Schoolmaster to Christ
EXODUS CHAPTER 26
Schoolmaster to Christ
EXODUS CHAPTER 26
Scripture Reading: Exodus 26 (KJV)
This part of Exodus contains the instructive description of the curtains and coverings of the Tabernacle, wherein the spiritual eye discerns the shadows of the various features and phases of Christ's manifested character. "Moreover, thou shalt make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twined linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet: with cherubims of cunning work shalt thou make them." Here we have the different aspects of "the man Christ Jesus." The "fine twined linen" prefigures the spotless purity of His walk and character; while the "blue, the purple, and the scarlet" present Him to us as "the Lord from heaven," who is to reign according to the Divine counsels, but whose royalty is to be the result of His sufferings. Thus we have a spotless man, a heavenly man, a royal man, a suffering man. These materials were not confined to the "curtains" of the Tabernacle, but were also used in making "the veil" (v 31), "the hanging for the door of the tent" (v 36), "the hanging for the gate of the court" (Ex. 27:16), "the cloths of service and the holy garments of Aaron" (Ex. 39:1). In a word, it was Christ everywhere, Christ in all, and Christ alone (The expression, "white and clean," gives peculiar force and beauty to the type which the Holy Spirit has presented in the "fine twined linen." Indeed, there could not be a more appropriate emblem of spotless manhood).
"The fine twined linen," as expressive of Christ's spotless manhood, opens a most precious and copious spring of thought to the spiritual mind; it furnishes a theme on which we cannot meditate too profoundly. The truth regarding Christ's humanity must be received with scriptural accuracy, held with spiritual energy, guarded with holy jealousy, and confessed with heavenly power. If we are wrong about this, we cannot be right about anything. It is a grand, vital, fundamental truth, and if it is not received, held, guarded, and confessed as God has revealed it in His Holy Word, then our entire superstructure is unsound. Nothing can be more deplorable than the looseness of thought and expression that seems to prevail in reference to this all-important teaching. When there is reverence for the Word of God, there is more accurate acquaintance with it; and, in this way, we avoid all those erroneous and unguarded statements that surely must grieve the Holy Spirit of God, whose province it is to testify of Jesus.
When the angel had announced to Mary the glad tidings of the Savior's birth, she said, "How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?" Her mind was incompetent to enter into, much less to fathom, the stupendous mystery of "God manifest in the flesh." But mark carefully the angelic reply – a reply, not to a skeptic mind, but to a pious, though ignorant, heart. "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee; wherefore, also, that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God" (Lk. 1:39, 35). Doubtless, Mary imagined that this birth was to be according to the principles of ordinary generation. But the angel corrects her mistake, and in correcting it, enunciates one of the grandest truths of revelation. He declares to her that divine power was about to form a real man – "the second man the Lord from heaven" – One whose nature was divinely and utterly pure. This Holy One was made "in, the likeness of sinful flesh," without sin in the flesh.
This is a cardinal truth that cannot be too accurately pursued or too tenaciously held. The incarnation of the Son – His mysterious entrance into pure and spotless flesh, is the foundation of the "great mystery of godliness" of which the top-stone is a glorified God-man in heaven, the Head, Representative, and Model of the redeemed Church of Christ. The purity of His manhood perfectly met the claims of God; the reality of His manhood met the necessities of man – only a man could meet man's ruin. But Jesus Christ was a man who could satisfy all the claims of the throne of God. He was a spotless, real man, in whom God could perfectly delight, and on whom man could unreservedly lean.
We need not remind the enlightened student of God's Word that if taken apart from death and resurrection, it is unavailable to us. We needed not only an incarnate, but a crucified and risen Christ. True, He should be incarnate to be crucified; but it is death and resurrection that render incarnation available to us. It is a deadly error to suppose that in incarnation Christ was taking man into union with Himself. This could not be. He Himself teaches the contrary. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit" (Jn. 12:24). There could be no union between sinful and holy flesh, pure and impure, corruptible and incorruptible, mortal and immortal. Death is the only base of a unity between Christ and His members. It is in beautiful connection with the words, "Rise, let us go hence," that He says, "I am the vine, ye are the branches." "We have been planted together in the likeness of his death." "Our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed."
