Gold is a symbol of Deity.

..............................................The Altar and Laver
were of brass, a symbol of judgment.

..........Christ arises in the fullness of His Divinity,
..........we are made alive and joint heirs with Him.

.....Brass shows Him being made sin.
.....Gold shows us being made righteous, in Him.
It must have been difficult to 'beat out' such a large article with decorative branches.



It wouldn't be a true type of union with Christ and His saints which is not artificial.





So , out of one piece of gold . . . the whole Lampstand is hammered.
We are the branches, bearing fruit because of our union with Christ.

Like Aaron's Rod, Christ was cut down in death. . . .
.......suffered until our penalty was paid.

.......He has risen to be the first fruits of them that are asleep.

.......When He was made alive, we were made alive with Him.
The Lampstand was to be ornamented with fruit blossoms.

..............God chose the almond tree.

......In Numbers 17 there is Aaron's Rod. It was laid up before the Lord all night.

............In the morning it had brought forth buds, bloomed blossoms and yielded the almonds.
God told Moses how to make the Lampstand.

It must be hammered out "One beaten work."

The workman bruised the precious metal . . . .
....Isaiah 53:5 Christ was bruised for our iniquities.

................Only by this bruising could the branches of the lampstand be brought into existance, and only by the identification of Christ with our spiritual death.

.........Only by His paying for the penalty that was ours could we become absolutely one with Him.
The Golden Lampstand

This lampstand was in the Holy Place and also speaks of our identification with Christ in the likeness of His Resurrection.

It shows the union of Christ with His Body.

.....The central shaft was the lampstand and the branches came out of it.

"I am the Vine, ye are the branches"
........John 15:5

.................Union with Christ was seen through His death, burial and resurrection.
"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, that so we should no longer be in bondage to sin."
...........................Romans 6:5-6

......................He is the Bread of Life.
We "are many" just like the wheat
in the shew bread;
just as the wheat in the loaf became merged into
one loaf through the baking,
on the grounds of Christ's identification with us
on the cross . . .becoming all that we were,
and in burial paying our penalty during those
awful three days and night of separation from God.

.....In Crucifixion, we see Him as we were.
.....In Resurrection, we see ourselves as He is.
The Table of Shew Bread


In the Holy Place was the Table of Shew Bread with twelve loaves of bread.


A loaf is an emblem of the body of Christ.


1 Corinthians 10:17
"For we being many are one bread and one body."

The Brazen Laver
Exodus 30:17-21
Beyond the Brazen Altar stood the Brazen Laver
It was made of brass, which speaks of sin also.










It was filled with water, the Priests washed the
dirt of the earth from their hands and feet
before they entered the Holy of Holies.

This is like our need for daily cleansing by the
washing of the Water of the Word of God.
For God said, "It shall be forgiven him"
................Leviticus 4:26









At the cross, Jesus took man's place,
.......identified with all that man was,
.......and God's judgment falling upon Him.
"He shall lay His hands on the head of the goat"
.....................Leviticus 4:24

...That was to identify himself with the sacrifice,
...confessing that he deserved to die,
...but that God had provided a substitute.

......As the fire consumed the sacrifice,
......there left no judgment on the sinner,
......and the one who had brought the sacrifice
could go away from the Altar with the knowledge that his sin was forgiven.
Brass speaks of sin in the Bible.

.........It was at the Altar [of the Cross]
.........that man's sin fell upon Jesus.
.........It was at the Cross
.........that He was forsaken of Father God.

.........The Brazen Altar shows His identification with man on the cross.
The Brazen Altar

It stood at the gate.
It was made of acacia wood.






It was spoken of as incorruptible wood.
........This wood was covered with brass.
...............It speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ, the One who had no sin.
Jesus came from Glory to earth,
..........then to the Cross
.................and then back to the Father.

So, from the Ark,
which was in the Most Holy Place,
to the Brazen Altar that stood near the gate,
shows the path Jesus took from Glory to the Cross,
where He identified with spiritually dead man
and then returned to the Father.

It shows the complete Redemption Jesus gave to man.
When God gave Moses the instuctions for the Tabernacle, He began with the Ark and worked toward the Brazen Altar.

..........Man couldn't come to God.
..........God had to come to man.
On the East
end is the
gate/door.


The blue,
the purple,
the scarlet



and fine linen all are typical of Christ who is
the Door.
Read John 14:6 and John 10:7-9


.........Any one could enter by the gate and bring
his sacrifice to the altar, but only a priest could
go through the entrance of the Tabernacle.
On the south side, the north side and the west end,
was a long stretch of white linen.

.............................It was only linen, but to break through to enter would be certain destruction.

..............The linen marked off the sacred areas and whosoever would come to God had to come in the proper way.
Remember that in the Garden of Eden,
......God drove man from His presence.







...........Now, He's providing a way back.
There was just one door into the court.
When God gave the instructions to build the Tabernacle, He ended with the gate.

.........He began with the Ark and its Mercy Seat and then out to the Laver, the Brazen Altar and to the gate.

...............Looking at the court wall, the main thing is
...............the door/gate.
...............This represents Christ as the only way to
...............God.

.........Spiritually dead man is on the outside. Christ came that He might be the way of man's coming back to God. "I am the way," Jesus said, John 14:6
Jesus' beauty was hidden.
Only the few closest knew Him.

He took Hs place in the Father's will
..and all the forces of men and devils,
..in hell or on earth, couldn't overcome
..or hinder His doing the Father's will.

He had to walk the way the first Adam
should have walked.
Badger's skins: sandals

Christ's beauty:
the blue, the purple, the scarlet and linen.

Ram's skins:
dyed red, Jesus' blood and death.

Blue and Gold:
His Heavenly Grace and Divine Energy.

Purple:
Royalty
Happy Resurrection Day!



The coverings of the Tabernacle gives us a picture of Jesus Christ.

.....To look at the outside, it has no form nor comeliness, the curtains of badger skins cover the beauty of the inside.

...................................Isaiah 53:2
"For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him."
Inside is the veil; the door with all the mingled tints of color, with light coming from the seven-branched lampstand.






Then there is the gold altar of incense filling the Holy Place with its aroma and gold table with twelve loaves of shew bread which also gives out a fragrant odor.

When we see the Tabernacle from the outside there is nothing interesting about its appearance.

.....It was a long,
box-like building,
without graceful
lines and curves to accent its lack of attractiveness.

..........The unattractive badger skins covered it on the outside; but, if we go inside what a wonderful change.
The Tabernacle was a small building.

.......It was designed to be a place where God could live with and meet Israel in the person of their High Priest, so it wasn't an auditorium for assembling His people, like today.
The cloud was always with the Israelites.

.......When they were on the move, it arose from the top of the Tabernacle, going in the direction that God wanted them to go.

...............When they came to their camping ground, the cloud stopped.

.........................It guided them this way, showing them the way, just how far to go and when to stay camped.
While the Tabernacle was sitting, the Cloud,
the presence of God, rested on the back end 
overshadowing the camp.


.............This cloud was always with them.


God had to manifest Himself to their physical senses because they were spiritually dead.
When the Tabernacle was built, the only covering visible was the outer covering of badger skins, with a width of goat's hair curtain above the door.

...........The first set of curtains were fine twined linen; blue, purple, white and scarlet.

..................Over these were the goat skins, dyed red and over all was a covering of badger skins.