CRITICAL NOTES.—
Exodus 26:1. Of cunning work] = Mââsey CHOSHEB represents workmanship of a more skilful and costly kind, such as was used in the in working of the figures of the cherubim upon the inner covering of the roof of the tabernacle, the vail before the Holy of Holies, and upon toe ephod and the breast-plate of the High priest. Another peculiarity of this covering of this cunning work was, that its texture exhibited figures on both sides, while the needle-work= mââsey rokem—was without figures of the cherubim, and exhibited the pattern only on one side. The workmanship of the former, maasey chosheb = cunning work, being employed for decoractions of the interior of the tabernacle only, may be taken as symbolising the presence of God in the tabernacle.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Exodus 26:1-15
THE CURTAINS OF THE TABERNACLE
In its highest meaning the Tabernacle is the symbol of Christ, in whom God is revealed to His people. What practical truths, then, do these curtains suggest?
I. That the glory of God is hidden to all who stand outside Jesus Christ. These elaborate curtains were to veil the sacred furniture and services of the sanctuary from the vulgar or profane eye. Only such as entered the Tabernacle saw the glory; those who remained outside knew it not. God is only known in Christ. The people of Israel were face to face with nature; as they gazed on the pillar of fire and cloud, they were face to face with Providence; but it was only as they penetrated the Tabernacle that they felt themselves in the peculiar presence of God. The lights of the candlestick, the table of shewbread, the ark speaking of reconciling truth, the mercy-seat and the glory which lighted it, declaring the love and friendship of God,—all these were hidden from the careless and unbelieving outside the Tabernacle. The truth for us is, that the knowledge of God, the righteousness of God, the love of God, the beauty of God, are hidden from all who stand outside Christ. The bright stars are clouds which God has spread on His throne; the heavens He has spread out as a curtain; the course of history is full of mysteries, that is to say, God hides Himself in darkness; the nature of man is a darkened glass, through which filter perplexing gleams of the great Creator. “The world by wisdom knew not God.” In the ancient world man felt that God had hidden Himself in nature and the world’s government, and in the modern world all who reject Christ find the curtains between man and God, heaven and earth, denser than the ancients found them to be. There were many curtains; the curtains were closely linked to each other; they were fastened to the pillars by nails; there was curtain behind curtain. There was no possibility of any of the interior glories being witnessed by any outside the tent. Man cannot surprise God and penetrate His secrets.
II. That in Christ the glory of God is most brightly revealed. The innermost curtains were very beautiful. “Of fine twined linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet,” and the cherubim worked in with golden thread. These curtains were hooked with golden hooks. Then came the second curtains, of goats’ hair, hooked with brass. Then the outermost curtains, of rams’ skins and badgers’ skins.
1. There is such a thing as regarding Christ from the outside; and then, as the Jews, we see no beauty in Him.
2. There is such a thing as knowing Christ as a great Teacher, a great Example; “the goats’ hair curtains hooked with brass.”
3. But it is only when we believe in Christ as the Son of God, and rest in Him as such, that we behold the fulness of His glory. “The colours are the symbols of the different names of God; blue signifies the special revelation of God, being the colour of heaven and ether; red denotes the highest dignity, majesty, and royal power; crimson is that which fire and blood have in common, and symbolises, therefore, life in its full extent.”—Kalisch. In Christ, the love, the life, the beauty, the majesty of God are most brightly expressed. The Tabernacle was a very different place seen from the outside, with its badgers’ skins, and seen within, where the richly-coloured curtains shone with their golden broideries; and it is only when we are “in” Christ that we behold the glory of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Let us penetrate to the heart of the Gospel; let us go beyond the curtains of goats’ hair, and of rams’ skins, and badgers’ skins—the letter and circumstance of Christianity—to gaze with open face on the glory of the spiritual and redeeming Jesus.
