THE TABERNACLE OF WITNESS (2)
THE TABERNACLE OF WITNESS (2)
JT It would be noticed that the things spoken of in chapter 25 are again alluded to in the end of this chapter 26. They are alluded to merely to show that they are now in their place, and under protection. So that chapter 25 really presents the positive things that are before God, by which He carries out His purpose.
RSS That is the ark, the mercy-seat, the table of shewbread and the candlestick.
JT Yes. These are the positive things, so that chapter 25 contains the great central subject of all that follows. Chapter 26 sets out the means by which they are protected, and also, we may add, concealed for the moment. So that what we come to practically here is fellowship, because the principles of fellowship really took the place of that element of protection for divine things which was seen in Christ personally. Whilst He was here, He kept everything for God. Fellowship carried on that thought, so that as applied to us this chapter involves fellowship; fellowship viewed as that in which divine things are preserved. There are different coverings, and they all refer, in one sense, to what obtained among the Lord’s people at the beginning. They were all, in principle in Christ, but the type applies more to Christianity.
AFM Boards as well as curtains.
JT Yes. The first thing that we meet with is the curtains. The inner curtains are of different dimensions from the curtains of goats’ hair.
WB-s One was twenty-eight cubits and the other thirty.
LTF What is the point of that?
JT It shows there are inner and outer circles,
[p. 18] the inner corresponding so intimately in their structure and composition with the veil, referring to the divine nature in us, the new man.
JLJ So in the first you get, “it shall be one”, Exodus 26:6 but in the last, “that it may be one”. Exodus 26:11.
JT Therefore the first curtains refer to the new man. The divine nature is seen within. They are seen within the tabernacle, whereas the goats’ hair, and the rams’ skins, and the badgers’ skins, were seen without, not within. That which was first seen in Christ was to be continued in the saints; in other words, what was true in Him became true in us.
JLJ Would you say the curtains have their answer in the Lord’s prayer in John 17:22, “that they may be one”?
JT Yes. I think oneness is in the Spirit, but there is the exercise that it should be so, which I think the goats’ hair and the other curtains suggest, whilst from the divine side we are one. It is laid down in Galatians 3:28 that “ye are all one in Christ Jesus”. That is from the divine point of view, but then we must see to it that it is so practically.
WB-s There is a difference between the first curtains and the veil. In the first curtains the fine twined linen is mentioned first and in the veil, the blue comes first. What is the reason?
JT In the veil, I should say, the first thought is that Christ is heavenly. That comes out afterwards in us.
AFM Is there this difference between the veil and the curtains; that you have what answers to the veil in John’s gospel, and what answers to the curtains in John’s epistle?
JT That is good. The epistle shows how that which is from the beginning is continued. It is not He but that. It is the kind of thing. Now that is the first chapter of John’s epistle. In the second [p. 19] chapter we have that which is true in Him: “The old commandment is the word which ye have heard from the beginning” 1 John 2:7. Then there is the new commandment “which thing is true in him and in you”. 1 John 2:8. There is the continuation. Then he says that the fathers are marked by a knowledge of “him that is from the beginning”. 1 John 2:13. Hence the importance of Exodus 25, because it presents the idea of what was at the beginning. The fathers know that, and John goes on in that chapter to say that “If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him”. 1 John 2:29. That is the same thought, the continuation of what was in Christ. Then you have opened up further in 1 John 3 the working out of the divine nature, and it ends in chapter 5 by saying that “he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not”. 1 John 5:18. That corresponds with Christ again. There is the principle of exclusion of evil and self-preservation.
GAT God’s thought is to have Christ continued on earth in the saints.
JT And the continuation of it ensures the protection of the things that God has before Him.
LGM So the saints would be the vessel of the testimony continued.
JT The things before God that He uses for His own ends are continued and preserved here.
WB-s The first curtain corresponds with the veil. The veil is His flesh.
