066. Moses--Tabernacle Furniture

Moses--Tabernacle Furniture

Exo 40:17;Exo 40:34-38. And it came to pass in the first month, in the second year, on the first day of the month, that the tabernacle was reared up. Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation, because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And when the cloud was taken up from ever the tabernacle, the children of Israel went onward in all their journies. But if the cloud were not taken up, then they journeyed not, till the day that it was taken up. For the cloud of the Lord was upon the tabernacle by day, and fire was on it by night, in the sight of the house of Israel, throughout all their journies.

Every production of human power and skill bears this inscription, “I am made to perish.” Man himself the moment he begins to breathe begins to die, and his noblest, most durable, and most glorious works are no sooner completed, than they begin to all to decay. In vain we look for the monuments of ancient grandeur and magnificence; they have either wholly vanished away, or present to the eye scattered fragments or tottering ruins, ready to dash themselves upon the ground. Where is now that city and tower which raised its proud head to heaven, in defiance of the waters of a second deluge? Neither the solid and costly materials of which it was composed, the sacred purposes to which it was applied, nor the awful glory which once presided over and resided in it, have preserved from decay and loss, the tabernacle of the congregation, the work of divinely inspired Bezaleel and Aholiab. Of the magnificent structure on mount Zion, the wonder and glory of the whole earth, not one stone remaineth upon another.

All that was formal and instrumental in the ancient dispensation seems to have been, by the special appointment of Providence, destroyed and annihilated, that the spirit of it alone might remain. The tabernacle, and temple, and their service exist only in description: and in those simpler and more spiritual ordinances to which they have given place. And the institutions which now remain, are only preparing the way for a more august, more splendid, and more durable manifestation of the divine glory. The legal economy introduced that of grace by the gospel and then passed away. The dispensation of grace, in like manner, is now performing its work, fulfilling its day, announcing, unfolding, introducing the kingdom of glory; and “when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.” The satisfaction of Moses, when the whole work of the tabernacle and of its furniture was completed, is more easily to be conceived than expressed. To see the pattern showed him in the mount exactly copied, the design of the great Jehovah perfectly fulfilled, must have filled the good man’s mind with delight ineffable. With a holy joy, similar to this, must every lover of the gospel observe the exact coincidence between “the shadows of good things to come,” and “the very image of the things;” between the prediction concerning the Savior of the world, and their accomplishment; between the promises made unto the fathers, and the blessings enjoyed by their children. And what will it be, Christians, in that world of bliss, which is the end of our faith, and the grand object of our hope; what will it be, to find the entire coincidence between the descriptions contained in this book, of future and heavenly glory, and the things described; between the exceeding great and precious promises of the gospel, and the glorious realities of our Fathers house above; between the spirit which Christianity now teaches and inspires, in order to dignify and bless mankind, and the spirit which all the redeemed shall feel, enjoy, and express, when raised to the dignity of being kings and priests unto God? In the preceding Lecture we endeavored to lead your attention to the form, use, and end of the tabernacle erected in the wilderness, and of the several parts of its sacred furniture. The outward court, under the open canopy of heaven, containing “the brazen altar of burnt-offering,” on which incessantly burnt the consecrated fire for offering up the daily sacrifice; and close by it the laver of brass for the priests to wash in.” We conducted you with trembling feet into the “holy place,” concealed in front from every profane eye, by a veil which it was death to draw aside; and from above, by covering upon covering which no eye could penetrate. In this sacred recess were placed “the golden candlestick to give light, the golden altar of incense, and the table of shew-bread.” Having spoken briefly of the first of these, we now proceed to recommend to your notice the other two. The “altar of incense,” was made of shittim, or incorruptible wood, overlaid with pure gold, of a cubit square, and its height double that dimension, with a golden horn arising at each angle, and the top encompassed with a golden border or crown. It had two rings of gold immediately under the border, to which were fitted two staves of the same wood, also overlaid with gold, for the convenience of transporting it from place to place, as occasion required. Its use was to burn, at stated times, a sacred perfume of a certain quality and composition, which it was unlawful to compound, or apply to any other use, or in any other place. It is clear from many parts of Scripture, that the smoke of the sweet incense which ascended from this altar, was intended to represent prayer or intercession. “Let my prayer,” says the Psalmist, “be set forth before thee as incense, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.”[*]Psa 141:2

