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The Heavenly Pattern

The things God told Moses to make, and what they copied

"And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst. Exactly as I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle, and of all its furniture, so you shall make it" (Exodus 25:8-9, ESV).

This series takes the furnishings one at a time. Each page follows its furnishing from Sinai through Solomon's temple, the prophets and the New Testament, and ends with what Scripture says the heavenly original is. Each has a plate drawn from what the text states, with anything the text leaves unstated drawn dashed and its source named.

Each page sorts its connections to Christ by how directly Scripture makes them: stated in the New Testament, echoed there, or read in by later interpreters. Hebrews itself sets the limit, stopping after the list of furnishings: "Of these things we cannot now speak in detail" (Hebrews 9:5, ESV).

The furnishings

  • The Ark of the Covenant — the gold chest under the mercy seat, lost on earth, named in Jesus as the propitiation, and seen in the temple in heaven.
  • The Table and the Bread of the Presence — the gold table where twelve loaves were kept before God's face every Sabbath, the holy bread David ate, and the table Jesus promises in His kingdom.
  • The Golden Altar of Incense — the altar before the veil where incense rose with the lamps, and the altar before the throne where the saints' prayers rise.
  • The Lampstand — one almond tree of hammered gold, kept burning every night, and the seven lampstands Jesus walks among in Revelation.

Alongside the furnishings: The Almond — the tree whose name sounds like "watching," on the lampstand's cups and on Aaron's staff that budded overnight to show whom God had chosen.

In preparation: the bronze altar, the basin and sea, and the house itself from tent to city.

Related: The Two Witnesses takes up Zechariah's two olive trees from the lampstand page.