The Nation's History

A word on the history of this favored people in whose midst the Tabernacle was. Turn to Exodus 1 Here we have a picture of Israel in bondage. They had no Tabernacle, no glory-cloud there. Like the unconverted sinner, they were slaves; they lived without God. Yet He loved them, and, faithful to His promise, He redeemed them Exodus 12 shows their redemption. It was their birthday as a redeemed people.
Next comes their separation to God. The Red Sea opened to let them out of Egypt’s power, and closed behind them to keep them out of it forever. They were brought out to be alone with God in the desert. Here it was, far away from Egypt’s altars and its gods, that God came down to dwell among them. Here it was that the Tabernacle was pitched. Let us learn a lesson from this. No believer who tarries in Egypt, need expect to apprehend the typical teaching of the Tabernacle. So long as a child of God is governed by the world’s maxims and mixed up with its abominations, he can know but little of communion with his God. The promise, “I will dwell in them,” is closely followed by the precept, “Come out from among them, and be ye separate” (2 Cor. 6:16-1716And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 17Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, (2 Corinthians 6:16‑17)). It is vain to sigh and cry over one’s barrenness and lack of communion, and still remain in friendship with the world. If God’s child can afford to forfeit the sunshine of his Father’s face to gain the pleasures of the world; if he can coldly barter the friendship of his God for that of the enemies of the Cross, he has no just reason to complain of his bargain. If he know not the fellowship of the Lord’s redeemed encamped around His Tabernacle, let him heed the call, “Come out from among them, and be ye separate, ... and I will receive you, saith the Lord.”
The Tabernacle, Literally and Typically
The Tabernacle was the dwelling-place of JEHOVAH―God of Israel. It stood in the center of the twelve tribes, facing the east. The cloud abode above, and the glory continuously dwelt within its inner circle. To the nations around, it must have appeared a very common-looking edifice, more resembling a huge coffin, than the temple of Israel’s God, the palace of their King.
It consisted of three distinct circles. First, the Outer Court, 100 cubits long by 50 broad. It was surrounded by an hanging of fine linen, and within it stood the altar of Burnt-offering and the Laver. The Tabernacle proper stood in the western end of this enclosure. It was divided into two apartments. The first was called the Holy Place. This was 20 cubits long by 10 broad. It contained the altar of incense, the table of show-bread, and the golden candlestick. A curtain hung on four pillars, called the veil, divided between the Holy Place and the Holiest of all. The Holiest was a square apartment, 10 cubits long by It) broad. Within it, stood the Ark of the Covenant, with the Mercy Seat and Cherubim, the cloud of glory resting between them.
The twelve tribes were gathered around, each in its divinely-ordered place. The camp consisted of probably over two million souls.
When Moses was in the mount with God, be was shown a pattern of the Tabernacle, and he also received instructions how each part of it was to be made. Not one single pin or knop was omitted in the Divine instructions, and Moses was repeatedly told to adhere strictly to them in all their details (Ex. 25:40; 26:3040And look that thou make them after their pattern, which was showed thee in the mount. (Exodus 25:40)
30And thou shalt rear up the tabernacle according to the fashion thereof which was showed thee in the mount. (Exodus 26:30)). The house was God’s, and He ordered it. Moses, as a faithful servant, obeyed. It would be well for us today if all the servants of Christ would remember that the Lord has not been less careful about the building of His Church. He has given the Divine pattern and the most minute instructions as to how His House on earth is to be ordered (see 1 Cor.; 1 Tim.). This abides the unrepealed, unchanging will of God for His People’s obedience throughout the whole of the Church’s earthly history until the Lord comes.
