The Curtains and Boards of the Tabernacle
Exodus 26
The way in which the Lord Jesus is brought before us in these curtains that were to form a tent and the curtains that were to form a covering for the tent is very sweet and blessed. We find the Lord brought before us in varied ways in Scripture because His glories are varied and many. It is part of the joy of the Holy Spirit as come down from heaven to take of the glories of Christ and unfold them before our eyes for the nourishment and sustaining of our souls.
Here we have this tent formed of ten curtains, each twenty-eight cubits in length and four cubits in width. Then we have eleven other curtains. They formed a covering for that which is called the tabernacle. These first ten curtains bring the Lord Himself before us in certain traits of His character and ways.
The fine twined linen brings the Lord before us as the Holy One of God; the One who knew no sin; the One without a spot in His human nature. Such is the Lord Jesus in His own Person, spotless and pure, the righteous One, the One who knew no sin, the One who, at any time, could have gone into the presence of God. He could have gone back to heaven without doing anything and could have gone back as the holy and the just. What is brought before us in the fine linen is human nature in its spotless purity. Consequently, that is first—Himself in His own Person.
We find further on in the book these same colors and materials brought together in the making of the garments of the high priest when the high priest was consecrated for his place before God—his relationship to the people as their high priest. The first thing was that which was underneath all—holy linen garments. Next came a robe of blue, and so we find here the blue.
That holy, spotless Man came out of heaven as the second Man. That is where He came from. That holy, spotless Man, the One upon whom the eye of God looked with delight because of Who and What He was in His own Person—the One who could and did seal with His Holy Spirit, that One who came from heaven, that is what the blue speaks of. The 15th of 1st Corinthians says, "The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven." That is what we have here: "The Lord from heaven." So the Lord Jesus says in the 6th of John, "I came down from heaven." One asks again with a measure of joy for it refreshes one's soul, not only who and what is our Saviour, but where He came from. That Holy One came from heaven. That is what the blue speaks of. How precious it is to get the Lord brought before us in this way!
Next thing we see the purple and the scarlet. If the fine twined linen tells us of His holiness and purity—the holy and the just, and the blue tells us of His heavenly nature and character—where He came from, a Man from heaven, the heavenly Man on earth, what do the purple and scarlet speak of? Very beautifully here, the purple speaks of royalty—He is the King of kings; and the scarlet, of glory—human glory, but not in its sinful connection. Who is the One on earth represented here by this fine linen, blue, purple and scarlet? God is speaking to us of His dear Son, our Saviour, in this simple and blessed way.
I wonder if we have as much joy in learning about the Lord, as God has in giving us the types of Him. Page after page and theme after theme in God's Word tell how Christ was ever before Him in some shape or form.
Here, then, we have this purple, speaking of royalty. In His own Person He was the descendant of a royal line, the Son of David. "Rabbi, Thou art the Son of God; Thou art the King of Israel." But that purple takes us outside the range of the Lord Jesus as the Son of David and outside the range of the Lord Jesus as the son of Abraham; it takes us into that wide range of glory which He inherits as the Son of Man!
Simply and sweetly we have the Lord brought before us in this way in these ten curtains. Ten is the measure of human responsibility, and all has been found perfect in the Lord—His responsibility God- ward and His responsibility manward. There was a Man on the earth who loved the Lord His God with all His heart, soul, and strength, and His neighbor as Himself: He was the only One who ever did.
Glory is typified by scarlet—that brilliant color— and we love to think of Christ, not only as Israel's King, and King of kings, but of all the glories that belong to Him as Son of Man. That is what is brought before us here. "It shall be one tabernacle." As we look at the Lord Jesus as represented by these different materials and different colorings, we find in Him what is typified in them.
These curtains, which must have been very beautiful, had cherubim embroidered artistically on them. Cunning has another meaning in our day, but here it means artistically. They speak of Him who is so holy and just in His Person and is Heir of all as typified in the blue, purple, and scarlet. That One is the One to whom God has committed all authority. The 5th of John tells us, "The Father judgeth no man, but has committed all judgment unto the Son" because He is the Son, not of God there, but Son of Man. The same chapter says that the "dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God," but when it comes to the execution or carrying out of government and administration of judgment, it is the Son of Man. The Lord Jesus is not only Heir of the glory of the world, but He is the One who executes government, and He executes it in righteousness and according to the mind of God.
Sometimes we see pictures of the tabernacle with these various colorings displayed. We have no objection because the thought of those who draw them and represent them in that way is to bring before us the One typified in them, but as that tabernacle stood there in the wilderness, colored curtains were covered up. Not concealment, but protection was the thought of God in the curtains which covered it.
There were eleven curtains of goats' hair thirty by four cubits telling us how completely all beneath was protected by this covering. That covering of goats' hair tells of that practical separation from this world which secured everything under it. Similarly the life of the Lord Jesus in holiness and separation to God formed a protection. Why give it that peculiar covering of goats' hair and what beauty was there in such a covering? Because in it we see the truth of "When we shall see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him." Yet holiness and separation to God is that in which God sees every beauty. Humanly speaking it is our security as it was the Lord's. It is anything but attractive to the eyes of this world. Walking in separation from the world is what condemns it; the world feels it.
