While working on my Commentary on the Book of Exodus, I have had great difficulty working the Scriptures describing the Tabernacle. Yahweh wrote quite a bit about the structure that it appears He wanted us to recognize the importance of His Dwelling Place.
Many of my problems centered on three key issues: First, the description of the Tabernacle is not confined to one section of Scripture – details are spread throughout different chapters and different books. Second, the structure is not described in the order that a builder would erect it – this made the description of it sound chaotic in my analysis.
Finally, Moses was given a vision of the Tabernacle should look like, but the Word does not give us a detailed description of the vision – in many cases, the Tabernacle can look different based on how the reader interprets the details. This is part of the reason why there are many different depictions of the Tabernacle throughout the literary and art worlds (of course many depictions are different because they ignore, or purposely alter, what the Word states . . . for artistic purposes?).
One of the purposes of my Commentaries is to reveal the foreshadowing of Christ (the Author and Finisher of our faith) in the Torah. This, once again, was difficult, due to the problems I was having above.
I finally fixed on the idea that I could build the Tabernacle in a separate annex that readers could refer to while studying my Commentary. It also allowed me to present a concise analysis of the salvation of Christ through the model of the Tabernacle.
I am sure I will rework some (most?) of this as I continue my work – especially if people make reasoned recommendations that can improve it. I present it for your reading enjoyment and pray it helps in your understanding of Scripture. Please download and share.