THE GOLDEN VESSELS
Another great line of illustration will be found in the golden vessels, and their order, as given in Ex. 25:10-40.
Here we begin with the ark, the table follows; and then the golden candlestick or lampstand.
The ark was to be made of shittim wood, covered with gold, inside and outside, having a crown of gold, golden rings at the corners, and staves of shittim wood, also overlaid with gold, for carrying it. Its dimensions were about 4 feet 4 inches long, 2 feet 7 inches wide and high. (This adopts the old Egyptian cubit of 21 inches long, as most likely to be the measure used.) So that it was a good sized chest. It would appear to have been the first vessel made, for we find in Deut. 10:1-5 Moses made it before he went up the mount the second time, and it awaited the tables of stone when he came down with them.
The two materials tell us again of Christ in His human and divine characters; the latter not in energy for man, but in worthiness for God. Nothing suits God truly but Himself and His own glory. The gold within reminds us of motive and the hidden springs of the heart. These in Christ fully suited God. The gold without, and the golden crown recall Him, the Word, made flesh, shittim wood, whose glory John says "we beheld,.... the glory as of the only begotten of the Father.”
This God commences with, the highest figure of the person of the Lord Jesus; even as the burnt offering is first described among the sacrifices; and the decorated linen curtains are first detailed in the record of the building. This ark, too, stands alone, in that no other was ever made. All other vessels were made afresh for the temple of Solomon, but this ark was set in Solomon's "oracle" with its mercy seat and cherubim complete. In its history we find it was strangely separated from the Tabernacle, taken out to battle, captured by Philistines, restored to Israel, but not to Shiloh; eventually put by David in a tent he had prepared for it in the City of David, and thence carried to Solomon's temple. It is not clear whether it went to Babylon with "the goodly vessels of the house of Jehovah," 2 Chron. 36:10, 18, at the hand of Nebuchadnezzar. Such are said to have been returned by Cyrus, and brought by Sheshbazzar to Jerusalem; Ezra 1:7-11, but the list given does not include the ark.
But the story of the ark as the highest type of Christ is full of value. Once removed from the Tabernacle it is never restored to it, but it becomes, alone, the center for Israel. David accords it the first place; Solomon sets it in the "most holy" of the temple. The tabernacle building is unnoticed from the time of Joshua, until it is carried by Solomon to the temple. So the true house of God has received no recognition at the hands of believers from the time of the apostle Paul until recent years; though Christ as Savior has been upheld all through this dispensation.
The rings and staves put to the ark remind us how Christ goes ever with His people in all their journeys, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world," Matt. 28:20.
“And thou shalt put into the ark the testimony which I shall give thee," Ex. 25:16. This is repeated in the close of verse 21, after the mercy seat—the lid of the ark—has been described. The insertion of it in verse 16 before the vessel is finished, must have some special meaning. Let us look carefully at it.
The ark foreshadows the person of the Lord Jesus and His moral glory. Could mercy be founded and established on that alone? It is not possible. Christ in incarnation simply can be no Redeemer, nor can all His personal perfectness be an atonement through which grace may flow out to the guilty. "Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone," John 12:24. Therefore, it would seem, before God will tell of grace in the mercy seat, He introduces the truth of Christ's work as well as that of His person. The testimony put in the ark expresses Christ's delight to do God's will. But that will was not only His delight in life, it included His death. Indeed it is in connection with sacrifice that these words, "I delight to do thy will," occur in Psa. 40 He received commandment from His Father to lay down His life; and He "became obedient unto death," Phil. 2:8. The law within the ark expresses that obedience in full. So that in verse 16 the essence of His blessed atoning work is presented, as well as His own perfectness in the description of the ark itself.
With both these, the person and the work, in view, God at once proceeds to tell us of grace; "and thou shalt make a mercy seat.”
