The first half of the book of Exodus details the miraculous deliverance of Israel from Egypt. The second half of the book deals with issues that include beauty. The divine instructions of
Exodus 25:1-9 are followed by
Exodus 25:10-31:11, with God’s
“blueprints” for the portable tent sanctuary, its furnishings, and the priestly vestments. From
Exodus 35:1 to the end of the book (
Exodus 40:38) are found God’s detailed descriptions, along with the record of the precise accomplishment of them. This record includes extensive details of artistry.
This collection of details is tedious reading to many modern Christians. But it pleased God not only to present these many instructions to the newly-freed slaves but also to include them in Scripture.
There are almost fifty chapters in the first five books of the Bible that record God’s precise directives regarding a beautiful sanctuary. He provides not only the architectural blueprints but also the exact directions for the furnishings. It is significant that on Mount Sinai God gave not only the Decalogue, His instructions for obedience within the covenant, but also specific directions of how to fashion a lavish structure involving almost every type of artistic skill.
God was architect of it all, even inspiring the artisans to craft the minute details of decoration. Nothing was left to human devising. There are more chapters regarding the plans for, and consequent building of, this sanctuary and its furnishings than for any other subject in the first five books of Moses.
The earthly sanctuary modelled on the heavenly sanctuary according to
Hebrews 8:1-5, "Now this is the main point of the things we are saying: We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a Minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man. For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices. Therefore it is necessary that this One also have something to offer. For if He were on earth, He would not be a priest, since there are priests who offer the gifts according to the law; who serve the copy and shadow of the heavenly things, as Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make the tabernacle. For He said, “See that you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.”
If the earthly sanctuary was only a
“shadow” of the heavenly, we can hardly begin to imagine the kind of beauty that must exist in the real sanctuary, the one that God Himself made.