Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 40:1-2

1 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,

2 On the first day of the first month shalt thou set up the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation.

The Israelites have now completed a great work, the creation of a beautiful tabernacle! It is incredible that they produced something like this having just come out of slavery and now living in the middle of the wilderness. Currently, the tabernacle is disassembled in its several parts, and now those parts need to come together in the desired form.

This again brings to mind the creation of the Earth at the beginning of Genesis. There, each day of creation was focused on its own element, each treated as an individual unit. But when we walk around the earth today, we see all these individual elements combined together in harmony. Land and water and animals and plants and stars and sun and people all overlapping in their systems and functions, all combined to the glory of God. So, too, the individually magnificent Ark of the Covenant, and brass altar, and golden menorah, and woven tapestries would all be assembled to one higher whole.

In the following verses, God will describe the correct order for all these separate parts to come together. This sequence would not only apply to this initial assembly, but every time that the Israelites traveled to a new destination and there reared the tabernacle. This repeated assembly is symbolic of how divine creation is not a singular event, but one that must be repeated and refreshed. We see this in God’s creation, where the elements of the earth are cyclically reassembled into the bodies of the new generation of people, animals, and plants. We see it in the hearts of the disciples that are continually refreshed, renewed, and recommitted as they toil through life’s distractions and sorrows.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 39:42-43

42 According to all that the Lord commanded Moses, so the children of Israel made all the work.

43 And Moses did look upon all the work, and, behold, they had done it as the Lord had commanded, even so had they done it: and Moses blessed them.

In the previous post I noted that the instructions for the creation of the tabernacle, its execution, and the presentation of the finished work, all call to mind the creation of the Earth at the beginning of Genesis. That pattern is concluded in today’s verses, where Moses approves of the work, very much in the style of “And God saw the light, that it was good,” (Genesis 1:4).

When it comes to divine works of creation, approval is an essential stage. God or His steward must see and validate that all has been done correctly. Both the original account of the earth’s creation and this account of the tabernacle’s creation are foreshadows of the ultimate presentation of finished work, wherein Christ will present our souls to the Father, showing Him the required perfection that we have obtained through him, then to receive the glad word that “it is good.”

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 39:32-41

32 Thus was all the work of the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation finished: and the children of Israel did according to all that the Lord commanded Moses, so did they.

33 And they brought the tabernacle unto Moses, the tent, and all his furniture, his taches, his boards, his bars, and his pillars, and his sockets,

34 And the covering of rams’ skins dyed red, and the covering of badgers’ skins, and the veil of the covering,

35 The ark of the testimony, and the staves thereof, and the mercy seat,

36 The table, and all the vessels thereof, and the shewbread,

37 The pure candlestick, with the lamps thereof, even with the lamps to be set in order, and all the vessels thereof, and the oil for light,

38 And the golden altar, and the anointing oil, and the sweet incense, and the hanging for the tabernacle door,

39 The brasen altar, and his grate of brass, his staves, and all his vessels, the laver and his foot,

40 The hangings of the court, his pillars, and his sockets, and the hanging for the court gate, his cords, and his pins, and all the vessels of the service of the tabernacle, for the tent of the congregation,

41 The cloths of service to do service in the holy place, and the holy garments for Aaron the priest, and his sons’ garments, to minister in the priest’s office.

Today’s verses answer directly to those in chapter 35, verses 10-19. There, Moses quickly listed out to the people all of the different elements that needed to be created for the tabernacle, and now we have listed out all of the created elements that they presented back to him. It is a perfect symmetry of concept to reality, command to creation.

This pattern calls to mind the creation of the world where God spoke with His mouth the things that He wanted to “let there be,” and then the physical creation of that thing occurred. “And God said, Let there be light: and there was light,” (Genesis 1:3). This parallel between the creation of the tabernacle and the creation of the world will be made even more explicit in tomorrow’s verses. It seems clear that we are meant to link those two events in our minds. God created a paradise, and now with the liberated Israelites He is recreating it in microcosm form. The tabernacle was to be a small cell of heaven in the middle of fallen earth.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 38:29-31

29 And the brass of the offering was seventy talents, and two thousand and four hundred shekels.

30 And therewith he made the sockets to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and the brasen altar, and the brasen grate for it, and all the vessels of the altar,

31 And the sockets of the court round about, and the sockets of the court gate, and all the pins of the tabernacle, and all the pins of the court round about.

Yesterday we heard the full contribution of gold and silver to the construction of the tabernacle, and now we finish this chapter by mentioning the brass that was donated as well. Using the same conversion rates as before, the 70 talents and 2,400 shekels of brass would be approximately 5,310 pounds (2,408 kg) in total.

