The Tabernacle in Exodus 25-29
– Its Typical Teaching
Ministry by C. A. Coates – Part Four

Mr. Coates' notes are presented here with the conviction that they will open up the significance of the Tabernacle

• – both the glories of the Lord Jesus Christ and the formation of the features of Christ in the saints –

• in an edifying and challenging depth and detail beyond what is generally known.

G.A.R.

To take up the teaching of this chapter requires spiritual affections to be in energy. All the material for the tabernacle was to be furnished as the fruit of promptings of heart; all was to come, as it were, out of the affections of the people. That is a simple thing to see, but most important.

• Does it not say plainly that the whole vast scene of God's glory in Christ is to be made good through active affections? Everything that will go to make up the system of glory is being formed in the affections of saints now, so that each one may bring his bit of divine wealth and beauty to contribute to the perfection and glory of the whole.

A people furnished with divine wealth can bring a heave-offering. The giving has all been on God's part up to chapter 18, but as brought to God, and brought under divine teaching, the people are enriched so that they have precious things to bring to God.

• What has become precious substance in the affections of saints is suited material for the sanctuary. It has to be spiritually fashioned so as to fill its appointed place in the divine system, and all put together in blessed unity to form God's dwelling. It ought to be an exercise with us to have something that will do to form part of the true tabernacle.

The list of things which make up the "heave-offering" begins with "gold" and ends with "stones to be set in the ephod, and in the breast-plate".

• God has been pleased in His wisdom to use these symbols in communicating His mind to us, and it is our wisdom to apply ourselves to the understanding of them.

• It has been said that the language of symbols is as definite as any other. God has been pleased to speak in this language, and it is for us to learn in much dependence and sober exercise the language in which He speaks.

There is, no doubt, a moral order in the way these things are presented. I would suggest that "gold, and silver, and copper" speak of different ways in which the knowledge of God comes to us in Christ.

• Gold is the most precious metal of which Scripture takes account, and it fittingly represents what is wholly divine.

• Silver, being given as atonement-money, Exodus 30: 11-16, would typify the grace and faithfulness of God as known in redemption.

• While copper seems to speak of the unsparing judgment of evil, Numbers 16: 36-40, and as covering the altar there may be also in it the thought of ability to endure testing of the most severe nature. Compare Revelation 1: 15.

Then the seven things which follow – "Blue, and purple, and scarlet, and byssus, and goats' hair, and rams' skins dyed red, and badgers' skins" – are, I think, typical of the moral and official glories of Christ – God's anointed Man.

• "Blue" speaks of what He is as the heavenly One – the One "out of heaven", and "the Son of man who is in heaven". He is the One who is to have supremacy, and to be invested with official glory in God's system.

• "Purple" suggests His royal character and glory, His imperial supremacy, "King of kings and Lord of lords".

• "Scarlet" would set forth the true glory of man as seen in Christ, in contrast to all the vain-glory which marks man in the flesh; and which will appear full-blown in the beast and the clothing of the great harlot. Revelation 17.

• "Byssus" – fine Egyptian cotton – seems to speak of the even texture of a life where everything is in perfect adjustment God-ward and man-ward, and that in the minutest detail. This is righteousness in Man, seen in perfection in the Righteous One. The fineness of the fabric is its prominent characteristic.

• "Goats' hair" speaks of holy separation. We read of prophets, "neither shall they wear a hairy mantle to deceive", Zechariah 13: 4. There had been with them a pretence to separation, an attempt to pass off as being more holy then they were. But in the Lord Jesus there was true separation to God.

"Rams' skins dyed red" would indicate something of a very distinctive character, such as His disciples took knowledge of when they "remembered that it is written, The zeal of thy house devours me", John 2: 13-17.

• An intensity of devotedness to the will and glory of God, which found indeed its full expression when He went into death.
  • "That the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father has commanded me, thus I do. Rise up, let us go hence", John 14: 31.

• He went from the supper table to the garden and the cross, that His devotedness might be seen in all its intensity, and marked, as it were, in an indelible character.

"Badgers' skins" – the exterior covering of the tabernacle – would suggest, I think, the ability to resist every approach of evil, to withstand every temptation, contradiction, pressure, and persecution.

• Satan tempted Him, men sought to catch Him in His words, sinners contradicted, but every approach and attack was met with divine vigilance and ability to repel and overcome it.

It is good to meditate on these significant figures. We shall miss great spiritual wealth if we do not pay attention to them, and seek to learn by the Spirit their divine import.

• These seven things put together give us a wonderful setting forth, as we have said, of the moral character and official glory of Christ.

Then in the "acacia-wood" we have a figure of that holy humanity in which Jesus Christ came in flesh. It is called in the Septuagint Version "incorruptible wood".

• The moral qualities that were seen in perfection in the Lord Jesus, and the official glories with which He is invested and in which He will soon be publicly manifested, are such as could only be found attached to holy Manhood.

• The figure of a tree suggests what He was as growing up here; it is used of Him in different forms: "a tender sapling", "a root out of dry ground", "the Branch". But it is an entirely new kind of humanity, seen in One who did no sin, and who knew no sin, and in whom was no sin.

• The "acacia-wood" may also, as seen in the boards of the tabernacle, set forth what the saints are as born of incorruptible seed, and as formed in the moral qualities of the new man. There is that in them which corresponds morally with Christ, so that John can say,
  • "which thing is true in him and in you".

Then we come to types of the Spirit. "Oil for the light". In relation to the divine system the only Source of light is the Holy Spirit.

• Christendom is full of human substitutes for the Holy Spirit – trained intellect, impressive ritual, and much even amongst believers that is really an attempt to illustrate or explain truth so that the natural mind may be able to take it in.

• But "oil for the light" is absolutely essential. If saints do not give place to the Spirit they will not have divine light. We need to realize more the presence of the Holy Spirit.

• The Lord when here prepared a vessel for the Spirit; then He died to accomplish redemption, and went as a risen and glorified Man to the right hand of God in order that the Spirit might be given at Pentecost to fill the prepared vessel.

• The Spirit is here to maintain the ministry of Christ through the night of His rejection, and no other source of light has any spiritual value.

"Spices for the anointing oil". The priests and the whole tabernacle were to be anointed. The whole divine system and its service has to come under the anointing of "the Spirit all pervading".

• Everything that comes under the Headship of Christ shares in His anointing, and what we find here is that it is a fragrant anointing. Psalm 45: 8 gives the spices of the anointing:
  • "Myrrh and aloes, cassia, are all thy garments";

• everything is fragrant. Where the anointing is there must be the fragrance, for the "spices" are blended in it. Think how fragrant Christ was!

• But every grace that was fragrant in Christ is really blended in His Spirit, so that it may become characteristic of the priesthood, and of the whole divine system which is "the true tabernacle".

• One may say, 'I know I have the Spirit', but what about the "spices"? Is there a fragrance about us that cannot be hid? Are the precious graces of Christ yielding their sweet perfume in us?

"And for the incense of fragrant drugs".

• The spices in the anointing oil speak of the graces of Christ whose fragrance can be perceived by the saints with whom we come in contact,
  • but the "incense" is what is expressed of the Spirit of Christ God-ward, and for God's delight only.

• Out-breathings of desire, and of holy and intelligent exercise, which answer to God's thoughts and purposes of love – prayers which have a true sanctuary character, and which go up to God in the fragrance of the Spirit of Christ.

Lastly, the "onyx stones, and stones to be set in the ephod, and in the breastplate" bring the saints before us according to the way in which they are sustained by Christ as Priest, and carried on His heart before God.

• The saints may be viewed as of divine generation – all alike children in the family of God – or they may be viewed in the diversity which marks them according to divine sovereignty. The stones in the breastplate represent them in the latter character.

• Each stone is diverse from the others; each carries a different ray of the glory and beauty of Christ. Peter is not like John, and John is not like Matthew; each has his own colour and beauty as derived from Christ, but all are held together in the breastplate in the unity of the testimony.

• Each saint is ever on the heart of Christ before God in accord with divine thoughts, and the object of His priestly service is that we should be sustained in the blessedness of those thoughts.

God has given us this wonderful summary of all the elements which go to make up the divine system as an introduction to what He would bring before us as to the tabernacle, which is a type of that system.

• God would have His people enriched, through grace, with the varied apprehensions of Himself and of Christ and of the Spirit that are here suggested. Apprehensions, too, of what the saints are called to be; their places in the divine system; and how they are sustained therein.

• He would have it all to take form in the affections of His saints so that it might become material in our souls for the true tabernacle. It is thus that His people are able to make Him a sanctuary.

• It is all to be constructed of spiritual material – the knowledge of God in Christ, and of all that Christ is as Head, learned in the light of the Spirit's ministry, and of all that the saints are as having come under the anointing, and as reflecting in many-coloured diversity the glory of Christ, and sustained ever by His priestly grace.

• How much energy in the affections is needed to become possessed of these things so as to be able to bring them as a heave-offering!

The contribution of each one was needed, and all had to be brought together.

• There was to be no independency, no breach of unity; each individual contribution had to find its place in relation to the whole. The tabernacle was one united whole, and all had eventually to come under the hand of Moses to be put together.

• The material had first to come from the affections of a devoted people, enriched through grace with that which had value before God, and which was suitable to His dwelling. Then it had to be constructed in the power of the Spirit, answering to spiritual formation. And finally it had to be put together
  • "as Jehovah had commanded Moses".

No type of Christ in Scripture is more wonderful than the ark, and in this chapter it is seen as "the ark of the testimony".

• That is a character of the ark peculiar to the wilderness; it is never spoken of as "the ark of the testimony" after the crossing of Jordan.

• Testimony is not needed in the sphere of resurrection or in heaven, for there is no evil or darkness there. (In Revelation 11: 19 it should read "the ark of his covenant".)

• Testimony is what comes into witness for God in a scene of darkness and contrariety, and every element of that witness is embodied in Christ, so that there is no true testimony except as He is held in our affections.

It is well to remember that in normal conditions the ark had its place in the holiest, and could only be contemplated there.

• I do not think that we could rightly understand what is presented in Exodus 25 except in the light of the holiest.

