THE TABERNACLE OF WITNESS (1)
THE TABERNACLE OF WITNESS (1)
JT It helps to connect this chapter with Genesis 2 and John 1 and Hebrews 1.
Genesis 2 suggests a moral system. The first chapter is the material, and Adam was to be the centre of the moral system, but he failed in it; so that this chapter supplies in type, Him of whom Adam was but a figure. What it suggests is the durableness of the order of humanity that was seen in Christ, not as yet the outward greatness of it; that is seen in the temple, but the durableness is seen in the ark. What is noticeable in the tabernacle is the smallness of things outwardly, and yet containing what is so infinitely precious; whereas, in the temple things are on a larger scale and the materials, especially the woods used, are different. The wood in the temple is largely cedar, though there are other species of wood, because it is a question of Christ glorified and the Spirit. It is the cedar and the olive. The cedar suggests the greatness and stateliness of things, but the tabernacle links with the Lord’s position here. There was lowliness and outward insignificance, but containing the most precious things. Consideration of the ark enables us to arrive at what will endure to the end.
RSS I would like to repeat what was said as to the distinction between Genesis 1 and 2. It is very important. In the first you have what is material, and in the second what is moral. That is, man is introduced, and I suppose everything that is moral is in connection with man.
JT The material creation is simply a theatre in which the moral is exhibited. Therefore Genesis 2 is [p. 2] greater than Genesis 1 according to what is in the mind of God, it presents a moral system centred in man who had the breath of God in him. The moral is introduced in the breath. God breathed into Adam’s nostrils. Now the consideration of the ark enables us to see the Man who not only sustains the moral system, but who introduces it.
RSS There was another thought you gave expression to: the distinction between the tabernacle and the temple. That is very helpful.
JT Young believers especially are apt to be discouraged because of the smallness of things connected with the testimony of God, whereas they are very great really. The temple-system is the great side, it refers to the time of manifestation. So you have different kinds of wood from that spoken of in the tabernacle; there is olive, which alludes to the Spirit, and cedar, which alludes to the greatness of Christ. The thought of God is that we should be in the light of the greatness of the system when it is manifested. It sustains us in the period of its outward smallness and insignificance.
RSS The shittim wood is in contrast with the cedar.
JT Shittim wood was used in the tabernacle. It was not suggestive of conspicuousness. It was very durable, and found, no doubt, in the wilderness.
GAT What you would occupy us with this morning is the quality of the wood.
JT Yes. There was nothing great in the Lord’s appearance outwardly; nor should there be in our appearance. It was never intended that Christianity should be anything but insignificant in this world outwardly.
AFM What is the connection between what you have advanced and John 1 and Hebrews 1?
JT In Hebrews 1:2 you have “by whom also he made the worlds”. That was written to Hebrew [p. 3] Christians. It was by Christ that the worlds were made; and then, “upholding all things by the word of his power”. Hebrews 1:3. These statements refer to what is material, but what was in the divine mind was that there should be a point of sympathy between Christ and all the things that He upholds. In the material system there is no sympathy; the bodies in the universe are material; they are inanimate things. The moral system is composed of living things, hence you get in the tabernacle a point of sympathy between all the elements and the ark, so that the moral system is affected inwardly. In John 1 the Lord is set before us as the One who gives impulse to things, like the sun. He sets things in movement, not now by external pressure, but by internal influence. John looked on Jesus as He walked. That is the idea. There is movement. First, he sees Him coming to him, and says, “Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world”. John 1:29. Then he sees Him walking, and he says, “Behold the Lamb of God!” John 1:36. And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. They were set in movement.
RSS Is that characteristic of the whole of the gospel of John?
JT I think so.
MLH The two who went with Him were supporting the testimony.
JT They were set in movement by Christ. John’s testimony to Christ directed their hearts to Him, and they followed. No other movement is of any account except what the Lord Jesus effects.
WB-t You have the ark in your mind, have you not, when speaking of the impulse?
JT Quite so.
WB-s So the ark occupies the first and central position.
JT It is that which is in the mind of God as the [p. 4] means by which everything is effected, hence the importance of considering it, and the material of which it is formed.
WB-t Is your thought that the present time compares with the tabernacle system of things rather than the temple?