Here is a summary of all the metal:

  • 7,544 pounds / 3,422 kg silver
  • 5,310 pounds / 2,408 kg brass
  • 2,193 pounds / 995 kg gold

Yesterday we calculated the modern-day value of the gold and silver. That is less useful with brass, as it has far less relative value today than it had in ancient times. Today the full weight of brass for the tabernacle would be just a bit over $10,000, but in the time of the tabernacle it would have been much more, though still not as much as the silver or gold.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 38:24-28

24 All the gold that was occupied for the work in all the work of the holy place, even the gold of the offering, was twenty and nine talents, and seven hundred and thirty shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary.

25 And the silver of them that were numbered of the congregation was an hundred talents, and a thousand seven hundred and threescore and fifteen shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary:

26 A bekah for every man, that is, half a shekel, after the shekel of the sanctuary, for every one that went to be numbered, from twenty years old and upward, for six hundred thousand and three thousand and five hundred and fifty men.

27 And of the hundred talents of silver were cast the sockets of the sanctuary, and the sockets of the veil; an hundred sockets of the hundred talents, a talent for a socket.

28 And of the thousand seven hundred seventy and five shekels he made hooks for the pillars, and overlaid their chapiters, and filleted them.

The full weight of gold used in the tabernacle was 29 talents and 730 shekels; and the silver was 100 talents and 1,775 shekels. Talents and shekels were ancient metrics of weight, not value. The conversion to today’s metrics is estimated to be about 75-100 pounds (34-45kg) for a talent, and 0.4 ounces (11 grams) for a shekel.

Thus, a shekel was much smaller than a talent, about 1/3000th of the size. If we break the 29 talents of gold and 100 talents of silver into shekels, then we get a combined total of approximately 389,505 shekels of precious metal donated for the construction of the temple. A bekah was half of a shekel, so that comes to approximately 779,010 bekahs of metal. From that number we can understand how verse 26 is saying that it was about one bekah for each of the 603,550 men in the Israelite community.

I do not think that every man did give one bekah, though. The Israelites were not required to give their possessions to the creation of the temple if they did not want to, they varied in their individual wealth, and we were already told that some of the contributions were turned away because the measure had already been filled. It seems likely that some contributed more, and others less, and some not at all, but in aggregate it was as if every man had contributed one bekah.

Converting these metrics into today’s standards, we have approximately 2,193 pounds (995 kg) of gold and 7,544 pounds (3,422 kg) of silver. The value of these will obviously change constantly over the years, but in any time, it is a princely sum. As of today, March 19, 2025, gold is about $3,000 per ounce and silver is about $34. That brings the value of the gold over $100,000,000 USD, and the silver over $4,000,000.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 38:21-23

21 This is the sum of the tabernacle, even of the tabernacle of testimony, as it was counted, according to the commandment of Moses, for the service of the Levites, by the hand of Ithamar, son to Aaron the priest.

22 And Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, made all that the Lord commanded Moses.

23 And with him was Aholiab, son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, an engraver, and a cunning workman, and an embroiderer in blue, and in purple, and in scarlet, and fine linen.

This chapter ends by giving a summary of the creation of the tabernacle. We hear, once again, that Bezaleel was the chief architect, and alongside him was Aholiab. It sounds like Aholiab specialized in the engravings and the embroidering, and that Bezaleel led in everything else.

We also hear that Ithamar, one of the sons of Aaron, is the scribe that has been recounting all of the work of the tabernacle to us. Aaron had four sons, and Ithamar was the youngest of them all. This is the first time we have heard of his work, in which he was chosen to witness and prove to the world the obedience of the Israelites in following the mandate of the Lord. We will hear of him a few more times in the other books of Moses.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 38:9-20

9 And he made the court: on the south side southward the hangings of the court were of fine twined linen, an hundred cubits:

10 Their pillars were twenty, and their brasen sockets twenty; the hooks of the pillars and their fillets were of silver.

11 And for the north side the hangings were an hundred cubits, their pillars were twenty, and their sockets of brass twenty; the hooks of the pillars and their fillets of silver.

12 And for the west side were hangings of fifty cubits, their pillars ten, and their sockets ten; the hooks of the pillars and their fillets of silver.

13 And for the east side eastward fifty cubits.

14 The hangings of the one side of the gate were fifteen cubits; their pillars three, and their sockets three.

15 And for the other side of the court gate, on this hand and that hand, were hangings of fifteen cubits; their pillars three, and their sockets three.

16 All the hangings of the court round about were of fine twined linen.

17 And the sockets for the pillars were of brass; the hooks of the pillars and their fillets of silver; and the overlaying of their chapiters of silver; and all the pillars of the court were filleted with silver.

18 And the hanging for the gate of the court was needlework, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen: and twenty cubits was the length, and the height in the breadth was five cubits, answerable to the hangings of the court.

19 And their pillars were four, and their sockets of brass four; their hooks of silver, and the overlaying of their chapiters and their fillets of silver.

20 And all the pins of the tabernacle, and of the court round about, were of brass.

Today finishes the creation of the tabernacle. We still have yet to review the creation of the garments for the priests, but at least the edifice and its accompanying instruments and furniture are covered.

