EXODUS 26
In the mercy-seat sustained by the ark we have set forth the way in which God is made known as having come into the light of revelation. He has come out in the way of mercy to make Himself known, and to establish His will of blessing by Christ. In the table [p. 185] we see His thought to have His people before Him in purity and holy order, and set in the shining of Christ by the Spirit. Then He would have Christ to be the Light and Object of His saints all through the night of His rejection by the world. The lamp-stand, as we have seen, speaks of this.
Now in chapter 26 we come to the tabernacle in which the things spoken of in chapter 25 were to be contained. The ten curtains are spoken of as “the tabernacle”, the eleven curtains of goats’ hair are the “tent over the tabernacle”, and the rams’ skins and badgers’ skins are called coverings. I believe the ten curtains — each twenty-eight cubits (seven by four) long and four cubits in breadth — represent the saints seen in spiritual completeness as those suited to cherish the great divine realities set forth in the ark, mercy-seat, table, and lamp-stand. The tent of goats’ hair, and the two coverings, suggest that which is needed to preserve the tabernacle from defilement or injury. The boards are for the support of the tabernacle; that is, to hold up the ten curtains. They speak of the saints as marked by stability, each set up on the firm basis of two silver sockets, and able to stand up. I think Romans would give us the saints viewed as boards; Colossians and Ephesians would more answer to the ten curtains. The veil is clearly Christ personally (Hebrews 10: 20). There are no “couplings”, “loops”, or “clasps” in the veil; it is one fabric — holy type of the flesh of Christ.
But the curtains correspond with the veil. They represent saints viewed as having taken character from Christ — as having put on the new man. John says, “which thing is true in him and in you”. But the order of description is different in the veil from the curtains. In the veil the “blue” comes first, indicating that the first thing as to Christ is that He is the heavenly One — the One out of heaven; but in the curtains the “twined byssus” comes first; righteousness must be the basis of all the features that mark the saints. If we are not marked by righteousness it is evident that we shall not carry the heavenly colour. The “twined byssus” speaks of the fine and even texture of a life in which all that is due to God and to man has its place. Then the “blue” comes in — what is characteristically heavenly. “Purple” signifies royalty; the saints are to reign with Christ, but it is not the reigning time yet; the royal character comes out at the present time in the way of suffering. “If we endure we shall also reign together”. “Scarlet” is the true glory of man in contrast to all that is vainglory. The “cherubim” speak of ability to discern and judge things according to God’s mind. Paul told the saints at Corinth that they would judge the world and angels. It was a strange thing that such persons should carry their differences before the world’s tribunal for adjustment. If saints were to judge the world, surely they could settle a petty dispute between two brothers! The “cherubim” were not in evidence as they ought to have been. But “artistic work” is needed for this feature. The saints must be “full-grown men, who, on account of habit, have their senses exercised for distinguishing both good and evil” (Hebrews 5: 14).
All these moral and official glories were seen perfectly in Christ, and as the saints come under His influence they take character from Him. Do we accept this as God’s mind for us? If we do, we shall give ourselves up more unreservedly to the influence of Christ.
[p. 187] There will be more surrender as to things here, because we are learning the character, and dignity, and beauty of what attaches to us in our divine calling. These beautiful curtains were not seen without; they speak of what is known within rather than of what is displayed without. But it is instructive to see that the measure in length of these curtains corresponds with that of the hangings of twined byssus which formed the court. The hangings of the court represent what the saints are in the presence of men; they can be taken account of there as righteous persons. What the saints are spiritually within has its answer in what they are before men. It is a shame when it can be said of those who profess to know God, “These people can talk of wonderful things, but their lives do not correspond”. Let us remember that the 280 cubits of curtains within have a corresponding 280 cubits of twined byssus without! Indeed, the fact that there are ten curtains intimates that all which is seen typically in the curtains has a bearing on responsibility. There is no privilege, relationship, or spiritual dignity in which divine grace sets us which is not intended to have a direct bearing on what we are as in responsibility here.
There is a difference in width between the curtains and the hangings. The curtains are four cubits wide, which indicates completeness; we have four Gospels to give us the complete presentation of Christ as come in flesh, and when the holy city comes down it “lies four-square”. The saints are “complete” — “filled full” — in Christ. The five cubits of the hangings would perhaps suggest the weakness which ever casts the saints upon divine grace in their whole responsible course. The curtains speak of what the saints are as [p. 188] forming a shrine for the cherishing of all that is of God in Christ. They have a character suited to it spiritually; but if this is so it must necessarily work out, as it were, to the outer circle, and manifest what is worthy of God in that responsible life which comes under the eye of men.