JT Yes. Of course we are in the light of the temple system, but it never was the divine intent that there should be anything conspicuous attaching to the position of the testimony here. A man bound with a chain is not outwardly great.
JLJ When you speak of the greatness of the temple system, is it outward greatness?
JT It is that. You find the scale is enlarged in Solomon’s temple.
JLJ So if we take account of the temple system, it puts us in the light of the kingdom.
JT And you are content to be small here, because after all, we are connected with the greatest things.
RSS “The kingdom of God cometh not with observation”. Luke 17:20.
EHT Why is the size of the ark given?
JT You can understand the Spirit of God would give us the dimensions; but they are dimensions that we must understand spiritually.
AFM Is it not remarkable that when you come to the temple, there is no enlargement in the size of the ark? It is the same ark right through.
JT Yes. It may be called by different names, the ark of the testimony, the ark of the covenant, the ark of God, and of Jehovah, but it is the same ark.
RSS What is the distinction between “the ark of the covenant”, “the ark of the testimony”, and “the ark of God”?
JT So far as I understand, the word testimony is not found till you find it in connection with the ark. The word covenant is found. It appears in [p. 5] Genesis 6. A covenant is an agreement between two parties; that made with Israel we find in Exodus 19 and 20. The covenant becomes a testimony on the part of God; that is to say, the tables represent that His will must prevail in the universe. Therefore, they became a testimony to Him (compare Psalm 19) and were treasured up in the ark. At the same time there was also a covenant, so that you have both expressions, “the ark of the covenant” and the “ark of the testimony”.
RSS The two tables were both a covenant and a testimony.
JLJ Would you say the ark of the covenant is more connected with purpose? The ark of the covenant stood in the midst of the Jordan till all the people passed over.
JT I think the covenant, typically at least, speaks of the heart of God, and of what He had in His mind for the people, and therefore you can understand it in Jordan, because it was a question of God giving effect to what He had promised. But there is always a standing witness to God,
WLP What does the testimony speak of?
JT The covenant supposes others; objects for God’s heart, but the testimony has Himself only in view. It is His testimony. You will find in Samuel it is almost invariably the ark of God or the ark of Jehovah. There was departure, and the rights of God were involved. It was His witness.
WE You spoke of the ark being a small thing as far as the exterior is concerned. Has it not been the mind of God from the beginning that so far as His testimony has been concerned, it has always been presented in that which was insignificant?
JT Of course you have David and Solomon, but when you come to Christ personally here, from the very outset He was that, and His own parable of the kingdom of God speaks of it as the least of all things,
[p. 6] the mustard-seed, and He never intended it to be anything but that.
GAT His coming as a Babe was small.
JT I was thinking of that. We are apt to become dissatisfied because things are small as compared with what exists around us. A cathedral is the opposite of Christianity. We are all apt to look for large numbers. If God gives them, you accept them, but the divine idea is in the Lord’s parable of the mustard-seed; it is the smallest thing outwardly. Of course you have the other side in 1 Kings, and the different woods that are used point to magnificence.
RSS But it is just what you were saying, it is moral greatness. There could not be anything more morally great than what is set forth in the tabernacle.
JT When the Spirit of God came from heaven, they were talking about great things. They were saying, “we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God”. Acts 2:11. The coming of the Spirit brought the testimony of the coming greatness, and so the Lord said to Nathanael, “thou shalt see greater things than these”. John 1:50. They are all ahead of us. It is only a question of waiting for them, but in the meantime we have to accept the outward reproach and insignificance.
EHT When the Lord came as the Babe in the manger, does not the very thought of His habitation indicate smallness?
JT The angels were in the light of the greatness of the occurrence. The chapter in Luke speaks about the census being made, and it suggests that Augustus was thinking of his own greatness, in having the number counted. Now the Babe is born under such circumstances and the angels are in the full light of the greatness of that event. The census was of no account to them. The census made in heaven would be of account to them; in fact there is such a thing [p. 7] as that.
RSS In that same gospel we are to rejoice that our names are written in heaven.
JT The men that God has good pleasure in are not the men that Augustus took account of. The men that God will have pleasure in are to be like Christ. They are to come in on that line. It is on the line of littleness and humility. These are the kind of men that God will have good pleasure in. Hence the importance of taking account of the ark, because all that is to follow in the tabernacle is to be in accord with it.
