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The Tabernacle There were two "holy places made with hands" in the Jewish tabernacle. These, as we have seen, were the H~ly Place, into which only the priests could enter, as they min- istered before the Lord on behalf of His people; and the Holy of Holies, into which only the high priest could go just once a year with the shed blood of the sacrifice that pointed on to Christ. God dwelt in that Most Holy Place, in the Shekinah Glory, literally "in the midst" of His peo- ple, Israel. The veil separated these two rooms of the taber- nacle, while the door on the east of the Holy Place closed from the view of men the sanctuary where the priests min- istered daily before the Lord. The Holy Place was twenty cubits long and ten cubits wide; the Holy of Holies, ten cubits in length, in width, and in height, a perfect cube. Someone has estimated that the tabernacle was forty-five feet long and eighteen feet wide. The walls were made of boards of incorrupt- ible acacia wood, covered over with gold, and set upright in sockets of silver. These boards were made secure by bars that connected the entire structure. Over the whole there were four coverings. And the "tent" was securely fastened by "pins," or "nails," driven into the ground, to which were attached cords that went over the coverings. As we remember that much gold, silver, brass, and wood went into the making of this sanctuary; as we think of the cost of the coverings of fine linen, goats' hair, rams' skins dyed red, and badgers' ·skins, to say nothing of the price of other materials-as we think of the value of all these, we realize that this was a very costly tabernacle. It has been estimated that not less than $1,500,000 must have been required to erect it according to the God-given pattern. That is why God had told Moses to have_Israel "ask" for the jewels and riches of -Egypt before they left
Chapter IV "THE TENT OF THE CONGREGATION" God's Dwelling Place rr111, the Midst" of His People Exodus 26:1-37; 36:8-38 In the first chapter of this series of studies we men- tioned the two-fold significance of the "earthly sanctuary" which God told Moses to build "according to the pattern" which He showed him in the mount: ( 1) As God's dwell- ing place "in the midst" of His people, it foreshadowed the Person and work of the Lord Jesus, who became flesh, that He might "tabernacle" among men; and (2) as God's dwelling place "in the midst" of His people, it also typified the church, which is the bride of Christ, His body, "an habitation of God through the Spirit" (Eph, 2: 22). Thus this "tent of the congregation" became a remarkable fore- shadowing of the glories of Christ, "Immanuel, God with us," as well as a prophetic picture of the union of Christ and His church and the union of the members of His blood-bought bride one with another. That is why the Holy Spirit wrote, in Heb. 9:24, saying, "Christ ~s not entered into the holy places made with hands, :vhich are the :figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us." He who nearly two thousand years ago "tabernacled" among men is now at "the right hand of the Majesty on high," interceding for His own, praying that they may be one in Him, even as they live one with another in the bond of unity that only the redeemed souls of men can know. And in the Person of His own Holy Spirit He dwells in that living temple which is His church. [84]
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