The Tabernacle, or Tent, was divided into two distinct apartments, differing in size and name. The first and largest of these is called the Holy Place, the second, the “Holy of Holies,” or “Holiest of All.”
The Holy Place contained the altar of incense, the table of show-bread, and the golden candlestick. It was the place of priestly privilege and service, and within its precincts the sons of Aaron the priest accomplished daily “the service of God” (Heb. 9:6). No foot of man was allowed to tread, or hand of man to serve within its sacred walls, save that of a consecrated priest.
The congregation of Israel had access to the outer court but no further. They might bring their offerings to the brazen altar, but to the golden altar within the Holy Place they were forbidden to come.
The typical teaching here points on to the place of vast and unique blessing pertaining to believers of the present age as “priests to God,” a title of inexpressible blessing, little understood or appreciated by many of those to whom through grace it belongs.
For the sake of those who are young in Christ and newly come to the faith, it may be profitable here to meditate on it a little.
In Israel, the priesthood was vested in a single family―the family of Aaron, of the tribe of Levi. Natural birth into that family was the only way of sharing its privileges.
The title was hereditary, and passed on to the descendants. In the present age of grace and spiritual blessing it is exactly the opposite. By natural birth all are shut out from God, and by spiritual birth, or being “born again,” all are made priests. Such is one of the marked distinctions between the ages of law and grace, and one of the broad outlines which mark Christianity as entirely differing from Judaism. In the family of God, born from above, there are no such distinctions recognized as “priests” and “common people.” The words so fraught with grace and blessing― “Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people” (1 Peter 2:9)-are applicable to all the saints of God. The weakest and feeblest of the redeemed of the Lord may adopt them and enjoy the privileges pertaining to them with the most mature in grace. Attainments and gifts come not in here. They have their severally ordered places, but the priest hood, with the whole range and sphere of blessing and privilege attaching to it, is the birthright of all the saints.
Beloved, do we esteem the exceeding riches of this grace of God? Or are we enslaved by a false humility to take a lower place and to stand afar off in a haze of bondage and fear? The precious blood has made us nigh, the Spirit of sonship dwells within, and it is the joy of the Father’s heart to see the face and hear the voice of all His children. In condescending grace He stooped to lift us from the depths of our ruin, and, not satisfied with merely rescuing us, He raised us to the rank of “an holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:5) within His holy Temple. The heaven in which we are to sing forever is open now to faith; the great High Priest has gone within, carrying with Him our title, and He tells us to draw near, and by Him to “offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His Name” (Heb. 13:15).
The Holy Places made with hands are the figures of the true heavens. The priest of Israel, accepted through the sacrifices offered at the altar, made clean by the water of the laver, and anointed with the holy oil, is the type of a believer accepted in the Beloved, cleansed by the washing of regeneration and by the Word of God, anointed with the Holy Ghost, and thereby fitted to draw nigh to God.
The blood of Jesus is the title, the daily cleansing by the Word is the condition, and the Spirit of God the power for fulfilling the functions of our priestly calling (see Hebrews 10:19-22; Eph. 2:18).
The door of the tent was an hanging of blue, purple and scarlet, on five pillars of shittim wood, overlaid and crowned with gold, and set in sockets of copper. This was the entrance to the Holy Place. It was of the same superficial measurement as the gate of the Court, but it was double the height and only half the width. The difference is significant. The gate of the Court was wide, the door of the sanctuary was narrow. The gate was for all, the door was only for the priests.
There is a fullness and a narrowness in the things of God which we do well to mark. The Gospel of the grace of God is for the world, and the gate is wide enough for all. The privileges and blessings of the House of God are only for the saints, and the door is therefore narrow. Let us remember this. It is an inversion of God’s order, to restrict the Gospel to a few, and to admit the world to fill the children’s place. There ought to be a distinctive line drawn in preaching the Word between the children of God and the unconverted, and a right dividing of the word of truth, giving to each his portion. This has been fearfully set aside in Christendom. Mixed congregations of saints and sinners are frequently addressed and prayed for as “beloved brethren,” and the “children’s bread” is dealt out to all and sundry alike. The ungodly are made to believe that they are “inheritors of the Kingdom of God,” and are thus hardened in their guilt and condemned in their hypocrisy. The door of the Church is thrown wide open to the unconverted, and the table of the Lord and His worship is defiled and degraded by the world being admitted to them. The Lord does not hold any guiltless who do, or who countenance and uphold such unhallowed deeds. With Holy jealousy for His Name, He has put a fence of truth around the “holy things,” and if men with impious hand throw it down or teach their fellows to disregard it He will yet avenge Himself upon them. May the Lord awaken the consciences of His saints to see the deep dishonor done unto His Name, and the eternal ruin brought upon the souls of men, by allowing and instructing unconverted men to presumptuously take part in the worship of God. The case of King Uzziah, who in the pride of his heart once entered the door of the Holy Place with a censer in his hand to burn incense and was smitten with leprosy, may well be a warning to such (2 Chron. 26:16-19); and also that of Korah and his company, who were destroyed by the judgment of God for assuming to be priests when they were not (see Num. 16).
Within the Holy Place the altar of incense, the golden candlestick, and the table of show-bread stood. The service of the priest consisted in burning incense at the altar, in trimming the lamps of the candlestick, and in eating bread at the table. These are figures of the service of the heavenly priesthood, which we will consider more fully in connection with the respective vessels. May it be our happy daily experience, beloved, to consciously abide in his Tabernacle under the shadow of the wings of the Almighty. Hid in His secret presence, in the Lord’s own pavilion, our souls shall be safe from the arrows of the wicked and the strife of tongues, and, having found the abiding title to enter there in the blood of the Lamb of God, may we be preserved in a condition of cleanness by the continuous application of the Word to our thoughts and words and ways. Thus, walking in the ungrieved power of the Holy Ghost with ardent longing of soul, shall we be saying― “One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the House of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple” (Psa. 27:4).
