THE TEN WHITE LINEN CURTAINS
(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)
The wilderness tabernacle
was such a divine place!
God showed
Moses the inside first. Unlike many structures, the inside of the tabernacle was the most beautiful part. of all. The further you went inside, the more beautiful and majestic the structure became.
The beauty, majesty and intricate design of the inside chambers of the Tabernacle were truly amazing. The heart of the wilderness tabernacle
reflected the heart of the God it served; it had a pure, holy and righteous appearance.
The elements in the construction of this
tabernacle were lovely detailed symbols in the earth that pointed to the beautiful and true things that were
heavenly.
Can you imagine what an honor and a privilege
it was to be able to walk inside?
That walk would have been an
earthly pleasure and/or privilege belonging to only a few earthly priests; just
as walking inside the heavenly tabernacle will one day be a heavenly pleasure
that will belong to only a very few who are the making of a royal priesthood.
The scriptures speak of
those who will be entering heaven in Matthew 7:13-14; “Enter ye in at the strait
gate; for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leads to destruction,
and many there be which go in there at:
Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leads unto
life, and few there be that find it.”
The gate, or the “way”
seems to be almost hidden.
Is it
possible that the wilderness tabernacle holds some of the mystery that points to the narrow gate that leads to
the way of life that everyone is seeking to find?
I believe it does. I think the pattern points to our Most High
Priest; Jesus Christ.
Aaron; under the Levitical
order of priests, became the Most High Priest of the earthly wilderness tabernacle;
just as Jesus Christ, under the Order of Melchizedek became the Most High Priest of the Heavenly Tabernacle.
The earthly reflects the heavenly. This was God’s pattern. He was laying out a way for us to draw closer
to The Kingdom of God in this wilderness tabernacle. The earthly was not perfect, but it pointed
one to the heavenly which IS perfect.
Not just anyone could
enter this earthly tabernacle. Only the
priest (Moses, Aaron and The Sons of Aaron) could go into the tabernacle beyond
a certain point. That area that only
certain sanctified (set apart) people could enter was covered by ten white
linen curtains, one set of five white linen curtains fastened to another set of
five white linen curtains, held together with blue threads made into loops that
were clasped together with golden clasps.
In thinking of this holy
priesthood mentioned above, one cannot help but recall the words of 1 Peter 2:9;
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s
special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out
of darkness into his wonderful light.
The priests, from the
Aaronic tribe of Levi, served God in courses throughout the year. This was their function as the priests who
served in the earthly wilderness tabernacle.
There is, however, a heavenly priesthood. It is of the order of Melchizedek. Jesus Christ was born inside the flesh and
blood body of a man as a member of the tribe of Judah. He would not have been a part of the earthly,
Levitical priesthood, since He was of the tribe of Judah; not Levi. He has been given the title of Most High
Priest by God the Father, and this title fell within the order of Melchizedek, which seems to be an order of
heavenly purpose. The main difference in
these two orders of the priesthood is that one is of an earthly order and one
is of a heavenly order; one has an earthly function and one has a heavenly
function.
God called and chose the
priesthood serving in this wilderness tabernacle to be an earthly pattern for
the church which would grow out from it, and come about much later. These wilderness tabernacle priests were to
become the spiritual leadership of the nation that would first relate the ways
of God to the people of the earth.
The words of 1 Peter 2:9
were written much later in time; way beyond the times of the wilderness
tabernacle, and well after the church was established by The Holy Spirit. They were words from the Apostle Peter, based
under his service to the priestly authority of Jesus Christ after the order of Melchizedek.
It seems that the Apostle
Peter is relating that the Church is being called out and chosen to be part of
a heavenly royal priesthood and a heavenly holy nation that belongs specifically
to God; just as the priest in the wilderness tabernacle were members of an
earthly priesthood and an earthly nation that belonged specifically to God. Both orders being set apart for God,
functioning in different times, for different reasons, that were similar in
nature, one shadowing the other.
