The golden altar All covered with plates of gold. The instruments of ministry The sacred garments used by the priests in their holy ministrations. Cover them All these coverings were designed, 1st, For safety, that these holy things might not be sullied by rain, or tarnished by the sun. 2d, For decency, most of them had a cloth of blue, or purple, or scarlet over them; the ark, a cloth wholly of blue, perhaps an emblem of the azure skies, which are spread between us and the Majesty on high. 3d, For concealment. It was a fit sign of the darkness of that dispensation. The holy things were then covered. But Christ hath now destroyed the face of the covering.
Related Commentaries of Numbers 4:11
Numbers 4:11-12
11 And upon the golden altar they shall spread a cloth of blue, and cover it with a covering of badgers' skins, and shall put to the staves thereof:
12 And they shall take all the instruments of ministry, wherewith they minister in the sanctuary, and put them in a cloth of blue, and cover them with a covering of badgers' skins, and shall put them on a bar: