Exodus The Tabernacle ~ Part 3 Chapters 24:1-18 W ell I m glad to see all of you made it back here to the entrance of the tabernacle. This morning we are going to move into the Outer Court. Sorry for the heat and smell, but the sacrifices are always going on. Keep in mind the following truths. While the Tabernacle is a picture of Christ and stood in the place of the mediator of Israel, the sacrificial system was one that generated distance between the individual Israelite and his God. Let us be grateful that, because of Christ s sacrifice, we, individually, have direct access to the Father anytime we want it. But, we must remember how blessed we are and not take this access for granted. IX The Tabernacle A. Introduction 4. The Outer Court Chap 27:9-15, 17-18 a. The Linen Fence and Pillars b. The Gate and Pillars c. The Brazen Altar 4. The Outer Court: First, notice the tribes placement, specifically the fact that Judah is located at the entrance of the outer court. It was through the tribe of Judah we approach God today, for Jesus was born within this tribe and He is our access. The court was approximately 87 ½ ' x 175 '. The entrance is called the gate. It is through this gate we see the structure of the Tabernacle. When God instructed Moses to build this tent, as we saw last time, he took up an offering to provide the materials. He collected so much that He had to tell the people to stop giving. I don t thing that s too likely to be a problem for most churches today. The LORD said to Moses, Speak to the people of Israel, that they take for me a contribution. From every man whose heart moves him you shall receive the contribution for me. And this is the contribution that you shall receive from them: gold, silver, and bronze, blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen, goats hair, tanned rams skins, goatskins, acacia wood, oil for the lamps, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense, onyx stones, and stones for setting, for the ephod and for the breastpiece. And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst. Exactly as I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle, and of all its furniture, so you shall make it (Exodus 25:1 9 ESV). I checked on the value of the structure this week and according to one source the value for the whole would be about 57 million.
As you can see the whole structure was mobile. It was enclosed by a fence of white linen, hung from 60 pillars, 20 per side and 10 on each end. Revelation 19:8 states: for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. So fine line is tied to the righteousness of the saints which in turn comes from Christ. Therefore we can identify the linen with His Righteousness and Purity. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (1 Corinthians 1:30; 2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV). Now this fence kept men separated from any approach to God. Man was cut off from Him. It was by bringing the proper sacrifice we are able to get through the gate. The structure stands between us and God showing Jesus Christ in His role as our mediator. His humanity is one factor needed for Him to serve in this role, for the true mediator must have the nature of both parties for whom he is mediating and Christ is both deity and humanity. We will see this dual nature pictured through out the tabernacle. For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel (1 Timothy 2:5; Hebrews 8:6; 12:24 ESV). Once we are inside the gate we are also separated and protected from the world. When we are in Messiah we are now part of a called out body separated from the world to God. How should this effect the way we live? But, we still haven t gone into the courtyard because we still have a little more to look at out here. a. The Linen Fence and Pillars: As we have seen the linen fence speaks of the purity and humanity of Christ. It shows by what nature He serves as our mediator. Christ is able to serve as our mediator because be partakes of the nature of both parties of the New Covenant. He is of the nature of both deity and humanity. Picking up at this point we will take a quick look at the Pillars. The pillars holding up the linen fence are topped in silver and set in brass, actually bronze. Brass will stand the test of fire, in other words, God s judgment and God will judge. you will be visited by the LORD of hosts with thunder and with earthquake and great noise, with whirlwind and tempest, and the flame of a devouring fire. And the LORD will cause his majestic voice to be heard and the descending blow of his arm to be seen, in furious anger and a flame of devouring fire, with a cloudburst and storm and hailstones. For behold, the LORD will come in fire, and his chariots like the whirlwind, to render his anger in fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire (Isaiah 29:6; 30:30; 66:15 ESV). ) 396 (
We will make this clearer when we get inside and take a look at the brazen altar. Here the picture is of the judgment and suffering of Jesus. He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not (Isaiah 53:3 ESV). Silver is a picture of atonement or redemption. Joseph was sold for a price of silver as was the Lord. This was the price He paid for us. He gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time (1 Timothy 2:6 ESV). If the tabernacle is a picture of Christ then we can also draw parallels with His body the Church, for oft times believers are referred to as pillars. May our daughters [be] like corner pillars cut for the structure of a palace James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars (Psalms 144:12; Galatians 2:9 ESV). It is through God judging Jesus in His humanity that the price was paid for our redemption. It is by Jesus death and resurrection we receive eternal life. We are joined with Him and receive His righteousness. the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him (Romans 3:22; 1 Corinthians 6:17 ESV). The Lord s substitutionary death is absolutely necessary regardless how offensive His shed blood is to the unbeliever and the liberal theologian. b. The Gate and Pillars: Before we go inside the court let s take a look at the gate and its four pillars (see Exodus 27:16). Obviously the Gate is the picture of Jesus Christ as the only way to approach God. Jesus said to him, I am the way. No one comes to the Father except through me (John 14:6 ESV). The first thing you ll see as we go inside is the altar which stands for the cross. Jesus is our way to God through the sacrifice on the cross. