Materials of the Mishkan

If you're following the annual Torah readings, then you've been reading about the Tabernacle (aka Mishkan) for weeks. Here are some of my thoughts on the metaphorical meaning of some of the physical materials:

• Gold = righteousness, purity, divinity
• Silver = blood, atonement, redemption
• Bronze = repentance, judgment
• Wood = flesh, life, humanity
• White linen = purity, simplicity
• Blue = Heaven, God, divinity, the Kingdom of God
• Scarlet = mankind, earth, blood
• Purple = heaven+earth, God+man, Messiah Yeshua

And some of the numerical values:

• 2 - Division, separation, revelation of truth
• 4 pillars - Life, light, the entirety of anything, messiah.
• 5 pillars - God's actions to establish relationship with his people. Torah, divine grace.
• 7 branches on the Menorah = 7 spirits of God and the holiness inspired and aided by the anointing and indwelling of the Ruach haKodesh.
• 10 curtains = Orderly government. Covenant and creation.
• 11 curtains = Incomplete Israel. The 12 tribes with one missing, whether through betrayal (of the one missing, as in Judas, or the cause of one missing, as in Joseph), sin (e.g. Dan), or exile.
• 12 loaves for the Shewbread Table = 12 tribes of Israel, living in righteous submission.
• 50 loops and clasps = The critical number of righteous men and/or years to establish a sustainable community and/or restoration of righteousness in a city.

Consider also these sets of two:

• Two Arks of the Covenant were originally made, one by Moses and one by Bezalel
• Two sets of two tablets came down from Sinai and one set was placed in the Ark.
• There might have been two jars of manna.
• Two poles were set in each of several of the Mishkan furnishings
• Two cherubim were set atop the Ark.

Two witnesses? Two media on which the Torah is written (stone and flesh)? Two choices (life vs death)? The first letter of the Torah (bet)?

Some numbers associated with the Temple:

• Two sets of 200 bronze pomegranates = an appeal for mercy from God's judgment