Your One Stop Tabernacle Shop

Reading Exodus 37 and 38 today, my high school Bible study days came back to me in a Proustian rush. Our minister conducted what seemed like a three year Wednesday night series on the tabernacle, and he could go an hour on a single verse. Acacia! Cubits! Tabernacle! Fever! Catch it!

In my memory, these lessons are every bit as riveting as my description makes them sound (which is to say, not very).

But...with an adult's hindsight, here are some things I thought of while reading the passages today.

1. My old minister was a carpenter. Why didn't this click for me when I was in high school? I mean, to someone who wanted to use his hands to hold books instead of hammers, these passages seem needlessly detailed. But looking back, I can see why the cat was fascinated. I don't think he ever built an tabernacle (we didn't have any spare cubits of gold lying around), but he did make us a self-contained stand to sell fireworks in.

2. I imagined a blog project not unlike ours wherein the goal was to document building a replica of the tabernacle. I didn't find it, but I did find this!

3. How long is a cubit? 20 inches, or the length from the elbow to the end of the middle finger. The lower forearm cubit? 12 inches, or the length from the elbow to the base of the hand.