The Altar of Incense
(Ex. 30:1-10)
The. Altar of incense stood within the Holy Place. It was made of shittim wood and gold, and had a crown of gold around its top.
Here let us distinguish clearly between this vessel and the altar of burnt-offering.
The altar before the door was made of shittim wood and copper; the altar within the Holy Place of shittim wood and gold. The copper altar was the place of sacrifice; the golden altar was the place of incense. There was continual bloodshed at the one; perpetual incense at the other.
The glories of Christ appear in both altars. Christ on the cross in the altar of burnt-offering; Christ risen and glorified in the altar of incense. Down here He stood for us in the place of death and judgment, and met our deep need as sinners. Up there He lives for us still in the presence of God, meeting all our need as His saints and worshippers. By His sacrifice we were redeemed, forgiven, accepted, and brought nigh to God; by His intercession we are maintained in communion. It is Christ to begin with, Christ to go on with, and Christ for evermore.
Let us draw near and gaze upon this golden altar with its crown.
“Rise, my soul, behold, ‘tis Jesus;
Jesus fills thy wondering eyes.”
It was made of shittim wood and gold. Shittim wood, the type of His perfect humanity; gold, of His Divine glory as the Son of God. There was no gold outside. When Jesus was down here He was as really the God-man as He is now within the heavens, but the gold was hid from the eyes of men. He passed through earth in humiliation, not in glory. Although He was then, as now, “the Mighty God,” He appeared among men in the “form of a servant” and in “fashion as a man.” But up there where He now is the glorified One, the gold is seen in all its rightness, and there is no veil to hide it. But He is as really the Man Christ Jesus now as when He stood with the little child in his arms and pressed it to his bosom. He is as truly the Sympathizer now as when He stood at Lazarus’ tomb and wept; and He would have us to know and enjoy Him thus. He is as truly engaged for us now in the midst of all His glory as He was when, amid His woe, He loved us unto blood. His love can never grow cold, for it is like Himself: “the same yesterday, and today, and forever.” O what comfort to the soul to know Him there as “the golden altar before the throne” (Rev. 8:3), the Ever-living One who maketh intercession for His downcast, weary people (Heb. 7:25; Rom. 8:34). Look up to Heaven, ye crushed and burdened saints, and see the Mighty God engaged to bring you through. The sharpest pang you feel affects His heart; the deepest woe you bear is familiar to Him who was the Man of Sorrows. He trod the same path Himself, and met with all the forms of suffering that it is possible for His saints to meet, and thus His sympathy is the sympathy of the perfect Man, and His power the power of the Mighty God. He can be “touched with a feeling of our infirmities,” because He is Man; He is “able to succor” the tried and tempted, because He is God.
It had a crown of gold. “We see Jesus crowned with glory and honor” (Heb. 2:9). There was no crown around the altar outside the door: nothing but blood and ashes there. This reminds us of Calvary. There was no diadem of glory on the brow of the Holy Sufferer there; only the tangled thorn-crown with the ruby blood-drops―jewels of priceless value to the believer’s heart. But on that very brow, where wicked hands entwined a crown of thorns, the hand of God has put a crown of glory and honor. His “sufferings” are past, His “glories” must follow. The saints of God already own His dominion and yield Him obedience; and, by and by, when He comes to claim the Kingdom and to put down the false one, the Anti-Christ who shall rule earth’s kings, the “many crowns” shall all be His, and every kindred and people and tongue shall then join to sing―
“Bring forth the royal diadem”
And crown Him Lord of all.
It is mockery, in this age of His rejection, to invite “all people that on earth do dwell” to “sing to the Lord with cheerful voice,” when the bulk of them are the children of the devil, and the enemies of God. The world disowns His name and spurns His authority. Those whom He has won for Himself out of Satan’s dominion, and made unto Himself “a kingdom and priests unto God and His Father” (Rev. 1:6), these, and only these, can truly worship God with cheerful voice.
“And Aaron shall burn thereon sweet incense every morning” (Ex. 30:7). “By Him let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually” (Heb. 13:15). “Every day will I bless Thee, and I will praise Thy name forever and ever” (Psa. 145:2). “Blessed are they that dwell in Thy house: they will be still praising Thee” (Psa. 84:4).
Christ is the altar, believers are priests, and Heaven is the place of worship. God’s earthly place of worship was first the Tabernacle, then the Temple, but since the Cross of Christ there has been no earthly place of worship. Our golden altar is in Heaven, and there by faith we pass in spirit, and worship God by Him. The body may be on a lonely couch, or in a prison, as Paul and Silas were in Macedonia, in the inner prison.
“But prison bars cannot control
The flight, the freedom of the soul.”
Their spirits were around the golden altar within the heavenly temple, and “at midnight they prayed and sang praises to God.” Not only on the first day of the week, when, with disciples, we congregate around the Person of Immanuel, but at all times in all places it is the believer’s privilege to be in a worshipping condition of soul. “My praise shall be continually of Thee” (Psa. 71:6). “Giving thanks always for all things” (Eph. 5:20).
Brethren beloved, is this our daily employment? Is this the atmosphere we breathe by road, and rail and at our daily work? If it were so, we should see no discontented grumbling saints, no captious, quarreling brethren. Ah, no! When brethren fall out by the way, it is because some of them have left the “spot where spirits blend,” and once away from the warmth of His love, saints can do anything.
In the beginning of the Gospel of Luke we see Zacharias, the Jewish priest, by the side of the incense altar in the earthly temple, and the people without praying; but in the closing verses of that Gospel, the saints are gathered to worship Him whom they had seen carried up to Heaven. Earthly priests and vestments, earthly altars and temples, are suited to the world. It must have a religion suited to its senses: requiring no spiritual life or Holy Ghost energy; but why the living heavenly saints should seek the living Christ among these dead forms we do not know.