I do wonder how much of this creation was erected prior to the completion of it all. Did the workers verify their work by installing the pillars and stretching the curtains between them, laying out the entire courtyard and construct the tabernacle in the middle? Or did they simply trust the measurements and wait for Moses’s word to construct everything at once? There is a verse in the next chapter which suggest that when they presented their work to Moses, it was in a disassembled form, so at the very least it seems that there was an official assembly from individual parts when the tabernacle was deemed ready.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 38:1-8

1 And he made the altar of burnt offering of shittim wood: five cubits was the length thereof, and five cubits the breadth thereof; it was foursquare; and three cubits the height thereof.

2 And he made the horns thereof on the four corners of it; the horns thereof were of the same: and he overlaid it with brass.

3 And he made all the vessels of the altar, the pots, and the shovels, and the basins, and the fleshhooks, and the firepans: all the vessels thereof made he of brass.

4 And he made for the altar a brasen grate of network under the compass thereof beneath unto the midst of it.

5 And he cast four rings for the four ends of the grate of brass, to be places for the staves.

6 And he made the staves of shittim wood, and overlaid them with brass.

7 And he put the staves into the rings on the sides of the altar, to bear it withal; he made the altar hollow with boards.

8 And he made the laver of brass, and the foot of it of brass, of the lookingglasses of the women assembling, which assembled at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.

Today covers the creation of the altar for burnt offering and the washing basin. In the last verse we get an interesting detail, which tells us that the washing basin was made from the looking glasses—or mirrors—of the Israelites gathered at the entrance to the tabernacle.

One might wonder how mirrors would be used to create a brass washing basin. The explanation is that the mirrors of ancient times were quite different from the ones of today. These were not silver-backed glass mirrors, they were brass, extremely polished so that they could reflect an image back to the holder. Thus, these were brass mirrors, presumably melted down and reformed, that became the washing basin.

This is an important reminder that the Israelites were not bringing to the tabernacle random hunks of metal that were just lying about their house. Much of the material that was donated was already being used in personal heirlooms and household items. They weren’t just sacrificing the material, they were sacrificing things that they were actually using, things that already served a purpose, so that they could serve a higher purpose for the Lord.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 37:25-29

25 And he made the incense altar of shittim wood: the length of it was a cubit, and the breadth of it a cubit; it was foursquare; and two cubits was the height of it; the horns thereof were of the same.

26 And he overlaid it with pure gold, both the top of it, and the sides thereof round about, and the horns of it: also he made unto it a crown of gold round about.

27 And he made two rings of gold for it under the crown thereof, by the two corners of it, upon the two sides thereof, to be places for the staves to bear it withal.

28 And he made the staves of shittim wood, and overlaid them with gold.

29 And he made the holy anointing oil, and the pure incense of sweet spices, according to the work of the apothecary.

We hear of the construction of the incense altar, which completes all of the furniture of the tabernacle, and then we move on to the formulating of the anointing oil and the spices, which would be used for certain rituals within the tabernacle. Thus, we finish the chapter by concluding the house of the Lord, and next chapter we will go into the elements that were in the courtyard.

Reading these verses, it occurred to me that the holy anointing oil and the sweet spices were two things that the priests would run out of and have to have replaced. I wonder if there was any specific instruction as to how and where new batches could be created and who could do it. If so, we do not have those records.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 36:31-38

31 And he made bars of shittim wood; five for the boards of the one side of the tabernacle,

32 And five bars for the boards of the other side of the tabernacle, and five bars for the boards of the tabernacle for the sides westward.

33 And he made the middle bar to shoot through the boards from the one end to the other.

34 And he overlaid the boards with gold, and made their rings of gold to be places for the bars, and overlaid the bars with gold.

35 And he made a veil of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen: with cherubims made he it of cunning work.

36 And he made thereunto four pillars of shittim wood, and overlaid them with gold: their hooks were of gold; and he cast for them four sockets of silver.

37 And he made an hanging for the tabernacle door of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen, of needlework;

38 And the five pillars of it with their hooks: and he overlaid their chapiters and their fillets with gold: but their five sockets were of brass.

The record of the tabernacle’s creation continues. As with yesterday, all the specifications here are the same that God described, but written from a fresh perspective, with occasional differences in wording or emphasis. For example, previously we were told, “and the middle bar in the midst of the boards shall reach from end to end,” and now it is “and he made the middle bar to shoot through the boards from the one end to the other.”

This is evidence to me that the author of this record took the time to write it out with as much detail as the record of God’s commands had been. There is no copying word-for-word, and no abbreviating. The author took the time to recount it fully as it happened, as if the other record of God’s commands didn’t exist.

It may not make for the most exhilarating reading, treading through such familiar sentences all over again, and it probably wasn’t the most exhilarating writing either, but I believe it matters. I certainly suspect that the author believed that it mattered, too. I think that it matters, because it is a witness of the Israelite’s obedience, it is proof of the craftsmen’s care, and it is an acknowledgement that the planning and the doing are each their own separate journey.