Exodus 25

Exodus 25:1-31

Section 2. (Exodus 25:1-40; Exodus 26:1-37; Exodus 27:1-21; Exodus 28:1-43; Exodus 29:1-46; Exodus 30:1-38; Exodus 31:1-18.)The tabernacle; the means of sustaining relationship when sin has come in: the types of a greater salvation. We have now the directions as to the tabernacle, the means by which, in the inevitable breach of the first covenant, relationship is to be sustained. We find as yet only the pattern of it, but which fully shows that God has anticipated and provided for the failure of that in which the people placed such assured confidence. Just for this reason was it necessary that they should be allowed to prove fully what was in them. But the trial was to be much longer than this might argue, and not for their need only, but for all after-generations.

1. There are five subsections; of which this introductory one shows how alone Jehovah could dwell amongst them. While He alone must prescribe the manner of it, they yet must provide Him a dwelling-place, and that of their own freewill. The toil of slaves could not furnish this; forced labor could not be acceptable to Him who had been their Redeemer out of Egyptian bondage that they might freely serve Him. The Psalmist’s words find expression here (Psalms 22:3): God inhabits the praises of Israel. But what meaning is given to this when we remember whose voice it is that utters itself in this psalm, -that it is His who by His own atoning sufferings makes possible and inspires the praises of His redeemed!

And it is of this suffering that the tabernacle-services speak to us throughout. Typically thus we see in the materials here of what our praises must be full, for they all utter to us the blessed name of Jesus. 2. And then we enter upon a survey of the elements of this tabernacle-worship, -“patterns” only as yet, -but which we find realized before the book ends, when they are all emphasized by repetition: what may be seen in this it will be for us to inquire there: at present, we have only the patterns. (1) First of these, the ark and mercy-seat, together the throne of God in Israel. That He “sitteth between the cherubim” we are often reminded, and thence (we are told here) His law was to go forth to Israel. Christ is the substance of all these shadows, and in the ark we have surely Christ. The acacia-wood as the wood of the desert, -the only timber-tree in it -speaks of Him as the “root out of a dry ground,” as which He grew up before God (Isaiah 53:2), precious and durable, the type of victory over surrounding circumstances -of life conquering death. Such was Christ in His humanity; His divine glory is intimated by the gold which covered it, yet was distinct from it, as His deity was distinct from His humanity. The rings are of gold, in which the staves were to remain constantly; for divine love makes Him ever a pilgrim with His pilgrim-people. Upon the ark, fitting exactly to it, is the kapporeth,* or “mercy-seat,” of pure gold, glorious as divine mercy is, one with the cherubim at each end of it, whose faces toward the mercy-seat are also toward each other, attracted by a common object, which, although not seen as yet, is the blood of atonement to be put there. They are attached thus to the throne of God, and are always seen in connection with the display of judicial authority; as at the gate of Eden in conjunction with the sword-flame by which the way to the tree of life is stopped; or as in Ezekiel’s vision of judgment; again the “living beings” in the midst of the throne in Revelation 4:1-11 are undoubtedly cherubic.
Their forms are not given yet, for in Genesis they are only named. Here we see their wings, (suggesting their heavenly character,) and where their faces are directed, and that they are part of the throne itself, and two in number (speaking of competent witness). Every thing assures us that they express the executive righteousness of the throne, which requires and finds its satisfaction in the work of atonement. The ark, then, as a whole, is the throne of God in Israel, in righteousness, yet in mercy, through the blood of sacrifice; and Christ is shown in it as the One through whom alone such a throne can be set up among men. He is indeed God’s righteous mercy-seat. Within the ark is to be put the testimony, the tables of the law; which cannot but remind us of Him who said, “Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of Me, I delight to do Thy will, O My God: yea, Thy law is within My heart.” (Psalms 40:7-8.) But if thus within His heart, magnified and made honorable by His own subjection to it through His life, and in His taking upon the cross its curse upon sin, -it is none the less shut up from man, the curse removed from him. In that which we are considering there is as yet only the shadow, not the substance; but the shadow even shows that not by man’s fulfillment of responsibility, but by atonement only could God have His place among men. The purely legal covenant was not that under which man could really abide at all, and in God’s mind it was already set aside. (2) We have next the table of show-bread, not the ordinance of the show-bread, which comes in Leviticus (Leviticus 24:5-9). The mention of it here is only to show the purpose of the table itself. The show-bread, as we find it in the later book, assuredly speaks of communion, and with a wondrous fullness of thought in it which it would be here out of place to enter into. Here the table, made of the same material as the ark, must speak of Christ as the ark does. Christ, then, is here the Sustainer of communion. The wood and the gold we need not dwell on again, except to notice (what is equally true of the ark) that the gold outside shows us the Lord, not as He was in His humiliation upon earth, but glorified in heaven. The whole sanctuary, holy and holiest, is the figure of the heavenly places (Hebrews 9:23-24), and it is Christ as there, risen, ascended, glorified, -gone up, His work being accepted, -who sustains us in the place of fellowship with God. Thus the table is of the same height with the ark, over-topped only by the golden mercy-seat, though it falls short of it in breadth and length; for God’s mercy, as revealed in the propitiation for sins, is more than actually realized in the communion of saints. The propitiation is for the whole world (1 John 2:2), though on condition of faith (Romans 3:25), which all men, alas! have not. Thus the table spread for the saints has not in this respect the dimensions of the mercy-seat. Around the table is a margin of a hand-breadth, which may imply the divine hand that is round about; while table and margin are encompassed with a golden border -possibly a crown, although the word is not used for crown elsewhere, -which suggests how the divine glory defines and marks out all. This table, though in character heavenly, is still for present use, as the rings and staves would show. It is part of that provision of God for us which is available by grace through all our wilderness journeying, and the vessels for the drink-offering which accompany the table show us how of necessity communion and thanksgiving are linked together. (3) The only other portion of the furniture of the sanctuary that we find here (for the incense altar is found in another connection, chap. 30) is the golden lamp-stand, which we must, of course, distinguish from the light it bears. In Revelation 4:5, in unmistakable reference to what we have here, “the seven lamps of fire burning before the throne” are interpreted for us as “the seven spirits of God.” The lamp-stand supports the light, while it is itself lighted up by it, -a thing of the most essential consequence in this case: for if the Spirit of God is the Sanctifier, Christ is Himself the means of sanctification to the soul (1 Corinthians 1:30), and the work of the Spirit is thus to take of the things of Christ and show them to us. Moreover, it is not only Christ, but Christ in heaven, who is our sanctification, as He says: “And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth.” (John 17:19.) He sets Himself apart as the One gone up to God, a Man, to be at once the pattern and the power of sanctification in men and “we all beholding the glory of the Lord with unvailed face” -in contrast with Moses, vailed one -“are changed into