The court of the Tabernacle.
The court of the Tabernacle
I. This court may be an emblem of that sacred enclosure which always surrounds the Church. “A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse.” God Himself, with all His infinite perfections and attributes, is round about His people. Every attribute of God is a pillar in our protecting wall, power, sovereignty, justice, righteousness, truth and faithfulness, appear in perfect harmony with love, benevolence, mercy, tenderness, compassion and goodness. All unite to uphold the separating wall between the Church and the world.
II. We may look upon this court as emblematical of the life and ministry of Christ. Only the true Christian can enter into Christ, but a sinner may read His life. As the court led to the Tabernacle, so the reading of the life of Christ has often been the means of the soul believing in Jesus. In the life of Christ we have a perfect model for the Christian’s imitation. Christ has left us an example that we should follow His steps.
III. We may view the court of the Tabernacle as an emblem of the Holy Scriptures. We cannot come to God without entering the court of revelation. He that loves the Bible has entered the outer court of the Tabernacle. Reverence for the Word of God is a good sign.
IV. The court of the Tabernacle was a place of worship. Here the Israelites came with their various sacrifices; and here God accepted them. If we would be accepted by God, we must observe God’s order, and come to the place He has appointed. We must also come in a right spirit.
V. In the court of the Tabernacle we have a figure of the professing Church.
1. Not all who entered the court entered the Tabernacle. Not all who make a profession of religion possess it. The heart, as well as the lip, must be right. The court was the way to the Tabernacle. There is no evidence that a man possesses grace while he neglects the means of grace. If a man has no love to God’s house, he can have no love to God. If we have no desire to be numbered with God’s people, there cannot be much desire after God Himself. (R. E. Sears.)
Hangings of the court
It is likely that those hangings would be of open work, and that the people would be able to look through this linen fence, and see what was being done inside. This would set forth the guilelessness of Christ’s character. He was no deceiver; there was no guile in His lips. He lived in a very hollow age, when deceit was the order of the day; but He was a transparent Man, an unselfish Man, a perfect Man. At the east end was a hanging called the gate. The basis of this gate would be the same as the fine linen in other parts of the court, and the meshes would be nearly filled up with blue, purple, and scarlet wools. This gate is Christ, the one gate, the one only door to God and to happiness in this life, or in the life which is to come. Those white hangings were suspended from upright pillars, standing in blocks of brass. The pillars were strong enough to sustain the weight of the hangings, and they were high enough to keep the fine linen from touching the ground, or contracting defilement in any part. So our Lord Jesus was sustained in His holy conduct in every part of His life by those upright principles which He had in His holy nature. (G. Rodgers.)
Fine linen
The fine linen was a thing of the earth. It had grown from seed which had been cast into the ground, and had died there, after which life came up out of death; there was death and resurrection. After this it went through many processes before it was seen about the dwelling-place of God. So the Christian has to learn death and resurrection. We have to die, and to be quickened to life, and we have to pass through some painful processes. Satan himself is sometimes permitted to sift us and to twist us, and he handles the soul roughly; but it is all needed to make us the fine-twined linen such as God would have us be. All things do indeed work together for our good, if they help to conform us to the image of Christ (Romans 8:28-29). (G. Rodgers.)
The gate of the court
The word “hanging” is in the Hebrew exclusively used for the vail the door of the Tabernacle, and the gate of the court; and serves, therefore, to connect together these three in type. Each of these hangings covered or hid the interior from the eyes of one approaching from the outside. Each had the character of a door. All three were made of the same materials arranged in precisely the same order; and all three were of the same dimensions as regards their area. The same truth seems, therefore, to be embodied in each of these typical curtains. The same Jesus, God manifest in the flesh, is pourtrayed in each. There could be no access to God of any kind, whether of comparatively distant worship or of closest intimacy, but through the one door, the Lord Jesus (John 10:7). Cain was the first who tried another path; and instead of being able to draw near, his very attempt ended in his going out from the presence of God into the land of banishment. Thousands follow in his footsteps, and think to worship and to offer without passing through the door. (H. W. Soltau.)
The hanging of fine linen
The court itself, with the exception of the gate, was closed by a hanging of fine-twined linen, five cubits high. Fine linen seems to be used in Scripture as a type of righteousness--a righteousness equal to all the demands of God--enabling him who possesses it to stand in God’s glory; in contrast with sin, by reason of which, all come short of the glory of God. The Israelite, who entered through the gate of the court, would be encompassed, shut in, and protected by this hanging of fine-twined linen. Though in a wilderness, he stood on holy ground; and the fine linen by which he was surrounded shut out from his eye the dreary barren prospect, through which he was wending his way. The lovely Tabernacle of God stood partially revealed to his gaze. The courts of the Lord’s house, overshadowed by the cloud of glory, were before him. The altar, with its lamb for the burnt-offering, sent up an odour of a sweet savour on his behalf. The laver, filled with water, told him of a fountain filled with life and purity, which would cleanse away even the ordinary defilement contracted whilst passing through a wilderness of death. He had entered through the gate of the court, the appointed doorway; within, every object proclaimed life, peace, righteousness, acceptance, and nearness to God. Moreover, no deadly foe could enter these precincts. Thus the court presented a place of security, of holiness, and of intercourse with God. Jerusalem on earth will hereafter afford some such place of refuge for the nations of the earth. (H. W. Soltau.)
The pins
By means of these pins of brass, the Tabernacle and the court were securely fastened to the desert ground, so that no storm or flood of waters could sweep away this structure, although many of the materials were such as to be easily affected by the wind or rain. May we not be reminded by this type, of the stedfast purpose of Christ, to pursue the path marked out for Him by the counsels of God, even though that path ended in the storm of judgment and in the billows of wrath. What a wondrous object of contemplation is the blessed Lord, as revealed to us in the Scriptures of truth. Weak, yet immovably firm. Himself the mighty God, yet dependent for everything on God His Father. Oh! the wondrous power of that weakness. Oh! the marvellous victory of that death. Oh! the eternal stability of Him laid low in the depths of the grave. (H. W. Soltau.)