292. What do you mean when you say that these rites were symbo lical?

293. How, and to whom, are they typical?

294. When we speak of them as typical, do we ascribe to them, strictly speaking, a double sense?

295. How did the state of the Jews under the law resemble a state of childhood?

296. How far is it likely that what we may now call particular types were capable of being understood as such by the ancient Jews?

CHAPTER XVIII.

MOSAIC RITUAL. -THE TABERNACLE.

(Exodus xxxvi. — xl.

1

ONE place was set apart as exclusively sacred for the legitimate celebration of the Mosaic ceremonial worship. This was THE TABERNACLE (i. e. dwelling, habitation house, Deut. xxiii. 18.; Josh. ix. 23.; Judges xviii. 31.)- the Tabernacle of Testimony or of Witness (i. e. of the two Tables of the Law, which bore testimony to the will and holiness of God, and therefore also to the sinfulness of the people), the Tabernacle of Meeting (i. e. of communion between God and the people). This Tabernacle stood in the midst of the people; it contained no image, or representation of the Deity, but only a spot peculiarly sacred to the manifestation of His presence and the declaration of His will; in which Most Holy place stood the ark, containing the Tables of the Law, and covered with the Mercy Seat, the throne of the merciful Jehovah. This Tabernacle was afterwards succeeded by the Temple; which was constructed on the same divinely appointed plan, and bore the same relation to the houses of the Jews in Canaan as that which the Tabernacle bore to their tents in the wilderness.

As a symbol, the Tabernacle (or Temple) may be regarded as representing the presence of the One, invisible, holy God, and that communion between Him and His people which, in its prescribed use, it was adapted really to be a means of maintaining. As a visible sacred structure, standing in the midst of the Israelites, it was, doubtless, a great aid to their weak and imperfect apprehension of the spiritual existence and presence of the Most High; while the Tables of the Law, enshrined in its innermost recess, may have assisted in promoting a

right moral disposition and feeling on the part of the worshippers, and, at the same time, the Mercy Seat may have encouraged the penitent with the hope of pardon.* As a type, it

incar

is doubtless to be considered as foreshadowing Christ, nate Deity, "God manifest in the flesh," reconciling man to Himself; Christ, in whom "dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily," when He came and❝ dwelt (i. e. tabernacled) among us.' (1 Tim. iii. 16.; Col. ii. 9.; John i. 14.; see also John ii. 19.) Hence it becomes also a type of the church, or body of true believers, who are the Temple of the living God. (See 1 Tim. iii. 15.; Eph. ii. 22, 23.; 1 Cor. iii. 9.; vi. 19.; Eph. iii. 17.; 1 Peter ii. 5, 6.) This typical significance of the Tabernacle is heightened when we remember that it was consecrated with the anointing oil, emblematic of the Holy Spirit. (See Acts x. 38.; 2 Cor. i. 20.; 1 John ii. 20.)

The following are the details of the sacred structure, according to the pattern shown to Moses in the Mount.

The Tabernacle was surrounded by an oblong rectangular open space, lying from east to west, about 150 feet long by 75 broad. This space, THE COURT OF THE TABERNACLE, was enclosed by curtains suspended from silver rods, which rested on silver hooks attached to the capitals or pillars of posts of acacia wood. These pillars were seven and a half feet high; they were furnished at the bottom with brazen sockets, and had their capitals overlaid with silver. They were fifty-six in number; namely, ten at each end (eastern and western) and twenty at each side (northern and southern), the corner pillars being counted double. The entrance, thirty feet broad, was at the eastern end, between the four middle pillars, from which was suspended a rich curtain of fine twined linen, embroidered with figures in blue, red, and crimson, which, when drawn up, left three spaces for ingress and egress (Exod. xxvii. 7—19.; xxxviii. 9-20). To this court all Israelites had access.

