THE CHERUBIM, THE COLORS
AND THE GOLDEN CLASPS
(Written by Sheila Gail
Landgraf)
Can you imagine walking unexpectedly upon a temporarily settled camp of multitudes of people living out of tents in the middle of the wilderness with an amazing tabernacle being constructed piece by piece and transported in their midst?
What would be your first thought?
A beautiful design of
cherubim was woven inside each white linen panel of the walls of the inside of
the tabernacle.
Cherubim are the celestial
angels who live in the spiritual realm of the heavenly places. When Adam sinned and had to be cast out of
the Garden of Eden, God placed cherubim in front of Eden to guard it with
swords. More than just guarding the
garden; they were there to guard the way to The Tree of Life. These angels represent the righteous
government of God and they are God’s officials who execute and carry out His
judgments.
The blue, purple and
scarlet designs of these cherubim that were woven inside the linen curtains which
covered the holy place and the most holy place, were visual reminders to the
priest serving in the tabernacle of how holy God is and how careful they should
be in their actions and their thoughts and their worship before God in order to
be able to carry out the duties of their ministry with purity. They were expected to look to the holiness of
God and imitate His perfect holiness in all that they did.
Fifty golden clasps allowed
the ten curtains to be brought together and made into one. This action of how they came together is a
perfect picture of how Christ prayed to the Father for us to be One in Him and
for All to be One in God. We can read
the words of Christ in John 17:20-22 and
as we listen to the sincere loving words of this prayer for unity of God’s
people into one body, we can also think of the symbolism of how intricate the
ten white linen curtains of the tabernacle formed together into one
curtain.
John 17:20-22; I do not
pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their
word; that they all may be one, as You, Father are in Me, and I in You; that
they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me and the
glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are
one.
One
could not see any of these things, (the white linen curtains with the beautiful
cheribum and the blue loops of the curtains with the gold clasps that held them
all in place) from the outside; it could only be seen from a certain place
inside the tabernacle. Until one repents
and believes on the name of Jesus and accepts Him as their Savior; one cannot
always see the things of God or the inside of the Kingdom of God. You must look for God from inside your body
(your tabernacle) from the place of your heart in order to find Him. You can try using your mind, your eyes, your
hands, your feet; but your search will be incomplete until you have found a way
to see God through the eyes of your heart.
God’s dwelling among the people of Israel reflected this. Those who believed and acted on their unseen faith
could sometimes begin to see with the eyes of their hearts the purposes for
mankind that God was beginning to accomplish with the building of the tabernacle
in the wilderness.
The colors also spoke in
symbols. The colors that made up the
cherubim design were blue, red, and purple.
The sky blue, resembling
the color of the sky, was to remind people of the heavenly; the high and lofty
and holy things unseen by the world that are only visible to one who has been
shown the invisible world of God’s Kingdom. This comes to us through The Holy Spirit who
works in a similar fashion as the white linen curtains and the golden clasps;
forming many pieces into one unified body of worship before God’s throne,
represented in The Holy of Holies as The Mercy Seat.
The cheribum, again were acting
as something invisible, something that someone with no knowledge or covering of
God’s atonement would ever be allowed to see. You could only see these from the
inside rooms of the tabernacle, from the holy place where only the Israelite
priests could enter.
The finely woven linen
threads dyed in the color of red were symbolic of the blood of atonement; the sacrificial
covering of Christ. We see the suffering
servant aspect of the life of Christ when we look upon the red colors worn by
the cheribim in the deepest inside room of the tabernacle.
We can also see this
aspect of Christ when we look out from the inside room of our heart that
resides from within the living tabernacle of our own body, from which we are
blessed to walk and live and breathe surrounded by the love of God.
We
look upon the purple color dyed into the twisted threads of fine linen within
the design of the cherubim and we think of royalty. This rich color is symbolic of the Kingship
of Christ. The time is fast approaching when every knee shall bow and every
tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is King.
He will come again and reign forever and ever. This mystery is hidden deep inside the folds
of the white linen curtains in the inner walls of the wilderness
tabernacle. The curtains are teaching us
lessons we need to know in order to live within the laws and grace and mercy of
God’s kingdom.
God told Moses to make the
fifty clasps of gold and to couple the curtains together with the clasps so that
it would be one tabernacle.
Immediately we are
reminded of Ephesians 4:16; “From
whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every
joint supplies, according to the effectual working in the measure of every
part, makes increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.”
Each little golden clasp
must do its part to hold the pieces of linen cloth together.
Each
one holds a piece of the inside and each one holds a piece of the covering. When
each piece holds its part; the walls of the inside of the tabernacle work well.
Together they achieve functionality and
beauty.
If one clasp breaks; they
all fail; but the others hold the weight of the one until it can be mended and
restored, keeping complete failure from happening to anyone.
If all clasps succeed;
they all succeed together in doing the job that God designed for them to do.
The simple job or each individual
clasp seems insignificant at first; but let one little part be broken and all
of the very holy inside places of the tabernacle are affected and disturbed.
Each clasp is individually
important in doing a very effective, yet unseen, job in the tabernacle.
Our lives are like this.
God gives us quiet, unseen
jobs that the world will not notice; yet they are still very important to the
body as a whole.
When we all work together
and follow God’s design the holiness of God is protected in this world, and we
are blessed with His Presence that desires to dwell among us.
For the tabernacle to work
correctly, each individual clasp must do the job that they have been designed
and equipped by God to do. One clasp not
working creates a great strain on the other clasps.
So you must think of the
ten curtains as two divine sets of five, one facing the holy, and one making
this possible because it is a covering. Each set of five being fitly joined
together with fifty loops of gold; making the two act simultaneously as one.
I have spoken of how the
golden clasps sometimes act like the believers of our churches today, in that
what each of them does affects the whole witness of the church. Others have
noticed that the fifty gold loops could also stand for the fiftieth year, the
year of Jubilee in which all captives are set free and all debts forgiven in
Israel. I can see that analogy too; since everything about the tabernacle
symbolizes Christ and He has provided our freedom and brought forgiveness for
our sins. He has paid our debts. He has brought us to our Year of Jubilee. It is a golden time for rejoicing
together! We owe our Jubilee of freedom to Him and Him
alone.
I can also see how the fifty golden clasps work like the fifty days leading up till Pentecost when God's Holy Spirit came and united the body of Christ, bringing all together in unity. Fifty is a very significant number.
Let’s stay inside the
tabernacle for awhile; let’s sit quietly reflecting upon the holy place. Later we will discuss the outside, and then go
even deeper within the inside to see what God told Moses about The Holy of
Holies.
Right now let’s reflect on
these first instructions that God gave to Moses for building the inside of The
Holy Place.
Can you imagine being
Moses and hoping to please God with all of this? It must have required a great
amount of trust and total obedience and courage. He had learned over the course
of time from leaving Egypt and coming into the wilderness that what seems
impossible with us as human beings is always still possible when God is at the
root of the project.
All things are possible
with God. Knowing this helps us to
understand how such a magnificent structure could come to be designed, built
and carried on a long winding journey through the rough, lonely, deserted and dangerous
parts of the wilderness.
We will talk in the days to come of how God
helped Moses to properly organize the people to achieve all of this; but there are
still more instructions about exact construction to absorb.
An awesome plan for a magnificent
tabernacle is coming together into one amazing blueprint right in the very
heart of the wilderness. Who would have
ever imagined such an event? Only God
could have planned such a thing.
