As the temple is stated in the New Testament to be merely typical of the body of the redeemed, who are built together as “living stones,” so the tabernacle is another aspect of the same principle. The latter gives the aspect of the church in the wilderness; and it is strange to see that in God's view and purpose it is as complete in all details (though somewhat differing) as the temple is ultimately in the promised land. In the tabernacle the people of God are living boards. They are built in together around the Ark and then covered with the gorgeous curtains which represent the resplendent glories and beauties of Christ.
These various boards are formed into one complete whole for the indwelling of God. The literal house of God is a people, not a building “He dwelleth not in temples made with hands.” The word “church” in the scripture always means a people, never a building. Thus we read, “Tell it to the church;” “Feed the church;” “the church that is in thy house:” expressions that could not be used except in reference to persons. These boards are formed from the same wood as the ark: the regenerate nature is of the same character as the nature of our Lord; and they are covered with gold—invested with the divine righteousness. “As He is, so are we in this world.”
They are founded on large heavy sockets of silver, and this silver was formed of the half-shekels that the Israelites had to pay for their redemption. They were to be shaped by discipline of cutting, planing, and polishing as divinely ordained; and they were linked together at the corners above and below by rings. There were then five bars shot through these upright boards transversely, to aid in holding them together in their places. These horizontal bars, kept in their position by golden rings, correspond with the five gifts in the church, “apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints.”
Thus “all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord; in Whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God.” The whole building, surrounding its sacred contents, was then over-canopied by a curtain of gorgeous tapestry in beautiful and elaborate symbolism of blue, purple, scarlet, fine twined linen, and cherubim of cunning work. Each of these things, like the swan of Wordsworth on St. Mary's Lake, “Floats double, swan and shadow;” and we are told that their resemblance to the things of which they are types is the resemblance of a shadow, not of a reflection. That is, the law has “a shadow of good things to come.” Let us consider what that word “shadow” implies. All the brightness and splendor, all the affluence and elaborate skill, all the solemn pomp and imposing magnificence of the ancient tabernacle and ritual, in comparison with the spiritual privileges of the present and coming dispensations, is but as the dark rough shadow to the regal beauty of the crested swan whose supreme grace it so imperfectly adumbrates. These colors in the tabernacle curtains have doubtless all significant meanings, and though there are many who suffer from what Livingston called “the soul's color-blindness,” yet the colors are real and full of meaning. Those who have especially studied these subjects consider that the blue (which is in the harmony of shades what the treble is in music) suggests the heavenly attributes of Christ, as in John's Gospel; the scarlet suggests His Jewish royalties, as in Matthew; the purple, His characteristics as the Son of man as in Luke, and the fine twined linen indicates that pure and perfect human life of interwoven service to God and man which we find to be the special feature of Mark's Gospel. The cherubim typify the power of truth and faculty of judgment with which Christ is invested, for the whole curtain is unquestionably typical of our Lord Jesus Himself covering and investing His people with His own glorious attributes.
Now consider how an individual board is kept in its place. It was made with two tenons (Hebrews “little hands”), which were to fit into and take hold on the solid silver socket of the redemption-money underneath. But that is not all; for the little hands would soon yield to the enormous leverage of any pressure on the top of the board. Much more than what strength is found in itself is needed to keep any one soul in its place in the building of God. It is founded on accomplished redemption; that is its faith. It rises up into the iridescent glories of the enfolding curtain; that is its hope. It is built in amongst all its fellow boards, standing shoulder to shoulder with them, stretching out on either side to them, holding them and being held by them; that is its charity. Moreover it is supported by the five transverse bars (gifts) and rings, also by the other rings above and below, the symbols of union and eternity. But above all and more powerful than all else to keep the board in its place of honor and security was the weight and strength of the curtain, in which verily it is a type of the ever-blessed Savior Who over-canopies, surrounds, and encompasses His redeemed people, investing them with the resplendent glories of His own personality and attributes. “As HE IS, SO ARE WE IN THIS WORLD.” These humble pieces of dead wood are taken up from the wilderness dust, and emblazoned with the splendors of a mystic heraldry in the hieroglyphics of the celestial worlds.