While the priest, invisible to every eye, was employed in burning incense in the holy place, the multitude were praying without. This leads us directly to consider the great “Apostle and High Priest of our profession, who has for us entered, not into the holy place made with hands, which was the figure of the true, but into heaven itself, there to appear in the presence of God for us.” Though the veil be let down that we cannot behold Him, the eye of faith penetrates it, sees Him who is invisible; sees Him lifting up holy and unwearied hands in our behalf; sees the Prince with God prevailing. The veil was drawn aside, and discovered to the ravished eyes of the beloved disciple, an angel coming, and standing “at the altar, having a golden censer: and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God, out of the angel’s hands.”[*]Rev 8:3-4 The solitary perfume of secret prayer, the combined incense of family worship, the mingled odors of public devotion, the prayers of all saints derive an activity, a force, an elevation from the merit and mediation of the Redeemer, which raise them to the throne of God, where, being accepted through the Beloved, they descend again in showers of blessings on the believer’s head.

Behold the altar which sanctifies the gift, the ladder whose foundation is on the earth, but its summit reacheth heaven, along which the ministering spirits to the heirs of salvation convey the vows, the praises, the holy desires of the faithful, up to their Father and their God; and reconvey the gifts and graces of their heavenly Father to his children upon earth. The approach to the golden altar of incense was by way of the brazen altar of burnt-offering: the new and living way that conducts “into the holiest of all,” is through the rent veil of the Redeemer’s flesh. Jesus having suffered the things which were appointed, entered into his glory. As by the altar of burnt-offering, so by the lever of purification, the holy place was approachable; for “without holiness no man shall see God;” and “everyone that nameth the name of Christ must depart from iniquity.” The horns at the corners of the altar have been considered as emblematical of strength, and being tipped with the blood of the atoning victim, are conceived to represent the power of God, and the grace that is in Christ Jesus, united in the work of man’s redemption. The quadrangular figure of the altar, and the equality of its sides, may point out the impartial regards of the great Father of all, under the dispensation to which that given by Moses conducted, to men of every nation under heaven, and they prefigure the day when, according to the words of the Savior himself, “men should come from the east and the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven.”[*]Mat 8:11 The materials of the altar, shittim-wood overlaid with pure gold, by a bold imagination have been supposed a figure, of the twofold nature of Christ: the purity, solidity, impassableness of the one, encompassing, supporting, securing the fragility of the other, defending it at all points, and bestowing upon it a value, strength, and duration which it possessed not before.