THE INCENSE. It was an holy perfume, composed of four spices, prepared according to the command of Jehovah. None was to be made like unto it, upon penalty of being cut off from the people of Jehovah. Solemn words for a day like ours, when license under the name of liberty desecrates the most sacred things of God. The incense is the type of that holy fragrance which did, and ever will, ascend from the ways and character of the Lord Jesus unto the Father.
When we bring our praises unto God, let them be of Him, His Person, His character, His worth. These are the spices like unto which none are to be made. No worshipping of saints, dead or living; no prayers or praises to the Virgin or Apostles, or about ourselves or our own attainments. “Worthy is the Lamb” is Heaven’s song: let it be ours. What a sham is all the instrumental music used in what is called the worship of God. How abominable to Him is the song of the most talented orchestra of unconverted sinners. A handful of His blood-bought saints gathered in some lonely corner telling out the worth of Jesus into the Father’s open ear from burning hearts, is incense of a sweet savor unto Him. To such, ―
“God graciously is bending
To hear each feeble groan.”
The fire was to be taken from the altar of sacrifice. No strange incense, no strange fire was allowed. The fire which had fed on the victim was to burn on the altar of incense, and the blood of the sacrifice was to stain it horns. Thus in our worship are we ever to have Calvary in view. “A Lamb as it had been slain” in the midst of the throne will keep Calvary forever before the glorified saints. We can only worship God as we live beside the Cross. Nadab and Abihu offered strange fire and died before the Lord (Lev. 10:1). They were true priests. They had true incense; but they used strange fire, not the fire of the altar which came from Heaven (Lev. 9:24). The only power for worship is the Holy Ghost: all else is strange fire. The oft repeated “Hallelujah,” the frequent bursts of “Praise the Lord,” the words so oft repeated by thousands every Sunday, “Glory be to the Father and to the Son,” if they are not the fruit of the Spirit’s operation within the soul, they are only “great swelling words of vanity.”
Sentimental religion is common. Unholy familiarity in the things of God and a corresponding irreverent way of addressing Him are rapidly increasing. “Dear Jesus” ― “Precious Jesus”―are expressions often flippantly uttered by professing Christians. But when Stephen, filled with the Holy Ghost, gazed steadfastly on the blessed One, he said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit”; and on the Damascus road, when Saul of Tarsus saw His glory and heard His voice, he said, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?”
May our souls be kept in His fear, giving Him reverence, hid in his pavilion, worshipping in His presence. Soon we shall bow in ransomed bodies in the presence of the throne of God and the Lamb, to praise Him evermore.
The Table of Shewbread
(Ex. 25:23-30)
The next vessel of the Holy Place is the Table of Shewbread with its twelve loaves.
It was made of shittim wood and overlaid with gold, with a golden crown around the top. There was a border of an handbreadth, then a second crown of gold around it. Twelve loaves made of fine flour and overlaid with frankincense lay upon the table within the inner crown in two rows. At the close of every week they were removed by the priest and replaced by twelve fresh loaves, the priesthood receiving the former as their food. The table stood within the Holy Place on the north side, over against the candlestick of gold.
Let us seek in the fear of God to gather the precious truth the Spirit brings before our souls in this expressive type. The table with its bread presents a double aspect of the truth: it has a Godward and a manward side. First, it stood before the Lord, upholding and presenting as unto Him the holy bread; and next, it was the place at which the priesthood served and found their food. The table itself represents the Risen Christ―Christ as the God-man glorified in the heavens, appearing now in the presence of God. But not only was there a table, there was also bread―a loaf for every tribe in Israel’s camp. The twelve tribes were represented there in all their perfectness and unity, the small as well as the great. The royal Judah, the priestly Levi, and little Benjamin, had each their representative loaf there all covered with the pure and fragrant frankincense. When the eye of Jehovah rested on that Holy table it rested on His people too. Not one of them was forgotten there, for the bread was to be “continually” before the Lord. The word translated “shewbread” means “the presence bread” or “bread of the faces” (see the margin). It was ever in Jehovah’s presence, and continually before His face. His holy eye was ever looking down upon it, feasting, as it were, upon it with satisfaction.
And, O beloved friends, with what unbounded joy does the Father’s eye now look upon that glorified Man within the heavens? Can human heart conceive, or angel tongue express, with what ineffable delight His eye at this moment rests upon His glorified Son? We cannot gauge the measure of the love wherewith the Father loves the Son; but, whatever the measure of that love may be, we are sharers in it. We are loved, and blessed, and “accepted in the Beloved.” The entire company of the saints are complete in Him. They are continually before the Father’s face, presented and covered over with the fragrant frankincense of His peerless Name and perfect work, and it is their birthright to sing, with heart and soul and voice―
“So dear, so very dear to God, more dear I cannot be;
The love wherewith He loves the Son, such is His love to me.”
The golden crown around the shewbread kept it in its place, and protected it from falling off as the table was borne on the Levites’ shoulders along the desert. Not only does Christ bring us into this place of nearness and blessing, but He keeps us there. No doubt our stumbling steps down here would very soon have caused us to forfeit it all, had not He undertaken to keep it for us and us for it.
But the golden crown encircled all the loaves clasping them, as it were, on the table. And we are encircled by love Eternal, Omnipotent, and Divine; love that had no beginning and shall never have an end.
But there is another aspect of the table and the bread, upon which it will be profitable for us to meditate a little.
Jehovah provided this table for His priests, and the “presence bread” became their food. They fed upon that holy bread before the Lord, thus sharing, as it were, His own delight in it and His own appreciation of it. And we are called to share His joy in Christ and to feed upon the Bread of God. We have been called unto the fellowship of the Father and of the Son, and it is our privilege to enjoy that fellowship from day to day. Communion with God is what we have here expressed in type. The priest was called to be a partaker with His God, and this is communion. There was worship at the altar and communion at the table. At the altar, the priest was a giver, but at the table he was a giver and a receiver. Every Sabbath, he came with fresh shewbread to present before Jehovah, and every Sabbath he received, as if from Jehovah’s hand, His bread to eat. The former expresses our presentation of Christ to God when we draw near to worship, the latter shows His presentation of Christ to us, as the Bread upon which our souls may feed.
