Imagine a fifteen-by-forty-five-foot house, constructed of three tons of gold, five tons of silver, four tons of brass, and an assortment of jewels, fine wood, and fancy tapestries.This was the tabernacle, the portable house of worship built by a horde of escaped slaves. In the providence of God, the amazing project was financed by the farewell gifts to the children of Israel by their erstwhile captors, the Egyptians. . . The unique structure and value of the tabernacle command our attention. Never before nor since has there been such a costly prefab structure. . .You will find a drawing of this tabernacle on the previous pages, and you should try to visualise it as the focal point of Israel's worship for at least 300 years - that is, from the time of Moses to the erection of Solomon's temple.During those three centuries the liturgies and sacrifices prescribed for the service of the tabernacle were sometimes scrupulously observed, and sometimes almost entirely ignored. Nonetheless, it seems that the tabernacle never lacked an attendant priest, and it remained in more or less continual use right up until the day it was finally dismantled and transferred with all of its equipment to Solomon's temple. It is probable that the Ark of the Covenant was the only piece of the original furniture used in the temple. Solomon rebuilt all of the other furniture, probably on a larger scale, and then stored the original tabernacle, its vessels and its furnishings, in the temple as sacred relics.
