The Hebrew word used for "bar" in this context, is "beriah" or "beriach" from "barah" meaning "to pass" or "shoot". The meaning for this word in its context is given in Young's Analytical Concordance as "Flying, or piercing object, bar". It may be that the middle bar was actually inserted through the thickness of the boards, in which case those centre bars would not be visible from either inside, or outside the tabernacle.

As for the boards which made up the framework of the tabernacle, the supporting bars, too, were made of that durable, incorruptible wood from the desert - shittim wood. This wood comes from the genus of trees and shrubs within the mimosa family, of which there are several hundred species. They are native to the warm regions on planet Earth, and we have lots of them here in Australia. We call them wattle trees! Some species are native to Africa too. Useful gums are obtained from most of the species, and the bark of most acacias is rich in tannin, which is used in tanning and in dyes, inks, pharmaceuticals and other products. A few acacias produce valuable timber: among these are blackwood (Australia), "koa" (Hawaii), and sweet acacia (south western USA, and now introduced into India and Europe).

Getting back to Moses' Tabernacle, there was to be no doubt about the stability of the tabernacle walls to endure and withstand the strong, buffeting, winds of the desert between Egypt and the promised land in Palestine. This is the route that the Israelites took between Egypt and Palestine.

Preparatory work for the Tabernacle was completed so that it could be reared up "in the first month, in the second year, on the first day of the month" (Exodus 40.17). One assumes that the date referred to here is the time period immediately after the Exodus of the 12-tribed Israel nation from Egypt. If the Exodus was in 1552 BC, then the Tabernacle was reared up somewhere about 1551 BC. The law and instructions to build the Tabernacle were given to Moses at Sinai, and the Tabernacle was built and reared before they left the mount. Was that place close to where acacia trees grow? Maybe Moses organised for the shittim wood to be "imported" from the north in Shittim, to the south at Sinai.

They stayed in that wilderness for about 40 years, and during that time they "pitched" and "encamped" some 42 times. Their eleventh stop-over was in the Wilderness of Sinai, and it was there that Moses went into the nearby mount and received the laws from the Lord; while this was happening, the people built a golden image of a calf, and began to worship it. Here we have the number eleven again, symbolic not only of a people falling away from the law and order of God's requirements, but of God stepping in to turn the hearts of the people back to Him. Another example of the number eleven being related to the Temple of God - the place where God communicates with man. It was at this eleventh campsite that Moses' Tabernacle was constructed. The record of the journey from the Exodus to the rearing of Moses Tabernacle whilst at the Sinai campsite is given in the Old Testament - Exodus chapters 12 through to 40. These events covered one to two years. A record of the whole journey through the Wilderness for the next 38 years, is given in Numbers 33.1-49.

At the time, there must have been an abundance of acacia trees in the desert. There would need to be. Each board (48 of them) measured 220 inches high. The metric measurement equivalent is about 5.5 metres tall. One assumes that each board was cut into one length, without any joins in it. So each board was probably cut from the central trunk of the tree. How tall is the trunk of the tree before it breaks into spreading branches? If the boards could not be cut out of one piece of timber, then the wide planks would need to be joined or moulded together. I'm not a carpenter, nor do I understand woodworking techniques, but I assume that this would require highly skilled carpentry. The more we look into the measurement of the Tabernacle and its design, the more we realise that these people under Moses' leadership and instruction, had to be knowledgeable, highly skilled, and great builders.

We read above that the centre bar around the walls of the Tabernacle, was continuous along each of the three sides of the Tabernacle. The north and south sides were each 660 inches long! This is about 16.9 metres long. Could the trunks of the acacia tree have grown this tall? The rods or bars themselves would need to be straight. If the tree trunk wasn't straight, could the shittim wood be softened so that it could be straightened to make those long bars? Again, highly skilled carpentry techniques would be required to make such long bars.

We already established in the previous chapters that the boards could have been about 4-5 inches thick. What is the acacia tree like? Did acacia trees grow tall enough, and thick enough, to make such boards around 1552 BC? Are they still growing there now? Much timber growth around the Middle East has been stunted by the ring-barking of goats, and constant felling over the past 3000 or more years. Does the acacia tree species replenish itself readily? Here are some pictures of acacia trees - some from Australia and other parts of the world, including an example of an acacia tree from the Middle East.

