244 The TabeNUScle out, with gold; so also every act and every characteristic of the Son of Man reflects His divine glory. Behold Him; gaze upon His majesty-as far as finite minds and hearts can gaze; all is divine. His deity is displayed over «the form of a servant." And wherever the all-seeing eye of His Father rests, within that pure and holy mind of the "only begotten Son," within His secret thoughts and affections and will-all is holy and perfect and divine. The thoughts and intents of the heart of the Son of God, as well as His blameless walk among men, His meekness and obedience to His Father's will, show forth His deity in terms that men, angels, or demons can not refute. The Father acknowledged Him as His equal, co-eternal Son. With all the realities of human nature, sin apart; with all His dependence upon His Father's will; the gold was ever there, pure, untarnished gold. Although He was both human and divine, yet He was and is and ever will be one Person; for "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself" (II Car. 5: 19). He was weary; yet He is our Refuge and Rest. He was thirsty at Jacob's well; yet He freely gives the living water. He was asleep on a pillow in the bottom of the boat; yet He arose to still the storm. He was hungry; yet He is the Bread of Life. He wept at the tomb of Lazarus, over His beloved city, and in Gethsemane's Garden; yet He alone can dry our tears. He alone can raise the dead. Because "he suffered being tempted," He is our sympathetic Sav- iour. Because He is "The mighty God," He has "all power in heaven and in earth." And of this blessed truth the incorruptible wood and the gold in the ark of the covenant speak. As the Scriptures listed at the beginning of this lesson tell us, the ark of the covenant was two and one-half
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The Tabernacle cubits long, one-half cubit wide, and one-half cubit high. There was "upon it a crown of gold round about." And four rings of gold held the staves, which were made of acacia wood, covered with gold. The Revised Version makes clear that these rings for the staves were "in the four feet" of the ark. As long as Israel journeyed in the wilderness, the staves were not to be removed from the rings. :By these the ark was carried, and they indicated that the pilgrim-walk was not over. Within the ark was «the testimony" which God gave Moses on Mount Sinai, -written on two tables of stone. There also were the golden pot of manna and Aaron's rod that budded and bore almond blossoms over night. (See Exod. 2 5: 10-16; 16: 32- 36; Num. 17:1-12; cf. Num. 16:1-50; Heb. 9:3, 4.) Such is the Holy Spirit's description of the ark of the covenant, prophetic of our Lord Jesus Himself. In His heart He kept God's holy law unbroken. He is, indeed, Manna to our souls. And He is God's chosen Priest, ever living to intercede for His own before "the throne of grace." He could be and do all of this because He was and is both human and divine. As we have often said, God can not die; and in order to bare "our sins in his own body on the tree," He had to become a Man. That is why He said to the Father, as recorded by David a thousand years before He was born in Bethlehem, "A body hast thou pre- pared me" (Heb. 10:5-7; cf. Psalm 40:6-8). In that u.prepared body" He came to do His Father's will, as this same passage tells us:
"Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: in burnt-offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, 0 God."
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