EXTRACTS

There are eleven curtains of goats’ hair; that is the number of responsibility with an added tithe to secure the complete protection at all points of the tabernacle. The extra two cubits in the length of the curtains also ensure this. The goats’ hair speaks of the same character of holy separation as was seen in perfection in the Lord Jesus. He was absolutely separate from everything that was inconsistent with faithfulness to God. And the saints are to be divinely linked together in unity in this also, but the clasps in this case are of copper. Saints are to be held together in separation from evil as well as in the bond of divine love and the unity of the Spirit. In the couplings of the tabernacle we see the unity of the saints on the positive side in relation to all that is holy and blessed; they are “clasps of gold”. But in the couplings of the goats’-hair curtains we see the unity of the saints in separation from evil; in this sense it ever remains true that “separation from evil is God’s principle of unity”. The “clasps of copper” suggest a character of things that is in keeping with the altar, where all is tested by holy fire.

If any principle or practice is introduced which is not of God, it is the responsibility of all saints to stand together in separation from it. All Christians should covet to be “exclusive” in their associations; it is the only principle on which holiness and truth can be maintained.

C. A. Coates (‘An Outline of Exodus’, p.190)

The longer I live the more I appreciate Scripture, not simply the detail, but that from beginning to end you have a living, powerful voice speaking in strong moral accents—a voice which is the expression of feeling, the voice of One who is affected by what is passing down here.

F. E. Raven (Vol. 9, p.8)

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