Peggy, our cell leader, brought the toy model of Moses’ tabernacle to the cell meeting. The plan was to read Exodus and recreate the model using the instructions there.
We laid the parts out. There were curtains, boards, pillars, the Ark of the Covenant, the Mercy Seat, the stone tablets, Aaron’s rod, the pot of manna, the Showbread, the Table of Showbread, the Altar of incense, the Altar of burnt offering, the golden basin, 3 bulls, 3 sheep, 3 lambs, 3 priests, 1 high priest. All constructed to a scale of 90:1.
We had a good time laughing at ourselves struggling to put the model together. We tried our best to understand the descriptions in the bible as we needed to identify the various important items accurately. Some are easy like the lampstand or menorrah but the altars stumped us as they all have the same design…only the dimensions were different. Victor caught on fast as he differentiated the altar of burnt offering and the altar of incense while the description was being read.
It was a fun way to dig into the word of God. Not just a skim and quick read of the bible, but an attempt to visualise the word. As Jamie was reading the description of the lampstand, I was holding the little model in my hand, tracing the lamp, the branches, the flowers, and the buds as she read each part. One single piece of hammered gold. Imagine the workmanship needed.
When we put the boards of the tabernacle together, they didn’t really fit properly. Then we realised that we were supposed to insert a thin metal rod in the middle of all the twenty boards facing north and south as well as the ten boards facing west. Wow, what a difference the metal rods made. The boards lined up so straight and strong. We all thought that God is such a genius.
Model of Moses' Tabernacle
We built a small model but we also know that the real tabernacle is a also a model. A copy.
Jesus is the original.
Most of us got a backache after hovering over the model but we are very happy with our work. As we round up the meeting, we prayed and asked God to show us how the details of the tabernacle point to Jesus and the truth wrapped in it.
