Lesson 13 THE TABERNACLE

             Lesson 13

   THE TABERNACLE

(Continued)

The Gate

Read Exodus 27:16-19

     IN BEGINNING with the gate we begin where God ended in His instructions which He gave to Moses concerning the building of the Tabernacle.

     He begins with the Ark and its Mercy Seat, and works from these out until He comes to the Laver, the Brazen Altar, and then to the gate. We begin, we say, where God left off, and this is very suggestive.

    Redemption is complete, and with the completed work, we begin.

    As we look at the court wall, the prominent thing is the Door. This gate typifies Christ as the only way to God. Spiritually dead man is on the outside, and Christ came that He might be the divine way of man's coming back to God. "I am the way," Jesus   said (John 14:6).

    We remember that in the Garden of Eden God drove human from His presence. Now, He provides a way back. There was just one door in the court.

    If we were to look at the south side, the north side or the western end, just one long stretch of unbroken white linen would meet our gaze. It was only linen, but to force an entrance would be to rush to certain destruction. The linen stood there marking off the sacred precincts, and whosoever would come to God had to come in the proper way.

    As we come to the eastern end and see the door, we see the blue, the purple, the scarlet, and fine twined linen, all typical, as we have seen, of Christ, who is the Door.

   Read John 14:6 and John 10:7-9.

    Any one of the men of Israel could enter by the gate and bring his sacrifice to thealtar, but only a priest could go through the door into the Tabernacle.

The Furniture of the Tabernacle

    As we have mentioned, in giving the instructions to Moses, God began with the Ark and worked toward the Brazen Altar.

     This is typical of the path trod by Christ. Human could not approach God. God must come to human, Christ came from Glory to earth, then to the Cross where He met spiritually dead human, and then back again to the Father. So, from the Ark, which was in the Most Holy Place, to the Brazen Altar that stood near the gate, we see the path which Christ trod from Glory to the cross - where He identified Himself with spiritually deadman and then returned again to the Father. This shows complete Redemption wrought by Christ for human.

The Brazen Altar

Read Exodus 27:1-8

    Let us notice the Brazen Altar. Its position was at the gate. It was the place where God met spiritually dead human. Its materials were of brass and acacia wood. It is spoken of as incorruptible wood. It speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ, the One who had no sin. This wood was covered with brass. The candlestick, the Altar of Incense, the Table of Show Bread, and the Ark were made of gold, but not the Altar.

    Brass spoke of sin. It was at the Altar of the Cross that the sin that was human's fell upon Christ. At the Cross, Christ was forsaken of God. The Brazen Altar shows Christ's identification with human on the cross.

    God came from the Mercy Seat, which was the throne, to the Altar where He met the guilty Israelite who had, in his obedience to God's command, brought to the Altar a perfect sacrifice.

    How very expressive was the act of the one who brought the sacrifice. We read: "He shall lay His hands on the head of the goat" (Leviticus 4:24). That was identifying himself with the sacrifice, confessing that he deserved to die, but that God had provided a substitute. As the fire consumed the sacrifice, there was left no judgment to fall upon the sinner, and the one who had brought the sacrifice could go away from the Altar with the knowledge that his sin was forgiven him.

    For Jehovah said, "It shall be forgiven him" (Leviticus 4:26). At the cross we see Jesus Christ taking human's place, identified with all that human was, and God's judgment falling upon Him.

The Brazen Laver

Read Exodus 30:17-21

    Beyond the Brazen Altar stood the Brazen Laver.

    This Laver also was made of brass, which speaks again of sin.

    It was filled with water, with which the Priests washed the dirt of the cursed earth from their hands and feet before they entered the Holy of Holies.

    This typifies our daily need of cleansing by the Water of the Word of God.

The Table of Shew Bread

Read Exodus 25:23-30

    In the Holy Place was the Table of Shew Bread with the twelve loaves of bread. A loaf is an emblem of the body of our Lord Jesus Christ. I Corinthians 10:17, "For we being many are one bread and one body."

We "are many" just like the wheat in the bread; just as the wheat in the loaf became merged into one loaf through the baking, on the grounds of Christ's identification with us on the cross ... becoming all that we were, and in burial paying our penalty during those awful three days and nights of separation from God.

In Crucifixion, we see Him as we were.

In Resurrection, we see ourselves as He is.