BTF You spoke of the ark in connection with the tabernacle. You connect that with the wilderness journey, but when you speak of the temple, you speak of that which is when the purpose of God is established.
JT Yes. The temple may be regarded as typifying the glorification of Christ and the gift of the Spirit; that is for faith. Peter’s address on the day of Pentecost, points to the greatness of Christ. God had made Him Lord and Christ; that is the cedar. Then the olive-wood no doubt alluded to the Spirit. But then the temple system also refers to the coming day of display when all these things will be unveiled.
WB-t It is interesting to notice that Solomon in sending to Hiram speaks of the greatness of the house he would build, 2 Chronicles 2:9. I like the point you have made.
JT It is very clear that there is divine greatness connected with Christ and we have part in it, but for the moment we want to see the durable character of His humanity, so that we may be in accord with it.
RSS Is that expressed in the durable character of the wood in the tabernacle?
JT That is the point I think, and the boards were made of the same wood; in fact it is the only wood used in the tabernacle. So that it suggests [p. 8] what God is using now for the maintenance of His testimony. God began with Christ and there was no breakdown. The Lord went right through. You take up His path. The disciples were amazed to see Him going deliberately down to the cross, and it comes out more particularly in the garden of Gethsemane. He began with “Lo, I come to do thy will” Hebrews 10:9 and He ended with that “not my will, but thine, be done”. Luke 22:42. Now the question is not only how we begin, but how are we going to end?
JLJ Our endurance depends on our apprehending Christ in this light, and appreciating Him.
JT I think so. We often attempt to go in for the cedar too soon. The Corinthians did that. They reigned before the time. Very often you begin by simply submitting to the will of God, but how long does that continue? If you go on that line, you will never be conspicuous in man’s eye.
AFM In regard to the Lord, would you say that the testing through which He passed up to the baptism in Jordan, reached the point where the gold was introduced? You have referred to the sufferings of Gethsemane, but was there not the mark of durability about Him prior to that, which would enable Him to support the antitype of the gold?
JT The thirty years of His private life came under God’s eye. He was about His Father’s business. He never deviated one hair’s breadth from the divine will. “I was cast upon thee from the womb”. Psalm 22:10. God was before Him. Now the end of that course was the fulfilment of all righteousness. That is the kind of a man on which to put the gold. He comes out of the water at His baptism and is praying, and the heavens proclaim their delight in Him. And then you have the gift of the Spirit in connection with that, which is, in a sense, the gold; that God has committed Himself formally to that Man. I speak with reverence, but that is true. He did not [p. 9] do it when Christ was born; there is no anointing with the Spirit then. It was when He was thirty years of age. God anointing the Man, commits Himself to Him.
WB-s The ark is on the line of reproach, what the Lord was in His lowly life here.
JT That is the idea. The wood is seen in the thirty years of His private life. Think of the Lord Jesus, with all the light of God in His heart, working as the carpenter! He was quite content to be in that obscure position where He was for the divine pleasure.
WLP Then He was always the ark from the beginning.
JT He was always as to His humanity, but it is when God commits Himself to Him that it becomes evident. It was as if God said ‘This is the Man that is going to do all My pleasure’. Another beautiful trait comes out in Christ after the descent of the Spirit; it is said that “he was led by the Spirit in the wilderness” Luke 4:1 meaning that the Lord recognised the Spirit. He gave place to the Spirit. That is another mark of the kind of humanity that you see in Christ.
EHT When He was anointed, He was seen as the ark of the testimony.
JT Yes. He stands up and says, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me”. Luke 4:18. That was the ground He took in speaking, His credentials, as it were. The Spirit was manifestly upon Him. The Lord did not undertake His service simply because He was born here as God’s Son, but because He was anointed. “He hath anointed me to preach the gospel”. Luke 4:18.
B.T.F. Is that the gold?
JT Exactly.
WB-t I do not quite understand. Is your thought that the anointing of Jesus and the overlaying of the ark with pure gold, are the same thought?
JT In this sense, that in Luke God is seen Himself.