"In whom also are ye circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ; buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead."
Consider Romans 6 and Colossians 2 as a full and comprehensive statement of the truth on this important subject. It was only as dead and risen that Christ and His people could become one. The true corn of wheat had to fall into the ground and die before a full ear could spring up and be gathered into the heavenly garner.
But while this is a plainly revealed truth of Scripture, it is equally plain that incarnation formed, as it were, the first layer of the glorious superstructure; and the curtains of "fine twined Linen" prefigure the moral purity of "the man Christ Jesus." We have already seen the manner of His conception; and, as we pass along the current of His life here below, we meet with instance after instance of the same spotless purity. He was forty days in the wilderness, tempted of the devil, but there was no response in His pure nature to the tempter's foul suggestions. He could touch the leper and receive no taint. He could touch the bier and not contract the smell of death. He could pass unscathed through the most polluted atmosphere. His manhood was like a sunbeam emanating from the fountain of light which can pass without being soiled through the most defiling medium. He was unique in nature, constitution, and character. None but He could say, "Thou wilt not suffer thine holy One to see corruption." This referred to His perfectly holy and perfectly pure humanity, which was capable of being a sin-bearer. "His own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree." Not to the tree, but "on the tree." It was only on the cross that Christ was our sin-bearer. "He hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him" (2 Cor. 5:21).
"Blue" is the ethereal color, marking the heavenly character of Christ – "the Lord from heaven." Though He was "very man," yet He walked in the uninterrupted consciousness of His proper dignity as a heavenly stranger. He never once forgot from where He had come, where He was, or where He was going. The spring of His joy was on high. Earth could neither make Him richer nor poorer. He found this world to be "a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;" and, hence, His spirit found refreshment above. "No man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the son of man who is in heaven" (Jn. 3:13).
"Purple" denotes royalty, and points us to Him who "Was born King of the Jews;" who, though rejected, offered Himself as such to the Jewish nation; who before Pontius Pilate witnessed the confession that He was a king, though from a mortal vision there was not a trace of royalty. "Thou sayest that I am a king." And "hereafter ye shall see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven." Then, finally, the inscription on His cross, "in letters of Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin" – the language of religion, science, and government declared Him, to the whole known world, to be "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews." Earth disowned His claims – but not so heaven; there His claim was fully recognized. He was received as a conqueror into the eternal mansions of light, crowned with glory and honor, and seated amid the acclamations of angelic hosts on the throne of the majesty in the heavens, there to wait until His enemies are made His footstool.
"Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree: the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Be wise, now, therefore, O ye kings; be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. BLESSED ARE ALL THEY THAT PUT THEIR TRUST IN HIM" (Ps. 2; emphasis added).
"Scarlet," when genuine, is produced by death; and this makes its application to a suffering Christ appropriate. "Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh." Without death, all would have been unavailing. We can admire "the blue" and "the purple" but without "the scarlet" the Tabernacle would have lacked an all-important feature. It was by death Christ destroyed him who had the power of death. In setting before us a striking figure of Christ, i.e., the true Tabernacle, the Holy Spirit could not possibly omit that phase of His character which constituted the groundwork of His connection with the church, of His claim to the throne of David, and the headship of all creation. In other words, in these significant curtains unfolds to our view the Lord Jesus as not only a spotless and royal man, but also as a suffering man; Who, by death, made good His claims to all He was entitled in the Divine counsels.
