Chapter 01 : IN THE COURT

Chapter 01 : IN THE COURT

"There was a Tabernacle made" (Hebrews 9:2) about thirty-four centuries ago; and a most remarkable structure it was.

Something of its great importance and of its very remarkable nature may be gathered from the fact that God Himself both desired its erection and designed every part of it. His was the proposal that it should be built; His was the plan; and He it was Who solemnly charged Moses to make everything "according to the pattern" which He had shown to him (Exodus 25:9, Hebrews 8:5). The materials to be used in its construction, the shapes and sizes of the different parts, the details of the various articles of furniture, the number and measurements of its curtains, and even the colours which should adorn them, were all specified by God Himself. This Divinely-desired and Divinely-designed Tabernacle was a veritable treasure house; not only because of the great quantities of gold and silver which were used in its construction, but also, and more particularly, because of the pictures - the invaluable illustrations - found in every part of it. For the Tabernacle was a Divine picture gallery: every detail of its structure, its ornamentation, and its furniture, was designed to represent some spiritual reality. No picture gallery in the world, however highly its works of art may be valued, can be compared with the treasures of the Tabernacle for the Tabernacle pictures were not mere representations of man’s imagination, or man’s reproductions of natural objects; on the contrary, they were Divinely-drawn pictures and symbols of heavenly and spiritual realities - "the example and shadow of heavenly things", "a figure for the time then present", "patterns of things in the heavens", "figures of the true", "a shadow of good things to come" (Hebrews 8:5; Hebrews 9:9; Hebrews 9:23-24; Hebrews 10:1).

Very many chapters in the books of Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers are devoted to full and detailed descriptions of the Tabernacle, its contents, and the services connected with it; and something of its lasting importance may be learned from the fact that this building, which was desired and designed by God Himself, was also described by Him at such considerable length in His Holy Word. The gold and silver treasures of the Tabernacle disappeared many centuries ago; but, through these Divinely-inspired accounts, its greater treasures - its invaluable types and pictures - remain to this day, for the edification and enjoyment of the children of God. In the limited space at our disposal we cannot do more than give a general description of the Tabernacle and its furniture, with a brief pause here and there to indicate a few of its principal treasures. Even such a passing glance will, we trust, lead many Christians to a careful consideration of the Scriptures which describe these priceless Tabernacle treasures. Such a consideration will prove both delightful and profitable to anyone who loves the Lord Jesus; for here will be found many of "the things concerning Himself", which make the hearts of His people burn within them now as in days of old (Luke 24:27; Luke 24:32).

First then let us glance at some of the treasures in the Court before considering those in the Holy Place and in the Holy of Holies. The encampment of the children of Israel in the wilderness was arranged, by Divine command, in the form of a hollow square; each side of the square being composed of the camps of three tribes. Within this hollow square there was another hollow square, three sides of which were formed by the tents of the three families of the Levites, while the fourth side consisted of the tents of Moses, Aaron and the priests. Within this inner square, and thus "in the midst" of the whole vast encampment, stood God’s tent - the Tabernacle - surrounded by an uncovered rectangular enclosure, known as the Court of the Tabernacle (see Numbers 2:1-34; Numbers 3:1-51, Exodus 27:9-18; Exodus 38:9-20). This enclosure, in which the Tabernacle stood, contained also the altar of burnt-offering and the laver: the altar was placed on the east side of the Tabernacle, near the entrance to the enclosure, and the laver stood between the altar and the Tabernacle. The Court was 100 cubits long and 50 cubits broad and it was enclosed by hangings of fine twined linen suspended from pillars which were kept upright by sockets of "brass" (copper or perhaps bronze) and by cords fixed to brass pins or tent-pegs. These pillars had chapiters of silver and were united by silver "fillets" or connecting-rods. The white linen curtain, which thus surrounded the Court of the Sanctuary and separated it from the encampment, was five cubits in height. This white wall of fine twined linen - which distinguished the Tabernacle from all the surrounding tents, and which separated it from the encampment of which it was the centre, clearly signified purity and righteousness (Revelation 19:8), and pictured both the difference and the distance between the Holy God and sinful man. Man’s boasted righteousness can only be likened to "filthy rags" (Isaiah 64:6) in contrast to Divine righteousness, which was pictured by that pure white curtain of fine twined linen, which differentiated the Tent in which God dwelt from all other dwelling-places. So, when "the Word became Flesh and dwelt among us", when the Son of God became also the Son of Man, when the great Antitype of the Tabernacle was manifested, He differed from all other men in that He alone was "the Righteous", the "Just One", the One "Who knew no sin", the One Who was ever "holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners".

