And the charge of the sons of Gershon in the tent of meeting was the tabernacle and the tent, its covering, and the curtain of the entrance to the tent of meeting.
God handed one Levite family the soft parts of the tabernacle: its curtains, its coverings, and the screen at the door. Why this family, and what does a job made of cloth and cords teach about serving God?
Gershon was Levi's firstborn son. The most honoured job might have gone to his line. It did not:
God appointed the duties of the Levites as it pleased Him. So each Levitical family could set to work, and no one was to interfere with them. They were responsible to God, and from Him they had received authority for their service. Here the principle of election showed itself. Gershon was the eldest son of Levi. His descendants might have expected to be chosen to carry the sacred vessels on their shoulders. But God entrusted that work to the descendants of Kohath, Levi's second son. How often we see in Scripture that blessing and privilege do not run in the order of nature.
The verse names fabrics and skins, not gold. Each material carries meaning:
These curtains are made of goats' hair or fine twined linen. The coverings are rams' skins and badgers' skins. From Revelation 19:8 we are clear that the "fine linen" is "righteousness" — practical righteousness. The curtains that form the tabernacle itself represent this righteousness in Christ. In His flesh the divine Word "tabernacled," as John 1:14 puts it. The hangings for the court represent the righteousness of saints, shown outside the sanctuary in the world. The hangings for the "door" and "gate" again represent Christ, the only way of access.
All these pieces have one thing in common. They are edges:
The curtains, coverings, and hangings that Gershon has to do with are in fact all lines of separation. They define the tabernacle itself, or mark off and separate the court from the wilderness around. They speak, then, easily and naturally, of the boundary lines of God's special enclosure — which the Church is in the world.
The outer covering was the plainest part of the structure, and the part everyone saw:
Here was Gershon's work: to carry the tabernacle and its coverings through the waste and howling wilderness. There could be little attractiveness in the rams' skins and badgers' skins. Yet even so, it was the high privilege of the Gershonite to take them all up and carry them cheerfully on his shoulders across the trackless sands. What, then, are we to understand by the covering of the tabernacle? I believe, in a word, it pictured the character of the Lord Jesus Christ. It was what would meet the eye.
The family's name fits the job:
Gershon and his sons had charge of the coverings and the fine linen. Gershon means exile, a stranger. His service shows us that we are separated ones and strangers in the world. This separation must show itself in practical righteousness.
Curtains also said something about God: He had no settled house yet. That brings a warning:
The Church has laid down the rams' skins and badgers' skins, and with them the Gershonite character. In other words, the Church has stopped walking in the footsteps of her rejected Lord and Master. She should be a tired and worn stranger, crossing the parched and barren desert with the burden on her shoulders. Instead she has settled down in the green places of the world and made herself at home. But there was another feature of the stranger character pictured in the curtain — anticipation. God dwelling in curtains showed plainly that neither God nor the ark of His strength had found a resting-place. They were journeying on toward "a rest that remained."
Each family had its own job, and that was the point:
Gershon had nothing to do with the boards and pins, and Merari had nothing to do with the curtains or the coverings. Yet the two depended on each other. "The boards and sockets" would not do without "the curtains," and the curtains would not do without the boards and sockets. Suppose a Gershonite had decided to abandon "the curtains" and turn his hand to "the pins." He would have left his own work undone and interfered with the work of the Merarite.
This removed all competition over which task was grander:
Seen in this light, it would be a matter of complete indifference whether a man had to carry a pin, a curtain, or a golden lampstand. The great question for each and for all was simply, "Is this my work? Is this what the Lord has given me to do?"
- Chosen — God assigned each family's work. Being firstborn won Gershon nothing; privilege in Scripture often runs against the order of nature.
- Covering — this family carried the outer fabric and skins: a picture of the character of Christ, the part that met the eye.
- Boundary — curtains, hangings and screens are all lines of separation. They mark off God's enclosure from the wilderness around.
