Today's reading from the Book of Exodus is one of the detailed passages of the Old Testament that we often skip over. But the Church includes it here in the Office of the Readings for Lent for a reason.
Israel, as we have seen, is the Old Testament type of the New Testament Church, and we can see this even in the details of the construction of the sanctuary tent and the Ark of the Covenant, which should remind us of the tabernacles in our churches in which the Body of Christ is reserved.
Exodus 35:30-36:1; 37:1-9
And Moses said to the children of Israel: Behold the Lord hath called by name Beseleel the son of Uri the son of Hur of the tribe of Juda. And hath filled him with the spirit of God, with wisdom and understanding and knowledge and all learning. To devise and to work in gold and silver and brass, And in engraving stones, and in carpenters' work. Whatsoever can be devised artificially, He hath given in his heart: Ooliab also the son of Achisamech of the tribe of Dan: Both of them hath he instructed with wisdom, to do carpenters' work and tapestry, and embroidery in blue and purple, and scarlet twice dyed, and fine linen, and to weave all things, and to invent all new things.
Beseleel, therefore, and Ooliab, and every wise man, to whom the Lord gave wisdom and understanding, to know how to work artificially, made the things that are necessary for the uses of the sanctuary, and which the Lord commanded.
And Beseleel made also the ark of setim wood: it was two cubits and a half in length, and a cubit and a half in breadth, and the height was of one cubit and a half: and he overlaid it with the purest gold within and without. And he made to it a crown of gold round about, Casting four rings of gold at the four corners thereof: two rings in one side, and two in the other. And he made bars of setim wood, which he overlaid with gold, And he put them into the rings that were at the sides of the ark to carry it.
He made also the propitiatory, that is, the oracle, of the purest gold, two cubits and a half in length, and a cubit and a half in breadth. Two cherubims also of beaten gold, which he set on the two sides of the propitiatory: One cherub in the top of one side, and the other cherub in the top of the other side: two cherubims at the two ends of the propitiatory, Spreading their wings, and covering the propitiatory, and looking one towards the other, and towards it.
- Source: Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition of the Bible (in the public domain)