• Entering into the holiest is not a privilege reserved for very advanced saints; Scripture rather puts it as open to all who have remission of sins. See Hebrews 10: 14-22. If you have remission of sins in the witness of the Spirit you have the freedom of the holiest.

• Now the question is, Have you a true heart? Do you really love the Lord Jesus Christ? If so, you will delight to approach in full assurance of faith, sprinkled as to your heart from a wicked conscience, and washed as to your body with pure water, to contemplate all that Christ is as the Ark of the testimony and the Ark of the covenant.

"The Ark of the covenant" is Christ as the One in whom the love of God is made known, and the perfect answer to that love in a Man. Everything that gives character to the covenant is set forth in Him.

• "The love of God, which is in Christ Jesus", Romans 8: 39

• suggests to my mind the Ark of the covenant. Christ Jesus is the One in whom is perfectly set forth the disposition and thoughts of God man-ward.

• But then we cherish Him, too, as the One in whom all the suited conditions on man's side are secured also. Man is in the presence of the holy love of God in perfect response to it without a cloud or a trace of distance.

• And nothing can separate God's elect from that. It is eternally secured in Christ as the Ark of the covenant.

"The ark of Jehovah" is Christ as the One in whom all the rights of Jehovah are maintained. It is at the Jordan that this title comes in:

• "the ark of Jehovah, the Lord of all the earth", Joshua 3: 13.

• He asserts His title to everything, and maintains it in power. It was the far-reaching power of "the ark of Jehovah" that caused the waters of Jordan to stand "in a heap, very far".

• It was "the ark of Jehovah" that compassed Jericho and brought down its walls.

• And it was before "the ark of Jehovah" that Dagon fell on his face.

• Power completely victorious over all the strength of death and the enemy is seen in the ark under this title.

In the time of Eli they tried to use the ark to secure victory over the Philistines when their own moral condition was not at all in keeping with it, but God would not allow this to succeed.

• They thought they could repeat the triumph of Jericho, but the attempt only ended in disaster; the ark of God was taken.
  • "The ark of God" is a title much used in days when God had not His true place in Israel.

• Its being taken by the Philistines was the departure of glory from Israel. Its being brought back to Bethshemesh by the kine, and afterwards to the city of David by the king, strikingly pictures how all that is due to God has been maintained in the face of His public dishonour here.

• Christ has restored that which He took not away. He has brought it back in a path of suffering love, but of complete devotedness, which ended in the offering up of Himself.

• In a coming day as the true Solomon He will bring it all to its proper and public honour.

• In the meantime the place of the ark in the house of Abinadab on the hill, and in the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite, and "in the midst of the tent that David had spread for it", suggests
  • different aspects in which Christ is cherished and honoured before the day of His public recognition as Centre and Head of all things in the dispensation of the fulness of times.

In the wilderness the ark went before the people to search out a resting-place for them.

• But in moving forward there is always sure to be conflict. Hence, when the ark set forward, Moses said,
  • "Rise up, Jehovah, and let thine enemies be scattered; and let them that hate thee flee before thy face".

• But when the ark rested there was restful enjoyment for the time of the presence of Jehovah, so Moses said,
  • "Return, Jehovah, unto the myriads of the thousands of Israel", Numbers 10: 33-36.

• If the two and a half tribes had really been identified in their affections with the ark they would not have wanted to stop on the wrong side of Jordan when the ark went over.

The ark was to be made of acacia-wood.

• This speaks of a holy and incorruptible humanity brought in by the power of the Holy Ghost, and in which everything was suitable for the setting forth of the glory of God in a Man.

• There is clearly a difference between the acacia-wood, and the pure gold with which it was covered. The acacia-wood sets forth the kind of Man that Christ was as begotten in the virgin of the Holy Ghost.
  • "The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and power of the Highest overshadow thee, wherefore the holy thing also which shall be born shall be called Son of God", Luke 1: 35.

• There was nothing in Him but what was suitable for the Spirit of God to come into contact with. Everything inwardly and outwardly was of such a character that the Holy Spirit of God could descend upon Him and abide on Him.

• But then this was in view of all that God was being expressed in a Man, and this is the gold. The acacia-wood and the gold came into most intimate contact in the type, though clearly distinguishable one from the other, and we see what answers to both in Christ – perfection in Manhood, and the setting forth of all that God is in a Man.

"A border of gold" is on the ark, the table, and the golden altar. It indicates something which applies in a distinctive way to these three types.

• The ark is that of the testimony,

• the table speaks of an order and administration in which the people of God are maintained before Him in accord with the testimony,

• and the golden altar teaches us that all is sustained by intercession – by the activity of dependent affections.

• The "border of gold" – a double border in the case of the table – is in each case "round about". It seems to intimate that the apprehension of Christ in each type is to be held in the soul as surrounded – one might say, guarded – by a distinct sense of the divine glory of His Person.

• This is essential to any right thought of the testimony or the covenant, and it is essential to all priestly intercession, and the type would suggest that it is doubly essential, if one may say so, to any true communion of saints in accord with divine order and administration.

• This will come before us, if God will, when we consider the table.

Then the "rings" and the "staves" – whether on the ark or the other things – tell us plainly that all was intended to be carried.

• Everything that is of God, every divine thought that has been made good in Christ, is to be carried in testimony through the wilderness. This is an important part of Levitical service, and it has to be carried out under priestly direction.

• It is the privilege of all who have the Spirit to be Kohathites, and to bear the most holy vessels, but how far we are spiritually competent to take up this service is another matter.
  • "Be ye clean, that bear the vessels of Jehovah", Isaiah 52: 11, is a very important word in this connection.

No one is debarred from being a Kohathite if he has desire and affection to take up this service. But only sanctified persons can take charge of the ark.

• The men of Kirjath-Jearim had a sense of what was due to the ark when they hallowed Abinadab's son Eleazar to keep it. 1 Samuel 7: 1.

• I do not think that Uzzah was a hallowed person; his touching the ark was not a hallowed touch, so "he died by the ark of God", 2 Samuel 6: 7.

• Indeed, putting the ark on "a new cart" was not at all "after the due order"; such an expedient might be allowed in Philistines, but not in David.

• The religious world uses many "new carts", but woe betide us if we depart from "the due order".

When the ark was brought into the temple the staves seem to have been partly removed to indicate that its journeyings were over, and it was now in rest.

• But "the ends of the staves were seen from the holy place before the oracle", 1 Kings 8: 8.

• Every divine thought will be brought to fruition and rest as manifested in glory, but it will never be forgotten amid the holy splendour of the kingdom that all was once carried in testimony through a scene of difficulty.

• It will never be forgotten that saints have carried the ark in testimony for two thousand years before it was brought to the place of its rest. There will be no burden-bearing then; so that we find each family of the Levites taking its part in the service of song.

• But even in the wilderness the ark was not always being carried. From time to time it sought out a resting-place for the people. That answers to the coming together in assembly, where it may be realized that:

"The Spirit's power
Has ope'd the heavenly door,
Has brought us to that favoured hour
When toil shall all be o'er". [Hymn 74]

"And thou … shalt put in the ark the testimony that I shall give thee".

• In chapters 19 and 24 the law is spoken of as the covenant, and morally the covenant comes before the testimony. That is, we must know the covenant before we can be really identified with the testimony.

• The covenant is private rather than public; it is the bond between God and His people, the terms proposed by Him and definitely accepted by them as committed to Him in affection.

• If we are not in "the bond of the covenant", how could we be identified with the testimony? The testimony is the public witness on God's part. As written with His finger on
  • "the two tables of testimony, tables of stone", Exodus 31: 18,

• it signifies that His will is to prevail universally. But this was to be brought about by the introduction of One who could say,
  • "Behold, I come, in the volume of the book it is written of me, To do thy good pleasure, my God, is my delight, and thy law is within my heart", Psalm 40: 7-8.

The will of God – His good pleasure – has come into the world as having its place in the heart of Christ, and just as everything in the tabernacle centred in the ark, and, one might say, took character from it,

• so Christ has come in to be the Head and Centre of God's moral universe, and to give character to everything that stands in relation to Him.

• At the present moment God is giving testimony to His good pleasure by setting forth Christ as the One who came to do it. Hebrews 10 is a wonderful setting forth of the will of God as brought in and established by Christ.

Christ is the Ark of the testimony. The will of God has come into the world in a way of supreme blessing for man.

• Every man may now be blessed in Christ according to the good pleasure of God without any compromise of what is due to God.

• To believe in Christ is to accept His Headship, and to be blessed in Him according to the wealth of God's good pleasure.

• But if the divine testimony is refused or disregarded, judgment is inevitable, for God's will must prevail. If man's lawless will is not judged and set aside in repentance, in presence of all the blessedness of God's will made known in Christ, it must go out as expelled from His presence in judgment. It is utterly unfit to have a place with Him; it cannot be part of the reconciled universe.

How blessed to get an apprehension of Christ as the Ark of the testimony! To see Him as the One who not only delighted to do God's will personally, but as great enough to give effect to God's pleasure in relation to men, and indeed to all things.

• It is God's pleasure that men should be blessed through believing in Him who has come to give effect to His will in a scene of lawlessness. Those who believe on Him receive His Spirit, and are thus brought into moral accord with Him.

• They then delight to contemplate Christ as the Ark of the testimony – to see in Him the expression of God's blessed will, and to know that He will make that will the law of the universe.

• The will of God is known in Christ as a will to bless man infinitely, so that, though fallen and lost through sin, he may know God as One who willed his blessing, and who sent forth One who came in obedience and love to establish that will.

• Christ is the great Testimony of what is in the will of God for man, and indeed for the universe. God has made Him the Head of every man, the Head of all principality and authority, the Head over all things. Everything must take character from Christ; this is God's great testimony in His universe.

Christ coming to do the will of God, and with God's law in His heart, was with a view to God being known as sovereign in mercy.

• The Ark of the testimony sustains the Mercy-seat, and from above the Mercy-seat God speaks with the Mediator, and through Him to His people.

"Thou shalt make a mercy-seat of pure gold". God sets forth in the Mercy-seat what is altogether of Himself, hence it is of "pure gold".

• It supposes utter and hopeless ruin on man's side, so that nothing but mercy will meet the case; everything must stand in mercy. It is God coming out according to what He is in Himself when His creature has become fallen and lost.

