18 The Tabernacle of Christ, our Cleanser from the daily defilement of sin. The tabernacle itself consisted of two rooms: the Holy Place, twice as long as it was wide; and the Holy of Holies, a perfect cube. The veil separated the two rooms. In the Holy Place there were three pieces of furniture: the golden altar of incense, just in front of the veil, and di- rectly in line with the altar of burnt offering and the laver in the outer court; the golden candlestick on the south; and the golden-covered table of shewbread on the north, just opposite the candlestick. Before the golden altar the priests stood, offering incense, even as they prayed for their people. The golden candlestick was kept burning with the only light the Holy Place had. And on the table of shewbread there were twelve loaves, one for each tribe. It seems hardly necessary to explain that these three beau- tiful pieces of furniture speak to us of Christ, our Inter- cessor and Priest; Christ, the Light of the World; and Christ, the Bread of Life. Within the Holy of Holies there was the golden-cov- ered ark of the covenant, over which was the mercy seat, and in which were the ten commandments-later the golden pot of manna and Aaron's rod that budded were placed in the ark. Above the mercy seat, between the golden cherubim, stood the Shekinah Glory, the Lord Him- self; and on and before the mercy seat was the sprinkled blood. This ark of the covenant was directly in line with the golden altar, only the veil separating them. And thus the shadow of the cross was made in the God-given ar- rangement of these six pieces of furniture, each of which spoke eloquently of the coming Redeemer. The veil, too, was a wonderful type of our Lord; for although it sep- arated the sinner from God's presence; yet when Christ died on the cross, the veil of the temple was rent in twain,
19 The Tabernacle from top to bottom, by the Lord Himself, even as «his flesh" was bruised and broken for sinful man, opening the "way into the holiest of all" by His own shed blood. (See Heb. 9:7, 8; 10:19-22.) We said a moment ago that we wanted to get a bird's- eye-view of the tabernacle, with God's people encamped around it. No one but God could actually do this; for over the tabernacle were four coverings, forming the only "roof" this "tent of meeting" had, hiding from the gaze of men the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies. We shall not describe these coverings now; but they, too, fore- shadowed in a remarkable way the Person and work of our Lord. In our later studies we shall consider the boards and bars and sockets that formed the completed structure; the curtains and the coverings; the pieces of furniture--all a detailed and marvelous picture of Christ. Today we have attempted only to present in outline some idea of what the tabernacle was like. Before our next lesson it would be well if each member of the radio audience would read very carefully all of the book of Exodus, especially the portion beginning with chapter twenty-five, the first of the God-given description of the pattern which was shown to Moses in the mount. We can not hope to get the most from a later study of these details unless we first have clearly in mind the general plan. Hence this brief out- line view today. As we read these chapters, we shall note that God began with the beautiful ark of the covenant, and described the tabernacle from within toward the court without; whereas the sinner looked toward the tabernacle from the gate to the brazen altar. Of course, only his representative, the priest, could enter the Holy Place; and only the high
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