The priesthood had their portion in the offerings of the Lord, and upon these they might feed individually, and at other times and places. But the priesthood feeding upon the shewbread at the table within the Holy Place, would seem to point to that special expression of communion with God and with each other which believers now enjoy, when gathered around the Lord’s table on the Lord’s-day to eat the Lord’s Supper. The same love that provided a table in the midst of that howling desert, and gathered His priests around it to eat, has spread for us a table too, and called us to it, like Mephibosheth of old, to “eat bread as one of the king’s sons.”
“Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies.” The table is not ours, but His. He provided it, He furnishes and orders it, and we are only His guests. With what jealous care He guards His table we may surely learn, from the words He uses in describing it. It was a “pure” table; the bread upon it was “holy” it stood within the “Holy Place”; and those who surrounded it were a “holy priesthood,” anointed with the “holy oil” and clad in “holy garments.” Surely “holiness becometh Thine house, O Lord, forever”; and God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about. Him.” (Psa. 93:5; 89:7).
It has ever been the work of the enemy to seek to corrupt and degrade the holy things, and the very strength of his attack seems to have concentrated itself in all ages upon the Lord’s table and the. Lord’s Supper. Highest of all the Church’s privileges down here, it has ever been Satan’s aim to deprive her of it. And to what extent he has succeeded, a careful comparison of what passes for “the Lord’s Supper” with what is written concerning it the Word will suffice to show. Hardly a remaining trace of that holy, simple feast, as it was instituted by the Lord, and first celebrated by His disciples in the upper room, can now be seen among the sects of Christendom. The “Mass” of Popery and the “Sacrament” of Protestantism are alike a caricature of the simple feast. By their forms and ceremonies, they have virtually set the Lord’s Supper aside, and denied the Lord the right of governing His table. But the pattern is still in the Book, for all who are willing to follow it.
In connection with those who were invited to this shewbread table, there are two or three points I wish you to notice. We are first told who were not to come, then, who were to come, and next, how often they were to come. You see the Lord was very particular in telling them all about it. There was nothing left for them to fill in or arrange. First, then, who were not to eat? “There shall no stranger eat of the holy thing: a sojourner of the priest or an hired servant shall not eat of the holy thing” (Lev. 22:10).
Here are three classes who were prohibited from partaking of the priesthood’s food. They represent three classes of unconverted people. “No stranger.” This is one of the descriptions given of man in his natural state (see Eph. 2:11) “No sojourner of the priest.” Perhaps an intimate friend come to stay with him for a time, but when the Sabbath day came round he must be told that he cannot enter the Holy Place or eat the holy things. Human nature would recoil from this. What more natural than to take his friend with him! Perhaps it might do him good, and teach him to revere the God of Israel! But human reasonings are invariably opposed to Scripture, and, when allowed to supplant it, apostasy is the result. And this is done to a fearful extent in the present day. The children of believing parents when they come of age, and their friends and relatives when they come to visit, are often brought forward to the Lord’s table in a slipshod way, without much question whether they are “born again” or not. It is much easier for the flesh to bring them there, than to honestly tell them that they must take their place among those who are “without” until it be manifest to all that they are truly converted. Dear friends, are you all clear before God as to this matter? Take care that you do not, under the plea of a false charity, bring the Moabite into the congregation of the Lord. It is easy to makes oneself believe that either child or relative is converted, especially if our discernment be small, and if our minds be set on having them in among the saints. It is better in all such cases to leave it to the discernment of others. Do not allow the honey of human nature to hinder faithful dealing and careful examination, of those who seek a place at the table of the Lord.
“An hired servant shall not eat thereof.” A man working for salvation is not to be there, yet many do go, because they are told it is “a means of grace,” and that in the God of Israel communicateth to us the benefits of redemption.” Such is the lawlessness of man, leading to a complete subversion of the order of God. But there were others also to be excluded.
“What man soever of the seed of Aaron is a leper, or hath a running issue, he shall not eat of the holy things until he be clean” (Lev. 22:4).
It was no question here of his being a priest. That point was settled, yet by reason of defilement he was for the present disqualified from enjoying the privileges of the priesthood. Now, this is a very solemn thing. A true believer may become tainted with the leprosy of indulged and cherished evil either doctrinal or moral, so that he becomes unfit to hold communion with a holy God, or to be in the fellowship of the saints. Such was the case with some at Corinth. One had gone on indulging and practicing sin, until it became necessary to excommunicate him, and the saints were told to put him away. Sin is contagious, and if one defiled is permitted to go in and out as was his wont, the disease will rapidly spread. It is not a question of his ceasing to be a Christian, for he may be restored to God and to His people. But for the present he is unclean, and must be treated as such. How all this is denied and set aside by those who urge that because the table is the Lord’s, therefore all His people may come to it! A strange deduction from such solemn premises! Surely a more worthy deduction would be, that “seeing the table is the Lord’s, therefore He must rule it, and His will is to be done, and His authority owned, by those who assemble around it.”
There is yet another extreme which, in seeking to act out the will of the Lord, we need to guard against, and that is to exclude any one whom God has bidden come. Here comes a lame priest, and yet another blind. Now, what is to be done with them? One does not see clearly, another cannot walk aright or keep rank with those who do. It would be very natural for us to say that for such defects they ought not to share the fellowship of their brethren; but Jehovah says, “he shall eat the bread of his God, both of the most holy and of the holy” (Lev. 21:22). There is a difference between lameness and leprosy and the Lord means us to regard it. A believer may be dark on many things and yet not defiled. One may fail to “keep rank” and yet not be unfit to hold communion with God. Such have a place in the Church of God and at the table. As one weak in the faith the saints are commanded to “receive” him (Rom. 14:1), then to “support” him (1 Thess. 5:14). The Churches of God ought to be to the “weak” and the “feeble” as the “inn” was to the wounded man who was found on the road to Jericho. There are many of the dear saints of God who are lame, not so much from their own fault as from the fault of those who had the care of them, during their spiritual infancy. We read of one Mephibosheth who was lame for life because a careless nurse let him fall when a babe. Yet he sat at the King’s table as one of his sons. May the Lord preserve the balance of His truth within our souls, and help us to discriminate between weakness and defilement.