• It is the setting forth of God's righteousness in the way of mercy, but it is founded on the fact that His will has been established in Christ. The Ark supports the Mercy-seat.

It is through death that Christ has become the Mercy-seat; the blood is on the gold.

• Man being what he is, and God being what He is, death was a necessity if God's rights in mercy were to be established.
  • "The redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God has set forth a mercy-seat, through faith in his blood,

    "for the shewing forth of his righteousness in the present time, so that he should be just, and justify him that is of the faith of Jesus", Romans 3: 24-26.

Nothing is more wonderful than that God should assert His sovereign rights in the way of mercy and grace. The Mercy-seat was sustained and measured by the Ark of the testimony.

• God has brought in One by whom His will has been done, and by whom His pleasure will be established in the whole universe. It is in Him that God sets forth His righteousness in the way of mercy.

• Christ coming to do the will of God involved the removal of man after the flesh, and the glorifying of God as to all that that man was, and had done, and this becomes the support of the Mercy-seat.

It was a wonderful moment when God had Christ here under His eye. We can understand the heavenly host saying,

• "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good pleasure in men".

• The Ark was there, and everything was secured for God and man; the sure pledge of everything was there; an unshakable pillar for the support of God's moral universe. But all this involved His death; we can only read the Gospels rightly in the light of His death.

• The Epistles really prepare us for the Gospels, for they show us – Romans for example – how every question that was connected with our guilt and state has been met, and that sets us free to come to the Gospels and contemplate that wonderful Person who is the Ark of the covenant and the Ark of the testimony.

• Then in the light of the Epistles and the Gospels we can take up the Old Testament Scriptures and see how "the things concerning himself" are everywhere and presented with most instructive detail, and in moral connections that add greatly to our apprehensions of Christ.

Then the two cherubim of gold were to be made "out of the mercy-seat … at the two ends thereof".

• The only place where cherubim had appeared before was as guarding the way to the tree of life. Genesis 3. Man, as fallen, could not be allowed access to the tree of life to perpetuate a sinful life upon the earth.

• But the cherubim are seen here in a very different character. In Genesis 3 they were found with "the flame of the flashing sword", but what is made prominent here is their outstretched wings over the mercy-seat.

• I think the cherubim are representative of what must ever be attendant on God's throne; they enforce in a judicial way what is morally suitable to all the attributes of God.
  • "Righteousness and judgment are the foundation of thy throne".

• The seraphim seem to be more identified with the divine nature; they ascribe holiness to God, and fly with the swiftness of divine love. Isaiah 6.

• But when God comes out as revealed in Christ according to what He is in His nature, it is seen that all His attributes are in perfect accord with mercy. His throne can take publicly the character of a Mercy-seat, and be glorified in doing so.

• The cherubim were to be made "out of the mercy-seat", and they were to cover it over with their wings. In Christ and through His death all God's attributes are seen to be in accord with what is in His heart. God's rights in mercy are secured and protected by all His attributes. As we sing:

"The glories that compose thy Name
All stand engaged to make us blest". [Hymn 330]

His righteousness, and all that is concerned in His moral government of the universe, are in harmony with His sovereign mercy. How could this be, save through the death of Christ?

• We can understand it now, but it is divinely wonderful, and it claims adoration and praise from every heart that perceives it.

"Toward the mercy-seat shall the faces of the cherubim be turned".

• They were not to look outward to take account, as it were, of man's state or guilt,
  • but inward and downward on that "pure gold" which ever carried, as we know, the blood sprinkled there on the day of atonement.

• The righteousness of God is not at the present moment taking account of men's sins and their state for judgment, but is taking account of the infinite value of the blood of Christ, so that men universally are in God's view from the standpoint of Christ and His death.

• Justification, forgiveness, reconciliation, are God's thoughts – what He has in His heart – for all men. People do not believe it, but it is so. God would be known by all men as having come out in Christ, and as having secured His rights in mercy through the death of Christ. He is a Saviour God; it is His glory to be so.

Then it is "from above the mercy-seat, from between the two cherubim which are upon the ark of the testimony", that God speaks.

• All that He has to say to men at the present time is from thence, whether it be to His people or to men universally. The Mediator is introduced also.
  • "There will I meet with thee, and will speak with thee".

• God is speaking to men by Christ, and all that He says is in keeping with what Christ is as the Ark and the Mercy-seat. It is the speaking out of all that God is in supreme and infinite grace. And it can be spoken because the testimony is in the Ark.

• God's will has been done, His glory and all that was due to Him maintained even as to sin, the man that was an offence to Him removed. The Ark with the testimony in it is the support of the Mercy-seat, and the wings of the cherubim cover it.

"God's righteousness with glory bright,
Which with its radiance fills that sphere,
E'en Christ, of God the power and light,
Our title is that light to share.

O mind divine, so must it be
That glory all belongs to God:
O love divine, that did decree
We should be part, through Jesus' blood.

O keep us, love divine, near Thee,
That we our nothingness may know,
And ever to Thy glory be
Walking in faith while here below". [Hymn 88]

The set feasts in Leviticus 23 are repeatedly spoken of as "an everlasting statute", and so are the dressing of the lamps, and the eating of the shew-bread by Aaron and his sons. But placing the shew-bread before Jehovah is

• "on the part of the children of Israel: an everlasting covenant".

• There is in it the thought of a bond between God and His people; it seems to indicate the pleasure of God in having Christ thus before Him as identified with His people, and also their pleasure in taking up and answering to His thought.

The word "continually" suggests to me what abides under the eye of God.

• "And it shall be a bread of remembrance".

• The saints in divine order, as typified by the cakes of shew-bread, become the memorial of Christ before God. It is said that Moses "arranged the bread in order" upon the table before Jehovah, or, as it is literally,
  • "set in order upon it the order of bread", Exodus 40: 22-23.

• The "order" is emphasized, and I think we are justified in saying that any order which is pleasing to God must be a spiritual order, and not merely outward correctness.

• The bread on the table does not typify what is before men, nor does it speak quite of what the saints are as set together in fellowship for the support of the testimony in a hostile scene. We shall come to that presently in other types.

• But here it is what the saints are as sustained by Christ, having Him as their life, and carrying His fragrance – as having frankincense upon each row, Leviticus 24: 5-9 – under God's eye for His pleasure.

• It is in keeping, if I understand it aright, with the truth as presented in the Epistle to the Colossians – the spiritual order of the saints as under God's eye.
  • "I am with you in spirit, rejoicing and seeing your order".

• What was before Paul was that the Colossian saints should hold fast
  • "the head, from whom all the body, ministered to and united together by the joints and bands", should increase "with the increase of God".

• He would have the body to come into view, and a spiritual order that was in keeping with the mystery, not exactly for testimony but for the pleasure of God.

Christ is presented in Colossians as "the head of all principality and authority".

• The universe will be set in order for the divine pleasure under His headship, but before He is manifested in this character
  • "He is the head of the body, the assembly".

• He sustains a spiritual order of things which is for the pleasure of God – the continuation of Christ here in His body for God's delight – the bread of remembrance before Him.

• There is no spiritual order for God's pleasure in Israel yet; there will be in another day;
  • but in the meantime Gentile saints as sustained by Christ and holding Him as Head, are before God, having Him as their life, and having His fragrant grace upon them, Colossians 3: 12-17, and they are for God's delight – His elect, holy and beloved.

• They will soon be manifested with Christ in glory to be in universal administration – the number twelve speaks of this – but all that is in divine order, and suitable to be in administration for God, has come before His eye already in His saints.

I am speaking of the divine thought; I do not say how much or how little it has been spiritually made good in us. We see the deep exercises of the Apostle as to this.

• But God puts it before us as His thought in regard to us that we may be exercised about it. If Paul and Epaphras agonized for the saints it might be well if we, too, laboured fervently in prayer that we and all saints might stand perfect and complete in all that is in God's will for us.

The loaves on the "pure table" suggest that it is God's will that all His people should be before Him in spiritual order as a remembrance of Christ.

• This order and memorial would come out very much in the way we walk together, and in all our mutual relations as saints.

• I am not thinking, for the moment, of testimony, but of those holy bonds and relations in the divine nature, and that mutual flow of nourishment, encouragement, increase, and knitting together which are delightful to God as developing before Him the present fruit of the Headship of Christ in the saints as His body.

• It is this side of things which I believe to be suggested in the table and "the bread of the presence". It is a great thing when exercise is found with saints as to what is before God for His pleasure.
  • "Shew-bread before me continually".

• The consideration of this would give an entirely different character to the exercises of many of us.

The table is typical of Christ as the One who can sustain His saints in a divine and spiritual order for the pleasure of God. But for this to be brought about in reality He must be held as Head.

• I think the way that Paul enlarges upon the greatness and glory of Christ in Colossians 1 very much answers to the "border of gold round about" the table. He would have us to know the divine glory of the Head. Then, again, it is said,
  • "Thou shalt make for it a margin of a handbreadth round about".

• The word here translated "margin" is found in Psalm 18: 45 and Micah 7: 17, where the marginal reading is in each case "fortified places". It suggests a necessity for the defence and safeguarding of all that the "pure table" represents. Paul says,
  • "To the end that we may present every man perfect in Christ. Whereunto also I toil, combating according to his working, which works in me in power.

    "For I would have you know what combat I have for you … to the end that their hearts may be encouraged, being united together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the full knowledge of the mystery of God; in which are hid all the treasures of wisdom and of knowledge.

    "And I say this to the end that no one may delude you by persuasive speech … . See that there be no one who shall lead you away as a prey through philosophy and vain deceit, according to the teaching of men, according to the elements of the world, and not according to Christ".

• All this seems to me to be in keeping with the thought suggested by the "margin" or "fortified place" round about the table. And then he adds what may answer to the "border of gold for the margin thereof round about" when he says,
  • "For in him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily; and ye are complete in him, who is the head of all principality and authority".

In the spiritual order which Christ sustains for the pleasure of God, everything is really of Himself.

• "Christ is everything and in all".

• If we have before us that there is such an order, it becomes a deep exercise that nothing should be admitted that is contrary to it. Hence the combating of Paul and Epaphras for the Colossians.