JT That is clear from Hebrews 10 so that it is unique. The curtains refer to the saints. The fact that they are so near to the veil in composition and construction, points to the divine nature in us. Even the cherubim are there. Then you have the veil supported by four pillars; see verses 32, 36, 37. There is another distinction. The veil was supported by four pillars overlaid with gold and socketed in [p. 20] silver; the hangings of the door, were supported by five pillars overlaid with gold, but socketed in brass.
AFM What is the distinction between the four and the five?
JT I think the five have reference to the human element of weakness in the supporters of the testimony. The four, I have no doubt, allude to the four evangelists. It is Christ as here in the flesh presented by the four evangelists whereas the entrance to all that, the outer entrance is marked by five.
AFM Each evangelist ends with the death of Christ, answering to the four sockets of silver. Now what about the five pillars with sockets of brass?
JT I think they allude to the added testimony. Five would also be symbolically weak. I have no doubt it refers to such as Paul, and what he alludes to in himself. There is weakness in the vessel although the ministry was supported by divine power. Christ said: “My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness”. 2 Corinthians 12:9.
WB-s There were four gospel writers and five writers of the epistles.
LTF What is the point in the change of metal from silver to brass?
JT The further out you go, the more brass becomes prominent. The further in, the metal increases in value. The nearer you get to God, the more what is of Himself shines out. The nearer to the world, the brass appears, because the world has to be reminded that all approaches to God are marked by judgment, the judgment of sin.
AFM I thought that was the point of the five pillars, that they were based upon that; hence the testimony of the five which went out later, was based upon that.
JT In the four narratives by the evangelists, it is not so much a question of the judgment of sin, though redemption is there of course, but it is not [p. 21] so much that, as calling attention to the beauties and perfections of Christ, whereas the gospel goes out world-wide and reminds men of God’s judgment of sin in the death of Christ; besides that, judgment to come is also announced. God “hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness” Acts 17:31, and “the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness” Romans 1:18. All that goes with the gospel. Paul reasoned with Felix about it. The more you have to do with men, even in carrying the gospel to them, the more you have to do with judgment. But you can understand that if you are portraying the beauties of Christ, you do not make that prominent. Of course it is true that God’s judgment of sin is seen throughout the Lord’s ministry.
AFM It is a necessary element in the gospel. When Paul preaches in Antioch in Pisidia he says, “Beware therefore, lest that come upon you, which is spoken of in the prophets”. Acts 13:40. That is the brass.
GBM It looks as though the links of fellowship were founded on that. There are brass clasps.
JT There are different features of fellowship. Inside amongst ourselves, there is the working out of the divine nature in reciprocated affections, but then if we have to do with the world in business and so forth, the brass must appear; so you get in verse 11 in connection with the goats’ hair, the fifty taches of brass.
RSS Is brass, as used in the tabernacle, divine righteousness in connection with human responsibility?
JT I think it is divine righteousness as judging sin.
RSS Gold is divine righteousness in connection with display.
JT As from God and as before God. All before [p. 22] God was gold. In the inner curtains the fifty taches are all gold. The links that hold us together within are in the divine nature, but as you go out, you are held together by the sense of the judgment of evil; this is seen in 1 Corinthians 10. You cannot partake of the Lord’s table and the table of demons. That is the brass.
GAT I like that thought, especially the further you go in the more precious the metal.
JT Quite so. When the saints are together, there is no sense in speaking of the brass. While together we are not likely to steal. It is when you go out where the pressure of evil is that our old tendencies are liable to appear, and hence the principle of fellowship implies that you are not to do evil, even if the brethren are not looking at you. Very often we are more afraid of the brethren than we are of the Lord.
GAT I find that myself, I am better amongst the saints than when I am away.
PL As we consider for one another when we are away, so we are free to consider for one another when we are together.
JT Fidelity is the great principle in fellowship, and it implies the thought in the brass. You are true to the brethren. It seems that you are not afraid of the Lord and you do things before His eye that you would not do before the eyes of the brethren. So the question of fidelity to the brethren is raised if faithfulness to the Lord has the first place.
MLH What about the fifty taches?