the same image from glory to glory” (2 Corinthians 3:18). We have now the means of interpreting the sanctuary lamp-stand. It is of pure gold simply, not (as with the ark and table) of wood and gold: the distinction of natures in Christ is here, therefore, not the thought; our attention is to be fixed upon this, that it is the “glory of God” we behold in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 4:6). It is to the image of God we are to be brought by this outshining of the glory of God. Yet we see in whose face it shines: for all over the stem and branches is the semblance of the almond, bud and flower and fruit. Now the almond brings us back to the tree, the human element; nor only so: the almond is in the book of Numbers the symbol of Christ, and of Christ in resurrection. The rod of Aaron put into the sanctuary bursts into sudden bloom and fruitage after the manner of the lamp-stand, the clear and beautiful figure of resurrection. This declares the divine Priest (Numbers 17:1-13), and with our sanctification the glorious Priest, as gone in for us into the sanctuary, is concerned. But not only so; on each branch we find the resurrection-number 3 of these almond symbols, and connecting the three pairs of branches three more on the central stem, which has itself four -thus a 3 + 1. Still more, the almond is, in Hebrew, shaqed, “hastening,” because it is the first tree which, reviving out of the winter-sleep, “hastens” to put forth its blossoms, first-fruits of all that is to come. How beautiful the type here of Christ our “first-fruits” in connection with this theme of sanctification, in which when perfected the after fruits will be rendered to God! But again, as to the branches of the lamp-stand, Isaiah 11:1-16 is surely an inspired interpretation. There we find the Lord indeed in another character, as the Branch out of the root of Jesse, King of Israel, but with the fullness of the Spirit for the government of the earth. Here is the connection, and it is a remarkable one; for as in the lamp-stand the seven branches which bear the seven lamps are in three pairs, with one uniting central stem, so are the seven spirits of Isaiah united and divided: “And the Spirit of Jehovah shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of Jehovah.” Here the “Spirit of Jehovah,” standing necessarily alone, yet unites certainly all the rest. “Jehovah” is God’s name by which He is in covenant with His people as their Redeemer, as this book of Exodus has taught us; and thus Christ, as the Mediator of the new covenant, holds His people fast to God. Is not this possibly the reason why there are, as we have seen, four almonds (the number of the creature) upon the central stem? Strange at first it seems that for these lamps there should be provided snuffers and snuff-dishes; but it becomes simple if we remember that here as elsewhere the Spirit of God is seen as connected with the human instruments He is pleased to use, and that they need (how often!) the service which this implies. Snuffers are thus “golden,” (for the glory of God,) though a priestly hand alone can use them aright. (4) The tabernacle has three aspects in which we are to view it, in all of which the thought of its being the dwelling-place of God is fundamental. In the first place, it sets before us the heavenly places, as the epistle to the Hebrews fully shows: here its interior space with the ark, table and lamp-stand is specially in view. Though in connection with the earth, the house of God must, of course, in character be heavenly. Then it represents Christ Himself, as made flesh and tabernacling among us, the glory here being the glory of the Only-Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:14, R.V. marg.). Here the curtains of the tabernacle are before us. And lastly, the church, is God’s house, as the epistle to the Hebrews again teaches (Hebrews 3:6) with distinct reference to the tabernacle. Here the boards of the tabernacle, the wooden part of the structure seem to give the thought. We begin now with the curtains, and here we see that if the tabernacle is throughout the “pattern of things in the heavens,” yet they are here brought down to earth, essentially a place of worship for the wilderness, whose bare sands were under the feet of the worshipers. In the land, the tabernacle was replaced by the temple. It is thus, as belonging to the earth, God in it come down to man, that the tabernacle fills its numerical place here, and the goats’ hair tent, and its coverings, harmonize perfectly with this. The curtains speak, as their material shows, of practical righteousness, as the fine linen which covers the bride in Revelation 19:1-21 does: “the fine linen is the righteousnesses of the saints.” The Revised Version here gives “righteous acts,” and such robes have to be washed in the blood of Christ to make them white, (Revelation 7:14; comp. 22: 14, R.V.) a clear evidence that they are not the symbol of Christ our righteousness, which can need no washing. The “coats of skin” with which God clothed the first sinners were no human production: they were the fruit of death, not of life. But the “fine twined linen” speaks of human manufacture, the patient labor of which had not been yet transferred to the iron sinews which today bear the burden. The ten curtains confirm this thought, a number which -or some other multiple of 5 -meets us in the tabernacle again and again. Here they are divided into two fives, and in the measure of each curtain we find numbers just as significant -twenty-eight cubits in length, which Isaiah 4 X 7, and four cubits in breadth, showing how in the weakness of the creature into which He had come, one Man had reached an obedience that was perfect. But we have not alone the fine twined linen here: blue and purple and scarlet are interwoven in it. We scarcely need the assurance of Maimonides, that the first of these “was the color of the firmament,” to recognize the symbol of heavenliness; the purple and scarlet are both royal colors, and may well refer to Christ’s double royalty, as King of Israel, “the root of Jesse, and He that should rise to reign over the Gentiles,” as the apostle quotes Isaiah. And this is the more plain, if as Keil says, and the literal rendering of the text seems to confirm, the blue, purple, and scarlet were simply used for the cherubic figures, which were wrought both upon these curtains and on the vail. The cherubim point to divine government, as we have seen, and thus we find here the King of God’s kingdom very simply declared. Let us notice too that the colors here are really purple-blue, purple-red, and crimson, so that through them all is a pervading tinge of the blue, -the heavenly color. But the fine linen, though these figures are woven into it, is itself white, -that which, as absolutely pure, reflects back the undivided ray of light, and “God is light.” Loops of blue and golden clasps unite these curtains into one tabernacle: every where this heavenly character connected with the display of the glory of God. A tent of goat’s hair surmounts it, and here we have what is very different. For the goat is the evident type of the sinner, and therefore speaks also of the Substitute for sinners. “Sin” and “sin-offering.” are the same word both in Greek and Hebrew. Thus the type here is simple enough to read. The eleven curtains of goats’ hair are divided for us into five and six, God with man and triumphing over sin; while each curtain in length is thirty cubits, and in breadth four. The latter number may remind us of the wondrous fact that in human weakness -power all against Him -was the battle won; while the former, if it is not to repeat and emphasize the former truths (being 5 X 6) must be taken as 3 X 10, and thus God glorified in the judgment of sin. The sixth curtain is doubled in front of the tent, facing with its gospel message the one who comes toward it from the world outside. The tent had, again, a double covering: the innermost, of rams’ skins dyed red, and the outer, of seal-skin (or, as some still think, of badgers’ skins). The latter may speak of immovable steadfastness which no circumstance could affect,* underneath which lay, as the secret of it, a consecration to God which was devotedness even to death: such surely was the rams’ skin.
