General View

And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,

2 Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring me an offering: of every man that giveth it willingly with his heart ye shall take my offering.

3 And this 7s the offering which ye shall take of them; gold, and silver, and brass,

4 And blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and goats’ hair,

5 And rams’ skins dyed red, and badgers’ skins, and shittim wood,

6 Oil for the light, spices for anointing oil, and for sweet incense,;

7 Onyx stones, and stones to be set in the ephod, and in the breastplate.

8 And let them make mea sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.

9 According to all that I shew thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make 7.

10 §{ And they shall make an ark of shittim wood: two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof, and a cubit and a half the height thereof. Ex, xxxv.

HIS is the grandest of all the Old -~ Testament types of Christ. It was all one great object lesson of spiritual truth. In its wonderful furniture, priesthood and worship, we see with a vividness that we find nowhere else, the glory and grace of Jesus, and the privileges of His redeemed people. And as in the architect’s plan we can understand the future building better, even, than by looking at the building without the plan; so, in this pattern from the mount, we can understand as nowhere else, that glorious temple of which Christ is the corner stone, and we also, as living stones, are built up in Him a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to ‘‘ offer sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” I. The form and structure of the Tabernacle. — It was an oblong structure, about - forty-five feet long, and fifteen feet wide and high; very similarin size andproportions to the double parlors of an ordinary dwelling house. It was constructed of boards of shittim wood, a peculiarly indestructible material, overlaid with gold, and fastened with sockets and tenons of silver, brass, etc. It was covered with three tiers of skins, and a final interior lining of most costly curtains, embroidered and adorned with symbolical figures, of the highest beauty and spiritual significance. The external covering of the roof was of rough badgers’ skins, to protect it from the inclemency of the weather. The exact form of the roof is a matter of dispute, some believing it to have been pitched at an angle, and some an arched or a flat surface.

The Tabernacle itself was divided into two unequal chambers by magnificent curtains called The Vail. The inner chamber was a perfect cube, fifteen feet square. It contained the ark of the covenant, over which was the mercy seat, which was its lid, and consisted of a solid plate of gold. Then, springing from this, and formed of the same piece of solid gold, hovered the cherubim, symbolical figures representing the faces of the four typical forms of the animate creation — the man, the ox, the eagle, and the lion; while between the meeting wings of the cherubic figure shone the Shekinah, or visible Divine glory, the luminous cloud of transcendent brightness, which, perhaps, arose and expanded into the pillar of cloud and fire that hovered above the tabernacle, and led the march of Israel. This chamber was the Holy of Holies, God’s especial presence chamber and throne of grace and glory. None ever entered it except the high priest, and he only once a year.

The other division was twice as large, fifteen feet by thirty, and was called the Holy Place. It was open to the ministering priests only, but not to the common people; and it was separated from the outer court by The Door, a curtain, also of blue, purple and scarlet, which none but cleansed and consecrated priests might pass. Its articles of furniture were: the golden candlestick, which was its only light, there being no windows at all; the table of shew bread, covered with twelve loaves, crowned with pure frankincense, which were offered to God for one week, and then eaten by the priests, and renewed from Sabbath to Sabbath; and the golden altar of incense, with its accompanying censer, where pure frankincense was continually offered, and from which, once a year, on the great Day of Atonement, the high priest with the golden censer took burning coals, and ‘smoking incense in his hands, passed through the mysterious Vail, entered alone the Holy of Holies, and there made atonement for the people in the immediate presence of God.

Surrounding the Tabernacle was another court, an enclosure eighty-seven by one hundred and seventy-five feet, with an opening on the eastern side, called The

10 2. CHRISTICIN. =~

Gate. Into this court all the people might come.