He was the Light amid the darkness, the "fine twined linen" amid the "filthy rags", the One Whose spotless righteousness was pictured by the fine twined linen with which the Court was surrounded, and with which also the Tabernacle was covered, and Aaron and the priests were clothed.

But, when the Lord ordered this separating curtain to be erected around the Court, He also gave directions for a "gate" to be made; for, though in these Tabernacle pictures He plainly signified man’s unfitness to draw near to Him, He also clearly pictured the way by which, through His grace, man would be privileged to come into His Divine presence. The Gate was at the eastern end of the Court. It consisted of a curtain, 20 cubits long and 5 cubits high, suspended from four pillars. This entrance curtain was of the same height and of the same material (fine twined linen) as the hangings which surrounded the Court, but, unlike those plain white hangings, it was adorned with three colours. The position of the white linen barrier, between God’s Tent and all other tents, signified separation; but the provision of a gate in that barrier, and of the same material as that barrier spoke of invitation, and clearly indicated God’s gracious desire that men should draw near to Him and His gracious intention to provide a Way by which they should be enabled to draw near without compromising His holiness. Clearly then in that Gate we have a picture of the Lord Jesus Who said, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me" (John 14:6). The three colours, by which the entrance-curtain was distinguished from the barrier-curtain, were (1) blue, (2) purple, (3) scarlet: they were Divinely-chosen colours; and, in the inspired description of the Tabernacle and its entrance-curtains, they are always combined and always mentioned in the order we have named. A consideration of these three colours, of their nature, and of their invariable order, will reveal choice treasures, for in these colours, which differentiated the gate from the barrier, God has given a wonderful picture of Him Who is the Way to Himself. The first mentioned colour is blue; it is the colour of the sky, the colour of God’s throne (Exodus 24:10, Ezekiel 1:26), the colour which speaks of the heavenly and of the Divine, the colour which leads our thoughts to God Himself.

Next let us think of the last mentioned colour - the scarlet. It is the very opposite of the blue; no other colours could more completely picture the idea of absolute contrast. As the blue pictures the heavenly and the Divine, so the scarlet pictures the earthly and the human. It is, as someone has said, the colour which suggests both man and mud. We may find that thought almost at the beginning of the Bible, where we read that the first man was called Adam, a word which Newberry translates as "red earth". (A glance at a lexicon will show that "adam" is a word which is used some hundreds of times for "man", and that a form of it is used for "dyed red" is such Scriptures as Exodus 25:5, and that it is closely related to "adamah" which is used about two hundred times for "earth", "ground", or "land".) The connection of the scarlet colour with the earth is also seen in the fact that, in the descriptions of the Tabernacle, the word scarlet is always a translation of two Hebrew words, one of which means "worm", and is elsewhere so translated (e.g. Psalms 22:6). It would be difficult, if not actually impossible, to determine now the exact shades of the three Tabernacle colours, but, by thus describing the scarlet as "worm-scarlet", the Holy Spirit has surely emphasised its connection with the earth and its contrast to the blue of Heaven. Here then we have the two contrasting colours, the blue of the sky and the scarlet of earth - the one signifying the heavenly, and the other signifying the earthly - the one speaking of the Divine, and the other of the human, of Adam, of flesh and blood.

But, as we have seen, there was another colour, and this other colour always has the central place when the three colours are mentioned. This central colour was purple - a colour composed of the other two colours - a colour which contained, combined and connected the blue and the scarlet. This purple, with its combination of blue and scarlet, reminds us of the Eternal Son of God Who became also the Son of Man and Who thenceforth was God and Man in one Unique Person, whose name was called "Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us" (Matthew 1:23).

