Instructions for the Sanctuary
Instructions for the Sanctuary
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Sanctuary Offerings
Yahweh said to Moses, “Tell the Israelites to collect an offering for me. From all whose hearts compel them, you’ll collect my offering. This is the offering you’ll collect from them: gold, silver, bronze, materials dyed blue, purple, and red, fine linen, goat hair, tanned ram hides, dugong hides, acacia wood, oil for the lamps, spices for the anointing oil and fragrant incense, onyx, and other gems for the settings of the ephod and the breastpiece.
“They must make me a sanctuary, and I’ll live among them. You must make it according to everything I’m about to show you, the pattern of the dwelling and of all its furnishings.”
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After the ratification of the covenant, Yahweh allowed the Israelite leaders to see him and even revealed his veiled glory to the people. But all of that happened at a distance, from the top of Mount Sinai. Yahweh’s true desire was to come down to live among his people. So he commanded Moses to prepare a sanctuary for him, a holy dwelling within the Israelite camp.1
First, Moses had to collect a freewill offering from the Israelites. Yahweh gave him a list of acceptable items, all of them valuable, and the people would give as their hearts led them. Most of the material likely came from the plundering of the Egyptians during the exodus.2 Yahweh wanted the people to voluntarily give back to him part of the wealth he had given them.
With these materials, Moses and those working under him would make the sanctuary representing Yahweh’s presence. They had to make it according to a specific pattern Yahweh would show Moses. While on Mount Sinai, Moses saw a vision of the heavenly sanctuary, and everything in the sanctuary was a copy of the true one.3 Yahweh lived among his people, but never literally in the dwelling. As King Solomon later said of the temple, “The sky, even heaven itself, can’t contain you. How much less this house I’ve built?”4
The Covenantal Chest
Yahweh said to Moses, “Tell the Israelites to collect an offering for me. From all whose hearts compel them, you’ll collect my offering. This is the offering you’ll collect from them: gold, silver, bronze, materials dyed blue, purple, and red, fine linen, goat hair, tanned ram hides, dugong hides, acacia wood, oil for the lamps, spices for the anointing oil and fragrant incense, onyx, and other gems for the settings of the ephod and the breastpiece.
“They must make me a sanctuary, and I’ll live among them. You must make it according to everything I’m about to show you, the pattern of the dwelling and of all its furnishings.”
Image by Bible Scenes from Free Bible Images, CC BY 4.0
Yahweh began his instructions for building the sanctuary with the most important item. In the holiest part of his dwelling, a golden chest would serve as his throne5 From there, he would live among his people and rule over them. Since Israel had nothing that represented Yahweh himself, the chest became their holiest object.6 Only the high priest could approach it, and only once a year.7
The chest had two parts—a box and a lid. The box measured approximately 3′ × 2′ × 2′ and was made of acacia wood overlaid with gold.8 Two poles, also made of acacia wood overlaid with gold, allowed the Israelites to transport it. These poles had to stay inserted through their rings permanently. After its consecration, no one could touch the chest9
Inside the box, Moses would put the testimony, the stone tablets containing Yahweh’s copy of the covenant. For this reason, the covenantal chest is also called the chest of the testimony. Yahweh would always have the covenant in his presence as he reigned over Israel from his throne.
The Atonement Lid
“You must make a pure gold atonement lid, two and a half cubits long and one and a half cubits wide. Make two cherubs of hammered gold out of the two ends of the lid, one cherub out of each end. Make the cherubs out of the atonement lid on the two ends.
“The cherubs must spread their wings over the atonement lid, overshadowing it, and they must face each other and look toward the atonement lid. Put the atonement lid on top of the chest and put the testimony I’ll give you inside it. Then I’ll meet you there. From above the atonement lid, between the two cherubs on the chest of the testimony, I’ll tell you everything I command the Israelites.”
Image by Rev. Yves Langevin from Free Bible Images, CC BY-NC 4.0
The second part of the covenantal chest was a lid the same length and width as the box. The lid was made of pure gold and had a golden cherub on each end. The cherubs couldn’t be made separately and attached. Every detail had to be hammered out of the lid itself, a masterpiece of craftsmanship.
Modern depictions of the atonement lid almost always show two-winged humans, often kneeling, instead of actual cherubs. Biblical cherubs have four wings and four faces, and they stand upright as they carry and guard Yahweh’s throne. One set of wings covers their bodies, and the other touches the outstretched wings of another cherub.10 On the lid, the wings that touched stretched forward to overshadow it.
Between the cherubs, in the empty space above the lid and under their wings, Yahweh would sit enthroned and continue to meet regularly with Moses. The lid also served as the location where the high priest would sprinkle the blood of the atonement sacrifices on the Day of Atonement.11 That’s why it was called the kapporeth (“atonement lid”), from the Hebrew verb kaphar (“to ransom, atone”).
- The Hebrew name for the sanctuary, hammishkan, means “the dwelling.” The English word tabernacle comes from the Latin translation. Osborn and Howard, Handbook on Exodus, 586.
- See Peaceful Plundering.
- Hebrews 8:5, 9:23–24.
- 1 Kings 8:27.
- 1 Samuel 4:4, 2 Samuel 6:2.
- See The Second Commandment.
- Leviticus 16:2, 29–30.
- Walton et al., Bible Background Commentary, Exodus 25:10–22.
- 1 Chronicles 13:9–10.
- Ezekiel 1:5–11, 22–26; 10:15; see Cherubs.
- Leviticus 16:11–15.