ALONE WITH GOD     

No house like this was ever built before. It was not extraordinary in the same respect as are some buildings. It could not compare for vastness with the temple of the sun at ancient Heliopolis; for this house of Jehovah was no larger than a small two room cottage. Neither were its walls built of glistening marble or imperishable blocks of granite as was the temple of Diana at Ephesus or the Parthenon at Athens, for it was a light portable building.

It was principally peculiar because it was to become the abode of the invisible, infinite God of all the universe among his people Israel. He whom the heaven of heavens cannot contain, the one who inhabits eternity and whose presence fills remotest space, was to specially dwell there to set his name there and there to exhibit his glory.

Therefore he gave full specifications for it himself. It had a divine architect. This was important; for it was to be, not merely an abode, but an instrument for divine worship then and a type of the grandest realities men's minds have ever known. Though so small a structure, yet it must be of quality in keeping with the infinite dignity of Him who was to dwell there. It has been estimated by William Brown that it cost one and one half million dollars. It was literally covered inside and outside with plates of gold. Also all of its furniture was either of solid gold or overlaid with gold.

How God made known to Moses what the nature of his dwelling should be we are not told further than in the description in Exodus 25-30. From Heb. 8:5 it seems God showed him a pattern of it in Mount Sinai; but whether this was a mental conception of it from the oral description such as an architect might have of a structure before he draws his plan on paper, or whether it was shown to Moses in a vision or otherwise, we do not know. The important point is that it was designed by God as a whole and in minute details. Also Moses was warned against any deviation from God's specifications. This was essential to its usefulness as a type.

ITS NAMES

Inasmuch as the name of a type is given by God with direct reference to that which is symbolized or typified, the meaning of the names of the tabernacle should first receive attention. Of the various terms used to designate God's ancient dwelling-place, the one employed in the first mention of it to Moses is given in Exod. 25:8 and is translated "sanctuary." This word is full of meaning and is probably the most comprehensive term used to designate the tabernacle. It is said that the original Hebrew word is never used to describe the temples of the heathen deities, but only to describe the sacred abode of Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel, whose name is holy. Holiness is the most prominent idea connected with the tabernacle and its service . To make people holy was the great purpose of God's revealing true religion. Then they were made ceremonially holy, now actually holy. Holiness is peculiar to the religion of Jehovah. Therefore he designated his dwelling-place as a sanctuary. The term is used of the tabernacle as a whole, of the holy place, and also of the holiest place. Though the tabernacle represented these various degrees of holiness, yet it was all holy because of the awful holiness of Him whose glory was manifested in the thrice-holy place beneath the outstretched wings of the cherubim.

The next word used in Scripture to designate that first house of God is the one translated "tabernacle." It is probably the most common name of it.Its sense is "to settle down" or "to dwell." It expressed the grand truth that the infinite God had come to dwell among his people. "Let them make me a sanctuary; that I ay dwell among them," were the words in which he first commanded the making of the tabernacle. It was the first statement of the wonderful truth afterward included in the name given to Christ, "Immanuel," which means "God with us." The term "tabernacle" is used of the curtains, the boards, and of the entire structure.

The third important Scriptural name of the tabernacle is one translated "tent." It is the one used of the common tents such as those in which the patriarch Abraham or Lot dwelt. It expresses much less of spiritual significance than does "sanctuary" or "tabernacle." It has been supposed to have value to us as indicating somewhat as to the structure of the tabernacle. It seems to be used especially of the coverings of goats'hair, rams' skins, and badgers' skins which were over the upright framework of boards. Therefore it is sometimes called the "tent of the tabernacle." Some interpreters have understood this to teach that the tent was therefore to separate from and over the tabernacle; but probably this does not positively prove more than that it was a cloth covering whether a flat roof over the framework or a separate tent with a ridged roof.

Another descriptive designation of the tabernacle very expressive is "tabernacle of the congregation." The Revised Version renders this "tent of meeting," which is much better. The idea is not the meeting of the people with each other, but their meeting with God. "At the door of the tent of meeting before Jehovah, where I will meet with you, to speak there unto thee" (Exod. 29:42). There at the brazen altar in the presence of the pouring-out of the blood of sin-offerings the holy God would meet sinful men and speak to them.