The Tabernacle was God’s first dwelling-place on earth. He walked in the company of Adam in Eden. He visited Abraham at Mamre, but had no dwelling-place there. Here He comes down to dwell with His redeemed, and from then till now, He has had a dwelling-place on earth. After the Tabernacle, the Temple in the land (2 Chron. 6:3-63And the king turned his face, and blessed the whole congregation of Israel: and all the congregation of Israel stood. 4And he said, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who hath with his hands fulfilled that which he spake with his mouth to my father David, saying, 5Since the day that I brought forth my people out of the land of Egypt I chose no city among all the tribes of Israel to build an house in, that my name might be there; neither chose I any man to be a ruler over my people Israel: 6But I have chosen Jerusalem, that my name might be there; and have chosen David to be over my people Israel. (2 Chronicles 6:3‑6)); and when its day was past, the Son from the Father’s bosom came. God was manifest in the flesh, “the Word became flesh, and tabernacled among us” (John 1:14,14And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. (John 1:14) Revised version). The glory of God was manifest in the temple of His Body. Next came the Church―a spiritual house, an holy temple, built of living stones. This is the present dwelling-place of God on earth. No house, however gorgeous, no temple made with hands however grand, can claim the honor of being “the House of God.” He dwelleth not in temples made with hands. But “where two or three” of His ransomed saints are found gathered together in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, there He is in their midst (Matt. 18:2020For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. (Matthew 18:20)). This is His rest; here will He dwell, for He has desired it (Psa. 132:1414This is my rest for ever: here will I dwell; for I have desired it. (Psalm 132:14)). And by and by, when time and sin and death shall be no more, when wilderness toils and tears are past, the last foe vanquished, and God shall be all in all, then shall “the Tabernacle of God be with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people” (Rev. 21:33And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. (Revelation 21:3)).
TYPICALLY, the Tabernacle pointed onward to Christ. In His Temple every whit of it uttered His glory (Psa. 29:99The voice of the Lord maketh the hinds to calve, and discovereth the forests: and in his temple doth every one speak of his glory. (Psalm 29:9)). Christ is all. The glories of His Person and work are stamped on every part of it, from the Ark of the Covenant within the veil, to the smallest pin and cord of its outer Court. This will be seen more clearly, as we look at its several parts.
It is also a figure of the wilderness condition of the Church of God—in the world, but not of the world.
The Free-Will Offerings
The whole of the materials of which the Tabernacle was built were the free-will offerings of the people of God. No stranger or alien’s gold was allowed to adorn the dwelling-place of Israel’s God. An unconverted sinner’s gifts are not accepted by the Lord, nor ought they to be mingled with the offerings of the saints. Christendom has deeply sinned in this. The world supports the nominal Church, and wealthy worldling’s are its pillars. Ill-gotten gain, extorted from carnal men and sanctified in the Name of God, is used to build religious temples in which the pride and vanity of man may be displayed. With such sacrifices God is not well pleased; they savor of the offering of Cain, and from God they have no respect. God is a bountiful Giver; and those who have been the recipients of the riches of His grace, may well reflect His character. The sense of God’s goodness was present to His people’s hearts; redemption and its results they had tasted the sweetness of. They were in the dew of their youth, and they gave, and gave their very best to God. Rulers brought their precious stones and spices; women brought their bracelets and their jewels; and those who had no wealth to give, showed their love in labor. Strong men felled the shittim trees, and wise-hearted women spun. Morning after morning (Ex. 36:33And they received of Moses all the offering, which the children of Israel had brought for the work of the service of the sanctuary, to make it withal. And they brought yet unto him free offerings every morning. (Exodus 36:3)), the gifts of willing hearts poured in, in such abundance, too, that Moses had to bid them cease. “For the stuff they had was sufficient for all the work to make it, and too much” (Exod. 36:77For the stuff they had was sufficient for all the work to make it, and too much. (Exodus 36:7)). Lovely grace! It reminds us of the early days of the Church of God, when mammon had lost its hold, and the wealth of saints was given to God (see Acts 2). How sad the change in the days of Malachi the prophet! The people had departed from the Lord. They had lost the sense of His goodness; and they asked, “Wherein hast Thou loved us?” (Mal.1:2). They brought the lame and diseased of their bullocks to God’s altar, and kept the good ones for themselves. None would open a door or kindle a fire for God, without being paid for his work. And when to this very people the Son of God appeared, they valued and sold Him for thirty pieces of silver.