Two objects of ceremonial worship stood here. Near the gate was the brazen Altar of burnt offering. Here the sacrifices of burnt offering were presented, the blood sprinkled, and. the fire kept ever burning, from which the altar of incense was supplied. All parts of the tabernacle had to be sprinkled with blood from this altar. It was the only way of access to the presence of God. Farther in was the brazen laver, a vast basin, perhaps with polished exterior, forming thus a mirror as well as a fountain, made from the metal mirrors of the women of Israel, and so enabling the priests at once to see their uncleanness in the metal, and then to wash it away in the water which it contained. It was for the purification of the priests as they entered the sanctuary, and no one could pass through the door until he had washed in. this fountain. The

gate of this enclosure’ was always open. It had no hangings, like the two inner doors. All might freely come into His courts and bring their offerings for sin and uncleanness.

Outside the gate was the camp of Israel, forming a square around the tabernacle of vast extent, three tribes on each side, the tribe of Judah being on the east, opposite to the entrance to the tabernacle gate. And just beyond, still farther out, there continually burned The Fire without the camp, where the bodies of the sin offerings were consumed, and also the refuse of the camp.

Such was this simple and wonderful structure, God’s first sanctuary, and the type of all that is sacred and precious in the person and work of Christ, and the privileges of our heavenly calling.

Il. The erection and subsequent history of the Tabernacle.~ — We find two accounts of the construction of the tabernacle in Exodus.” First, we have the tabernacle as it was plannedin heaven, and shown to Moses on the mount asa pattern. (Exodus xxv. to -xxxi.) This is the type of Christ set forth from eternity in the counsels of Divine love, our Redeemer prepared for us from before the foundation of the world, and revealed in successive types and prophecies, long before His actual incarnation and life on earth. - Moses built the tabernacle according to an actual model which God had shown him during the forty days on the mount. So Christ was born, lived, and died, in exact accordance with the prophetic picture of previous ages of revelation. Then, in Exodus, there is the dark interval of sorrow and rebellion (chapters XXxXii.and xxxiil. ), during which the people transgressed the covenant they had just entered into, and showed most painfully the need of the salvation which God had just been’ preparing. This is the type of man’s fall, and his failure under the old Dispensation. Christ had been already provided; but man must feel the need of the Divine salvation, by the actual experience of sin. It is touching beyond degree to know that all the time that man was rebelling against his God, God’s remedy was waiting in that mount of grace.

Then, in chapter xxxiv., we come to the second stage in the history of the tabernacle, its actual erection according to the Divine plan already shown, and through the free-will offerings of the people, and the skill and workmanship of the men whom God had specially endued for this purpose. Two men were particularly called, and qualified by the gifts of the Holy Spirit, in sacred art, to originate and execute all its symbolical decorations; and the women of Israel were similarly prepared and -enabled to make ready its costly materials. So its entire erection was through the supernatural gifts of the Holy Ghost, as well as the Divine plan which was revealed to Moses.

: During the forty years of their wilderness life it was borne from place to place in succession by the faithful hands of the Levites, who were appointed for this special ministry. After their entrance into Canaan, it remained for a time at Gilgal, and afterwards was established at Shiloh, which became the religious center of the national worship for a leng time. During the period of the Judges, we lose sight of it for a season through the subjugation and humiliation of Israel. But we find it afterwards in Nob, in the neighborhood of Jerusalem, in the reign of David. And finally it was established on Mount Zion through the piety of this good king, where it remained until superseded by the more magnificent Temple of Solomon, which was, however, only a more splendid edition of the same building, containing all the essential features of the tabernacle, and only adding a higher degree of splendor ;land so typifying the future glories, as the tabernacle typifies the grace of Christ and His redemption.

3. Spiritual and Typical Significance a of the Tabernacle. — It was designed to represent and prefigure the most important teachings of the Scriptures with reference, First, to Christ; Secondly, to the church; and Thirdly, to the individual Christian. In these three aspects we shall briefly consider it.

First, asa Type of Christ. — The very word tabernacle is used with reference to Him in the opening chapter of the Gospel of John, fourteenth verse. ‘The Word was made flesh, and tabernacled among us (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the Only Begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth.”

