YAHWEH's COVENANT ON SINAI
Furnishing The Tabernacle Of YAHWEH
The Mosaic Law: the liturgical code; provided for the purposes of worship
‘Build ME a sanctuary so that I may dwell among them’ [the sons of Yacob]. The people whom Mosheh had led out of Egypt for centuries past had been wandering shepherds. Consequently, the tabernacle that they were to put up to the honour of their ABBA, the furnishings to be provided for the purposes of worship, by definition had all to be of the kind that could be dismantled or, at least, easily transportable. The tabernacle had the appearance of a movable camp, a sort of cloth village, with light furnishings -a wooden ark for carrying the two stones on which the Law was engraved, a very small table, easily movable altars, hangings that could be rolled up -all of it of a kind that could follow the caravan as it moved slowly from place to place.
It was many years after the journey in the wilderness before even the earliest of the descriptions of the events of Mosheh’ time was written down. By then Solomon had built the Temple in Jerusalem. Parts of the description of the tabernacle set up by the Hebrew people in the wilderness belong to a much later period even than that of Solomon. There can be no doubt that the story tellers who told and retold the epic, and the scribes who wrote it down and edited it, expanded the early traditions with descriptions of the Tabernacle. It is impossible to say which of the details in the pages which follow belong to the time of Mosheh himself, and which of them arose as the worship of YAHWEH grew more and more elaborate during the time of the monarchy and of the years after the exile in Babylon. What, then, is the point of all this detailed description? A most important one: it is a vivid symbol of the enduring influence of the wilderness period and of the Covenant. No matter how elaborate the worship of YAHWEH became, nor how it was adapted to the changing needs of successive generations, the truth revealed through Mosheh remained at the centre of it. The ABBA whom they worshipped was YAHWEH WHO had chosen them and WHO had demonstrated HIS power by rescuing them from slavery in Egypt. It is this, rather than any attempt to accept the details as literal descriptions of the wilderness sanctuary, which we must bear in mind as we read the accounts.
YAHWEH spoke to Mosheh and said, ‘Tell the sons of Yisrael to set aside a contribution for ME; you shall accept this contribution from every man whose heart prompts him to give it. You shall accept from them the following contributions: gold, silver and bronze; purple stuffs, of violet shade and red, crimson stuffs, fine linen, goats’ hair; rams’ skins dyed red, fine leather, acacia wood; oil for the lamps, spices for the chrism and for the fragrant incense; onyx stones and gems to be set in ephod and pectoral. Build me a tabernacle so that I may dwell among them’ (Shemoth 25:1-8).
The Tabernacle, Dwelling, Of YAHWEH in the wilderness
This was how the tabernacle, the Dwelling of YAHWEH, was to be set up in the wilderness;
THE DWELLING
1. The Set Apart enclosure or court: Width 100 cubits (150 feet); length 50 cubits (75 feet).
2. The Tabernacle (or tent).
(a) the Qadash place
(b) the altar of incense (1 cubit –1-1/2 feet -square)
(c) the seven-branched candlestick
(d) table for the loaves of offering (with 12 loaves)
(e) veil separating the Qadash place from the Qadash of the most qadash
(f) the Qadash of the most qadash
(g) the ark of the Covenant (inside the tables of the Law; a vessel containing a measure of manna).
3. the altar of holocaust
4. the bronze basin.
ALTAR OF HOLOCAUST
The altar of holocaust (Shemoth 27:1-8) stood almost at the centre of the court and was five cubits square; it was made of acacia wood and plated with bronze. (The length of the cubit varied at different periods, here the royal cubit of eighteen inches has been adopted.) On this altar a sacrifice was offered in the morning and the evening (Shemoth 27). At the four corners it was adorned with ‘horns’, symbolizing the power of YAHWEH. The sacrificing priest after having himself killed the victim sprinkled the horns of the altar with blood. Then the flesh was burned in honour of YAHWEH. To carry this massive altar from one halting-place to another on each corner bronze rings were fixed through which were passed shafts of acacia wood plated with bronze.
The basin (Shemoth (Exodus) 30:17-21). Standing further towards the front and to the left was a bronze basin on a stand filled with water. Here Aaron (who during the last period of the sojourn at Sinai received from Mosheh consecration as a kohen) before every set apart act “washed his hands and feet".
ALTAR OF HOLOCAUST
(attempted reconstruction)
‘You are to make an altar out of acacia wood, a square five cubits long and five cubits wide, its height to be three cubits. At its four corners you are to put horns, the horns to be of one piece with it. plating it with bronze. ...You are to make the altar hollow, of boards’ (Shemoth 27:1-2, 8).
The Tabernacle (tabernaculum, tent) was the movable tent intended to harbour the ark of the Covenant. Mosheh called it the Tent of Meeting; it was there that he went to receive YAHWEH’s pronouncements.
ARK OF THE COVENANT
Inside, at a point about two-thirds of the way along the Tabernacle hung a veil of purple stuffs, violet shade and red, of crimson stuffs, and of fine twined linen. YAHWEH ordered that it was to be ‘finely embroidered with cherubs’ (Shemoth 26:31). Thus this curtain divided the Tabernacle into two unequal parts: on the entrance side, with the Qadash place; behind the veil was the Qadash of the most qadash in which stood the ark in silence and darkness.
