03. The Gate Of The Court
CHAPTER THREE
THE GATE OF THE COURT
“And the hanging for the gate of the court was needlework, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen” (Exo 38:18).
WHEN we begin the study of the tabernacle in Exodus 25, we notice that the Holy Spirit does not start with the Gate of the Court, but leads us into the Holy of Holies, where the ark and the mercy seat were and from there into the Holy Place with the table of shew-bread, the candlestick, and the altar of incense, to the Court with the laver and altar of burnt-offering, to the Gate of the Court.
Salvation does not start with man, but with God. Throughout the Bible the emphasis is on God, not on man in the way of salvation, “He brought me up out of the horrible pit and miry clay” (Psa 40:2). The starting point is the loving heart of our Heavenly Father. Not that we loved Him first, but He loved us and loves with an everlasting love. “God-seekers” is a word often used in modern sermons.
The Bible says: “The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one” (Psa 14:2-3).
We do not seek God; it is God with His great father-heart, who with infinite love and patience is seeking the soul of man. Our blessed Lord left His heavenly home to come down on this earth to seek and save that which was lost.
Oh, the love that sought me,
Oh, the blood that bought me,
Wondrous grace that brought me to the fold.
We have been thinking of the white hangings of the court suspended from sixty pillars fixed in sockets of brass and capped with silver.
Did they bar the way into the sanctuary?
The heavenly architect provided a gate thirty feet in length and seven and a half feet in the height and breadth. The curtain which was suspended from four pillars was of blue, purple, scarlet and fine linen.
Those who study numbers in Scripture will point out to us the prominence of the numbers found in the dimensions of the gate, the length being four times the width and the height, the four colors of the curtains, the life of Christ given us in the four gospels; and that four is in Scripture a symbol of life as five is of grace, seven of perfection and three of resurrection.
Without going deeper into this interesting study, we shall all agree that the gate of the court is a beautiful symbol of Him who is the resurrection and the life, and who has said: “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved” (John 10:9).
Blue, purple, scarlet and white were the four colors used in the embroidery of the beautiful gate - all four pointing to the Saviour.
Blue is the color of heaven.
Our Lord’s home was heaven. He told Nicodemus that the Son of man came down from heaven; a heavenly host sang at His birth. He was the bread that came down from heaven; and when we read the gospels, we see how often His thoughts were in His heavenly home. Christ lived heaven on earth. People have asked me what heaven is like, what God is like. I can only answer: If you want to know what God is like, read the gospels; study the Lord Jesus Christ in His words and deeds, and you will know what God is. Christ says: “He that has seen me has seen the Father.”
Paul says our conversation is in heaven. We lead a heavenly life on earth. Can you say that? The Israelites had to wear a ribband of blue on the fringe of their garments (Num 15:38). It showed them as heavenly, doing God’s will on earth as it is done in heaven. Do your family and your companions notice your blue ribband?
Purple is a sign of His royally, of His majesty. When Pilate asked the Lord: “Art thou a king then?” the Lord’s answer was: “Thou sayest that I am a king” (John 18:37).
When Christ came on earth. He emptied Himself of His glory. Only to a few it was given to see the purple. The blind beggar in Jericho had seen the purple when he cried for help to the Son of David. The Canaanite woman did; with her great faith she saw in Him her royal master. John did: “We beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).
The day will come, it may be soon, “that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow . . . and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Php 2:10-11).
How often have you prayed “Thy kingdom come”? Have you made obeisance to the man in purple? Have you acknowledged Christ as your absolute King? Mary felt for the man in purple when she said, “Rabboni,” my master.
Scarlet is the translation of two Hebrew words. In Psa 22:6 “to laath” has been translated worm, “I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people.” The other word “shahl” is found in Isa 1:18, “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.”
Scarlet, a deep red, points to the sufferings of our Saviour. “He was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God” (Rev 19:13).
The fine white linen shows the stainless purity of His human character. “Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously” (1Pe 2:22-23).
Blue, purple, scarlet and white, the four colors of the gate of the court, a symbol of our Lord. He is the man from heaven, the King of kings, the man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, the Son of man, the Son of God, the man Christ Jesus
“In him,” says John, “was life; and the life was the light of men” (John 1:4).
In the four gospels:
- Matthew shows Him as the King foretold by the prophets;
- Mark, as the Servant of Jehovah going about doing good;
- Luke, as the Son of man seeking the lost;
- John, as the Son of God, the only begotten of the Father.
I close this chapter with some lines from my Bible: May my last thought in the evening, my first thought in the morning, be of: A dying Saviour’s love,
A risen Saviour’s power,
An ascended Saviour’s grace,
A coming Saviour’s glory.
~ end of chapter 3 ~