• The enemy has ever sought, and ever will seek, to bring in that which would mar the spiritual order by the introduction of elements which are not according to Christ, so as to spoil God's pleasure in His saints.

• If the will and wisdom of man are kept out, and nothing allowed but what is of Christ, the saints as holding the Head would be for God's pleasure; they would be sustained in holy and divine order.

God would teach us by the "pure table" the ability of Christ as Head to sustain the saints in a spiritual order for His pleasure. His body, deriving from Him, carries His graces for God's pleasure.

• To hold the Head is an exercise of affection. We do not become pleasurable to God by effort, but by holding Christ as Head in reverence and affection.

• It is as much the mind of God that we should be before Him for His pleasure in a spiritual order as that we should be justified. The more we see this, and perceive the greatness and divine glory of Christ who can sustain His saints in such an order, the more jealously shall we watch against every intrusion of what is unholy and of man's mind.

• In that which Christ sustains in all the grace of Headship there is nothing but what is of Himself.
  • "Wherein there is not Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bondman, freeman; but Christ is everything and in all", Colossians 3: 11.

It is the aspect of the table God-ward that is the subject in Exodus. It has not only the shew-bread, but

• "the dishes thereof, and cups thereof, and goblets thereof, and bowls thereof, with which to pour out: of pure gold shalt thou make them".

• These things speak of the saints as holy vessels for the outpouring before God of joy and praise, everything in His service being by the Spirit of God and thus answering to "pure gold", and all sustained by Christ.

• All is seen in the type according to the purity and perfection of the divine thought, that we may know the true character of what is pleasurable to God. To answer to it spiritually requires the taking up of the exercises of Colossians 3: 5-15.

We learn from Leviticus 24 that the cakes of shew-bread were twelve in number. This suggests an administrative thought. It intimates that what is pleasurable to God will be set in administration for God.

• The holy city in Revelation 21 answers perfectly to measurement by the "golden reed"; it comes up to every requirement of divine pleasure; and hence it can become the great centre of divine administration. God intends to order and benefit the universe by setting forth all that is of Himself in His saints.

• The blessed knowledge of God as known in the Ark and Mercy-seat will be administered in the universe through the twelve gates of the holy city. The out-goings of the city are towards "the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel", for their names are inscribed at the gates thereof. And on earth the twelve tribes will have an administrative place towards the nations.

• Divine order will appear in the universe where lawlessness has been; it will be seen in the holy and heavenly city, and it will be seen on earth in the twelve tribes, and its influence will extend to all that comes into reconciliation. All will be sustained by Christ as Head, for God's
  • "good pleasure which he purposed in himself for the administration of the fulness of times" is "to head up all things in the Christ, the things in the heavens and the things upon the earth".

Israel will then have the Spirit of Christ, and as having the law written in their hearts they will be in divine order and administration. God will be able to say of them,

• "This people have I formed for myself"

• – that would answer to the "shew-bread before me" – then
  • "they shall shew forth my praise" would answer to the administrative place in which He will set them.

The sabbath day prefigures the rest of God when all this will come to fruition.

• "Every Sabbath day he shall arrange it before Jehovah continually".

• It is striking that the only two priestly activities specially connected with the Sabbath day are the offering of "the burnt-offering of the sabbath" with its meat-offering and drink-offering, Numbers 28: 9-10, and the arranging and eating of the shew-bread.

• One gives the ground on which the rest of God will be brought in, and the other is typical of the divine order in which Israel will be sustained before God for His pleasure, and in administration for Him.

The table sets forth Christ, I believe, in His ability to sustain His saints in an order of things which is of Himself, and which is, in the first place, pleasurable to God, and which can then be in administration for God.

• Before the day when all this will have its answer in Israel, it has an answer spiritually in saints of the assembly as they hold Christ as Head.

• One owns with sorrow the feebleness and departure which are evidenced on all hands. But strength and recovery are brought about by a return to the divine thought.
  • The revival of the truth of the Headship of Christ is the distinctive feature of God's present ways with His saints,

• and as we hold Him as Head, the different features suggested as sustained by the table – the bread of the presence, the vessels for out-pouring before God, and the divine administration – will assuredly be in evidence.

At the end of each week the shew-bread became the food of Aaron and his sons. What is before God for His pleasure becomes food for the priesthood.

• All that Christ is as identified with His saints, and as giving character to them for God's pleasure, is to be fed upon. The saints viewed as the priesthood are privileged to feed upon it – to appropriate what Christ is, not only in what He is personally,
  • but in what He is as in relation to those "reconciled in the body of his flesh through death", and whom He presents "holy and unblameable and irreproachable before" the Fulness of the Godhead.

• God would have us to be nourished and sustained by all that which was so perfectly to His delight as seen in Christ personally, but which is now to His delight as seen in His elect saints, holy and beloved, the continuation of Christ as His body here. If we feed on this we shall understand the mystery, and know that His body is here, which is the assembly.

We may see in 1 Corinthians 10 how Paul passes from the thought of "the body of the Christ" – referring to Christ personally – to the thought of the saints being

• "one loaf, one body; for we all partake of that one loaf".

• The shew-bread is Christ in His continuing character. The word "continually" is to be noted, and it is "on the part of the children of Israel". It is that which is carried on "continually" here on the part of the saints for God's pleasure.

• It is good to feed on this in a holy place – to be nourished and strengthened by the appropriation of it into one's moral being.

It is the privilege of the priests to feed on Christ in many different characters – as the meat-offering, as the sin-offering, as the breast and shoulder of the peace-offering, as the consecration offering – but the last to be presented in Leviticus is feeding on Him as the shew-bread.

• It involves for us, if we are able to take it up, the knowledge of the mystery, and personal identification with it, so that we come out here as strengthened for the expression of Christ under the eye of God.

• Just as we are built up and strengthened physically by what we feed on, so are we built up and strengthened spiritually by what is given to us as priestly food, so that we may take character from it.

But this is not found in Exodus. It is the table as sustaining what is upon it, whether it be the golden vessels or the shew-bread.

• It is Christ as the One who sustains every vessel from which there is an out-pouring of joy and praise in God's service, and who sustains "continually" that which is a pleasure to God as the continuation of Himself in His saints.

Aaron had to light the lamps "between the two evenings", Exodus 30: 8, and they burned "from evening to morning", Leviticus 24: 3.

• I take it that the lamp-stand and its lamps speak of Christ as sustaining light for His saints "continually" by the ministry of Himself in the power of the Holy Ghost. For it is to be noted that the lamps were to shine out before the lamp-stand, Exodus 25: 37, and
  • "the seven lamps shall give light over against the lamp-stand", Numbers 8: 2.

• This seems to intimate that the primary object of the lamps was to throw light on the lamp-stand itself.

• Then we read further in chapter 26: 35 that the lamp-stand was to be "opposite to the table"; this would seem to suggest that the saints as represented by the shew-bread on the table – are to be continually in the shining of the lamps.

The ministry of Christ by the Spirit is not sustained without much exercise. It is not as if Christ and the Spirit were acting directly without vessels;

• they act through human vessels, whether it be primarily the apostles and prophets, or other gifts and vessels of ministry.

• This brings in an element of exercise connected with what is divinely wrought, so that there may be spiritual competency to minister Christ through the way in which God has made Him known in the affections and spiritual intelligence of His servants. I think the "beaten work" speaks of this, and we may also note what is said in chapter 27: 20,
  • "And thou shalt command the children of Israel, that they bring thee olive oil, pure, beaten, for the light, to light the lamp continually".

• The same character attaches to the oil as to the lamp-stand. While the oil clearly typifies the Spirit, it is the Spirit viewed as acting through human vessels, and therefore there must always be the element of exercise and diligence, so that what is of Christ and the Spirit may be known and preserved in purity, and the candlestick may truly answer to its description as "the pure candlestick".

The "beaten work" was the result of patient and skilful labour – a striking contrast to the golden calf which was cast in a mould.

• What is idolatrous, or according to man's mind, can be quickly and easily cast into shape,
  • but for the shining forth of what is of Christ in the power of the Spirit there must be "beaten work" and "beaten oil".

• It suggests spiritual exercises leading to apprehensions of the preciousness of Christ which become available in ministry as light. It is only as "the unsearchable riches of the Christ" are known that they can become available as light in the holy place.

• We see in the apostles men who were divinely wrought, and had apprehensions and appreciations of Christ which they ministered as light amongst the saints, and this ministry of Christ is to be maintained "continually".

• It was the first service and care of Aaron and his sons – the priestly family – "to light the lamp continually", 27: 20-21.

The children of Israel had to furnish the lamp-oil. A people giving place to the Spirit, and walking in self-judgment, are spiritual, and support the light.

• Praying in the Holy Ghost is a good way to supply oil for the light. Many prayers are just the expression of personal needs, but it is a blessed thing to get into the line of desires which are formed in the Holy Ghost so that one prays in the Spirit for Christ's interests, and for the ministry of Himself.

• That the ministry of Christ in the power of the Spirit should be maintained is the first care of the holy priesthood. The state of a carnal people, instead of ministering to the light, really hinders the light from shining.
  • "And I, brethren, have not been able to speak to you as to spiritual, but as to fleshly; as to babes in Christ", 1 Corinthians 3: 1.

Then it is a priestly exercise to dress the lamps, and to use "the snuffers thereof, and the snuff-trays thereof, of pure gold".

• The provision of such utensils shows that the lamp-stand and its lamps typify Christ as ministered by the Holy Ghost through human vessels. If it were Christ personally one need hardly say there would be no need for "snuffers", nor if the Spirit were viewed apart from the vessels in which He dwells.

• But if it speaks of the ministry of Christ maintained by the Spirit as light through human vessels, one can understand that an element of responsibility comes in, and a constant need for the golden "snuffers" and "snuff-trays". They speak of the careful removal of everything that would tend to dim the light.

• In 1 Corinthians Paul was using the golden snuffers to remove that which was causing the light to burn dim, but in 2 Corinthians I think we may say he was rather replenishing the lamps with oil!

The ministry of the apostles was a pure and unadulterated ministry of Christ.