JT It would take time to enlarge on these principles, but I think in general the measurements of the tabernacle are on the principle of ten. It is almost invariably ten or its multiplications. You have ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty and one hundred. On general principles the basis is ten. I think therefore that human responsibility marks it, so that you [p. 23] can understand how it belongs to the present time. That responsibility was answered to infinitely in Christ. How much is it answered to in us?
AFM You get the ten in the tables, the ten commandments.
RSS It is always God’s principle, that He gives testimony beforehand in regard to anything of great importance. The greatness of the thing typified is the reason why all these details are given. If God has gone to such infinite pains to give us all these details, it well behoves us to look into them with exercise of soul, so that we might apprehend what is signified, for they are written for our instruction.
JT The Psalmist said: “Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law”. Psalm 119:18.
WB-t Will you say a word on the candlestick?
JT The ark, the mercy-seat, the table, and the candlestick, form the great things before God. The table suggests the goodness of God, the bountifulness with which He supplies food and then you have light. All these things really came out in the gospels. They all came out in the ministry of Christ, the goodness of God in supplying the bread and the table prepared and the light.
BTF Are not all the details that we have in this chapter seen exhibited in the Person of the Lord Himself, when He was here?
JT I think they were. They all came out in Christ in principle. The inner curtains suggest the divine nature, and the outer curtains suggest the exclusion of evil. All these were in Christ. Brass is the judgment of evil with authority, but the inner curtains refer to holiness. Holiness abhors evil. We often have to deal with evil judicially, and yet we do not abhor it, we deal with it more in a legal way. But the question is, do you abhor it? Christ abhorred [p. 24] evil.
BTF So that the inner is the first, and the inner with regard to our responsible pathway enables us to have the outer, that is if our souls are educated in what holiness is, there will be the repellent nature of the outer covering.
JT The exclusive power of the badgers’ skins and the goats’ hair disappears, if holiness inside is not maintained. There may be for a time the legal maintenance of righteousness, but you will find that with all people who move away from the truth and from holiness, sooner or later evil gets in. The walls go down, the doors get broken and evil gets in. The power of exclusivism is from within. So the Lord was infinitely holy and the exterior gave testimony to that.
BTF So these give us both an individual and collective aspect.
JT I think, as we were saying, that the tabernacle has in view the maintenance of the testimony during this period, and the chapter we have before us has largely reference to our own circumstances. It is a question of whether we are formed in the divine nature first of all, and if we are, then you will have what some people derisively call exclusivism. We need exclusivism.
ATM Will you say a word on the difference between the curtains of goats’ hair and the outer skins?
JT There are only two sets of curtains carefully measured. The first is that composed of fine twined linen. They are twenty-eight cubits in length. Then the curtains of goats’ hair exceed this by two cubits. On either side of the tabernacle they extended a cubit further to the ground than the inner curtains. Therefore the tabernacle is protected. Now I understand the two additional sets of curtains, no dimensions being given, are what you might call excess, excess of vigilance, so that evil should not be allowed [p. 25] to enter.
LTF Would the different size make them overlap, so to speak? Is there a point in that in connection with what you were saying?
JT The whole tabernacle is secured; and then in the additional two sets of curtains you have excess of vigilance so that there should not be any possibility of the introduction of evil.
RSS What was seen from without was the curtain of badgers’ skins, nothing particular to look at. It is said of the Lord, that “he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground”. Isaiah 53:2. So far as men were concerned, “he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him”. Isaiah 53:2. So that the outer curtain being of badgers’ skins answers to that the characteristic of a badger is vigilance. What is the signification first of all of the goats’ skins and then of the rams’ skins dyed red?
JT I think the goat is separation, he is not like a sheep. I think he is a creature that would isolate himself, sheep go together more. I have no doubt it alludes to the Lord’s separation. He was really alone. “I sat alone”. Jeremiah 15:17. Before we come into fellowship, we have to be isolated. It is an isolated one that seeks fellowship. You have no fellowship outside. You are alone.
WE Like the man in John 9.
JT Exactly. He was outside. It is a company of isolated ones as regards this world that form the fellowship.
BTF Would you give us an idea of the particular force of the blue, the purple and the scarlet?
