MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Exodus 27:9-20
THE COURT OF THE TABERNACLE
This scene, into which all the members of the house of Israel might enter, reminds us—
I. Of the common need. It was the court of the congregation. Every member of the house of Israel needed to come here—that is, every member needed forgiveness and purification. No matter that they were an elected and peculiar people. Whilst nationally they were elected to play a great part in the government of God, their moral weaknesses remained, and they needed forgiveness and cleansing. No election ignores moral considerations. No matter what their age. The youth, the patriarch. No matter what their rank. Princes, elders, common people, all needed alike to present themselves here. No matter what their office. The Priest, the people—the sacred and secular orders. The men of all Israel came here to be reminded of their imperfection, sin and stain. We are all guilty before God. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God; there is no difference. “If any man say that he hath no sin,” &c.
II. Of the common privilege. It was the court of the congregation. All needed to come, all were privileged to come. The hanging at the entrance was full of promise. If the radiant vail encouraged the high priest to enter the holiest, if the similar vail gave assurance to the priest to pass into the holy place, the similar vail, at the entrance to the court of the congregation, spoke hope into the breast of all Israel, Exodus 27:16. The embroidered, richly dyed hangings on the very threshold of the sacred tent, inspired all guilty and sorrowful souls, who turned their faces thitherward, with most consolatory expectations. Whatever might be the sin, the altar in that enclosure might be approached. Whatever might be the uncleannesses of the people, there it might be atoned for and purged. (Notice the sins and stains to be removed as given in Leviticus.) So forgiveness and purity in Christ is a common privilege. “The common salvation.” There are special gifts and appointments in the natural sphere; special gifts and callings in the Church; but grace, pardon, purity are in Christ for the whole world. “There is no difference.”
III. Of the common hope. The Tabernacle of the congregation was far inferior to the holy place and the most holy—in the one brass and silver, in the other fine gold—but the places were connected together, and the priest passing into the interior of the holy habitation represented the whole nation. So now in Christ have we forgiveness and righteousness; our high priest represents us in the heavenly place; and soon shall we pass from the more imperfect services of earth to the highest vision, and glory, and joy of the celestial world.
ILLUSTRATIONS
BY
REV. WILLIAM ADAMSON
Mosaic-Ritual! Exodus 27:1-21.
(1.) Beautiful and rich as were the materials employed, there was a remarkable simplicity about the tabernacle and its adjuncts. And why? Glance at the books designed for the instruction of children. They may be rich in design and ornate in execution, but how mono-syllabic they are! What pictures of simplicity they contain! When the child develops in body and mind, the thoughts and words are also proportionately developed. We do not dream of instructing the babe-mind in the mysteries of algebra, or the intricacies of science.
(2.) God speaks, by the mouth of a later prophet, as of Israel as His child at this time. As a child, Israel’s host could but receive milk of truth—the elementary truths of Divine wisdom. Pictures interleave the Divine manual of saving instruction—pictures such as the tabernacle, the altar of burnt-offering, the outer court with its brazen laver, and encircling curtains, and solitary gateway.
(3.) And as Israel grew, so the instruction was raised. The theocratic nation was schooled in the deep things of God, while its saints and seers were permitted to drink deeply at the Fount of Divine Wisdom, searching diligently into the mystery of redemption, until the Teacher Himself became Incarnate. Thus the Law was alike the pedagogue leading to, and the schoolmaster instructing as to, Christ—the End of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.
“And when the last trumpet shall sound through the skies,
When the dead from the dust of the earth shall arise,
With bright millions I’ll rise far above yonder sky,
To wear Christ’s Righteousness for ever on high.”
Divine-Design! Exodus 27:9-19.
(1.) If on shaking a quantity of printer’s type in a basket, it should appear that some of the pieces stuck together, when they fell, in such order as to compose the narrative of these Mosaic ordinances, could we resist the conclusion that these particular types were loaded with the design of composing that story? We read the design in the complicated and intelligible adaptation of the final result. So, when we find these various and varied ordinances, altars, lamps, courts, and curtains thus arranged by Moses, we cannot but believe that He who gave them to him loaded them with the designed method and arrangement in which we find them.
(2.) There are few subjects that confuse the mind more thoroughly than the numerous and diverse mineral substances which form the great mass of the earth’s crust; and it was not till Abbé Haüy dropped his beautiful specimen of calcareous spar, and noted that all the shivered fragments of the original prism had the same rhomboidal form, that men dreamt of any regularity among inorganic objects. God formed His manual of religious instruction after this analogy of nature. Its unity does not stand out upon the surface, neither does its unity of design. We have to make due, devout, and diligent search to find the Divine design in these Exodus unveilings.
“Thy Word is like a deep, deep mine,
And jewels rich and rare
Are hidden in its mighty depths,
For every searcher there.”
—Hodder.
Court-Order! Exodus 27:12-15.
(1.) Johnson says, Order is a lovely nymph—the child of Beauty and Wisdom. Her attendants are Comfort, Neatness, and Activity. Her abode is the Valley of Happiness She is always to be found when sought for; and she never appears so lovely as when contrasted with her opponent, Disorder.
