The Sanctuary (Where the priesthood operated)
It is in the book of Exodus that we are introduced to the concept of a Sanctuary for Israel—a specific, purpose built house, designed to act as a meeting-place with God. Previously, where it was an individual seeking an audience with God, an altar was sufficient. But when Israel, newly delivered from Egypt and daily recipients of fresh revelations at Sinai, numbered more than two million souls there was a clear need for a tent of meeting. They required a place where they could bring their offerings, and know the presence among them of the God that had taken them as His “special treasure” (Exod.19:5). However, it was not Moses, nor the elders of the nation that proposed the Tabernacle to meet this requirement. It was the LORD Himself. He is the one that said, “let them make Me a sanctuary” (Exod.25:8). And this was no blind edict that had to be obeyed without knowing why - the reason for it was provided - “that I may dwell among them”. Oh the grace of God, that He had a desire to dwell among them. In some aspect of His existence He became a tent dweller to dwell amongst tent dwellers: He became a pilgrim to dwell among pilgrims.
Since the Tabernacle was to be ‘a shadow of good things to come’, then it had to be constructed exactly according to God’s instructions. However, the instructions first set out details of the materials, dimensions and descriptions of its furniture, beginning with the most important piece, “And they shall make an ark of acacia wood; two and a half cubits shall be its length, a cubit and a half its width, and a cubit and a half its height. And you shall overlay it with pure gold, inside and out you shall overlay it, and shall make on it a molding of gold all around” (Ex 25:10,11). Without the ark, the Tabernacle could not fulfill its purpose, because the lid of the ark, the ‘mercy seat’ was to be, for Israel, the place of the localized presence of God. He promised, “there I will meet with you, and I will speak with you from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are on the ark of the Testimony, about everything which I will give you in commandment to the children of Israel” (Ex 25:22).
The ark was to be the only piece of furniture in the second chamber of the Tabernacle, the Inner Sanctum. The ark was made of wood overlaid with gold. The lid of the ark, the mercy seat was wholly made of gold, the cherubim also; gold typifying the glory of God. It was, in fact, a box, and under divine guidance was to be the home of (i) the Ten Commandments; (ii) Aaron’s rod; and (iii) a pot of manna.
The ‘mercy seat’, sometimes referred to as the ‘throne of God’ by the Hebrew people, was the focal point of the Day of Atonement service. Twice it received the blood of sacrifice during the ceremony.
In the first room of the tent dwelling, the Holy Place, there was a further three pieces of golden furniture. There was a table which was always to be furnished with twelve loaves of bread set, as it were, ‘before the Lord’. Then there was the gold lamp-stand (Exod.25:31ff). While the table and the ark were to be made of wood overlaid with gold, the lamp-stand was to be made of pure gold. It had a central shaft with three branches coming out of each side. The gold was to be worked in such a way as it would depict the fruit bearing cycle of the almond tree. The lamps were to be constantly supplied with oil.
Then there was an altar, again made of wood and overlaid with gold; this was the altar of incense, which was located closest to the veil which separated the two rooms. It was at this altar that the priest would pray; thus the Psalmist could say, “Let my prayer be set before You as incense” (Ps. 141:2). While it was the High Priest alone who entered the Holiest of all, and that only on one day a year, his brother priests were required to enter the Holy place daily to replace the showbread, maintain the illumination from the seven branch Menorah, and burn incense while interceding for the people of Israel.
There were two pieces of furniture in the outer court, the laver and the altar. The altar was made of wood overlaid with metal. The metal (described as bronze) was to take the fire. Jesus endured the fire of God when sin was judged at Calvary. The altar was about seven and a half foot wide by seven and a half foot broad, by four and a half foot high. Being four-square it was accessible from all sides, suggesting that all blessings can be traced back to Calvary. It had four horns at the corners—horns in Scripture speak of power and authority. The horns were stained with blood. Jesus said, “I lay down My life that I may take it again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father” (John 10:17,18). This is real power.
The grate was twenty seven inches from the ground, significantly the same height as the mercy seat. It was necessary for the sacrifice to be lifted up from the ground, reminding us of the saying of the Saviour, “If I be lifted up …” (John 12.32).
Its situation (it was the altar at the door) meant it had the premier position in the outer court. There could be no access to God without sacrifice—for there was no remission of sin without the shedding of blood, “for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul” (Lev. 17:11). Praise God, we “were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Pet. 1:18,19).
The second piece of furniture in the outer court was the laver, an all metal container for water. It held the water for the ablutions of the priests—they were required to wash both hands and feet before handling the sacrifices. Those that failed to observe this requirement and fully respect the offerings of the Lord not only lost the opportunity to fulfill their duties as priest but could possibly lose their lives. Under the Law it was a capital crime. This surely is significant when we consider that the Messiah added foot washing to hand washing at the last Passover before He said, “This is my body which is given for you” (Luke 22.19). It also intimates that Judas was excluded from the foot washing, because Jesus said, referring to the betrayer, “you are not all clean” (John 13.11).
Since there are two altars in the Tabernacle, the bronze ‘altar at the door’ and the golden altar in the Holy Place, it seems appropriate to compare their functions and meaning. The blood shed outside at the brazen altar represents what Christ did; while incense offered inside at the golden altar represents what Christ is. The brazen altar sacrifice reminds us that Christ offered Himself for sin, and that only once; while the golden altar points us to the fact that “He always lives to make intercession” (Heb.7:25).
More next time
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