Such, then, is the picture of Him in whom dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. We now come to the board frame-work. And here there are forty-eight boards in all: 6 X 8 = 48; the number of victory over sin and the number of new creation come together. This is when we look at all together -the Church as a whole; when we look at the boards singly, we have quite different numbers. Each board was ten cubits long and one and one-half broad. The number of responsibility is clear enough, whatever the other may be, and this is perpendicular measure also. But when we look at the boards, there seems a great difficulty in applying them, in the way we are doing, to the Church or to individual believers in it. Each board is of the same material, outside and in, as is the ark, and as is the table; and if these speak of Christ, how can the boards speak of any other? That is perfectly just: the boards do speak of Christ; but there is just the glory of divine grace, for we are in Christ. Thus it is that nothing could rightly represent us in our standing before God, except that which will turn our eyes entirely from ourselves, and rest them upon Christ in glory. Yet let us test this every way. Is it not still an objection that the gold should be here, which we have looked at before as typifying the deity of our Lord? Is it not as Man, and simply as Man, that He represents us before God? and can the gold be in place then in such a connection, if it is still to typify, as in consistency it must, what it typified before? Now it is surely right to insist upon strict accuracy here; for if error in divine things is ever serious, how much more when it involves points so fundamental as are these? It is certain that it is as Man only that Christ represents us before God. As God, He is our God and our Creator simply. Yet we are said (in some sense) to be in the Son, and even in the Father (John 17:21; 1 Thessalonians 1:1; 2 Thessalonians 1:1.) This, of course, is not position: it is relationship; it is in virtue of that “eternal life” we have received, which we have not in ourselves, but in Him who is the Source of it, and by which we are in very truth the children of God. Our life is in Christ thus, who is the “eternal life,” not human life, but divine; and upon this depends our position also; for thus Christ is “last Adam” to the new race of men, and as in the old fallen head we fell, in the risen One we stand upright, as the boards stand before us here, rooted in their double sockets of silver, the witness of atonement (Exodus 30:15; Exodus 38:27). This silver of the atonement-money upon which they stand seems to show clearly that it is not Christ Himself who is contemplated in these boards, but His people in Him. The bars that unite them are of the same two materials, but here there is no difficulty, for Christ is surely the uniting bond for His people. The vail, again, is exactly like the inner curtains, and the inspired interpretation given in Hebrews 10:20 confirms that of the curtains also. It is Christ in His humanity, the way into the presence of God, but for which it must be rent, as we know it was rent when He died. Looking back, as we do, upon these types, we have to introduce this thought, that the vail is rent, and I think it is on this account -because of the ideal connection of the vail and its rending, that the cherubim are found upon it, as they are not upon the door of the tabernacle or the gate of the court. In these, the colors and the fine linen are still found; for it is the same Christ that is presented to us, but it is as having suffered He has entered into His glory. The cherubim speak of government in His hands already, Christ, as now we know Him, although now on the Father’s throne, not yet on His own; but on the Father’s throne speaks of His fullest dignity and of His eternal glory. What, then, are the “pillars” that support the vail? It is plain that (in another form) they are just the boards of the tabernacle over again -acacia-wood and gold resting upon silver sockets. Thus we should naturally think of Christ as He now is, held up by the testimony of redeemed men, as in the pages of the New Testament prophets and apostles. And is it, perhaps, on this account, that whereas the boards stand each upon two sockets, the pillars stand each upon one only: they being the original witnesses upon whose testimony the Church is built? The number (4) may tell us, moreover, that even in this primary witness Israel’s exclusive position is set aside, as in Luke, the Gentile evangelist and historian of the Church. (Comp. Colossians 4:11 with 14.) The division of the sanctuary by the vail into the holy and most holy is here pointed out. Thus was constituted that “first tabernacle” which the apostle speaks of (Hebrews 9:2; Hebrews 9:8,) as characteristic of Judaism, and for us now done away as such, -the rending of the vail having made the two one. This shows us in what way “the law, having a shadow of good things to come,” was “not the very image” (Hebrews 10:1), a fact full of significance, and not to be set down to the general disparagement of such symbolic teaching, or as an excuse for loose and ill-fitting interpretations. On the contrary, this in the law is not meaningless, but full of meaning. “The way into the holiest” -into the presence of God -could not be opened while as yet man was under the test of the law: how would he have gloried in himself could this have been! To sinners confessedly under the condemnation of the law, on the other hand, Christ’s death has rent the vail and sprinkled the mercy-seat. The word for us -how opposite to all we had but a little while since as to Israel -is, “Let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith.” (Hebrews 10:22.) The covering for the entrance of the tent shows by its materials and colors what we know beforehand doctrinally, that Christ is ever the “Way.” The cherubim are absent from it, however, as already noticed, and while the curtain still hangs from golden hooks, the five pillars stand now upon brazen and not silver sockets. Brass, (or “copper” it may have been; the word stands, as it appears, for both,) is the type of what is fixed and unchanging -of enduring strength. (Deuteronomy 28:23; Deuteronomy 33:25; Psalms 107:16; Jeremiah 1:18.) The “tent upon the tabernacle” is united into one by brazen clasps, and in the court outside we find it repeatedly, replacing the silver or the gold elsewhere. The pillars are still of acacia-wood and gold, and as not standing on silver sockets, would seem necessarily to represent Christ himself and not His people, -Christ’s own ministry, when upon the earth, which, going far beyond Judaism, introduced into the sanctuary itself, though the holiest of all only His death could open. “God manifest,” as the gold declares, and standing in divine strength (upon the brazen sockets), the five