About the centre of the court, opposite the entrance, stood an altar, commonly called THE Brazen Altar, or ALTAR OF

* The Jewish view of the symbolical meaning of the Tabernacle, as given by Dr. Kalisch, is as follows: ;- "The Tabernacle was an external but holy symbol of the presence of God among the Israelites, and the place from whence God promised to meet, and to grant His future revelations to, Moses and the people, and where the Decalogue, as the witness of the Divine covenant, was preserved. The utensils of the Holy of

Holies typify [he means, symbolise] the descending of God to man; those of the sanctuary and the court the rising up of man to God; and thus the whole structure admirably represents the mutual love of God and Israel."- Introductory Note to Exodus XXV.

Burnt OFFERINGS. This was a hollow vessel, made of acacia wood overlaid with brass, five cubits* long, five broad, and three high. The upper part (if not the whole) of this vessel, or chest, was filled with earth, and covered with a brazen grate, on which the fire was kindled.† The corners terminated at the upper part, in four square projections, called the horns of the altar. At the four corners of the altar were four rings of brass, through which were passed two poles or staves of acacia wood, overlaid with brass, which were employed for transport. Some suppose that there was an ascent to the altar, consisting of an inclined plane on the south side, made of earth; but others think that the officiating priests stood on the ground. (Exod. xxvii. 1-8.; xxxviii. 1-7. 20, 23.) For the service of the altar were provided pots or urns for removing the ashes, fireshovels, basins, and three-pronged flesh-hooks, all of brass. (Exod. xxxvii. 3.; xxxviii. 3.) This altar, being appropriated to the offering of victims slain in sacrifice, was symbolical of the first friendly meeting of the merciful God with sinful, penitent, man. And accordingly, in its highest meaning, it was typical of reconciliation as effected by the blood of Christ.

Between the Altar and the Tabernacle (perhaps not quite in a straight line, but a little on the south) stood a BRAZEN Laver, or large (probably round) basin, in which the priests washed their hands and their feet when they were about to officiate. It rested on a brazen base. This Laver was constructed of the metal contained in brazen mirrors, presented for this purpose by the women who assembled at the door of the Tabernacle. (Exod. xxx. 18, 40.; xxxviii. 8.) It can hardly be doubted that the ancient Israelites regarded the act of washing in this basin as symbolical of moral purity or holiness; and we may certainly contemplate it as typical of the purifying or sanctifying influences of the Holy Spirit (Exod. xxx. 20. ; Ps. xxvi. 6.; Heb. x. 22.; Eph. v. 26.; Titus iii. 5.)

The position of the Tabernacle was, perhaps, at the extreme west end of the court; but Josephus says that it was in the middle; while Philo describes it as at an equal distance of twenty cubits

* The cubit, of six palms or hand-breadths=1 foot 9.888 inches, i. e. nearly 22 inches: so that 5 cubits = about 9 feet; 3 cubits = about 5 feet.

† Otherwise thus described: "This altar had a border, and under it a grate of network of brass,-according to some, to serve as a kind of bench or step for the officiating priests, according to others, more probably in order to receive whatever might fall from the altar, and, as the network might have been very close, coals or wood were caught by it, and ashes only fell through."-KALISCH, on Exod. xxv.

from the north, south, and west sides, leaving a space of fifty cubits between the eastern side of the court and the entrance of the sacred structure (50 + 30 +20= 100). The Tabernacle was a tent, of oblong rectangular shape, corresponding to that of the court, and placed in the same direction, namely, from east to west. It was thirty cubits long (east to west), ten cubits broad (north to south), and ten cubits high. Each of the northern and southern sides consisted of twenty planks or boards of acacia wood, and the western side or end of eight*; each board was ten cubits long, and one cubit and a half broad, plated with gold, and furnished at the bottom part with two silver tenons for insertion into two corresponding sockets or mortises in square silver blocks, which served as bases or pedestals. At the eastern side or end was the entrance, covered with a curtain of fine twined linen (byssus), on which figures were embroidered in 'blue, red, and crimson (wool). This curtain was supported by five pillars, to which it was fastened by golden nails. The boards which formed the sides were held together by five bars of wood overlaid with gold running along each side, through golden rings attached to each board. Of these bars the middle one alone extended the whole length of the side, the two upper and two lower being shorter. (Exod. xxvi. 26-37.)