III. That in Christ is everlasting security and blessedness. These are sheltering curtains—safety within the tent of the King. “One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life; to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple. For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion: in the secret of His Tabernacle shall He hide me.” And everlasting blessedness: “And I heard a great voice out of heaven, saying,” &c. (Revelation 21:3-4). Here we are secure beyond all the tempests of life or death.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
The curtains on which we have been dwelling were covered with other “curtains of goats’ hair,” Exodus 26:7-14. Their beauty was hidden from those without by that which bespoke roughness and severity. This latter did not meet the view of those within. To all who were privileged to enter the hallowed enclosure nothing was visible save “the blue, the purple, the scarlet, and fine twined linen,” the varied yet combined exhibition of the virtues and excellencies of that divine Tabernacle in which God dwelt within the vail—that is, of Christ, through whose flesh, the antitype of all these, the beams of the divine nature shone so delicately, that the sinner could behold without being overwhelmed by their dazzling brightness.
As the Lord Jesus passed along this earth, how few really knew Him! How few had eyes anointed with heavenly eye-salve to penetrate and appreciate the deep mystery of His character! How few saw “the blue, the purple, the scarlet, and fine twined linen!” It was only when faith brought man into His presence that He ever allowed the brightness of what He was to shine forth—ever allowed the glory to break through the cloud. To nature’s eye there would seem to have been a reserve and a severity about Him which were aptly prefigured by the “covering of goats’ hair.” All this was the result of His profound separation and estrangement, not from sinners personally, but from the thoughts and maxims of men.
—C. H. M.
ILLUSTRATIONS
BY
REV. WILLIAM ADAMSON
Tabernacle-Thoughts! Exodus 26:1-30.
1. Rosenmuller says that the portable temple of the Israelites had in its whole arrangement a resemblance with the temples of antiquity. Lachemacher states that in many of the Grecian temples the back part was not to be entered by anybody; and here the statue of the deity was placed. Spencer shows that in the Egyptian temples the inner or sacred part was shrouded in darkness, and divided from the front or outer portion by a curtain embroidered with gold.
2. Law sees in the Tabernacle a type of Christ—a sketch of that fair frame of Christ, which God the Holy Spirit wrought and planted in this earth. He is the true Tabernacle of Hebrews 8:2, the greater and more perfect Tabernacle of Hebrews 9:11. It points to a mystic fabric which human hands produce not—which human skill erects not—which human imperfection taints not. Christ is discerned, the end and excellence of the predictive house.
3. Macmillan suggests that it is an emblem of man indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Man’s body is a tabernacle sojourning in the wilderness of the world. In his constitution God has wrought out in higher form the great truths which were symbolised in the Jewish tabernacle. But what constituted its glory! The Shekinah—the token and symbol of God’s Presence. Without this, its golden furniture and priceless jewels were meaningless, as our world without the shining of the sun. So what constitutes the glory of man is Christ dwelling in the heart.
“As some rare perfume in a vase of clay
Pervades it with a fragrance not its own,
So when Thou dwellest in a mortal soul,
All heaven’s own sweetness seems around it thrown.”
Divine Æstheticism! Exodus 26:1-37.
(1.) Henry Martyn wrote, “Since I have known God in a saving manner, painting, poetry, and music have had charms unknown to me before. I have received what I suppose is a taste for them; or Religion has refined my mind and made it susceptible of impressions from the sublime and beautiful. Oh, how Religion secures the heightened enjoyment of those pleasures which keep so many from God by their becoming a source of pride!”
(2.) Win-slow says that to the new creature in Christ Jesus even the world of nature seems as a newborn creation, now that he has passed from death unto life. The sun shines brighter—the air breathes softer—the flowers smell sweeter—the landscape is clad with deeper verdure and richer loveliness. In a word, the whole creation appears in newborn beauty and sublimity.
(3) Even so Christ is not seen to be full of loveliness outside. Once in Him, the soul perceives His exquisite beauty; “My Beloved is fair and ruddy, the chiefest amongst ten thousand; yea, He is altogether lovely.” Once, he could perceive no beauty in Him that He should desire Him; now he exclaims, “Thou art all my salvation, and all my desire!”
“All over glorious is my Lord,
Must be beloved, and yet ador’d;
His worth if all the nations knew,
Sure the whole earth would love Him too.”
—Erskine.
