The Curtains

Now we come to the tabernacle itself and its four coverings (Ex. 24), the outside coverings of badger's
or seal skins. Why is the outside covering of this nr P Because outwardly, to man's eyes, He bath no form nor comeliness, and when we shall see Him there is no beauty that we should desire Him; He is despised and rejected of men " (Isa. 53). That is true until to-day. Man does not see any beauty in Christ. If _people did, they would not go on a single, moment in their sins. We who have had our eyes opened, do with shame confess that we had seen no beauty in Him. "We hid as it were our faces from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him nut." We did not see the beauty underneath these. It was all hid by the sombre covering. Then the prophet roes on and says, " Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities." Thus, if I throw back these curtains we find another covering of rams' skin dyed red. He was the One who shed His blood to put away our sins. This is the next thing we discover in Christ; the very One: I have been despising was put to shame for me. Now if I throw back the rams' skins, you will find a covering underneath that; curtains of goat's hair. This may suggest to us the deeper knowledge of Christ we get when we understand Him as the goat of the sin-offering, the One who not only bore my sins, but was also "made to be sin" for me. Remembering too that the Nazarite was characterized by his long hair, we may have in this also a type of Christ in His thorough Nazarite separation to God. The curtains of the tabernacle, which gave grace and beauty to all, were of fine twined linen. They were made of two is of five, joined together by taches of gold and loops of blue. The goat's hair curtains were joined with taches of brass, showing the severe character of His separation. T remarked before as to the meaning of the colors. The at the had the same colors on it. These colors were worked upon a ground work of fine twined linen. The fine linen is a type of Christ's righteousness; blue is the type of the heavenly One. It always comes first, for He must first come down from heaven. Purple is the insignia of royalty. When Christ was crucified they put a purple robe upon Him. In the scarlet it is the one who shed His blood for us-scarlet blood to put away scarlet sins. He never could have been the Messiah unless He came down from heaven. Presented as Messiah, He is rejected, and goes to the cross to die for that nation and for all.
The cherubims I think, point to Christ as the ser- vant of God. We have these things in the four gospels. Why were there four gospels written? The four evangelists were something more than mere witnesses, for Matthew tells us of things that he did not see or hear. John, who saw things Matthew saw not, does not mention them. For instance, in the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, you find a beautiful ac- count of the scene on the Mount of Transfiguration, but none of these were present. John, who was there, does not say a word about it. Again, Matthew gives an account of Christ's agony in the garden, though he was not with the Lord John who was, omits it. Matthew was the pen the Holy Ghost used to write the life of Christ as the, royal One; Mark, the life of Christ as a servant; Luke, the suffering Son of Man; john, the divine and heavenly One.