Read Exodus 26:15-28:5 at Bible Gateway.
Hebrew paragraph divisions
Exo 26:15-30 {s} The pattern for the frame of the Tabernacle
Exo 26:31-37 {s} The pattern for the veil + placement of ark, table, lampstand + screen
Exo 27:1-8 {s} The pattern for the altar
Exo 27:9-19 {s} The pattern for the outer court
Exo 27:20-21 {s} Oil for the lampstand + tending of the lampstand’s light
Exo 28:1-5 {p} Aaron and his sons as priests + their holy garments
Exo 26:1-28:5 chiastic structure
This strong theme and structure links the tabernacle to the priesthood. I could see the link but did not understand what it meant. It’s times like these that I must knock, knock, knock on my heavenly Teacher’s door LOL.
Then this occurred to me. The tabernacle is the form. The presence of God is the life that fills the form. In the central axis, we have the priesthood – Aaron and his sons – tending the altar. They tend the menorah, the altar, and the incense, day and night, so that the fire on the altar does not go out, the light of the menorah does not go out, and bread does not cease from before the LORD, and the incense does not cease from going up before the LORD (see the natural picture of the tabernacle).
They tend.
The word translated “tend” is Strong’s H6186 ארך arak, a primitive root meaning, “to arrange in order.” The ancient pictographs are ayin + resh + kaph.
aleph א = the ox head, thus strength, power, leader
resh ר = the head of man, thus head, first, top, beginning, man
kaph כ, ך = the open palm, thus bend, open, allow, tame
The strength (aleph) of a man (resh) tames (kaph) that which is in his purview. The r–k (or g) root can be seen in the Latin regulus, the diminutive of rex, a king.
Who else tends in Scripture? Adam. God made the earth, land, seas, and space, which was a lifeless form. Then He filled each of those spaces with its inhabitants. The sun and stars filled the space. The fish filled the seas, the birds filled the air, and the creatures filled the land. And then He put man in the Garden, to tend it and to keep it, that is, to tame it and set it in order.
Thus the meaning of the strong theme was revealed: The form of the tabernacle needs the function of the priesthood to tend what inhabits it.
Is the priesthood a microcosm of the original calling of man before the Fall? And is the general purpose of mankind, from the beginning, to tend and to set in order? Man sets in order his herds and fields (or whatever his work might be), woman sets in order her home and children. Priests set in order the tabernacle; shepherds set in order their flocks; even kings set in order their countries.
And God, from the beginning, set in order His creation out of chaos …
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