• They had been called to know Him in a peculiar and blessed way, their knowledge of Christ was divinely wrought, and their own exercises and the way they were instructed and disciplined in view of their service all had the "beaten work" character
  • and it resulted in their ability to set forth Christ in ministry in the power of the Holy Ghost, so that though Christ was personally absent He was maintained in ministry as light in the holy place.

• And we see what care they exercised that nothing should dim the light.
  • "Giving no manner of offence in anything, that the ministry be not blamed; but in everything commending ourselves as God's ministers, in much endurance, in afflictions … in watchings, in fastings, in pureness, in knowledge, in long-suffering, in kindness, in the Holy Ghost, in love unfeigned, in the word of truth, in the power of God …", 2 Corinthians 6: 3-7.

Christ as known in the ministry of the apostles is the light of the holy place.

• The Holy Spirit came to bring all things to their remembrance whatsoever He had said to them, and He came also to be the witness of all that He is at the right hand of God.

• That Divine Person in whose power the apostles presented Christ in ministry is still here to glorify Christ.

• It should be a great exercise with us that nothing should be allowed which would hinder or grieve Him, and that Christ should be so known in the affections of His own that the ministry of Himself should be maintained in spiritual completeness – seven lamps would speak of this – and in undimmed brightness and purity.

• The seven lamps would suggest that the ministry of Christ by the Spirit comes out in its perfection through different vessels. We see this very distinctly in the apostles, and in principle it is so still.

The "base" of the lamp-stand – it is, literally, "thigh" – would suggest, I think, the truth as to His Person and work which is the strength and support of everything that is contained in the ministry of Christ.

• Its "branches" would indicate the widespread scope of all that is presented in that ministry.

• The "cups" in six series of three, and in one series of four, would perhaps speak in figure of the divine and universal supply which the fulness of Christ affords, and which is made known in the ministry of Himself.

The "knobs" or "chapiters" are closely connected with the "flowers". I understand that the word signifies the ornamental work at the head of a sculptured column.

• The only other places where it occurs are Amos 9: 1 and Zephaniah 2: 14. Amos 9: 1 speaks of that which is elevated and conspicuous in Israel being smitten, and in Zephaniah 2: 14 it is the pride and glory of Nineveh which are seen to be given over to the pelican and the bittern.

• The prophets thus show how the "chapiters" – everything that appeared to be eminent and glorious – both in Israel and among the Gentiles will be laid low.

• But the Spirit of God shows us in Exodus 25 "chapiters" on the lamp-stand, suggesting the dignity and eminence which attach to Christ as the One who, though cast aside as worthless by men, will yet be "the head of the corner".

• Everything that is rightly conspicuous, and that has true beauty and ornament, and is suited for elevation to the supreme place, is seen in Christ, and is ministered by the Spirit in the holy place as attaching to Him.

The "flowers" suggest a corresponding thought. This word is used of the lily-blossoms on the rim of Solomon's brazen sea, and of the blossom which appeared on Aaron's rod. Numbers 17: 8. In each of these cases its reference to Christ is as obvious as it is in the lamp-stand.

• There are only three other occurrences of the word.
  • "Their blossom shall go up as dust; for they have rejected the law of Jehovah of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel", Isaiah 5: 24. That is Judah and Jerusalem.

  • "For before the harvest, when the blossoming is over and the flower becometh a ripening grape, he shall both cut off the sprigs with pruning-knives, and take away and cut down the branches", Isaiah 18: 5.

    That is the end of all that may be done by the "land shadowing with wings" to restore the Jews to their own land. All human attempts to restore them will end in failure and judgment.

  • "Bashan languisheth, and Carmel, and the flower of Lebanon languisheth", Nahum 1: 4. These are the most fertile spots naturally.

• It is striking that in each case the "flower" is seen as withered to dust, or as cut off, or as languishing.

• But when we turn to the lamp-stand we see "flowers" of perennial beauty and freshness, for they are brought forth in the power of an endless life.

• The "almonds" carry our thoughts to Numbers 17, where Aaron's staff "for the house of Levi" had budded and brought forth buds, and bloomed blossoms – same word as "flowers" in Exodus 25 – and "ripened almonds".

• For the dead staff thus to bring forth is a clear type of resurrection, and the lamp-stand is marked by the sign of resurrection. It is Christ as the Risen One who is set forth in it, and everything in Him is beyond the reach of death; it is unfading and eternal.

"Almond" means "watchful" or "vigilant", and is used with this signification in Jeremiah 1: 11-12.

• "And I said, I see a rod of an almond tree. And Jehovah said unto me, Thou hast well seen; for I am watchful over my word to perform it".

• God has seen to it that His every word and promise has been substantiated in a Risen Christ.

• It is of interest to know that the almond-tree is the first of all trees to bud. If everything fails and comes to the dust of death in connection with man in the flesh, God has seen to it that all His thoughts and purposes have been established in Christ Risen. Everything there is glorious, incorruptible, and unfading.

Christ is the Subject of all true ministry, and He is also the Sustainer of it, so that it becomes the blessed evidence that He is alive for evermore.

• The gifts come from an ascended Christ, and their presence and ministry bears witness that Christ is victorious and living.

It is noticeable that no dimensions are given of the lamp-stand, but its weight is specified.

• "Of a talent of pure gold shall they make it".

• All true ministry of Christ must be marked by moral weight in itself and in its ministers; there can be no levity about it. "Did I then use lightness?"

It is helpful to see the different connections in which the lighting of the lamps is referred to. In Exodus 25 they throw their light on the lamp-stand itself; this is the primary thought.

• The Spirit is here to glorify Christ, to display every feature of His glory and beauty, and to cause it to be illumed by living light. Whenever a priest entered the holy place at night the first object to arrest and engage his attention must have been the golden lamp-stand shining in the light of its seven lamps.

• The Spirit's ministry makes Christ the all-glorious and attractive Object in the holy place.

Then in Exodus 26: 35 we are told the lamp-stand was to be set "opposite to the table".

• This would suggest that the saints, as represented by the cakes of shew-bread, are set in the shining of Christ as made known by the Spirit's ministry.

Numbers 8 gives the lighting of the lamps immediately before the cleansing of the Levites,

• indicating that all service must be regulated in the light of the ministry of Christ, and must take character from it.

Then in Leviticus 24 the command as to the light is repeated in another and a solemn connection.

• Here it precedes the account of the man – product of an unholy alliance between an Israelitish woman and an Egyptian – who blasphemed the Name. This speaks of apostasy. But even at such a time the lamp is to be kept burning.

• We can discern in our own day in an unmistakable manner the working and development of elements which are really apostate. But in presence of such conditions the ministry of Christ is to be maintained in its purity and spiritual power.

• It is the divine antidote to every evil of the last days in a corrupt profession. It is an abiding exercise for all the people of God, and for the holy priesthood, that it should be maintained. And we may note what is said in Exodus 30: 7-8. Referring to the golden altar, it is said,
  • "And Aaron shall burn thereon fragrant incense; every morning, when he dresseth the lamps, he shall burn the incense. And when Aaron lighteth the lamps between the two evenings, he shall burn the incense – a continual incense before Jehovah throughout your generations".

• This speaks of continual prayer in connection with the continual light, and it indicates plainly that the ministry of Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit is maintained by priestly intercession.

• How much Paul prayed, and how earnestly he sought the prayers of the saints! It is our privilege to keep the light burning through the activity of dependent affections.

The seven golden lamp-stands in the Revelation represent the assemblies as in responsible witness here. They show that the assemblies, as being in the light of the ministry of Christ, were set to be light-bearers here.

• And as such all the exercises connected with the pure lamp-stand should have had place with them – the "beaten work", and the supply of "beaten oil", the diligent use of the golden snuffers to remove every element that tended to dim the light, the "continual incense" of prayer.

• Had these exercises been maintained, the seven lamps would have retained their truly "golden" character; the assemblies would have been characterized by what was spiritual and divine; and their state and activities would have been the practical answer to that ministry of Christ which is the light of the holy place.

• The assemblies should have corresponded with "the pure lamp-stand" of the sanctuary. That they have not done so is made manifest in Revelation 2 and 3.

But the Lord has restored, and maintains in the sovereignty of His love, a ministry of Himself in the power of the Spirit.

• There are still, through His grace, priestly exercises and activities, and vessels through whom Christ is ministered. The lamps are still shedding their holy light on the pure Lamp-stand.

• And as we appreciate that ministry, and take up the exercises which it involves, we shall be found overcomers. The overcomer is one who rises superior to the influences which have dimmed the light, and as we do so there is that which, in its measure, shines in light-bearing character in this dark scene.

Now in chapter 26 we come to the tabernacle in which the things spoken of in chapter 25 were to be contained.

• The ten curtains are spoken of as "the tabernacle",

• the eleven curtains of goats' hair are the "tent over the tabernacle",

• and the rams' skins and badgers' skins are called coverings.

I believe the ten curtains – each twenty-eight cubits – seven by four long and four cubits in breadth – represent the saints seen in spiritual completeness as those suited to cherish the great divine realities set forth in the ark, mercy-seat, table, and lamp-stand.

• The tent of goats' hair, and the two coverings, suggest that which is needed to preserve the tabernacle from defilement or injury.

• The boards are for the support of the tabernacle; that is, to hold up the ten curtains. They speak of the saints as marked by stability, each set up on the firm basis of two silver sockets, and able to stand up.

• I think Romans would give us the saints viewed as boards; Colossians and Ephesians would more answer to the ten curtains.

• The veil is clearly Christ personally. Hebrews 10: 20. There are no "couplings", "loops", or "clasps" in the veil; it is one fabric – holy type of the flesh of Christ.

But the curtains correspond with the veil. They represent saints viewed as having taken character from Christ – as having put on the new man.

• John says, "which thing is true in him and in you".

• But the order of description is different in the veil from the curtains.

• In the veil the "blue" comes first, indicating that the first thing as to Christ is that He is the heavenly One – the One out of heaven; but in the curtains the "twined byssus" comes first; righteousness must be the basis of all the features that mark the saints.

• If we are not marked by righteousness it is evident that we shall not carry the heavenly colour. The "twined byssus" speaks of the fine and even texture of a life in which all that is due to God and to man has its place.

• Then the "blue" comes in – what is characteristically heavenly.

