Passage: Exodus 26:1-6

The Big Idea

The innermost covering of the tabernacle was ten curtains of fine linen woven with blue, purple and scarlet, and embroidered with cherubim. Seen from inside, they formed the “ceiling” of God’s dwelling. They picture Jesus: the perfect man who fulfilled all ten commandments (fine linen), came from heaven (blue), is King (purple) and shed His blood (scarlet). Many people know about Jesus. The Holy Spirit wants our hearts to know Him as He truly is, and as we come into His “tabernacle” by faith, the law no longer condemns us; it’s fulfilled in Him.

Who Is Jesus to You?

When you hear the name of Jesus, what does your heart say?

That He was a good man? The best man who ever lived?

Most people think He was good, even the best man ever.
Many bad men think Jesus was a good man.
Many smart people know all the theology about Jesus and could answer any trivia question about Him.
Many good people think knowing about Jesus and calling themselves Christians is enough. But that’s not the same as knowing Him (Matthew 7:21-23).

But does my heart know Jesus:

as the righteousness of God?
as the One sent from heaven?
as King and Ruler?
as the blood sacrifice for my own sins?

Scripture says the Holy Spirit gives us that kind of heart-knowledge of Jesus.

“You have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know” (1 John 2:20).
John says the anointing we received from Him stays in us and teaches us about everything, and it’s true, not a lie. So we remain in Him (1 John 2:27).

So now we can recognize Jesus as He truly is: the Son of God from heaven, God’s righteousness, King of all, the blood sacrifice. And most importantly, you can know His love deep in your heart: its width and length and height and depth (Ephesians 3:18).

The Holy Spirit reveals these things. You didn’t figure them out on your own. He opened your heart to believe. You asked for God’s grace in humility and faith, and He responded with more than you could imagine: His Holy Spirit, who tells you about Jesus and teaches you from the inside out, writing His will on your heart.

The Point of It All

Jesus Christ is the only thing that ultimately matters in this life. He is God, the Creator of everything, and His Word reveals everything we need to know about Him. We were designed to live in Him and through Him. Adam was meant to walk with God every day.

Jesus has restored us to that. He has adopted us back into the family we were made for. We lost it through sin, but He brings us back through His finished work on the cross, so that people everywhere can be born again into God’s family by faith in Him.

When you hear these things, you’re blessed. When you believe them, God has opened your heart and drawn you with His love.

John tells us he wrote his Gospel so that we would believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing we would have life in His name (John 20:31).

The point of the Bible is to help you believe: to test your faith and grow your faith in the person and work of Jesus.

The Curtains (Exodus 26:1-6)

God told Moses to make the tabernacle from ten curtains of fine twisted linen with blue, purple and scarlet yarn, with cherubim skillfully worked into them. Each curtain was twenty-eight cubits by four. Five were joined together, and the other five likewise. Fifty loops of blue went on the edge of each set, and fifty gold clasps joined them, so that the tabernacle would be one whole (Exodus 26:1-6).

These ten curtains formed the innermost covering, the “ceiling” seen from inside the Holy Place and Most Holy Place. God calls them “the tabernacle” itself (verses 1, 6).

What do they teach us about Jesus? Let’s look at what they were made of.

Ten curtains of fine linen

Ten reminds us of the Ten Commandments.
Ten can represent humanity’s responsibility before God: what God requires of us, what a perfect life looks like, what we owe Him.
This is part of the tabernacle because Jesus is the perfect man, not only perfect God.
Everywhere we look in the Gospels, His life shows perfect love for God and perfect love for people. He was holy. He was loving. He was perfect.

Fine linen pictures righteousness (Revelation 19:8).

Jesus kept the commandments perfectly.
There was no stain of sin or disobedience.
We can examine His whole life, from childhood to the cross, and find Him perfect. Even Pilate said, “I find no fault in Him” (John 19:4).
How righteous was He? As righteous as God. That’s what the law ultimately requires: complete, perfect righteousness.
He is the righteousness of God for us (1 Corinthians 1:30).
We can know that in our heads. But does our heart see it and glorify Jesus for it? Let’s ask the Spirit to show us how amazing this is.

Blue

Blue is the color of the sky, of heaven.
Throughout the Gospels, Jesus is the One who came down from heaven (John 3:13).
Heaven was also the source of His life and power. He depended on His Father and was empowered by the Spirit (Acts 10:38).
Jesus is heaven’s gift to us, God’s help and power for us.
Does our heart grasp the gift of grace that came down from heaven? Do we think of Jesus as far away, or as come down and given to us?

Purple

The color of royalty.
Soldiers dressed Jesus in purple to mock His claim to be King of the Jews (Mark 15:17).
He was called King of the Jews at His birth (Matthew 2:2) and at His death (John 19:19).
And now He sits on the throne of heaven, King of all.
He freely laid aside His royal rights to do His Father’s will, and now He’s exalted as King again (Philippians 2:9).
Does our heart sense the glory of this King? Do we feel our smallness beside His majesty?

Scarlet

Blood.
Jesus accomplished God’s will through His blood. He gave His blood to pay for my sin.
We were redeemed not with perishable silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like a lamb without blemish or spot (1 Peter 1:18-19).
John saw a great multitude who had washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb (Revelation 7:14).
“Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow” (Isaiah 1:18).
Does my heart know my sins have been washed away by Jesus’ blood? It’s the cure for every sickness of the heart. His blood heals us.

Cherubim

These heavenly beings serve God and do His will.
In Jesus’ kingdom, there are countless witnesses to His glory and power.
These mighty beings gladly submit to God’s will and rule. Do we?

Two sets of five

Just as the Ten Commandments can be divided into our duties toward God and our duties toward others.
Does our heart embrace God’s perfect standard? Jesus didn’t come to abolish the law but to fulfill it (Matthew 5:17).

Fifty gold clasps

The two sets of curtains were joined by gold clasps, gold often picturing deity, “so that the tabernacle is one.”
In Jesus, perfect humanity and full deity, our duty to God and our duty to others, are united in one Person.

The Law Fulfilled in Us

When we look at the law, we see our complete inability to keep it. That’s the law’s purpose for us. So we cry out to Jesus and come into the tabernacle of our Savior, where the law has been fulfilled, and we’re accepted and clothed in His white linen.

John saw twenty-four elders around the throne, clothed in white robes, with golden crowns (Revelation 4:4).

Inside the tabernacle, the law isn’t frightening anymore. It’s fulfilled.

Paul explains that God did what the law could never do, weakened as it was by our flesh. He sent His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, as an offering for sin, and condemned sin in the flesh, so that the righteous requirement of the law would be fulfilled in us, who walk by the Spirit (Romans 8:3-4).

In the Spirit, life looks like this tabernacle. We’re clothed in righteousness. We’re accepted and beloved, all because of the Messiah, Jesus, the righteousness of God given to us. We live in Him.

Paul’s goal is that we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God’s Son, becoming mature, attaining to the full measure of Christ, so we’re no longer tossed around by every wind of teaching, but speaking the truth in love, we grow up in every way into Him who is the head, Christ (Ephesians 4:13-15).

Spiritual growth is all about knowing the truth and love of Jesus.

Grace Takeaway

From the outside, few people would ever see these beautiful curtains. Only those who came inside could look up and see the fine linen, blue, purple and scarlet. Many know about Jesus from the outside. But the Spirit invites you in, to see Him as He is: perfectly righteous, come from heaven, crowned as King, and bleeding for you. Inside His tabernacle, you’re clothed in His righteousness, and the law that once condemned you is fulfilled in you. Come in by faith, look up, and let your heart know Him.

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The Ten Curtains