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103 The Tabernacle Spirit." It is the blood of Christ, and that alone, which separates the church from the God-dishonoring, Christ- rejecting, Spirit-resisting world. Yieldedness unto His per- fect will and whole-hearted consecration unto Him are learned only at the foot of His cross. Then one day, when we are "face to face with our Redeemer," clothed in His righteousness, we shall better understand His unfathom- able love that led Him to the cross. Of that yet future day we can sing even now, in the words of the old hymn: "When I stand before Thy throne, Dressed in beauty not my own; When I see T bee as T hoii art, Love Thee with unsinning heart; Then, dear Lord, shall I fully know- Not till then-how much I owe." 3. The Curtains of Goats' Hair. With explicit detail concerning measurements and design God told Moses how the two inner coverings over the tabernacle were to be made: the curtains of goats' hair just beneath the covering of rams' skins dyed red, and the beautiful curtains, that only the priests could see on the inside of the sanctuary. (See Exod. 26:1-13; 36:8-18.) A careful reading of Exod. 26:7-13; 36:14-18 will make clear to us that the eleven curtains of goats' hair, coupled together-"fi.ve curtains by themselves, and six curtains by themselves," the two parts fastened together by "fifty taches of brass"--covered the entire "tent." Whereas the beautiful, inner covering was made of ten linen curtains, each twenty-eight cubits long and four cubits wide; the goats' hair covering was made of eleven curtains, each thirty cubits long and four cubits wide. One of the eleven curtains of goats' hair was doubled and
The Tabernacle thicket may well represent the condition of Israel when our Lord came unto His own. God had brought a vine out of Egypt, had cast out the heathen nations from Canaan, and had planted His vine in this land of promise. He looked for it to bring forth grapes, but it brought forth wild grapes. The vineyard had become a thicket, filled with thorns and brambles, the curse of barrenness. The horns of the ram suggest the kingly authority of our Lord (Psalm 92: IO), which furnished the occasion for the Jews, in their envy and hatred, to deliver Him up to death. The superscription upon the cross was, "JESUS OF AZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS." The ram was caught by his horns in the thicket! How perfectly is the will of God shown in all this! His counsel was to be fulfilled, and the wickedness of the Jews was but the occasion for Him to show the sacrifice He had provided. Christ, in the full energy and vigor of a perfect Man- hood, offered Himself as the true Sacrifice, as a covering, which Isaac could never be! The Lord Jesus, many centuries later, told the unbe- lieving Jews that Abraham had rejoiced to see His day, and that "he saw it, and was glad" (John 8: 56). Surely one of the times when Abraham saw by faith the day of Christ was when he offered up the ram instead of his be- loved son on Mount Moriah! The ram died; his son lived. Abraham foresaw the coming Saviour; and by faith he inherited eternal life! The rams' skins dyed red covered God's sanctuary, without doubt pointing the sinner in Israel on to the One whose whole burnt offering on Calvary should take "away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). Again, we remember that the tabernacle in the wilder- ness was a type of the church, "the temple of the Holy
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