1. Its general character.

2. Its contents.

II. THE PRIESTHOOD FOR THE TABERNACLE.

III. THE SYMBOLIC MEANING OF BOTH TABERNACLE AND PRIESTHOOD.

1. Scriptural evidence of the symbolic character of these.

(1)The Mosaic ritual, as a whole, is declared to be this (Hebrews 10:1).

(2)Parts of it declared symbolic (Hebrews 9:6-9).

2. Some of its symbols explained.

(1)The propitiatory in the "Holy of Holies" (1 John 2:2).

(2)The veil dividing the "holy place" from the "most holy" (Hebrews 10:19, 20).

(3)The sacrifices of the Mosaic ritual (Hebrews 9:13, 14).

3. The priesthood a symbol.

(1)In its appointment (Hebrews 5:1-5; Hebrews 8:1-5; Hebrews 9:11, 12).

(2)In its contrast (Hebrews 7:11-28; Hebrews 9:23-28; Hebrews 10:1-13).Lessons:

1. The importance and duty of studying the Old Testament in order to understand the New Testament.

2. The marked superiority of the Christian over the Mosaic dispensation.

3. Our weightier responsibilities over those of old.

4. The all-sufficiency of Christ as Redeemer, Priest, and Friend.

5. Our paramount duties — to accept, trust, and obey Him.

(D. C. Hughes, M. A.)

1. The unity of God had been lost in the gradual transference of separate and independent sovereignty to every attempted representation or localization of the Deity. This evil, God now corrects by the strict confinement of His localization to one spot.

2. The conception of the Deity had been demoralized through the forms in which men sought to represent God. And so the God of Israel refuses to allow any image or outward representation of Himself.

II. THE MANIFESTATION OF GOD'S PRESENCE WAS SECURED BY THE CONSTRUCTION AND FURNITURE OF THE TABERNACLE.

1. The ark was constructed out of the freewill offerings of the people.

2. The Tabernacle in its costliness was, in all the circumstances of the case, wonderfully appreciative of the Divine Majesty.

3. The Tabernacle was constructed in all respects according to Divine pattern.

(W. Roberts, M. A.)

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.)

2. The Israelites no doubt looked upon the Tabernacle as the palace of their King. The furniture was palace furniture, and the priests were ministers of state.

3. The Tabernacle was set up in the wilderness. In all our wanderings God is with us.

4. The Tabernacle was the first religious structure, in which Jehovah condescended to dwell. Symbol of Divine grace. Erected in midst of sinners.

5. God's presence is the cause of holiness and it alone removes the curse. God came down to dwell with His people, not because they were holy, but to make them so. No place is holy without God. That place — wherever it may be — is holy if God is there.

6. The Tabernacle was a place of worship. It was called "the tent of the congregation" (Exodus 40:22). They had a property in it. It was the palace of their King. It was the house of their God. There they came to confess their sin. There was no other place of the kind. It was the one Tabernacle for all the tribes, and for all the individual members of those tribes.

7. The Tabernacle was not a model for our imitation, but "a shadow of heavenly things" (Hebrews 8:5). The substance having come, we need, not go back to the shadow. In the Tabernacle we have "the figures of the true" (Hebrews 9:24). In the gospel we have reality. Its blessings are everlasting. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. He is the truth of every figure, the way to a holy God, and the life of all who believe.

(R. E. Sears.)

I. GOD DWELT IN A TABERNACLE. In this a glorious reality was foreshadowed (John 1:14; Timothy 3:16; Galatians 4:4; Hebrews 2:14).

II. IN THAT TABERNACLE HE DWELT AMONGST HIS PEOPLE ISRAEL. Christ is the great centre round which all His people are grouped — those nearest to Him, the family within the veil; the glorified ones, who, having finished their service here below, are at rest — while the outer circle is the Church militant, that portion of the family which is still in the midst of tribulation and conflict. But He is the great centre. To Him all eyes, all hearts are turned; from Him all supplies are derived. The one see Him in actual fruition and enjoyment; the other realize Him by faith.