Fair Colours! Exodus 26:6. They shall make the ephod of gold, blue, and purple. “Thou shalt make the breastplate of gold, blue, and purple.” Taches of gold were inserted into loops of blue, connecting together the curtains of the tabernacle. Laces of blue, passing through rings of gold. fastened the ephod to the breastplate; and a lace of blue bound the golden plate to the mitre of the high priest. The golden vessels of the sanctuary—with the exception of the ark—were all covered with a cloth of blue. A veil of blue separated the holy place from the Holy of Holies. Every Israelite wore a fringe of blue ribbon to his garments to remind him of the commandments of the Lord. These the Pharisees afterwards enlarged in order that men might praise their scrupulous adherence to the letter of the law. Jesus Himself carried this blue hem to His raiment; and from it, on one memorable occasion, the touch of faith drew out healing virtue.
“There’s nothing blue, above, below,
From flowers that bloom to stars that glow,
But in its hue my faith can see
Some feature of Thy SYMPATHY,”—Moore.
Tabernacle-Unity! Exodus 26:6.
1. It was necessary that the tabernacle should consist of many parts, on account of its
(1) Movable and
(2) Mystical character. Yet though of many parts, particular emphasis is laid on its essential unity: “It shall be one tabernacle.” It does not mean that only one tabernacle was to be erected to His name. The oneness spoken of here is not singleness—not uniqueness—but UNITY.
2. If, as some say, the tabernacle is a type of the Church of God, built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, we see the importance of this typical unity. Jews and Gentiles—Barbarians and Scythians—Britons and Red Indians—Germans and Japanese, are all different nationalities, and the Christian converts form themselves into different churches; but all are parts of one whole, and are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit (Ephesians 2:22).
“Like a double cherry, seeming parted,
But yet a union in partition,
Two lovely berries moulded on one stem;
So, with two seeing bodies, but ONE HEART.”
—Shakespeare.
Curtain-Weaving! Exodus 26:7-14. According to the Greek idea, the ancient art of weaving curtains was gathered from the web of the spider. The mythologies of the ancients relate how the goddess Minerva changed Arachne into a spider, because she surpassed the goddess in weaving; and hence we have a spider-species called “Arachnida.” So far as can be traced, weaving first assumed the form of matting—i.e., simple interlacings of shreds of bark, lacustrine plants, vegetable stalks, &c. By and by, skill employed fibres, such as flax, hemp, and silk. These were in turn supplemented by the introduction of wool and hair, if we credit Homer. These wools were dyed all colours, as here described by Moses. Homer, to whom we have already referred, narrates how Alcandria, the Queen of Egypt, presented Helen, the consort of Menelaus, with such gifts on their return from the siege of Troy:—
“And that rich vase, with living sculpture wrought,
Which, heap’d with wool, the beauteous Phyle brought;
The silken fleece, empurpled for the loom,
Rivall’d the hyacinth in vernal bloom.”
—Homer’s Odyssey.
Curtain-Coupling! Exodus 26:3-11.
(1.) The tabernacle had two divisions, called respectively the holy place and the Holy of Holies, the one being separated from the other by a very thick veil. But the utmost care is taken to couple the curtains and tenons and taches. Under one covering, overshadowed by the same cloud, and filled by the same glory, were these two compartments, until the veil that separated them was rent (Matthew 27:51).
(2.) This curtain-coupling signifies the essential oneness of the Hebrew and Christian Churches. The Great High Priest Himself declared that the saints of the Old Testament dispensation desired to penetrate the veil which concealed from them the mysteries within. Yet were they one, coupled together by the mystic bonds of faith and hope and love; and when the veil was rent, the new compartments of Hebrew and Christian became one in Christ Jesus.
(3.) In Hebrews 9 St. Paul says further that the outer room typified not only the Hebrew but the Visible Church, the “world-sanctuary,” and that the inner room was a peculiar type of heaven, whither the Forerunner hath for us entered; and if so, the twice-repeated caution to couple the curtains, taches, &c., plainly indicates the essential unity of the Church Militant and Church Triumphant. Over both is the covering of God’s omnipresence. Over both is the banner of His love waving. Between them and us hangs the veil, but each Christian has his turn to pass within. And as at His first advent the veil was rent, so in His second advent will the other veil be riven.
“One family, we dwell in Him,
One Church above, beneath,
Though now divided by the stream,
The narrow stream of death.”
—Wesley.