Passage: Exodus 26:7-14
The Big Idea
Over the beautiful linen curtains went a tent of eleven goat-hair curtains, then coverings of red-dyed ram skins and fine leather. The dark goat hair recalls the sin offering: Jesus, made sin for us. The bronze clasps speak of judgment. The red ram skins speak of devoted sacrifice. Jesus’ suffering is directly tied to God’s grace. His blood is our guarantee that God will meet our needs, every time. So there’s no room for pride in our relationship with God, only humble, grateful receiving.
Why Did Jesus Suffer?
Why did Jesus suffer and die on the cross? For our sins, yes. But our sins were our problem. We should have paid the price ourselves: eternal separation from God. That’s the right and just sentence on every rebellion against God.
But Jesus chose to come from heaven, take a human body and sacrifice His life for us. Why?
Jesus’ suffering is directly connected with God’s grace. God’s grace is His willingness to reach out and help us, to meet our every need, because He loves us.
Our need was clear: a Redeemer who would bear God’s just penalty on our behalf. So God sent Jesus to meet that need.
We never earned it. We never deserved it. We can’t boast about any of it. Jesus simply loved us while we were His enemies and didn’t even want to be saved (Romans 5:8-10). He began pursuing us before we ever started running from Him. And He’ll never leave or forsake us, because His love is perfect.
That’s how grace works. God meets our needs.
What’s required to receive grace? No works. But two relationship realities: humility and faith.
- God gives grace to the humble but resists the proud (James 4:6).
- We have access by faith into this grace in which we stand (Romans 5:2).
When we humble ourselves and trust Jesus, He meets all our needs by His grace. Every longing and emptiness is met in Him. Every failure and shortcoming is dealt with. Every daily need becomes an opportunity for Jesus to step in and pour out His grace.
But how do I know He’ll do that for me, every time, without fail?
Because of His suffering. His blood.
Oh, if we only understood the value of Jesus’ blood!
- Jesus entered the Most Holy Place once for all, not with the blood of animals, but with His own blood, securing eternal redemption (Hebrews 9:12).
- God’s grace comes to us at a price, and that price was the blood of Jesus.
- That blood has bought us all grace: everything we’ll ever need. That’s redemption: we’re made right and set free.
- In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our sins, in keeping with the riches of His grace (Ephesians 1:7).
- Grace is Jesus pouring out what we need, and His blood purchased all of it.
“But what if I want to do it my way?”
“What if I want to earn my place with God and show Him what I can do? Can’t I just give Him my best? Won’t that make Him happy? Keep the commandments, go to church, pray, read the Bible?”
No. You must trust in Jesus’ blood, or…
Hebrews warns: how much worse punishment will someone deserve who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, treated as unholy the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and insulted the Spirit of grace? (Hebrews 10:29).
- Insulted the Spirit of grace!
- God is deeply offended when we refuse to live by the resources He has provided in His Son.
- We underestimate the grace of Jesus, and the sacrifice it cost, at our peril.
- It’s not about you and your efforts. It’s about what He has done for you.
- Don’t try to climb higher by stepping on Jesus.
- Fall on your knees with arms open, and receive His lovely, free grace.
The Tent (Exodus 26:7-14)
God told Moses to make eleven curtains of goat hair, each thirty cubits by four, as a tent over the tabernacle. Five were joined into one set and six into another, with the sixth folded double at the front. Fifty loops and fifty bronze clasps joined the tent into one. The extra length hung down over the back and sides, covering the tabernacle completely. Over the tent went a covering of ram skins dyed red, and over that a covering of fine leather (Exodus 26:7-14).
Notice the terms:
- The linen curtains are called “the tabernacle” (mishkan, dwelling place) in verses 1 and 6.
- The goat-hair curtains are called “the tent” (ohel) in verses 7, 11 and 12.
- The ram skins and fine leather are called “coverings” (verse 14).