Looking at this beautiful combination of blue, purple and scarlet we may see a picture in colours of Him concerning Whom it is written, "the Word was God . . . and the Word became flesh, and dwelt (tabernacled) among us". Here in this combination of contrasts we may see Him of Whom it is written that God sent "His Own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh" (Romans 8:3).

Thus we may see how all these colours pictured the Lord Jesus; and we need not be surprised to find that they all three appeared upon the Gate of the Court, upon the other entrance-curtains (the Door of the Holy Place and the Veil - which we are distinctly told represented "His Flesh" see Hebrews 10:20), upon the ten curtains which formed the Tabernacle proper, and also upon the ephod and the girdle worn by Aaron, who in his office and dress typified our Great High Priest.

But, looking at these colours in a slightly different light, in a light which is perhaps the best for viewing the Gate, we may see the way in which the purple in particular pictured the mediatorial work of the Lord Jesus. The purple is always mentioned as the central colour, coming between the violently contrasted blue and scarlet, partaking of the nature of each, and linking the one to the other in itself. It is the "Daysman" colour, which is "betwixt" the other two, and which can, as it were, lay its hand upon them both (Job 9:33). It is the "Mediator" colour, the blue lays hold of the scarlet, through the purple and the scarlet is linked to the blue through the purple. No curtain had the contrasting blue and scarlet without the connecting purple, and the inspired description never gives these three colours in any other order than (1) blue, (2) purple and (3) scarlet - the blue first, the scarlet last, and the purple in between.

Surely these facts are intended to remind us that "there is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus". Surely they are intended to lead our thoughts to Him Who said, "No man cometh unto the Father but by Me" (1 Timothy 2:5, John 14:6).

(It is true of course that both purple and scarlet were subsequently used as colours denoting royalty, and that scarlet might also denote suffering; and very interesting and instructive connections with the Lord may be traced along these lines, but they appear to be subsidiary to the principal symbolism as given above.)

Thus we see how the purple pictured the Lord Jesus - the Mediator - the One through Whom (and through Whom alone) man can come to God, and we are not surprised that, when God said, "Let them make Me a Sanctuary that I may dwell among them", He ordained that the central one of the three Sanctuary colours should be purple.

Truly, without the Incarnate Son, Who was pictured by that purple, man could not come to God. But, something more than the incarnation of the Son was necessary before man could be brought to God, and so we read that "God sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins", and that He "hath once suffered for sins, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God". Further, "we have access" through our Lord Jesus Christ because He "was delivered for our offences and was raised again for our justification" (1 John 4:10, 1 Peter 3:18, Romans 4:25; Romans 5:2).

Now let us carefully note the way in which God arranged that this significant purple - this central, connecting, combining colour - should connect the Gate with the Brazen Altar, upon which were offered those sacrifices which foreshadowed the one great Sacrifice by which alone "access" could be obtained and man could be brought to God. The connection is found in the fourth chapter of Numbers where we have the Divine instructions for the covering of the vessels of the Tabernacle when the Israelites were on the march. In the thirteenth verse of that chapter we read that they were to "spread a purple cloth" upon the altar. This is the only time in all the Scriptures concerning the Tabernacle and its vessels that we read of the purple alone (i.e. without the blue and the scarlet), and how significant is the fact that the one and only "purple cloth" was placed upon the altar of sacrifice. How clearly it indicates the relation between the sacrifice and that central colour which linked together the contrasted blue and scarlet, both of which it combined in itself.

Whenever we read of blue, purple and scarlet - the colours which differentiated the gate from the barrier curtain - the colours of the curtains of that Sanctuary where God dwelt with man - the colours of the dress of the high priest - let us remember the connection of the central and combining purple with the altar of sacrifice, and let the significant connection remind us afresh that the way to God, fellowship between God and man, and the work of our Great High Priest, are all of them the outcome of the sacrificial work of the Incarnate Son, which was foreshadowed by the purple covered altar.

It is noteworthy that the Gate which we have been considering was the only entrance into the court of the Tabernacle. Although there were three tribes on each of the four sides of the Tabernacle there was but one entrance, and anyone, from any part of the camp, who wished to enter the Court must do so by the one gate and "the altar that is by the door" (Leviticus 1:5) which was so closely connected with it.

