It has often been a surprise to Bible students that so much time and thought were expended on the dimensions and furnishings of the tabernacle, which the children of Israel erected in the wilderness under the guidance of the great Lawgiver. The minute details, as given by Moses in the book of Exodus, make it abundantly clear that every particular, down to the smallest detail, was considered of distinctive import. In reading the story of this building, we might wonder why a convenient and well-furnished tent would not have answered the purpose! Why all these details; these minutely described measurements; these particular patterns for the vestments and furnishings? The answer is that a convenient shape is not necessarily a type or pattern; and it was of paramount importance that the tabernacle should represent a type.
When an artist wishes to portray a figure or a landscape, he endeavors through his art to convey upon canvas an impression of what he sees. Perhaps a wonderful effect of light and shade, of form and color, has arrested his attention, and he immediately endeavors to record these so that others may see and appreciate that which he has enjoyed. Now apply this metaphor to Moses and the tabernacle. Moses is the artist, the prophet, the spiritual seer, to whom, more than all the men of his time, the realities of spiritual existence were disclosed. His clear spiritual perception constantly communed with the one omnipresent God. Moses, in his close companionship with God, was intimately acquainted with the One "altogether lovely," whose nature can be understood only through spiritual discernment, and is not apparent through the material senses.
Moses understood in a great measure the wonderful truths about God and man; but how could he convey these truths to his less enlightened followers? A people who were accepting so largely the evidence of the material senses could not readily understand the spiritual nature of man and the universe, and the unalterable harmony of being, which was so apparent to Moses; hence, his difficulty. He must, therefore, express what had been disclosed to him, in a form which would be readily interpreted by the less spiritually-minded, and which would remind them of the qualities of thought through which they were to win their way up to the fuller understanding of God.
