Exodus 36
Construction starts
Moses continued,
“Bezalel, Oholiab, and all the other craftsmen who God has endowed with knowledge and skill should get to work and build the dwelling place by following the Existing One’s instructions.”
Israel donates even more materials than needed
Moses called all the craftsmen who were stirred in their hearts and gave them all the donations the Israelites provided for the construction. The Israelites continued to bring in donations every morning. The craftsmen who were building the sanctuary had to tell Moses,
“The people are donating even more than what we need!”
So Moses announced,
“We don’t need any more contributions in order to build the sanctuary!”
So the people stopped because the builders had more than enough material to follow God’s blueprints for the structure.
Israelites build each component
All the craftsmen worked together to build God’s home.
Bezalel made its 10 curtains with angels on them. The curtains were made of fine twisted linen and blue, purple, and scarlet material. Each curtain measured 42 feet long and 6 feet wide. He joined 5 of the curtains together as one set and the other 5 as a second set. He made purple loops on the edge of the outermost curtain in the first set, and did it again for the second set. He made 50 loops on the outermost edge of the first set, and 50 more on the outermost edge of the second set. He made 50 golden clasps and used them to join the curtains together to form the structure.
Then he made 11 curtains out of goats’ hair for a tent to go over the structure. Each curtain measured 45 feet long and 6 feet wide. He joined 5 of them together for the first set, and the other 6 together for the second set. He also made 50 loops on the outermost edge of the first set and 50 loops on the outermost curtain on the second set. He made 50 bronze clasps to join the two sets together.
He made a covering for the tent out of rams’ skins dyed red and a covering out of leather skins above.
Then he made the boards for the dwelling place out of acacia wood that stood upright. Each board was 15 feet long and 2.25 feet wide. Each board had 2 sockets to fit it to the one next to it.
He made 20 boards for the south side with 40 silver bases to hold them up. Each board stood on 2 bases (one base for each socket).
He made 6 boards for the back of the structure (which faced west). He also made 2 boards for the rear corners of the structure. Each corner piece was made of two pieces that were solid from their bottoms all the way up to their tops where the first ring was. So there were 8 boards with 16 silver bases (two bases for each board).
Then he made bars out of acacia wood. He made 5 bars to run along the boards on the right side of the structure, 5 to run along the left side, and 5 to run along the back side. The middle bar ran through the center of the boards from end to end. He overlaid the boards and the bars with gold and made golden rings to hold the bars.
He made the veil out of fine linen and blue, purple, and scarlet material. He professionally embroidered it with angels. He also made 4 pillars out of acacia wood to hold it up. He overlaid the pillars with gold and made golden hooks for them. He also cast 4 silver bases for them.
He professionally wove a covering for the tent’s doorway out of fine twisted linen and blue, purple, and scarlet material. He made 5 pillars to hold it up with hooks. The pillars’ tops and moldings were overlaid with gold, and their bases were made of bronze.
Related Article: We Supply the Material; God Supplies the Ability