So the tabernacle and the tent are distinct. God dwelt in the tabernacle. The people came to Him and assembled before Him. And over His dwelling was spread this tent.
The Goat-Hair Curtains
These were woven from dark goat hair, like Bedouin tents still are today. The bride in the Song of Songs says, “I am dark, but lovely… like the tents of Kedar” (Song of Songs 1:5).
Why goats? Throughout the law, a goat was the regular sin offering:
- at the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Numbers 28:22),
- at the Feast of Weeks (Leviticus 23:19),
- at the Feast of Trumpets (Numbers 29:5),
- and on the Day of Atonement, when two goats were chosen: one slain as a sin offering, and the other, after the high priest confessed Israel’s sins over it, sent away into the wilderness (Leviticus 16).
So the meaning of the goat-hair curtains becomes clear: “God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
Whenever a child of God saw those dark curtains over the entrance, they could remember the price paid for them to enter this relationship with God.
Why eleven?
God tells us not to think of eleven by itself, but as two groups: five and six.
- Many Bible teachers see five as associated with grace: God providing for His people’s need.
- Six is often associated with man: man was created on the sixth day; he works six days.
- Jesus hung on the cross from the sixth hour (Mark 15:33). That’s where human sin led: the Son of God had to die for it.
Arthur Pink pointed out six things human hands did to Jesus in His sufferings: they scourged His back, struck His face, spat on Him, crowned Him with thorns, nailed His hands and feet, and pierced His side.
Grace (five) joined to the sin of man (six), in one tent covering God’s dwelling.
The bronze clasps
The linen curtains were joined with gold clasps. These goat-hair curtains were joined with bronze.
- Bronze is often linked with judgment (the bronze altar where sacrifices were burned, Exodus 27:1-2; the bronze serpent, Numbers 21:9).
- Jesus’ suffering was bound up with the grace we needed. To give us grace for our sin, He had to bear the judgment.
So the numbers and materials foreshadow the grace and suffering of Jesus.
Completely covered
The measurements show this tent covered the whole tabernacle, hanging down over the back and sides. No one outside could see any of the heavenly beauty inside.
- To know Jesus, you have to enter by the door He provides: faith.
- You can’t observe it from the outside. You can’t study your way in.
- You have to believe before you’ll ever really understand the glory of God (Hebrews 11:6).
- You have to know the five and the six (grace and our sin) before you enter the seventh, God’s rest.
The Coverings
Ram skins dyed red.
- The ram often pictures dedication and consecration. At the priests’ ordination, the “ram of consecration” was offered (Exodus 29:22).
- When Abraham proved his surrender by offering Isaac, God provided a ram as the substitute (Genesis 22:13).
- Dyed red: devoted all the way to death.
- Jesus was completely devoted to His Father’s will, even to the shedding of His blood.
Fine leather (sometimes translated “badger skins”): the outermost covering, durable and protective. The exact material is uncertain, possibly the hide of a sea creature, or a special fine leather.
Interestingly, these two coverings aren’t given measurements. Perhaps that’s fitting: you can’t measure Jesus’ devotion to His Father, or His beauty.
What Does All This Mean for Us?
When it comes to our relationship with God, there’s no room for pride.
All the glory goes to Jesus. He accomplished everything. He paid the price. He did the dying. He provided the goat-hair curtains.
Our response is simply to humble ourselves and receive His grace.
And just as Jesus was raised to new life after His death on the cross, we’re filled with His new life when we enter a relationship with Him by faith: trusting Him, coming into His tabernacle, where all the grace and blessing of Jesus are freely given to us.
Grace Takeaway
From the outside, the tabernacle looked like a plain, dark tent of goat hair. But that dark covering told the story of the sin offering: Jesus made sin for us, judged in our place, devoted to His Father even to death. That’s how much grace cost, and that’s why you can be sure it’s yours. Don’t try to climb up by your own efforts. Kneel, open your hands, and come inside.
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