JT The blue is the heavenly colour, and the purple the royal, and the scarlet refers to earthly grandeur and glory. All these are found amongst the Lord’s people in testimony, not in display yet. For instance if you suffer, that is the purple, you [p. 26] shall reign.
BTF But the purple and the scarlet would be more future.
JT As to the literality of them, but they are to be known now in testimony.
GAT Will you say a word about isolation. A brother wants to break bread and he wants fellowship; from what is he isolated?
JT “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 6:17. That is the principle. You are separated as an individual. You cannot go on with things in the world.
PL So the isolation took place when the people were brought into the wilderness.
JT Each one coming into fellowship comes in as an isolated one. You have no place in the world and you are glad to come to a warm place. If you are isolated you value fellowship.
LTF Now what about the skins dyed red? They are rams’ skins.
JT I think the ram is a mature animal; what is suggested in the ram is maturity and energy.
R.S.S. And why dyed red?
JT It has undergone a process, a change.
RSS Which we all have to do.
JT Yes. If applied to Christ, it refers to His death. It is not its natural colour. Paul was changed. He was a man marked by energy but he changed his colour.
WE It was regulated energy.
MLH You would not say he lost his energy.
JT No; his ministry is marked by maturity and energy.
WB-s In Acts 2:42 you get four things. “They continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread and in prayers”. Is the apostles’ doctrine that which separated them from the outside thing?
JT The apostles’ doctrine was light to them; that by which they were guided; and then what follows is that they were separated and they continued in fellowship. Peter is a remarkable illustration of a ram dyed red. He was denying the Lord a little while before and now he is testifying to Him.
AFM What is the thought of changing colour? Was he conspicuous?
JT Yes; it gives a conspicuousness he did not have before.
RSS When you speak of these things, have you the house of God in mind? It is the kind of persons, their character; the kind of people that form the place for God to dwell in.
JT I think the rams’ skins speak of a distinctive people, although they would not assume to be this. Paul said that he was as unknown, yet he was well known.
LCJ Would it indicate a man that was prepared to lose his life, the skin dyed red?
JT It is a change from the natural colour.
EHT Is there any thought in the distinctiveness of the colour? You could not mistake it.
JT The red heifer is distinctive. Red is a distinctive colour. It marks you off.
RSS The difficulty is that we are marked off so little; and people would hardly know us to be Christians.
LCJ Peter denied the Lord and he was keeping his life here. That was his natural colour, but afterwards he dies for Christ. That is the skin dyed red.
RSS You do not confine that to Peter.
JT You feel it that we are not so much marked off from other men.
WB-t It is remarkable that all this red was covered. There was a covering above of badgers’ skins.
JT But there it is as a testimony.
LTF I suppose being covered would indicate that you would not parade it.
JT You are not like those who put on a certain kind of clothes to distinguish themselves. There is what marks you because of the divine nature, and you are different from other people.
AFM Was there not the framework which supported these curtains?
JT Yes. Now we come to the boards and there is more said of them than anything in this chapter.
GBM May all the curtains be taken as one whole; an energetic separation from evil?
JT It is fellowship. To approach it from the outside, you meet the brass, but the further you go in, the value of the metal increases till you reach the gold, so that in the inner circle there is the divine nature and the activities of the heart.
WLP Is there greater value in redemption than in judgment?
JT It is a more precious thought. Judgment is seen at the great white throne, but not redemption, except in the book of life. Therefore redemption brings in the love of God more.
GAT Would John with his head on the Lord’s breast be in the good of the gold?
JT Yes. Redemption is by the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. Judgment was borne for us by Christ, but judgment also applies to the unsaved and goes on to the great white throne.
BTF These boards do not carry out their intended use except as together.
J .T. And there are no irregularities; that is to say, the tabernacle does not teach us development. That is not the point of view. It is the divine point of view. But that only emphasises the thought that you have the standard in it. God never deviates [p. 29] from His own standard, so that the boards are all one size.
WCR They are composed of the same material as the ark.
JT That is another point. There is a point of sympathy and similarity, throughout the whole structure of the tabernacle. It is marked by correspondence and sympathy, so that the boards are made of the same material as the ark, and covered over with gold as the ark was.