This sacred tent was lined and protected by four coverings. Of these coverings the innermost (hanging within the boards, and forming the lining, or interior drapery of the tent) consisted of ten carpets or curtains of fine twined white linen (byssus), embroidered with figures of cherubim in blue, red, and crimson (wool), hanging down on the north and south sides to a distance of about two feet from the ground, and on the western side or end to a distance of only about four or five inches. The next covering, or the first on the outside of the boards, consisted of cloth of (probably Angora) goats' hair, a material such as usually forms the external covering of Arabian tents; this covering hung down

* But these eight boards of a cubit and a half each would cover a breadth of twelve cubits instead of ten, which was the breadth of the interior of the Tabernacle. "It is therefore added, that 'six boards should be made for the side westward, and other two for the corners of the Tabernacle; in the two sides they shall be double, beneath and above and at the two corners.' (Exod. xxvi. 22-24.) From this obscure passage, it appears, in our opinion, that each board was half a cubit thick, so that six boards at the western end would completely close the tent from within (nine cubits, added to the one half cubit at each side, being the thickness of the boards at the northern and southern wall); one half cubit breadth is double at each corner, and one cubit stands over at each side.” — KALISCH, on Exod. xxv.

almost close to the ground on each of the two sides, and at the west end it had a little of its length resting on the ground. The third covering was made of rams' skins dyed red, and the fourth of (perhaps) badgers'* skins. These coverings reached quite to the bottom of the sides, and were fastened to the ground by brazen tent-pins, and (probably) by cords. (Exod. xxvi. 1—14.) The interior of the Tabernacle was divided into two compartments of unequal length, the first, or outer, called the HOLY PLACE, or Sanctuary, being twenty cubits long, - and the second, or inner, called the MOST HOLY PLACE, or Holy of Holies, in length ten cubits. These two compartments were separated from each other by a linen curtain or veil richly embroidered in the way already described; which was supported by four pillars of acacia wood overlaid with gold, resting on silver sockets. Into the Holy Place none but the officiating priests were permitted to enter; into the Most Holy, none but the High Priest, once a year, on the great Day of Atonement. (Exod. xxvi. 31-33.; Lev. vii. 8, 9.; Heb. ix. 7.) This division of the Tabernacle into two compartments, one reserved for the peculiar residence of Jehovah, and the other accessible to those who were permitted to dwell as inmates in His house, is regarded as having been symbolical, on the one hand, of the infinite and unapproachable majesty of Jehovah in himself, and, on the other, of His spiritual nearness and accessibility to His covenant people. At the same time the Most Holy Place symbolised what God was to His people, or what they were to believe concerning Him, while the Holy Place signified what they ought to be and to do with reference to God.

The Holy Place, or Sanctuary (twenty cubits long and ten high), contained, on the north side, the Table of Shew-bread; on the south (or south-west), the Golden Candlestick or Candelabrum; and in the centre, i. e. between the table and the candlestick, immediately before the veil, the Altar of Incense.

THE CANDLESTICK was a splendid piece of workmanship, of pure beaten gold, consisting of a main shaft or pillar, from each side of which projected three stems or branches, rising to the same height as the main shaft, ornamented with calyxes of almond flowers, apples or pomegranates, and blossoms, and sur

* The meaning of the Hebrew word tachash is obscure, and has been the subject of various conjectures. The opinion of those who regard it as denoting a colour is perhaps the most untenable. It is clearly the name of some animal, which has been differently supposed to be the jackal, boar, seal, pardale, weasel, &c. But Gesenius has strongly defended the meaning given by our translators, badger. See more in KALISCH, on Exod. XXV.