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The Tabernacle hung over the door "in the forefront of the tabernacle " while. "the half curtain" that remained hung "over the backside of the tabernacle." Thus all of the :fine linen curtains. were c~mpletely covered and protected by the pure white curtams of goats' hair. The extra curtain of goats' hair that hung over the door hid from the gaze of all on the outside of the taber- nacle the fine linen hanging on the inside, which was called the door. It hid also from view the golden hooks and the beautiful chapiters of the five pillars that upheld the door. Only the priests on the inside could see these beau- tiful materials, which speak to us of the glories of the Lord Jesus Christ. This white curtain of goats' hair over the door met the eye of the worshipper the moment he entered the gate. And what a reminder it was of the fact that, by faith in the coming sacrifice of the promised Redeemer, his sin had been put away! Only by way of the door, over which hung the memorial of full atonement for sin, could the priest approach God. It was the only way into the Holy Place, and on into the Holy of Holies, where Jehovah dwelt in the Shekinah Glory. Sometimes the daily sin offering was a kid of the goats (Lev. 4:23, 28; Num. 28:15). And on the great Day of Atonement two goats were presented unto the Lord: one to be slain, and his blood sprinkled in the Holy of Holies, on and before the mercy seat; the other, to become the scapegoat, symbolically bearing the sins of God's people away (Lev. 16:5-10, 15-22). Both were typical of Christ: ( 1) He is our Sin-Offering, slain for us, His "blood of sprinkling" speaking "better things than that of Abel" (Heb. 12:24); and (2) He is the one perfect Sacrifice, who bore all our sins away, remembering them no more forever!
105 T1H Tabern11cle When the high priest, on this one day in the year, en- tered into the Holy of Holies with "the blood of sprink- ling," he approached God, who dwelt in the pillar of cloud and fire, above the mercy seat. He approached Him on the ground of the shed blood. The Epistle to the Hebrews makes it very plain that the Holy of Holies was a type of heaven, into which Christ, our Great High Priest, has entered "once for all," with His own precious blood, to atone for our sins. And only upon the merit of His shed blood may we have access unto our holy God, communing with Him in fellowship at "the throne of grace." (See Heb. 4:14-16; 9:11-14, 23-28.) Of this "throne of grace," the mercy seat was a sig- nificant type. Beneath it, in the ark of the covenant, was the broken law; for in the ark the ten commandments were kept. Above it was the glory of God, demanding righteousness. But upon and before the mercy seat was the sprinkled blood, foreshadowing the precious blood of the perfect Sacrifice who was to come. And the blood- sprinkled mercy seat hid from view the broken law! Instead of a judgment throne, demanding the penalty of the broken law, to be executed upon the sinner; instead of a judgment throne, demanding righteousness from the sinner, whose guilt necessitated a verdict of death; it was a mercy seat, a "throne of grace," where the high priest, as the representative of a guilty people, could find pardon and peace. Not that God's holy law was not vindicated; it was, in the death of His Son! Not that it was not mag- nified; it was, in the willing sacrifice of the only One who could be a sinless Substitute! Israel deserved to die; the guilty Gentile world deserves to die. But by the blood of Jesus, applied to the guilty heart by faith, the sinner is accepted before God on the merit of His death, whose
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