• "Purple" signifies royalty; the saints are to reign with Christ, but it is not the reigning time yet; the royal character comes out at the present time in the way of suffering.
  • "If we endure we shall also reign together".

• "Scarlet" is the true glory of man in contrast to all that is vainglory.

• The "cherubim" speak of ability to discern and judge things according to God's mind.
  • Paul told the saints at Corinth that they would judge the world and angels. It was a strange thing that such persons should carry their differences before the world's tribunal for adjustment. If saints were to judge the world, surely they could settle a petty dispute between two brothers! The "cherubim" were not in evidence as they ought to have been.

• But "artistic work" is needed for this feature. The saints must be "full-grown men, who, on account of habit, have their senses exercised for distinguishing both good and evil", Hebrews 5: 14.

All these moral and official glories were seen perfectly in Christ, and as the saints come under His influence they take character from Him.

• Do we accept this as God's mind for us? If we do, we shall give ourselves up more unreservedly to the influence of Christ. There will be more surrender as to things here, because we are learning the character, and dignity, and beauty of what attaches to us in our divine calling.

• These beautiful curtains were not seen without; they speak of what is known within rather than of what is displayed without. But it is instructive to see that the measure in length of these curtains corresponds with that of the hangings of twined byssus which formed the court.

• The hangings of the court represent what the saints are in the presence of men; they can be taken account of there as righteous persons. What the saints are spiritually within has its answer in what they are before men. It is a shame when it can be said of those who profess to know God, 'These people can talk of wonderful things, but their lives do not correspond'.

• Let us remember that the 280 cubits of curtains within have a corresponding 280 cubits of twined byssus without! Indeed, the fact that there are ten curtains intimates that all which is seen typically in the curtains has a bearing on responsibility.

• There is no privilege, relationship, or spiritual dignity in which divine grace sets us which is not intended to have a direct bearing on what we are as in responsibility here.

There is a difference in width between the curtains and the hangings.

• The curtains are four cubits wide, which indicates completeness; we have four Gospels to give us the complete presentation of Christ as come in flesh, and when the holy city comes down it "lies four-square". The saints are "complete" – "filled full" – in Christ.

• The five cubits of the hangings would perhaps suggest the weakness which ever casts the saints upon divine grace in their whole responsible course.

• The curtains speak of what the saints are as forming a shrine for the cherishing of all that is of God in Christ. They have a character suited to it spiritually; but if this is so it must necessarily work out, as it were, to the outer circle, and manifest what is worthy of God in that responsible life which comes under the eye of men.

In connection with the curtains prominence is given to the thought of coupling. It is one of the chief thoughts presented in the tabernacle and the tent.

• There is a tendency with us all to be too individual, but we belong to a system marked by "couplings" and "loops" and "clasps of gold" and "clasps of copper" and "rings", and the true character of the tabernacle is not realized if we do not see to this in a practical way. The great thought is
  • that the tabernacle may be one [whole]",

• and the same words are used in connection with the tent.

• I remember a book being written on the features of the assembly that did not mention unity! Yet that is clearly a very essential feature of the assembly. When the Lord presented Himself at the golden altar, if we may so say, in John 17, His prayer was that His saints might be one.

We have to see, too, that our links even with fellow believers are really "loops of blue" and "clasps of gold". It is possible to have couplings that are neither heavenly nor divine.

Christ is the Altar as well as the Sacrifice and the offering Priest.

• The Spirit of God presents Him to us in the Ark as One personally great enough to bring in the will – or pleasure – of God, and to establish it in a universe where lawlessness had been.

• But in the Altar we see that in such a universe the will of God could only be established on the footing of sacrifice, and Christ is great enough to sustain all that is involved in this.

He has come in holy Manhood – the acacia-wood typifies that – and He was found here in those conditions of weakness and dependence which rightly mark man and force him into dependence upon God. I believe the five cubits are suggestive of this.

To take this up requires those who are "wise-hearted, whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom", verse 3

• Only spiritual persons can apprehend what is characteristic of Christ as Priest and the assembly viewed as the anti-type of Aaron's sons. To be willing-hearted – Isaiah 11: 2.

• If I have not wisdom it proves that I am not spiritual; one feels self-condemned in saying this, but it is the strict truth! Paul spoke wisdom amongst those that were full-grown. Many have the Spirit who have not given Him much place, and hence they are not spiritual; they have not grown up to wisdom; they are still babes.

• So that one feels inclined to pause and ask whether we are really "wise-hearted". Are we spiritually capable of understanding that of which these holy garments speak? They indicate what is characteristic of Christ as Priest, and God delights that His saints should take them up in intelligent affections so as to be able to invest Him with all that truly attaches to Him as Priest.

• Many know the Lord Jesus as Saviour and Redeemer who have very little apprehension of Him as Priest. But if we give place to the Spirit, He will enable us to put together in our souls these varied features and glories so that Christ may be invested with them in our apprehension and appreciation.

• This is wondrous enrichment of the heart and mind. From the breast-plate to the girdle of skilful workmanship each detail of the holy garments is full of precious meaning.

"Gold" is the first thing mentioned in connection with the making of the ephod. I suppose that the gold speaks of the divine glory of His Person.

• Its omission from the veil and the door, etc., might indicate that what is set forth there is rather the divine grace in which He came in flesh.

• But when it is a question of the place which He takes as Priest God-ward the glory of His Person is seen to be interwoven with every characteristic. God is fully revealed, and approach on the part of Man fully corresponds with that revelation.

• The divine glory of the Priest is equal to the divine glory of the Ark and the Mercy-seat, for it is the same Person who is the Ark and the Mercy-seat on God's side man-ward, who is the Priest on man's side God-ward.

"And they beat the gold into thin plates, and cut it into wires, to work it artistically into the blue, and into the purple, and into the scarlet, and into the byssus", Exodus 39: 3.

• We have spoken before of the blue, purple, scarlet, and byssus, and I think we may see what answers to each in the epistle to the Hebrews, but the gold is worked into them all. He is THE SON, and the glory of His Person gives character to every feature that marks Him as Priest.

• He is, indeed, "a great priest". It is said of Melchisedec that he was
  • "assimilated to the Son of God", and we are called to "consider how great this personage was".

  • As "holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling", we are exhorted to "consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession".

• A very great effect would be produced if we did so; and one part of that effect would be that we should become intensely interested in the service of God. Because even what He does for us as the sympathizing and succouring Priest in all our weaknesses here, is with a view to our being free in spirit for the service of God.

• The Priest does not succour us merely that we may get through the wilderness, but that we may take up our holy privileges in relation to the sanctuary – all that pertains to us as sons of the true Aaron.

The word for "girdle" in verse 8 is only used of the high priest's girdle; it signifies "of skilful workmanship", and it indicates the unique perfection of the service of Christ as Priest.

• There is no service like the service of Christ. He ever lives to make intercession for us before the face of God. The girdle binds the ephod – the priestly robe – to Him, and it will never be loosed until all need for it has passed away.

• He will be eternally the First-born among many brethren, all conformed to His image and brought in sonship into His relationship with the Father. He will be Head then rather than Priest.

• The grace and love that come out in Him as Priest will abide in Him eternally; all that is moral and personal will be unchanged, but the priestly office will not be needed. We shall be in the Father's house as sons with Him who is Head and First-born.

• All the moral conditions which pertain to priesthood will abide – conditions suited to the holiness of God – but the priestly office, like the kingly office, will come to an end.

• At the present time, priesthood is dependent upon sonship. It is so in Christ Himself.
  • "Thou art my Son" is essential to

  • "Thou art a Priest", Hebrews 5: 5-6.

• But at the present time it is also true that sonship will not be consciously known or enjoyed apart from the maintenance of moral suitability to God – that is, of priestly conditions.

It is blessed to contemplate Christ as One who bears us up before God in relation to every exercise which we have as born of God. That comes out in the shoulder-pieces of the ephod.

• The names of the children of Israel were engraved there "according to their birth". There are those in this world who are of divine generation, and who have an infinite variety of exercises and experiences which stand in relation to the fact that they are born of God.

• It is in relation to all those exercises that they are sustained on the shoulders of the Priest on the "stones of memorial".

• I have not an exercise nor a need as born of God the memorial of which is not kept before God continually. Is it not blessed to think of this?

If we were more truly priestly in our affections and mind we should always look at the saints as being of divine generation. Christ always does.

• We often look at them as we see them naturally, but a priestly outlook would always have them in view as of divine generation. Every converted person is born of God, and has exercises and experiences which are the result of such a birth. The blessed Priest in heaven carries them all in remembrance before God.

• The consideration of this would, I am sure, encourage us to keep more on the line of what we are as of divine generation, and to view our brethren from that standpoint. I am afraid many of us live a good deal on the line of what we are naturally, and therefore we look at our brethren much on that line also.

• But it is most important that we should take account of ourselves and of other saints according to our birth spiritually. It is as on that line that our memorial is before God on the shoulders of the Priest, and that we get priestly support. We should ever remember this.

• Our true history stands in relation to what we are as born of God, and it is in that relation that we have a memorial before Him. And in this connection all the names are on the onyx stones.

• It is not the way saints are diverse one from another that is figured in the shoulder-pieces, but what is common to them all.
  • "According to their birth"

• the saints are all morally alike – the children of God having the same features and moral character. John's first epistle enlarges on this.

In the breast-plate it is different. Each name is on a separate stone, and each one has a character peculiar to itself, and the names are

• "for the twelve tribes".

• This is an entirely different order of things. The "twelve tribes" were the people of God viewed as ordered in the sovereignty of God in relation to His testimony. In this connection, as we know, Joseph and Levi drop out, and Ephraim and Manasseh take their places.

• Divine sovereignty allots to each his place in relation to the testimony; and each one is diverse from all the others; he has his own distinctive colour.

The breast-plate is spoken of as "the breast-plate of judgment".

• It indicates that the saints are represented there according to God's mind in regard to them. The word translated "judgment" is sometimes translated "manner" or "ordinance". The saints are borne on the heart of Christ according the manner in which God has been pleased to order them in relation to His testimony here.

• So that it becomes an exercise for me and every saint as to whether we are really answering down here to the place which we have in the breast-plate up there.

