MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Exodus 26:31-37
THE TABERNACLE VAILS
What does this vail between the Tabernacle and the court, and this vail which divides the Holy Place from the Holiest Place, signify? and what relation have they to Christianity?
I. They signify that the highest vision and fellowship of God are as yet denied to man. Whilst the Tabernacle was standing, these vails signified the distance of God from man,—His inaccessibility. God withdrew Himself behind impenetrable vails. This is the teaching of the Apostle: “Into the second Tabernacle went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which He offered for himself, and for the errors of the people: the Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first Tabernacle was not standing: which was a figure for the time then present” (Hebrews 9:7-9). God’s presence is fenced about from sinful man. Because of our sin Paradise is closed to us: because of our sin God has hid His face from us. There are two vails, and Jewish authorities say that the vail between the Holy and the Holy of Holies was four fingers thick, to prevent any person penetrating with his eyes into the Holiest. Does not this powerfully remind us how the holy God has hidden Himself from unholy man?
II. Whilst these vails remove God from the approach of man, they give the promise of a fuiler revelation. Look at the hanging for the door of the tent: “Blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen, wrought with needlework,” Exodus 26:36. Here, at the threshold of the TaLernacle, the bright colours of the vail are full of promise. The God of mercy, and love, and life shines through the obscuration. The cloud that God has spread on His throne has a rainbow in it: the curtains by which God hides Himself from man are burnished with coloure of hope. And then, as you draw near to the Holiest, the vail is still more glorious. In addition to the rich colours of tlie vail of the door, the vail of the Holy of Holies has cherubim made upon it, and other associations of brightnessand beauty. The vail that God has drawri about Himself is not of forbidding, hopeless blackness; but it promises whilst it prevents, it allures whilst it forbids. Is there not something of this in nature? Whilst the creation is a dense curtain to hide God, does not the beauty of the curtain declare the grace of Him who is behind it, and give us the promise of some day knowing Him better? The Jewish dispensation is full of the same idea—the golden thread, the rainbow colours, give the promise of a fuller vision, a richer fellowship when the fulness of time shall come.
III. That these vails are taken away in Christ. “And the vail of the Temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom” (Mark 15:38). The rent was complete. See Hebrews 9:11-12. In Christ we stand “within the vail.” In Him we realize the presence and joy of God. In Him we realize highest fellowship with God. “There I will meet with thee, and commune with thee.” In Him we realize the everlasting vision and felicity of God. Sin wove the vail between us and the heaven above us, but in Christ’s atonement and priesthood that vail is taken away. If there are any vails now, they are upon our heart.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Blue.—If the gold was a type of the glory, majesty, and eternity of the Son of God, blue will fitly represent the grace and love He manifested as declaring the character of God. “God is love.” So inseparably and exclusively is this blessed attribute descriptive of Him, that He affirms it to be His very nature. It is not of earth. As the blue vault of heaven, with its vast dimensions, defies our puny measurements, so the breadth, and length, and depth, and height of the love of Christ passeth knowledge. The thunders of God’s wrath and holy indignation against sin may for a time seem to obscure His love. But “His anger endureth but a moment.” Judgment is “His strange work,” for “He delighteth in mercy.”—H. S. Soltaw.
The Scarlet.—As blue is peculiarly the colour of the heavens, so scarlet is the gorgeous colour belonging to earth. The flowers, the produce of the soil, display its brilliant tints. We do not look above to find it: but it meets our eye when we contemplate the flowers of the field. The Word of God also employs this colour as an emblem of royalty. The beast, and the woman in the Revelation, are both represented as scarlet. Not that the scarlet of itself denotes evil; but because the kingdoms of the world were held under their regal sway. And, when the Lord Jesus was, in mockery, hailed as king, the soldiers of imperial Rome clothed Him with a scarlet robe. (Matthew 27:28).—Ibid.
Purple.—If we were to place the blue and the scarlet side by side, without the intervention of some other colour, the eye would be offended with the violent contrast; for, though each is beautiful in itself, and suitable to its own sphere, yet there is such a distinction—we might almost say opposition—in their hues, as to render them inharmonious if seen in immediate contact. The purple interposed, remedies this unpleasing effect: the eye passes with ease from the blue to the scarlet, and vice versa, by the aid of this blended colour, the purple. The blue gradually shades off into its opposite, the scarlet, and the gorgeousness of the latter is softened by imperceptible degrees into the blue. The purple is a new colour, formed by mingling the two: it owes its peculiar beauty alike to both: and were the due proportion of either absent, its especial character would be lost.
The order of the colours, blue, purple, scarlet, repeated at least twenty-four times in Exodus, is never varied. The scarlet and the blue are never placed in juxta-position throughout the fabrics of the Tabernacle. Does not this intimate a truth of an important character? Would the Spirit of God have so constantly adhered to this arrangement had there not been some significant reason for it? Are we not hereby taught a very precious fact respecting the Lord Jesus? He is God and Man: and we can trace in the Gospels all the fulness of the Godhead, as well as the dignity and sympathy of the perfect Man. But, besides this, in His thoughts, feelings, words, ways, and actions, there is an invariable blending of the two. Many mistakes and errors would have been avoided in the Church of God, if those, who have undertaken to write or speak on this subject, had been subject to the definite words of Scripture, instead of adopting abstract reasonings upon the divinity and humanity of the Son of God. The Christ of God is the object of our faith; not a nature, or natures, but Himself.—Ibid.