(J. Ridgeway, M. A.)

1. Many hearts were in the work. As soon as required to be constructed, the people had a heart to it and well they might since it was bringing God nearer to them, and more visibly with them than He had been. How interesting the union of hearts in such a work, men and women, and, we might think, even children too, wise and willing in the work of the Lord! Delightful was it to have their hearts in what had, from eternity, employed the heart of God, His whole will and understanding, His counsels, grace, and love. How are our hearts affected towards the spiritual temple that is rising in this world of sin? Sweet the frame of mind David was in when he said (1 Chronicles 29:14, etc.). Their hearts were their offerings: there were no stingy restraints of covetousness. At what expense are many to support the pride of life, and to maintain the superfluities of naughtiness! The day is coming when they will bitterly lament the misapplication of wealth, and the want of a heart, in their fulness, for a ready yieldance to God.

2. Many hands, as well as many hearts, were in the work (Exodus 35:26). And how delightful is it to see the spiritual temple rising, and each employed as skill given him! Where there are hearts, hands will not be wanting. We see many employed about the great building God has in progress, and what has set them to work but love? It is this that is the great moving power in the machinery of those many institutions which are in truth the bulwark and glory of the land.

(W. Seaton.)

1. The incarnation. The glory of Jehovah filled it.

2. The Church. Unity in diversity, and diversity in unity.

3. The believer. As respects both his

(1)present, and

(2)future being. Weak and imperfect now; to be glorified hereafter

4. The millennial kingdom (Revelation 21:3, 4).

(W. Mudge.)

2. It required the recognition of sin, and thus called forth the first thing essential for the reception of redemption, a sense of the need of redemption. The law was, and was intended to be, a heavy yoke, and therefore would awaken a longing after the Redeemer.

3. It served to separate Israel from the heathen; it erected between the two a wall of separation, by which communication was prevented.

4. Many things in the Ceremonial Law served, by impressions on the senses, to awaken reverence for holy things among a sensual people.

5. One principal object of the Ceremonial Law lay in its symbolic meaning. The people, enthralled in visible objects, were not yet capable of vitally appropriating supersensual truth in words, the form most suited to their nature. It was needful for the truth to condescend, to come down to their power of apprehension, to prepare itself a body from visible things, in order to free the people from the bondage of the visible. Would we rather not speak at all to the dumb than make use of signs? The Ceremonial Law was not the opposite to the worship of God in spirit and in truth, but only an imperfect form of the same, a necessary preparation for it. The accommodation was only formal, one which did not alter the essence, but only presented it in large capital letters to children who could not yet read a small running-hand.

(E. W. Hengstenberg, D. D.)

(E. P. Humphrey, D. D.)

(G. Rodgers.)

(E. E. Atwater.)

1. In unfolding this sublime lesson, let us look, in the first place, at the illustration of it which the Tabernacle itself afforded. This remarkable structure was one in regard to its parts. Each vessel has its own distinct use, and each can be viewed apart from the others; and yet in every act of priestly service, all are joined together, and are in active operation at the same time. It needs the combination of the whole to make a complete and perfect act of worship, just as it needs the harmomous action of all the members of the body to constitute the act of living. And just as the golden taches link the curtains of the Tabernacle together, and make of them one covering for one structure, so the smaller golden vessels attached to the golden candlestick, the altar of incense, and the shewbread table — the tongs, snuff-dishes, spoons, and censer — linked together the different vessels of the sanctuary into one ministration, forming in this way one golden chain of service simultaneously carried on in the presence of God in behalf of Israel.