It is also called "the tabernacle of testimony," because there in the holiest place with the sacred ark for a receptacle were deposited the divinely inscribed tables of stone, which were representative of God's righteous law.

GENERAL VIEW OF THE TABERNACLE

That we may better understand the several parts of the tabernacle by viewing them in their relation to the whole, let us in imagination take a walk through the sacred precincts of the house of God and make a survey of it.

Here we stand in the midst of the camp of Israel before Mount Sinai, with the rough, rocky peaks of Horeb looming in awful grandeur on every side. Of the twelve tribes of Israel the tents of three tribes may be seen to the east, three to the north, and as many to the west and to the south.Fringing the great interior square thus formed are pitched the tents of the tribe of Levi, that thirteenth tribe especially holy, of whom are the priests and whose work it is to care for and serve the tabernacle. Immediately to the east of us dwell the priestly families, because the tabernacle door is eastward, and these ministers of the sanctuary must be nearest of all. In the great square thus formed is located the sanctuary. Literally, "God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved" (Psa.46:5).

From the eastern side of this square we face to the westward from the tents of the priests, and before us is the holy house, with its entrance on the east side, nearest us. First notice this high fence around the tabernacle enclosing a yard, called the "court." This court you will notice is a hundred cubits long and fifty cubits wide. Or allowing eighteen inches for the cubit, which measure is supposed to have been originally derived from the length of a man's forearm, from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger, it is 150 feet long by 75 feet wide. It is as big as a large-sized city building-lot. The surrounding fence or wall is very peculiar in that it consists of hangings of fine linen suspended between posts, which stand five cubits, or seven and one half feet, apart. The fence is also five cubits, or seven and one half feet, high, so we cannot see over it. These sixty posts are set in sockets of brass and have hooks and fillets of silver. But the entrance, which is thirty feet wide, including four of the spaces between posts, has instead of the common white hanging a much more beautiful one in gorgeous colors - blue, purple and scarlet - the colors of royalty.

Passing through the entrance to the court and looking straight ahead of us, in the further end of the court we see the tabernacle itself, and immediately before us stands the large brazen altar, where expiation is made for sin, and between this and the tabernacle is a large brazen vessel called the laver, filled with water, in which the priests must always wash both their hands and feet before entering the dwelling-place of God. We expect to come back to these to examine them more carefully later, so we shall pass on.

The tabernacle proper is not very different in size and shape from the common flat-top, black-goats' hair tent of the average Arabian desert- dweller as it has been constructed for thousands of years. Raising the beautiful hanging of blue, purple, and scarlet and passing between gold-covered pillars we stand in the holy place, the first sanctuary, where we common people can never actually enter. It is as large as a large-sized living-room - a place of beauty and grandeur. The walls and ceiling are of the same fine linen and kingly colors as the hanging at the entrance, and are inworked with figures of cherubs in recognition of the presence of Deity.

Before us on the south side is the seven-branch golden candlestick or lamp- stand shedding its light round about. On our other hand is a table overlaid with pure gold. On it are twelve loaves of bread, upon which is frankincense. Moving on we come to a beautiful little altar covered with gold. On this sweet incense is burned daily, morning and evening, for as sweet odor before Jehovah. Also on its horns are marks of blood, the blood of atonement sprinkled on it from the sin-offering.

Now with trembling hand and bowed head we reverently lift the beautiful second veil and quietly enter the sacred inner room, the holiest place. Naturally all is dark, but we know we are in the presence of Him who dwells "in the thick darkness." (1 Kings 8:12). Here we stand in the awful presence of the Almighty God. We are before the "throne of grace." This inner room is but half as large as the first, and its walls are covered with the same kind of beautiful hangings. The one piece of furniture is the chest-like gold-covered ark, containing the testimony, and over it serving as its lid the pure-gold mercy-seat with a golden cherub on either end stretching its wings out over the mercy-seat like a golden canopy. Here above the mercy-seat and under the shadow of the outspread wings of the cherubim (according to Jewish tradition) the Shekinah light, the glory of the Lord, ever shines. From here Jehovah speaks to and blesses his people. Here also on the mercy-seat once each year, on the great day of atonement, the blood of atonement is sprinkled. Here intercession is made for transgressors, and here mercy is extended to sinners.