pillars would beautifully speak of Immanuel, “God with us.” Christ Himself come was thus the entrance of the sanctuary for us, the beginning of the ministry of heavenly things. (5) We come now to the altar of burnt-offering; and its numerical place speaks again of God with men, as the same number in the length and breadth of it does of that human responsibility, the failure in which atonement was needed for. “The Son of Man must be lifted up” and “God gave His Son” are both thus in the type. For the altar has again its two materials, like the ark and they table, thus speaking of two natures; but the gold is replaced by the brass, the divine nature seems obscured and lost, yet is not, for the strength of superhuman endurance is found in the Man, Christ Jesus. And the altar is three cubits high, for God is glorified, -yea, and the Son of Man is glorified in the cross (John 13:31.) The brazen horns point every way from the four corners, for Christ died, not for Israel only, but for all; and the horns, speaking as elsewhere of power, are the ministry of that, through the blood that anoints them, to every ungodly one that is without strength (Romans 5:6.) The altar, being hollow, admitted the sacrificial fire within it, not bore it on the surface merely, -a solemn realization as to atonement. (6) In the court of the tabernacle, the fine linen which encloses it has necessarily the same meaning as elsewhere. It speaks of practical righteousness, but there is no adornment of color or of figure traced upon it. The pillars which support it are, with their sockets, which are single, all of brass, but the connecting-rods and the hooks by which it hangs are of silver. The measure of the hangings of the courts is exactly that of the beautiful curtains of the tabernacle; but here the fine linen hangs from silver hooks, answering to the sockets of the tabernacle-boards, so that it is not Christ that is pictured, but the righteousness of saints, yet which is measured by what Christ is. The silver hook is dependent upon the silver rod, by which the weight is thrown upon the brazen posts, which easily sustain it, -redemption linking the believer with a strength that is not his own. The numbers everywhere speak of responsibility, however, as well they may; for these white hangings close round the sanctuary to maintain its separation from the outside world. Sin is to be repelled and excluded from this slight-walled enclosure, where the only entrance is by Christ, as the curtained entrance here again shows, hanging as the fine linen of the court hangs -from silver hooks, because Christ as the way of access depends indeed upon the atonement He has made. Thus divine power has wrought for us in human weakness, as the four brazen pillars show which uphold the curtain. Here, at the border of the sanctuary-enclosure, where it meets the world, the types are found of God’s triumph over sin. 3. In the third series of these tabernacle-types, we come now to consider man’s approach to God, and in connection with this, necessarily the Mediator-Priest. It is here for the first time the priesthood comes formally before us. Melchisedek in Genesis has given us the type of a better order of priesthood than that of Aaron, but he is very briefly, and as it were incidentally, introduced. In Exodus, beside Jethro, we have among the people of Israel priests recognized, “young men,” probably of the first-born, who are not further noticed, but give place necessarily to the exclusive priesthood of Aaron and his sons. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, not to speak of Abel and of Noah, plainly exercised priestly functions, and it seems certain that the law, as it invested the priesthood with special sanctity, correspondingly restricted its exercise, and hedged it round with penalty in a way before unknown.

And this is evidently connected with the character of the law as giving the knowledge of sin. The breach of the first covenant, so soon to follow these typical ordinances, was only the beginning of the reiterated proofs of man’s natural inability to stand before God, and his need of a Mediator; and God by all these enactments fixes the eye upon this need, and upon Him who alone really meets it, -of whom Aaron was but the shadow. The idea of priesthood will, of necessity, become defined as we go on, and it is best to leave it thus to the Word to develop the meaning in its own perfect way. It is enough here to say that the word for “priest” in Hebrew (kohen) seems most probably derived from kun, in its significance of “preparing,” and “to mean,” says Oehler, “either intransitively, to present one’s self,’ or transitively, to prepare, fit;’ in the former case, kohen would be one who stands to represent another, and in the latter case the priest would be named from the preparing and presenting the sacrifice.” (1) Before, however, we come to the description of the priest himself, we have, in the first place, that which was indeed put under his care, but which is introduced here evidently for the sake of the general principle as to the ways of God. God is light and the first thing in the great original six days’ work was, to bring in the light where there had been darkness. Here also, when the practical working of the tabernacle begins to be set before us, the provision is made for continual light. In His presence, as in Himself, there is no darkness at all; but while, therefore, in the holiest there could be no such provision, in the holy place outside the vail the sanctuary-lamp was needed, so that through earth’s night there should be none for those approaching Him. It was never to be out -a continual light through the hours of darkness. The necessary application of this type shows us how indeed the “things that happened unto Israel” are “written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the ages are come.” While Christ, the light of the world, is absent, it is night, and the light for the priests of God (our calling as Christians) is in the sanctuary only, the light of the seven lamps -the perfect illumination of the Spirit of God -as ministered by Christ risen, the Spirit of Christ. Notice how in 2 Corinthians 3:1-18, where, “beholding the glory of the Lord, we are changed into the same image from glory to glory,” “the Lord the Spirit” and “the Spirit of the Lord” are connected together, or in a sense identified. “Now the Lord is that Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty,” while the change produced in us is “by the Lord the Spirit.” For us, indeed, it may be rightly urged, that the vail is rent, and the holy and the holiest are one. As priests in the sanctuary, we are brought into the immediate presence of God. But the light of the glory of God has not for us eclipsed the light of the golden lamp-stand: no, but the two have become for us one, as the apostle shows us in immediate connection with