Chapter 12
The Gate
  Read Exodus 27:16-19.
  In beginning with the gate, we begin where God ended in His instructions, which He gave to Moses, concerning the building of the Tabernacle.
  He begins with the Ark and its mercy seat, and works from these out, until He comes to the laver, the brazen altar, and the gate. We begin, we say, where God left off, and this is very suggestive.
  Redemption is complete, and with the completed work we begin.
  As we look at the court wall, the prominent thing is the door. This gate typifies Christ, as the only way unto God. Spiritually dead men are on the outside... and Christ came that He may be the Divine way of man's coming back to God.
  We remember that in the Garden of Eden, God drove man from His presence. Now He provides a way back. There was just one door in the court.
  If we were to look on the South side, the North side or the West end, just one long stretch of unbroken white linen would meet our gaze. It was only linen, but to force an entrance would be to rush to certain destruction. The linen stood there marking off the sacred precincts, and whosoever would come to God, had to come in the proper way.
  As we come to the eastern end and see the door, we see the blue, the purple, the scarlet, and fine twined linen, all typical as we have seen of Christ, who is the door (John 14:6 and John 10:7-9).
  Any one of the men of Israel could enter by the gate, and bring his sacrifice to the altar, but only a priest could go through the door into the tabernacle.

Furniture of the Tabernacle
  As we have mentioned before, in giving instructions to Moses, God began with the Ark, and worked toward the brazen altar. This is typical of the path trod by Christ.
  Man could not approach God. God must come to man. Christ came from glory to earth, then to the cross, where He met spiritually dead man, and then back again to our heavenly Father. So, that from the ark, which was the most Holy Place, to the Brazen Altar, which stood near the gate, we see the path that Christ trod, from glory to the cross. It was on the cross where Christ identified Himself with fallen man, who was dead in trespasses and sins. After the crucifixion and resurrection He returned to the Father who had sent him. This shows a complete redemption wrought by Christ for man.

The Brazen Altar
  Read Exodus 27:1-8.
  Let us now notice the Brazen Altar. Its location within the courtyard was near the gate. In type, it was the place where God met spiritually dead man. Its materials were brass and acacia wood. The acacia wood was a white wood of great durability. It is spoken of as incorruptible wood. It speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who had no sin. This wood was covered with brass. The candlestick, the altar of incense, and table of shew bread, as well as the Ark of the Covenant were made of gold, but not the altar; it was made of brass.
  Brass spoke of sin. It was at the Altar of the Cross that the sin that was man's fell on Christ. At the cross, Christ was forsaken of God. The Brazen Altar shows Christ's identification with man on the cross.
  God came from the mercy seat, which was the throne, to the Altar, where He met the guilty Israelite, who had in his obedience to God's command brought to the Altar a perfect sacrifice.
  How very expressive was the act of the one who brought the sacrifice. We read: "He shall lay his hands on the head of the goat." That was identifying himself with the sacrifice, confessing that he deserved to die, but that God had provided a substitute. As the fire consumed the sacrifice, there was left no judgment to fall upon the sinner, and the one who had brought the sacrifice could go away from the Altar, with the knowledge that his sin was forgiven him. For, Jehovah said, "It shall be forgiven him."
  At the cross, Jesus Christ, taking man's place, identified with all that man was, and God's judgment fell upon Him.
  The next step in the great drama of man's identification with Christ following His crucifixion, was man's burial with Him.

The Brazen Laver
  Read Exodus 24:1-4 and Exodus 30:17-21.
  Beyond the Brazen Altar stood the Brazen Laver. This signifies our burial with Christ, where sin was washed away. This laver was also made of brass. This speaks again of sin.
  Colossians 2:12 and Romans 6:3-11 show the significance of our burial with Christ.

The Table of Shew Bread
  Read Exodus 25:23-30 and Leviticus 14:5-9.
  In the Holy Place was the table of shew bread with the twelve loaves of bread. A loaf is the emblem of the body of our Lord Jesus Christ. In chapter 10 it is used to set forth the body of which He is the head. 1 Corinthians 10:17 reads "For we being many are one bread and one body."
  We are "many" just as wheat in bread, - as wheat in the loaf, we became identified with the loaf, through baking - so is the body of Christ which is the church. On the grounds of Christ's identification with us on the cross, becoming all that we were, and in death and burial paying our penalty, He became identified with us in our sin, and by accepting His atonement we become identified with Him.
      We are one with Him in crucifixion--
      One with Him in His death...
      One with Him in His burial...
      One with Him in resurrection...
      One with Him in His ascension...
      With Him we are seated in heavenly places.
  Romans 6:5-6 "For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection: Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away, so that we no longer should be in bondage of sin."
  He is the bread of Life. We become the carriers of that bread into the world.

The Golden Lampstand
  Read Exodus 25:31-40.
  The golden lampstand, which was in the Holy Place, also speaks forth our identification with Christ in the likeness of His resurrection.
  We see here the union of Christ with His body. As we read these words, "His Branches," it would seem as though the central shaft were the lamp stand and the branches had come out of it, and we, are reminded of the words of John chapter 15: "I am the vine you are the branches."
  Union with Christ was wrought through our identification with His death, burial, and resurrection.
  How was this lampstand made? It would have been comparatively easy to have cast it, but God told Moses definitely how to make it. It must be hammered out, "one beaten work." As we see the workman bruise the precious metal, our thoughts turn to the scripture of Isaiah 53:5 where we read that Christ was bruised for our iniquities. Only by this bruising could the branches of the lamp stand be brought into existence, and only by the identification of God's son with our condition of spiritual death, only by His paying of our penalty, could we become absolutely one with Him.
  It was by being bruised in our stead, under our judgment, that we are able to take His place as a son of God before the Father.

