Gate, the Tabernacle

The gate of the tabernacle, located at the east end of the courtyard, was thirty feet wide and covered with a beautiful, colorful veil (or curtain). Its colors were blue, purple, and scarlet, and it was made of “fine twined linen, wrought with needlework” (Ex. 27:16) (see entry “Colors”). This gate reminds us of the Psalmist’s words, the “gate of the Lord, into which the righteous shall enter” (Ps. 118:20).

Gatekeepers controlled access to this gate as well as other gates belonging to both ancient and modern temples (see, for example, 1 Chr. 9:22–27; 2 Chr. 8:14). The chief goals of these gatekeepers was to secure “the gates of the house of the Lord, that none which was unclean in any thing should enter in” (2 Chr. 23:19). See entry “Guards, Temple (Sentinels and Angels).”

The gate’s colors, the gatekeepers, and the gate itself have symbolic significances. The gate calls to mind Jesus Christ. Not only is He “the door of the sheep” (John 10:7; see also v. 9), but He is the gate by which we must all enter in order to receive the blessings of the temple. Jesus Christ is also the chief gatekeeper, or the ultimate custodian of the way into the tabernacle (and also heaven). A Book of Mormon verse has application here: “The keeper of the gate is the Holy One of Israel . . . there is none other way save it be by the gate” (2 Ne. 9:41; see also Moses 7:53).

Beautiful and colorful gate to the model tabernacle courtyard.

The gate of the temple in heaven (celestial kingdom), too, is very beautiful. Joseph Smith records, “I saw the transcendent beauty of the gate through which the heirs of that kingdom will enter, which was like unto circling flames of fire” (D&C 137:2).