“And the sight of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel. And Moses went into the midst of the cloud, and gat him up into the mount and Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights.” Exodus 24:17, 18.
WHAT occurred in those forty days? The next seven chapters of Exodus are occupied with unfolding this. Nothing could be more interesting and blessed than what is unfolded to Moses during these forty days. He went up, I quite admit, to receive from the hand of God the law; and the people thought he was only gone up to get that law; but what was God thinking about? He was thinking about Christ all that time, and He was telling Moses about Christ, in figure, type, and shadow. The next seven chapters, from chapter 25 right on to the end of chapter 31, are all about Christ. “How about Christ?” you say. “He was not born.” I know that. But it was a marvelous unfolding of Christ’s Person and work.
Now I will ask you to glance over those chapters. Therein we see the way in which God can come out to man, and how man can go in to God through the work, the death, and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Ah, those were wonderful forty days! To apprehend their teaching is of the last importance.
First, notice what we find in chapter 25. “And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them” (vs. 8). That is God’s main idea, “According to all that I show thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, oven so shall ye make it” (vs. 9). Observe the first thing commanded to be made. “And they shall make an ark of shittim wood” (vs. 10). What is that ark? Christ. Of course it was Christ. Eleven articles are named, and all pointed to Christ. First of all, you have the ark. What is the next thing? The mercy seat. “And thou shalt make a mercy seat of puro gold two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof” (vs. 17).
Do you know what happened afterward, when Moses brought down the tables of stone the second time? He put them into the ark. Why? Because there was never any man but Christ who kept the law. If it be a question of the first man’s responsibility, failure is immediately manifest; all is gone. Hence Moses breaks the first tables of stone at the base of the mount. But in that ark the second tables of stone were placed, and there they remain till this day. When you get to Solomon’s reign, which is a picture of the future millennial reign of our Lord Jesus Christ, there was nothing in the ark but the two tables of stone. The golden pot with manna and Aaron’s rod that budded have then disappeared. They speak of Christ, seen here once in lowly grace and then exalted, and of His priestly grace, which meets the saints of God in wilderness days. The tables of stone tell a different tale. By-and-by when “a king shall reign in righteousness,” there shall be the establishment of that law which the tables of stone reveal. It shall be written in Israel’s heart, and everything shall be according to it.
The mercy seat was Christ. Where did God meet man in that day? When the high priest came to the ark, where did he put the blood? On the mercy seat once, and before the mercy seat seven times. In Romans we read, “Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation (a mercy seat) through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God” (Rom. 3:25). How can I draw near to God now? On the ground of the blood which is sprinkled on that mercy seat.
The third thing telling us of Christ is the pure table of shittim wood whereon the shewbread was placed (vs. 23). And now we come to the fourth thing. “And thou shalt make a candlestick of pure gold: of beaten work shall the candlestick be made” (vs. 31). Again, this is Christ, and all the light that Christ bears and sheds within the holy place.
Passing on to the next chapter, you get the tabernacle with its “ten curtains of fine twined linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet, with cherubim of cunning work” (xxvi. 1). This is the fifth thing. It is a lovely picture of Christ. How has God revealed Himself? The apostle Paul replies: “But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building” (Heb. 9:11). Christ is the precious antitype of all this striking imagery. I view that tabernacle, and I look at the inside curtains of fine twined limen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet, with cherubim (vs. 1). What do they tell us of? Nothing but Christ we must, however, not now forget that everything is taken out of type, and is seen in a living Man at God’s right hand. The day of ritual is over, and the ritualist is quite out of date now. To revive ritual is to ignore Christ really. The veil, spoken of in chapter 26:31, is an exquisite type of Christ. The blue gives His heavenly character; the purple His imperial rights as King of kings and Lord of lords; the scarlet indicating that He is King of the Jews; also, the fine twined linen tells us of His spotless humanity; the cherubim—always in Scripture the executors of God in judgment—telling that all judgment is placed in His hands. How wondrous, later, to find that veil rent, and ourselves brought to the knowledge of God through the Lord Jesus Christ, having title to go inside the rent veil through His blood. He who will be the judge has himself borne the judgment of God that we might be delivered.
