Tabernacle Experience

I am taking a short detour from continuing on with Revelation. I attended the Tabernacle Experience at Saddleback Church today. It was amazing! If you have read Exodus, you have read all the dimensions for the Tabernacle and the items within, including the Ark of the Covenant. Most people skip over the measurements and dimensions, thinking that they have no relevance. It is interesting that no matter how many times I have read the description and I try to picture what it would look like, I only get partial glimpses. To see the Tabernacle and to be able to touch and experience all the parts of it was really amazing. I will never read about the Tabernacle again without being able to picture what it looked like. 
When we arrived, we were given a pamphlet with the background of the Israelites from Abraham up through Moses and to the building of Solomon's Temple. We were asked to be reverent during this experience and really worship God as we would pass through the different stations. We were to be sent through in pairs, we were given headphones and an MP3 player that would take us through the stations. 
As we entered the outer court we could see the Tabernacle over at one end, around the perimeter of the fence were flags representing the twelve tribes of Israel and how they were situated around the Tabernacle. We listened to the MP3 which led us on a detailed journey as if we were back in the days of the Israelites and the active worship at the Tabernacle. At the end of each section, we would hear a Shofar blow, which is a ram's horn.
After the introduction, the horn blows and we are led to the first station. We are told that the priests would put on linen garments while they served in the Tabernacle. These were holy garments and only to be worn while the priest was in the Tabernacle. We are told to take a small square of linen symbolizing the priestly garments.

¹ “Have Aaron your brother brought to you from among the Israelites, along with his sons Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar, so they may serve me as priests. ² Make sacred garments for your brother Aaron to give him dignity and honor.³ Tell all the skilled workers to whom I have given wisdom in such matters that they are to make garments for Aaron, for his consecration, so he may serve me as priest. ⁴ These are the garments they are to make: a breastpiece, an ephod, a robe, a woven tunic, a turban and a sash. They are to make these sacred garments for your brother Aaron and his sons, so they may serve me as priests. ⁵ Have them use gold, and blue, purple and scarlet yarn, and fine linen. Exodus 28: 1-5

The second station is the altar. It is a large with the horns where the blood of the sacrifice was covered. At the Altar of Burnt Offering you will lay your sacrifice on it's consuming fire.   

You place a stick of wood on the fire representing the sacrifice that you would have offered at the altar
 ¹ “Build an altar of acacia wood, three cubits^[a] high; it is to be square, five cubits long and five cubits wide.^[b] 2 Make a horn at each of the four corners, so that the horns and the altar are of one piece, and overlay the altar with bronze. ³Make all its utensils of bronze—its pots to remove the ashes, and its shovels, sprinkling bowls, meat forks and firepans. ⁴Make a grating for it, a bronze network, and make a bronze ring at each of the four corners of the network. ⁵ Put it under the ledge of the altar so that it is halfway up the altar. ⁶ Make poles of acacia wood for the altar and overlay them with bronze. ⁷ The poles are to be inserted into the rings so they will be on two sides of the altar when it is carried. ⁸ Make the altar hollow, out of boards. It is to be made just as you were shown on the mountain. Exodus 27:1-8


The third station is the laver, where you would purify your hands before entering the Tabernacle. 

¹⁷ Then the LORD said to Moses, ¹⁸ “Make a bronze basin, with its bronze stand, for washing. Place it between the tent of meeting and the altar, and put water in it. ¹⁹ Aaron and his sons are to wash their hands and feet with water from it. ²⁰Whenever they enter the tent of meeting, they shall wash with water so that they will not die. Also, when they approach the altar to minister by presenting a food offering to the LORD, ²¹they shall wash their hands and feet so that they will not die. This is to be a lasting ordinance for Aaron and his descendants for the generations to come.” Exodus 30:17-21


The next station is where the Atonement money is paid
¹¹ Then the LORD said to Moses, ¹² “When you take a census of the Israelites to count them, each one must pay the LORD a ransom for his life at the time he is counted. Then no plague will come on them when you number them. ¹³ Each one who crosses over to those already counted is to give a half shekel,^[c] according to the sanctuary shekel, which weighs twenty gerahs. This half shekel is an offering to the LORD. ¹⁴All who cross over, those twenty years old or more, are to give an offering to the LORD. ¹⁵ The rich are not to give more than a half shekel and the poor are not to give less when you make the offering to the LORD to atone for your lives. ¹⁶ Receive the atonement money from the Israelites and use it for the service of the tent of meeting. It will be a memorial for the Israelites before the LORD, making atonement for your lives.” Exodus 30:11-16