WCR And the endurance seen in Christ would be expected to be seen in that which supports the testimony.
JT Quite so. So the Spirit of God gives us at the outset the testimony committed to the hands of a man, a characteristic board, that is Stephen.
AFM You would say he answered to the dimensions.
JT I think it is beautiful that God is pleased to bring in one man of like passions with ourselves who corresponded with Christ in that way.
WLP All should correspond, because the boards were all alike.
JT That is the standard; “until we all arrive at the full-grown man”. Ephesians 4:13.
MLH Stephen was great enough to serve tables.
JT He was content to be anything. God promoted him so that he came out as the ideal board. He came into evidence as serving tables. It is very touching that God is pleased to show in the Acts that there is one man that answered to the ark. See the endurance he had, and the amount of pressure he could stand.
MLH Paul was great enough to make tents.
WB-s Do you think Stephen had a deep sense of the love of Christ? Each board was socketed in silver. It refers to the love of Christ.
JT I think the two sockets of silver refer [p. 30] to the testimony we have in our souls to the love of Christ “who loved me and gave himself for me”. Galatians 2:20. Look at the woman in Luke 7. “Seest thou this woman?” “She loved much”. Luke 7:44,47. Why? Because of her knowledge of redemption. She was forgiven much. The one who judges himself most, is the one who appreciates Christ most. Here is the great gain of the redemption work of Christ. So Paul says he was the chief of sinners, and I have no doubt he had a greater appreciation of the sockets of silver than anyone. He said he was the chief of sinners. A man that says that owes more to Christ than anybody else.
RSS I think some of us would like to get that thought of the sockets clearer. What is meaning of the two?
JT It is the testimony to your soul of the value of the death of Christ. You know it by the Spirit. “Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us ... And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more”. Hebrews 10:15,17. And your love is commensurate with your knowledge of forgiveness, for to whom much is forgiven, the same loveth much. So that your support of the testimony is according to your love for Christ. I think that service begins with affection for Christ. Paul began that way; his sins were washed away; he valued the redemption work of Christ. “Who loved me and gave himself for me”. Galatians 2:20. He moved about testifying of that One because he loved Him.
RSS Silver represents that on which we stand. If you have not the knowledge of redemption in your soul, you will not be able to stand up.
JT That is it. You are immutably fixed. The foundation is immutable. But then the silver does not go inside. Inside it is gold, but love is really begotten in our souls by the knowledge of redemption.
RSS I think it is a great thing to see that the testimony is to us. It is the witness to us. [p. 31] Very important, because we are not established otherwise.
WB-t As to contact with the ground, the silver is really the foundation of the structure. That is, the boards and what hangs on the boards rests on the silver. As I understand you, you are pressing the point that it is the way we know Christ in redemption that is really at the foundation of the work of God in our souls.
JT It is the testimony of redemption in our souls. And the whole structure of the tabernacle rested on that.
WCR Will you say a word about the bars?
JT They refer to the means of binding everything. Each board has its own separate identity. We each have a separate identity, but we are bound together. It is a parallel thought to the taches in the curtains, the principle of binding, which is a very great principle in the tabernacle.
LTF By them it was one tabernacle.
GAT In thinking of the tabernacle you are thinking of something not to be moved about.
JT It was to be taken down and carried, but as set up it is a type of the universal system that God has established on the ground of redemption.
EHT Were the boards covered?
JT Yes; with gold. God is to be seen in us. We are to be blameless and harmless, the children of God in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation.
WLP Are all Christians boards?
JT It is just like many other thoughts of the kind. From the divine side all is seen perfect. The apostle Paul was set for the bringing of each individual up to that standard. Perfection would be that he would be brought to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.
Ques Would you connect the bars with the expression, “And to all these add love, which is the bond of perfectness”, Colossians 3:[p. 32] 14?
JT Anything that binds us together would be of that order.
PL The shepherd spirit in a brother, holding the saints together.
JT “With all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love; endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit”, Ephesians 4:2 - 4.
