The Boards of the Tabernacle-Exodus. 26:15-30

Typically the tabernacle has three aspects: Christ Himself (Heb. 9:11); the heaven into which He has passed (Heb. 9:24); and of God's dwelling here- believers ( Heb. 3:6). We will consider it now in the third aspect. First, as to the boards-they were all made of wood and overlaid with gold. I do not take gold to be a type of God's righteousness' as we have in the wall of the court, but a picture of that clothing we have of God in Christ; righteousness and everything else too (1 Cor. 1:30). It is something, more than being merely righteous. " We are accepted in the Beloved." We are clothed in Christ's own beauty. " Ye are complete in Hun." Once these boards were each of - them trees, and God had to send some one with a sharp ax to cut it down, and shape it, and place it there. These boards are now brought here to be God's house, and clothed with gold. One board could not say that he had more beauty than the rest, for they all had the same beauty, the beauty which God clothed them with. It is a sad mistake if one believer thinks that he is above another. We ought to boast in Christ, but not in ourselves, for all we have is in Him. Now, each of these boards had two tenons, and they were not planted in the sand, but in silver sockets. Silver Is a type of -redemption-it was the atonement money (Exod. 30:16; 38:27). If placed in innocence again we should fall immediately; if under law, we are cursed; we stand on a better ground-on the ground of being redeemed by the price Christ has paid. We find- believers are all gathered together, every one of them redeemed. And God had not only each of these standing in silver, but He had another way of making them one, otherwise they might not all be together. They might be all in the same place, but nothing to join them. So there were to be five bars made for each side, and one of these bars was to pass through the midst of the boards, reaching from end to end; a bar of the same material as the boards, and that went through the heart of each board, thus giving them all the same nature, so to speak. Now what makes Christians one? Every child of God has the same nature. If I am born of God, and you are born of God, we are all one. Then there were other bars. They were of the same material, made of wood and overlaid with gold. Now each board had rings placed in it, and the rings are emblematical of divine love. In Rom. 5 we have, "The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost who is given unto us." Each one has God's love in him. There was first the rings placed in the boards, and then the bars that went through the rings. Each one having the love of God in his heart, the Spirit of God would use that love to bind us all together. "Love is the bond of perfectness " (Col. 3:14). Again (Col. 2:2), " Your hearts may be knit together in love"-that is, divine love, the love of God shed abroad in our hearts. Human love is but a poor thing; it is the love that has sought us, and found us, and brought us together, that must keep us together. And it is a poor knot if love has not tied it.
Now, if 'I stop there, we would have twenty boards together, and eight together, and twenty more together, but that God should have them all one, we have rings placed over the corners binding the whole three sides together so that there should not be three separated sides, but all one. They were gathered around a central object. The center of all God's types here is the ark of the covenant-the ark of the testimony, where God's glory was. The ark was the grand object-they were all gathered around that. God has one center for all believers, and that is Christ. Christ would have all believers around Him. If every believer in this place had Christ for a center, how long would it be before all the sects would be left to themselves? All that man has made are other centers. Now, supposing these boards had a will of their own, and they were to act on that will, just as men have acted, what would be the result? Well, one board would say: " I am tired of standing up here all the time; I want to do something. I want to be useful and join a praying band or something; I feel I can do more outside of the gate." Two more go into some other society, and four or five more go out there and have a nice good time all to themselves. That may suit them all very well, but at the same time where has God's house gone? It might suit the boards very well, but it would not suit God. Then the only company that can count upon Christ's presence in the midst, are those who are gathered to the name of Christ. I do not say others are not Christians, but they are not gathered in the name of Christ. The number of the bars has also its significance. There were five, the number of weakness. Realized weakness has a wonderful power in holding saints together.
Notes of Lectures on the Tabernacle: by C. H. B.