The Workmen
Bezaleel and Aholiab were called and fitted for the work, the former from the tribe of Judah—the royal tribe (Heb. 7:1414For it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Juda; of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood. (Hebrews 7:14)); the first also on the march (Num. 10:1414In the first place went the standard of the camp of the children of Judah according to their armies: and over his host was Nahshon the son of Amminadab. (Numbers 10:14)); the latter from the tribe of Dan, the last in the camp. Thus does the Lord show us that He can find His “chosen vessels” wheresoever He listeth. He called one Apostle from the feet of Gamaliel and another from his fishing boat on Galilee’s Lake, and linked them together as the Apostle of the circumcision and of the Gentiles (Gal. 2:88(For he that wrought effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision, the same was mighty in me toward the Gentiles:) (Galatians 2:8)). And those whom He thus Calls, He fits for His service. This is more than man can do. “Every one whose heart stirred him up, came to the work to do it” (Ex. 36:22And Moses called Bezaleel and Aholiab, and every wise hearted man, in whose heart the Lord had put wisdom, even every one whose heart stirred him up to come unto the work to do it: (Exodus 36:2)). Willing hearts caused willing hands to work for God. So will they yet. A willing heart―a mind to work—is the crying need of the present hour. Coldhearted saints will always find some lame excuse for idleness; but hearts a-glow with the love of Jesus will easily find work to do for Him. God is building His heavenly tent. Now is the opportunity for His saints to show their love. Nothing really given to God or done for Him with single eye, will be forgotten on a coming day.
“Deeds of merit as we thought them,
He will tell us were but sin;
Little acts we had forgotten,
He will own were done for Him.”
The Court
The order in which the commands concerning the Tabernacle and its vessels were given by Jehovah to Moses, as also the order in which they were made and placed, was from within to without (see Exodus 25 and 40), beginning with the Ark of the Covenant within the Holiest, and ending with the Court and its gates without.
A descending line of typical truth is thus brought before us. The order is from God to man. It reminds us of the path of the Son of God—down from the bosom of the Father to the manger of Bethlehem and the Cross of Calvary, where He reached the sinner in all his guilt and need.
The order in which our souls apprehend the truth is from without to within. We begin with the Court and its gate, and travel inward past the brazen altar and the laver, and onward till we reach the throne of God.
It does not concern the guilty sinner how he may worship or commune with God. It is not the golden altar or the table that his soul seeks after then. Convicted and consciously lost, the cry of the awakened sinner is, “How can I be saved?” and the Divine and all-sufficient answer from the lips of Jesus is, “I am the Door: by Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved” (John 10:99I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. (John 10:9)).
Once inside the gate, we go on to learn of Jesus as the Altar, the Sacrifice, and the Priest. We pass within the Holy Place to worship God and to “behold the beauty of the Lord” within His dwelling-place. I speak now of our apprehension of the truth, not of our standing in Christ. The youngest babe in the family of God has Christ, and having Christ, has all. The aged saint can have no more than Christ; the babe has nothing less. The difference lies in the experimental knowledge of Him. The babe has only known Him, it may be, a few days; the aged pilgrim has leaned on His arm for years, and knows His restoring and upholding, as well as His saving power.
We shall now pursue our subject thus, and begin by looking at the Court of the Tabernacle.
The Court was an open space, 100 cubits long by 50 cubits broad, surrounded by a hanging of fine twined linen, supported by 56 pillars. Each pillar stood in a socket of brass (or copper), and was crowned with silver; hooks of silver upheld the curtains, and rods of silver connected the pillars. An unbroken line of silver and fine linen went thus round about the Court. On the eastern side was the gate. It was 20 cubits wide and consisted of an embroidered hanging of blue, purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen. It was suspended on four pillars. This was the only entrance to the dwelling-place of Israel’s God, and he who would enter there, must submit to do so in God’s appointed way. There was no choice, no variety. The truth taught here is very solemn. May we have ears to hear.