Again: In the ninth chapter of

— — Hebrews, the Apostle, after describing the structure of the ancient sanctuary, applies it all to the person and work of Christ.

The points of comparison, are almost unlimited. Among them may be mentioned:

(a). The location of the tabernacle, which was entered from the camp of Judah, suggests the fact that Christ was born of the tribe of Judah.

(b). The materials of which the tabernacle was constructed, namely: indestructible wood and pure gold, suggest His perfect humanity on the one hand, and His supreme divinity on the other.

(ce). The colors which were so constantly mingled in the tabernacle, especially the prevailing hues of white, blue, scarlet, and purple, all point to qualities in Him; the white, His spotless purity; the blue, His heavenly origin; the scarlet, His sufferings and death; and the purple, His kingly glory.

(d). The external plainness in contrast with the internal glory of the tabernacle; the badgers’ skins without, and the gold and Shekinah glory within, proclaim the lowliness of Christ’s earthly state, and yet the beauty and glory of His character and inner presence, as He reveals Himself to the soul that abides in Him.

(e). The contrast between the tabernacle and the temple, the one a shifting tent, exposed to constant vicissitude and humilation; the other combining in itself all the glory of earth and heaven, suggest. to us, the first, the earthly life of our Lord; and the second, His exaltation and the kingly glory of His millennial reign.

(f). The fact that the tabernacle was - the place of God’s manifestation of Himself to Israel, and the place where he revealed the symbols of His immediate presence, reminds us of Him who is Himself the image and ‘manifestation of God, and whose very name, Emmanuel, means ‘*God with us.”

(g). The tabernacle was God’s meeting-place with Israel. ‘‘ There will I meet with them from between the cherubim,”’ were His own words; ‘‘and there they heard the voice of God speaking from between the cherubim.” And so the Lord Jesus Christ is the only way of access to the Father, and fellowship with heaven. “Ifa man love me, my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our abode with him.”

(h). The tabernacle was the place of ‘sacrifice. Its most vivid spectacle was the flowing and the sprinkled blood; and it tells us in every part of the sacrifice of Christ.

(2). Not only was it the place of sacrifice, but also the place of cleansing; the blood atoned and the water washed away the stain of defilement. So ‘‘ Christ is the fountain for sin and for uncleanness.”’ ‘* He gave himself for the church, that He might sanctify and cleanse it by the washing of water by the Word, and purify unto Himself a glorious church not having spot or wrinkle.” BY

(7). The tabernacle was the place where the guilty might freely come to the altar of atonement. And Jesus Christ is the propitiation not only for our sins, but also for the sins of the whole world.

(A). The tabernacle had inner chambers. And so it speaks of the deeper life, and the fuller blessings into which those may enter who are willing to abide in Christ. ‘‘] am the Door,” he says, ‘‘and I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” - He is our life, our bread, our light, our + altar of prayer, our open vail of access even to the innermost presence of the holy God.

(1). The tabernacle was the place where the law was enshrined in the bosom of the ark, and ever covered by the sprinkled blood which proclaimed the sinner’s acceptance. So Jesus keeps for us the Di- ‘ vine law; then keeps it also in us, by His indwelling life and presence, and so becomes our perfect righteousness.

(m). The cherubim of glory in the Holy of Holies were types of Christ’s exalted glory; of His humanity crowned with the strength of the ox; the majesty of the lion; and the loftiness of the eagle’s fight. All this He is as the pledge of our future glory.

All this and much more we see in this ancient object lesson concerning Him of whom Moses and the prophets did write, and which He has come Himself to fulfill, with a fulness which He will yet enable us more fully to understand in every detail respecting this pattern in the mount.

