After the tabernacle itself built, the craftsmen now work on the special priest suits for Aaron and his sons. They’re covered in gold and precious stones. They have obsidian tablets, cloth of gold-spun thread, gemstones set in gold representing the twelve tribes and then everything is held together with ropes made of pure gold. These must have weighed a hundred pounds each when they had their full suits on.
Moses inspects each piece and when he says it’s all in accordance with God’s instructions, it’s all assembled and placed in the tabernacle so Aaron and his sons could get to work sprinkling oil on everything.
One thing that is repeated several times is that everything was built the way God said to build it. Honestly, today, with some of the amazing buildings we see around the world, the tabernacle doesn’t sound that impressive to me. I sure it was a big deal then, with all that gold and silver and acacia wood, but it’s still just a tent filled with gaudy iconography. The important part clearly isn’t the building itself though, but the fact that the Israelites were following directions. The statement isn’t what an impressive tent they can build, but how obedient they can be. And that’s something that the Ancient Israelites are good at when it comes to God at least. They may be unfaithful and wicked and kind of complainers sometimes, but God has handed down these kind of complicated instructions a couple times now and the Israelites always do a good job of following them.
I guess that must count for something because God descends down into the tabernacle in the form of a cloud and the area is so filled with His mojo that Moses couldn’t even go inside the tent. The cloud stayed with them on Earth, glowing at night so it could always be seen, and whenever it lifted they would follow it to the next patch of desert along their route.
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