Finally, the staves fitted to the rings, and perpetually in their place for the convenience of motion, have been, with what propriety you will judge, construed into an emblem of the transitory nature of the whole dispensation, which looked continually forward to something better than itself; which forever warned the comers thereunto of their pilgrimage state, saying, “Arise ye and depart, for this in not your rest.” It is remarkable, that after Israel was come to his rest in the land of promise, and the holy furniture of the tabernacle was lodged for perpetuity in the temple at Jerusalem, this memorial of motion and change still offered itself to view: the altar, the table, the ark, had the instrument of removing them always in its place, and, in concert with every part of the system of nature and providence, call upon men with a loud and distinct voice, saying, “Seek ye another country, that is an heavenly.” But we proceed. The third and last piece of furniture in this solemn repository was “the table of shew-bread,” of the same materials with the altar, but of different dimensions, two cubits in length, by one of breadth, and one and a half in height: and, like it, furnished with staves fitted to four rings for the purpose of conveyance. Its use was to hold the shewbread, consisting of twelve cakes, according to the number of the twelve tribes, of the finest flour, prepared according to a special prescription, in two piles of six each, to be renewed every sabbath-day, and that which was removed to become the property of, and to be eaten in the holy place by the priests, the sons of Levi, who ministered at the altar. Now upon the very first sight of it, this ordinance, besides those circumstances which it possessed in common with others, seems designed to be a perpetual acknowledgment, on the part of man, of the care and kindness of a gracious Providence, which gives to men the rich enjoyment of the principal support of human life, bread, and with it, all the inferior accommodations and comforts which render it desirable. It was, on the other hand, the security and pledge which God vouchsafed to give to his church and people, that bread should continually be given them that while Israel owned and acknowledged God in the way of piety and devotedness to his service, he would own and acknowledge them, by an unwearied and effectual attention to their necessary demands and reasonable wishes. A common table is the badge of familiarity and friendship, is the sweetest emblem of domestic union and happiness; of paternal concern, of filial tenderness, of brotherly love. The “shew-bread” was appropriated to persons of a sacred profession, to sacred seasons, and a holy place; unless when the greatness of the occasion superseded the strictness of the letter, and the law of mercy took precedence of the law of sacrifice. O how much more extended the grace of the gospel! David alone and his company, and that only once, on a necessitous occasion, was admitted to the privileges of a son of Levi, to a participation of the consecrated bread; but “behold,” says the great head of the Christian church, “I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.”[*]Rev 3:20 What an honor was it to these Levites to be received and treated as the guests of the great Jehovah! But it is not once to be compared with the unspeakable felicity and honor of receiving and entertaining the King of glory. And such felicity is the portion of the meanest of the saints: thus shall it be done to the man, however poor or despised among his equals, whom He by whom kings reign delighteth to honor: for “behold the tabernacle of God is with men.”[*]Rev 21:3 The twelve tribes, represented by so many cakes of bread, presented without ceasing before God in the holy place, were without ceasing admonished of their common relation to one another, and their constant security under their heavenly Father’s watchful eye, and the shelter of his expanded wings. “Can a woman forget her sucking-child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.”[*]Isa 49:15 The renewal of the cakes every returning sabbath, different yet the same, removed yet remaining, the old applied to one use, the new to another, may not unfitly represent that bread of life which our heavenly Father’s love has provided for the fare of our Christian sabbaths--the very food which our forefathers lived upon; not another gospel, but that which was from the beginning; but served up for our use, by men possessed of different gifts, “according as God hath distributed to every man the proportion of faith:” and it is the happiness and the praise of every scribe who “is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven, to be like unto a. man that is a householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old.”[*]Mat 13:52

Once more, might not this table of the Lord, perpetually covered, perpetually furnished, be intended as a figure of that table, which the eternal wisdom of the Father” has prepared and provided with “the bread which came down from heaven, to give life to the world?” And from thence, by an easy and natural transition, the eye ascends to our Father’s house above, in which “there are many mansions,” and where “there is bread enough and to spare;” and O how happy is that man who “shall eat bread in the kingdom of God.”

Such was the holy place and its furniture; the uses to which it was applied, and the spiritual objects which it presents to our view. With reverence we draw nigh to the last solemn recess of this venerable structure, called “the ark;” by way of eminence and distinction; sometimes, “the ark of the covenant;” the ark of the “testimony;” the ark of “his strength;” the ark “whose name is called by the name of the God of Israel.” We shall pass by those circumstances which were in common to it, with the other implements of the worldly sanctuary, the holy places made with hands; and point out a few of those which were peculiar to itself. It was a close chest of two cubits and a half long, one and a half broad, and one and a half in height: of the self-same materials with the rest. The covering was denominated the mercy-seat; from the two ends of which arose two figures of cherubims, of beaten or solid gold, with their faces turned, and their wings extended towards each other: looking down together towards the mercyseat and concealing it from the eye. For any one to touch this with so much as a finger, or to presume to look into it, except those who were divinely appointed for the purpose, was instant and certain death, as the dreadful punishment of Uzzah and of the men of Bethshemesh awfully evinced. Its contents were the two tables of testimony, the golden pot with manna, the memorial of Israel’s miraculous supply in the wilderness, and Aaron’s rod that budded. Its principal use was to point out a way in the pathless wilderness for Israel to march in. From between the cherubims the divine oracles were delivered, at first to Moses by a voice; for God conversed with him as a man with his friend; and afterwards to the high priest, who consulted by Urim and Thummim, which is supposed to have been a supernatural declaration of the divine will, by means of rays of glory darted from the most holy place, upon the breastplate which was studded with twelve gems. But the nature and manner of this consultation and response, now are, and likely to remain so, a secret to mankind.