If you have been called to
become a Christian, you are called to be a part of God’s royal and holy
priesthood, headed by The Most High Priest called Jesus Christ, The Most High
Priest of the priestly order of Melchizedek.
The scriptures speak of Melchizedek as being The High Priest who once
blessed Abraham. In Christ has come the
promise of the blessing of the descendants of Abraham who are now as many as
the sands in the sea and the stars in the sky.
If you are a Christian
living for God today, the significance of who you are or who you can become in
Christ can be seen in the shadows of these ancient Hebrew priests who
ministered in this wilderness tabernacle of long ago. All of the earthly things symbolized the
coming of better heavenly things. As a
child of God born again into a holy priesthood; you need to know and understand
and discern these things about the wilderness tabernacle. They are patterns of your service to God The
Father in the new Jerusalem that will one day come down from Heaven.
Every part and piece,
every color, every number, every piece of furniture and every type of cloth in
this wilderness tabernacle carries meaning.
These ancient Levitical priests
were required to live holy and orderly lives. They were to guard the Law of God. This doesn’t mean they were not human; or that
they did not make very human mistakes from time to time; but their hearts were
to be purely focused on the divine things and holy ways of God, and they were
called to honor the laws of God through the living out of their lives. They
were to be a pattern for us to follow.
Speaking of the law, (the
ten commandments,) and how significant they were to the ministry in the
wilderness tabernacle; we again emphasize the fact that there were TEN curtains
and that this number ten seems to be a very significant and symbolic number.
When we think of the
number ten our first thought may be of the obvious; the fact that they covered and
sheltered the place that held the Ten Commandments. Did each curtain stand as a witness to a
certain commandment? We will have to
ask God that question one day; I have found no written verification; it was
simply a question that popped into my mind as I studied. All I can say for certain is that the number
ten is very significant.
The number ten, when
referring to holy things, stands for divine perfection. It
signifies the perfection of divine order.
We see examples of this in
many other scriptural references such as; the giving of the ten commandments,
the placing of the ten elders within the city gates of Jerusalem (Ruth 4:2), the
parable of the ten virgins, the story of the ten lepers who were healed, the
parable of the woman with ten coins, the Passover Lamb being slain on the 10th day of the month, and the Day of Atonement
being on the 10th day
of the 7thmonth. There are
numerous other such examples. All of
them seem to point to the holiness of Christ in some way.
In the making of the ten fine
white linen curtains we see symbolism of the divine perfection of the humanity
of Christ. He was the only perfect person
to ever live in a human body. The white
of the fine linen symbolizes the purity of Christ. This is where we get the tradition of a
virgin bride wearing a dress of white linen.
The white stands for purity.
Christ was the only totally pure person who walked this earth in a human
body. He is our mentor; our example, the
One we should look to when seeking holiness.
These white linen curtains are symbolic of all of His holiness.
The ten curtains were
measured in cubits. A cubit was the
length of a man’s arm from the bend of his elbow to the tip of his middle
finger. This was approximately 18
inches, depending on the person doing the measuring. The measurements of the curtains were 28
cubits long, 4 cubits wide and all 10 of them measured the same.
Thinking of the
measurement of 28 cubits we consider that 28 is the combination of 4 x 7. Four is the number of God’s creation and
seven is the number of perfection. The
number 28 reveals the perfection of God’s creation.
The secrets hidden in God’s
holy design of this tabernacle, once revealed and brought to fruition would
allow men to become perfect enough to be a part of The Kingdom of God. It wasn’t about the men themselves being
perfect; but about how the covering over them was perfect.
Everything in the
Wilderness Tabernacle, starting with the outer court and going all the way into
the Holy of Holies was designed to bring God’s creation (mankind) into the
perfect form and shape of God’s image and likeness. This could only be achieved by the birth,
life and death of The Most High Priest of Heaven, Jesus Christ. The Wilderness Tabernacle constantly points
to Him.
We see in the wilderness
tabernacle a perfect symbol of Christ at work in the lives of mankind,
beginning with the nation of Israel and moving outward into the nations of all
the earth.
