THE COVERINGS OF THE TABERNACLE
By Michael D. O’Neal Pastor, Gospel Light Baptist Church Albany, Georgia
Scripture Reading: Exodus 26:1-14
Text: Exodus 26:1
Exodus 26:1 Moreover thou shalt make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twined linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet: with cherubims of cunning work shalt thou make them.
Introduction: The tabernacle is one of the types, or prophetic pictures, in the Old Testament of the Lord Jesus Christ and salvation through Him. God commanded Moses to MAKE the tabernacle, “that I may DWELL among them” (Exodus 25:8). The tabernacle was a figure, or type, of the true dwelling of God among men later, in the form of the Lord Jesus Christ. Notice the words, MADE and DWELT in the following verse:
John 1:14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father) full of grace and truth.
“and dwelt among us.”
The tabernacle was made for God to dwell among men. Jesus Christ was “made flesh” in John 1:14 “and dwelt among us.”
Jesus said:
John 5:39 Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.
Jesus was talking about the Old Testament scriptures, and more specifically, the writings of Moses in Gen. – Deut.:
John 5:46 For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me.
I believe one of the writings that testify of Jesus in the books of Moses is the passage before us about the tabernacle and the tabernacle coverings.
Tonight we are going to look at the COVERINGS of the tabernacle and look for JESUS.
There were four separate coverings of the tabernacle:
1. The fine linen
2. The goats’ hair
3. The rams’ skins died red
4. The badgers’ skins
I believe these show four characteristics of the Lord Jesus Christ
I. THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF CHRIST IS SEEN IN THE FINE LINEN
Exodus 26:1 Moreover thou shalt make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twined linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet: with cherubims of cunning work shalt thou make them.
First occurrence of “fine linen”:
Genesis 41:42 And Pharaoh took off his ring from his hand, and put it upon Joseph’s hand, and arrayed him in vestures of fine linen, and put a gold chain about his neck;
Revelation 19:8 And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.
Revelation 19:14 And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.
The righteousness of Christ:
A. Was perfect and pure
B. Was perpetual and permanent
C. Was precious and priceless
II. THE REMOVAL OF SINS BY CHRIST IS SEEN IN THE GOATS’ HAIR
Exodus 26:7 And thou shalt make curtains of goats’ hair to be a covering upon the tabernacle: eleven curtains shalt thou make.
Leviticus 16:21-22 And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness: 22 And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited: and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness.
A. The confession – an acknowledgement of sin
B. The choice – putting them (sins) upon the head of the live goat
C. The carrying away (John 1:29)
III. THE REDEMPTION BY CHRIST IS SEEN IN THE RAMS’ SKINS DIED RED
Exodus 26:14 And thou shalt make a covering for the tent of rams’ skins dyed red, and a covering above of badgers’ skins.
Genesis 22:13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son.
A. The sheep (Christ died as a sheep before her shearers)
B. The sex (ram – a male lamb)
C. The skin (covering)
D. The shed blood (died red)
IV. THE ROUGHNESS OF CHRIST’S APPEARANCE IS SEEN IN THE BADGERS’ SKINS
Exodus 26:14 And thou shalt make a covering for the tent of rams’ skins dyed red, and a covering above of badgers’ skins.
Commentators believe that the badger skin is anything but a badger. M.R. DeHaan says it was porpoise skin. Easton’s Bible dictionary says it is seal skin.
The Bible says it is shoe leather:
Ezekiel 16:10 I clothed thee also with broidered work, and shod thee with badgers’ skin, and I girded thee about with fine linen, and I covered thee with silk.
Of the appearance of Jesus, the Old Testament prophesied:
Isaiah 53:2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
A. Jesus appeared rough in the cradle
B. Jesus appeared rough as a carpenter
C. Jesus appeared rough as a “clergyman”
D. Jesus appeared rough on the cross
Praise God, the tabernacle looked rough on the outside, but inside it was full of furnishings of great value. Jesus looked rough on the outside, but GOD was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself!
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Michael D. O’Neal (Proverbs 11:30), Pastor, Gospel Light Baptist Church |