The Tabernacle building was three times as long as it was wide, and it was as tall as it was wide. If you think of fifteen feet wide, fifteen feet high, and forty-five feet long you will be close enough for the Tabernacle building itself.

If you stood back at a distance you would gain the impression of a large fenced-off area, the fence being pure white linen. The building was twice as high as the fence and its appearance was plain and rough on the two sides and rear. The inside of the building was ornate and beautiful.

The Glory of God Himself could be seen as He came down on the Tabernacle.

The gate to the Courtyard of the Tabernacle was on the eastern side of the linen fence when the Ark of the Covenant was facing east. It was a curtain that hung from four pillars. The curtain that formed the gate of the Courtyard was about thirty feet wide and seven and one-half feet tall—the same height as the rest of the fence.

The gate was part of the fence that surrounded the Courtyard. The colors of the gate leading into the Courtyard of the Tabernacle were blue, purple, scarlet, and fine twisted linen (white). These colors appear in the same order in several places in the Tabernacle.

The door to the Tabernacle building in the Courtyard also was of blue, purple, scarlet and fine twisted linen. This hanging of material was upheld by five posts of acacia wood overlaid with gold and topped with gold capitals.

The beautiful gate to the Courtyard and the higher door to the Tabernacle building gave the Israelite who came with his offering some idea of the magnificence of the gold-covered interior of the wooden Tabernacle building—the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place.

From the outside only two of the seven pieces of furniture could be seen. These were the great bronze Altar of Burnt Offering on which the lambs, goats, bullocks, rams and birds were sacrificed; and the Laver, which stood between the Altar of Burnt Offering and the door of the Tabernacle building.

The long sides of the Tabernacle building and of the linen fence ran west to east, with the entrances (door and gate) on the eastern end when the Ark of the Covenant was facing east.

There were five pieces of furniture in the Tabernacle building. When the priest stepped inside the door of the Tabernacle, on his right, that is, on the north side (when the Ark was facing east), was the Table of Showbread. It was constructed of wood and overlaid with gold. On his left, the south side, was the solid-gold Lampstand.

Straight in front of the priest, just this side of the Veil that partitioned off the Most Holy Place on the western end of the building, was the gold-covered Altar of Incense.

On the annual Day of Atonement, when the high priest was allowed to go past the Veil, he carried a censer, an incense burner, into the Most Holy Place (some scholars differ on the exact procedure here). Straight before him in the center of the Most Holy Place, a cubical room about fifteen feet on a side, was the gold-covered Ark of the Covenant.

To be continued.