The Court may be looked at as illustrative of that outermost circle of blessing which the sinner consciously enters when by faith he sees Jesus as the Door of Salvation. The holy places―figures of the heavens (Heb. 9:2424For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us: (Hebrews 9:24)) ―and his position there as a worshipper, he may not yet apprehend, but he knows himself saved, delivered from the wrath to come, and within, the circle of the family of God, where grace and mercy can deal with him. Even to be there―the very lowest view of the place and portion of a saint―is most blessed. No wonder that David sang, “A day in Thy courts is better than a thousand. I would rather be a doorkeeper (margin, ‘sit on the threshold’) in the house of my God, than dwell in the tents of wickedness” (Psa. 84:1010For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. (Psalm 84:10)).
Sinner! you do not know what you are losing by staying outside the gate. There are joys and pleasures within, such as you can never know in the “tents of wickedness.” A little while, and these tents shall be overthrown; the unsatisfying and delusive charms of a godless world, shall all be gone forever. Full well the happy saint may sing, “Blessed is the man whom Thou choosest, and causest to approach unto Thee, that he may dwell in Thy courts: we shall be SATISFIED with the goodness of Thy house” (Psa. 65:44Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and causest to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy courts: we shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple. (Psalm 65:4))
We are not told of what material the pillars were made; we need not therefore pry into God’s secrets, or seem to be wise where He has been silent. The silence signifies that they are something to be looked away from. The copper represents God in righteousness judging sin. The silver speaks of redemption through the blood of Christ. The hangings of the Court were of fine twined linen. The Bride of the Lamb is said to be “arrayed in fine linen, clean and white (‘bright and pure’), for the fine linen is the righteousness (‘righteous acts’) of saints” (Rev. 19:8,8And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. (Revelation 19:8) Revised Version.) Fine linen, then, is the emblem of righteousness. But naturally, and apart from Christ, the saints had no such righteousness. Their very best was “filthy rags” (Isa. 64:66But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. (Isaiah 64:6)). Such is the emblem chosen by the Spirit of God to show the best of human righteousness, in contrast with what is Divine. “FINE LINEN, CLEAN AND WHITE”― “FILTHY RAGS.” How striking the contrast! How vast the difference! Let the sinner ponder it, and ask himself, in which he stands before a holy God? There has been only One down here below, in whose life and ways the linen bright and pure was seen in its unsullied brightness. He was “Jesus Christ the Righteous.” No coarse threads, no taints of unrighteousness were in Him. Jesus was perfect: perfect in His devotedness to God, perfect in His righteousness toward man. To Him, and Him alone, the fine linen belonged by right. In Him, and Him alone, it was fully, perfectly and continually manifested here. Men around Him saw its brightness, and they shunned it. It was a continual rebuke to the Scribes and Pharisees―the religious leaders of that day―and they hated it; yet there He stood, the Righteous One amid the unrighteous, the Holy amid the unclean, revealing and displaying such righteousness and holiness as are of God. The holy life of Jesus here on earth, apart from the shedding of His Blood, could have brought no salvation, no comfort to the sinner. How foolish then is the thought, how utterly false is the doctrine, now, alas, so widely diffused throughout Christendom, that the life of Jesus was given us as an example, and that by copying it man may reach the Kingdom of God! Ah no; it is as we draw near and gaze on Him―as we place our own “filthy rags” of human righteousness alongside the hanging of linen, pure and white, that we learn what we really are. So long as Job was reasoning and arguing with his fellow-men, he could say: “My righteousness I hold fast and will not let it go”; but, when face to face with God, he had to own― “Mine eye seeth Thee, therefore I ABHOR MYSELF” (Job 42:5-75I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. 6Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes. 7And it was so, that after the Lord had spoken these words unto Job, the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends: for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath. (Job 42:5‑7)).