2. The words of the Lord to Moses have a wider reference than to the immediate object which called them forth. They may be applied to nature. It may be said that the Tabernacle pointed back to the creation. It was a symbol of the great world of nature, as at once manifesting and concealing God. It was, indeed, as a Rosetta stone, to explain to man the spiritual hieroglyphics in the typology of nature, which had become dark and insignificant to him when he sinned and fell, that God devised the clearer typology of the Tabernacle, and set the cherubim, which were the symbols of creation in connection with the redemption of man, above the mercy-seat in its holiest place, and embroidered them on the veil that divided the outer from the inner sanctuary. There was no typical object or service in the Tabernacle which might not have been seen in nature if man had not lost the key of interpretation. If the creation be thus a greater Tabernacle, in which all the objects are meant to show forth the praise of God, and to symbolize His work of grace, we should expect to find in it the same unity, the same oneness of design and harmony of all parts, that we see in the Jewish Tabernacle; and this is what we actually find. This is the great lesson which modern science has taught us so effectually.

3. But not only did the Tabernacle repeat in miniature the whole creation as God's dwelling-place, it also more especially typified the new creation — the Church of God. Under all the varying dispensations of His grace, God's Church has been one The Jews were in the outer court because the way into the holiest was not yet made manifest. Gentiles, by the new and living way opened up through the rent veil of Christ's flesh, have entered into the inner shrine. But Jews and Gentiles alike are now united in one communion and fellowship in Christ. The Saviour the Jews looked forward to in rites and sacrifices, we look back to in the ordinances of the gospel. The religion that was veiled to them has been unveiled to us. They saw the types and shadows; we behold the living and glorious realities. Over all is the tabernacling of the same God; and the Church of Jews and Gentiles is "built upon the foundation," etc.

4. The Tabernacle was the Bible of the Israelites. God taught them by its object-lessons in their childhood and pupilage in the wilderness. But that age of shadows and symbols has disappeared; man has passed from the childhood's stage of education into the higher school. We have been trained for a clearer perception and a fuller possession of the truth. God has given to us His own written Word, in which His thoughts are woven with man's thoughts, making of the whole Book the speech to the world of Emmanuel, God with us.

5. Man's body is a tabernacle — the greatest of all temples. It is fearfully and wonderfully made, the very highest possible form of organization, the masterpiece of creation.

(H. Macmillan, D. D.)

I. First in the table may be placed THE PARALLELISM BETWEEN THE MOSAIC SYSTEM, AS OTHERWISE ASCERTAINED, AND ITS SYMBOLIC REPRESENTATION. The writings of Moses, like the Greek translation of the Rosetta stone give a clue to the meaning of what otherwise might be illegible.

II. Another key of interpretation is found in the SCRIPTURAL EXPLANATION OF SYMBOLS. For instance, in the Apocalypse incense is explained as symbolizing the prayers of the holy; and fine linen is explained as meaning, when used for garments, that those thus arrayed were holy.

III. THE DESIGN OF THE TABERNACLE AS DECLARED IN THE DIRECTIONS FOR ITS CONSTRUCTION, EQUIPMENT, AND SERVICES, IS A KEY TO ITS SIGNIFICANCE. If the edifice was a symbol it signified that Jehovah dwelt among the Israelites. It represented His true habitation, wherever and of whatever nature it may be, and the spiritual intercourse between Him and those who worship. Moreover, it was equipped in such a manner as to provide for ministrations expressive of atonement, restoration to favour, assurance of reconciliation, and acceptable service; and was thus both a sign and a seal of the covenant relation and of the presence of Jehovah.

IV. THE SCRIPTURAL APPELLATIONS OF THE TABERNACLE ARE A MEANS OF INTERPRETATION.

V. THE SYMBOLISM OF NATURE IS AN IMPORTANT MEANS OF INTERPRETATION.

VI. Another means of interpretation is THE ARTIFICIAL SYMBOLISM OF THE ANCIENTS. Kings wear crowns, and sit on thrones; and so crowns and thrones indicate royalty. Among the ancients purple was worn by those in authority, and so became the badge of power and distinction. The temples of the Hindoos, the Chinese, the Chaldeans, and the Egyptians, were built with an adherence to certain forms, proportions, and repetitions, which leaves no room for doubt that their sacred architecture was significant, and that with some difference in the ideas expressed, and some variety in the mode of expressing the same ideas, they employed the relations of geometry and arithmetic to represent the objects of their religious thought. Colour was employed for the same purpose. The three kingdoms of nature — animal, vegetable, mineral — were also made to subserve this artificial symbolism.

