02.07 The Tabernacle and Worship

Saturday, February 11, 1899; 10:30 a. m.

SERMON No. III. —THE TABERNACLE AND WORSHIP UNDER THE FIRST COVENANT.

Text: "And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them (Exo 25:8)."

It is understood that these are the words of the Lord unto Moses His servant, the law-giver of Israel. The covenant had already been made. The statutes of Israel were then being added as an enlargement of the idea of the covenant. God knew that in order to keep these people in subjection that it would be necessary to manifest His glory, His power, and His literal presence from time to time. There is one important lesson here for us. God commanded the people to make the tabernacle. He could have made it for them, but they had the power to make it for themselves. Therefore He laid the obligation upon them, or rather I should say granted unto them the privilege. This principle has been true in all the ages. God does for us what we cannot do for ourselves. What we can do for ourselves He requires us to do, and holds us accountable if we fail to do it. The object of this tabernacle was that God might dwell among them. It was the bringing of the power, the glory and the presence of God down to man. Not in the great and glorious and exalted sense that God dwells with us now, but in the sense of His visible presence and the visible glory. But more of this farther on.

If God had simply commanded the tabernacle to be made there doubtless would have arisen much discussion and dissension in Israel about the plans. But as He had particular designs in the form, in the manner, in the architecture of this building, He gave unto Moses the plans. And just here I will quote a number of passages bearing on it because I think they are important. First, the words of the Lord to Moses: "And look that thou make them after the pattern, which was showed thee in the mount (Exo 25:40)." Again, we have the words of Luke in the Book of Acts: "Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as he had appointed, speaking unto Moses, that he should make it according to the fashion that he had seen (Acts 7:44)." Again, we have on this subject the words of the great apostle Paul: "Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern showed to thee in the mount (Heb 8:5)." That this pattern was given unto Moses in the mount, and that the tabernacle was built according to this pattern or according to these plans and specifications, I submit the words of Moses himself: "According to all that the Lord commanded Moses, so the children of Israel made all the work. And Moses did look upon all the work, and, behold they had done it as the Lord had commanded, even so had they done it: and Moses blessed them (Exo 39:42-43)." I raise an important question: Why was this building called the tabernacle, or the tabernacle of witness, or the tent of the congregation? I answer that the meaning of the word indicates two very important things: First, that it was temporary and movable and therefore liable to decay or to pass away. I might further add here that all earthly buildings are of this character; that God has never in any age had a permanent resting or dwelling place in the world save in the hearts of His children. Second, that the service of this tabernacle and all that pertained to it were to fill their places and vanish away. The material for this tabernacle. If the people were to build it, it follows that it was their business to furnish the material. Therefore they were called upon to do this, and in very specific terms. It was to be a free will offering, an offering out of the heart, and they were to give gold, silver, brass, blue, purple, scarlet, fine linen, goat’s hair, ram’s skins dyed red, badger skins, shittim wood, oil, spices, onyx stones, and they were to do this because they loved God. I pause here long enough to say that there is one thing very remarkable in this connection. This vast amount of material had been given unto them by the Lord on their departure from Egypt that they might have some compensation for the long night of bondage and for the long night of service they had endured, and we may add without doing violence to the text that the free will offering was an offering out of their poverty, for they were poor. You can very well imagine that a people who had been in that strange land for two hundred and fifteen years, and many of them in the most cruel bondage, would not be possessed of much. And they were to carry their compensation out with them by the will of God and were inside of a few days with but little opportunity to learn, with but little of what we would call spiritual culture, to practically lay down all they had at the feet of their Deliverer and their Lord. What an example for this generation! And here comes a remarkable thing, and it is so remarkable that I prefer to submit it in the exact words of Scripture without note or comment: "And they spake unto Moses, saying, The people bring much more than enough for the service of the work which the Lord commanded to make. And Moses gave commandment, and they caused it to be proclaimed throughout the camp, saying, Let neither man nor woman make any more work for the offering of the sanctuary. So the people were restrained from bringing. For the stuff they had was sufficient for all the work to make it, and too much (Exo 36:5-7)." Oh that the day will come when it can be said that we have enough for the service of God! Oh that the day may come when those who are rich and those who are poor shall pour of their treasures great and small into the service of the Lord! They were to make the tabernacle. Therefore God did not send an angel to superintend the work. The Lord has a great deal of confidence in the judgment and the good common practical sense of His creatures. He knows just what we are for He made us. Therefore Aholiab and Bezaleel were called unto the superintendence of this work, God being the supreme architect, Moses being the secondary architect. These men were the practical architects, and they were assisted in the service by every wise- hearted man who had wisdom in his heart from the Lord, and every one whose heart was stirred up to help (Exo 36:1-2).