Now we will consider the way in which these things were carried through the wilderness. Those who bore them were the Levites, divided into three families. Aaron's sons, the priests, first took down the covering, and the Levites bore them. We will commence as they are spoken of here: the first is the ark of the covenant. Aaron and his sons were to take down the covering veil and cover the ark of the testimony. Next they were to put on a covering of badgers' skins, and over that a cloth wholly of blue. Now, what do we learn from this? Now, if the ark had the outside covering of blue, and all the other things of brown, it has a meaning; it is a type of our testimony of Christ as we pass through the wilderness. He came down here as the king of the Jews to reign, and they rejected Him. And, when the veil was rent, He disappeared, He went to heaven. God was veiled in that flesh, but few perceived Him; He was hidden from their eyes. They nailed Him to the cross, and the throne which would have been set here on earth went up to heaven. Now, the throne of grace is up there. The covering of badgers' skins covered it, a somber hue which presents no beauty; and over that the cloth wholly of blue. The only testimony we have as Christians to bear to the world is this-Christ has gone to heaven. Now there is a great deal in that-it is a judgment against the world. When the Spirit of truth shall come He shall convince the world of sin, because they believe not on me," (John 16). The very fact that Christ has gone to heaven is a positive proof of the world's wickedness. They crucified Him and did not want Him on the earth. It is also a sweet token of grace, telling that He has gone to heaven; He has accomplished the work He came to do; He is sitting at God's right -hand. "When He had by Himself purged our sins He sat Clown on the right hand of the Majesty on high." The throne of grace is in heaven, and God invites us near to heaven and away from earth. Our one business here is not to make the world better, or to talk temperance or any other reform, for the world has rejected Christ, and God had accepted Him; that then is the sum of our testimony to the world; a testimony against the world, for it crucified Him; a testimony of the grace of God towards the world, for He has accepted Him in His offering for sin.
The next thing is the table of show bread. First the bread was placed on a cloth of blue. The bread -which came down from heaven was not wanted by the world, and He has gone back to heaven. This was covered with cloth of scarlet. In John 6, we have, first, " I am the bread that came down from heaven," then, being rejected as such by the world, except ye eat My flesh and drink My blood ye have not eternal life abiding in you." The heavenly bread was thus covered with the scarlet cloth. Now through His shed blood Christ gives us eternal life. Except we believe in a crucified Christ we cannot be saved. But do not think, dear friends, that that expression, " except ye eat My flesh," etc., has the least reference whatever to the Lord's supper; it refers to the fact of the poor sinner believing in the crucified Savior. Over the scarlet cloth was placed the covering of badgers' skin, and that hid the whole. There was but one thing which had a color outside, and that was the ark of the covenant-everything else was hid from the outside gaze by the somber line of the badger skins. I apply that thus: Our testimony to t he world is only one thing, Christ. Now we come to the candlesticks: they Were to cover it with a cloth of blue---it is covered with a heavenly cover. Christ came down here the light of tile world, but, rejected as such, He has gone 10 heaven. In His place the Hob Ghost callus clown fun 110;0 cit, and believers have the heavenly light. Over the blue was again placed the brown. Now there was the blue, and the gold, but the outside observer could only see the brown.
It - is a wrong idea to say that every one has the Holy Ghost; that is only theology. Every believer has the Holy Spirit-never does the Scripture say that the Holy Ghost is given to every one all around.
Now we come to the golden altar. Upon it " they shall spread a cloth of blue and cover with a covering of badgers' skins." That is a yew simple type.