GAT Speaking of these as you have been doing, suggests the importance of all. We often may think that we are not of much account in the assembly, but every member of Christ is needed and one is of as much account as the other.
JT Even a peg was of importance.
WB-s If we are to be alone before we come into fellowship, we cannot stand alone; that is, the boards were joined together. They found themselves connected with the other boards.
BTF God would sustain His people in the appreciation of redemption.
JT They are all bound together and made to stand. They do not stand alone, although I believe every man ought to cultivate the habit in his mind of standing alone if needs be. But at the same time the thought is that we are all to stand together, not by agreement to differ, but on the ground of redemption, as appreciating the redemption work of Christ, and we are held together by special binding principles amongst us.
DR The apostle expressed the desire to the Colossians that they be “knit together in love”. Colossians 2:2.
JT “That their hearts might be comforted”. Colossians 2:2. That is the first thing. You do not get unity if our hearts are oppressed. Sometimes we are hampered by cares.
AFM I suppose we could not properly be together unless we first stood alone. In Romans we get what is individual preceding [p. 33] Corinthians.
JT Romans brings in the boards. It is the great epistle for producing boards. The effect of the gospel is to detach you from the world. You cannot go on with it as redeemed, and then you come to recognise the will of God. The righteous requirements of the law are fulfilled in you. You delight in the law of God after the inward man. Then in the next chapter you are carrying out the will of God, in your walk and ways down here. Therefore you are a qualified board; chapter 12 is based on that; we are all one in Christ Jesus.
EHT The apostle Paul was alone in the testimony before Nero. He stood alone. “All men forsook me”, he said. 2 Timothy 4:16.
INH All in Asia forsook him.
JT Everybody was put to the test as to how they regarded Paul. It shows how prominently he had shone in the testimony that he became almost like Christ Himself in that respect.
WLP Should we not have the saints as a whole in our minds in speaking of these principles and not those only with whom we are walking?
JT That is very important. The apostle says, “until we all arrive”. Ephesians 4:13.
EHT Is standing alone more in connection with reproach?
JT You must make up your mind to stand alone if needs be. At the outset you came out and so you were practically alone. That is the beginning of your experience as a Christian, but subsequently you may be called upon to stand alone for the testimony. That is another matter.
RSS What is the difference between the veil and the door? They seem to be made much of the same material.
JT There are no cherubim in the hanging for the door; compare verses 31 and 36. There is some difference in that way. You are not presented at the [p. 34] entrance with what is judicial, though the foundation of judgment was there in the sockets, but the mind is not for the moment engaged with what is judicial. I think it is grace in the entrance.
RSS And it was to this spot, called “the door of the tent”, that Moses gathered the children of Israel together, “The door of the tabernacle”, is an expression often used in Scripture. To this spot they came, not exactly to the door of the court. It was past the brazen altar and the brazen laver and suggests that those who came to this door had gone through the experience connected with the brazen altar. That is, they were standing in the good of the death of Christ.
JT Yes. The fact that the cherubim are not there is rather suggestive that grace is more prominent. The cherubim are the agents of judgment generally. Judgment is committed to Christ as Son of man.
WB-s The gate of the court was made in the same way, of the same material, as the one entering into the holy place. That would be the thought of grace, too.
JT The veil referred to the nature of Christ’s humanity, not its durability now, but the fineness and purity of the texture. The “byssus” no doubt signifies this.
WB-s What is the thought of needlework?
JT The graces of the Spirit. Carefully wrought hand-work. I thought the body of the curtain was made of the byssus, evidently a very fine material. It is the fineness and purity of the texture that is in view. There was nothing unseemly about the Lord, nor is there anything coarse or unseemly in divine love in anyone. There is a peculiar fineness about the texture.
WCR Do you get the same thought in the fine [p. 35] flour?
JT That is evenness. Comparing Christ with Peter and Paul, there was irregularity in these men, but not in Christ. But in the divine nature there is no incongruity either in Christ or in us. Love was judicial in Christ. He looked upon them with anger, and he said, “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees!” Matthew 23:13. All that was the cherubim. But then He could say to the woman, “Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace”. Luke 7:50.