(E. E. Atwater.)

1. It is quite certain that in the time of Moses gold had not been coined, and was not often used, even by weight, as a medium of exchange. There is a warrant in nature as well as in the universal custom of antiquity, for this employment of the most splendid of the metals to illustrate the highest possible dignity and glory; for it never fails to excite in the mind of the beholder feelings of admiration and awe. Hence, as an emblem, it was among metals what purple was among colours, and found its most appropriate place on the persons and in the habitations of kings and gods. The dedication of a large amount of gold to the service of religion was, therefore, not peculiar to the Hebrews. It was the universal custom of the age thus to do homage to the objects of worship. But, as Mosaism allowed no images of Jehovah, the symbolism of gold must be confined to His habitation and its furniture. It is worthy of observation, then, that the God of the Hebrews dwelt in a golden house.

2. If the Tabernacle of Jehovah was splendid by contrast between it and the ordinary tents of the surrounding encampment, it seems to have been designedly rendered still more splendid by the ordained distinction between the Tabernacle and its court. For while the walls of the dwelling and all its utensils were of gold, so that (with the exception of the sill) no other metal was visible within, the furniture of the court must, according to the specifications furnished to Moses, be of copper. The significance of copper seems to depend chiefly on its rank among the metals, being more esteemed than iron, and less so than silver and gold. As a metal of honour and beauty, it was an appropriate material for the utensils of Divine service, and by its inferiority to gold furnished a background on which the latter seemed more splendid by contrast. Its resemblance to gold deepened the symbolic significance conveyed by the exclusive use of one of the metals in the court, and of the other within the habitation.

3. Between the copper outside and the gold inside, silver was the mediating metal, being found both on the sill of the sanctuary and on the caps of the pillars around the sacred enclosure, to indicate by another sign that the house was higher in honour than the area in front, so much higher that its sill was of the same material as the crowning ornament of the court. Silver was at that time in common use as money; if not in the shape of coin, certainly of bullion, which, when weighed, was current with the merchant (Genesis 23:16). Now, this silver which had been wrought partly into the sill of the Tabernacle and partly into the caps of the pillars around the court, had been used as money. Indeed, it came into the possession of Moses in half-shekels, which the people had paid as "atonement money," "every man a ransom for his soul" (Exodus 30:12, 16). The services of the court culminated in redemption, and not till they were redeemed could the people, even representatively, enter the sanctuary. The shining silver on the top of the pillars of the enclosure was "a memorial to the children of Israel before Jehovah to make an atonement for their souls" (Exodus 30:16), i.e., a permanent reminder that their sins were expiated; and the sill of the sanctuary, into which the greater part of the ransom-money had been molten, was a token that in consequence of their redemption God dwelt among them, and received them to His fellowship. The silver, "as an expiation for souls, pointed to the unholiness of Israel's nature, and reminded the people continually that by nature it was alienated from God, and could only remain in covenant with the Lord, and live in His kingdom, on the ground of His grace which covered its sin." May not the apostle have had this ransom-money in mind when he said to the people of the new covenant, "Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ"?

(E. E. Atwater.)

(W. Brown.)

(W. Brown.)

(W. Brown.)

(W. Brown.)

2. Silver. The preciousness of the Lord Jesus as the Ransom for the sinner.

3. Brass. The power of the Lord Jesus to endure the cross, because He is God.

4. Blue. The manifestation of God as love, in the ways and death of Christ.

5. Purple. The manifestation of the God-Man, God manifest in the flesh.

6. Scarlet. The manifestation of the true dignity and glory of man as seen in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of Man.

7. Fine linen. The righteous man exhibiting to the eye of faith "the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."

