The inside of the curved top, designed to hold water for washing hands and feet, was made of mirrors.

The Tabernacle building was built to have 2 rooms – the first took up about two thirds of the building and the second room the rest. Again, there was only one way into the building. The walls and roof were also made of curtains hung on pillars, but these walls were made of three layers of materials: the outer layer was porpoise skin, then a layer of woven goat’s hair, and finally a layer of white linen embroidered with strands of pure gold, and threads of purple, red, and edged with blue. The designs embroidered were to be cherubim.

Three pieces of furniture were present in this first room: a table, a lamp, and an incense altar. The table, built of wood and overlaid entirely with beaten gold, was about 3 feet long (1 meter) and 1.5 feet wide and high (half meter). This stands on the right side as the priest enters.

On the left side is a candlestick called a menorah. It has 7 “lights” on it, and the whole piece is made out of a single piece of solid gold.

The altar of incense stands at the end, opposite the door. It is also made of wood and overlaid entirely with gold. It’s about 3 feet high (1 meter) and 18 inches square (half meter).

Separating the two rooms is a curtain made of linen dyed blue and purple and red, and embroidered with cherubim in gold thread.

The only piece of furniture in the second room is the Ark of the Covenant and the lid, called the Mercy Seat. The Ark is built of wood overlaid with gold, but the Mercy Seat is solid gold.

 We look at how these are pictures of Jesus in the next lesson.