Exodus 25:1-9 And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,… I. ITS NATURE. 1. It was a simple structure. The materials of which it was composed were costly indeed. There was also much of artistic grace and beauty wrought up into its composition, and yet, compared with the splendid cathedrals etc. which men have erected, how simple and unpretending! 2. It was a structure of Divine origin. Indebted for nothing to the force of man's creative faculty. God planned it. II. ITS DESIGN. 1. In reference to the Jews. (1) The source of present blessing. The bright spot in the midst of a dark and desert world; for God was there, and walked in the midst of His people, to bless and deliver them from their enemies. (2) A pledge or promise to them of future good. A heaven-devised symbol, prefiguring God's salvation. 2. In reference to ourselves. (1) An illustration of the blessings of the gospel. The relation which God sustained to Israel as a nation, He now sustains to His people as individuals. He shades them by day, and, enlightens them by night; strengthens and comforts; guides and blesses them as their own personal God. (2) The Tabernacle furnishes us with a figurative view of our relation to the heavenly world (see Hebrews 9:23). We are often tempted to think and feel as if that world must be at an immense distance, a vast remove from us. A proper consideration of the Tabernacle would seem to correct this impression. Here you see the Holy Place, or the Church on Earth, and the Most Holy Place, or the Church in Heaven, in the closest possible contiguity to each other. There is only that thin material veil to separate them. In CONCLUSION the subject we have now considered suggests to us — How thankful we should be for the day in which we live! It is "the day of salvation"; the dispensation of the substance which succeeded to that of the shadow; the time of direct and full revelation as opposed to the time of type and figure. It is to the dispensation of the Tabernacle what the hour of noon, with its radiant splendour, is to the hour of early dawn, with its dim twilight and its gloom. In regard to light, and grace, and privilege, our position under the gospel is exalted indeed. And if it be true that "to whom much is given, of them much will be required," then it becomes us to see well to it, that we improve diligently our privileges. (R. Newton, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, |
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