We then enter the Tabernacle and on one side of the room is our next station, the lampstand. 
³¹ “Make a lampstand of pure gold. Hammer out its base and shaft, and make its flowerlike cups, buds and blossoms of one piece with them. ³² Six branches are to extend from the sides of the lampstand—three on one side and three on the other. ³³Three cups shaped like almond flowers with buds and blossoms are to be on one branch, three on the next branch, and the same for all six branches extending from the lampstand. ³⁴And on the lampstand there are to be four cups shaped like almond flowers with buds and blossoms. ³⁵ One bud shall be under the first pair of branches extending from the lampstand, a second bud under the second pair, and a third bud under the third pair—six branches in all. ³⁶ The buds and branches shall all be of one piece with the lampstand, hammered out of pure gold. Exodus 25:31-36

The fifth station is the Table of Bread, where the Bread of the Presence was to be offered to God daily.

²³ “Make a table of acacia wood—two cubits long, a cubit wide and a cubit and a half high.^[d] 24 Overlay it with pure gold and make a gold molding around it. ²⁵ Also make around it a rim a handbreadth^[e] wide and put a gold molding on the rim. ²⁶Make four gold rings for the table and fasten them to the four corners, where the four legs are. ²⁷ The rings are to be close to the rim to hold the poles used in carrying the table. ²⁸ Make the poles of acacia wood, overlay them with gold and carry the table with them. ²⁹ And make its plates and dishes of pure gold, as well as its pitchers and bowls for the pouring out of offerings. ³⁰ Put the bread of the Presence on this table to be before me at all times. Exodus 25:23-29

The next station is the altar of incense, as the incense rises we can visualize our prayers and offerings rising to God.

 “Make an altar of acacia wood for burning incense. ² It is to be square, a cubit long and a cubit wide, and two cubits high^[a]—its horns of one piece with it. ³ Overlay the top and all the sides and the horns with pure gold, and make a gold molding around it. ⁴ Make two gold rings for the altar below the molding—two on each of the opposite sides—to hold the poles used to carry it. ⁵ Make the poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. ⁶ Put the altar in front of the curtain that shields the ark of the covenant law—before the atonement cover that is over the tablets of the covenant law—where I will meet with you.

Exodus 30:1-6

We then enter into the holy of holies, where the Ark of the Covenant lies. 

¹⁰ “Have them make an ark^[b] of acacia wood—two and a half cubits long, a cubit and a half wide, and a cubit and a half high.^[c] 11 Overlay it with pure gold, both inside and out, and make a gold molding around it. ¹² Cast four gold rings for it and fasten them to its four feet, with two rings on one side and two rings on the other. ¹³ Then make poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. ¹⁴ Insert the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark to carry it. ¹⁵ The poles are to remain in the rings of this ark; they are not to be removed. ¹⁶ Then put in the ark the tablets of the covenant law, which I will give you.

 ¹⁷ “Make an atonement cover of pure gold—two and a half cubits long and a cubit and a half wide. ¹⁸ And make two cherubim out of hammered gold at the ends of the cover. ¹⁹Make one cherub on one end and the second cherub on the other; make the cherubim of one piece with the cover, at the two ends. ²⁰ The cherubim are to have their wings spread upward, overshadowing the cover with them. The cherubim are to face each other, looking toward the cover. ²¹ Place the cover on top of the ark and put in the ark the tablets of the covenant law that I will give you. ²² There, above the cover between the two cherubim that are over the ark of the covenant law, I will meet with you and give you all my commands for the Israelites. Exodus 25:10-22

Only the high priest was able to enter into the presence of the Ark on one day of the year, the day of Atonement. Bringing burning incense to shield his eyes from looking directly at the Ark, he would sprinkle blood from a bull onto the atonement cover for his and his household’s sins, then sprinkled blood from a goat for all the sins of Israel. 

If you want to know more you can see where the Tabernacle will travel to next. The Tabernacle Experience.