While the typical teaching of the ark and
the mercy-seat are at the very foundation of access to God, and while the table
of shewbread and the lampstand speak so much of service, these are really
subsidiary to the purpose expressed in
Exod. xxv. 8: “Let them make Me a
sanctuary, that I may dwell among them”.
The actual tabernacle is described in
Exodus xxvi., and while the whole
structure with its boards and coverings may be spoken of as the tabernacle,
this title is used in a more limited sense of the innermost set of beautiful
curtains described in Exod. xxvi. 1-6:
“Moreover thou shalt make the tabernacle
with ten curtains of fine twined linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet; with cherubim of cunning work shalt thou make
them … it shall be one tabernacle.”
Tabernacle, tent,
covering.
While it is not easy to distinguish
between tabernacle and tent in the A.V., there is no confusion in the
original. We find upon examining the
Scripture that over the “tabernacle” was spread a “tent”, and that over this
tent was placed a two-fold covering. The
tent was made of goats’ hair, and is described in verses.7-14 (once called
“covering’), the twofold covering of the tent being made of rams’ skins dyed
red, and of badgers’ skins. We must
therefore distinguish between the tabernacle proper, made of the glorious linen
curtains, and the goats’ hair tent and covering of skins, as we find them
distinguished for instance in Exod.
xxxv. 11: “the tabernacle, his tent, and his covering”; also
by comparing the record of Exod. xxvi. 6
& 11 together.
“And thou shalt make fifty taches of gold,
and couple the curtains together with the taches: and it
shall be one tabernacle.”
“And thou shalt make fifty taches of
brass, and put the taches into the loops, and couple the tent together,
that it may be one.”
In order that we may appreciate these
three features we will set out the meaning of each word.
TABERNACLE. — Mishkan, from shakan = to
dwell. Exodus xxv. 8; Gen. ix. 27
and Genesis iii. 24, “placed”.
TENT. — Ohel occurs frequently.
Genesis iv. 20; Exod. xxxiii. 10.
COVERING. — Miskseh, from kasah = to
cover, as in Exod. xl. 34; Isa. xi. 9.
We have here three features that must be
taken into account in any attempt to discover the typical teaching of the
tabernacle.
(1) The tabernacle was essentially a dwelling
place for God.
(2) The pilgrim character of the children of God
necessitated a tent and not a temple.
(3) The beauty of this dwelling was not seen from
the outside, but was veiled or covered.
This covering was also a protection, for the word is first used in Gen. viii. 13, where we read that “Noah removed the covering of the ark”.
The pilgrim nature of the tabernacle is
witnessed by II Sam. vii. 2 & 6:
“See
now, i dwell in an house of cedar, but the ark of God dwelleth within
curtains.”
“I have not dwelt in any house since the
time I brought up the children of Israel out of Egypt even to this day, but
have walked in a tent and in a tabernacle.”
Seeing that every detail of the tabernacle
was made according to the pattern of heavenly things, we must not consider it
too fanciful to see significance in the colours and materials that are so
carefully specified.
Fine linen. — Of this material was made
not only the tabernacle itself, but the hangings for the court, the ephod of
the high priest, the girdle, the breastplate, the coat and the mitre. “The fine linen is the righteousness of
saints”, or as ton hagion might mean,
“the righteousness of the holiest of all”.
It can truly be said that righteousness was the warp and woof of the
dwelling place of God. It is a lesson
that bears repetition, lest at any time we should be inclined to entertain
doctrines that necessitate the lowering of this high standard.
Blue is intimately connected with
the high priest by the “ephod all of blue” (Exod. xxviii. 31), and with the
separation of Israel unto God (Numb. xv. 38).
Purple is the colour of kings (Judges viii. 26 &
Esther viii. 15). Scarlet speaks of redemption (Josh. ii.
18). The great Babylonian travesty
seizes upon these symbols for its own ends.
“The woman was arrayed in purple and
scarlet colour” (Rev. xvii. 4).
“Alas, alas, that great city, that was
clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet” (Rev. xviii. 16).
The cherubim speak of the great
goal of the ages, the restoration of man, and his dominion in and through
Christ. This subject is too vast for a
note of this character: the interested
reader is referred to a fuller exposition of the matter in volume XV, page 181.
The tabernacle and its symbolism sets
forth the only possible way whereby the lost paradise of Genesis iii.
with its cherubim and flaming sword, its curse and its death, can ever
be exchanged for the paradise of God with its river of life, where there shall
be no more curse or death. That way was
shown to our first parents before they left the garden, their covering of skin
being perpetuated in the covering of rams’ skins dyed red, a symbol too patent
to need much proof. The fabric of the
tabernacle therefore speaks of redemption and restoration, a king and a priest,
and we have not found any N.T. passage that would lead us to alter that
testimony.
The
tent of goats’ hair could never be, in the mind of an Israelite,
dissociated from the great offerings that occupied so large a place in the
daily life of the people. Goats were
used as well as lambs for the passover (Exod. xii. 5); they were also used for the burnt offering,
the peace offering, the sin offering, and for the great day of atonement, Lev. i. 10,
iii. 12, iv. 23, and
xvi. 5, &c. It was the purpose of God that the glorious
prophecy of the tabernacle should ever be seen beneath the shadow of atonement,
the tent of goats’ hair.
Protecting this tent was a two-fold
covering, one of rams’ skins dyed red, the other of badgers’ skins. Rams’
skins alone would have spoken plainly of sacrifice and consecration (Exod. xxix. 27; Lev. v. 15;
& xix. 21), but the red dye would emphasize sin and its
cleansing (Isa. i. 18).