Sinner, have you ever seen yourself thus? Have you ever stood with closed mouth, convicted and condemned, at the outside of that circle of righteousness surrounding the dwelling-place of God? If such be the righteousness that God demands from those who enter the courts of His Holiness, then you have not got it. You must be shut out from God forever, on the ground of righteousness. The claims of God can never be lowered; the curtain is five cubits high, the same all round. There is no loophole, no ill-adjusted corner through which you may slip unawares. If you are trusting to the mercy of God, and forgetting His holiness and His righteousness, you are making a fatal mistake. You are seeking to “climb up some other way” to reach the Kingdom of God. If you expect to go to Heaven by works, you are attempting to break down the claims of God, and trample the curtain of linen to the ground. The “great white throne” of judgment, to be set up in eternity, will bear witness to the same truth as that fine linen curtain. The dead who stand before that throne, will be judged according to their works. The open books bring back to view the record of earthly lives of those who “had pleasure in unrighteousness.” There will not be one in all that vast assembly who can claim a place in Heaven on the ground of human righteousness. They are all condemned, and cast into the burning lake.
The Gate
In front of the Tabernacle, in the center of the Court, facing the east, was the gate. The east in Scripture is connected with rising light. The camp of Judah was commanded to pitch on the east, “toward the rising of the sun” (Num. 2:33And on the east side toward the rising of the sun shall they of the standard of the camp of Judah pitch throughout their armies: and Nahshon the son of Amminadab shall be captain of the children of Judah. (Numbers 2:3)). The beams of the rising sun would thus fall first upon the gate, revealing its colors, and showing the way of approach to God. There was no back or side entrance: he who entered it must do so in the light.
Men naturally love the darkness, because of their evil deeds. The light makes manifest what man is. The sinner must be exposed before he can be saved: he must enter God’s appointed gate in the full consciousness that he is a sinner; there must be no shirking of the light, no covering or hiding of his state. And this is why so many of the self-righteous refuse the way of God. They will not submit to be searched and humbled in the light of God, or to take salvation such as God has provided; therefore, they devise ways of their own. Cain was the first of these. He blinked the fact that he was a fallen man, and sought in the darkness, a way to God, apart from shed blood. Others followed in his steps; and “the way of Cain” is trodden by thousands of self-righteous souls, who seek a way to God apart from the blood of the Lamb. The end of all such ways is death: the blackness of darkness forever.
The gate was the only way of access to God. Why was there only one? Because God had provided no more, and no one had any right to find fault with God’s arrangement. Why was it on the east? Because God has so appointed. It was all of His doing, all of His providing, and He, as Sovereign, had a right to do as He pleased. How needful it is to remember this. Men all around us are questioning God’s ways and sitting in judgment upon them. They are questioning His existence, questioning His ability, questioning the truthfulness and the authority of His Word. To contend for the one gate is counted “bigotry.” To stand up for the truth of God is branded as “narrow-mindedness.” “If a man be sincere, no matter what he believes, he will surely go to Heaven” is the popular creed. Although men differ in their belief, yet, somehow, they will all arrive at the same happy end at last: skeptics and believers, sinners and saints, all the same, is the substance of this popular Gospel. False as it is, this most palatable fable is preached from many pulpits, and greedily devoured by the people. The man who conjures up the greatest falsehood, and shows the ways of access to Heaven to be most diverse, is considered the “charitable man”; and he who contends that God has only one way whereby a sinner can draw nigh, and that there is “none other name” than the Name of Jesus whereby the lost may be saved, is barely tolerated. Yet, such is the ever-abiding truth of God, and he who rejects or denies it, will find out his mistake by and by.
The gate was for all: the prince and the beggar alike. The gray-haired father and the little child might enter it side by side. So it is with Jesus Christ. The thief of Calvary, the woman of the city, and Saul the Pharisee, passed through the same gate, and were all saved with the “common salvation.”