Eumong (A. stenophylla) Hattah Lakes, Vic (AUS)

Weeping Myall (A. pendula) Jerilderie, NSW (AUS)

Mulga Tree (A. aneura) Broken Hill area, NSW (AUS)

Blackwood (A. melanoxylon) Trentham area, Vic (AUS)

Thorn Tree (Acacia)

An Acacia Tree growing south of Israel in the 1990's Several species of acacia grow in the desert wadis of Sinai and the hot Jordan valley. These include Acacia albida, Acacia tortilis, and Acacia iraqensis). These are spreading, thorny, hardwood trees, and one of my reference books says that these varieties of acacia would probably be among the few available in Sinai that were likely to produce pieces of wood of sufficient size. (Here in Australia, some of the taller acacia tree varieties grow to 20 metres high, that's about 66 feet or 792 inches high, so it's possible that those species of acacia in Moses' time grew to tall heights just as the Australian ones now do.) Maybe there is archaeological evidence today to support this possibility.

Today, acacia trees grow in the Arava region of Israel, south of the Dead Sea, and they are said to be native to the region. This variety of acacia grows to a heights between 13 feet to about 23 feet (4 to 7 metres tall). The trunks of these trees are not very straight, and the branches are very twisted. There is no grain in the timber produced by this tree. For the wood's appearance sake, this did not matter to the Tabernacle builders, because all the wood used for the Tabernacle and its furniture was gold-plated. Certainly the height of these trees would not enable 220 inch planks of wood to be cut out of the trunks. So we must assume that the species of acacia trees around the Sinai desert in 1552-1551 BC were much taller than they are today.

The acacia tree is so useful in the desert. Its destruction would seriously effect the ecology of the immediate area where these trees are prolific. It provides food and shade for wild animals, insects live in the foliage, and insect-feeding birds build nests in its branches. The tree's roots spread out, quite often, beyond the span of the tree's foliage, and they follow the flow of any nearby water, sinking to about five feet beneath the ground.

In ancient geography, Shittim was an area of Palestine on the plains of Moab, northeast of the Dead Sea. It was opposite Jericho (Numbers 25.1; 33.49; Joshua 2.1; 3.1). In Numbers 33.49, a longer version of the name is given - "Abel-Shittim" (meaning "the brook of the acacias"). This place, Abel-Shittim, was at one end of the final campsites made by the Israelites before they crossed the Jordan River to invade Canaan. Joshua 2.1 says that Joshua sent men out from Shittim to spy on Jericho. The route of the spies is shown in the above map. Shittim is also mentioned in Hosea 5.2; Joel 3.18; and Micah 6.5).

Here is how Moses' Tabernacle may have looked, when the bars of shittim wood covered with gold were inserted through their rings to give support to the Tabernacle Boards.

Represented by the number FIVE, we have the Tabernacle of Moses (the sactuary), and all that it represents, showing the Lord God's total support to mankind (if man wants it), symbolically represented by the supporting Bars around the Tabernacle Walls - the Tabernacle Boards, made of strong, incorruptible wood, symbolic of God's son Jesus and His "Christ" (His "anointed" ones); the Boards securely fastened in their silver sockets representing the redemption and atonement of mankind through the Lord Jesus Christ who showed The Way to eternal life. And now the boards completely surrounded by bars which are symbolic of God's Grace towards His own, God who redeemed His own from the captivity and oppression placed upon them in Egypt. The Tabernacle Bars in 1551 BC were prophetic, in that they directed the nation to the future advent, death and resurrection of God's Son, the Lord Jesus Christ - the Prince who is to rule with power over the nations at the end of the Adamic Age.

A reading and understanding of ALL of the First Episle of Peter from the New Testament of the Holy Bible is recommended, though I wonder what "21st century woman" will think of the first verses of Chapter 3! Remember, we either believe the Bible as the inspired Word of God, or not. Peter was only reiterating the laws as given to Moses, those laws which were to be kept in the Ark of the Covenant, within the Holy of Holies part of Moses' Tabernacle. It was the role of Moses and the Aaron's priesthood to remind the people of these laws from time to time.

As we continue into this work to "Measure the Temple" - that first biblically recorded temple of Moses' Tabernacle - we wonder and marvel at the mathematical perfection of God's creation handiwork. Not only does God communicate to man through the written Word which has been handed down to us through the millenia, but through the architectural design and material substance of His temple buildings.

When Jesus Christ came, died, and rose from the dead, there was an added dimension to the physical structure of God's temple:

The above scripture becomes even more remarkable to us, when we realise, as we have discovered through the design of the bars and rings of Moses' Tabernacle, that the whole structure of God's Temple is surrounded by the Grace of God (that's you and me, if we only accept, and believe). As God's elect, we are surrounded by God's Grace.

It's time now look at the floor plan of the tabernacle, to consider the placement of the Pillars in readiness for the curtain coverings, and for the hanging of the vails - one to divide the sanctuary into two separate rooms, and one to hang at the Tabernacle entrance.

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