This was of pure gold, of the same length and width as the ark. Two cubits and a half, by one cubit and a half. What these two measures may in themselves mean is not clear, but the fact that ark and mercy seat are alike in size is full of importance. The grace of God, while it flows out from His own eternal love, is righteously founded on Christ and His work, just as the mercy seat rests on the ark containing the law. But also that grace is the whole size of Christ, it is no partial blessing; it is a whole Christ; all that Christ is to God. Measures here are poor. The limited tells the infinite. What is Christ to God, and what His work? Such is divine grace to every believer to-day.
The limits put by some on the grace of God are as if the mercy seat were less than the ark. Those who count on the love of God apart from Christ and His work, err like making a mercy seat larger than the ark. Full as is the heart of God with love, His grace reigns "through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord," Rom. 5:21. No grace can be shown to us, but through the atoning death of the Lord Jesus. "A just God and a Savior." "Just and a Justifier," God stands revealed, with His throne unsullied as He forgives the guilty now, through the death of Christ.
Two cherubim of beaten—rounded, lit.:—work were made, one on each end of the mercy seat, of one piece with it, and of pure gold, their wings stretched forth, their faces towards each other, and towards the mercy seat. They are the activity of the thing they are connected with, the executive. Viewing the ark as God's throne in Israel, they are the executive of government in Israel, ready to bless the man who keeps the covenant, or curse the man who breaks it. In the line of illustration we are following now, they speak of divine activity in making good the mercy to those who need it. God Himself (gold only, no wood) must be the power of His own love into a sinner's heart. Faith is His gift. But the cherubim and the mercy seat are inseparable. God does work rich blessing. The grace is His, its bestowal is His, and its duration is as its source. How liable we are to confound the instrument with the Power who uses it. It pleases Him by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.
Preach then, instant in season and out of season as a faithful servant, but God must give the increase. No preacher is responsible to convert anybody, but he is responsible to deliver his Master's message, in his Master's spirit; the preacher can do no more, but he can know that the cherubim look on the mercy seat, and divine action will bless His own declared word, whether the preacher see that result or not. Truly nothing gives a preacher more consciousness of power in his work, or more earnestness than this simple looking to God, first for His message, and then to God alone for fruit. The vessel is only earthen, the excellency of the power is of God alone, so that the aim of the preacher should not be souls, but to present God's heart as God would have it presented.
We have thus in this vessel Christ's person, and in principle, His work; then divine grace founded upon, and measured by, that work and Person; and then the administration of the grace retained in God's own hand, irrespectively of any vessel He may deign to use.
One thought further in verse 22 may be repeated in closing; it is the place of communion from which God would give Moses His instructions for the children of Israel.
It is in the "most holy" "above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim, which are upon the ark," that God gives, and His servant receives, such instructions. Are the workers of to-day consciously in the third heaven, in communion with the Father and the Son (1 John 1:3, 1 Cor. 1:9) receiving divine messages of grace, themselves only channels by which He can administer the fullness of Christ?
What a stupendous privilege.
The Table
In the second vessel of our chapter we have God's picture of the result. The table of shewbread, verses 23-30, is to be set on the north side of "the holy," for the purpose of carrying continually 12 loaves in God's presence. The loaves themselves are described in Lev. 24:5-9. They are to be of fine flour baked, laid in two rows on the table, with frankincense on each row. They are to be renewed every Sabbath; the removed loaves to be eaten by the priests in "holy place.”
The table itself presents us with Christ in another character, viz.: that of Sustainer of all His people before God. The shittim wood and the gold, the human and the divine in Him; the crown, the moral glory of His person. The border would seem to have carried the golden vessels of verse 29. Read, however, for "covers," "cups," and for "to cover," "to pour out." Clearly this is connected with Num. 28:7, "in the holy shalt thou cause the strong wine to be poured unto Jehovah for a drink offering." The same change must be made in Ex. 37:16, as in 25:29, while in Num. 4:7 read "the bowls and cups for the drink offering.”