It is very precious and strengthening to know that we have a place on the heart of Christ before God.

• It appeals to us in a touching way, for surely I would like to know how Christ bears me, and all saints, on His heart! His affections are engaged in it, but it is
  • "the breast-plate of judgment",

• for the saints are in it according to the divine mind in regard to them.

This makes it very solemn, for it necessarily brings the light of that mind to bear on the actual condition of things, and exposes everything contrary to it.

• In that way our place in the breast-plate becomes a test of how we are actually found in relation to God's testimony. Our memorial is before God continually on the heart of the blessed Priest according to our divinely ordered place in relation to the testimony.

• The mind of God is that His saints should be set together in the unity of the testimony, and Christ cherishes and sustains them in the character which divine sovereignty has given them.

The twelve stones suggest administration; it will be perfectly seen in the heavenly city, but it is the divine thought that it should be seen morally in the saints now.

• We are only precious stones as we have appreciated, and taken colour from, the preciousness that is in Christ. The different features of Christ – having taken form in the saints as the fruit of the ministry of the twelve apostles – will come out gloriously in the city which hath foundations.

• What determines our colour as stones in the breast-plate is our personal apprehension of the preciousness of Christ. "Living stones" are marked by "coming"; there is movement with them – the leaving behind what is connected with man after the flesh, and the coming to Christ.

• Saul's self-importance and self-righteousness were once very precious to him, but he learned to call them dross and dung, and Christ embodied everything that his heart esteemed to be excellent. How distinctly he took colour from Christ!

It is a great thing to find the assembly according to the divine thought of it. There is a place where it can be found, and that is on the heart of Christ. The breast-plate is there, and all the saints are there.

• I could not think of Christ cherishing the saints in His affections in any other way than according to the divine thought. If I see that on His heart it will put it on my heart. I think Paul had Israel on his heart according to the breast-plate when he said,
  • "Our whole twelve tribes serving incessantly day and night"!

Each stone has its own distinctive colour and beauty.

• If we view the saints as of divine generation they are all alike; all have the same moral features; all are partakers of the same divine nature.

• But in the breast-plate the stones are all different, and it takes them all to bring into evidence the precious features of Christ. No one saint could be great enough to express Christ; He is so great that it takes all saints to express Him.

• To remember this makes us cleave to the thought of the assembly. I have to fill my own place and carry my own colour according to my individual apprehension of Christ, and according to the sovereignty which has set me in relation to the testimony,
  • but I must not forget that all the other stones are essential. I must take account of them also.

I think we may see something of the diversity of the stones, and their place together in testimony, in the twelve apostles. We have their ministry in the writings of three of them, and we can see the diversity.

• Matthew is not like John, and neither is like Peter; there is a distinctive colour with each. The Lord gave each of them his place and ministry, but he put them all together in the unity of the testimony, and He held them together.

• The devil would have liked to get them apart, or into conflict with one another, but the Lord held them together in priestly grace.

• I suppose we can all see that it was essential for the testimony that the twelve should be kept in unity, and they were so kept by divine grace and power, that there might be the setting forth in their doctrine of the preciousness of Christ.

It has been said that it takes all the gifts to set forth Christ in ministry,

• and it takes all the saints to set Him forth in character.

• There is a statement at the end of John's Gospel which gives us the remarkable sense that John had of the greatness of Christ.
  • "And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which if they were written one by one, I suppose that not even the world itself would contain the books written".

• All that He did expressed Himself. Think of the greatness of it! And the assembly is spoken of as His fulness; she will be the adequate vessel for the display of Christ.

• The fulness of the Godhead dwells in Christ bodily; He as Man in heaven is great enough to express the Fulness of the Godhead. But the assembly is the fulness of Christ, the vessel for the display of it all.

The twelve stones in the breast-plate would represent the saints as formed by, and taking character from, Christ as ministered by the apostles. We are formed in our affections in the appreciation of Christ as ministered through them.

• We are "built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the corner stone".

• Each saint has some appreciation of Christ which is a spring of joy and praise and communion, and which is truly precious to his heart when he gets before God in secret. God delights that we should tell Him with glad hearts what we have found precious in Christ.

• That is the impression, and then the exercise is that it should come into expression, and as it does Christ is glorified in His saints, and His preciousness is presented here in testimony.

• And the Priest in heaven bears all His saints on His heart in relation to the special place which each one has with regard to the testimony. Any special service or gift has its own distinctive place on His heart; He sustains it all in priestly affections and interest.

• How the thought of it strengthens and emboldens each one to be whole-heartedly set for the furtherance of the testimony of the Christ!

God would have shining out now morally in the saints what will shine out by and by in Revelation 21. In Revelation 21 the precious stones are the foundation of the wall.

• That signifies that as we are formed in appreciation of the preciousness of Christ it becomes in our souls the basis of complete separation and exclusiveness.

• If people are careless as to separation from evil they have not much true appreciation of Christ. The foundations are not really there of "a great and high wall".

The twelve stones in the breast-plate suggest that the assembly is on the heart of Christ before God as setting forth the light of His preciousness in testimony here.

• The way we arrive at the truth of the assembly in a day of ruin is by considering Christ as Priest, and seeing the place the assembly has on His heart. If we see what the assembly is as borne on the heart of Christ, we cannot accept any other conception of that assembly.

• A spiritual man would wish his judgment to be formed by the thoughts and affections of Christ. Let us remember "the breast-plate of judgment", and seek to have our thoughts and affections in accord with it. It is the privilege of all saints to be in the light of what is in the breast-plate.

• As to practical correspondence with it we cannot say much, but one would wish to cherish what is on the heart of Christ, and thus to have wide church affections, but to be in holy separation from what is not after Christ.

The practical working out of things is our exercise as brethren walking together. "The breast-plate of judgment" tests us by raising the question as to how far we are in correspondence with the place which we have there.

• We often find how little we are practically formed and fitted together according to the breast-plate. But it is very precious and strengthening to remember that Christ lives before God to carry us on His heart in relation to all that is in the divine mind. In seeking to be found in accord with that mind we are assured of the interest and support of Christ as Priest.

• All will shine out in the city as effected by divine power, but now it is being worked out morally through ten thousand exercises and through the love and support of the Priest in heaven.

• Think of all that is being developed here in the power of the Spirit – all the features of an entirely new order of man! For it is the different features of man in Christ Jesus which are seen in figure in the stones of the breast-plate. And it is the saints in that character who are sustained down here in the grace of Christ's priesthood up there.

The "chains of laced work, of wreathen work, of pure gold", and the "rings", and the "lace of blue" show how indissolubly the breast-plate is connected with the ephod.

• The saints can never be separated from the affections of the Priest. How it endears Him to us! He never lays aside His living interest in us; we are on His heart continually.

Then "the Urim and the Thummim" are in the breast-plate of judgment. The true Priest with Urim and Thummim has come, and all questions can be answered and all difficulties solved.

• If the divine mind as to the saints, and as to their relation to the testimony, is set forth in the breast-plate, there is also there light and perfection for the communication of the divine mind to the saints.

• In the days of Nehemiah there were matters which could not be settled until a priest stood up with Urim and Thummim. But we have such a Priest. The divine answer to every question that can arise in connection with the testimony can be found in the breast-plate.

• The last days are, indeed, difficult times, but such times cast us in a peculiar way upon the Priest, and the Urim and Thummim. It is in the apprehension of how the saints are on the heart of Christ that we find the answer to every question that can arise. They are on His heart as characterized by every feature that is essential to divine administration.

• Every departure from the divine mind is marked by the giving up of some feature that really forms part of the testimony. It is the giving up of that which one or more of the precious stones represent. Therefore the answer to it, and its corrective in divine light and perfection, is found as we look into the breast-plate.

It is instructive to note the order in which the garments are described in this chapter.

• The ephod – the official and characteristic garment of the high priest – was outside. Underneath was "the cloak of the ephod all of blue". This would suggest that the official character of Christ as Priest is sustained by what He is personally as the heavenly One.

• Then beneath this again was "the vest of byssus"; what He is as the heavenly One is sustained by all that He was in His moral perfection as the righteous One.

We have seen the blue intermingled with other colours in the ephod, the girdle, and the breast-plate, but the cloak of the ephod was "all of blue". It calls special attention to Christ as the heavenly One.

• "If then indeed he were upon earth, he would not even be a priest", Hebrews 8: 4.

• Priesthood attaches to Christ as in heaven. See Psalm 110. The epistle to the Hebrews largely insists on this; Christ in heaven is presented from first to last; and it is His being there that makes Christianity a system of heavenly things; the whole system takes character from the Priest.

• If people make Christianity into an earthly system they are consistent in having earthly priests, but if Christ is a heavenly Priest it constitutes the whole system heavenly. It makes an immense difference when Christ is apprehended thus; it takes the mind and affections of those who love Him off the earth.

• You will not make anything on earth, even religious things, your object, if you see Christ in that robe "all of blue". And if He is the heavenly One, those who are His are heavenly ones too; we belong to a heavenly company. We ought to ponder that very much.

• God would connect our affections with what is in heaven, and with the Priest who is there. This would keep us out of a thousand and one things that we get entangled with here. We are partakers of the heavenly calling.

The "pomegranates" and "bells of gold" being on the skirts of the cloak intimate that all true fruit and testimony is sustained by the priestly service and grace of Christ, and is heavenly in character.

• I think we are justified in regarding "the skirts of the cloak round about" as figurative of the saints down here, for it is through them that fruit is borne and testimony rendered. Psalm 133 shows how the priestly anointing runs down to the hem of Aaron's garments.
  • "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! Like the precious oil upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, upon Aaron's beard, that ran down to the hem of his garments".

• We are under the same anointing as the Priest in heaven. On the day of Pentecost the anointing of the Priest in heaven ran down to the hem of His garments, and brethren were found dwelling together in unity.

• "It shall not rend", verse 32, gives a hint of unity, and the anointing ran down to the pomegranates and golden bells. Both were seen at Pentecost; precious fruits of heavenly grace were brought forth in the saints, and what a sounding of golden bells was there! And all in the power of the holy anointing – a living witness to Christ in heaven.