In connection with the curtains prominence is given to the thought of coupling. It is one of the chief thoughts presented in the tabernacle and the tent. There is a tendency with us all to be too individual, but we belong to a system marked by “couplings” and “loops” and “clasps of gold” and “clasps of copper” and “rings”, and the true character of the tabernacle is not realized if we do not see to this in a practical way. The great thought is “that the tabernacle may be one (whole)”, and the same words are used in connection with the tent. I remember a book being written on the features of the assembly that did not mention unity! Yet that is clearly a very essential feature of the assembly. When the Lord presented Himself at the golden altar, if we may so say, in John 17, His prayer was that His saints might be one.
We have to see, too, that our links even with fellow believers are really “loops of blue” and “clasps of gold”. It is possible to have couplings that are neither heavenly nor divine. Persons of similar social status or with similar natural tastes may form special links, but these things are corrupting and destructive when brought into the house of God. The “loops of blue” are heavenly links; do we cultivate that kind of coupling? The “clasps of gold” are ties which subsist in the divine nature. Ephesians 4: 1 - 3 gives us the “loops of blue” and “the clasps of gold”. “Using diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace” shows that care and real purpose of heart are needed to keep the couplings in place. The more we consider the divine pattern as seen in the mount, the more we shall realize the ruin into which the assembly has fallen. And the ruin makes it more than ever essential that we should not lose sight of the divine thought. Many things now hinder the practical unity of the saints. We cannot bring the scattered and divided saints together, but we can cultivate heavenly and divine links with our fellow saints, and we can see to it that there is nothing allowed in our spirits or our associations that would hinder unity. As recognizing the unity of the tabernacle one could not be linked with any party or sect that is less than the whole. Christians in the light of the unity of the assembly may walk together according to 2 Timothy 2: 22, but they cannot accept that they belong to anything less than the whole assembly. We cherish the divine thought “that it may be one”. If all Christians recognized the unity of the assembly, and were diligent to see that their links with one another were really “loops of blue” and “clasps of gold”, all saints would be found together. But if this is not the case we have to see to it individually that we cherish the divine thought, and that we cultivate such links with our brethren as are really heavenly and divine.
If we consider all that these things mean — the byssus, the blue, the purple, the scarlet, the cherubim, the loops and clasps — we see something of the true character of saints as having put on the new man. And we cannot but feel that such a character can only be preserved by the most rigid separation from [p. 190] all that is not in accord with the mind of God. Without the “tent” of goats’ hair the beauty of the tabernacle would very soon be soiled and corrupted. “A tent over the tabernacle ... to cover it” (verses 7, 13) seems to convey the thought of preserving the holy beauty of the tabernacle unblemished.
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.
Each one is responsible to act on the principle of [p. 191] separation from evil. The fact that others will not act on that principle does not relieve me of responsibility to do so. Many see things to be wrong, and wish they could get others to see the wrong and to put it right; but as they cannot, they go on with it. There is no goats’ hair in that, and the links of association in such cases are not “clasps of copper”.
The prophets wore “garments of hair”; they were separate men. And the goats’ hair is essential to preserve all that is set forth in the tabernacle. There may be a link of connection suggested with the goat of the sin-offering. We are called to be separate from all that was condemned in the death of Christ. The will and tastes and wisdom of man were all condemned in that death, and therefore that which is the product of these things can have no place in God’s dwelling or service. Only that which is according to God’s will can be there.
Then “thou shalt make a covering for the tent of rams’ skins dyed red”. The spiritual beauty of the “tabernacle”, and the character of separation set forth in the “tent”, need such “a covering” as is typified in the “rams’ skins dyed red”. All must be preserved and maintained in a spirit of true devotedness to the Lord. The ram was the consecration offering; it speaks of Christ in all His maturity and energy as devoted even in death to the saints to secure them wholly for God — for service of priestly character. That devoted love of Christ when known in the heart produces true devotedness to Him. A heart dominated by the love of Christ must be a devoted heart. Paul could say, “The love of Christ holds me”; he was consciously held in the embrace of that love; and in what a distinctive way did his devotedness become manifest. “Dyed red” would speak of an intense and marked character. Both the thought of “skins”, and dyeing red, would suggest, I think, that saints are viewed in this type as having come under the influence of Christ’s blessed devotedness even to death, and it has left its mark on them. It did on Paul; he could say, “The Son of God, who has loved me and given himself for me”. And he judged that if Christ died for all, it was “that they who live should no longer live to themselves, but to him who died for them and has been raised” (2 Corinthians 5: 15). That was a bit of the rams’ skins dyed red; it gave a distinctive colour to the man.