WHAT THE TABERNACLE TYPIFIED

One can scarcely contemplate this peculiar structure with its various apartments, its strange furniture, its bloody sacrifices, and its mysterious rites without being impressed with the fact that it must be of symbolic significance, even if the Scriptures were silent as to the fact. We need have no doubt that the tabernacle was a type and therefore also symbolic to the Israelites. The writer to the Hebrews, after giving a description of the tabernacle, says, "Which was a figure for the time then present ... But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands" (Heb. 9:9-11). Also Jesus is described as "a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man" (Heb. 8:2). And again Christ is spoken of as the "Apostle and High Priest," as a "son over his own house; whose house are we" (Heb.3:1, 6). From these texts it is clear that as a house and as the dwelling- place of God the tabernacle typified the true, spiritual "house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth." (1 Tim. 3:15).

But let it be noticed that only as the house of God does find its antitype in the church. As a means of worship and ceremonial or symbolic purification from sin, it typified the way by which today the sinner comes to God or obtains salvation through the precious blood of the true Lamb of God from the guilt of sin and depravity of the nature. Of the large number of New Testament texts that teach this, probably the following is sufficient for our present purpose: "Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; and having an high priest over the house of God; let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water."(Heb. 10:19-22).

THE COURT (Exod. 27:9-19)

Surrounding the tabernacle was a considerable space called the "court" enclosed by a high fence three hundred cubits around, or it was one hundred and fifty feet long by seventy-five feet wide. This was a screen of linen cloth, and was not very different from what is commonly used in the East at the present time to enclose the private apartments of important persons. The linen curtains as already described were seven and one half feet high and were supported by posts, twenty on each side and ten on each end.These posts were probably of shittim wood, were five cubits apart, stood in sockets of brass, and had chapiters of silver and silver fillets, which were probably connecting-rods between the posts from which the curtains were suspended. Whether the sockets beneath were for the purpose of keeping the posts upright is not certain; but we are told that there were pins and cords which probably were used for this purpose as a common tent is supported. In the court were located the brazen altar and the laver.

But what is the typical significance of the court? Into the court came the penitent Israelite to offer sacrifice for sin, to obtain the favor of God. Here he came for justification. Here at the altar of burnt offering he came to God. If, then, those who came into the ancient court of the tabernacle were seeking forgiveness through those symbolic sacrifices, they must be typical of those who are convicted of their sins and are coming to God for salvation through Christ. They have forsaken the outside world,but not yet come into God's church.

THE BRAZEN ALTAR (Exod. 27:1-8; 38:1-7)

The altar is doubtless the oldest of all religious institutions, and dates from the earliest dawn of human history. Doubtless Cain and Abel offered their respective offerings upon altars. Noah built an altar when he left the ark. At the first place Abraham stopped in the land of Canaan he built an altar to the Lord. These altars were of earth or of unhewn stone. Altars were common to heathen peoples - in Egypt, at Athens, among the American Indians of Mexico; and some of the ruins of the ancient Druids are supposed to be a kind of altar.

When God told Moses to make an altar of brass he was not introducing a new institution, but rather regulating the construction and use of an existing one. This altar of the tabernacle is called by various names, as the altar; the brazen altar (to distinguish it from the golden altar of the holy place); and the altar of burnt offering, probably because the burnt offering was that most commonly offered there. It was the most used and probably the most important instrument of service in the tabernacle.

Its Structure. - The brazen altar was constructed of shittim wood overlaid with brass. As these materials were used considerably, it is of interest to give attention to them. This shittim wood is the desert acacia, a hard, close-grained wood, very durable, and capable of taking a fine natural polish somewhat as our imported lignum-vitae wood. The "brass" used for the altar and other parts of the tabernacle is understoodas meaning copper, for we are told brass was not known to them. The altar was made hollow of boards," without top or bottom. In size it as to be five cubits, or seven and one half feet, in length and width, and four and one half feet, or three cubits, high. It was large enough to receive the largest animal and not too high for the ministering priests. Horns were to be shaped on the four corners. The purpose of these is unknown - unless we suppose the sacrifice was to be tied to them, this may be understood from Psa. 118:27: "Bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar."