Besides marking out the way, and directing the several encampments in the wilderness, we shall meet in the course of this history with a special interposition of it in many noted particular cases. By it the waters of Jordan were divided asunder, and opened a passage for Israel into the promised land. Before it the proud walls of Jericho were leveled with the ground, after having been encompassed by it for seven days: its presence confounded Dagon, and plagued the Philistines. Treated with respect, or approached carelessly and presumptuously, it became a protection and a source of blessing to one family; a terror and a curse to another. The king of Israel reckoned it the glory of his house, and the protection of his kingdom; and had it conveyed with all suitable solemnity to the place prepared for it. And, finally, it completed the splendor and magnificence of the sacred edifice on mount Zion, the joy and wonder of the whole earth. And the divine presence, of which it was the symbol, constitutes the safety, strength, and happiness of every living temple which the Holy Ghost hath reared. Let my heart, O God, be an altar, from whence the sweet incense of gratitude, love, and praise may continually. ascend. “Arise, O Lord, into this thy rest; thou and the ark of thy strength. Let thy priests be clothed with righteousness; let me with all thy saints shout for joy. Turn not away the face of thine anointed.” The conjectures of the learned on the subject of the cherubim, are various, many of them fanciful, and for the most part unsatisfactory. The most obvious and most generally received opinion is, that they were emblematical representations of the angelic or heavenly host: and the attributes here assigned to them, their attitude, and their employment in the tabernacle service, correspond exactly to the idea given us in other parts of Scripture of those flaming ministers who stand continually before God, execute his pleasure, adore his divine perfections, minister to the heirs of salvation. The ark may be considered as the throne of God. The cherubim encompassed that throne, as the attendants in earthly courts surround the throne and person of their prince. This is the precise idea suggested by the prophet Isaiah, of the nature and office of these blessed spirits, in the sixth chapter of his prophesy. “In the year that king Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims; each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory.”[*]Isa 6:1-3 Thus, also, Daniel represents the same glorious object; “The Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him.”[*]Dan 7:9-10 Micah saw in vision, “the Eternal sitting upon his throne, and all the host of heaven standing before him, and on the right hand and the left.” “The chariots of God,” says the psalmist, “are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels: the Lord is among them as in Sinai, in the holy place.”[*]Psa 68:17 And in several other passages he addresses the Deity as sitting and dwelling among the cherubim.[*]Psa 80:1;Psa 99:1 The cherubim had their faces turned one toward another. This might be intended to represent the perfect union of sentiment and co-operation which subsists among these sons of light. In other places of Scripture, we hear their voices in concert, raising one song of praise, as in the passage just now quoted from Isaiah, and Revelations, chapter fourth: “They rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.”[*]Rev 4:8 “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, and honor, and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created,”[*]Rev 4:11 These glorious beings, differing in degree, infinite in number, have nevertheless but one heart, one desire, one will, one aim, to praise and serve Him who is the author of their being, and the source of all their happiness. The cherubim are represented as furnished with wings. This denotes the alacrity, promptitude, and instantaneousness, with which angels obey the divine will. Thus, the angel who appeared to Zacharias at the hour of incense, “I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God;” and hence, elsewhere, in Scripture, the activity of angels is compared to the velocity of the wind, and the rapid, irresistible force of fire. “He rode upon a cherub, and did fly; yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind.” “He maketh his angels spirits; his ministers a flaming fire.” “Bless the Lord, ye his angels, that excel in strength, that do his commandments; hearkening unto the voice of his word. Bless ye the Lord, all ye his hosts; ye ministers of his, that do his pleasure.”[*]Psa 103:20-21