I should like to discuss fully the subject of the preparation of the material and of the putting together of the material for this building, but time will not allow. Therefore I hasten on and present a brief description of the court and the tabernacle. This court was, to come right down to plain language, a fence around the building of God. In my figures I shall allow eighteen inches to the cubit, although a cubit was somewhat longer than that, but it is an easy measurement and easy to remember. The court was, therefore, one hundred and fifty feet long, seventy-five feet wide and seven and one half feet high, and it was supported by, or consisted, rather, of sixty pillars of brass, on which curtains were hung. I think it is named the court, not because of the fence, but rather because of the open space inside of the fence and around the tabernacle itself (Exo 27:9-18). The tabernacle. The tabernacle itself was a far more substantial building. It had under it one hundred silver sockets made of the redemption money, and we may say, therefore, the structure rested on the idea or the thought of redeeming some one or some nation or the world. The walls of the tabernacle were solid. That is to say they were made of boards of shittim wood setting one against the other that the light of day was excluded from the sides, and west end. The walls were made more substantial by hoards or pieces that extended from one end to the other, five of them, the center one shooting through the hoards: that is to say, the boards were morticed and this piece of timber was placed through. The walls were overlaid with gold; the bars were also overlaid with gold. The tabernacle had four coverings. There was an inner covering of elaborate workmanship called the cherub covering. Over this was a covering of goats’ hair, and over this still a covering of rams’ skins dyed red, and over this still a covering of badger skins. My idea of the tabernacle is that these coverings were thrown on without any support above and that the surplusage extended over the west end and over the sides and that these curtains were drawn tight and therefore rain and light were excluded. Some people have an idea that there was a ridge pole, but no one has ever found to my knowledge any proof of the fact. Indeed it strikes me that it would have been very difficult to have a ridge pole and at the same time to exclude the light of the sun, and all light of any artificial character whatever was to be excluded, particularly from the Holy of Holies (Exo 26:1-14). The tabernacle was divided into two compartments. The first was fifteen feet wide, fifteen feet high, thirty feet long; the second was fifteen by fifteen by fifteen, or an exact cube. The first compartment was called the holy place, the second was called the most holy place, the holiest of all, or the holy of holies.

Furniture of the court and tabernacle. It is only by the contemplation of the furnishings, and of the uses of the furnishings, that we may be able to grasp in a degree what the tabernacle was, and what the worship of God was, as long as this tabernacle and its successors stood. Permit me to say, however, before advancing another step, that the whole structure, including the court around it, faced the east, and that in my remarks this morning I shall imagine that we enter at the eastern door or gate of the court and that we proceed westward in our investigations. After having passed in through the door of the court the first object to attract our attention or the attention of anyone who was, curious, and who had the authority in that day, was the altar of burnt sacrifices. The dimensions of this altar were seven and one-half by seven and one-half feet by four and one-half feet. It was made strong, with horns, with rings, with staves and with grates and with ash pans and with all the implements necessary to do the work that God designed to have done. Hear Moses concerning the kindling of the fire on this altar: "And there came a fire out from before the Lord, and consumed upon the altar the burnt offering and the fat: which when all the people saw, they shouted, and fell on their faces (Lev 9:24)." Proceeding in the journey the next object would be the laver. We know very little about it. We do not know anything of its size and we do not know anything of the style of it. All we do know is that it was made of the looking glasses contributed by the women of the congregation (Exo 30:18). It stood between the altar of burnt sacrifices and the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. I have no doubt that it was of polished brass and that it was kept clean always because our God delights in magnificence, in glory, and in cleanliness. Passing on we come to the door of the tabernacle itself (Exo 26:36-37). The door was not like a door in an ordinary building in our time. The fact is that the entire end of the building was open. There was a curtain fifteen by fifteen by fifteen feet hanging over this front entrance in order that light of the day might be excluded, and in order that the idle might not under any circumstances be in their curiosity permitted to gaze in. Proceeding in our journey, passing in over the threshold into the mysterious building of God, we discover on our left to the south, the golden candlestick (Exo 25:31-40). This candlestick consisted of a single shaft and three branches on a side. It was of solid gold. It was elaborately and beautifully wrought, and by it and by it only was the holy place or the first apartment of the tabernacle lighted. But on the north side there was a table, the table of the shewbread or the table of the bread of the priests (Exo 25:23-30). The table was three and one-half feet by one and one-half feet by two feet, three inches. It was a beautiful piece of furniture, elaborately wrought and decorated in gold, showing as already intimated that our Father delights in the best that His children can give. These people had gold and they gave gold, and their God and Father delighted in it by accepting it at their hands. Proceeding on our journey forward we discover a small chest or altar (Exo 30:1-5). It was one and one- half feet by one and one-half feet by three feet. It is called the altar of incense. Its position was just before the second veil, that is, in the first apartment and near the dividing line of a partition, or the veil that separated the holy place from the holy of holies. We next come to the second veil (Exo 26:33-34). It was far more elaborate and more beautiful than the veil that hung over the front end of the tabernacle. The cunning hands of those who loved the Lord had wrought it beautifully, wrought it elaborately, thus showing again that God delights in the best that our hands can do. Did He not make us? Did He not imbue us with the possibilities that are in us? Does not He delight in us when we do the very best we can by the presence and by the power of God? And with solemn, with deliberate and with reverent tread we pull aside the curtain separating the holy place from the holiest of all, and pass in; and there before us we find what is by far the most elaborate, the most beautiful and the most wonderful piece of furniture connected with this wonderful building (Exo 25:10-20). The ark of the covenant was three feet, nine inches by one and one-half feet, by two feet, three inches. I call your attention to this fact that in this ark of the covenant, in the solemn recesses of total darkness, save when the glory of God shone there, were deposited the tables of the covenant, the book of law, the pot of manna, and Aaron’s rod that budded. Here was the covenant in reality. Here was the covenant in symbolism, here was the covenant arising in the glory, in essence, and power, and the light of the Creator shining Himself. This ark was a kind of box overlaid with gold inside and out and decorated beautifully, and the lid of the ark was called the mercy seat. On either end of this mercy seat there was a cherub. Their faces were turned toward each other and downward while their wings spread on high, as if even the angels might take delight in contemplating the awful mystery of God shining there. There is a thought, which while it does not belong to this connection, I want to emphasize, and that is that the mercy seat was above the law, the law was in the ark, and God’s mercies are over His law; but for His mercies even though we do the best we can our chances for salvation would be but small. Let us contemplate this just a little more, and I prefer to give it to you in the exact words of Scripture: "And thou shalt put the mercy seat above upon the ark; and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony that I shall give thee. And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seal, from between the two cherubim which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel (Exo 25:21-22)." It appears here to my mind that when any difficulty arose that they could not settle as to the interpretation or the meaning of the word of God, that their God said He would reveal Himself unto them. And I find one lesson right here for us, that in the holy of holies of our own closets, upon bended knee and with reverential heart where only God can see, we may expect Him to shine into our hearts as His glory shone into the faces of Moses and Jesus. When the tabernacle was finished Moses inspected it and blessed the builders because they built it according to the plan which they had seen in the mount. Every article of furniture was placed in its own appropriate position, and: "Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation, because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of God filled the tabernacle. And when the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the children of Israel went onward in all their journeys: But if the cloud was not taken up, then they journeyed not till the day that it was taken up. For the cloud of the Lord was upon the tabernacle by day, and fire was on it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys (Exo 40:34-38)."

