Exodus 26

New Covenant worshipers of God are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses. See Hebrews 12:1. The tabernacle, the movable house of God that the Lord told Moses to build, once made the invisible world of heavenly witnesses visible, in shadows, to those who worshiped the Lord. The tent of God had angels, cherubim, woven into the fabric of the curtains that formed the tent. God showed Moses what it should look like and then told Him to make it according to that pattern.

In Hebrews 12, the great cloud of witnesses are not only angelic observers. The Old Testament worshipers of Hebrews 11 are seeing the church today, together with the New Testament children of the Lord who have more recently entered His heavenly household. They are witnesses on high from a place where clouds are not a sign of confusion or deception, but of the divine presence. God and His heavenly host see. They are not deceived when people are deceiving others and even themselves. Because we are seen by this heavenly cloud, we are told to “lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”

The tent of the assembly of God's people on earth, even during the Old Testament days, was a place of holiness. It was not a tent of tolerating or encouraging sin by sophisticated talk of supposed freedoms that defile the body of Christ. Especially now that Christ, who is our life, has appeared, we should be moving from glory to glory through the Word and Spirit of God. We should be perfecting holiness in the fear of God. See 2 Corinthians 7:1.

The curtains that formed the covering of the framed structure of the assembly of heaven on earth were twenty-eight cubits long. They were large enough to go up one wall of the frame of the tabernacle, over the top, and down the other side of the frame. The width of each curtain was only four cubits, but these curtains were connected with each other in two groups of five curtains each, connecting curtain to curtain with clasps of gold.

On top of these curtains was a second set of coverings, made out of goats' hair. This set had an extra curtain beyond the number of the linen curtains underneath. That extra curtain was doubled over at the front of the tent. Clasps of bronze were to be made that would be put into the loops of gold, making the tent into a single whole. There would be an extra part of the tent curtains, a half curtain, hanging over the back of the tabernacle, and extra length that would hang over the sides. All of this was to be covered by another covering of rams' skins and then a final covering of goatskins on top.

This moveable tent house of God needed frames on which the curtains could be hung up, first on one wall, then over the top, and continuing down the other wall. These structural frames of the tabernacle would be made of acacia wood. The walls would be fifteen feet high. Each section of the frame would be fit together with the next, with special bases to provide stability for the frames. In addition there would be bars going along the tabernacle walls horizontally making all the frames into a sturdy whole. These bars would be thread through rings in the panels. Whatever might be a challenge for us to imagine about this structure is a result of our not having seen what Moses saw on the top of the mountain. The Lord said to Moses, “You shall erect the tabernacle according to the plan for it that you were shown on the mountain.”

The curtains and frames of the tabernacles spoken of so far provided the structure of this special place of Old Covenant worship. But there was one interior curtain that was of great significance. This curtain was called the veil, and it separated the tabernacle into two spaces, the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place.

As with the outer curtains, cherubim were woven into the veil. This heavenly curtain was a dividing wall that could not be easily breached. God was to be especially present in the Most Holy Place. In that cubic area, 15 feet high, 15 feet wide, and 15 feet long, Moses was to place the mercy seat on top of the ark of the covenant. On the other side of the veil, in the Holy Place, Moses would place the lampstand and the table for the holy bread. This part of the tabernacle was to be twice as large as the Most Holy Place, 15 by 15 by 30 feet long.

The final special curtain was the screen at the entrance of the tabernacles. This screen was at the gateway to the Lord's movable house. This tent was to be made according to the Lord's instruction. It was a tent for God. But when God came to dwell with us as our Redeemer, he took up a different tent, the tent of a human body, as his residence.

The human body, like the Old Testament tabernacle, was to be an impressive though simple setting for God to take up His residence. But this Old Testament tent, with its layers of curtains, and a single golden lampstand with seven lamps would be a place of shadows, as the Old Covenant people eagerly waited for the lights to be turned on. Now Christ has come, and His Holy Spirit dwells within His church. With the death of Jesus, who tented with us, the Old Testament veil has been torn in two, and we have been granted bold access to God. The day of shadows is over. The Light of the World has come.