The gate is four colors. It’s blue for divinity, purple for kingship, white for purity, red for blood. The gate is Jesus, 1,500 years before anyone knows him by name.

Through the gate is the outer court sur­rounding the tabernacle, and you must be with a priest to enter. If you’re an ancient Is­raelite, you bring a treasured lamb — really more a pet than just a piece of livestock — to sacrifice as payment for your sins.

If you’re not an ancient Israelite, you turn off your cell phone.

“These guys are out of 1,500 B.C.,” Everett Weed, who’s prepping you for your tour of the tabernacle, says of the priests who will take you through the experience. “One rang yesterday, and it scared them half to death.”

The tabernacle experi­ence you’re about to have will take you not through the original Mosaic taber­nacle but through a life­sized replica constructed by members of Green Valley Baptist Church.

“The idea behind the tabernacle is that it helps people understand how God can be approached and how they can have a relationship with him,” says the Rev. David Mason, pastor of Green Valley Baptist.

The idea to build their own tabernacle came to church members after they saw a similar replica in Eureka Springs, Ark., he says. They began work three years ago, thinking they’d certainly be able to complete the process in six months, but it ended up being a much bigger job than they anticipated.

The tabernacle, after all, is a big deal. Fifty chapters of the Old Testament are dedicated to it: its dimen­sions, its materials, its pur­pose. These were the blue­print church members used in constructing their replica, which holds true to the size of the original and, as much as possible, to its details — although certain material substitu­tions had to be made since the budget for the project didn’t quite reach the bil­lion- dollar mark.

But even these approxi­mations aren’t far off. The bronze laver, for example — which is a basin in the outer court where priests wash their hands and feet — is covered with polished bronze mirrors donated by women in the church.

After cleansing them­selves here, the priests enter the presence of God by stepping into the taber­nacle itself, which is a tent with a wooden framework that measures 15 feet wide by 45 feet long by 15 feet tall. A veil divides it into two rooms: the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies.

Normally, you couldn’t come in here. But the priests, dressed in long robes and sandals, will make an exception in order to show you the cur­tains painted with sera­phim and Hebrew names for God and the instru­ments that were carefully constructed — the handi­work of retired cabinet maker Farrell Harding and several others.

“When I was a cabinet maker, I never dreamed I’d someday be building a tabernacle,” says Mr. Har­ding, who was the project leader. “But I’m glad I had that experience, because it would have been quite an undertaking for someone without it.”

Fortunately, he also had some unexpected help.

While trying to determine how to make the tent portion of the tabernacle and the fence surrounding the outer court — which measures 75 by 150 feet — he discovered that Gary Reynolds of Awnings Un­limited in St. Joseph hap­pened to be very knowl­edgeable about the Mosaic tabernacle. Not only did Mr. Reynolds offer advice, he also supplied hundreds of yards of vinyl at a low cost and took care of all of the necessary sewing.

“I think the Lord led us to him,” Mr. Harding says.

And the prophecy really is everywhere, from the lamp stand that fore­shadows the Light of the World and the unleavened bread that foreshadows the Bread of Life — both descriptors Jesus used for himself hundreds of years later — to all the colors that represent his quali­ties: brown for humanity, white for holiness, red for sacrifice.

The five pillars at the front of the tabernacle rep­resent the first five books of the Old Testament, the priests tell you, and the four pillars between the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies represent the first four books of the New Tes­tament. Stepping into the Holy of Holies — some­thing ordinarily done only once a year and only by the high priest — you see the Ark of the Covenant, which holds the 10 Com­mandments, the rod of Aaron and a pot of manna, which is food that fell from the sky during the years the Israelites wandered in the dessert.

These items are sym­bolic, as well, representing not only judgment and death but also resurrec­tion and God’s promise to care for those who come to him by the way he provides. And in the end, when the experience is over and you leave the tab­ernacle, this way is what it all comes down to.

It is, after all, not only the gate, the lamp, the bread, the pillars, the col­ors and the covenant that are Jesus.

“The whole tabernacle points to Jesus,” the Rev.

Mason says. “I think peo­ple have been surprised by how well it’s presented and what it really means for them.”

Lifestyles reporter Erin Wisdom can be reached at ewisdom@npgco.com.