Then “a covering of badgers’ skins over that”. This is the exterior protection. It would seem to suggest a vigilance that could detect every form of attack on the testimony, and a power of endurance that is capable of withstanding every attack. It would indicate an attitude of mind that neither fears man’s frown nor courts his smile. The enemy has made many attacks on the testimony during the last hundred years, but men of God have been characterized by spiritual vigilance and have been enabled to detect and resist those attacks. The truth has been preserved, and saints have been preserved. In a scene where the power of evil is, the defence and safe-guarding of the testimony is of the greatest importance. This, I think, is suggested by the covering of badgers’ skins.
“The boards for the tabernacle” give the idea of stable support for the curtains and their coverings. I believe them to represent the saints as viewed in the Epistle to the Romans. They are spoken of as “standing up”, and each board is ten cubits in height, and they are made of acacia-wood — the same material [p. 193] as the ark. This reminds us that there is moral similarity between the saints and Christ. If He could say by the prophetic Spirit, “To do thy good pleasure, my God, is my delight, and thy law is within my heart” (Psalm 40: 8), each one of them can say, “I delight in the law of God according to the inward man” (Romans 7: 22). And though the man who says that is not yet in true spiritual liberty, as born again he is conscious that according to the inward man he delights in the law of God. I think we see the acacia-wood there.
But this is not sufficient to enable a man to stand up as a moral support to the tabernacle. Each board was to have two tenons (literally hands) to lay hold of two bases of silver under it. The bases were made of the atonement money which the people gave for the ransom of their souls (chapter 30). This clearly indicates a firm establishment in the value of the death of Christ. The soul must have as its very foundation a tenacious hold of the death of Christ as that in which the testimony of the righteousness and love of God are set forth. I would say that these answer to the two silver bases under each board. If you are not firmly fixed on those two foundations you will have no stability; you will not be able to stand up, nor to give support to the tabernacle. I need hardly remind any believer of how fully these two bases are set before us in Romans 3 - Romans 5 — the righteousness and love of God made known in the way of redemption through the death of Christ.
But more than this is needed before the board can occupy its place with all the other forty-seven as a moral support of the tabernacle. It must be covered with gold. But it may be noted that the covering [p. 194] with gold is not mentioned until all the boards and bars have been spoken of. The Spirit of God does not connect the thought of covering with gold with one board, but with them all. No one believer could be great enough to receive the Spirit. Christ was, of course, but it requires the whole company of saints to constitute an adequate vessel for the Spirit. The Spirit came down at Pentecost on a company, and from that day to this each individual believer who has received the Spirit participates in a gift which is shared by the whole company of those who are in Christ. The individual believer in Christ has the Spirit, but he has that wondrous gift in common with tens of thousands who constitute at the present moment the body of Christ and the habitation of God upon the earth. So that each one who is conscious that he has received the Spirit should be also in the recognition that tens of thousands of others have received the same Spirit. This constitutes a divine bond of such a character that it throws into absolute insignificance every human and sectarian bond. Indeed, anyone truly recognizing the saints as the vessel of the Spirit, and seeing that each one of them is an essential part of that structure which forms the true tabernacle, would feel ashamed to be identified with anything other or less than the divine structure.