Every Sabbath was the time appointed for the priesthood to assemble at the table. On the first day of every week the disciples of the Lord were wont to meet to break bread and drink the wine (Acts 20:7). There was “the Lord’s day” and “the Lord’s Supper” (Rev. 1:10; 1 Cor. 11:20); or, as it may be read, “the Lordly day” and “the Lordly Supper,” the “day” for the “supper” and the “supper” for the “day” both being distinguished by a word occurring nowhere else in the New Testament. It is clear, moreover, from the record given, that the early churches gathered to break the bread and drink the wine on the first of every week. They had no “Ordinance day” or “Communion Sundays.” Every resurrection day witnessed the gathered company at the feast, and so should it be with us today. The times have changed, and so have the customs of men, but the Word of the Lord is sure and steadfast forever. Beloved! let us cleave to it firmly, seeking to act it out in the fear of the Lord.
The Golden Candlestick
(Ex. 25:31-39)
The third and last vessel in the Holy Place was the Golden Candlestick, or lampstand. It was a vessel of pure gold, consisting of a shaft, an upright center branch, and six other branches proceeding out of the shaft, three on either side. On the end of each of the seven branches was a lamp of gold containing pure olive oil, and these were to be kept continually burning to give light within the Holy Place. It was the only source of light there, and in that light the priesthood served and worshipped Jehovah. It stood on the south side of the Holy Place, over against the table of shewbread.
There are deep and precious truths foreshadowed in this golden lampstand, upon which our souls may meditate with joy and blessing. Christ personally is and ever was “the Life” and “the Light.” Life and light Divine have their source and manifestation in His blessed Person. He, and He only, is the Giver of life and light, and He has communicated both unto His saints. They are in possession of His life, and “children of the light,” and it is through them that He manifests and displays Himself. The candlestick seems to point to that deep, mysterious oneness that exists between the Head and the members of the “one new Man,” expressively called “the Christ” (see 1 Corinthians 12:12, Greek).
There are no dimensions given for this vessel, but it was to be beaten out of a talent of gold. It was of pure gold; there was no tinsel or alloy. This marks the Divine character of the truth contained in the type. It reminds us of the Church as formed and created in His image, the workmanship of God.
It was of beaten work. Beating is the emblem of sorrow and suffering. This points to the sufferings of the cross as the birthplace of the Church. It was during the process of beating that the various branches of this golden lampstand, with their flowers and bowls, were formed. They were all hid, as it were, in that unbeaten talent, but as the hammer was brought down upon it by a skillful hand, one after another of the branches was produced, until it stood complete before the maker’s eye one solid work of beaten gold. It was thus the Church was formed. The “deep sleep” into which the Lord God put the first Adam, while He builded out of his side “the woman” who was to be his partner; the corn of wheat falling into the ground to die and bear much fruit; and this beating out of the golden lampstand all foreshadow the deep and bitter sufferings of the cross, to which the Church, as the body and the bride of Christ, owes her existence. The talent of gold was ever valuable and precious in itself, but, apart from the beating of it, there could have been no golden lampstand. And but for the bruising and death of the Son of God―the Second Adam―there could have been no Church―no second Eve―to become His Body and His Bride.
The lampstand consisted of three parts, viz., the shaft, the six branches, and the branch. The shaft was the base of all. Out of it came six side branches, and also the center and upright branch. The word translated “shaft” is rendered “thigh” in Genesis 24:2, and “loins” in Genesis 46:26. As the children came from the loins of Jacob, so came the branches from this shaft. It gave them being. They came forth from it, having, as it were, its life, its nature, and its beauty as their own. So comes the Church from Christ. She is possessed of His life and adorned in His beauty. “He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one,” even as the branches were of the same gold as the shaft out from which they came: ― “For which because He is not ashamed to call them brethren” (Heb. 2:11). Wondrous dignity! He is the Firstborn from the dead: they are His brethren. He is the Son of God: they are the sons of God. His Father is their Father, His God their God. Christ is the Head of the Church: the Church is the fullness of Christ. She is called to be a co-heir and joint-inheritor with Him. She is the Eve of the Second Adam. She is quickened, and raised, and seated together with Him, a partaker of His life, possessed of His Spirit, and presently to share His Glory.
The six branches sprang out from the shaft, three on either side. They were not artificially fastened on to it, but they came out from it. Such is the union of Christ and His members. It is compared to a body of many members, all having the same life, and united by a common bond to the living Head. As Eve was taken from the side of Adam, possessed of his life, his very counterpart, so in wondrous grace hath the Church been formed from and for her Lord. The same life is in the feeblest member as is in the Head, and not one of these members can ever be severed from Him, or perish. I do not see how any one can believe the Bible, and hold what is commonly known as “falling-away doctrine.” In such a gospel there is no vital union with Christ. The believer is looked upon as artificially united to Him, and liable to lose his hold and drop into hell at any time. This doctrine robs Christ of His glory, and the believer of his peace. Texts bearing on the believer’s warfare (as 1 Cor. 9:27) or fruitfulness (as John 15:6) are pressed into service to prove that a believer may finally perish. But we know from such Scriptures as 1 Corinthians 6:17; Ephesians 5:30; Romans 7:4, that the believer is everlastingly united to the risen Christ, and that he can never be separated from Him (see Romans 8:35-39; John 10:28). And these Scriptures cannot be broken, neither can they contradict themselves.