the passage just referred to. For the “glory of the Lord” is the “glory of Christ who is the image of God;” and thus “God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (2 Corinthians 4:4; 2 Corinthians 4:6.) Let us remember, too, that the responsibility of the children of Israel to furnish the oil, and of the priests to maintain the light, has practical reference to ourselves to-day, when the apostle can say to those who have the Spirit, just on this account, “be filled with the Spirit.” (Ephesians 5:18.) Alas! there may be even for the Christian lamps gone out, through drowsiness and neglect. Yet the Spirit, given to abide with us (John 14:16), abides; and therefore the same apostle’s energizing call, “Awake, thou that sleepest! and arise from among the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.” (Ephesians 5:14.) Light, then, is ours! how suitable a preface to all the instruction about priestly service from which the world-church, gone back to the darkness of carnal ordinances, has extracted so much mere antichristian blasphemy! How needful, too, the lesson of our responsibility as to all this! Our own true and glorious High-Priest who is passed into the heavens does not Himself even interpose to keep us from God, but in His own Person has brought us to Him. For us the vail is rent, and “we walk in the light as God is in the light.” (1 John 1:7.) With what loathsome impurity, which has done its best to justify the infidelity it has produced, has the verdict of history made infamous the priest! How it has identified “priest-craft” with mere deception and villainy! God introduces His account with the witness that He is light, and makes it the solemn and (as it were) the first duty to maintain the light. “God is light;” and we can add, “in the light.” All must be light and in the light with us. The perpetuity of the light is what the numerical place seems to insist on here. The eternal light brings every thing to the test of eternal righteousness; and thus alone is the sovereignty of God maintained over the soul. How solemnly is it insisted on as to be “a statute forever”! (2) As the priest is emphatically the minister, so his garments are again and again spoken of as “garments of service,” and express this. Not that there are not personal ones as well as official, or that the official do not imply character: in the true Priest, -not the type, but the antitype, -every thing, as we shall see, depends upon this; and thus the divine principle is emphasized which was just now insisted on. It is the heart of the blessed Lord which makes Him serve: it is His spotless purity which enables Him to draw near to God, when for men to see Him is to die: and thus on the day of atonement the high-priest enters the holiest in the personal dress of pure white linen only. (Leviticus 16:1-34.) We are now, however, to contemplate His service for us. (a) But “even Christ glorified not Himself to be made a High-Priest, but He who said unto Him, Thou art My Son: this day have I begotten Thee.’” (Hebrews 5:5.) This is how the apostle interprets for us that designation of Aaron by God, which is here for the first time announced plainly. This is therefore a necessary point to begin with. It makes the service which ensues obedience, and the sweet assurance of what was in the heart of God toward us. We “believe on Him whom God hath sent” (John 6:29), and that gives the right character to Him who sent: “by Him we believe in God.” (1 Peter 1:21.) The clothing of Aaron is the first step in his installation in his office. The garments are “for glory and for beauty.” How beauteous is Christ in this mediatorial place! how glorious has He made a place of service! (b) The ephod is by the Septuagint styled the “shoulder-piece,” and this seems its most distinct feature, as we find it here emphasized by the two onyx stones engraved with the names of the tribes of Israel which were upon the shoulders. This is not, however, all, for it as evidently links the breastplate with the shoulder-pieces, and thus the latter help to sustain also the former. The ephod is thus characteristic in the highest way of service, -the maintenance of the people before God. The ephod is made of the same materials as the tabernacle-curtains and the vail, but without cherubic figures, in which upon these the blue and purple and scarlet were interwoven. The symbols of conferred royalty are thus absent, though the materials of it are here. What qualifies Him for this place is seen, -what makes Him the “desire of all nations” (Haggai 2:7), so that the power put into His hands gratifies that desire. But the priestly office is distinct from the kingly, and power is shown in a very different manner in the lowly service of the priest, while it is meant to be plain abundantly that the Priest and the King are one. If moreover, the cherubim are absent, on the other hand the ephod is interwoven with threads of gold. Is God any where more manifest than in this wondrous provision for man’s need, which at such cost has been furnished to him? In the onyx stones upon the shoulder the end of the priestly office is expressed. The names of the twelve tribes are there, permanently graven upon the banded stones, to be borne up upon the priest’s shoulders. So plainly have we here the One who “goeth after that which is lost until He find it and when He hath found it, He layeth it upon His shoulders, rejoicing.” (Luke 15:4-5.) Thus the priest’s office is declared. (c) But if Christ’s people are thus sustained by His mediatorial work, we need to see more perfectly the connection between the display of power which the shoulders express and the holy love which is manifested in the breastplate. By means of the ephod, the breastplate itself is borne up by the shoulders, and in the breastplate again the names of the people are engraved, as in the engraving of a signet, but now upon twelve precious stones, -each cared for with the same care, but each set as it were in the glory of a new lustre! Would that we could know, in any measure, what these different stones are intended to convey! but even their identification is not certain, and any interpretation would seem too purely conjectural to be attempted. There is, however, no scriptural reason to doubt that they are together the Urim and Thummim, the “lights and perfections” of the thirtieth verse, and this is thus far interpretation, and of convincing clearness. God is light, and “the Father of lights” (James 1:17) for the lights are but the prismatic radiance of the one ray of colorless light as we see it in the rainbow, and in which its beauty is displayed to us (see Genesis 9:1-29.) In this it shines but for a moment, like a brilliant deed, though an eternal memory of glory, but in the jewels it is enshrined, permanent, as are the divine, attributes in God. This is what in fact the jewels mean: they are the “lights and