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April 1931
T h e
K i n g ’ s
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Structure in Scripture The Tabernacle* B y N orman B. H arrison ( Minneapolis, Minn.) All Rights Reserved
For the carrying out of this purpose, He builds a house —it is our Father’s house—with two rooms, outer and inner (C and D). He puts a yard around the house (B). In this yard or court, He puts certain significant pieces of furniture (2, 3) ,; so also in the house (4, 5, 6 and 7). Then He places a fence around the whole, thereby shut ting in that which belongs to Him and shutting out that which does not belong to Him. We do the same in dis tinguishing our personally owned property from the pub lic domain. This brings us to the
THROUGH the tabernacle is presented the most far-reaching bit of teaching to be found in God’s Word. So simple as to appeal to any child, it nevertheless embodies a depth of meaning and a power of suggestiveness that only the divine mind could have planned and imparted. That the-tabernacle follows a structural plan is self- evident. The directions for its construction are most ex plicit : “According to all that I shew thee, after the pat tern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instru
ments thereof, even so shall ye make it” (Ex. 25:9). The reason for this exactness lies in the fact that the tabernacle constitutes “a copy and shadow of heavenly th in g s .” Moses was shown a p a tte rn of these and was bidden to reproduce it. F ourfold T each ing M ethod God is the greatest of teachers. He makes the heavens to tell His glory to the, eye. He p repa res a book, through long centuries,
“why.” Why is the tab ernacle necessary? Ah, it is because there is something on the out side ! Man is out there, away from God. And God is wan ting him back. The tabernacle both pictures and pro vides the way of his coming back. The tabernacle was pitched in the wilder ness. Surrounding it was the world, rendered a spiritual wilderness by man through his sin and consequent separation from God.
This takes us back to the beginning, to the tragedy of a lost Eden. At the start, God placed man in a garden, in a hedged-off enclosure of fellowship with Himself. But man broke off the fellowship through sin, separating himself from his God. There was nothing for God to do but to send him forth upon the brpad face of the earth, to teach him his need of God and how he could come back to Him. Thus this first scene of man’s failure closes with the saddest of words: “So he drove out the man” (Gen. 3:24). That is where man is today, out in the world (A) in a state of sin (1) and separation from God. It is to meet this need that the tabernacle is given. Therefore, its teaching begins on the outside, where man is, and leads on in, by the way of the cross, to a completely re stored fellowship with God. It is at this point that much tabernacle teaching fails. The gospel does not begin with, salvation, but with sin; not with picturing a Saviour, but with rain’s need of a Saviour. God does not cast His Chief of Pearls before swine; He first Seeks to awaken a sense of His value to us in our lost estate. Hence, .the Bible opens with the historical fact and the inception of sin, introducing the story of salvation. So also does the Bible in miniature, the matchless Epistle to the Romans. In a most drastic ar raignment, man is convicted of hi&.qorruption and degra dation because of his state of sin, with the just condem nation of God resting upon him; then, and not till then, is pointed out to him God’s provision for man’s return to Himself.
to tell the story of His salvation. But that we may un derstand that story the better, get it in mind the more clearly, have its truths come home to us through every avenue of appeal, He tells the same story by means of the tabernacle. It presents His plan of redemption: 1. In Words. The second half of Exodus (chapters 25 to 40) is given up to a verbal description. With min uteness of detail, these words specify how the tabernacle is to be built. 2. In Picture. This is the kindergarten method. The tabernacle is something we can see and can contemplate its symmetry of design, beauty of color, and relationship of part to part. 3. In Project. It is. to be built not by God but by man. With materials of their own providing, the people are actually to construct a pattern of heavenly things, a model reproduction of the plan and program of redemp tion. 4. In Demonstration. ' Having constructed it, they are to act out its truth. In the ministry required, it is to become athrob with personality as they offer its sac rifices and keep its prescribed festivals. W hat and W h y ? Reduced to its simplest statement, the tabernacle is this: God wants to dwell with men; so He builds a house; He comes to live in it Himself; He brings us into i t ; so we. live together now and eternally. ♦Fifth in a series of articles to continue through 1931.
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