The Priest is in heaven, but the hem of His garment is down here. Would you not like to be a witness to the fact that Christ is alive in heaven? It is being evidenced in the lives and testimony of His saints – the heavenly company – down here.

• Unity and the energy of life are the fruit of the priestly anointing, and they are the witness that Christ is living.

• But the cloak is "all of blue"; it is the heavenly character that carries the fruit and the bells. How important is this! An old sister many years ago describing a brother said, 'He is a nice man and a good preacher, but he is not what I should call a heavenly man'. I fear most of us would have to admit that the blue is not so distinctive of us as it ought to be.

"And it shall be on Aaron for service; that his sound may be heard when he goeth into the sanctuary before Jehovah, and when he cometh out, that he may not die".

• The sound of Christ is to be heard while He is hid from the eyes of men – the sound of all that is connected with His going in, and of all that will be connected with His coming out! It is all to be maintained in testimony.

• It is evident that the words "that he may not die" could not refer to Christ personally; I understand them to be suggestive of the divine intent that He is not to die as regards testimony here.

• If there were no fruit and no sounding of golden bells, Christ would die as to testimony here. But God will not suffer this, and the exercise of every saint is surely that He should live. He is never to die as to His sound down here. He certainly will not when He comes out, for Psalm 72: 15 says of Him in that day,
  • "And he shall live", and the verse ends, "All the day shall he be blessed".

• But now He has gone in, and while He is within the veil His sound is heard. The golden bells are kept ringing – the evidence of His blessed movements, and the support of His heavenly and priestly grace; the evidence, too, of the presence and power of the anointing. He cannot die in heaven, for He is there
  • "according to power of indissoluble life", Hebrews 7: 16,

• and, blessed be God, He does not die in the affections of His saints, nor in testimony here. The sound of Christ will never cease all the time that He is within the veil. His movements and grace, and the power, of the anointing, will keep the golden bells ringing.

• But exercise comes in as to how far each one of us may be available as a "pomegranate" or a "golden bell". For this we must know, what it is to have the support of the Priest, and to be under His anointing, and to be carried by Him in His movements.

• It is not enough for any true heart to know that Christ's priestly grace is sustaining fruit and testimony in others. In the affections of all who love Him there is desire to be personally fruitful, and to give a sound which will bear witness that He is living.

Think of the unselfish love that led all who believed to be together and to have all things common.

• "Not one said that anything of what he possessed was his own, but all things were common to them".

• The natural selfishness of the human heart was displaced by the energy of divine love. I think we may see pomegranates there – fruit full of the energy of life. I do not know any fruit more packed with seeds – more full of productive power – than the pomegranate. There is nothing so energetic and fruitful as divine love.
  • Then we are told that "with great power did the apostles give witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all", Acts 4: 32-33.

• That would answer to the golden bells. They rang out first on the day of Pentecost, and they have been sounding ever since. The gospel is being preached with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, and testimony is being given to all that is connected with Christ's presence at the right hand of God.
  • Very soon He is coming out to introduce the world to come, and His sound is being heard as to that also.

The cloak "all of blue" was to be so made that "it shall not rend". That which is spiritual and heavenly, and which is sustained by priestly grace, does not rend.

• Rents amongst the saints are caused by earthly and fleshly influences.

• The Lord does not fail those who call upon Him out of a pure heart. It is still possible for saints to get near the Priest in whose breast-plate are the Urim and Thummim. And those who really have to do with the Priest, and get the mind of God from Him, will think alike. Of that there can be no question.

Difficulties and exercises amongst the people of God are often the way of rich blessing. They become the occasion for divine light to be given, and the Lord uses them to educate and enlarge His saints, and to give them an understanding of the truth which they would never have had otherwise.

• There is never anything of that kind which has not gain attached to it for those who go to the Priest about it, and our exercise should always be to secure that gain.

We have next the "plate of pure gold" engraved "as the engravings of a seal, Holiness to Jehovah".

• "And it shall be upon Aaron's forehead, and Aaron shall bear the iniquity of the holy things, which the children of Israel shall hallow in all gifts of their holy things: and it shall be continually on his forehead, that they may be accepted before Jehovah".

• This clearly shews the possibility of there being iniquity even in our "holy things".

• "The children of Israel" in this passage would represent the people of God as they are actually found here, with varying measures of growth and spiritual intelligence, and with measures of feebleness and imperfection in their apprehensions of what is infinitely perfect in itself; for the "gifts of their holy things" would represent apprehensions of Christ brought in praise to God.

• So long as the people of God are here in what has been called "mixed condition" there is no absolute holiness or perfection of intelligence in them, and there is always, therefore, on their side, the possibility of infirmity and imperfection even in their apprehensions of Christ, and in their expressions of thanksgiving and praise.

• Probably some element of this kind is nearly always present, and no exercised and sensitive heart could fail to take account of it. And it is easy to see how Satan might seek to use the consciousness of this to hinder liberty in approach to God.
  • But God would have us to know that absolute holiness is before His face in a Man; that is, in Christ the blessed Priest in heaven.

• We are entitled to consider this, and to be engaged with it, in relation to our approach to God. It is there that we "may be accepted before Jehovah" in all our approaches, not because of any perfection in the way in which we can bring Christ before God, but because of the perfection that is before God in Him.

• There is that on the forehead of the true Aaron which our affections can take hold of in its blessed perfection – absolute holiness according to divine glory, and according to the purity of heaven; "a plate of pure gold … on a lace of blue".

God would have us, in drawing near to Him, to pass away from occupation with the feebleness and imperfection even of our apprehensions of Christ, or of our expressions of praise and thanksgiving, to consider the infinite and blessed perfection of holiness that is before Him in everlasting beauty in Christ.

• As we take hold of that in our affections, and know that we are – through infinite grace – bound up with it, we leave in spirit what is connected with us as in "mixed condition" here, and we approach in the liberty of those who know what it is to be "accepted".

• We are entitled to be free in the presence of God as conscious of the blessedness of Christ, and of the absolute character of the holiness which is before God in Him. It is as having "a great priest over the house of God" that we approach. He is there for us. We are identified in the love and purpose of God with all the perfection and holiness that is in the Priest.

• So that when we come to God it is by Him, and as He is before our hearts we find ourselves perfectly free in spirit. We can come freely with our gifts and holy things, knowing that our acceptance is according to the perfection that is in our Priest.

Then underneath the cloak is "the vest of byssus". That speaks of all the perfection of Christ as the righteous One.

• His personal character was that He loved righteousness and hated lawlessness. And that character underlies all that He is as Priest; all rests upon that as its moral basis.

Finally, there are "vests", "girdles", and "high caps" for Aaron's sons "for glory and for ornament". We only get a proper thought of the blessedness and dignity of priesthood as we learn it in Christ. So the first 39 verses of this chapter speak of what pertains to Christ.

• But then we read, "Aaron, thy brother, and his sons with him".

• If we appreciate Christ, and delight in all that we see in Him, it shows that we are kindred with Him. If we can truly say –

"Each thought of Thee doth constant yield
Unchanging, fresh delight", [Hymn 151]

it is certain that we are kindred with Him; we are – to speak in the language of the type – His sons.

• Now what a blessed thing to know that we are identified with all that we appreciate! We, as the sanctified, are "all of one" with Him, the Sanctifier. If He has garments "for glory and for ornament", so have we as "his sons with him".

• If we see Him as the Anointed, we are anointed too; we share in His consecration and hallowing. It is not a question of what we are entitled to, but of what He is entitled to. He is entitled to have every saint with Him for priestly service God-ward, and we do not accord Him His due if we do not join Him as a consecrated company.

• For the saints to take up such a position is not pretentious; it is really and simply a question of what is due to Christ, and of the pleasure of God. Christ is entitled to have the saints, as the priestly family, with Him for the service of God in the sanctuary, just as He is entitled to have the many sons with Him in the Father's house.

But to be priests to God necessitates holy garments. The vests and the high caps speak of righteousness and salvation.

• "Let thy priests be clothed with righteousness … I will clothe her priests with salvation", Psalm 132: 9, 16.

• Then, again, we read, "He beautifieth the meek with salvation", Psalm 149: 4.

• It is really the moral beauty of Christ upon His saints – the beauty of holiness. It is as "the meek" – that is, those who have the Spirit of Christ – that saints can be clothed with His characteristics.

• Practically the garments are not always there, and when they are not, priestly functions cannot be exercised.

Christ has great delight in going in to God, and leading us in; when properly clothed we can go in with Him. But there must be conditions suited to a "holy priesthood"; it is certain that what is of the flesh must not appear there.

• "Thou shalt make them linen trousers to cover the flesh of nakedness".

• It is impossible that what was judged before God in the death of Christ should appear in His holy service. It came before Him in the sin-offering – see chapter 29: 10-14 – and was utterly consumed.

• If we have really committed ourselves to that – leaned with our hands, as it is literally – we are under obligation never to let it appear in our service. That which is of the flesh is bad anywhere, but it is most of all out of place in the holy service of God.

• What could be more dreadful than for such things as vanity, jealousy, emulation, or desire to make something of oneself, to come into what should be spiritual service? All that would be, indeed, "the flesh of nakedness": it is not to be seen.

The "vests" speak of righteousness; the priest's heart is purposed to maintain what is due to God.

• The "high caps" suggest the dignity in which one can hold up his head who is in the power of divine salvation. What moral dignity attaches to one who has been set free in the power of God's salvation from every influence of evil that would have dominated him as a natural man!

• Then the "girdles" imply readiness and liberty for service. It is wonderful clothing, but it is the glory and ornament that is suitable to the holy priesthood.

My impression is that the ministry of reconciliation supplies the priestly garments.

• Reconciliation involves complete moral suitability to God, so that He can be complacent in those who approach Him. The saints as having received the reconciliation, and as in the good of the ministry of reconciliation, are attired in priestly garments, and suited to serve God according to His pleasure and complacency.

• Christ as the "Object of eternal pleasure" is ministered to the saints so that they may be consciously invested with Him in the presence of God, and be morally apart from every kind of imperfection.

• Such a ministry prepares one to be found in moral separation from everything that is not Christ. Indeed, a beloved servant of the Lord has said, "If I were really in the good of reconciliation nothing would be seen in me but Christ".