perfections” of Him who is light and perfection; and as the names of the people are graven on the jewels, so is He abidingly glorified in His redeemed. Plaitings and rings, and twined chains of gold, connect the breastplate with the ephod, the manifold interweavings of divine glory with the maintenance of the people thus: while all is upon the heart of the High-Priest, the type of Him who, as the Mediator between God and men, Himself God and Man, maintains ever what is due to God upon the one hand, and His own in blessing on the other, and these not as things apart, but as identified -the names graven upon the breast-plate! The ephod unites the breastplate with the shoulder, and throws in this way the burden upon the shoulder. All the counsels of God in connection with this great salvation are such a burden as Christ only could sustain; and not the King’s, but the Priest’s shoulder bears it: the power is realized in weakness, the victory of voluntary humiliation and self-sacrifice. Blessed be His name! This, then, was the “breastplate of judgment,” -that is, in connection with which God answered appeals, and gave sentence among the people (comp. Numbers 27:21; 1 Samuel 28:6 Ezra 2:63), for the divine wisdom is always found in holding together the two principles implied in the breastplate. (d) The robe of the ephod, like that one of our Lord for which they cast lots at the cross, is of one piece, woven without seam, and bound around the necessary opening, that it may not be rent. It is entirely of blue, the heavenly color, and upon its skirts are alternately pomegranates, -the fruit of many seeds, -and golden bells, which give their sound on going into the sanctuary before Jehovah, and on coming out. Here, then, is the heavenly Man, the fruit of whose work has in itself the abundant seed, wherever the gospel goes forth in the power of the Spirit: this gospel, as it seems to me, characterizing especially the time He goes into heaven -the Pentecostal outburst, -and the time when He shall be coming out again, when the “everlasting gospel” is proclaimed for blessing to millennial nations. The numerical place, as it seems to me, emphasizes the heavenly Stranger’s visit to the world, and the diffusion every where of the seed of the gospel: its result, heaven opened to earth. The words “that he die not” appended to the commandment as to these gospel-bells, as it cannot apply to the great High-Priest, may speak of Aaron as the representative of the nation, as their music is indeed a sign of how Israel shall not die but live -alive to God. (e) Next we have the iniquity of the people in their holy things provided for, the high-priest taking the responsibility of it upon himself. This, of course, involves the necessity of atonement; but it is not atonement that is here spoken of, but the ordering of all, left with perfect confidence to Him who is the Son over God’s house, and upon whose forehead rests the “diadem of holiness,” as it is elsewhere called (chap. 39: 30). In Him who stooped to the uttermost requirement of holiness upon the cross, holiness is indeed a crown. He with whom in that darkest hour of all that ever was could be left the responsibility of the accomplishment of all God’s counsels of blessing for eternity, can be safely entrusted with all the care of the holy things. (f) Finally, we have the ordinary dress of Aaron and of the priests his sons, who are for the first time brought in here. They are our picture, and we are necessarily reminded of the difference between ourselves and Christ: even Aaron taking his place as one in contrast with Him. This the numerical place seems to point out -the priesthood of sinful men, but in whom grace shows its victory over sin, clothing their nakedness, and bringing nigh. This naturally closes the account of the priesthood. (3) But we have yet to consider the sanctification of the priesthood and their induction into their office: as yet, of course, only the commandment as to it, for the fulfillment of this is in Leviticus. (a) First, the materials are to be provided and ready, as all things wait upon God’s call. Then Aaron and his sons are brought near to the entrance of the tent of meeting and are washed entirely with water. This evidently corresponds with that to which our Lord’s words point -that one washing of the whole person that needs not to be repeated (John 13:10). All Christians are “a holy priesthood” (1 Peter 2:5) -a people as a holy people able to approach God. The washing which makes them this is “the washing of regeneration” (Titus 3:5): a new state resulting from new birth. Herein, “He who sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one,” (Hebrews 11:1-40,) the children of God partaking of the life of their glorious Head.

In His person human nature was cleansed from its defilement, and God did what Job declared impossible for man -brought forth a clean thing out of an unclean (Job 14:4). He was as born into the world what we are as new born, but without taint of evil, perfect in all things, -yea, the Eternal Life itself. Thus, while all are of one, there is an essential difference, and we see this in the type in Aaron’s being anointed alone, without blood, with all the priestly garments already upon him. The divine life which is His is already His sanctification to the Priesthood, and as absolutely without spot -God’s beloved Son, in whom His delight is, -the Spirit of God descends upon Him after His baptism by John, in which He had presented Himself to God for His “baptism to death” afterward. Thus He is now the Anointed One -the Christ. (b) Aaron’s sons are then brought near and clothed with the priestly garments, the bullock of the sin-offering slain, after Aaron and his sons have put their hands upon its head, and the horns of the altar of burnt-offering are anointed with it. Then one of the rams is offered as a burnt-offering, Aaron and his sons identifying themselves in the same way with it, and its blood sprinkled upon the altar round about. Aaron we have seen, as the type of Another, anointed already without blood; but we find him here with his hand, along with those of his sons, on the head of the sin-offering as well as the burnt-offering. The necessary antecedent to the call of a “holy priesthood” -truly, not merely typically, such -was, the fulfillment of the atoning work; and for us individually, we need to stand in the value of it before God in order to be priests to God. But it must be carefully remembered that if Aaron still be a type of Christ in this, his hand upon the victim cannot signify what it does in his sons’ case: it can only be the sign of the acceptance, on the part of the One who offers for it, of the burden of sin and of its penalty. And this the cross declares, -sin’s awful judgment and the righteousness of Him who judges. (c) The next thing is consecration -in Hebrew, “filling the hand.” For this