Resurrection Revealed
  Is there anything in this lampstand that would show definitely, that He was portraying our identification with Him in resurrection? Yes, we believe there is. It was to be ornamented with fruit blossoms. Now, what fruit shall God select?
  Remember, He had a wide field to choose from, and we find that He chose the almond tree. Numbers 17 tells us of the act of Aaron's rod. It, with the other eleven was laid up before the Lord all night. In the morning it had brought forth buds, bloomed blossoms, and yielded the almonds. Like that rod, Christ the living one, was cut down in death; suffered until our penalty was paid. He has risen to be the first fruits of them that slept, and are asleep. When He was made alive, we were made alive with Him. It must have been a work of considerable difficulty to beat out such a large vessel with its splendid branches so highly ornamented.
  Why not make the stand and branches separately? It would have been so much easier to manipulate them; those branches could be brazed to the stem. But this would not do. It would not be a true type of the union that existed between Christ and His saints, which is vital and not artificial.
  So out of one piece of gold, the entire lampstand is hammered. "One beaten work of pure gold." Gold is a symbol of Deity. We saw that the Altar and laver were brass which spoke of the judgment that rested upon Christ as He acted as our sin substitute, but now in the resurrection, He arises in the fullness of His divinity, and we are made alive, joint heirs with Him. The brass shows His being made sin. The gold shows our being made the righteousness of God in Him.

Altar of Incense
  In the Holy Place, before the veil stood the golden Altar of Incense. The word "altar" signifies a place of slaughter, yet no sacrifices are being offered here. The sacrifice had been offered at the Brazen Altar.
  We saw that the Brazen Altar and the laver showed forth Christ's identification with our fallen state and spiritual death, and that the table of shew bread and golden lampstand show our identification with Him in resurrection. Now this altar of incense speaks of His ascension to the Father (Acts 1:9). The altar suggests His blood that had been shed. It was with His own blood that He entered into the Holy of Holies, in heaven, having obtained eternal redemption for us (Hebrews 9:12). The materials of the altar reiterate once more, the truth about His person.
  The old proclaims His Deity. The wood shows again His humanity. It brings to us the glorious fact, that we have at the right hand of God, a man (1 Timothy 2:5). We are reminded here of the truth that as a man, He is interceding and maintaining our cause in heaven.

The Ark of the Covenant
  Read Exodus 25:10-22.
  The Mercy seat formed the cover of the Ark. At each end was a Cherubim whose outspread wings overspread the Mercy seat.
  In Romans 3:24-25 we read, "Christ Jesus whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation." The word rendered "propitiation" in the Septuagint is "Mercy Seat." It would therefore read, "Whom God hath set forth to be a Mercy Seat."
  We might ask ourselves how could the throne of a Holy God, hating sin, be a mercy seat and not a throne of judgment?
  Leviticus 16 gives an account of the Day of Atonement. On that day there were two goats brought before the Lord. Lots were then cast upon them. One of these goats was a scape goat, and having had the sins of the congregation confessed over it by Aaron, was sent away into the wilderness to some uninhabited place, and let go, never to return.
  But it is with the other goat that we have especially to do now. It was spoken of as, "for the Lord." While the scapegoat spoke of substitution, this goat spoke of propitiation. Christ on the cross of Calvary did a work on grounds of which God can deal with condemned humanity in MERCY!
  Christ was set forth to be a Mercy Seat where God and the sinner can meet. We shall look at what was done with the goat that was for the Lord, or the one that spoke of propitiation. It was killed, and then some of the blood was carried into the Holiest and sprinkled by the High Priest on the Mercy Seat seven times. This speaks to us of Christ who by His death and shed blood rises from the dead to enter into the heavenlies - which answers to the type of the Priest going into the Holies with the blood of a goat (Hebrew 9:12-14).
  There is something very suggestive in the attitude of the Cherubim upon the Mercy Seat. The first time we find the Cherubim mentioned in the Word of God is in connection with driving man out of the garden of our first parents. There the Cherubims are seen connected with the flaming sword. But there is no sword in this scene; nothing that would say, "keep away."
  Then we see how their gaze is toward the Mercy Seat, as if they desired to read the meaning of the bloodstains that were put there by the High Priest. Those blood marks tell us how God's throne in Israel became a Mercy Seat and not a Throne of Judgment. He who sat upon that throne, saw in that blood the type of the blood of Him who deemed not His equality with God a thing to be tightly grasped, one whose death would satisfy all the demands of justice. Because of that blood, He could meet Israel in the person of their High Priest, and extend mercy to them that deserved judgment.
  It is most instructive to notice where the law was put, "And thou shalt put the Mercy Seat above upon the Ark. And in the Ark shalt thou put the testimony that I shall give thee." Over that law, which only could condemn, there was that which reminded God of the righteous work of His son. The Mercy Seat spoke of reconciliation in Christ.


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