OVER THE curtains of goats’ skins came a covering of “rams’ skins, dyed red.” Now the ram is specially brought before us as a substitute, in Genesis 22: 13 where “Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering instead of his son.” Thus sacrifice and substitution are both shadowed forth in the rams’ skins dyed red. In Exodus 29, we read about two rams that were slain when Aaron and his sons were consecrated for the priest’s office. Thus the ram of consecration speaks to us of Christ’s perfect devotion and obedience to God His Father, even unto death.
There are no numbers given in connection with the rams’ skins, as with the others, and this would tell us that the devotedness of Christ, in His consecration to God, was without measure. In Isaiah 1:1818Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. (Isaiah 1:18) red is used to bring home to our souls the thought of extremity in sin. Here the terrible extremity of suffering into which the Lord went of His own blessed and gracious will, as the divinely given and accepted substitute and sacrifice, can be known in all its fullness only to Himself and God His Father, for God alone can comprehend that which was infinite. We, dear young Christian, may look on and wonder and adore, and evermore throughout eternity be learning what those wondrous depths of suffering expressed and shadowed forth in the “rams’ skins, dyed red.” But to grasp and fathom all will be impossible. To do that, we would have to be God, which is unthinkable, for you know we are but poor sinners, saved by grace. Our greatest privilege will be to “see His face,” to cast our crowns before Him, and to worship at His feet.
The Badgers’ Skins
The outside covering was of badgers’ skins. The badger is a small animal that lives in holes away out in the country, far from the haunts of men, and is protected with a thick fur that resists all kinds of weather.
The badgers’ skins were not beautiful to look at, but they protected the beautiful curtains and furnishings of the tabernacle underneath, from the elements above, and from all in the wilderness around that might spoil its beauty. The coverings of badgers’ skins in type tell of the holy vigince in the walk and ways of the Lord Jesus, which preserved Him from all the evil and defilements of this world. Rains and storms might beat upon the badgers’ skins and find perfect resistance. And Satan was perfectly resisted by the blessed Lord in all his attacks upon Him. He could say as He neared the end of His life down here, “The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in Me.” John 14:3030Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me. (John 14:30).
Just as there was nothing attractive about the badgers skins to the natural eye, so the natural heart sees no beauty in Christ (Isa. 53:22For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. (Isaiah 53:2)), and has no desire for Him. But as the priests of old within the tabernacle could look up and gaze at the splendor of the gold and beautiful colorings of the tabernacle, so the heart taught by the Spirit of God looks up and gazes upon the beauties and glories of Christ, and delights in Him, the chiefest among ten thousand, the altogether lovely One.
As we are privileged to gaze at His perfections and glories, dear young Christian, may we remember that Christ is our example, and we are called to exercise that same holy vigilance in all our walk and ways, to resist in the power of the Spirit the evil of this world and the attacks of the great enemy of our souls.
ML-07/05/1970