Exodus 36:14–34

Goat-Hair Curtains, Frames and Bases

Summary prepared from the commentaries listed below.

Today's reading sounds like a construction log, and in a sense it is. Almost word for word, it repeats the instructions God gave in Exodus 26, now reported as finished work. That repetition is the point. The builders did exactly what God had said, down to the last loop and peg.

The workers make curtains of goat hair to serve as a tent over the tabernacle, eleven curtains in all. Each is thirty cubits long and four cubits wide, all the same size. They join five of the curtains into one set and the other six into another.

They make fifty loops along the edge of the end curtain in one set, and fifty loops along the edge of the end curtain in the other. Then they make fifty bronze clasps to fasten the tent together so that it is a single unit. Gold clasps joined the fine inner curtains; bronze clasps join this rougher outer layer.

Over the goat-hair tent they make a covering of ram skins dyed red, and over that a covering of fine leather. From the outside, the tabernacle would have looked plain and weathered. The beauty was on the inside.

Matthew Henry reads these layers as a picture of the protection God gives his people. "God has provided for his people a shadow from the heat, and a covert from storm and rain." The goat hair and skins kept out the desert sun and the occasional storm, and Henry applies that to the believer's life: "They are armed against all weathers."

He goes further. The covering protects God's people not only from hardship but from judgment itself, sheltering them from the storms of divine wrath. His conclusion is a homely one: for those who dwell in God's house, "be the tempest ever so violent, or the dropping ever so continual, it does not rain in."

Next they make upright frames of acacia wood for the tabernacle. Each frame is ten cubits long and a cubit and a half wide, with two projections set parallel to each other. All the frames are made this way.

They make twenty frames for the south side, with forty silver bases to go under them, two bases for each frame, one under each projection. For the north side they make another twenty frames with forty silver bases, two under each frame.

For the far end, the west side of the tabernacle, they make six frames, plus two frames for the corners at the far end. At these two corners the frames are double from the bottom all the way to the top and fitted into a single ring. So there are eight frames and sixteen silver bases, two under each frame.

They also make crossbars of acacia wood: five for the frames on one side, five for the other side, and five for the frames on the west end at the far side. The middle crossbar runs from end to end at the halfway point of the frames. They overlay the frames with gold, make gold rings to hold the crossbars, and overlay the crossbars with gold as well.

Henry sees in these boards and bars "the strength and stability of the church, though it is but a tabernacle." A tent is not a fortress, yet this one held together through forty years of travel. The secret was in how the pieces were joined. Each frame stood on silver, and the long bars ran through them all and bound them into one structure.

Henry applies that directly to God's people. The boards were coupled together by the bars that shot through them, and in the same way "the hearty agreement of those that are its stays and supporters, contribute abundantly to its strength and establishment." A church held together by love and common purpose can stand firm even when it looks fragile from the outside.

It is worth noticing, too, that none of this is improvised. Every measurement matches what God showed Moses on the mountain. Faithfulness in small, unseen details was part of Israel's worship.

1. The tabernacle looked plain outside and glorious inside. Where are you tempted to judge by appearances?
2. Which storms in your life right now do you need to bring under God's covering?
3. The frames stood together because the bars ran through them all. How can you strengthen the unity of your church?

- Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, Exodus 36: Open Christian Data (CC0 / public domain) - John Calvin, Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, John Gill, Augustine, Martin Luther, Jonathan Edwards, and Spurgeon: no entries on this passage in the library.