On the table itself, which has its own crown distinct from the crown to the border, the two rows of shewbread are laid; exhibition bread, displaying in a representative way the 12 tribes of Israel, the entire nation before God. The fine flour, as in Lev. 2, is surely Christ, but "baked" tells of the action of fire, so that the whole nation is represented before God as passed through judgment in Christ. Similarly, it is a figure of all believers, seen by God in Christ after judgment. No leaven is used, but frankincense is laid on them, reminding us of the active beauty of the Lord Jesus. How our gracious God and Father has delighted in this; not only judgment passed and evil cleared away, but a new creation in Christ, who is "the beginning of the creation of God." Making us "partakers of the divine nature," His own children in resurrection, covered, to His eye, with the moral perfume of His beloved Son.
Not 11 loaves but 12—all, the entire nation; and so all believers, not a privileged part of them, it is God's free gift to all. He means us to enjoy on earth the blessed truth that all His saints are so blessed now. It is no question of attainment, or of growth in grace, though many regard it so; it is the only way in which grace is working, setting the guilty free, but free in Christ; their very justification is a "justification of life," and all attainment is but a consequence of enjoying the primary gift in full.
Note further in verse 25, as to the border. The Hebrew word itself denotes an enclosing, and so securing the enclosed. Again we are confronted with the precious grace that each, every believer, all believers are secured by God. The highest revealed blessings are theirs, and these cannot be alienated, nor the believer be removed from the position given him. Christ, the table, maintains him before God; Christ, the border, secures him there. The border too has a crown as well as the table. There is a certain glory attaching to our maintenance, and further a glory attaching to our security. If a believer could be lost, if anything could impair his security, if the border could be damaged, the crown must share it, and the very glory of Christ be sullied. Impossible. "Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.”
The 12 loaves are laid together upon the table; all are within one border. Of course if anyone is doubtful as to his privileges in Christ, it cannot be expected that he will act upon them, but the privileges are assured, in order to produce action. Further, we are blessed together in Christ—are one in Him. The 12 loaves are in number connected with Israel, but for us the Lord has set forth one loaf; and His table is one table, though expressed in a multitude of localities. We are one, i.e., all believers, and, strictly, it is on this alone that true fellowship rests. "By one Spirit are we all baptized into one body," 1 Cor. 12:13. We have not to make ourselves one; that oneness exists, and because it does exist we are to express it, live it, act it out. "Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace," Eph. 4:3. The unity is unbreakable in its nature, but how grievously has it been forgotten and disregarded. The varied, even antagonistic, fellowships of true believers are to-day more applauded than condemned; indeed they are too often defended as "necessary" and "healthy." But our figure repudiates all division. It is Christ sustaining all His redeemed people within one border, and the true principle of fellowship is, not that we think alike on certain doctrines, but that though we should unhappily not so think alike, yet WE ARE ONE. We are indissolubly bound together in one by one Spirit. This is no choice of ours, no outcome of our experience, nor fruit of our discernment. WE ARE ONE. The light into which we are brought declares this, and it lays its injunction upon us to keep the unity.
Then obey. Too often the reply is, it is not now possible. "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me," Phil. 4:13. You cannot make others do so, but you can take your own right place, outside the camp of sects and parties, having for your ground of fellowship, WE ARE ONE.
What a stupendous privilege.
The ex-shewbread became the food of the priests in "holy place," not in "the holy." It was part of their appointed maintenance from God.
The Candlestick
The third vessel in our chapter is the candlestick. It is of gold only, having a shaft (no foot or base) "and his branch," not branches (chapter 37:17 is correctly rendered, and the Hebrew is in the singular in both places), and six branches out of the sides, making seven branches in all, and a triple form of ornament—bowl, knop and flower—arranged upon it. It may be that in each of the branches there were three bowls, and only one knop and one flower, but from the way in which the description is given it seems more probable that the threefold idea was maintained throughout. Nothing is said about "his branch" as to any ornament upon it, but it can hardly be supposed to have been a plain stem out of harmony with the rest. Regarding it as similarly decorated to the others, there would then be a central upright line of shaft and his branch containing together seven times repeated this tripe ornament of bowl, knop, and flower. Again, as the six branches are three on each side of the shaft, and as we are told, a "knop under two branches" for each couple in the shaft, there would also be in a line running along each pair of branches, seven repetitions of the triple ornament, viz.: three in each branch and one in the shaft. Thus there would be found in the whole arrangement four lines, each containing, seven times over, the triple ornament.
