Exodus 25: 22
And there I will meet with you, and from above the Mercy Seat, from between the two Cherubim which are upon the Ark of the Testimony, I will speak to you about all that I will give you in commandment for the sons of Israel.
This wooden box covered in gold inside and out, with the cover of pure gold made in one piece with the two cherubim on it with their wings covering it--this is the place where the Presence of the Lord God was centered. Here He spoke with Moses.
And God's presence here affected this Ark, so that the populace of the Nation Israel had to be protected from it by the Levites camping around it between the Tabernacle and the other Tribes. The Levites shall pitch round about the Tabernacle of Testamony, that there be no wrath upon the congregation of the children of Israel; and the Levites shall keep the charge of the Tabernacle (Numbers 1:23).
When they were to travel to another place in the Desert, they would pack up everything, to set up again in the new spot.
But only the priests, the sons of Aaron, were allowed to see the furniture inside the Tent, to prepare them for travel by covering them completely and putting the poles into the rings for carrying (Numbers 4:5-14).
Then the Levites, the Kohathites, would come in to carry these holy items out of the Tent. But they were not allowed to touch or even look at them, only carry them by their poles (Numbers 4:15).
Then the Levites, the Gershonites would take down all the curtains of the Tabernacle and the Courtyard, and carry all the soft items in wagons, covered by the porpoise skins. These made them waterproof (Numbers 4:21-28).
Then the Levites, the Merarites, would gather all the frames, crossbars, posts, bases, and tent pegs, all the hard items, and carry those in wagons, also (Numbers 4:31-33).
Then God had them all set out in a specific order, all to make sure that no one would be harmed by proximity to this Ark that God "sat" upon (Numbers 10: 14-28). (See also what happened to Uzza in I Chronicles 13:7, 9-10.)
God is God, and He is so grand and glorious, to the extreme, that no person is able to survive too close a proximity to Him without God somehow enabling them (as He did with Moses and Aaron and his sons). I John 4:12 tells us that No man hath seen God at any time, and I Timothy 6:16 says that God is Dwelling in the Light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, or can see, in the flesh we live in now. Only after Jesus returns again, and we are Glorified with that New Body that will glow like the Sun, then we will be equipped to see Him as He is (I Corinthians 6:35-58).
When Jesus fulfilled "all the Law and the Prophets," He also fulfilled all the parts of this Tabernacle and its furniture. He is pictured in every part of it. This Tabernacle shows us what Jesus would accomplish in His Life, Death, and Resurrection.
God has shown us His whole Plan of the Ages in His Word, and we need to be wholehearted in searching for His Truth, and persevere in digging deeper, in order to gain an understanding of what He is telling us.
It is a wonderful Plan, and I feel that I have barely scratched the surface of all God is telling us.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