8. Goats'hair. The memorial of the death of the Lord Jesus as the offering for sin.

9. Rams'skins dyed red. The outward aspect of Christ as the Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Born in this world to die.

10. Badgers'skins. The outward aspect of Christ, as having no form nor comeliness to the heart of the natural man.

11. Shittim wood. The Lord Jesus, the incorruptible Man. "That holy thing," the Son of God.

12. Oil for the light. The Lord Jesus as the light; filled with the Spirit.

13. Spices for anointing oil. The graces of the Spirit in all their fulness manifested by the Christ.

14. Spices for sweet incense. The fragrant graces of Christ made manifest on the cross, and perpetuated in His intercession.

15. Onyx stones, and stones to be set in the ephod and the breastplate. The glory and brilliancy of the Heavenly One reflected also in His saints.

(H. W. Soltau.)

(S. S. Chronicle.)

(Great Thoughts.)

1. That white linen was employed as a symbol, appears from many passages of the New Testament, where its significance is declared and explained. It was a representative of light, resembling it somewhat in colour (Matthew 17:2), but more in brightness (Luke 9:29; Luke 24:4; Mark 9:3), and purity (Revelation 19:8, 14; Revelation 15:6).

2. The Hebrew word rendered "blue" is primarily the name of a shell-fish, and derivatively of the dye yielded by it. If Moses would represent that Jehovah, whose dwelling is in heaven, had come down to earth to dwell with His covenant people, how could he do it better than by employing in the habitation made with hands the azure hue of the visible heaven? If he wished to teach that the priests, and the sacrifices they offered were an "example and shadow of heavenly things," how pertinent would it be to weave into their official attire threads of that cerulean tint, which in his day communicated such thoughts to the eye as are now conveyed to the ear by the audible pronunciation of the word "heaven"!

3. Cloth of purple was much prized by the Greeks and Romans, who included under this appellation a wide range of colour, extending from red slightly tinged with blue to shades in which the blue was predominant; the dye being in all cases derived from shell-fish. In the earlier days of Rome, purple had been worn only by magistrates as a badge of office; but the progress of wealth and luxury was afterward so great, that the first of the emperors thought it necessary to put restriction on the use of it in order to preserve the significance of the ancient symbol; and eventually certain fabrics of this colour, including those held in highest estimation, were entirely interdicted to the Roman citizens, and reserved for the exclusive use of the imperial household. In the employment of purple as a mark of official distinction, the Romans followed the custom of some, if not all older nations (see Judges 8:26; Daniel 5:7, margin). Not only kings, emperors, and their subordinates in civil authority, wore this colour, but sometimes priests, as a mark of honour to their office and the deities they served. Even the images of the gods were adorned with raiment of purple. The appearance of this colour, then, in the curtains of the Hebrew Tabernacle marked that central edifice as the habitation of the Ruler of the encampment. The purple in the garments of the priests indicated that they belonged to the royal household, and were officers of the King.

4. The two Hebrew words which taken together are rendered "scarlet," denote a colour derived from an insect called by naturalists coccus ilicis, found in large quantities on certain species of the oak. The Arabic name of the insect is kermes, the root of our word "crimson." The only natural object to which the tint is applied in the Old Testament is the lips (Song of Solomon 4:3). It seems probable (see Genesis 38:28; Leviticus 14:4-7; Numbers 19:6; Joshua 2:18) that this colour was used as a symbol of life; deriving this significance from blood, which was itself the vehicle and representative of the vital force.

(E. E. Atwater.)

2. Scarlet, or red, is the colour which, after blue, occurs most frequently in connection with the Tabernacle. As blue speaks of God the Creator, so red, or scarlet, speaks of the world, or of man the creature.