Badgers’
skins are not so easy to interpret.
The usual suggestion is that the beauty of the tabernacle was hidden
from view, and only rough badgers’ skins were seen, just as it is written that
Israel saw no beauty in the Lord when He walked the earth in the days of His
flesh. Apart from the tabernacle,
badgers’ skins are only mentioned once in the Scriptures, viz., Ezek. xvi. 10, where the other references to silver, linen,
and embroidered work are considered by many to be an allusion to the tabernacle
itself.
While modern translators consider the
Hebrew word tachash to mean a badger
or some such animal, this has not been always the case, for the voice of the
ancient versions is practically unanimous in stating that the word stands for a
colour. Josephus has the following
remark in his Antiquities:
"There were also curtains made of
skins above these which afforded covering or protection … and great was the
surprise of those who viewed these curtains at a distance, for they seemed not
at all to differ from the colour of the sky" (book iii., chapter
vi.).
The LXX and Jerome translate the word by hyacinthus,
the “jacinth” of Rev. xxi. 20, which is azure or sky-blue. Other ancient versions, together with the
Vulgate, translate the word by ianthinus, violet coloured. That hyacinth was an article of commerce, and
used in the dyeing of dress material, can be seen by consulting the LXX of Ezek. xxvii. 24 &
Isa. iii. 23. It will be
remembered that Moses was instructed to make the tabernacle according to the
pattern shown him in the mount (Exod.
xxv. 9, 40; xxvi. 30; xxvii. 8;
Acts vii. 44; & Heb.viii.5). It is also very plain that the tabernacle in
the wilderness was an example and shadow of “the heavenly things themselves”,
that “true tabernacle”, which the Lord pitched, and not man (Heb. viii. 2, 5; ix.
23, 24). May we not have in this fact an explanation of
the added covering, and the reason of its azure colour? The true external cover of the tabernacle was
the one of rams’ skins dyed red, the superimposed covering of blue representing
heaven itself in which the true tabernacle really existed. This was but an anticipation in type of
Solomon’s prayer: “Hear Thou in heaven
Thy dwelling place”. There are many
other features of interest in the details revealed in this wonderful structure
that we must leave to the reader to investigate, while we notice briefly the
framework, foundations, and the vail, before concluding this survey.
Golden
boards and silver
sockets.
The walls and framework of the tabernacle
were made of shittim wood (or as the LXX renders it “incorruptible
wood”), overlaid with gold. Forty-eight
boards were used altogether, twenty on either side, six across the back, and
two to form the corners in some way not revealed. These boards were held in place by a series
of bars and rings, and the boards terminated at the bases in two tenons or
“hands” that fitted into silver sockets placed in the earth to receive
them. When we read in John i. 14,
“The Word was made flesh, and tabernacled among us”, we can readily see
in the gold and the wood a type of the true deity and the sinless humanity of
the Lord Jesus Christ, while the sockets of silver are explained in the book of
Exodus himself. In chapter xxx. 11-16 we find that every man of Israel gave for the
ransom of his soul a half shekel of silver.
This atonement money was appointed for the service of the
tabernacle. Exodus.xxxviii.25-28 tells us how this silver was used. One hundred sockets of silver weighing one
talent each were made of this atonement money, and constituted the great
foundation upon which the whole typical fabric rested. No words of ours are necessary to illuminate
the lesson here. Fine linen and silver,
righteousness and atonement, the warp, woof and foundation of the great plan of
the ages!
The new and
living way.
The record of Exodus xxvi.
is not completed until a description is given of the vail and the door
hanging. Both vail and hanging are made
of the same material, the vail alone having the cherubim. Beautiful as this vail must have been, its
presence spoke of man’s failure. Before
the typical prophecy of the tabernacle could be fulfilled, that vail must be
rent, that golden mercy-seat spattered with blood, such is the nature of sin
and of holiness:--
“Having, therefore, brethren, boldness to
enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which He
hath consecrated for us THROUGH THE VAIL, that is to say, His flesh” (Heb. x.
19, 20).
“And behold, the vail of the temple was
rent in twain from the top to the bottom” (Matt. xxvii. 51).
In the writings of the apostle Paul there
is scarcely a reference to the earthly life of the Lord, but we find constant
reference to His death:--
“In the body of His flesh through death”
(Col. i. 22).
“The children are partakers of flesh and
blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same; that through death He might destroy … and
deliver” (Hebrews.ii.14,15).
Such is the continual testimony of
Scripture. There is no gospel in the
spotless life of the Son of God taken by itself, that only aggravates our
sinfulness the more, and, like the vail, bars our access to God.
Through the rent vail, through that
spotless life laid down in death is found a way into the holiest. Just as the tabernacle rested upon the silver
sockets of atonement, and was covered by the rams’ skins dyed red, so no part
of the mighty purpose of the ages shall be accomplished apart from the death
and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is a fundamental of all truth, yea a very chief corner stone.
We earnestly ask our younger readers, for
whom this series is particularly written, to test all the modern “gospels” and
schemes by this great exhibition of the mind and will of God. No one can believe its message and trifle
with the vitals of the faith, which are everywhere proclaimed through type and
symbol, by fabric, colour and position, to be the sacrificial death and
resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.
“Without shedding of blood is no remission
. . . . . For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which
are the figures of the true: but into
heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us” (Heb. ix. 1-28).
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