The Entrances

Why are there three? The gate of the court, the entrance into the holy place, and another veil at the entrance into the most holy place? Christ is the way all along. He is the door which leads me into the presence of God as a believer. He is also the door which leads me into the place of a priest, and through Him I enter the holiest. But each entrance had its distinctive character. The hanging for the gate of the court was upheld by brass pillars, in brass sockets, for it is through a Christ who bore judgment. and a way founded in judgment, that the believer comes to God. The hanging of the door of the tabernacle was upheld by wooden pillars, overlaid with gold and socketed in brass, for it is the Risen Christ who leads me into the place of a priest, though all stand fire in judgment. But no brass entered into the hanging of the veil; silver sockets were used here, for His presence we can stand on no other than redemption ground.
Notes of Lectures on the Tabernacle: by C. H. B.
THE table was made of wood, overlaid with gold. The wood was of the Acacia-seyal. Let me mention some instructing things about this tree, that we may see how well-chosen of God for this purpose it was. It can grow in a very dry soil; it is a thorny tree' full of sharp thorns. To the spiritual mind these facts are sweetly suggestive of Him, who, in a dry and thirsty land, where surely there was naught to sustain His spirit, yet was in the constant freshness of communion with God, for other than an earthly stream sustained Him. Though indeed crowned now with glory, a crown of thorns was all this world had for Him. The Acacia is the tree too from which is obtained the gum Arabic so much used in medicinal preparations, which is procured simply by piercing the tree. "But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced His side, and forthwith came there out blood and water." This is the only balm for the troubled soul and sin-burdened conscience. The wood, then, is a type of Christ in His humanity. Gold always stands for that which is of God-divine. Made of wood, the table was overlaid with gold, and surmounted with a crown of gold. The gold is a type of Christ's divinity. Not as the One who came down from heaven, but as raised from the dead and " declared to be the Son of God with power," and crowned with glory and honor.
Twelve loaves of show-bread were placed on it continually on every Sabbath (Lev. 24). They were in two rows (not two heaps), six in a row. The twelve loaves represented Israel. Applying that to ourselves as the Israel of God, the twelve loaves are a type of us in Christ. Presented (show-bread means exhibition bread) before God by Him who is Son of Man and Son of God, in Him as the glorified Man we are seen by God, just as those twelve loaves in which Israel was represented were borne up by that golden table. We see the beauty then, of six in a row; God's eye saw each one. If there were six in a heap, He would only see the top one. Every believer is seen before God in the Christ perfection of Christ. They were placed there on the Sabbath day; why was that? We are presented before God by Christ in a Sabbath that cannot be broken, in the Sabbath that He Himself has won for us by the cross. No man ever kept the Sabbath day. Christ died for your sins, and if you believe on Him there is a rest. Paul says, " We which have believed do enter into rest." Rest in Christ, and you have rest; have it now.
Another thought here that is very precious: there was not only a crown of gold around the table, but also a border of a handbreadth round about. What was that for? Any who remember that the bread was always to be on the table, even when on the march through the difficult and perilous wilderness, will at once say, " It was to keep the dishes and loaves from falling off." True, but why does it say a border of a handbreadth, when all the other measures are given in cubits or fractions of a cubit? Because it is God's own hand that keeps believers: " They shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hand; my Father which gave them me, is greater than all, and no one is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand." We do not keep ourselves, we are "kept." Christ says His sheep "shall never perish." How can they, when He has His hand around them? There was also a crown to the border, so that the loaves could not fall off without a breach being made in the crown of gold. Neither can Christ's sheep perish without a sacrifice of God's glory, for He has pledged Himself to keep them.