Provision For Making the Dwellingplace: The People Called On To Make Their Offerings (Exodus 25:1-9).
We may analyse this passage as follows:
a The children of Israel to be called on to make an offering according to their willingness (Exodus 25:1-2).
b The offering was to be of gold, silver and brazen copper (Exodus 25:3).
c And blue-violet and purple-red and scarlet, and fine linen (Exodus 25:4 a).
d And goats' hair and rams' skins dyed red, and dolphin skins, (Exodus 25:4-5 a).
d And acacia wood (Exodus 25:5 b).
c Oil for the light, spices for the anointing oil and for the sweet incense (Exodus 25:6).
b Onyx stones and stones to be set for the ephod and for the breastplate (Exodus 25:7).
a And they are to make Him a sanctuary that He may dwell (shakan) among them. According to all that He was to show Moses, the pattern of the Dwellingplace (mishkan - EVV Tabernacle) and the pattern of all its furniture, even so they were to make it.
In ‘a' the people are called on to make a willing offering, and in the parallel they are to make Him a Holy Place (Sanctuary) in which to dwell in accordance with the heavenly pattern. In between these we have the treasures of Israel. Note how in ‘b' we have the precious metals whereas in the parallel we have the (semi-) precious stones. In ‘c' we have the materials for the dwellingplace which convey the essential message of the Dwellingplace, its heavenly nature (blue), its royalty (purple-red)and its offer of atonement and righteousness (scarlet), and in the parallel the continual contributions to worship by the people of oil for the light, spices for the anointing oil and incense all of which are closely connected to the Sanctuary. In the ‘d' we have the protective coverings and the wood to add strength, possibly indicating the presence of the earthly aspect in the Dwellingplace.
Note also how, in as far as possible with such overall coverage, all is graded so as to go from the centre outwards, commencing with gold, through silver, to brazen copper; and from the materials for the inner draping to the materials for the outer covering. And we may detect the order, constituents of the inner furniture (gold), drapings and outer coverings, oils and incense for maintenance of worship, jewels for the priestly garments, an order followed in the subseqent narrative.
So the pattern that follows in the subsequent description on the whole parallels the order here, mainly (but not precisely) indicating the first use of the offering made by the people. So we have the making of the inner furniture with the gold (Exodus 25:10-40), then the making of the Sanctuary with the coloured materials (Exodus 26:1-6), then the outer covering with the goatskins, etc. (Exodus 26:7-14), then the frames of acacia wood (Exodus 26:15-28), then the oil for the lamp (Exodus 27:20), then the jewels for the priestly garments (Exodus 28). We should note that the acacia wood is also used in the inner furniture, and the gold on the frames, so there may also be a pattern based partly on value. The acacia wood by its position is clearly seen as the element of least value among the constituting materials, even though it is contained in much of the inner furniture, probably because it represents the more earthly aspect of the whole. The anointing oil and sweet incense only come in later in the narrative (Exodus 30:22-38), although the anointing oil is required for the sanctifying of the priests (Exodus 29). So we can only discern a trend rather than an exact order.
‘And Yahweh spoke to Moses saying, “Speak to the children of Israel that they take an offering for me. You shall take my offering from every man whose heart makes him willing.” '
From a human point of view this was an offering of tribute, the first requirement of a suzerain lord, but because the recipient was Yahweh it was also an act of worship, an ‘offering'. The tribute was therefore to be voluntary, a willing contribution. He wanted it to come from the heart. The people were to offer willingly. God receives nothing ungraciously given, or given for the wrong motive.
“And this is the offering that you shall take of them, gold and silver and brazen copper, and blue-violet and purple-red and scarlet, and fine linen and goats' hair. And rams' skins dyed red, and dolphin skins, and acacia wood.”
This is a list of what would be required for the Dwelling-place and its contents. Gold, silver and brazen copper for the furniture, and for the implements and vessels. Bluey-violet, purpley-red and scarlet for the curtains, goats' hair as a covering over the curtains (see 26:7; 35:26), and rams' skin dyed red for the outside (see 35:23). The later Arab tent shrines were also made of red leather. There would be no shortage of these things for some had built up wealth in Egypt and they had ‘spoiled' the Egyptians of many precious things when leaving.
“Dolphin skins” (‘tachash') The meaning is not certain but it was certainly a leather of fine quality. They were possibly dolphin skins (or porpoise skins) from Red Sea dolphins, or dugong skins. Compare Arabic ‘tuchas' which means dolphin. But also Egyptian ‘tchs' which means leather.