In each of the six branches, there were bowls made like unto almonds, with a knop and a flower of gold. The almond-like bowl or calyx reminds us of the resurrection. The almond tree is the first to show its bud in Spring. It is the first to wake up, as in resurrection, after the dreary winter. The rod of Aaron laid up before the Lord during the night, had in the morning the bud, the blossom, and the fruit of the almond upon it. How sweetly these emblems remind us of the resurrection of the Son of God and of the formation and resurrection of the Church with Him. Around the dark shadow of His cross, and the still darker portal of the tomb, the lonely women watched and wept. It seemed as if the winter had set in without a hope of Spring’s return to them. But on the early dawn of the resurrection morning the opening bud was seen, and the Risen One appeared to their joy, linking them with Himself, and saying “Go to My brethren, and say unto them, I ascend to My Father and your Father, to My God and your God.” The corn of wheat had died, to live in the fruitfulness of resurrection. The rod laid up in death before the Lord had borne its fruit, on that resurrection morning (John 20:17). Like the branches springing out of the almond-like calyx, and like the almonds found on the rod of Jehovah’s chosen priest, the Church is the fruit of Christ’s death and resurrection, and is raised and seated and blessed together with Him. Drawing their sap from Him, as the branches from the vine, they bear the fruit of righteousness, and “the life of Jesus” is manifest in “their mortal bodies” (2 Cor. 4:11).
The center stem is called “his branch” (see Ex. 37:17, where the word is given in the singular), distinguishing it from the six side branches. Its place in the midst, with its pre-eminence and beauty, reminds us of the fact that although Christ has linked His saints with Him and calls them “brethren,” yet in all things He has the pre-eminence. He is the Head, the Chiefest among the ten thousand, Fairer than the children of men, Altogether lovely. He may call the objects of His grace by the endearing name of “brethren,” but they call Him “Lord,” and own His place in the midst, as Center and Source of all.
The lamps were filled with pure olive oil. Oil is the type of the Holy Spirit, and the lamp filled with this may indicate that fullness of the Spirit which believers now possess, and which it is their privilege and responsibility daily to enjoy (Eph. 5:18).
The many lamps gave only one light (Ex. 25:37), and its chief use was to shine over against the face of the candlestick, displaying its beauties. The saints filled with the Spirit do not exhibit themselves or speak of their own comeliness. They bear witness to the worth of Jesus. Stephen, full of the Holy Ghost, looked steadfastly up to Heaven and said, “I see Jesus.” Peter, filled with the Spirit, testified of the dead and risen Christ; and when the Church is all complete and glorified with Christ in Heaven, she will still be the vessel in whom and by whom Christ will be revealed. A believer full of the Holy Ghost will have the eye turned up to Christ, and not down or into self. He will speak of Christ, and not of his own perfection or sanctity. When Moses came down from the mount, the glory of God was beaming in his face, and everybody saw it and owned it, yet He “wist” it not. Thus the golden lampstand stood before the Lord, shedding forth its light continually, and thus before God’s face forever shall stand in wondrous union, Divine beauty, and unfading light, the Church as the body and the bride of Christ.
But there is another aspect in which this golden lampstand may be viewed. It has a place to fill on earth, amid the darkness of the night. When John, the beloved disciple who had leaned upon Immanuel’s bosom at the Supper, was in Patmos’ lonely isle, he was called to behold seven golden candlesticks. They were not within the heavens, but scattered throughout Asia Minor, as witnesses for God, in a dark and guilty world. They were the bearers of Divine light down here among men, and the Lord Jesus, clad in priestly robes, was seen moving amongst them, constantly watching over them, caring for them, praising them and rebuking them as they had need. Like the beloved disciple himself, the Church has a double place to fill: up there in the bosom of the Lord, down here in a cold and evil world. The Church, as the body of Christ, is divinely perfect and divinely united: it can never be tarnished or divided. “The Churches of God” on earth are liable to fail, and they may receive either praise or blame from Him who walks amongst them. As Aaron trimmed the lamps, pouring in the oil and using the tongs and snuffers, so Christ, as He walked amidst these churches, had words of grace and cheer to some, and of warning and reproof to others. The trimming of the wick—the use of the tongs and snuffers―is quite as necessary as the fresh supply of oil, in order to have a clear and shining light, and the Lord knows in what proportions to give the ministry of grace, and the word of faithful rebuke. In some of the assemblies there was little to correct, in others little to approve. But so long as they were His, He trimmed and fed the lamps as they had need. May the Churches of God and the saints individually have the willing ear to hear His voice whether He speak rebuke or cheer. Thus shall they continue as His light-bearers on the earth. Each candlestick stood on its own base and had a separate existence of its own. There was no human confederation of churches or earthly seat of government. Each church was responsible to Christ alone. Yet He who is in the midst of each separate assembly and unites around Himself all who are in it, is here seen walking in the midst of the seven assemblies uniting them all. They were all watched over by the same All-seeing Eye, and trimmed by the same Almighty Hand. So long as the churches remained true to Him, or had an ear to hear His voice, He governed them Himself. But when they ceased to hear His voice and to repent of their sins, He disowned them, and removed their candlestick out of its place (Rev. 2:5). He alone can do this. It is not man’s work.
This puts the Churches of God in a deeply solemn position as His witness and light-bearers down here on earth. If the spiritual condition of the individuals who compose these churches be right, with God, and if the saints are living in communion with Him, each subject to Christ as Lord and to His Word, there will be little fear, but the lampstand will give a clear and shining light. The truth of God will be upheld. Christ’s Name will be honored. His gospel will be sounded forth, and sinners will be saved. His Word will be proclaimed and taught, and should evil raise it head, it will be dealt with in His fear. Happy the church and the individual saint, thus abiding in His love and watched over by His eye, fed and trimmed by His hand, and standing as a luminary amid earth’s darkest night, waiting for the dawn of the resurrection morning.