The testimony of Peter was, “he went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil, for God was with him”. Acts 10:38. God was there in Christ. That really suggests the veil also. The veil is not merely that God was concealed behind it, but God was known to be there, although not yet manifested.
RSS How? By what the veil was made of?
JT You may have something concealed in your mind that I know nothing about at all. On the other hand, I may know that you have something in your mind, but I do not know what that something is. Now it is the latter that is suggested in the veil. God is known to be there, but as yet, He is not known. That is what marked Christ. It was known that God was there, but He was not known till Christ died. For instance, Nicodemus recognised that “no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him” John 3:2; but then Nicodemus did not presume to know God. It was said, “that God hath visited his people”, Luke 7:16.
WB-s Why is it that the tabernacle was anointed with oil and the temple never was? Everything in the tabernacle was anointed.
JT I think because of what we were saying, that you get the anointing in connection with testimony in Christ and at Pentecost. At Pentecost it says the Spirit sat upon each of them. It is what is external. The idea in the anointing is that you are not seen, but God is seen; but the day is coming when you will be seen.
RSS When the temple comes, it is display, not exactly testimony.
WB-s Does not the tabernacle go on to the thought that everything will be pervaded by the Spirit?
JT Everything will be pervaded by the power of the Spirit, but the anointing of the tabernacle refers rather to the present [p. 11] time.
DR We have great encouragement in being identified with the testimony, although it puts one in insignificance in the world; but you become great before God.
JT The desire to be great is very present, alas, with most Christians. In Acts 8 it is said that Simon the sorcerer gave out himself to be some great one. But he saw he was eclipsed. He believed through Philip’s preaching, but evidently with a sinister motive, he wanted to come into what was gaining the day, what was in prominence. He wanted the power to give the Spirit. That would give him a greatness he never had before.
GAT You would like to get a larger company, but still you can go on with a small company.
JT That is a great thing to cultivate.
WCR The Lord found the treasure and went and hid it; that is, what He was going to establish was, in a sense, to be hidden from the view of the world.
MLH And the conspicuousness of the tree, and that which was connected with the leaven, brought in the corruption.
JT You may depend upon it, if there is an endeavour to be something, that corruption will set in at once, because the Spirit of God will not support that, hence you must look somewhere else for support. You will probably make an alliance with another brother to support your greatness; that is corruption. Any kind of thing that you refer to for the support of what is great in the world is corrupt. I think the consideration of the ark helps us as we trace the Lord’s path in the gospels. How uniformly content He was with the place men gave Him. He never tried to alter it. He simply accepted it, and the divine support is always seen there. You will always find it when you accept the reproach that men are pleased to give you, and it is very remarkable [p. 12] that the closing letters of Paul to the assembly are from Rome, when he was in the greatest reproach. You might say, ‘Were I in Rome, I would certainly seek Paul out’, but would you? I do not think we have any idea of the pressure and reproach that attached to him there, and hence the reference to Onesiphorus, that he sought him out very diligently and found him, and was not ashamed of his chain. Now that is how things are left pretty much to us. The vessel of the testimony was in chains. The injunction was “Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner”. 2 Timothy 1:8.
PL Do you get that idea in the prophet’s language, “I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet’s son; but I was an herdman, and a gatherer of sycamore fruit”, Amos 7:14. How unseemly it would be to assume the name of a teacher or evangelist.
JT You dread those things. One is afraid of assuming to be anything, an evangelist, etc. It is better to leave these things to speak for themselves.
EHT Would you say it is reproach alone that tests the durability of the wood? Durability is seen as one takes the reproach of the Nazarene.
JT I think that John the baptist becomes a model for us, if we have to give an account of ourselves, and sometimes you have to; the Lord had to. “Who art thou?” The Lord said, “altogether that which I also say to you”. John 8:25. John the baptist said that he was simply a voice. Of course we are something, and in the assembly what you are comes to light. “By the grace of God”, Paul says, “I am what I am”. 1 Corinthians 15:10.
JT What characterised the Lord Jesus was that He loved righteousness and hated lawlessness. That marked His pathway here.
AB In Hebrews 11 there are five things that the Spirit says about Moses:
[p. 13] First, he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.
Second, he chose to suffer affliction with the people of God.
