Exodus 26:30 And thou shalt rear up the tabernacle according to the fashion thereof which was shewed thee in the mount.
Do you read the directions for purchases that must be assembled at home? Do you like instructions? Some people do. I do not. They bore me to tears. After you turn the book the right way to find your language in the hundred-page booklet, you have a five-page set of instructions that goes through twenty-five steps on how to put together whatever it is that you are putting together. Some people are good at that. I do not like that.
Exodus 26 is an instruction booklet. It is full of details. Any chapter of the Bible that talks about badgers’ skins dyed red, oil, and cubits is bound to be either an interesting read or a read that makes your eyes glaze over. When you read these things about the tabernacle, they can feel arbitrary, disconnected, and without purpose, yet nothing could be further from the truth.
Numerous times, including in Exodus 26:30, the Bible says, “And thou shalt rear up the tabernacle according to the fashion thereof which was shewed thee in the mount [by God].” The Bible tells us in earlier chapters that the tabernacle was to be built according to the pattern. God had a purpose and plan for this magnificent tabernacle, which was somewhat of a glorified tent, so God gave the Israelites instructions so they would know how to put it together.
It is amazing! To this day we do not know how the Egyptians constructed the pyramids, but when it comes to the tabernacle, we know quite a bit of detail about how it was done because God gave us the details. In previous chapters God gave instructions about the very lives of the Israelites. Some of those laws can seem arbitrary, especially to modern American ears. You may think, “What right did God have to demand this?” Look, we can learn something from the instructions we find in Exodus: a beautiful and coherent life comes from knowing and following God’s directions.
This tabernacle was beautiful because it was according to the pattern; it was coherent. Exodus 26:6 and 11 say that the Israelites were to put these things together “that it may be one.” There were many, many parts, but it was to the intent that it was to be one whole. The curtains, silver, gold, oil, and all these things were put together in a masterful way.
If you have ever skipped a step in some group of directions and finished the project with five or six parts left, you know the uneasy feeling of wondering if you might need that very part that you skipped. Well, a beautiful and coherent life comes from knowing and following directions.
To have a beautiful and coherent life you do not necessarily need to understand the purpose of the directions. You don’t have to see the big picture in order to know that there is one. If Israel just followed God’s instructions there would be something marvelous that was created. The same is true with your life. The only way to have a beautiful and coherent life comes from knowing and following God’s instructions. So, know what God has said, read His Word, and then read life and know the times “that it may be one.”