Through the gift of the Spirit divine power comes in to set saints free. “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and of death” (Romans 8: 2). It is not only that “according to the inward man” they delight in the law of God — that is the acacia-wood — but there is now power to carry it out. The whole secret of [p. 195] deliverance lies in the fact that saints have the Spirit. If God is here, by the Spirit given to His saints, there is divine power available for complete deliverance, so that saints may stand up to the full measure of their responsibility — ten cubits (see Romans 8: 4). It has been said that saints are morally glorified in having the Spirit. As the saints walk according to Spirit, they not only fulfil the righteous requirement of the law, but they give expression to the character of God (see Romans 12, particularly verses 8, 9, 13, 14, 16, 21). I think God’s character coming out in the saints as having the Spirit, answers to the boards being covered with gold. We do not get in the types of the tabernacle pictures of our shortcomings and defects, but of the full measure of God’s thoughts, and of what His grace and His Spirit can bring about. The grace and power of God by His Spirit can enable us to stand up to the full “ten cubits” of our responsibility, and can make us shine in the display of qualities that are expressive of His own blessed character.
The forty-eight (twelve by four) boards would suggest completeness in administration. The corner boards joined beneath and “united at the top thereof to one ring”, and the five bars with the rings to receive them, all emphasize the importance of the binding together of the saints as constituent parts of one structure. The “corners” would represent points where the greatest stress would come, and in relation to which special care would be needed to avoid coming apart. I think we may see a “corner” in Acts 6, where there was a tendency to divergence between the Hellenists and the Hebrews in the assembly at Jerusalem. And we see how the wisdom of grace, and the special action of love, in appointing seven [p. 196] Hellenists to see to the matter, strengthened the corner. Then all the exercise of Paul about the collection amongst Gentile brethren for the poor saints at Jerusalem was a strengthening of the corner. If at any point there is a tendency for saints to get apart, let us see to it that the corner boards and the rings are secured! Love is spoken of as “the bond of perfectness”; it holds all together. There is no thought in Scripture of the saints being merely units, or being joined together in sects or parties of their own choice. Each saint is a constituent part of a divine system marked by unity, and it should be the exercise of every saint to be in his place in that system. The divine testimony is marked by unity; the tabernacle and the tent coupled together by their loops and clasps, and the boards held together by bars and rings. In a day when Christians are so scattered and divided it is important to see the mind of God and what marks His tabernacle. People think it quite right that Christians should meet in many different ways, and be found in many different organizations, but all this is quite contrary to the fashion of the tabernacle as seen in the mount.
The apostles, though having different lines of ministry, were all held together in the unity of the divine testimony. But we can see that it was the enemies’ effort to use even the apostles as a means of dividing the saints, some saying, “I am of Paul”, and others, “I of Cephas”. I have thought that the “bars” might have reference to the gifts and their ministry, all given by the Lord for the building up and binding together of His saints. They are given “for the perfecting of the saints, with a view to the work of the ministry, with a view to the edifying [p. 197] of the body of Christ; until we all arrive at the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God”. All true ministry is given with a view to the saints being bound together. But such is the present state of confusion that the gifts practically tend to divide the saints. A divinely-given evangelist perhaps ministering to one congregation in a town, and a divinely-given pastor or teacher ministering to another — the practical effect being to divide the saints. This is like the bars getting between the boards, instead of keeping them all together and in line! We need all the gifts, and all the saints, and if in the present state of things we cannot, in a practical sense, have them all, we can at any rate stand apart from what is plainly contrary to the mind of God. We must keep before us the divine pattern as seen in the mount, though the thought of it gives us an overpowering sense of the present state of scattering and ruin.
The object of all true gift and ministry is to build up the saints in the knowledge of God and of Christ in the power of the Spirit. There is certainly unity in these divine Persons, and as we are built up in their knowledge we must be drawn together. God would have us together according to the truth of His system.
If we have taken in in a small measure the thoughts connected with the saints as “boards”, we cannot but see that such would be capable of being a support for the tabernacle. Romans 12 shows us the boards covered with gold and put together — “we, being many, are one body in Christ, and each one members one of the other” — a suited moral support for the beautiful curtains. For what answers to the latter we might look, as before suggested, to Colossians and Ephesians.