the ram of consecration is taken; and the ram we have seen in the coverings of the tabernacle to be a type of devotedness. The sheep yields itself to the slaughter, and the ram, as the male sheep, is probably chosen to intensify the thought of self-surrender. Upon this also Aaron and his sons lay their hands; and then it is slain, and the blood put upon their right ear, hand, and foot, -the whole man set apart to God in the power of redemption, to receive from Him, act for Him, walk with Him. The blood is then sprinkled upon the altar, and then, mixed with the anointing-oil, upon Aaron and his garments, and upon his sons and their garments “with him.” Notice how the same connection and order are preserved in the statement of the effect: “and he shall be sanctified and his garments, and his sons and his sons’ garments with him.” Christ is surely before us here, the blessing found by His people in association with Him, and His own sanctification as gone up to God in the power of His precious blood for them, the measure of their own. As He said, when going to the Father, “For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth.” (John 17:11; John 17:17-19.) It is His sanctification, or setting apart on high, as Man gone in to God, of which He is speaking. In this new place it is, a glorious Man in heaven, that His people know Him, and only there, for He is in the world no longer (2 Corinthians 5:16-18). Into this new sphere we are introduced with Him, and all things become new. And now comes the “filling of the hands:” the ram of consecration is a peace- (that is, a communion-) offering. We are to be occupied with that in which God delights, which is a sweet smell to Him. The new priests’ hands now are filled with that which expresses Christ, and which is presented to God as a wave-offering. Notice the parts: first, the fat and the kidneys (the reins, comp. Psalms 16:7) and the fat of the inwards, -that which expressed the health of the animal, and upon which the flame especially fed. “The use of this symbol, fat,” says another, “is sufficiently familiar in the Word. ‘Their heart is fat as brawn.’ ‘Jeshurun waxed fat and kicked.’ ‘They are enclosed in their own fat, with their mouth they speak proudly.’ It is the energy and force of the inward will -the inwards of a man’s heart. Hence where Christ expresses His entire mortification He declares they could tell all his bones; and in Psalms 102:1-28, ‘By reason of the voice of My groaning, My bones cleave to My skin.’ But here, in Jesus, all that in nature was of energy and force, all His inward parts, were a burnt-offering to God, entirely sacrificed and offered to Him for such, a sweet savor. This was God’s food of the offering, ’the food of the offering made by fire unto Jehovah.’ In this Jehovah Himself found His delight; His soul reposed in it, for surely it was very good -good in the midst of evil -good in the energy of offering to Him -good in perfect obedience.” (Synopsis, vol. 1. p. 169.) It is easy to see how all this unites with the thought of consecration; but it is Christ, we must remember, who in all this occupies us: occupation with Him brings communion and like-mindedness. With the fat we have the “shoulder” -simple reminder of how for us He bowed His shoulder to bear; and then the meal-offering, of unleavened and of oiled bread, -in general meaning as simple. Waved before Jehovah, all this is then put upon the altar, and goes up to Him. The priests are now consecrated. (d) Yet still there remains for us what is most needful and most precious -the experimental apprehension of our own portion in Christ, and here warning has to be mingled with the instruction. The breast of the ram of consecration is for him who offers it, a place in this case held by Moses, but who, I think, here represents, not Christ, but the typical worshiper. How necessary that the love of Christ (which the breast must signify) should be thus experimentally enjoyed by the heart that worships! In after-cases the breast belongs to Aaron and his sons (v. Leviticus 8:27) along with the (left) shoulder, the experience of His strength who bears us up before God. But the whole ram (except what has gone up to God) is theirs, and these parts are specially named, to emphasize them: all must be eaten “in the holy place,” which does not mean here the sanctuary, however, but at the door of the tent of meeting in the court, as is immediately afterward stated (and comp.

Leviticus 8:31). The unleavened bread must be eaten with it, and the stranger -that is, in this case, every one outside the priestly family, -excluded. Nor must the flesh be kept until the morning, to guard, as we see in Leviticus 7:17, against any possible corruption: we are warned how readily it comes into our most holy things. Seven days of sanctification cover our whole life here and connect it with the rest beyond. (e) The instruction as to the altar of burnt-offering comes by itself. It is God’s meeting-place with the children of Israel; and here I think they are (as on the day of atonement,) their own type. Or, to say better, the priestly house representing the Church (or perhaps the heavenly saints,) the nation at large, outside of these, represents Israel, or the earthly saints. The court, where the altar of burnt-offering stands, is, without any doubt, the earth where the cross has been; and it is meet and right that there the glory of God should be displayed, as it yet will be: Immanuel’s name in all that it implies even for the earth revealed, and (in the new earth) the tabernacle of God with men. Their daily offering upon the altar speaks of what to God the work of Christ is, and God’s meeting there with Israel, though it give not the full thought of what is our portion, has its special beauty and significance. A blessed thing, with which the feast of our consecration will be ended: not, blessed be God, the priesthood itself. (f) But Israel’s blessing does not complete the glories presented to us here. We must rise, as it were, from earth into the heavenly sanctuary, and enter upon our service at the golden altar of incense, to see how fully the triumph over sin has been achieved. The altar, as we see by its material, is Christ, and Christ as entered into heaven; not on earth. Yet as an altar, or “place of sacrifice,” as the word (mizbeach) means, and foursquare, with its horns facing every way, -its virtue in the blood that is presented on them, -it speaks of sacrifice, while yet no sacrifice is to be made upon it, and in the sanctuary cannot be. Thus it speaks the virtue of what has been done elsewhere, and (so far as the golden altar itself is concerned) can need no re-doing. The golden altar is for perpetual incense -ceaseless praise to God: “We have an altar,” says the apostle, an altar to which we come as priests of no earthly tabernacle, an altar upon which no bleeding sacrifice can be again.