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12 ESV). The size of the gate is about 30' x 7 ½ '. The colors of the hanging were Blue, Purple, Scarlet, and White, woven into the same linen material as the rest of the fence. I suspect you could make a correct assumption as to what the four colors stand for. Any one want to take a chance? ) 397 (
The blue speaks of heaven, The Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me (John 5:37 ESV), and relates to the origin of Christ as God coming down from Heaven. Purple is the color of royalty and can speak of the Kingship of Jesus, he [Christ] who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords (1 Timothy 6:15 ESV). Also Purple is made up of blue and scarlet and therefore can picture both His deity and the need for His sacrifice. Scarlet therefore is the color of blood and refers to His atoning death, when Christ appeared as a high priest then through the greater and more perfect tent he entered once for all into the holy places by means of his own blood. (Hebrews 9:11 12 ESV). Finally as we have already noted, white speaks of His righteousness or purity, Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, (Acts 7:52 ESV). Any who brought an acceptable sacrifice could enter. The Messiah s sacrifice allows us into God s presence. Christ himself is the gate by which we enter. Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. So Jesus again said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture (Matthew 7:13 14; John 10:7, 9 ESV). Once again we see the need of shed blood. The penitent would bring his sacrifice through the gate for the priest to offer up for him. The sacrifice we present is Christ. As you can see in the hangings of the gate we see all aspects of Jesus and His ministry; His coming from the Father, His role as King of Kings, His shed blood, and finally His righteousness and purity. Now some see the four pillars supporting the hanging of the Gate as the looking to the four gospels, though I must say that I find this one hard to accept since there is no direct references to the New Testament in the Old. Another view which seems to make more sense is to see them speaking of the four fold sonship of Christ. Jesus is the son of David, the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, (Luke 1:32 ESV). He is also the son of Abraham, The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, And to offsprings, referring to many, but referring to one, And to your offspring, who is Christ. (Matthew 1:1; Galatians 3:16 ESV). ) 398 (
Jesus is also called the son of man, And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man (John 5:27 ESV). Finally He is called the Son of God, God in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, (Hebrews 1:1 2 ESV). c. The Brazen Altar: Wait a minute now while I have the priests open the gate so we can get inside. The first thing we see is the Brazen altar (Exodus 27:1-8.) The size of the altar was about 7 ½ ' x 7 ½ ' x 4 ½ ' and it is here that sacrifice was made for the people s sins. This is apart from the one sin offering made on the Day of Atonement. It was here the blood flowed down through the years. Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins (Hebrews 9:22 ESV). The altar pictures the Doctrine of Satisfaction. Remember that Exodus started with Israel in slavery and ends with God s presence among the people. We as believers started as slaves to sin and Jesus death freed us. Today Jesus stands outside and knocks to be let in, but at this time the believer stood on the outside and brought sacrifice to be able to come in. Without the Tabernacle and the altar Judaism is helpless, because while the law shows man s imperfection, it has nothing to solve the problem of that sin. Here is God s answer to the problem of sin. Satisfaction for sin is provided through the blood sacrifice, ritually through the blood of animals, actually through the blood of Christ. It should also be noted that unlike altars of the day, the Brazen Altar was not one showing its origins in idolatry. It was here the people offered up sacrifice for their sin. The blood wasn t, as was often the case in pagan worship, to somehow quench the thirst of God for violence but was the payment for their sin. The altar was made from Shittim (acacia) wood overlaid with brass. Shittim is a close grained wood used for ship building in Egypt. This wood was like brass, able to withstand fire. As previously noted brass is symbolic of God s judgment. Here we find a picture of the cross - judgment - sacrifice. Christ withstanding judgment for us all. And he set the altar of burnt offering at the entrance of the tabernacle of the tent of meeting, and offered on it the burnt offering and the grain offering, as the LORD had commanded Moses. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. (Exodus 40:29; Eph. 5:2 ESV). The burnt offering was made here: Then he shall kill the bull before the LORD, and Aaron s sons the priests shall bring the blood and throw the blood against the sides of the altar that is at the entrance of the tent of meeting. Then he shall flay the burnt offering and cut it into pieces, and the sons of Aaron the priest shall put fire on the altar and arrange wood on the fire. but its entrails and its legs he shall wash with water. And the priest shall burn all of it on the altar, as a burnt offering, a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the LORD (Leviticus 1:5 7, 9 ESV). ) 399 (