Secondly: The Tabernacle as a Type of the Church. — That which is true of Christ the Head, is also true of His body, the church. Among other points of instruction which the tabernacle suggests in this connection, it may be noticed:

(a.) Like the tabernacle, the church has been planned by God Himself, and is in no sense a human institution. It should in every respect be organized, constituted, built up, and equipped according to the pattern which Christ has shown us Himself, ‘‘Teaching them to observe all things, whatsoever I have commanded.”

(6.) The church requires the same Divine anointing through the Holy Ghost, on the part of all who, like Bezaleel and Aholiab, are engaged in her spiritual upbuilding. Not the gifts of intellectual brilliancy, but the wisdom of the Holy Ghost, and the enduement of His power; these alone can accomplish definite and eternal results and all else will wither and drift away in the fiery blasts of the great ordeal. (c.) The church, like the ancient tabernacle, should have her chief beauty within; not in costly decorations, but in the glory of the indwelling God and the exhibition of a crucified and sin-cleansing Saviour. Without this, she can only be what Israel’s temple was when the Master and the Shekinah departed, and the avengers came with fire and blood. Without this His word can only be, ‘‘ Your house is left unto you desolate,” or, as it was to the church of the Laodiceans, because they were neither cold nor hot, ‘‘I will spue thee out of my mouth.”

(d.) Like the ancient tabernacle, the church should have her inner chambers for deeper teaching and closer fellowship; in the holy place; in the light of the sevenfold lamp of truth; and at the table of the heavenly bread; while the sweet fragrance from the golden altar ‘fills all the place with the breath of heaven, and the rent vail just beyond reveals and opens up to her vision even the innermost chambers of heaven itself, from which ever shines the Shekinah of His abiding presence.

(e). Like the ancient tabernacle, the church should be the repository of the world’s true light and living bread; the light of the world, and the steward of the mysteries of God.

(f). Like the ancient tabernacle and temple, the church has her earthly and her heavenly life; the time of desert wandering and vicissitude, but the prospect also of a glory greater than that of Solomon’s temple; when the Lamb shall gather His redeemed on mount Zion, and the universe shall come to gaze on the glories of the new Jerusalem, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

Thirdly: The Tabernacle as the Type of Christian Life.- — What is true of Christ, is true in our individual measure, of each one of His people. ‘‘ As he is, so are we also in this world.” Let us not fear, therefore, to claim the fulness of our great salvation.

(a). CONDEMNATION.

The first chapter in every Christian’s existence is the dark, sad chapter of condemnation. This was vividly set forth in the ancient camp of Israel, by the fire that ever burned without the camp, suggesting the wrath of God revealed from heaven, against all unrighteousness of men. That fire consumed the offering to which sin had been transferred, and it must likewise consume all whose sins are not transferred to that burnt offering. If He, in the place of the sinner, suffered this vengeance, how shall we escape if we dare to stand before God covered with our guilt and corruption? ‘‘If these things be done in the green tree, what shall be done in the dry? Our Lord has not quenched this fire, but left it still burning outside the gate of the Gospel for all that reject him. ‘He that believeth not, is condemned already.” ‘‘ He that believeth not the Son, shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth upon him.”

(6.) SALVATION.

The next stage in the believer’s life is salvation. And so we now enter the gate, and stand within the court. We may freely come; there is no barrier, not even a fold of a curtain, intervening. We

hasten through the inviting entrance, and stand before the smoking altar which tells -us of the cross and the blood through which we have redemption from sin. We place our hand upon the head of the sacrifice, and we become partakers of the great expiation.

Next, the laver speaks to us of the Holy Ghost, whose power regenerates and cleanses the soul from sin; and we wash in its fountain, and are qualified and authorized to enter into the inner presence,

26 es CHRIST IN

and into the more intimate fellowship of the Holy Place.

(c.) CONSECRATION, COMMUNION.