We may see the precious metals as a reminder of the glory and splendour of God, the bluey-violet a reminder that this was the place of contact with the heavens (the blue sky would be a daily occurrence), the purpley-red as a reminder that they were approaching a king, and the scarlet as a reminder that they could only do so through the shedding of blood. The fine linen would then represent the true righteousness of the One within, and the acacia wood might be seen as representing the strength and power of God. (It was put within the gold to provide stability and strength). But this is our view of things. They may have seen it differently.
The paucity of words for colour in Hebrew suggests that colour was not considered important in Israel and the words used tended more to suggest the origin of the dyes. And dyed cloth indicated wealth and splendour. The thought may simply therefore be of differing dark, dyed colours, indicating royalty and beauty and the spoils that Yahweh had won for them. The goat's hair was outside for weather protection and represented the people and the world outside. And finally all would be covered with a covering dyed red. This both made the Dwellingplace prominent and was also a reminder that God could only be approached through the shedding of blood.
The bluey-purple dye was probably indigo and was a common dye used in Egypt, the purpley-red dye was possibly derived from shellfish, the ‘scarlet worm' would probably be from the cochineal insect found in trees and the fine linen would be from Egyptian flax and of a soft white hue. The word used for linen is of Egyptian provenance.
“Oil for the light, spices for the anointing oil and for the sweet incense.”
The oil of pure beaten olive oil (Exodus 27:20) would be required for the lampstand (Exodus 25:31) and the perpetually shining light (Exodus 27:20-21), the spices for the anointing oil (Exodus 29:7; Exodus 29:21) and incense (Exodus 30:7). Compare the almost parallel verse in Exodus 35:28.
This verse is not found in the Septuagint (LXX) and some therefore see it as a later addition, possibly a scribal note from Exodus 35:28 eventually brought into the text. On the other hand it may equally have been accidentally or even deliberately omitted in the family of manuscripts from which the Septuagint was translated, or by the translators themselves.
The oil represented the people's part in letting the light of God shine out, a reminder to Him (in their eyes) of the fact that He was their light and life. The spices and incense represented a desire to please God.
“Onyx stones and stones to be set for the ephod and for the breastplate.”
The ephod is described in Exodus 28:4; Exodus 28:6 onwards, the breastpouch in Exodus 28:15 onwards. The word for ‘onyx stones' is ‘shoham' which may also mean beryl (so LXX often). The onyx is a black and white transluscent stone, and is easily engraved, the beryl is a green stone. Other alternatives are also suggested such as lapis lazuli and carnelian.
“And let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell (shakan) among them. According to all that I show you, the pattern of the Dwellingplace (mishkan - EVV Tabernacle) and the pattern of all its furniture, even so shall you make it.”
The word for ‘sanctuary' (miqdash) comes from the root for ‘holy' (qdsh). It is thus a sacred and holy place. But it is also His ‘dwelling-place' (mishkan - tabernacle). The King is here to dwell among His people. And the pattern of it and of its furniture is specifically stated to be divinely determined. We later learn that it is a pattern of heavenly things (Hebrews 8:5). But even then it is so idealistically not literally. It was to convey ideas not to describe the literal construction of Heaven, which is of course not physical. But the importance of this is in the idea it contained. Here they were in touch with the heavenly.
“The Dwellingplace.” (Mishkan). The temporary nature of the dwellingplace is brought out in 1 Chronicles 6:32 which refers to ‘the mishkan of the tent of meeting until Solomon had built the house of Yahweh' and 1 Chronicles 17:5 where it says ‘for I have not dwelt in a house since the day that I brought up Israel to this day, but have gone from tent to tent, and from one mishkan to another'. ‘Dwelt (yashab) in a house (bayith)' is there contrasted with ‘tent' (‘ohel) and ‘dwelling-place' (mishkan). The stress in the case of the tent is therefore on the tent as a ‘dwelling-place', but as more temporary of nature. Indeed its temporary nature is stressed, ‘from one tent to another'. It had constantly to be replaced. Once the temple had been built God was seen as more permanently housed in a building (yashab) rather than more temporarily housed in a movable tent (shakan) which led to the fatal error of thinking that God was restricted to the house and would protect His own house against all-comers. So Ezekiel had to indicate His permanent departure from it (Ezekiel 10). In Exodus 24:16 Yahweh temporarily dwelt (shakan) on Mount Sinai. He was not restricted to a place, and indeed could not be.