3. Purple is formed from the intermingling of scarlet and blue, and thus corresponds to twelve among numbers, which is the result of three multiplied into four, and is, therefore, the colour of the Incarnation. In the Tabernacle, purple appears side by side with blue and scarlet in the interior hangings, in the veils, and in the vestments of the high-priest. When we remember that the Tabernacle, as a whole, was a type of the Word who "tabernacles in us" (John 1:14), we shall not, I think, find it difficult to acquiesce in the suggestion of a devout and learned writer, that "the purple appears to have foreshadowed the hypostatical union, i.e., the union of the Divine and human natures in the person of our Lord." It would seem to have been selected to reveal the intimacy and perfection of this union; and the constituent colours of purple, red, and blue, to have been set in juxtaposition with it, to teach that, although the two natures are thus combined in Him, yet are they not absorbed in each other, as if the Divine had been lost in the human, or the human in the Divine, but ever remain to co-exist, notwithstanding their most perfect union.

4. The three colours already spoken of were conjoined with the whiteness of fine linen. White is symbolic of cleansing from sin (Isaiah 1:18; cf. Revelation 7:14; Psalm 51:7). White is also symbolical of perfect dazzling holiness (Daniel 7:9; cf. Revelation 6:2; Revelation 14:14; Revelation 19:11; Revelation 20:11). In the Tabernacle the fine white linen would tell of the purity and holiness which results from that union of the Divine with the human which was already indicated by the three colours with which it was conjoined. The great lesson, therefore, which everywhere met the eye of the worshipper in the fine linen hangings of the outer court, and in the blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine-twined linen of the veils, and sacerdotal vestments, was none other than this, "Ye shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy."

(E. F. Willis, M. A.)

(W. Brown.)

(W. Brown.)

(W. Brown.)

     7402   offerings

Exodus 25:1-3

     4363   silver

Exodus 25:1-7

     4312   bronze
     4333   gold
     4342   jewels
     4492   olive

Exodus 25:1-9

     8421   equipping, physical

Exodus 25:1-16

     4528   trees

The Golden Lampstand
'Thou shalt make a candlestick of pure gold....' --EXODUS xxv. 31. If we could have followed the Jewish priest as he passed in his daily ministrations into the Inner Court, we should have seen that he first piled the incense on the altar which stood in its centre, and then turned to trim the lamps of the golden candlestick which flanked it on one side. Of course it was not a candlestick, as our versions misleadingly render the word. That was an article of furniture unknown in those days. It was a …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Eighth Day. Holiness and Indwelling.
And let them make me a holy place, that I may dwell among them.'--Ex. xxv. 8. 'And the tent shall be sanctified by my glory, and I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will be their God.'--Ex. xxix. 43, 45. The Presence of God makes holy, even when it descends but for a little while, as at Horeb, in the burning bush. How much more must that Presence make holy the place where it dwells, where it fixes its permanent abode! So much is this the case, that the place where God dwells …
Andrew Murray—Holy in Christ

April the Thirteenth Pure Gold
"Thou shalt overlay it with pure gold.... And there I will meet with thee." --EXODUS xxv. 10-22. I must put my best into my preparations, and then the Lord will honour my work. My part is to be of "pure gold" if my God is to dwell within it. I must not satisfy myself with cheap flimsy and then assume that the Lord will be satisfied with it. He demands my very best as a condition of His enriching Presence. My prayers must be of "pure gold" if He is to meet me there. There must be nothing vulgar …
John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year

Concerning Jonathan, one of the Sicarii, that Stirred up a Sedition in Cyrene, and was a False Accuser [Of the Innocent].
1. And now did the madness of the Sicarii, like a disease, reach as far as the cities of Cyrene; for one Jonathan, a vile person, and by trade a weaver, came thither and prevailed with no small number of the poorer sort to give ear to him; he also led them into the desert, upon promising them that he would show them signs and apparitions. And as for the other Jews of Cyrene, he concealed his knavery from them, and put tricks upon them; but those of the greatest dignity among them informed Catullus, …
Flavius Josephus—The Wars of the Jews or History of the Destruction of Jerusalem