- Stranger — the name Gershon means exile or stranger, and the work fitted the name. A people carrying curtains has not settled down.
- Content — God assigns every task, so pin and curtain and lampstand rank alike. One question is left: is this the work He gave me?
And the hangings of the court, and the curtain of the entrance to the court, which surrounds the tabernacle and the altar, and the cords thereof for all its service.
Numbers 3 gives each Levite family its share of the tabernacle, and Gershon's share ends here: the linen wall of the courtyard, the curtain at its gate, and the ropes. Why would God spell out ropes and curtains by name, and what did this humble charge teach the people who carried it?
No Levite picked his own job. One writer draws out what that means for every servant of God:
Nothing is more important in practice than this: every servant of God should know the work He has given him to do, and once he knows it he should stick to it. It also matters greatly never to interfere with another's service. The Lord is sovereign in this. He divides according to His own will.
A fixed task feels different depending on the heart:
To someone whose will was unbroken, it might seem a hardship and a very tiresome task to have to keep the same position, or to do exactly the same line of work. Such a person might long for something fresh — some variety in his work. But where the will was subdued and the heart adjusted, each one would say, "My path is perfectly plain; I have only to obey."
One writer reads the fine linen of these hangings as a picture of righteousness — first in Christ, then in His people:
Revelation 19:8 makes it clear that the "fine linen" is "righteousness" — practical righteousness. The curtains that make up the tabernacle itself represent this righteousness in Christ. In His flesh the divine Word "tabernacled," as John 1:14 puts it. The hangings for the court represent the righteousness of saints, shown outside the sanctuary in the world.
One writer sums up what this family's work stood for:
Gershon would therefore stand for the ministry that insists on the moral perfection of the Lord Jesus. It also insists on the practical righteousness that should mark all believers, as a witness to our faith in the perfect One.
Notice what all of Gershon's items have in common: they mark edges.
Notice that the curtains, coverings and hangings Gershon deals with are all lines of separation. They define the tabernacle itself, or they mark the court off from the wilderness around it. So they speak, easily and without strain, of the boundary lines of God's special enclosure — and the Church is such an enclosure in the world.
That boundary is no theory. Linen means conduct:
Gershon's separation is not imaginary. It is not a line drawn in the air. Practical righteousness keeps it up, as these linen hangings suggest. How much depends on it! If God cannot walk with the world, then my walking with Him needs one thing first: separation from it.
The verse names the screen for the entrance apart from the hangings around the court:
Here, then, was the entrance to the court. There was only one. To see inside, people had to come to that many-coloured hanging. The white curtains on the other three sides were five cubits high, about seven and a half feet — only a giant could look over them.
The plain linen speaks of the character of God's people. The curtains at the door and gate speak of someone else — they "represent Christ, as the only way of access" (Frederick W. Grant).
The verse ends with cords. One writer imagines dropping the man whose whole job is pins and cords:
Why not let this sad-faced Merarite go, with his pins and cords of the tabernacle always getting tangled, and be content with Kohath and Gershon? But if we are to set up the Lord's tabernacle in the wilderness, we must have the pins and cords.
Which is why the size of the task was never the point:
Seen in this light, no one would care whether a man had to carry a pin, a curtain, or a golden lampstand. The great question for each and for all was simply: "Is this my work? Is this what the Lord has given me to do?"
- Assigned. God handed out the work, family by family. Know your own task and leave other people's alone — that is the first mark of a real servant.
- Linen. Gershon carried fine linen — a picture of righteousness: perfect in Christ, then seen in the daily conduct of His people.
- Boundary. Those hangings drew the line between God's enclosure and the wilderness outside. Practical righteousness keeps that line up, not talk.
- Door. The wall had one entrance only. Commentators read the curtain at that gate as Christ, the one way in.
- Cords. The ropes look like nothing, but the tent will not stand without them. The only question is this: did the Lord give you this work?