Numbers 4:8, commentary and pictures

The verse lays down how the table was to be made ready for the march, by spreading a scarlet cloth upon it, then covering it with badgers' skins, and putting its carrying staves in place. It is one detail in God's specific directions for transporting the sacred furnishings of the tabernacle, and it concerns the care of that furniture on the journey, a charge entrusted to the Kohathites.

The moving, handling, and erecting of the sanctuary was to follow God's exact directions and appointed order rather than individual choice, and the carrying of the holy things was not left to the choice of any tribe, for the Levites were designated for this service. The covering of the table with its specified materials and the putting in of its poles illustrates the careful order required in transporting the sanctuary and the reverence due to its furnishings. The sanctuary and everything connected with it was to be treated as sacred, its transport committed to appointed workers, and God's arrangements respected.

That sacred work was committed to the Levites as designated workers both in camp and on the journey, when they struck the sacred tent at setting forward and set it up at the halting place. They took down and carried the tabernacle with its furnishings when Israel journeyed, erected it, and encamped immediately around it while the other tribes camped farther away and the hosts pitched at a distance. No person of another tribe was allowed to come near on pain of death, for the sacred work was to be performed only by those God had appointed.

Within that division the Kohathites camped on the south and cared for the ark and the other furniture, while Moses and Aaron and his sons ministered in front before the tabernacle of witness, the Merarites on the north were in charge of the pillars, sockets, and boards, and the Gershonites in the rear cared for the curtains and hangings. The spreading of the scarlet cloth and badgers' skins and putting in the staves is one small appointed part of that careful division of the charge of the tabernacle and all pertaining to it. It therefore means that every worker was to know his place and faithfully perform the special duties committed to him and to let alone what another worker had been appointed to do.

This honored trust of erecting, guarding, and bearing the tabernacle with the ark, the candlestick, and the other sacred articles was given to the Levites because they took no part in making and worshiping the golden calf and were faithful in executing God's order upon the idolaters. The honor of that trust stirred ambition in Korah and his associates for still higher office, for greater influence with the congregation, for the priesthood, and for the chief authority. Beyond the specified covering procedure itself, no further meaning is given for the scarlet cloth or the covering of badgers' skins.