But there is much more in the curtains of the Tabernacle than the varied and perfect phases of Christ's character. We also have the unity and consistency of that character. Each phase is displayed in its own perfectness; and one never interferes with or mars the exquisite beauty of another. All was in perfect harmony beneath the eye of God, and was so displayed in "the pattern which was showed to Moses on the mount," and in the copy which was exhibited below. "Every one of the curtains shall have one measure. The five curtains shall be coupled together one to another; and other five curtains shall be coupled one to another." Such was the fair proportion and consistency in all the ways of Christ, in whatever aspect or relationship we view Him. When acting in one character, we never find Him inconsistent with the divine integrity of another. At all times, in all places, under all circumstances, He was the perfect man. Nothing in Him was out of proportion. "Every one of the curtains shall have one measure."
The two sets of five curtains each may symbolize the two grand aspects of Christ's character – acting toward God and toward man. We have the same two aspects in the law: what was due God, and what was due man; so that, as to Christ, if we look in, we find "thy law is within my heart;" and if we look at His outward character and walk, we see those two elements adjusted with perfect accuracy, and not only adjusted, but inseparably linked together by the heavenly grace and divine energy dwelling in His most glorious Person.
"And thou shalt make loops of blue upon the edge of the one curtain, from the selvedge in the coupling; and likewise, shalt thou make in the uttermost edge of another curtain, in the coupling of the second . . . And thou shalt make fifty taches of gold, and couple the curtains together with the taches; and it shall be one tabernacle."
The "loops of blue," and "taches of gold," declared the heavenly grace and divine energy in Christ that enabled Him to combine and perfectly adjust the claims of God and man; so that in responding to both, He never marred the unity of His character. When crafty and hypocritical men tempted Him with the enquiry, "Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar or not?" His wise reply was, "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's."
In every relation, all of man’s claims were perfectly met in Christ. As He united in His perfect Person the nature of God and man, so He also met the claims of God and man. While we will not here do so, the serious student of God's Word will certainly find it most interesting to trace the exemplification of the principle suggested by the "loops of blue," and "taches of gold" through the Gospel narrative.
The curtains on which we have been dwelling were covered with other "curtains of goats' hair" (vv. 7-14). Their beauty was hidden from those without by that which spoke of roughness and severity; but not so for those within. Those privileged to enter the hallowed enclosure saw only "the blue, the purple, the scarlet, and fine twined linen," the varied yet combined exhibition of the virtues and excellencies of that divine Tabernacle in which God dwelt within the veil. In other words of Christ, the antitype of all these – through whose flesh the beams of Divine nature shone so delicately, allowing the sinner to behold their dazzling brightness without being overwhelmed.
As the Lord Jesus walked this earth, few really knew Him. Few had eyes anointed with heavenly eye-salve to penetrate and appreciate the deep mystery of His character. Few saw "the blue, the purple, the scarlet, and the twined linen." It was only when faith brought man into His presence that Jesus Christ allowed the brightness of what He was to shine forth – allowed the glory to break through the cloud. To the human eye there would seem to have been a reserve and severity about Him, aptly prefigured by the "covering of goats' hair." All this was the result of His profound separation and estrangement, not from sinners personally, but from man’s thoughts and maxims – mere human nature could not comprehend or enjoy Him. "No man," He said, "can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him;" and when one of those "drawn" ones confessed His name, He declared that "flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven" (Compare John 6:44; Matthew 6:17). He was "a root out of a dry ground," having neither "form nor comeliness" to attract the eye or gratify the heart of man. The popular current could never flow in the direction of One who, as He passed rapidly across the stage of this vain world, wrapped Himself up in a "covering of goats' hair." Jesus was not popular. The multitude might follow Him for a moment, because of "the loaves and fishes" which met their need; but they were just as ready to cry, "Away with him!" as "Hosanna to the Son of David!" Servants of Christ should remember this; preachers of the Gospel should remember it – all of us should always seek to bear in mind the "covering of goats' hair."
