Exodus 39:32-43, as a conclusion to chapters 35 through 39, is a record of all the things made by the people of Israel for the tabernacle. In these verses and in chapter 40, two different terms are used for God’s building: the tabernacle and the Tent of Meeting. It is difficult to discover the significance of the meaning of these two terms. Actually, the tabernacle is the tent; these are two terms or titles for one entity. With the tabernacle the emphasis is the dwelling place, the habitation, of God. With the tent the significance is the place where God’s people meet. The tabernacle points to the place where God dwells, but the tent points to the place where God’s people meet together.
Apparently, the dwelling place of God and the priesthood are two different things. But as we have seen, the priests are the living stones, the materials, for the house of God (1 Pet. 2:5). The building of the house of God is the body of the priests. The priests are coordinated together to form a body, and this body is the building. In God’s original intention all the people of God are priests. As the priests the people of God are the materials for the building of the dwelling place of God, and when they are coordinated and composed together, they become the dwelling place of God. Therefore, on the one hand, God’s building is a tabernacle as a dwelling place, a habitation for God, and on the other hand, it is a tent as a meeting place and a composition of the Lord’s children. Everything positive is here in this composition. Christ is here, the church is here, the fellowship is here, the ministry is here, and the revelation is here. This portion of chapter 40 is actually a summary of the entire tabernacle with its furniture, showing us the building as the composition of all the Lord’s children.
If you compare the items of the building listed in 39:32-43 to all the items in the foregoing chapters, you will find that two items are not mentioned here. These are the curtains of fine linen and the covering of goats’ hair. The coverings of rams’ skins and porpoise skins are mentioned in verse 34, but the first two layers of the covering are not mentioned by name. Strictly speaking, the curtains of fine linen and of goats’ hair are the tabernacle and the tent. Verses 32 through 34 say, “Thus all the work of the tabernacle of the Tent of Meeting was finished...And they brought the tabernacle to Moses, the tent and all its furnishings, its clasps, its boards, its bars, and its pillars and its sockets; and the covering of rams’ skins dyed red and the covering of porpoise skins, and the veil of the screen.” The word its appears six times in verse 33, referring to the tabernacle and the tent. All the other items mentioned are the furnishings of the tabernacle and the tent. With this understanding, verse 33 could read, “And they brought the curtains of fine linen to Moses, the curtains of goats’ hair and all its furnishings, its clasps, its boards, its bars, and its pillars and its sockets.” All the its in this verse are the items belonging to the curtains of fine linen and the covering of goats’ hair as the tabernacle and the tent.
Exodus 36:8 says of the curtains of fine linen, “And all the wise in heart among those who did the work made the tabernacle with ten curtains, of fine twined linen and blue and purple and scarlet strands.” The construction of this sentence shows that the curtains of fine linen are the tabernacle; they made the tabernacle with ten curtains. Verse 14 continues, “And he made curtains of goats’ hair for a tent over the tabernacle; eleven curtains he made in all.” The first layer, the ten curtains of fine linen, is called the tabernacle. The second layer, the covering made of goats’ hair, is called the tent. Verse 19 says, “And he made a covering for the tent, of rams’ skins dyed red, and a covering of porpoise skins above it.” The tabernacle is the curtains of fine linen, the tent over the tabernacle is the covering of goats’ hair, and the rams’ skins are the covering over the tent. The reason why the first two layers of coverings are not mentioned in 39:33-34 is because these two coverings are the tabernacle and the tent.
Now we may understand what the difference between the tabernacle and the tent is. From within, it is the tabernacle, the dwelling place of God, and from without, it is the tent, the meeting place of God’s people. The inner layer is the tabernacle, while the outer layer is the tent. These two layers are the basic components; all the other items belong to them. The church is the building, the composition of God’s people. From within, it is the dwelling place of God, and from without, it is the meeting place of the Lord’s children. These are the two characteristics of the building of God.