Exodus 26: Group Study Handout

How to use: read Exodus 26 aloud together, then take the questions in order. One page is enough for an evening.

Overview

Yahweh instructs Moses to make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twined linen, blue, purple, and scarlet, decorated with cherubim (vv. 1-6). These curtains will be coupled in pairs.

Key verse

“You shall hang up the veil under the clasps, and shall bring the ark of the testimony in there within the veil: and the veil shall separate the holy place from the most holy for you.”
Exodus 26:33 (WEB)

Outline

Exodus 26:1–6 Instructions for the Tabernacle's Curtains
Exodus 26:7–14 Goat Hair and Other Covers
Exodus 26:15–25 Constructing the Tabernacle's Framework
Exodus 26:26–30 Bars and Gold Overlay
Exodus 26:31–34 The Veil and the Ark
Exodus 26:35–37 Arrangement of the Tabernacle's Furnishings

Discussion questions

In v6, why are the curtains coupled together with 'clasps'?
In v13, what does the remaining part of the 'curtains' cover?
The 'veil' in v31: what is its purpose in separating spaces?
In v30, why is the Tabernacle to be set up according to what was shown on the 'mountain'?
When have you felt a sense of 'separation' from others in a space you considered sacred?

Go deeper

Passages that echo Exodus 26: Exodus 36, Exodus 40, Exodus 25.

Before next time: read Exodus 27.