In chapter 27. we come to the sixth thing. “And thou shalt make an altar of shittim wood... and thou shalt overlay it with brass” (vers. 1:2). There we find an unmistakable figure and type of the cross of Christ, where all the claims of God were met by Christ. If anybody went towards the tabernacle in that day, what was the first thing that met his eye? The brazen altar and the sin offering on it. I draw near to God through that brazen altar: on the cross Christ has met all the claims of God, and any claim that God could bring against me as a sinner has been answered and met by the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now go a little further. In chapter 28 and 29. you have the priests, their anointing, and all about their garments. It is the way in which God brings us back into His own presence. He brings you inside the veil, and there you find the high priest. He represents the people before God. “Aaron shall bear their names before the Lord upon his two shoulders for a memorial.” Again: “And Aaron shall bear the names of the children of Israel in the breastplate of judgment upon his heart, when he goeth in unto the holy place, for a memorial before the Lord continually” (28:12-29). What is that? It is Christ risen from the dead Christ the great High Priest bearing each one up before God. It is love bearing me on His shoulders of everlasting power, and on His breast of undying affection. What a picture this was that Moses got on the mount. It would be a very profitable thing for you and me to consider these “forty days” very thoroughly.
Now pass to the thirtieth chapter. “And thou shalt make an altar to burn incense upon: of shittim wood shalt thou make it... and thou shalt overlay it with pure gold... and Aaron shall burn thereon sweet incense every morning: when be dresseth the lamps, he shall burn incense upon it. And when Aaron lighteth the lamps at even, he shall burn incense upon it, a perpetual incense before the Lord throughout your generations” (vers. 1, 3, 7, 8). Now, what is the teaching of this golden altar of incense? I think it is this. There is going up before God all the fragrance, the sweetness, and the perfection of what Christ was as a man. The precious incense, which went up as a sweet savor to God, speaks of the infinite grade of Christ’s person and ways as man, and, as being all for God, was burnt on the golden altar.
But there is something more to observe regarding the statement: “And when Aaron lighteth the lamps at even, he shall burn incense upon it, a perpetual incense before the Lord throughout your generations” (vs. 8). When God lights a light it never goes out. If the light of God has got into your soul, it is there. The lights were lit in the tabernacle, and they were never to go out. There are two things you do not find in the furniture of the tabernacle, neither an extinguisher, nor a seat. The light is never to be put out. Satan cannot manufacture an extinguisher for the light that God has lit in any soul, and God has not manufactured one. If the light is there it will remain. It may get low. I tell you what He often does. God trims the wick. And I daresay most of us Christians are the better of a trimming. I like to meet a man who trims me. I get brightened up when I get near an earnest, warmhearted Christian. Do not you? No! Then I do not think you are a Christian at all. But it is very striking there is no extinguisher, as I have said, and further there was no seat. The work of the priest in that day was never done. Now look at this: “But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, forever sat down on the right hand of God” (Heb.10:12). His work is done. The Lord Jesus exceeds and rises above all types and shadows of which He is the divine antitype. His work is done, and He has sat down. In that glorious fact I rest. Do not you?
But further, Moses is told, “Thou shalt also make a laver of brass, and his foot also of brass, to wash withal: and thou shalt put it between the tabernacle of the congregation and the altar, and thou shalt put water therein” (vs. 18). This was most needful for the ministering priests. As Christians we need to have our hands and feet washed (John 13). I must have the feet washed. In going through this wilderness I need to have the water of the Word of God applied to my conscience and heart as a believer. It will give the cense of cleansing. I need what Ephesians 5 speaks of. “Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word” (vers. 25, 26).