The vessel was entirely of gold, no wood. Hence, while it is some view of Christ, it would rather be a divine than a human one, presenting God in Christ, as the pure gold mercy seat is the expression of divine grace in Christ, who is the true mercy seat now.
The threefold ornament in gold links itself with the Trinity; the repetition in lines of seven reminds us of heavenly and mystical perfectness, and the four lines of this display will express the completeness of it on earth. The heavenly perfections of God completely displayed on earth in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, may thus be seen in the details of the golden candlestick.
Seven lamps are provided for it, and oil olive is to be burned in them. Light is given, truth revealed, in the power of the Holy Spirit.
The vessel itself is set on the south side of the tabernacle, over against the table which is on the north side, so that the light shines directly on the shewbread.
Thus it becomes of most solemn importance that we take in faith the place we have seen shown by the shewbread, or we shall not be in the sphere of the light, the Spirit's communication of the truth. Is our fellowship that of believers in the enjoyment of resurrection life in Christ? Is it enjoyed according to the fragrance of Christ upon us in God's sight, and in the restful sense of the security in which He sustains us now, and forever? Is it fellowship on the ground of our unity—WE ARE ALL ONE—which we are endeavoring to keep? Then, the light will shine upon us; we "shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
Mark, the shewbread is shone upon. It does not make the light. The light is provided to shine upon it by God. "When He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth," John 16:13. What is wanted is that we expose ourselves to His blessed working by unreservedly taking the full position in grace which God gives.
It is in the "most holy" (the veil is rent), separated from the world, where there is no window for nature's light to interfere, where God supplies direct His own light, while we wait to receive it. Experience and expediency, which are the great pleas of "the camp," are not found here. It is the divine revelation alone, the Spirit and Word of God, and then ourselves just subject, taking what is given in the text of His book, and adding nothing to it.
“When thou lightest the lamps, the seven lamps shall give light over against the candlestick," Num. 8:2. The term here rendered, "over against" is peculiar, and conveys the thought of lighting up the candlestick itself, illuminating it. This is very distinct from shining upon the shewbread, and it is an additional idea. It is the light displaying to the believers the beauty of the vessel itself—God fully revealed in Christ.
This in no way impairs the light of the truth made good to us, but it sets a special object before us for our delighted interest. It is the only worthy object for our hearts that know what redemption is, God in Christ, and that object well lit up by seven lamps, the perfect energy of the Holy Spirit.
Some have connected the seven lamps with the seven assemblies in Rev. 1., 2. and 3. But these lamps give no outside testimony, and their material is only gold. There may rather be a link between them, and "the seven spirits which are before the throne," Rev. 1:4, 4:5, and 5:6. This in no way weakens the truth of assembly responsibility before the world; on the contrary, that responsibility will be more clearly seen, and more deeply felt, as believers enjoy their place of blessing in the "most holy" with God.
To sum up this chapter, Ex. 25, in the order of its three vessels, we have—
First Vessel
The person of Christ, verses 10-15.
His obedience, unto death, verse 16.
Divine grace, established thereon, and commensurate therewith, verse 17.
God's own application of that grace, verses 18-20.
Communion with God accordingly, verse 22.
Second Vessel
The effects of the foregoing:—
I All God's people brought in before Him.
In a risen Christ.
Sustained there by Christ.
Secured by Christ.
Covered with His fragrance.
In the integrity of communion each with all.
Third Vessel
So that God can tell them His mind, and will and ways.
And they find God in Christ their absorbing object.
All these vessels stand on the ground, telling us of grace and privilege for faith now, while we are still on the earth. It is heavenly things set out on earth, for faith to enjoy.