Separate entrances on the north, south and west sides might have been more convenient: but significance was much more important than convenience, and it was significant in the extreme that there was only one gate, and that the one and only gate was on the east side on which stood the altar. Persons of princely or priestly descent had no private entrance, all who would enter at all must enter by the one gate, which was common to all.

How plain is the lesson! The gate pictured Him Who said, "I am the Door . . . I am the Way . . . no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me"; and of Whom it is written, "Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other Name under Heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). But we must notice that, although there was only one gate, it was a very wide one - indeed the width of the gate was equal to the length of the Holy Place. It was no less than twenty cubits in width (Exodus 27:16) - two-fifths of the total width of the Court, and twice the width of the Tabernacle itself - a veritable "whosoever" width, an "any man" width, a width for "all" (John 3:16; John 10:9, Matthew 11:28).

Here again may be seen the close connection between the gate and the altar for the altar was a square, of which each side was five cubits long, and the gate was therefore as wide as (but no wider than) the length of all four sides of the altar. In the Tabernacle the size of the altar was thus related to the width of the gate of the Court, and in Solomon’s Temple the size of the altar was related to the Holy of Holies, for each was twenty cubits square, and thus the Altar was equal to the Holiest.

There was not one inch of the width of the Tabernacle Gate by which it exceeded or came short of the circuit of its Altar. There was not one square inch of the floor of the Holy of Holies in the Temple which was either less or more than the area of its Altar. These facts may remind us once again that our entrance in to God’s presence is based entirely upon the finished work of Christ. The Gate of the Court was, as we have already mentioned, at the eastern end of the enclosure, and thus the light of the rising sun shone upon it and upon the altar within it, and made clear and plain the way by which man could draw nigh to God. Even so at the coming of Christ, Who was the true Light and the true Way, it was recorded that, through God’s tender mercy, "the Dayspring from on high hath visited us . . . to guide our feet into the way of peace" (Luke 1:78-79).

Within the limits of this paper we cannot add much to what has already been said about the Altar. We must remember that, although it is usually called the altar of burnt offering, all the other sacrifices were connected with it in various ways. All these sacrifices were of great typical importance because they all pictured different aspects of the sacrificial work of our Lord, and as the altar was greater than the gift which it sanctified (Matthew 23:19) we may rightly expect to find in it invaluable pictures of the Incarnate Son Who put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. Here there are treasures indeed, if space would permit us to examine them. Every detail of material, of size and of shape - the brass and the wood in the one four-square altar, the three and the five in its measurements, its four horns (Exodus 27:1-8) - pictured in some way that Peerless Person or pointed in some way to the complete and perfect work of that Perfect One.

Between the altar and the door of the Tabernacle stood the Laver which contained water for the ablutions of the priests. It and its foot were made from brazen mirrors (Exodus 30:17-21; Exodus 38:8). The combination of the mirror and the water is clearly intended to lead our thoughts to something which can reveal defilement and can also remove it. The washing of the priests by Moses was one of the most significant ceremonies in connection with their consecration (Exodus 29:4); this complete ceremonial washing, which was not repeated, pictured "the washing (laver, R.V. margin) of regeneration" of which we read in Titus 3:5. But, for the priests who were thus "bathed" once for all at their consecration, there was also a continual ceremonial washing, for no priest might enter the Holy Place or offer sacrifice upon the altar without having first cleansed his hands and feet with water from the Laver. This once-for-all bathing and these repeated washings remind us of our Lord’s words to Peter, "He that is washed (bathed, R.V.) needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit" (John 13:10). The Laver speaks of that cleansing of work and walk which the Lord continually accomplishes through His Spirit by the Word. The Word is likened to a mirror which reveals, and it is also compared to the water which removes the defilement contracted in the pilgrim path. Christ "loved the church and gave Himself for it; that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word" (James 1:23, Ephesians 5:26). "Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according to Thy Word" (Psalms 119:9).

Space will not permit the examination of the many treasures which are connected with the Brazen Laver, but may it be ours, as the Lord’s servants, continually to experience that necessary purification of our way, of our work and of our walk, which was pictured by the use of that Laver so long ago.

"Be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the Lord" (Isaiah 52:11).