The Holiest of all the Veil
(Ex. 26:31-33)
The Veil divided between the Holiest of All―the immediate presence-chamber of Jehovah―and the Holy Place, the place of priestly worship and service.
It was a curtain of blue, purple, scarlet, and fine linen, with cherubims. It was upheld by four pillars of shittim wood, set on silver sockets, with suspending hooks of gold. So long as the veil remained unrent, the priest was shut out from the immediate presence of his God, and the Divine glory was hidden from his gaze. Only once a year, the high priest was permitted to enter, and that, alone, with the blood of atonement in his hand, and his person enshrouded by a cloud of holy incense.
The Holy Ghost has interpreted this type for us in His own words, as found in Hebrews 10:20. We read there, “The veil, that is to say, His flesh.” This vail then, foreshadowed the “flesh,” or the humanity of the Lord Jesus. “God as manifest in the flesh” (1 Tim. 3:16); “and the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us” (John 1:14, R. V.). What a mystery of grace lies here before us, in the consideration of which we need to proceed with bowed heads and reverent spirits, reining in our imagination, and being guided by the light of Holy Scripture. He was the Holy One as regards His humanity; unlike all other men, inasmuch as He was sinless; yet so near to us did He come, that we are told, “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of THE SAME” (Heb. 2:14). His incarnation was a necessity in order that He might die, and so was His perfectness in order that He might die for us to redeem us. There was no gold entwined amid the colors of the vail, as we see it in the texture of the ephod of the priest, for that would indicate His Divinity and humanity were intermingled. But such was not the case. He, was thirsty at the well of Sychar, and hungry in the wilderness, and He felt them both. He was weary with His journey, and He rested Himself and slept on a pillow in the boat. O how blessed to know that we have such a Jesus! So tender that both the babe and the beloved disciple might lie close to His bosom and feel that they were at home, and yet withal He was the Mighty God―Emmanuel. The hooks of gold by which the vail were suspended may speak of this, while the cherubim wrought in the blue, the purple, and the scarlet, may indicate the presence of the Divine power that was in Him, oftentimes exerted on behalf of others, but never for Himself.
It was upheld and displayed by four pillars, cut off, uncrowned, and set on silver sockets. There are four Gospels giving a divinely-inspired revelation of Christ’s holy birth and life, all ending with His cutting off upon the Cross. We need no other “Life of Christ” to supplement them. Many have been written, bearing the infirmities of their authors’ opinions, in contradiction of the inspired words of the Holy Ghost.
But the veil in all its beauty afforded no access to the presence of God, but rather barred the way. And the incarnation of Christ, apart from His death, would not of itself have brought the sinner nigh to God. We need to remember this, because there are many who occupy the place of teachers in the professing church, who are now saying that we are united to Christ in His incarnation, that God is the Father of all men, whether they have been born again or not, and that as a consequence all men will be saved. But there can be no union with Christ save in the new creation; no entrance to the family of God but by a new second birth; and no place in Heaven but on the ground of redemption. The veil had to be rent, ere the way was opened into the presence of God, and Christ had to die ere sinners could be “made nigh” by blood (Eph. 2:13). At the very moment of the death of God’s holy Lamb outside the gate of Jerusalem, the veil-within the Temple was rent “in the midst” from top to bottom, and the graves of the saints were opened. The former of these signs giving the pledge of access to God, the other, of the destruction of death, and both of these, fruits of the death of Christ. Blessed be God, there is no barrier now! The inner and outer courts are both open to the saints of God, and the whole range of spiritual blessings in heavenly places, has been, though grace, made theirs. The saints draw nigh” to pray and praise, and within the inner circle, in the fullness of light and love Divine, they sing―
“Within the Holiest of all,
Cleansed by His precious blood,
Before Thy throne Thy children fall,
And worship Thee―our God.”
The Ark
(Ex. 25:10-16)
The only vessel within the circle of the Holiest was the Ark with its Mercy Seat. We find it described in Exodus 25:10-21. It was a chest or coffer made of shittim wood, overlaid within and without with pure gold. It had a crown or band of gold around its top, a golden ring on each of its four corners, and two staves of shittim wood overlaid with gold wherewith it might be bona along the desert. Within this Ark lay the two tables oi the law; and, later on, we find there was a golden poi with manna, and the budded rod of Aaron deposited within it.
Here, as elsewhere, we see the God-man in the gold and the shittim wood. The unbroken tables within the Ark remind us of the perfect obedience of Christ. We are at once reminded of the words, true only of Him of whom the Ark is a type― “I delight to do Thy will, O My God; yea, Thy law is within My heart” (Psa. 40:8). There, and only there, had God’s will its dwelling-place. Of Him, and Him alone can it be said that He loved the Lord His God with all His heart, and soul, and strength, and mind, and that He did so continuously and constantly. The first two tables were broken beneath the mount by Moses when he saw the people engaged in worshipping the calf of gold. Of what use could such a law have been to them! Its first commandment claimed complete allegiance to God; its second forbade the making of a graven image; and its third the taking of God’s name in vain. While Moses was on the way from God to the people with these commands, what were they doing? They had made a graven image, they were doing homage there before it, and declaring it to be the God who had redeemed them. Such was the reception given by man to God’s most holy law, and such is man’s treatment of it still. His rebellious heart is estranged from God―it is not subject to His law, nor can it be. The tables are broken, and, with fallen man, they can never be renewed. How foolish, then, for men to think that by observing fragments of a broken law they can satisfy God, or justify themselves. Yet how many seek by such a path to reach the Kingdom of God, and how zealously they cling to outward forms and mingle law and grace. How strangely it must sound in Heaven to hear from congregations Sunday after Sunday, chanted in a single breath, such words as, “Incline our hearts to keep Thy law,” followed by, “Save us by Thy grace.” But salvation is not a complex thing made up of law and grace, else grace were no more grace. The sinner has broken the law of God, and thus forfeited every claim to righteousness on that ground. Moreover, he is under its curse and awaiting its punishment. But there was One―different from all others―in whose heart the claims of God had their honored place. And He was “Jesus Christ the Righteous.” Perfect in His unswerving fidelity to God and in His love to men. In Him the claims of a holy God were fully met and all His righteous requirements satisfied.