The tabernacle also tells us of the next stage of Christian experience and life — communion, consecration, sanctification, and abiding fellowship with Christ. That inner chamber just beyond the open court is only for God’s priests. How, then, may we dare to intrude? Thank God, we are all admitted to the place of priesthood, if we will accept it. ‘‘He loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us unto God kings and priests.” Not a few, now, but ‘‘all are a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people.” So we may boldly enter in; but not until we have washed in that cleansing laver, as well as sacrificed at the altar. We must accept His sanctifying as well as justifying grace. Even to Peter, who had been bathed, that THE TABERNACLE. ray

is, justified, Christ said: ‘‘ Except I wash thee, thou hast no part with me.” Although we have boldness by the blood of Jesus even to enter into the holiest, yet we must come with ‘hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and bodies washed with pure water.” Thus divinely cleansed, ‘‘let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith.” Our great high priest is standing within, and sweetly saying ‘‘I am the door, by me if any man enter in he shall be saved,” and go in and out, and find pasture. What pasture! There is the seven-fold lamp which speaks of Christ and the Holy Spirit, our perfect Light; the light of truth; the light which reveals Himself; the light of heavenly vision; the light which brings sight as well as light to our dull eyes; the lght of guidance and direction amid the perplexities of life and His own continual presence and voice as the Shepherd, as well as the door; and the light which will shine through us and from us as the light of men.

The living bread; the table with its twelve loaves, one for each of us, made from the finest of the wheat, ever renewed with each returning Sabbath. Not only bread, but frankincense like honey out of the rock; all the sweetness of his consolations, as well as the strength of his life. Bread that nourishes both soul and body, and becomes our perfect life and sustenance. Then not only is there the bread, but all that is implied in the altar of incense. This includes all that is involved ina life of prayer and communion with God, through Jesus Christ. That incense, together with the anointing oil, was the most sacred thing in all the tabernacle service. It might not be imitated by mortal art, but was consecrated sacredly for the service of God alone. It was compounded of many ingredients; and some of it, we are told, was beaten very small, and then was burned with sweet spices on that pure altar. (Ex. xxx: 34-38.)

So the spirit of prayer must be born from above, and cannot be imitated or counterfeited by merely humaneffort. It springs from the combination of all the circumstances of life and qualities of our Christian character. It is the flower of piety, and the fragrance of the heart, distilled like perfume, indescribably delicate, pure and heavenly. Nothing is too small to enter into it, and become an occasion for it. The incense of prayer may be beaten very small, and arise from a thousand trifles in our life which we may so con. secrate to God as to become a sacrifice of - a sweet smelling savor. Our little trials and trifling ministries laid on this golden altar, become to Him like the fragrance of the spring, and the breath of Aaron’s censer; and He treasures them in heaven in ‘‘ phials which are full of sweet odors, which are the prayers of the saints.” But in order to be divinely fragrant, they must be set on fire by the Holy Ghost, the true Intercessor and Advocate on earth, as Christ is the Advocate on high; making intercession ‘‘ within us with groanings which cannot be uttered.”

The sweet incense of the holy place penetrated through the vail, and filled the Holy of Holies. And so the spirit of prayer makes both earth and heaven one. The altar stood at the very entrance to the inner chamber; and so when we are rapt in fellowship with God, we are at the gate of heaven and almost within the vail. We can hear the. voices and catch the breath from those inner chambers. Happy are they who thus abide in Him; in the atmosphere of ceaseless communion and. peace. The most trying place will be fragrant, like odors of heaven, and the most lonely spot a little sanctuary where all heaven will seem to be around us with its almighty protection, its blessed companionship, and its unspeakable joy.

(d.) GLORY.

