Exodus 25:40

And look that thou make them,.... Or see that they are made by workmen employed: after their pattern, which was showed thee in the mount; from whence it appears, that as Moses was showed the model of

And look that thou make them after their pattern, which was shewed thee in the mount. Look that thou make them after their pattern.

Exodus 25:40 And look that thou make [them] after their pattern, which was shewed thee in the mount.Ver. 40. After their pattern, &c.] The like also was afterwards given in writing, for the building of the temple.

(40) After their pattern.—Comp, Exodus 25:9.

Verse 40. And look that thou make, c.] This verse should be understood as an order to Moses after the tabernacle, c., had been described to him as if he had said: "When thou comest to make all the things that I have already described to thee, with the other matters of which I shall afterwards treat, see that thou make every thing according to the pattern which thou didst see in the mount." The Septuagint have it, κατατοντυτοντονδεδειγμενονσοι· according to the TYPE-form or fashion, which was shown thee. It appears to me that St. Paul had this command particularly in view when he gave that to his son Timothy which we find in the second epistle, 2 Timothy 1:13: Ὑποτυπωσινεχεὑγιαινοντωνλογων, ὡνπαρ' εμουηκουσας. "Hold fast the FORM of sound words which thou hast heard of me." The tabernacle was a type of the Church of God; that Church is built upon the foundation of the prophets and apostles, Jesus Christ being the chief cornerstone, Ephesians 2:20-22: the doctrines, therefore, delivered by the prophets, Jesus Christ, and his apostles, are essential to the constitution of this church. As God, therefore, gave the plan or form according to which the tabernacle must be constructed, so he gives the doctrines according to which the Christian Church is to be modelled; and apostles, and subordinate builders, are to have and hold fast that FORM of sound words, and construct this heavenly building according to that form or pattern which has come through the express revelation of God. IN different parts of this work we have had occasion to remark that the heathens borrowed their best things from Divine revelation, both as it refers to what was pure in their doctrines, and significant in their religious rites. Indeed, they seem in many cases to have studied the closest imitation possible, consistent with the adaptation of all to their preposterous and idolatrous worship. They had their IAO or JOVE, in imitation of the true JEHOVAH; and from different attributes of the Divine Nature they formed an innumerable group of gods and goddesses. They had also their temples in imitation of the temple of God; and in these they had their holy and more holy places, in imitation of the courts of the Lord's house. The heathen temples consisted of several parts or divisions: 1. The area or porch; 2. The ναος or temple, similar to the nave of our churches; 3. The adytum or holy place, called also penetrale and sacrarium; and, 4. The οπισθοδομος or the inner temple, the most secret recess, where they had their mysteria, and which answered to the holy of holies in the tabernacle. And as there is no evidence whatever that there was any temple among the heathens prior to the tabernacle, it is reasonable to conclude that it served as a model for all that they afterwards built. They had even their portable temples, to imitate the tabernacle; and the shrines for Diana, mentioned Acts 19:24, were of this kind.

40. Cf. v. 9: also Numbers 8:4; and Acts 7:44. In Solomon’s Temple there were ten golden candlesticks, five standing on each side of the Holy place, in front of the adyton (1 Kings 7:49; cf. Jeremiah 52:19): in the post-exilic Temple there was only a single candlestick (1Ma 1:21; 1Ma 4:49). It is this which was taken from the Herodian Temple by the Romans, and is represented on the famous Arch of Titus. In the Temple at Shiloh there was only a single lamp (1 Samuel 3:3). The Ark It is impossible to give here a history of the Ark; but a few words may be permitted, respecting the religious ideas associated with it, and opinions as to its possible origin. The oldest name of the ark was the ‘ark of Jehovah,’ Joshua 3:13 &c. (or ‘of God,’ 1 Samuel 3:3 &c.), or, less frequently, ‘the ark’ alone (Numbers 10:35 al.): the Deut. expression (see p. 193) is ‘the ark of the covenant’ (with or without ‘of Jehovah’ added): P’s characteristic expression is the ‘ark of the testimony’ (13 times: see on Exodus 25:16; Exodus 25:22). Both these latter terms are used with allusion to the tables inscribed with the Decalogue, which,—as in our extant sources (see however on Exodus 34:3) we first learn from Deuteronomy 10:2; Deuteronomy 10:5,—were contained in it. In itself the ‘ark’ is similar in principle to the sacred chests in which many other ancient nations, as the Egyptians, Etruscans, Greeks, kept images, or other sacred objects, and sometimes also carried them in processions. Now it is noticeable that in nearly all the pre-Deuteronomic references, the ark—which in these passages ‘must be thought of as a simple chest, very different from the gold-covered shrine of P, with its’ massive golden ‘mercy-seat, and over-arching cherubim’ (Kennedy)—appears as much more than a mere receptacle of two inscribed stones; it is, in fact, in a very special sense, a symbol and pledge of Jehovah’s presence; and it is even spoken of as if He were actually present in it, so that wherever the ark was, Jehovah was there with it. Especially in war is it thus regarded as the material vehicle or accompaniment of Jehovah’s presence. In the ancient verses preserved in Numbers 10:35 f.—originally, to judge from the terms used, the prayer with which the Ark was sent forth to battle, and the welcome with which its return was greeted,—‘Arise, O Jehovah, and let thine enemies be scattered, Let them that hate thee flee before thee,’ and ‘Return, O Jehovah, to the myriads of Israel’s clans,’ Jehovah is addressed as though He were present in the ark, and moved with it. The case is similar in 1 Samuel 4:3, where the Hebrew sheikhs say, ‘Let us fetch the ark of Jehovah … from Shiloh, that it may come … and save us,’ and when it arrives, the Philistines exclaim (v.