The altar was that upon which incense was burned worship. Now what does the world know about worship? Our worship is heavenly. There is no Such thing in God's word as an unconverted man worshipping God., God does not want it; He wants the sinner to accept of Christ. He doesn't want his prayers, praises, organs, money, etc. God has Christ to give him and God cannot take a single thing from the sinner until he accepts Christ. No one knows anything about worship but the saved soul. Next we come to the brazen altar-" they shall take away the ashes from the altar, and spread a purple cloth thereon." - The purple, as we remarked before, is a type of royals; and the brass altar is especially a type of the cress of Christ. Now He who came to die for sinners was the King of the Jews. The last sight the world had of Christ was when He was, crucified; when He rose from the dead He was seen by believers only. People talk 'Wont Christ reigning as king, but He is not. By and by He will. At present His kingship is hid. The purple was covered with the somber badgers' skins. As to the brazen laver, there is nothing said at all about its covering. No doubt they had to carry it along, but it forms no part of our testimony, and therefore there is nothing said about its covering. Cm' testimony is positive rather than negative, though we each need the laver for ourselves. Our one testimony- to the world as u e pass along through the wilderness is just this, "Christ has gone to heaven."
How were these borne along through the wilderness These staves and rings were for one purpose, to bear the things by. The rings were placed in the table and the staves put through them. The only power for testimony is the love of Christ,-" the love of Christ constraineth us." God places the love of Christ in a man's heart and if the love of Christ does not constrain a man to bear testimony to Christ, God does not want= a bit of testimony from him. Now there is something else too-there were bars which went through the rings. These bars were made of wood overlaid with gold. God uses a human instrument, but He clothes that instrument with divine power. There were three families who bore these things that I have been talking about, the Kohathites, the Gershonites and the Merarites. God did not leave it to their choice to do whatever they wanted, but He appointed each their work, and so it should be in God's house. Aaron appointed the Kohathites to bear the ark, etc., the Gershonites to bear the curtains, and the Merarites to bear the boards and pillars.
Supposing they had been left to their own will, it would have been all confusion. Now as to the origin of the Levites. They were men under a curse-there was no good thing in them. Jacob speaks of them as being joined in cruelty (Gen. 49:5.). But God takes up these very Levites and uses them in His service. He says to them that they should be joined to Aaron (Num. 18). Once they were cursed, will divide in Jacob and scatter them in Israel," but now they are joined-joined to Aaron. Moreover, God claimed all the first born as His, for this reason. He slew all the first born of the Egyptians and spared the first born of Israel, because the blood was over the door. When Israel fell He took the Levites instead of the first born, and He thus considered the Levites as redeemed by blood; once cursed-but now joined to Aaron, because now redeemed by blood. It is so now with God's servants, once cursed and lost and guilty before God, but now redeemed by the blood of Christ and joined to Christ. There is a sweet thought about being joined to Aaron. All service done for God must be done in fellowship with Christ. It is a blessed thing to work with Christ here in a world that denies Him. Every bit of real service must be done under Christ's eye. We are each to do the work that Christ gives us. The Merarites came with their sockets of silver and placed them on the sand. The' first thing in gathering souls together is for the evangelist to gather souls on the ground of redemption, saved by the preaching of the gospel. Not gathering them together to be saved, but being saved, gathering them together. Then the Gershonites had charge of the curtains, and when the tabernacle was pitched they threw the curtains over them for beauty. Then the third person who came along was the Kohathite—his name means congregation, a type of the teacher who gives the truth to the assembly. First souls converted and then taught in things of Christ, and then taught about Christ their center. Mark their names-Merari means " bitterness " or " sadness." The man whom God can use in saving souls must be a man weaned from the world. How can he help it when he sees the world going on to destruction? He will be away from all frivolity, a man of sad spirit. Then the man who bore the curtains was called Gershonite, or stranger. The man whom the Lord will use to teach souls of Christ, is a stranger in the world, to tell them of the great Stranger, Christ Himself, who passed through this world and went to glory. Then the third, the Kohathite's name meant assembly or congregation. God sends another then, you see, to gather to Christ, not to a sect, but to instruct them in worship which pertains to God's assembly, and the blessed fact of being gathered together to Christ their center.
In these days when the denial of the inspiration of the Scriptures is getting to be so common, it is well to know the meaning of these Old Testament types.
Surely none other than a divine hand could have drawn these pictures which so widely set forth Christ and His work. May the contemplation of them lead to a greater knowledge of and love for the great Original!