Third, he esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt.
Fourth, he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king.
Fifth, he kept the passover. I believe that is God’s order.
GAT Will you say a word as to how the shittim wood applies to us?
JT I think it applies in a very practical way as to our continuance in the maintenance of our local responsibility, or whatever our responsibility may be. We are apt to go on for a time and make a good showing, but the Lord says that “he that endures to the end shall be saved”. Matthew 10:22. That is where the test comes. We may not go to the limit to which our responsibility refers.
BTF Do you give the staves the same character as the boards?
JT They correspond in one way with the boards. Paul was like one of the staves. He carried the testimony. He tells us how far he carried it.
AFM “From Jerusalem and round about unto Illyricum”. Romans 15:19.
JT Yes; and he had it on his mind to go to Spain. The staves have reference to carrying the testimony of Christ.
BTF He came to Ephesus and they burned up their curious books, the price of them being fifty thousand pieces of silver, showing how the testimony of Christ overthrew the world.
JT Quite so. We cannot say in the same way that we carry it, because Paul disclaimed ever taking up another man’s line of things, but he had a measure and his measure reached even to the Corinthians and [p. 14] the proof of it, was that he had carried the testimony to that city.
MLH “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith”. 2 Timothy 4:7. That was the ending of the man that carried the testimony.
JT That was like the drawing out of the staves. He had set the ark in its place; that was Paul’s ministry.
PL He deposited the testimony in the assembly at Ephesus.
AFM There is encouragement in the way John Mark ended.
JT He did not wait till the staves were drawn out. He ceased carrying too soon. He left the ark in the wilderness so to speak. You never give up your movement till Christ is in Zion. “I will not give sleep to mine eyes, or slumber to mine eyelids, until I find out a place for the Lord, an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob”. Psalm 132:4,5. “Arise O Lord into thy rest thou and the ark of thy strength”. Psalm 132:8. That is a sentiment that goes with the staves.
AFM Did not Mark get recovered?
JT He did and writes the gospel, which, I think, should be studied by everyone who wishes to be a stave.
PL Is not the writing of his gospel the measure of his recovery? The very one who had failed in the testimony is taken up to set forth Christ as the true ark of the testimony.
MLH He took hold of the staves again.
RSS There is one feature in connection with the ark we have not spoken of and that is the rings. Have you any thought about the signification of the rings into which the staves were put?
JT I think it refers to the place that Paul, or any servant, had in Christ. You are attached. There is a link of connection in that way.
RSS Would it suggest [p. 15] affection?
JT Very likely. The ring is a symbol of affection. Literally it is easily understood, the ark could not be carried without the rings.
AFM Is it like Galatians 1:15,16, “When it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace, to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen”?
JT That is the idea. Christ was known in Paul s heart.
MLH In connection with gold have we that which is for God?
Ques “And we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth”. John 1:14. Is that the gold?
JT I think the gold side is rather testimony. It is what was seen in the testimony of Jesus. God was seen. You find right through that what is made prominent by Luke is that God was there. The kingdom of God is the point.
JLJ Do you get the thought of the gold in Timothy, God manifest in flesh?
JT Yes.
AFM Will you say a word about the mercy-seat?
JT That was all of gold. It is a question of what God is, God’s mercy. “Whom God hath set forth a mercy-seat”. Romans 3:25. It is what God is towards man. It is God’s mercy in Christ towards man. But all that is supported by the humanity of Christ, and underneath was treasured up the will of God in His heart.
EHT Then would you say the mercy-seat is a declaration of the rights of God, God’s righteousness?
JT For the showing forth of God’s righteousness, Romans 3:25.
WB-s The cherubim and the mercy-seat were of one piece of gold.
JT Showing how the attributes of God are [p. 16] sustained in Christ. What Christ is towards man is exactly what God is towards man.
RSS So that in a general way the wood set forth that which is connected with humanity, the gold that which was connected with what is divine. The gold, divine righteousness.
JT Yes, but more correctly the gold is what God is in testimony, and that takes the form of righteousness in the gospel. That is the great point in Romans.
GBM So the acacia wood being overlaid with gold, meant that when men saw Christ they could but see God there.
AFM So the wood is the only thing to bear the gold.