The Tabernacle:
The presence of God moved from Mount Sinai to the Tabernacle. This is where Yahweh would reside with His people now. So, commenced the building of the Tabernacle, as dictated by God. The Tabernacle intensifies Mt. Sinai as Moses was initially “not able to enter the tent of meet.” (Ex. 40:35). The Tabernacle completes Sinai too, as Mt. Sinai is the marriage, now the couple, Yahweh and the Israelites, must live together in their new relationship. The Tabernacle is the “principal bridgehead in the Old Testament to the doctrine of the Incarnation.” God once dwelt in an edifice, but later, in the person of Jesus Christ. This begins with the Tabernacle. “They shall make a sanctuary for me, that I may dwell in their midst.  This Dwelling and all its furnishings you shall make exactly according to the pattern that I will now show you.” (Ex. 25:8-9)  Moses is show by divine revelation what God’s sanctuary, or Tabernacle, should look like.  “You shall make an ark of acacia wood..” The building of the Ark of the Covenant.  It shall be wood covered in gold, symbolizing Christ.  Christ is earthly, human, made of wood, but covered in the divine, made of gold.  He is perfectly human and divine.  The Ark should have two cherubim on them, and “between the two cherubim on the ark of the commandments, I will tell you all the commands that I wish you to give the Israelites.”  (Ex. 25:22). The Mercy Seat of Yahweh, where God dwells in the Tabernacle in the midst of the Israelites.  The golden table for the Showbread.  Again, it is made of acacia wood and plated with pure gold, representing Christ’s combined humanity and divinity.  Yahweh commands showbread to be present before Him “always.”  The Lampstand or Menorah, made of pure gold.  The lampstand is shaped like a tree with branches.  Christ is the vine and we are the branches.  We can do nothing without Him.  He is the light of the world. This is the symbolic “Tree of Life.”  The Tabernacle itself is a type of the Garden of Eden.  The Tree of Life grows in the Garden of Eden.  The Tabernacle is made with “fine linen” representing the purity and righteousness of God.  The sheets shall have “violet, purple and scarlet yarn.”  Purple representing the color of royalty, a king.  Scarlet representing sacrifice, blood and atonement. The Tabernacle is covered in “goat hair” and “ram’s skin dyed red.”  Christ is the most humble, and simplest of persons.  The Holy Tabernacle of God is covered in simple goat hair, just as the divinity of Christ lay hidden in a frail human form. Christ is also the sacrificial ram of God whose blood is spilled in atonement of our sins, thus the red dye. The Tabernacle walls are also made of acacia wood and plated with gold.  Christ, in His “golden” purity and divinity, is crucified on the wood of the Cross. Again, the pattern of wood overlaid with gold.  The Veil.  It too shall be made of “woven violet, purple, and scarlet yarn, and of fine linen twined, with cherubim embroidered on it.” The same colors for kingly royalty, sacrifice and atonement, and righteousness and purity. It separates the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies with the Ark.  Also, the construction of the Altar of Holocausts, made with bronze (which is generally used for sacrificial atonement offerings) and the Court of the Dwelling. Oil for the lamp is also made of “crushed olives.”  Jesus’ spirit was crushed on the Mount of Olives on the night of His betrayal and arrest. So too, our pride and egos must be crushed by the stone of Christ, so we will become the purest of oils burning for the love of Christ.