The linen composing the mystic vail was required to be fine; pure and faultless as the material could be produced: indicating that although Messiah should be found in fashion as a man, He should be clearly exempt from the merest stain of defilement through contact with humanity. What a dignified and courageous appeal was that of Christ to His enemies and accusers! “Which of you,” said He, “convinceth Me of sin?” (John 8:46); and how altogether extenuating was the testimony of the Judge at whose bar envy and maliciousness had arraigned the Son of Man as a malefactor and a criminal—“I find in Him,” said Pilate, “no fault at all” (John 18:38). Even Satan found nothing in Him wherewith to work the commission of the smallest inconsistency in the character of Jesus.—Mudge.
ILLUSTRATIONS
BY
REV. WILLIAM ADAMSON
—Stowe.
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.
Vail! Exodus 26:31. The veil of the holiest was Broidered—Beautified and Borne up.
(1.) Blue! Brown thinks the blue was emblematic of God’s mercy, while Tanner regards it as representing heaven, and therefore typically imparting that revelation of heavenly things which Christ alone can give us.
(2.) Purple! Some say that this symbolised the Divine Righteousness of Jehovah Jesus; others suggest it as portraying royalty, i.e., the setting forth of Jesus as King of kings and Lord of lords.
(3.) Scarlet! It has been viewed as emblematic of the Justice of God in the precious bloodshedding of His dear Son; while, on the other hand, it is described as typifying life, and the blood which is the life.
(4.) Fine Linen! This some take to symbolise, as in the Apocalypse, the righteousness of the saints, i.e., sanctifying righteousness, or holiness of heart and life; while others consider it as indicative of the perfect righteousness of the Lord Jesus Himself.
(5.) Cherubim Brown thinks that these represent the redeemed themselves, inwrought upon the veil, and as rent along with the veil at the Crucifixion; thus signifying both the dying of the redeemed with Christ in His death, and their union with Him by the Spirit of Faith.
“Where’er we turn, Thy glories shine,
And all things fair and bright are Thine.”
—Moore.
Cherubic-Symbols! Exodus 26:31.
(1.) Were the figures of the cherubim above the mercy-seat in the most holy place compound animal forms, symbolic of creation? And were those embroidered in cunning work of various colours on the veil between the holy and most holy designed to indicate that the material creation is the veil between the seen and the unseen; i.e., like shadows on a window blind?
(2.) Macmillan says that just as on the outer side of the separating veil of the tabernacle there were flat cherubic figures woven on another material, answerable to those which stood out in full outline and relief above the mercy-seat; so the common objects and material every-day uses of the natural world around us are the screen on which we may perceive the figures of what is unseen and spiritual,
(3.) As the manna spoke of the True Bread from heaven—as the water gushing from the rock reminded of the Water of Life, even the Holy Spirit of Grace—as the pillar of light testified of Christ, the Light of Life in this dark world-wilderness of sin; so the cherubim were emblems of spiritual intelligences, either of the angels of God around the Throne exploring the mystery of redemption, or of the redeemed themselves fathoming the deep things of God,—
“In calm humility musing always
Upon those mysteries of grace, which seem’d
Vaster in length and breadth, and depth and height,
The measureless dimensions of God’s love,
As still the bridal of the Church drew near.”
—Bickersteth.
Colour-Symbolism! Exodus 26:33-36.
(1.) As the gold was emblematic of the glory and majesty of God so the blue combined with it in the sacred appointments of the tabernacle might be aptly employed to represent God’s love and grace. The gold setting, as it were, with the blue gems, are to the eye an emblem of St. John’s sentence: “GOD IS LOVE.”
(2.) As the priest, whenever he moved within the tent of Aaron, was surrounded by gold and sapphire; so, wherever the Christian (who is a priest unto God) wanders, he finds himself still encircled by the gold and blue of Divine Love. The boundless sky of Divine Love bends over him—wreathes him round, as the horizon embraces the landscape.
“And the mild glories of Thy grace
Our softer passions move;
Pity Divine in Jesu’s face
We see, adore, and love.”
—Watts.
Veil-Embroidery! Exodus 26:36.
(1.) Morier relates that in passing Lahar he found several encampments of Eelauts, at one of which he stopped to examine the tent of a chief, over the door of which was suspended a curtain curiously worked by the women with coarse needlework of various colours. In the Shah of Persia’s tents magnificent hangings of needlework are suspended, as well as on the doors of the great mosques in Turkey.
(2.) The Chinese are perhaps the most laborious and elaborate embroiderers of modern times. The figures are either in coloured silk alone, or in silk combined with gold and silver thread; the figures of men, horses, and dragons, &c., being outlined with gold cord, and filled up, coloured, and shaded with silk. The Persians, Turks, and Hindoos also excel in embroidery. They use, besides silk and gold and silver thread, beads, spangles, pearls, and precious stones.
(3.) Allusion is made to this embroidery in Song of Solomon 1:5, under the name of the curtains of Solomon. These were either the beautiful embroidered hangings of Solomon’s palace mentioned in Ecclesiastes 2:4; or else, the broidered veil or hangings of the temple. Some think, however, that the word Solomon is not a name here but the title “Prince of Peace,” and that the curtains are the veils which adorned the tabernacle of the Prince of Peace when He journeyed through the desert with His people (Psalms 45; Ezekiel 16:14; Matthew 22:11).
“O that I knew how all these lights combine,
And the configurations of their glory;
Seeing not only how each verse doth shine,
But all the constellations of the story!”
—Herbert.