Once more; the faces of the cherubim were not only turned one to another, but bended together toward the mercy-seat, and their looks were attentively fixed upon the ark. This expresses the holy admiration, with which angels are filled, of those mysteries of redemption which the ark prefigured. To this remarkable circumstance the apostle Peter alludes in his first epistle, when speaking, of salvation through “the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow,” he adds, “which things the angels desire to look into.” The words literally translated import, “which things, angels stoop down to contemplate.” It conveys a beautiful and striking idea of the gospel dispensation. Angels are exalted to the height of glory and felicity. They behold God face to face, and drink of the river of pleasure at its very source. They see his untreated splendor shining before their eyes. They see his goodness in the blessings which they enjoy. They see his justice in the punishment of angels “which left their first estate.” They see his wisdom in the government of this vast universe. In a word, everything that is capable of filling the enlarged comprehension, of satisfying the inquiring spirit, is set before these pure and exalted intelligences. Nevertheless, amidst so many objects of wonder and delight, in the midst of all this felicity and glory, angels desire to be more and more acquainted with “the things which belong to our peace.” They discover a God rich in mercy to men upon earth, as wonderful, as incomprehensible as a God abundant in loving kindness to angels in heaven: and forgetting, if it be lawful to say so, the luster and happiness of the church triumphant, descend and mingle with the church militant, and find fuel to divine love, find materials for pleasing, advancing, endless investigation, in the work of redemption of Jesus Christ. “These things the angels,” from the heights of heaven, “bend down” with humble earnestness, with holy desire “to look into.”

I conclude with quoting a passage of the Rabbi Maimonides[*]More Nevoch, part III. ch. xlv. on the subject. “God commanded Moses,” says he, “to make two cherubim, in order to impress upon the human mind the doctrine of the existence of angels. Had there been but one cherub placed over the mercy-seat, the Israelites might have fallen into a grievous error, they might have imagined, with idolatrous nations, that it was the image of God himself, which they were required to worship under that form. Or they might have been led to believe, on the other hand, that there was but one angel. But the command given to make two cherubim, joined to this declaration, O Israel, the Lord your God is one Jehovah, settles both articles beyond the power of disputation. It proves that there is an angelic order, and that it consists of more than one: it prevents our confounding the idea of God with that of angels; seeing there is but one God who created the cherubim, and created more than one.” In this sacred repository were laid up, for perpetual preservation, the awful monuments of the Sinai covenant, of the church established in the wilderness; the memorials of mercies past, the pledges of good things to come--“the tables of the covenant,” the incorruptible manna, and Aaron’s rod that budded: signifying to all future generations, the permanency and immutability of the divine law, the unremitting care and attention of the divine providence, the dignity, and stability of the Levitical priesthood. But the whole economy, and every instrument of it, in process of time passed away. All was at length carried to Babylon. But the dissolution of the empire which dared to violate their sacredness, was involved in their violation and dissolution. Read the history of it, Daniel 5.[*]Dan 5:1-6 “Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thousand. Belshazzar whiles he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels, which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem, that the king and his princes, his wives and his concubines might drink therein. Then they brought the golden vessels that were taken out of the temple of the house of God, which was at Jerusalem; and the king and his princes, his wives and his concubines drank in them. They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold, and silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone. In the same hour came forth fingers of a man’s hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaister of the wall of the king’s palace; and the king saw part of the hand that wrote. Then the king’s countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another.” Read the writing, with the interpretation of it. “This is the writing that was written, MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN. This is the interpretation of the thing; MENE, God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it. TEKEL, thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting. PERES, thy kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.”[*]Dan 5:25-28 Read the issue. “In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain. And Darius the Median took the kingdom.”[*]Dan 5:30-31

Such was the wonderful structure erected to the honor of God, and by his special direction, in the wilderness of Sinai. It was begun and perfected within the compass of little more than six months. Everything was executed according to the pattern showed to Moses in the mount. At length it was set up in all its splendor, with a mixture of holy joy and godly fear: and the divine Inhabitant took solemn possession in the eyes of all Israel. “A cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.”

“Now of the things which we have spoken, this is the sum: we have such an High Priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched, and not man. Who hath obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the Mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises. In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old, is ready to vanish away.”[*]Heb 8:1-2;Heb 8:6;Heb 8:13