03 - The Colours

THE COLOURS.

BLUE. - This ranks pre-eminent, being always the first mentioned in the frequent enumerations of the colours given in the latter chapters of Exodus. It attracts, without dazzling the eye; and the epithet lovely is very appropriately attached to it. It is seen spread over the expanse of heaven, of boundless extent. When the thunder-cloud vails the sky, and the tempest bursts in fury on the earth with its desolating power, this serene colour is concealed; but we hail its gradual reappearance as a sure presage of the returning calm, and of the sun’s genial beams. It is peculiarly a heavenly colour; and throughout these types, is closely linked with gold. Thus in Exodus 28:6 and Exodus 28:15, the word "and" is omitted between the gold and blue; so that the passages may be read as follows: "They shall make the ephod of gold, blue, and purple; the curious girdle of the ephod shall be of gold, blue, and purple, etc. Thou shalt make the breast-plate of gold, blue, and purple, etc. "The same order is precisely repeated in Exodus 39:2; Exodus 39:5; Exodus 39:8, the "and" being again omitted between the gold and blue. Taches of gold were inserted into loops of blue, connecting together the curtains of the Tabernacle. Laces of blue, passing through rings of gold, fastened the breast-plate to the ephod, and a lace of blue bound the golden plate to the mitre of the high priest. The golden vessels of the sanctuary, with the exception of the ark, were all covered with a cloth of blue. If the gold was a type of the glory, majesty, and eternity of the Son of God, blue will fitly represent the grace and love He manifested as declaring the character of God. "God is love." So inseparably and exclusively is this blessed attribute descriptive of Him, that He affirms it to be His very nature. It is not of earth. As the blue vault of heaven, with its vast dimensions, defies our puny measurements, so the breadth, and length, and depth, and height of the love of Christ passeth knowledge. The thunders of God’s wrath and holy indignation against sin, may for a time, seem to obscure His love. But "His anger endureth but a moment." Judgment is "His strange work," for "He delighteth in mercy." The dark cloud only intimates a passing storm, needful, it may be, to purify the air. Compared with the azure depth beyond, it is but superficial and momentary. And, since we have known the full outpouring of His wrath upon His Son, no cloud, however black, can cross our sky, without the heavenly blue being seen in the bow, which God has set there as a token of eternal mercy, that judgment once poured out shall never more be repeated. In looking at the Vail, the first colour, which would draw the attention of the beholder, was the Blue. The sinner’s first glance of faith on the Lord Jesus recognizes Him as from above, "God manifest in the flesh," "the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." Grace is ever the attraction to one who is burdened with guilt. The woman who was a sinner, Luke 7:37-50, despised and shunned by her more decorous neighbors, broke through all restraints, to welcome Christ. She heard that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee’s house. God had, in very deed, come down to visit fallen man: but no thunders of Sinai, no fearful voice of stern rebuke, no trumpet sound of judgment heralded His approach. He came upon one errand, that of mercy. He made known the depth of God’s heart, and the woman felt she had a claim above all others upon His compassion, for she knew herself most guilty. Conscious of her unfitness for His presence, and yet assured that her very unfitness had brought Him down from heaven - loathing herself on account of her sin, and yet aware that her loathsomeness was her best plea to be in the company of Christ, she rushed, unbidden, into that assembly; all considerations of propriety giving way before the one engrossing thought, that it was her Saviour, her God, who sat there, neglected by all but herself: and there she remained, satisfied with her nearness to Him; lost to all around her, her heart more broken, the more she tasted His love; arrested by the heavenly beauty of Him on whom she gazed. At length, she heard words which could come from no lips but those of the Son of God: "Thy faith hath saved thee: go in peace." Well might she have exclaimed, "Thou art fairer than the children of men: grace is poured into thy lips." (Psalms 45:2.) She recognized the loveliness of the blue.

It would be deeply interesting, to trace through the Gospels this beautiful colour, exhibited in the ways of the Lord; and above all, its intensity, in those last scenes of anguish and distress, when He proved how He loved us. But this may suffice to direct others into these green pastures, and to the still waters, where refreshment and rest are found.