(2.) Southey says, as the beams to a house, as the bones to the microcosm of man, so is order to all things. Not only is order beautiful; its existence is a necessity. Addison says wrongly that its non-existence is excusable in men of great learning, who are often too full to be exact, and who may therefore throw down their pearls in heaps instead of stringing them,
(3.) Shaftesbury says, In nature is no confusion, but all is managed for the best with perfect frugality and just reserve. Bigg says that nature is still, as ever, the thin veil which half conceals and half reveals the design of God in grace. The order which we perceive in nature, from the setting and sweeping of star-worlds in space to the forming and flitting of fire-flies amid the palm fronds, is designed to instruct us in the order of Revelation.
“So work the honey-bees,
Creatures that by a rule in nature teach
The act of order to a peopled kingdom.”
—Shakespeare.
Linen! Exodus 27:16.
(1.) Weaving was extensively carried on in ancient Egypt. On the tombs are found various representations of the mode of carrying on this art. Pharaoh arrayed Joseph in vestures of fine linen. There can be no doubt that during the captivity in Egypt the Israelitish women were thus employed. It was as bond-slaves in the houses of the princes of Egypt that they acquired the arts which were afterwards used in the service of the Lord. Thus the disciplines of life are often enlisted by God to enable His chosen ones to render to Him agreeable service.
(2.) The fine twined linen probably alludes to the great pains taken in the bleaching of linen in ancient Egypt. Osburn says that, after being marked, the piece of wet linen was probably wrapped in strong sacking made for the purpose, one end of which was fastened to a post, and a staff was inserted in a loop in the other. It was then wrung by the united strength of two men, so as to force out as much of the water as possible, and thus prevent any impurity that might be in the water or in the cloth from drying in. It may, therefore, be called fine twined, or twisted, or wrong linen.
(3.) Such was the righteousness of God, wrought out by the Lord Jesus on the plains of earth; that fine linen, clean and white, which is the righteousness of the saints. Through the ordeal of trial the Lord Jesus wrought it; and through much tribulation the saints enter the kingdom to wear it.
“Lo! his clothing is the sun,
The bright Sun of Righteousness;
He hath put salvation on,
Jesus is his beauteous dress.”
—Wesley.
Court-Entrance! Exodus 27:16. There was admittance by one only gate. All worshippers must pass the door. In a town in the north of Scotland some boys were in the habit of meeting together for prayer. A little girl was passing, and heard them sing. She stopped to listen, and thinking that it was just an ordinary prayer-meeting, she felt anxious to get in. Putting up her hand, she pulled the latch, but it would not open. It was fastened inside. She became very uneasy, and the thought arose in her mind: “What if this were the door of heaven, and me outside? “She went home, but could not sleep. Day after day, she became more troubled at the thought of being shut out of heaven. She went from one prayer-meeting to another, still finding no rest. At length, one day reading the tenth chapter of John, she came to the words, “I am the Door.” She paused! Here was the very door she was seeking; it was wide open. She entered.
“ ‘I am the door,’ those words begin;
I press towards that Voice,
And, ere I know it, am within,
And all within rejoice.”
Thoroughness! Exodus 27:17. In all these minute arrangements God teaches the art and duty of thoroughness. A friend called on Michael Angelo, who was finishing a statue. Some time afterwards he called again; the sculptor was still at his work. His friend, looking at the figure, exclaimed, “You have been idle since I saw you last!” “By no means,” replied the sculptor, “I hare retouched this part, and polished that; I have softened this feature, and brought out this muscle; I have given more expression to this lip, and more energy to this limb.” To this his friend replied that all these were “trifles.” “It may be so,” replied Angelo, “but recollect that trifles make perfection, and what perfection is no trifle.” But Angelo’s perfect works, when viewed through the microscope, disclosed rough outlines. Not so God’s. His works are thoroughly perfect—even to the “filleting” and “sockets.” And so are His words.
“How longed the holy men and prophets old God’s
Truth to see! How blessed, whom He hath willed
To see His Truth in His own book enrolled.”
—Mant.
Little Things! Exodus 27:19. It is but the littleness of man that sees no greatness in a trifle. And indeed there is nothing little in truth which can be connected with eternity and God. Little pins held together that tabernacle, which was the glory of God. As Dryden says, God never made His work for man to mend.
(1.) This is true of nature, which Goethe calls the living visible garment of God, and which Carlyle terms the lime vesture of God that reveals Him to the wise, and hides Him from the foolish. A microscopic examination of the smallest flower or animalcule shows that He has cared for the little things—that every part is perfect of its kind—and that with Him nothing is too insignificant to be done thoroughly.
(2.) This is true of the Mosaic law, which has been rightly called the gospel in bud. How careful God was that the little things of the tabernacle should all be wrought out after His plan. Even the pins were to be made perfectly, and after the fashion shown to Moses in the Mount.
“Naught that is right think little; well aware
What reason bids, God bids; by His command
How aggrandised the smallest thing we do!”
—Young.