The altar had a compass and a grate of network of brass in the middle, also a ring in each of its four corners through which was run on either side a stave or bar, also overlaid with brass, as a means of carrying it. Some difference in opinion exists concerning the compass and the grate of brass. At least four different views are held. The most probably view seems to be that the compass was a mere crown or band around the top for ornamentation as on the golden altar, and that the grate was a "hearth" or "fireplace," as it is rendered by the Septuagint, and was hung inside the altar midway between the bottom and the top. This grate was held in position by the rings in the corners which passed through the corners of the altar to the outside, where the bars passed through them. Thus the grate would serve a valuable purpose; and it being supported by the loose bars, the ashes might have been sifted through by shaking the bars. The grate was thus one and one half cubits from the ground, which was also the height of the altar of incense and the mercy-seat - probably signifying that atonement, mercy, and communion are coordinate, that one cannot exist without the other.

Its Meaning. - Neither the use nor the symbolic meaning of the altar can be understood apart from the sacrifice offered upon it. On the brazen altar was sprinkled the blood and were burned the bodies of animals as sacrifices to God, for the sins of the offerer. The sprinkling of the warm blood of the dying victim round about on the altar was an important part of the sacrifice, because it was the blood that atoned for the soul.After this the animal was skinned, cut in pieces, and all or part, according to the kind of sacrifice being offered, laid on wood on the altar and burned.

This act of sacrifice was very full of meaning. It was symbolic of vicarious atonement. When the sin-burdened Israelite led the trembling lamb to the altar of Jehovah before the holy house, laid his hand upon it signifying that he was now identified with it - that the suffering for his sins was now laid upon it - cut its throat with his knife, while the priest hastily caught its blood in a basin and sprinkled it on God's altar, after which its body was prepared and burned there, he must have been forcibly reminded of the awfulness of sin, the holiness of God, and of the great truth of propitiation by another of his sin was to be forgiven.

If the ancient Israelite saw no more than this in his offering of sacrifice it doubtless had a good effect. But the spiritual-minded offerer doubtless saw dimly in the faint shadow that most glorious future reality, the Lamb of God suffering for the sins of the world. The altar then with the sacrifice on it typified the glorious atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ.As the blood of that animal was poured out in symbolic atonement, so Jesus'precious blood, or life, was freely and willingly poured out for us. "He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.... The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. ... He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth." (Isa. 53:5-7). "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." (John 1:29). That the brazen altar with its offering typified Christ, the true offering for sin, is clear from many texts in the New Testament, especially in the Hebrew epistle.

The importance of the truth typified by the altar can not be overestimated. For atonement is the only possible means of forgiveness and acceptance by God. That ancient altar stood directly before the entrance to the house of God. It was directly in the line between the gate of the court and the ark of God in the holy of holies, signifying the great truth that we cannot come to God except by Christ. "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." (John 14:6). "Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." (Acts 4:12).

Neither is this requirement of atonement for pardon of sin an arbitrary requirement on God's part. It was necessary in the very nature of things. Man had sinned against the righteous commandment of a holy God and deserved to suffer its penalty. Moreover, if the penalty was remitted without atonement and the sinner received by god to himself, it could be only at the expense of God's holiness and the dignity of his good law, which men would then be tempted to despise. This could not be. So God sent his Son to suffer in our stead and to make an atonement or propitiation to God by which we might be spared the penalty due our sins.

At Jehovah's altar the stupendous problem of sin is settled. God forgives the sinner, but still remains a God of holiness - and yet the God of love. He is holy, and still merciful. "Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth to be the propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus." (Rom.3:24-26). Behold the depths both o the goodness and of the holiness of God in the atoning work of Jesus!

Some professed Christians acknowledge no objective or Godward element in the atonement. They claim they see only a manifestation of God's love in Jesus' death, and a consequent moral influence exerted on men to lead them to salvation. We gladly allow all this, but also we see at God's altar exhibited something more than the bloodless religion of Cain that these men teach. There a life is sacrificed that another life might be spared. The wages of sin is death, but the Lamb of God dies instead and the sinner lives. What a glorious thought! What matchless mercy! Eternity will be none too long in which to render to Him the praise and thanksgiving that is due.

Only by way of the altar can a sinful soul draw near to the holy God. Only when washed in the blood of Jesus can we have fellowship with God. Even our very worship is acceptable only after the sin-cleansing blood has been sprinkled.