The tabernacle constructed by Moses in the desert was a representation of heaven and the church. That is why its description was revealed by Jehovah on Mount Sinai. Thus all its contents, the lampstand, the golden altar for incense and the table holding the bread of the Presence, represented and stood for the holy things of heaven and the church. The holy of holies, where the Ark of the Covenant stood, represented and so stood for the inmost of heaven and the church. The Law itself inscribed upon two tables stood for the Word, and the cherubim above it meant protection to prevent the holiness of the Word being violated.

Now since externals derive their essence from internals, and both of these derive theirs from the inmost, which in this case was the Law, therefore all the details of the tabernacle represented and stood for the holy things of the Word. Hence it follows that the outermost parts of the tabernacle, the curtains, veils and posts which covered, contained and supported it, meant the outermost form of the Word, which is the truths and forms of good contained in its literal sense. It was because that was their meaning that all the curtains and veils were made of lawn interwoven and violet and purple, and double-dyed red, with cherubim (Exod. 26:1, 31, 36). I explained in ARCANA CAELESTIA in the commentary on that chapter of Exodus the general and the specific representations and meanings of the tabernacle and all its contents. It was there shown that the curtains and veils represented the externals of heaven and the church, so also those of the Word; and that lawn or fine linen meant truth of spiritual origin, violet truth of celestial origin, purple celestial good, double-dyed red spiritual good, and the cherubim the protection of the interiors of the Word.