The meal offering was made here: And you shall bring the grain offering that is made of these things to the Lord, and when it is presented to the priest, he shall bring it to the altar. And the priest shall take from the grain offering its memorial portion and burn this on the altar, a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the LORD (Leviticus 2:8 9 ESV). The peace offering was here: Then Aaron s sons shall burn it on the altar on top of the burnt offering, which is on the wood on the fire; it is a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the LORD (Leviticus 3:5 ESV) as well as the sin, transgression, and atonement offerings. (see Leviticus 4:10; 5:10; 16:9) This was the only altar where sacrifice was made. (We will look at the Golden Altar later.) To reinforce the fact that Christ s death is the only acceptable sacrifice for sin, God made it clear to the Hebrews that they were to go to no other altar, and to sacrifice to no other God. And a letter came to him from Elijah the prophet, saying, Thus says the Lord, the God of David your father, Because you have not walked in the ways of Jehoshaphat your father, or in the ways of Asa king of Judah, but have walked in the way of the kings of Israel and have enticed Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem into whoredom, as the house of Ahab led Israel into whoredom, and also you have killed your brothers, of your father s house, who were better than you, behold, the Lord will bring a great plague on your people, your children, your wives, and all your possessions, and you yourself will have a severe sickness with a disease of your bowels, until your bowels come out because of the disease, day by day. (2 Chronicles 21:12 15 ESV). And God did judge the nation for disobedience. And this occurred because the people of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods and walked in the customs of the nations whom the LORD drove out before the people of Israel, and in the customs that the kings of Israel had practiced. And the people of Israel did secretly against the LORD their God things that were not right. They built for themselves high places in all their towns, from watchtower to fortified city. They set up for themselves pillars and Asherim on every high hill and under every green tree, and there they made offerings on all the high places, as the nations did whom the LORD carried away before them. And they did wicked things, provoking the LORD to anger, and they served idols, of which the LORD had said to them, You shall not do this. Yet the LORD warned Israel and Judah by every prophet and every seer, saying, Turn from your evil ways and keep my commandments and my statutes, in accordance with all the Law that I commanded your fathers, and that I sent to you by my servants the prophets. (2 Kings 17:7 13 ESV). And so the altar speaks of the nature of Christ. The Shittim is a desert shrub with a long tap root that reaches to the subterranean dampness. ) 400 (
For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him (Isaiah 53:2 ESV). which shows the common humanity of the Lord. The altar, being the first item seen inside the gate, says to men that to approach God the first thing they must look at, or come to is the cross. If there is real desire to approach God, then we must go to the cross. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year (1 Peter 2:24; Hebrews 10:1 3 ESV). It is worth nothing that for us having gone to the cross we can go into the presence of God, but for the Jew, he could go no further than the altar. He had to depend on his representatives, the priests. Since the altar was made according to plans given to Moses by God, when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain. (Hebrews 8:5 ESV). Jesus death and resurrection was planned for our salvation from before creation. But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth (2 Thessalonians 2:13 ESV). So you can see the altar is of major importance and accordingly we will pick up here next time continuing to see that it pictures our Salvation. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. (Acts 4:12; 1 Peter 2:24; 2 Thessalonians 2:13 ESV). ) 401 (
You shall be holy, for I am holy. And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy (1 Peter 1:16 19; 2:9 10 ESV). ) 402 (
Exodus The Tabernacle ~ Part 3 Chapters 24:1-18 IX The Tabernacle A. Introduction 4. The Outer Court Chap 27:9-15, 17-18 a. The Linen Fence and Pillars b. The Gate and Pillars c. The Brazen Altar 4. The Outer Court: (Exodus 25:1 9; Revelation 19:8; 1 Corinthians 1:30; 2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Timothy 2:5; Hebrews 8:6; 12:24) a. The Linen Fence and Pillars: (Isaiah 29:6; 30:30; 66:15, 53:3; 1 Timothy 2:6; Psalms 144:12; Galatians 2:9; Romans 3:22; 1 Corinthians 6:17)
b. The Gate and Pillars: (John 14:6; Acts 4:12; John 5:37; 1 Timothy 6:15; Hebrews 9:11 12; Acts 7:52; Matthew 7:13 14; John 10:7, 9; Luke 1:32; Matthew 1:1; Galatians 3:16; John 5:27; Hebrews 1:1 2 c. The Brazen Altar: (Hebrews 9:22; Exodus 40:29; Ephesians 5:2; Leviticus 1:5 7, 9, 2:8 9, 3:5; 2 Chronicles 21:12 15; 2 Kings 17:7 13; Isaiah 53:2; 1 Peter 2:24; Hebrews 10:1 3, 8:5; 2 Thessalonians 2:13; Acts 4:12; 1 Peter 2:24; 2 Thessalonians 2:13; 1 Peter 1:16 19; 2:9 10