[p. 198] In verse 30 there is the command to “set up the tabernacle according to its fashion”, and then follow the instructions as to making and placing the veil, and placing the other furniture of the sanctuary. It suggests that the assembly is suited to contain the veil, the ark and mercy-seat, and also the table and lamp-stand. It is the place where all these things are cherished in spiritual affections and intelligence. The veil is a type of the flesh of Christ, as Hebrews 10 tells us. It is Christ as presented in the four Gospels, of which the “four pillars” may be a figure. It is what He was personally as having come in flesh. People think the Gospels a simple narrative, and so they are as to the letter, but “John’s simple page”, is the most profound part of Holy Scripture. If a Divine Person comes in flesh, there must be a profound depth in every detail of the acts and utterances of that Person. The “bases of silver” for the pillars would suggest, I think, that all that is presented of Christ in the four Gospels is really based upon His death. That is, none of it could have been really available for men apart from His death. If He could say, “Be thou cleansed”, or “Thy sins are forgiven thee”, or could speak of the gospel being preached to the poor, or the great supper of grace, all really had its base in His death. But here there is only one base under each pillar. In the case of the boards there are two bases under each, because on our side we need adequate testimony so that our faith may take firm hold of divine righteousness and love as revealed in the death of Christ. But the silver base under each pillar of the veil speaks of the death of Christ as known of God to be the ground on which Christ could be presented to men and become available for their [p. 199] blessing. There is no need of two bases from the divine side.
The ark and the mercy-seat being “inside the veil” would also intimate that neither could be really known apart from His death. All the truth of them was there, but veiled until He died. We can see that even the disciples had a very imperfect apprehension of things before the death of Christ, and His resurrection and ascension and the coming of the Spirit. But when He died the veil was rent, and God came out in accord with all the precious character and value of the Ark and the Mercy-seat.
It is noticeable that on the curtain “for the entrance of the tent” there were no cherubim. What is judicial is not presented there, nor on “the gate of the court” (chapter 27). It is in perfect keeping with grace that one desiring to approach should not be met by anything that would discourage or repel, but everything to attract. The cherubim are within, and we are thankful for them there. How good it is for a true heart to know that the Lord has perfect discrimination as to everything! We see Him marked by the cherubim in Revelation 1 - Revelation 3. Then as on the curtains the cherubim suggest ability in the saints to judge and discriminate. “Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others judge”; it supposes ability to do so. “Try the spirits” also brings in the cherubim. We see the cherubic character in perfection in the Lord; He could say, “For judgment am I come into this world”; that is, judgment in the sense of discernment and discrimination. Saints need to be able to discern the true character of things; otherwise they may swallow every kind of error. Saints have the unction, but they have also to acquire ability of discernment through having “their senses exercised for distinguishing both good and evil”. That might answer to the “artistic work” by which the cherubim were formed on the curtains. The cherubim are a great safeguard; one is thankful to be amongst people who can discern, and who will not tolerate any departure from the truth. One rejoices to see the cherubim on the curtains. The apostle surely recognizes the cherubim when he says, “I speak as to intelligent persons: do ye judge what I say”.
The five pillars for the curtain at the entrance have bases of copper. We come at this point to an order of things which stands in relation to what is without. Silver speaks of the death of Christ on the side of its redemption value, but copper (as seen in the altar) is connected with the thought of His ability to endure suffering. Within the bases are silver, but at the entrance and round the court they are copper. It seems to suggest that in relation to that which is external such divine support is needed as will give stability in a position that involves the test of suffering. When Peter speaks of our being redeemed by precious blood I think it is much in keeping with the silver bases on which the boards stand. But when he says, “Christ also has suffered for you, leaving you a model that ye should follow in his steps: who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth; who, when reviled, reviled not again; when suffering, threatened not; but gave himself over into the hands of him who judges righteously; who himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, in order that, being dead to sins, we may live to righteousness”; I think he has rather before him what answers to the copper bases. So, too, when he says, “Christ, then, having suffered for us in the flesh, do ye also arm yourselves with the same mind; for he that has suffered in the flesh has done with sin, no longer to live the rest of his time in the flesh to men’s lusts, but to God’s will”. Within the preciousness of the death of Christ, its redemption value, gives stability to the soul in its relations with God. But without we can only stand firm as we have the sense of how He has suffered under testing which brought out how entirely He was here for the will of God and as a model for us. It is only as being fixed on that base that we can stand for God in relation to a scene where the “lusts of men” and “the will of the Gentiles” dominate everything. To stand for God there requires a preparedness to suffer which can only be brought about by the soul being firmly fixed in the apprehension of Christ as the One who has suffered here, so that the saint arms himself with the same mind. Each of the five writers of the Epistles was a man who had known how Christ suffered, and who was set to stand in a suffering testimony. They knew what they were set for, and what they would have the saints to be set for, in relation to what was outside. I thought that the copper bases had reference to this. It is the only thing that will ensure divine stability here.