Now, do you know what the laver is for. Cleansing. It is the washing of water by the Word. Can you tell me the size of that laver? I cannot tell you. No record of its size is given. Solomon’s laver, or molten sea, “received and held three thousand baths” (2 Chron. 4:5). In the established kingdom of the Son of Man all will be according to law―measured. But it is a remarkable thing that the size of the laver for the tabernacle in the wilderness is unrecorded. It is not measured. It suggests the thought that you cannot measure the applicability of the Word of God. It is wonderful how God’s Word meets the soul in its varied conditions, and therefore there is no measure. What meets one person would not meet another. The Word of God can only be applied by the Holy Ghost, and there is no limitation to the way in which that Word is applied. The unmeasured laver gives the idea of the immeasurable breadth, length, and universal value of the Word of God to meet the multitudinous necessities of souls as we pass through this scene.
Following the instructions as to the laver, we read that the Lord bade Moses take certain principal spices and make “an oil of holy ointment, an ointment compound after the art of the apothecary: it shall be an holy anointing oil” (30:22, 23). Without doubt we here read of the Holy Spirit of God. It was not to be put upon man’s flesh. The blood of atonement must always precede it. The oil was put mi the blood, teaching us that the Holy Ghost falls only upon a man who has been born of God, and led to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, dead for his sin, and risen. This is most strikingly borne out in the New Testament, where we read, “In whom ye also trusted after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, after that ye believed, ye were sealed with the holy Spirit of promise” (Eph. 1:13).
Only one point more do I notice. “And the Lord said unto Moses, Take unto thee sweet spices, stacte, and onycha, and galbanum; these sweet spices with pure frankincense: of each shall there be a like weight” (vs. 34). They made therewith that beautiful incense, which was to be burnt upon the golden altar. All the fragrance, the sweetness, and the perfections of Christ, in His life and ways as a lowly man, walking in grace on earth, are here indicated. Burnt on the altar morning and evening, their sweet savor went up before God. If you and I do not appreciate Christ, God does. If you do not appreciate the love that led Him down to death, oven the death of the cross, God does.
Well, that was what Moses was being instructed about during those forty days. You should look at these instructions regarding the sanctuary more in detail at your leisure. They are summed up in chapter 31. You will find the eleven things I have just indicated named in verses 7-11. God puts them all together there. It is just a little picture gallery, to show what the Lord Jesus is in His person, His offices, and His work. The Old Testament is the picture book of Christ, and by these figures, types, and shadows, we learn wondrously what Christ is, and what Christ has done. What could be more wonderful than what Moses here learns, that there is a mercy seat based on righteousness. All the claims of God have been met in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then there is the blood of atonement that gives me title to draw near, and the cherubim fixedly gaze on that sprinkled blood. I find the table, and on it there is the bread. I am to eat. I find the light, and am in it, to enjoy all that Christ is. I am in all the light of the purposes of God. Then I am brought to the brazen altar-the cross that gives me a title to glory. God, so to speak, takes me by the hand, and says, You can come in. The claims of the brazen altar have all been met, and the sprinkled blood witnesses that by His atoning death Christ has settled the sin-question. And then you find a Priest that maintains you in the presence of God. He bears you in His heart and on His shoulders. You find in His company light that you can enjoy, and food which you can eat. Then the oil―the Holy Ghost―put on us, gives us power for access to God in all the fragrance of the incense of Christ’s perfection. The thought of God is not to keep us at a distance, but to bring us near in the enjoyment of all that Christ is.
This was what Moses was favored to see during those forty days.
Reader, if you have never yet studied these types of the Old Testament let me urge you to sit down and do it. They are replete with blessing for the soul. If you are yet a sinner, in your sins you will find that which meets your case. The blood of atonement is seen everywhere. If you are a believer every picture of Christ will only endear Him to your heart more fully, as you see how he supersedes every type.
W. T. P. W.