The Mercy Seat
(Ex. 25:17-22)
The lid of the Ark was made of pure gold, with cherubim of gold on its ends, and is called the Mercy-Seat. The wings of the cherubim overshadowed the Ark, and their faces looked to each other toward the Mercy-Seat. The word for Mercy-Seat signifies “to atone,” or “cover,” and in the New Testament it is rendered “propitiation” (see Rom. 3:25). God’s mercy can only be known in Christ, and on the ground of atonement. If it is to be extended to sinners, it must be in consistency with God’s holiness, and if grace is to take its place upon the throne, it must reign in righteousness. But how is this to be? The only way possible is on the ground of atonement. And to this the Cross of Christ is the all-sufficient answer. There, all apparently irreconcilable attributes of God are harmonized and blended, in their Divine perfection and beauty. There, “mercy and truth are met together, righteousness and peace have kissed each other” (Psa. 85:10). There “mercy rejoices against judgment.”
On the great day of atonement―Israel’s annual cleansing from sin―Aaron the priest, robed in linen garments, entered within the veil, with the blood of a sin-offering. This was sprinkled on the Mercy-Seat once, and before it seven times. Once was enough for the eye of Jehovah, but seven times―the perfect number―for the eye of the worshipper. We need to be reminded often of the perfectness of the atonement of Christ, but in the estimate of God it is ever the same. The importance of this act cannot be over-estimated. It was not a question of some single act of transgression: that would have been settled at the altar in the Court. But the question uppermost in the Day of Atonement was― “How can a holy God continue to dwell in the midst of a sinful and failing people? How can His throne be established in righteousness in their midst?” The answer was found in the sprinkled blood. It was there, on the blood-stained Mercy-Seat, that the Shekinah rested and it was concerning this same spot that Jehovah said, “There will I meet with thee, and commune with thee.”
How blessed it is for our souls to grasp the antitype of all this, as we have it in the death of Christ. True, we often sing―
“His precious blood is sprinkled there,
Before and on the throne.”
but how far have we individually really learned of the perfect satisfaction of God, and of the deep, eternal rest that He Himself has found in the death of His own beloved Son? Beloved young saints, this is where you need to begin, if you would enjoy deep and settled peace and know anything of real communion with God. If you do not see a satisfied, yea, a well-pleased and resting God, the probability is that the accuser will roar against you, telling you of your past offenses and your present unworthiness, and drive you from the solace of the secret place, where the wings of the Almighty stretch themselves out to protect you from Satan’s power. But, gazing on that precious blood, we see the perfect answer to all we have done, and to all that we are. We learn there that the blood of the slain Lamb has given entire satisfaction to God, and covered all our guilt, leaving nothing but its own preciousness on the spot. How boldly, then do our souls face the tempter’s rage, and how intelligently do we sing―
“I hear the accuser roar
Of ills that I have done:
I know them well, and thousands more―
Jehovah findeth none.”
And not only does the blood bring us there, but, blessed be God, it keeps us there. If our souls are dwelling in the light of God, and accustoming themselves to say, “Search me, O God,” we will find that there is much within us still, that is contrary to the circle of infinite holiness in which we stand. Then, how are we to abide in its searching light? Just because the blood is there. The blood cleanseth us from all sin. That does not mean that it takes sin out of us. To think so, God says, would be self-deception. But while we are walking there in God’s holy presence, the blood speaks for us, and, in spite of all that we feel ourselves to be, we are counted clean for its sake. And at the blood-stained Mercy-Seat we commune with God. Covet the enjoyment of this, ye beloved young Christians. It is more to be desired than much fine gold. It will give you strength for the journey home, and there, communing at God’s Mercy-Seat and throne of grace, you will renew your strength and mount up as on eagle’s wings.
The cherubim looked down upon the blood-stained Mercy-Seat, acquiescing and admiring. Some think they represent angels, others, saints. No doubt the host above do greatly admire the great redemption work of Christ, but, being all of gold and of the same piece as the Mercy-Seat, we rather think they are symbols of the Divine majesty and power of God. At Eden’s gate they stand connected with the sword of justice to bar the way. But here, at the Mercy-Seat, they welcome the sinner’s approach. There is no sword now. It has been sheathed in the Victim, and they gaze upon the blood. Blessed, exchange! We fear them now no more, but rather cry, “I will abide in Thy tabernacle forever: I will trust in the covert of Thy wings” (Psa. 61:4). “Because Thou hast been my refuge, therefore in the shadow of Thy wings will I rejoice” (Psa. 63:7).
The rings and staves speak of the pilgrim character. If God’s saints are wanderers in the desert, He will be with them all the way. The Ark accompanied them throughout. It stood in Jordan’s dried-up bed, until they crossed in safety. It compassed the walls of Jericho. Then, when the wilderness was past and the conflicts over, it was carried into the Temple and deposited on the golden floor, and its staves were then drawn out. The pilgrim host had reached their home. And so shall we, beloved. Till then, we have God with us and for us.
The FLOOR of the Tabernacle was sand. Above and around the glories of Christ have filled the eye; but below, there was nothing but the desert sand. The priest stood within the holy circle, surrounded by the shadows of heavenly things, but, like ourselves, he was literally in the desert. We are reminded daily that this is not our rest. But the Holy City with the golden street is yonder, gleaming in the distance, with its glory and its song. Thither let our pilgrim steps press on. Burning sands and deserts with thorns, may hurt our wearied feet, but an hour with our Lord, will make up for it all. The rest and calm of that bright home awaits us, and a warm welcome by the Lord of the place. “For the Lord Himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then WE, who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. So shall we ever be with the Lord.”