Exodus 26:36-37 And thou shalt make an hanging for the door of the tent, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen, wrought with needlework. 37 And thou shalt make for the hanging five pillars of shittim wood, and overlay them with gold, and their hooks shall be of gold: and thou shalt cast five sockets of brass for them.
Now we come to the hanging outside the tabernacle. The ark was situated on the western side of the tabernacle so this curtain faced east. Mind you, this is the hanging curtain that separates the tabernacle from the courtyard and everybody else; the people from the priests. The veil was in the tabernacle, beyond this hanging, and seperated the holy from the most holy. This hanging curtain however is what stands in the way of all the tabernacle. (Hebrews 9:3) And after the second veil, the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of all. Hence, it is known as the first veil. You must go through this first veil even to see the bread or the candlestick. The priest were allowed beyond this first veil, but not the people. If you recall, Uzziah the king had trespassed into the temple to burn incense and was struck with leprosy (2 Chronicles 26:16-19). He was not a Levite. The altar of incense was behind the first veil which is this hanging in which we speak. It was not beyond the second veil. If Uzziah would have crossed that, he would have surely died.
Notice the difference between this hanging and the veil. (Exodus 26:31) And thou shalt make a vail of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen of cunning work: with cherubims shall it be made. The hanging is the same but there are no cherubims on this curtain, but instead it is wrought with needlework. Now the veil was made of cunning work and the hanging of needlework. Some people believe that the Hebrew word for cunning chashab (khaw-shab’) denotes weaver’s work where there is an image on both sides. Whereas the Hebrew word for needlework raqam (raw-kam’) denoted needlework where there is an image on only one side. However, don’t believe everything you read. Thayer’s doesn’t line up with that. His definitions seem to state the opposite. So forget I even mentioned it. Just kidding. Here’s my educated guess. Chashab is more of what I would call weaving in the sense that it’s planned and premeditated and accomplished as the linen is being woven. Whereas raqam is still considered weaving, but it’s more like embroidery where it’s done after the linen has been woven. This is strictly a guess. But if I was right, that would denote that the second veil was of higher quality and of more value that the first veil. It was just plain harder to make.
And this view would seem to compliment what is clear regarding the sockets. The veil hangs on four pillars that are overlaid with gold; and these pillars are set in silver sockets. The hanging hangs on five pillars instead of four and the socket are made of brass instead of silver. Brass sockets is definitely inferior to silver sockets. I would take anything made out of silver over the same in brass. Who wouldn’t? Now brass is stronger than silver, correct? Why would it need to be stronger? Well, notice also that it required five pillars instead of the second veil’s four pillars. Five is also stronger than four. Maybe embroidered work weighs more than woven work! But heavier and stronger doesn’t always mean better or more valuable. See what happens when you go scrap seven tons of stainless steel instead of seven tons of mild steel. Tolkien said Not everything that shines is gold. Well I say Not everything that weighs much pays much.
The second veil is better than the first veil. Now we already covered that the veil was a type of Christ. Anyhow, do you see where I’m going with this? Because I don’t. I’ll come back to this when if I get a revelation.