Then we see another covering of which no measurement is given: rams' skins dyed red. What God would teach us about rams' skins dyed red is Christ's devotedness, His consecration unto death in obedience to the will of God. The ram is called "the ram of consecration" in Leviticus. The burnt offering and the ram are pretty much together. This is another theme as it were, another view of the Lord Jesus, as represented in the fine linen, blue, purple, scarlet and cherubim—consecration to death! What a wonderful theme is Christ if we have the opened eye and heart to receive Him!
There is another covering—badgers' skins—and no measurement is given for this covering. By the fact that no measurement is given to the rams' skins dyed red, and the covering of badgers' skins, God would teach us that He sets no measure or limit to the obedience or separation of His Son. Perhaps we do not know much about the badger as referred to in Scripture. We know it was this exterior covering, that which protected all underneath; and it represented what that devotedness to God is in the eyes of this world. It was nothing inviting, nothing attractive. The anointed eye sees beneath the covering of badgers' skins; it sees the rams' skins dyed red; it sees the curtains of goats' hair. We learn who that One was who was so separated and devoted to God, the Holy One of God, the heavenly One, the royal One, Heir of all glory. The anointed eye sees through these outer coverings which do not represent exactly the Person of the Lord Jesus, but His walk, His life, His manner of life.
These curtains were linked together. They were all of the same measurement and formed one tabernacle. That too has its own instruction. There was no unequalness in Christ; all was perfection; one thing as much as another; as much the holy and the just as the Man from heaven; as much the King of kings and Heir of the world's glory as the other. Those curtains had to be one measurement. They were linked together with loops of blue and taches of gold. Think of that tabernacle being made there in the wilderness by a people journeying to the rest that was before them. Blue tells of what is heavenly and gold of what is divine, and there is divine and heavenly grace; all is linked together in the Person of Christ.
The external curtains were not linked together with blue and gold! They formed the covering, and their taches were brass. We understand gold is what is divine. We do not limit it, and never have, to divine righteousness. Brass brings before us divine righteousness in activity; that is divine righteousness judging.
Inside the tabernacle there were just four things: inside the most holy place, the ark; in the holy place, the golden altar, the golden candlestick, and the golden table. Outside the tabernacle was the brasen altar with those sacrifices, all telling of Christ and the work of Christ, and the laver of brass, containing water. At that laver the priests washed their hands and feet each time they went in to do the services of the tabernacle, speaking of the application of the Word of God to our ways here. All inside was gold; whereas all outside was brass. We believe brass is simply divine righteousness in action and divine righteousness or divine nature in action, judging what is contrary to it, or satisfying itself with sacrifices which meet its requirements. Brass is divine righteousness at work and meeting what divine righteousness requires. Gold is what is divine, and in particular divine righteousness, though not limited to that. Brass represents divine righteousness acting in judgment in dealing with what is according to it and receiving the sacrifices that meet its requirements.
Let us consider now the boards forming the walls, as it were, of the tabernacle. We do not so much see Christ in the boards; they typify the people of God. Each one is the same measurement, each one is of shittim wood covered with gold, each has two tenons, and each tenon rested in a socket of silver, silver speaking to us of redemption. How sweetly beautiful that is! The individual believer stands before God in divine righteousness upon the ground of redemption. There they are so many units. Our being made the righteousness of God in Christ is individual, and it is true of each individual. Shittim wood represents human nature, and all that I am, a poor sinful man, is covered by the robe of divine righteousness in Christ. My individual standing before God and your individual standing before God in righteousness is a righteousness that redemption gives us. Sweet and simple it is to see this. Gold and silver are all that are seen: precious truth of redemption and divine righteousness.
There were forty-eight boards. Each had its own standing as an individual. We do not think Scripture sustains us in saying the individual believer is the temple of God; his body is, but the house of God and the temple of God is collective truth, not individual. In 1 Peter 2:55Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 2:5) we read, "Ye ... are built up a spiritual house." The fourth verse says, "To whom coming, as unto a living stone" [Christ]; "Ye also as living stones are built up a spiritual house."
God takes those forty-eight boards and stands them up in their own standing individually, as it were, independent one of another; He runs a bar from end to end and links them together. Those boards covered with gold and their sockets of silver show us our individual acceptance and standing before God. We have in them all joined together and held together by bars running from end to end the end of the 2nd of Ephesians, "In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit." It is not 1 Cor. 1:3030But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: (1 Corinthians 1:30) "Of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption." We learn we not only have our individual standing before God in righteous- ness through redemption, but we must go on to learn that while this is true of each one, God had builded all together for an habitation through the Spirit.
That is a little of what we have as to the Lord in the tabernacle and the covering and of what we have in the boards. "And it shall be one tabernacle." It is not exactly Christ and the church, the body of Christ, but the house of God "Builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit."
We must learn this: if God is a slow Teacher, He is a thorough Teacher and what He looks for is diligence and patient waiting upon Him, and if we take that position before Him, His Word unfolds before us, and His glories are unfolded to us. Each believer individually and the whole collectively get that standing in righteousness before Him which abides.