Introduction
Chapters 1 and 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapters 5 to 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapters 16 and 17
Chapter 18
Chapters 19 to 23
Chapters 24 and 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapters 30 and 31
Chapter 32
Chapters 33 and 34
Chapters 35 to 40
|
Provision for the communion and service of a redeemed people
Having thus established the priesthood, and the relationship of the
people with God who dwelt in the midst of them, the intercession of
Christ in grace (all that was in Him ascending as a sweet savour to
Jehovah), is presented (Ex. 30:1-10); and His service in making the
manifestation of God in the Spirit shine forth (ver 7). The people
were identified with this service through redemption
(vers. 11-16). They could neither be there, nor serve;* but they
were all represented as redeemed. We then have the laver between the
brazen altar and the tabernacle — purification** for communion
with God, and for service to Him therein: the hands and feet (for us
only the feet, as our walk alone is concerned), every time they took
part in it.
{* The places were seen; but not our entrance into them, with all the
rent veil brings with it.
** It was the washing of
water by the word, the purification of the worshipper (first, of the
heart) to constitute him one by being born again of the word. But this
was not the laver. The priests had their bodies washed first to be
such, but it is not said this was in the laver. There they washed
their hands and their feet, when they had come into priestly service
by the sacrifices, being already washed as to their bodies. That is,
they were priests already when they washed their hands and feet in the
laver; their bodies had been washed, and the consecrating sacrifices
offered; and then in respect of practice, according to the purity of
divine life by the Spirit, there was the washing through the word, and
especially if they had failed (compare John 13). For communion
requires not only acceptance but purification. Without this the
presence of God acts on the conscience, not in giving communion, but
in shewing the defilement. Christ, even as a man, was pure by nature,
and He kept Himself by the words of God's lips. With us, this purity
is received from Him; and we must also use the word to purify
ourselves. The idea and measure of the purity are the same for Christ
and for us: "he that says he abides in him ought himself also
so to walk, even as he walked" — "to purify himself, even
as he is pure." For the ordinary relationship of the people,
looked at as worshippers, it was the red heifer (Num. 19); its ashes,
which typified this purification on failure, were put into running
water; that is, the Holy Spirit applied, by the word, to the heart and
conscience, the sufferings of Christ for sin to purify man; sufferings
which could have all their moral and purifying power, since the ashes
of separation shewed forth that sin had been consumed in the sacrifice
of Christ Himself for sin, as to imputation, by the fire of the
judgment of God. The blood of the heifer had been sprinkled seven
times before the door of the tabernacle — the place where, we have
just seen, God met the people; but to worship and serve there must be
the actual purification according to the standard of Christ: at least
as far as realised, so that the conscience be not bad. This being in
His presence, and the judgment of failure, is the means of progress
also. Note, the rules as to the red heifer, shew that however it came
(for there were cases viewed merely humanly which were inevitable,
but, they shew that however it came), God could not have impurity in
His presence.}
The oil and incense
Finally, we have the oil and the incense, the fragrant oil, which were
for priests only: the nature of man, as man, or his natural condition
in the flesh could not partake of it. The incense typifies the
precious perfume of the graces of Christ, the savour of divine graces
manifested, and a sweet odour in the world in man. He alone answers to
it, though we may seek of and from Him to walk in them.
The sabbath associated with the tabernacle: God's people partakers of
God's rest
The institution and obligation of the sabbath was associated with the
tabernacle of the congregation, as a sign, as it had been with every
form of relationship between God and His people: for to be made
partakers of God's rest is what distinguishes His people.
In fine, God gave Moses the two tables of the law.
|
|