How Intent the Ruler Ought to be on Meditations in the Sacred Law.
But all this is duly executed by a ruler, if, inspired by the spirit of heavenly fear and love, he meditate daily on the precepts of Sacred Writ, that the words of Divine admonition may restore in him the power of solicitude and of provident circumspection with regard to the celestial life, which familiar intercourse with men continually destroys; and that one who is drawn to oldness of life by secular society may by the aspiration of compunction be ever renewed to love of the spiritual country. …
Leo the Great—Writings of Leo the Great

Solomon's Temple Spiritualized
or, Gospel Light Fetched out of the Temple at Jerusalem, to Let us More Easily into the Glory of New Testament Truths. 'Thou son of man, shew the house to the house of Isreal;--shew them the form of the house, and the fashion thereof, and the goings out hereof, and the comings in thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the laws thereof.'--Ezekiel 43:10, 11 London: Printed for, and sold by George Larkin, at the Two Swans without Bishopgate, …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3

The Work of the Holy Spirit in Prophets and Apostles.
The work of the Holy Spirit in apostles and prophets is an entirely distinctive work. He imparts to apostles and prophets an especial gift for an especial purpose. We read in 1 Cor. xii. 4, 8-11, 28, 29, R. V., "Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.... For to one is given through the Spirit wisdom; and to another the word of knowledge, according to the same Spirit; to another faith, in the same Spirit; and to another gifts of healings, in the one Spirit; and to another workings …
R. A. Torrey—The Person and Work of The Holy Spirit

The Kingdom Forming
Exodus Page Leviticus Page Deuteronomy Page EXODUS I. Pictorial Device. Originate one, or omit. II. III. IV. V. 1706 B.C. to 1490 B.C., making 216 years. VI. 1. 1 to 18. Israel Delivered. 2. 19 to 34. Israel Taught at Mount Sinai. 3. 35 to 40. Israel Prepared for Worship. VII. Chapter 20.2. VIII. God Delivering a Nation. IX. 12:13: "And when I see the blood I will pass over you." 15:11. X. 1. Bondage. 2. 3. Burning Bush. 7-11. 12. 14. Red Sea. 15. 16. Manna. 20. 25 and 35. The …
Frank Nelson Palmer—A Bird's-Eye View of the Bible

The Word
The third way to escape the wrath and curse of God, and obtain the benefit of redemption by Christ, is the diligent use of ordinances, in particular, the word, sacraments, and prayer.' I begin with the best of these ordinances. The word . . . which effectually worketh in you that believe.' 1 Thess 2:13. What is meant by the word's working effectually? The word of God is said to work effectually when it has the good effect upon us for which it was appointed by God; when it works powerful illumination …
Thomas Watson—The Ten Commandments

Man's Chief End
Q-I: WHAT IS THE CHIEF END OF MAN? A: Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him for ever. Here are two ends of life specified. 1: The glorifying of God. 2: The enjoying of God. I. The glorifying of God, I Pet 4:4: That God in all things may be glorified.' The glory of God is a silver thread which must run through all our actions. I Cor 10:01. Whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.' Everything works to some end in things natural and artificial; …
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

An Advance Step in the Royal Programme
(Revelation, Chapters iv. and v.) "We are watching, we are waiting, For the bright prophetic day; When the shadows, weary shadows, From the world shall roll away. "We are watching, we are waiting, For the star that brings the day; When the night of sin shall vanish, And the shadows melt away. "We are watching, we are waiting, For the beauteous King of day; For the chiefest of ten thousand, For the Light, the Truth, the Way. "We are waiting for the morning, When the beauteous day is dawning, We are …
by S. D. Gordon—Quiet Talks on the Crowned Christ of Revelation

Exodus
The book of Exodus--so named in the Greek version from the march of Israel out of Egypt--opens upon a scene of oppression very different from the prosperity and triumph in which Genesis had closed. Israel is being cruelly crushed by the new dynasty which has arisen in Egypt (i.) and the story of the book is the story of her redemption. Ultimately it is Israel's God that is her redeemer, but He operates largely by human means; and the first step is the preparation of a deliverer, Moses, whose parentage, …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament