I found buried in my files some notes from a talk I heard years ago. The speaker was giving a lecture about the portable worship center constructed by the Israelites in the wilderness, the Tabernacle. The Tabernacle was built according to the divine specifications given by God to Moses on Mt. Sinai, as recorded in Exodus 25-31. Those specifications are repeated in 35-40, making altogether eleven chapters dealing almost exclusively with the tabernacle’s construction and contents. It’s been observed that the tabernacle description in these eleven chapters of Exodus makes up the largest single subject covered in the entire Bible; the ironic thing is that the average Christian today knows so little (if anything) about it! The speaker emphasized the point that it was God who designed the Tabernacle, and that God was quite specific in His instructions about every area of its construction. God was the Chairman of the Tabernacle Building Committee and the chief architect; He directed the project personally. The Tabernacle functioned as the center of worship for the nomadic Israelites; it was sometimes called the "tent of meeting"... not so much where the faithful went to meet each other, but where the faithful went to meet God. It also served a teaching function in its elaborate symbolism: the design of the Tabernacle and its contents served as visual aids to teach spiritual truths. Tabernacle imagery is alluded to throughout the Bible, especially the book of Revelation. This morning I only want to draw your attention to that first, physical function of the Tabernacle. Also known as the "Tent of the Lord," the tabernacle functioned as a kind of portable, central sanctuary for the nomadic Hebrews. During their 40 years of wandering, their settlement in Canaan, and until the time when the Temple was erected during the reign of Solomon, the Tabernacle was the central sanctuary of the Israelites, the central place of worship.

The Tabernacle was a portable cathedral, really...not exactly the kind of tent you would take along on a Boy Scout outing. It was a massive structure, approximately 45 feet long (roughly 6 or so feet longer than our sanctuary is wide), fifteen feet high, and fifteen feet wide. The beams used for transporting the tabernacle were over two feet thick. (The carpenters among you may make frequent use of two-by-four beams. The beams used for transporting the tabernacle were two-by-two beams...not inches, but feet.) The elaborate courtyard that would be set up around the tabernacle each time the Israelites struck camp was even larger (see Ex. 27:9ff)...150 feet long (about as long lengthwise as the wing-to-wing outside length of our building), 75 feet wide (distance from this pulpit to the C.E. closet down the hall), 23 foot high curtains on each side (according to our sexton Mr. Pickup, the height of our ceiling is twenty feet, 2 and 15/16 inches) and a 75 foot high curtain at the entrance! (roughly the distance from the ground outside to the top of steeple).

The speaker who gave that talk I heard years ago went on to list some interesting statistics. In 1960, a group of specialists investigated the financial and physical feasibility of creating an exact replica of the Tabernacle, and they documented their research. Bear in mind that these financial statistics were compiled some 37 years ago by this group; the monetary figures would obviously be much larger today. According to these researchers, the materials for the tabernacle’s foundation and framework alone, by 1960 standards, would cost approximately $280,000...over a quarter of a million dollars. The tent itself ... lined with skins, covered with woven tapestries inlaid with gold ... would have had a 1960 pricetag of $1,500,000. The Lampstand described in 25:31-40 was constructed of approximately seventy-five pounds (not ounces) of pure gold. Each branch of the lampstand (there were six branches coming off the main shaft of the lampstand): $27,000; this does not include the pricetag of the base, shaft, cups and other ornamentation. Again, these figures are in 1960 dollars. To help give a bit of a perspective: According to the records in our upstairs filing cabinets, in the year 1962 we had a total membership of 597 active members. Dr. Lilley’s salary was $6,300 plus $1,000 for housing. Total light, gas, water and telephone for the church was $500. TOTAL Budget of the church that year, including benevolence/mission: $26,206; which is, ah, a little less than our operating budget today...by about $218,000 worth. That 1962 budget of $26,206 worked out to a whopping cost of approximately 85 cents per week per member. If you take into consideration that not all members on the active roll are all that active, figure it cost about $1 a week per participating member to maintain the operating budget in 1962. (A little aside -- most of you know that I make it a point not to know what individuals in the church give. I do know some general things, though. For example, if this church is like other churches, I’d venture to say that there might be some people in our congregation who still think it is 1962.)

Back to the tabernacle. This $2,000,000+ price tag is only the beginning. I have said nothing about the costs of the surrounding courtyard (see 27:9-19)! Nor are labor costs included...all the skilled labor of the craftsmen, artisans, carpenters, jewelers, and so on was free of charge. Roughly one ton of gold, three tons of copper, and four tons of silver were used in the construction of the Tabernacle and its furniture. The remainder of building materials (lumber, fabric, precious stones, animal skins) were only of the highest quality...nothing but the best materials were used in the Tabernacle’s construction.

Remarkable, isn’t it? What is even more remarkable than the Tabernacle in all its extravagance is this: All this immense wealth in precious metals and materials, well over three million 1960 dollars worth was freely given by a group of nomads who were by no means wealthy. Remember, the Israelites had just been released after over four centuries of slavery in Egypt. On short notice, they had to pack whatever they could carry and leave, and they have been in the wilderness ever since! Yet, they willingly gave what they could, and they gave the best of what they could, and we read in Exodus 36:5-7 that they actually gave so much that Moses had to order them to stop giving! Why this extravagant, lavish giving? I think there are three reasons:

Let’s allow these three principles to guide our giving... and to guide our lives, for that matter.