The gate was wide, but low. It was twenty cubits wide by five high. It may be contrasted with the door of the Holy Place, the dimensions of which were ten cubits high by ten cubits wide. The area of both is alike, but the door is twice the height and only half the width of the gate the leading thought in the door is height, in the gate, width. The application is evident. The Holy Place was only for the priests. Others were not allowed to enter there. Its entrance was therefore a narrow one. The privileges of the family of God are not for the world; the unconverted sinner is not admitted within the range of them. The door of the Church of God — His assembly on earth―ought to be no wider than to admit of those whom God has called to be there. The unconverted and the defiled are not allowed to enter. It is not so with the Gospel. The gate of the Court was wide, and any or all might enter there. The breadth of the love of God is what concerns the anxious sinner. The question of his heart is, “Will it admit me?” And the blessed answer remains forever, “God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son.” “By me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved.” When God says, “Whosoever will, may come,” He means it; and when the Apostle declares that God “will have all men to be saved,” there can be no doubt whatever about the width of the gate.
The way in which some preachers talk about election is enough to frighten any convicted sinner. Thank God for election: it has its ordered place in the divinely-formed chain of truth, and there it yields its peculiar blessing and comfort, to the saint within the sanctuary of God. But it is not the message of God to the sinner. “Chosen in Him before the foundation of the world” is part of the heritage of the family within the house of God; but the inscription on the outer gate, beaming before the needy sinner, in clear, bold letters, is, “WHOSOEVER WILL, MAY COME.” The sinner who comes to God through Christ may rest assured that he will find a hearty welcome. The question of election will not be raised, but, like the prodigal of old, the kiss, the robe, the ring, shall all be his. Should the sinner refuse to enter by God’s appointed way, he will never be able to find a defense by saying that there was no salvation for him; nor will it be possible for one of the lost in the ever-burning lake to say, “I am here because I was not elected to accept salvation.” Ah no; the door is wide enough for all. No one ever found it too narrow who came. The lament of Jesus is, “Ye will not come to Me that ye might have life.”
Some might say, “I am too vile―I am too bad to enter.” Ah, sinner, that gate was not for good people. It was for the transgressor. The Gospel is God’s good news to the guilty. The salvation of God is for the lost. Pass in, then, guilty sinner, within the open gate. Your guilt is your passport: God’s invitation is the assurance of your welcome. Heed not the giddy and the scoffing crowd who seek to turn you aside from God’s appointed way, by telling you that no one can be sure of salvation now. Close your ears to all the conflicting sounds of earth, to all the sophistries of men, and hearken to the voice of Jesus, “I am the Door; by ME if any man enter in, he SHALL BE SAVED.” “Shall be saved” is the word. There is no doubt, no uncertainty about it. Thousands have entered, and they have been saved. They beckon you to enter in.
It was only one step. One moment the transgressor was outside the gate, the linen curtain against him, keeping him out. The next moment he was inside, the curtain was for him, surrounding him on every side and keeping him in. The reception of salvation is not a tedious process: it is not the work of months or years. It is done in a moment. That moment is when the sinner has done with himself and receives Christ, when he ceases to expect admission to God through His own righteousness, and enters in by Christ alone. God is pledged to save that sinner, and He does so at once and forever. How wondrous is the transition! From death to life-from darkness to light―from Satan to God The saved one stands within the circle of God’s favor. He is no more an enemy, but a son. The linen curtain that once shut him out now shuts him in; he stands in grace, and righteousness is on his side. He sees how the curtain hangs on the silver and is upheld by the pillars in the sockets of copper. He learns that God has saved him in righteousness through the redemption of Christ and the judgment of sin. How secure and peaceful! How safe and satisfied! Sinner, will you enter in before it be too late? Will you pass in within that open gate, today?
“Ere night that gate may close, and seal thy doom,
Then the last low, long cry, ‘no room,’ no room’;
O, woeful cry, no room!’”