But if the goats' skins expressed the severity of Christ's separation from earth, "the rams' skins dyed red" exhibit His intense consecration and devotedness to God, which was carried out even unto death. He was the only perfect Servant who ever stood in God's vineyard. From the manger to the cross, He pursued one object with an undeviating course – to glorify the Father and finish His work. "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business" was the language of His youth, and the accomplishment of that "business" was the design of His life. "His meat was to do the will of him that sent him and to finish his work." "The rams' skins dyed red" formed as distinct a part of His ordinary habit as the "goats' hair." His perfect devotion to God separated Him from the habits of men.
"The badgers' skins" exhibit the holy vigilance with which the Lord Jesus guarded against the approach of everything hostile to the purpose that engrossed His whole soul. He took up His position for God, and held it with a tenacity which no influence of men or devils, earth or hell, could overcome. The covering of badgers' skins was "above" (v 14), teaching us that the most prominent feature in the character of "the man Christ Jesus" was an invincible determination to stand as a witness for God on earth. He was the true Naboth, who gave up His life rather than surrender the truth of God. Jesus Christ gave up His life rather than giving up that for which He had taken His place in this world.
The goat, the ram, and the badger must be regarded as exhibiting certain natural features, as well as symbolizing certain moral qualities. We must take both into account in our application of these figures to the character of Christ. The human eye could only discern the former. It could see none of the moral grace, beauty, and dignity, which lay beneath the outward form of the despised and humble Jesus of Nazareth. When the treasures of heavenly wisdom flowed from His lips, the inquiry was, "Is not this the carpenter?" or "How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?" When He asserted His eternal Sonship and Godhead, the word was, "Thou art not yet fifty years old," or "They took up stones to cast at him." In short, the acknowledgement of the Pharisees in John 9 was true in reference to men in general. "As for this fellow, we know not from whence he is."
In a brief study like this, it would be impossible to trace the unfolding of those precious features of Christ's character through the Gospel narratives. Hopefully, enough has been considered to open springs of spiritual thought and to furnish some faint idea of the rich treasures wrapped up in the curtains and coverings of the Tabernacle. Christ's hidden being; secret springs and inherent excellencies; His outward and unattractive form; what He was in Himself; what He was to God; what He was to man; what He was in the judgment of faith and in the judgment of nature – all is sweetly and impressively revealed to the spiritual mind in the curtains of blue, purple, scarlet, and the twined linen, and the "coverings of skins."
"The boards for the tabernacle" were made of the same wood used in constructing "the ark of the covenant." Also, they were upheld by the sockets of silver formed out of the atonement; their hooks and chapiters being of the same (Compare attentively Exodus 30:11-16 with Exodus 38:25-28). The whole framework of the tent of the Tabernacle was based on that which spoke of atonement or ransom, while the "hooks and chapiters" at the top set forth the same. The sockets were buried in the sand, and the hooks and chapiters were above. It matters not how deep you penetrate, or how high you rise, that glorious and eternal truth is emblazoned before you, "I HAVE FOUND A RANSOM." Blessed be God, "we are not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold . . . But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot."
The Tabernacle was divided into three distinct parts: "the holy of holies," "the holy place," and the court of the tabernacle. The entrance into each of these was of the same materials, "blue, purple, scarlet, and fine twined linen" (Compare Exodus 24:31, 36; Exodus 27:16). The interpretation is simply this: Christ forms the only doorway into the varied fields of glory that are yet to be displayed, whether on earth, in heaven, or in the heaven of heavens. "Every family, in heaven and earth," will be ranged under His headship – brought into everlasting felicity and glory on the ground of His accomplished atonement. This is plain enough, and needs no stretch of the imagination to grasp. When one knows the truth of God's Word, the shadow is easily understood. If our hearts are filled with Christ, we will not go far astray in our interpretations of the Tabernacle and its furniture. It is not a head full of learned criticism that will avail here, but a heart full of affection for Jesus, and a conscience at rest in the blood of His cross.
May the Spirit of God enable us to study these things with more interest and intelligence. May He "open our eyes that we may behold wondrous things out of his law."
