What kind of weather could the seal skin covering withstand?
The seal skin covering could withstand all the extreme weather of the Sinai. It endured the heat of the sun, the wind, and the rain. Though it was not pretty in its appearance, it served as the outermost protective layer over the tabernacle.
Les explains that the King James term “badger” refers in the biblical sense to a seal, a hairless sea animal. This seal skin was the very outer covering of the tabernacle structure. Under it were the ram skins dyed red, and beneath those was the curtain of goat’s hair over the main frame of acacia wood covered with gold. Les points out that this outer seal skin could withstand all the extreme weather of the Sinai: it could stand the heat of the sun and withstand the wind and the rain. Above everything, as Les likes to point out, it was not pretty in its appearance.