Christ is our altar still, but no such sacrifice can He offer again. What sacrifice, then, have we? “By Him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise continually, -that is, the fruit of our lips, confessing His name. But to do good, and to communicate, forget not; for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.” (Hebrews 13:10; Hebrews 13:15-16.) Thus we have sacrifices of thanksgiving and praise to offer, -fruit of the lips and fruit of the life, -confessing Him who has done the work which gives us our changeless place with God. The true sacrifice is no longer on the altar; it has been accepted of God once for all, and cannot be repeated, and thus we have the altar clear for our own sacrifices, which whether of lip or in life are still but the confession of His name! What a crowning triumph over sin, that sinners such as we can as “a holy priesthood” thus draw nigh! 4. The description of the incense-altar ends the subject of priestly consecration and another subject is introduced with the words, “And Jehovah spake unto Moses.” To find these words before, we should have to go back to the beginning of the twenty-fifth chapter, all the instruction of the tabernacle being one continuous discourse as far as this. Yet they occur six times now within the limits of two chapters. Thus each portion here is detached from the rest, and given a special emphasis, which is still further seen in the solemn penalties denounced upon transgression in five cases out of the six. In subject, they are also diverse from one another, though not without a certain connection also among themselves, as we shall presently see; yet they look exactly like so many supplementary addenda to what has gone before. This is Keil’s view; and the numerical structure establishes, I believe, its correctness. The number attached to the whole characterizes it as essentially a series of special warnings or tests as to obedience, whose significance is, as we might expect, brought out by their typical meaning. All this is plainly a magnificent symbolism, which we can only read in any worthy way as “figures of the true:” things which “happened unto them for types, and are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages are come.” There are in the section before us six sections manifest, with a brief faint seventh (31: 18) which must be reckoned as that, and which in its faintness even has for us the instruction which never can be any where lacking in God’s blessed Word, if we have only eyes of faith and hearts of desire for it. The section being, then, a septenary series, divides naturally into 4 + 3, as is here very evident, the first four, to the end of chap. 30, being connected together as completing the tabernacle itself; which is then put as complete [in plan] into the hands of the master-workmen. (1) We begin the series with the account of the atonement-money, in which Israel confessed their common guilt and need of ransom. None was to be exempt, none give more, none less, -translated into gospel-language, just the “no-difference” doctrine of the apostle (Romans 3:1-31.) This is the evidence of a genuine repentance, to have come down to the confession of such guilt as needs a ransom. The amount of the atonement-money may have significance, shekel merely meaning “weight,” and the bekah, therefore, “half-weight.” Is it the confession of what was charged against Belshazzar, “Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting”? Notice, too, that the shekel is that of the sanctuary, and that being twenty gerahs, the half shekel is just ten gerahs -the responsibility-number. Repentance is in thus taking our place before God; but if the ransom-money speak of man’s own short-coming, how does it come to speak also of atonement? This question is not difficult to answer; for atonement is by substitution, -Christ taking our place as coming short. In the same way, the same word in the Hebrew stands for “sin” and “sin-offering,” “trespass” and “trespass-offering.” Nor is there any true repentance or confession but that in which Christ is laid hold of or confessed. Out of this silver the sockets of the sanctuary, and the hooks of the pillars and connecting-rods, were made (chap. 38: 25-28). It is instructive to note that silver was emphatically the medium of exchange, so that (as in French today,) “silver” and “money” were the same word (keseph); and that the derivation of this is from kahsaph, “to grow pale,” as with longing, shame, or anxiety. Such thoughts cluster round the atonement-money. Here, then, is the basis-test for the soul. The dwelling of God is with the redeemed: the tabernacle speaks of relationship to a Redeemer; and only those have this who have in repentance and faith, as involved in the common guilt of all, taken their place among the people of God in His great census-roll as under the blood of the Lamb. The book of enrollment is the “book of the Lamb slain.” (Revelation 13:8.) (2) As thus redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, we are, of course, already priests to God: the warning as to the brazen laver therefore now applies to us. The laver does not speak of new birth; it was for washing the hands and feet simply, and thus it speaks of cleansing by the Word from the defilement by the way. If we are indeed to be permitted to handle holy things, or to draw near to God in the sanctuary, the Word of God must do its work upon us. The laver was of brass, the symbol of what endures as with divine power. So the Word of God endures, and, moreover, abides unchangeable, whatever our wills may be. Its stand, too, is of brass; for the Word of God rests upon the unchanging nature of God. As He is, so He speaks, and nothing can alter it. “Separation from evil” is here what is enjoined upon all who draw near to God, or occupy themselves with His things; and this is an “everlasting statute” which abides for all times and dispensations. (3) The unction of the Spirit is the third thing. Would that one could realize something of the meaning of the various ingredients of this holy anointing-oil! The five constituents, are, however, plainly marked, as 4 and 1, and show us the meeting of the human and the divine; for the Spirit of God is pleased to work in and through man, and we see Him in the effect (John 3:8). It is a sad failure not to be able to recognize God, because He works in familiar and apparently natural ways. Holiness, however, there must be, and this is what is here specially enforced. The oil must not be poured on flesh of man -cannot sanctify what is really fleshly; and it must not be imitated -there can be no manufacture on man’s part of what is the Spirit’s work. (4) And now we close this first part of this appendix with the incense, in which we find, no doubt, the fragrance of Christ for God. The numerical place points Him out, I think, as Man, and as the Son of Man, the title He so constantly assumed to Himself: not the partial and narrow Jew, but the One in whom all could find their own; while, above all, God could find in Him the ideal Man to obtain which He had created man, One in all things for God, as was the incense here, -fully and emphatically the Man of God. The ingredients again as yet seem to baffle research, which has been too little given to their spiritual meaning. Even their number has been disputed, whether four or five. No doubt salt was added to it, according to Leviticus 2:13; but this is noticed incidentally only, and as a matter of course, while the distinctive composition of the incense was of four ingredients, -certified as such by there being three and one, -three spices and the frankincense: this 3 + 1, beautifully significant of Him through whom creation completely attains its ultimate end of manifesting God. The incense too is guarded from profanation as the anointing-oil had been. This is God’s Christ, though man finds in Him his fullest blessing also. So the burnt-offering went up all to God, though in atonement for man; and it is just here, indeed, that he becomes for us all He would be, when we find in Him every where the Doer of the Father’s will. “Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God,” characterized His life throughout. (5) God now calls by name the human workmen who are to carry out in the power of the Spirit His designs. In Bezaleel, Judah comes to the front in the work of the sanctuary -quite according to the meaning of the name and Jacob’s prophecy (Genesis 49:1-33). Dan furnishes his assistant in Aholiab. But beside this, in every wise-hearted man God puts wisdom, and employs him in the building of His habitation. The principle is easy of application, but would that we could know more of what is here for us! (6) The emphatic reiteration of the injunction as to the Sabbath closes all this instruction. The keeping of it is the sign of covenant-relationship subsisting with Jehovah, and of a people set apart to Him. Indeed no labor marks us as the people of the Lord so truly as enjoyed rest does, -a rest according to the Word, and on the basis of God’s own rest. But this is ours in Christ only, and the numerical stamp here assures us that under this first covenant it will not be attained. The law makes nothing perfect and this assurance seems enforced by — (7) The faint shadow of a seventh section, in which indeed the law is now completed and handed over to Moses on behalf of the people; but the covenant is already broken, and in a little more the tables of the covenant lie broken to fragments at the foot of the mount.