The innermost chamber in the Hebrew tabernacle was the Holy of Holies. It speaks to us of heaven itself; the immediate presence of God, and the glory which awaits us at His coming or our translation within the gates. It tells us of a heaven not far off, and shut out from our vision, but near and open. The vail is rent in twain from top to bottom, and the Holy of Holies sheds its light and glory all around us, even here; so that translation itself is scarcely a change of - companionship, although it may be of location. That inner chamber tells us of the place where our prayers can enter. now in sweet incense, and be accepted in His name. Our eyes can look through the vail, and see heaven open, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God. There the sprinkled blood on the mercy seat is ever pleading for us, and claiming our perfect and perpetual acceptance. There the ark within the vail, with the unbroken law within its bosom, is the symbol of the perfect righteousness which we share with Him, and in which we stand accepted in Him, even in the immediate presence of God. There the cherubim of glory are the patterns of the dignity and royalty which our redeemed humanity has already attained in Christ, its illustrious Head, and which we shall share in its fulness when He shall appear. As we look through, we know that our spirits, too, shall follow, and be with Him where He is. ‘*The feet that tremble and falter shall walk through the gates of day;” and

the very body of our humiliation shall be

like Him when He shall appear, and shall be changed into the image of ‘‘the body of His glory.”

And all this we have even here, not only in. vision and prospect, but in foretaste. ‘The holy to the holiest leads To this our spirits rise,

And he who in His footsteps treads Shall meet Him in the skies.”

IV. The Anointing of the Tabernacle. — After the tabernacle had been fully completed, according to all the pattern shown in the mount, it was solemnly dedicated to God, and the entire tent and its furniture were anointed with oil, specially prepared according to the Divine prescription, and consecrated to this exclusive purpose, and then the manifestation of the Divine presence appeared upon it. The pillar of cloud spread its curtains above it, and the Shekinah glory took its place between the cherubim, and filled the tent so effulgently, that Moses even was not able to enter the holy place. Moses had simply and perfectly obeyed God’s directions, and now God accepted his work, and put His seal upon it. This was symbolical of the anointing of Jesus Christ with the Holy Ghost, and of the same anointing which comes upon every consecrated heart when it has obeyed the Divine directions, and presented itself a living sacrifice to God. God will so fill such a soul, that there shall be no room for self and sin. This, indeed, is the true secret of sanctification and self-crucifixion; the expulsive power of the Holy Ghost and the Divine presence are the only true antidotes to the power of self and Satan.

Henceforth the tabernacle becomes the seat and center of the Divine manifestation. “We thus observe three stages of the manifested presence of God in Exodus, namely: First, the pillar of cloud and fire that went before; next, The presence from the mount; and now, the presence of Jehovah in the tabernacle. We trace the same three stages in the Old Testamen: First, the spirit of God as mani- — fested in the patriarchal dispensation; secondly, the revelation of God under the Law; and thirdly, the revelation of God in Christ, the True Tabernacle. ‘‘ God, who at sundry times and in divers manners, spake in times past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds.” Hence we find God in the very first verse of Leviticus, speak- ing to Moses no longer out of the mount or cloud, but owt of the tabernacle. So we may find in Christ the continual presence and guidance of our covenant God. “If a man love me,” Christ says, ‘‘ he will keep my sayings, and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him and make our abode with him.” Let us only do what Moses did, yield ourselves fully and implicitly to the Divine will; hand ourselves over as the property of Christ, and we shall also be possessed and filled with a glory as divine as the Shekinah, and as enduring as the life and love of God. (Ex. chap. xi.)

Henceforth this event, the setting up and anointing of the tabernacle, becomes a landmark of time. It was to begin the second year of their national history, and was on the first day of the first month. The first year had begun with the Passover; but this forms the next great era of their existence.

And so the moment when the soul is dedicated and anointed by the Holy Ghost, is an eternal era in its history, as important as the hour of its new birth; the beginning “of months and years, from which all its experiences and hopes are. henceforth measured. Have we entered upon this second year? Have we begun it, like them, with the sacrifice of our being in implicit obedience, on the altar of God?

And have we received the descending fire, and the abiding Comforter, henceforth to speak to us, not from the heavens,’ or even from the tables of stone, but from the inner chambers of his sanctuary in our hearts 4