Thus the ark, over which YAHWEH, the invisible ABBA, was supposed to stand, had its place in the most secret part of the Tabernacle.
The ark was in the form of a chest, rather like an Egyptian naos in which in solemn procession the kohen of the Nile valley carried one of their numerous deities; it was made of acacia, the only workable wood to be found in the peninsula. Its dimensions were as follows: length, two and a half cubits (three feet nine inches); width, one and a half cubits (two feet three inches) and the height also one and a half cubits. It was plated with pure gold inside and out and a gold moulding formed the decoration rail round it. On each side at the corners were gold rings, four in all through which shafts of acacia wood, covered with gold leaf, were passed. These two shafts always remained in place, even when the ark was standing behind the veil. On the top of the ark of YAHWEH was the throne of mercy of pure gold. Two golden cherubs, in bas-relief, were attached to either end of the throne of mercy. In any case the two figures were to face each other with their wings spread upwards so that they overshadow the throne of mercy…. their faces turned towards the throne of mercy.
In short, the throne of mercy can be regarded as the throne of the invisible ABBA. YAHWEH said to Mosheh, ‘There I shall come to meet you; there, from above the throne of mercy, from between the two cherubs that are on the ark of the Testimony, I shall give you all MY commands for the sons of Yisrael’ (Shemoth 25:22).
Later on we shall find YAHWEH entrusting his faithful servant Mosheh with the two stone tablets on which were engraved the articles of the Law. These tablets were placed inside the ark.
Also in the ark, beside the two tablets with the ‘ten words’ of the Law was a receptacle containing a full omer of manna (Shemoth 16:34), that is, very nearly a gallon of it; it was fitting for Yisrael to keep the memory of the miraculous food which fed them in the wilderness.
ARK OF THE COVENANT
(attempted reconstruction)
‘You are to make ME an ark of acacia wood, two and a half cubits long, one and a half cubits wide, one and a half cubits high. You are to plate it. inside and out with pure gold, and decorate it all round with a gold moulding. You will cast four gold rings for the ark and fix them to its four supports: two rings on one side and two rings on the other. You will also make shafts of acacia wood plated with gold and pass the shafts through the rings on the sides of the ark, to carry the ark by these. The shafts must remain in the rings of the ark and not be withdrawn. ...
‘Further, you are to make a throne of mercy, of pure gold, two and a half cubits long, and one and a half cubits wide. For the two ends of this throne of mercy you are to make two golden cherubs; you are to make them of beaten gold. Make the first cherub for one end and the second for the other, and fasten them to the two ends of the throne of mercy so that they make one piece with it. The cherubs are to have their wings spread upwards so that they overshadow the throne of mercy. ... Inside the ark you must place the Testimony that I shall give you’ (Shemoth 25:10-21).
THE TABLE FOR THE OFFERTORY BREAD
The following details are also relevant here.
In front of the ark of the Covenant, but on the other side of the veil (that is, in the Qadash place and not in the Qadash of the most qadash) stood the table for the offertory bread; it was made of acacia wood and plated with pure gold. It was a piece of liturgical furniture but quite small (length, two cubits; width one cubit, that is, three feet by one and a half) on which were placed the twelve loaves of offering; these were changed every week; they symbolized the presence of the twelve tribes in constant prayer before YAHWEH.
THE TABLE FOR THE OFFERTORY BREAD
(attempted reconstruction)
‘You are to make a table of acacia wood, two cubits long, one cubit wide, and one and a half cubits high. You are to plate it with pure gold, and decorate it all round with a gold moulding. You are to fit it with struts, one hand’s breadth wide, and decorate these with a gold moulding. You are to make for it four gold rings and fix these at the four corners where the four legs are. The rings are to lie close to the struts to hold the shafts for carrying the table. You are to make the shafts of acacia wood and plate them with gold. ...On the table, before me, you must place the bread of continual offering’ (Shemoth (Exodus) 25:23-30).
THE LAMP-STAND
Then there was the lamp-stand with its seven branches, made of pure beaten gold; on it were seven lamps throwing their light towards the front; snuffers and trays were of the same material.
THE LAMP-STAND ‘You are to make a lamp-stand of pure gold; the lamp-stand must be of beaten gold, base and stem. Its cups -calyx and petals -must be of one piece with it. ...Then you are to make lamps for it, seven of them, and set them so that they throw their light towards the front of it’ (Shemoth 25:31, 37).
In the Qadash place, also, stood a small altar (one cubit by one cubit, that is, one and a half feet by one and a half feet) called the altar bf incense. (Shemoth 30).
THE ALTAR OF INCENSE ‘You must make an altar on which to burn incense; you are to make it out of acacia wood. It is to be one cubit long, and one cubit wide -that is to say, square -and to stand two cubits high; its horns are to be of one piece with it. The top of it. its surrounding sides, and its horfls, are to be plated with pure gold, and decorated with a gold moulding all round. ...You are to set up the altar before the veil that is in front of the ark of Testimony. ...There Aaron must burn fragrant incense each morning, when he trims the lamps. ... You must make these offerings of incense before YAHWEH unfailingly from generation to generation. ...This altar of supreme holiness is to be consecrated to YAHWEH’ {Shemoth 30:1-10).
This concludes the liturgical code.
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