Mark the road to God under the first testament—covenant! First the gate of the court—born into the world; Second, burnt sacrifices—offering blood; Third, cleansing—the laver; Fourth, the veil of separation between the court and the holy place; Fifth, light; Sixth, bread; Seventh, incense, prayer, praise; Eighth, the mysterious veil between the flesh and the spiritual realm; Ninth, the ark of the covenant, the mercy seat, the angels, the presence of God!

It is a fact, I think beyond a doubt, that the Israelites had some ideas of God. But the question of knowing God, brethren, while it is a question of revelation, is a question also of education. God our Father revealed Himself but it took these people a long time to learn. I might publish a book and reveal all I have in my heart touching you, touching this work, touching the worship of the Master and you might read it and accept it, and yet at the same time it would take you four or five years, it may be twenty years, before you realize all there is in this effort for you and for the extension of the kingdom of God. And although God had manifested Himself on Sinai, although they had heard His voice, although they had been terror-stricken by that voice, although they had fallen back and said they did not want to hear that voice any more, it is still a fact that they knew but little about the character of God, about His mercy, about His love, about His eternity, about His omnipotence. They knew so little; they were like little children. And so God was educating them out of weakness into strength, out of ignorance into knowledge, out of self-dependence into dependence upon Him, out of rebellion into obedience, out of darkness into the marvelous light. It took a long time to do this. They were young in understanding, and though He bound them down to the strictest covenant perhaps in the world’s history, and although in the enthusiasm of the moment they said they would do all that the Lord commanded, yet at the very first temptation they fell. They were weak. Although the priest could see the glow of the presence of God shining above the mercy seat, the common people did not see it and at last and after all they had to take it on his statement. They knew not the law of God save as it came from others to them, and therefore we ought not to be surprised at the very remarkable, at the very wonderful, at the very material idea that seems to pervade the worship of Israel under the first tabernacle. And I am going to say something here that may sound a little irreverent, but I say it with the deepest reverence. I want you to understand it fully. The door of the tabernacle of the congregation of Israel under the first testament as they worshiped God according to His commandments and according to their conceptions, was from our standpoint nothing more nor less than a slaughter house. We cannot understand that save as we remember that in reality they were in their childhood and God was leading them, teaching them the alphabet of obedience and there was not anything in it perhaps to the majority of them save the fact that God said to do it and a man had to learn obedience and faithfulness, and that God was faithful and that God would hold them to strict accountability. For convenience sake, I will enumerate some of the personal and some of the national offerings that you may know just what I mean. The burnt offering (Lev 1:1-17). This was an offering that any Israelite, at any time, when he desired, might bring. And we can well imagine that every pious Israelite felt called upon to often go to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation in obedience to the command of God find present to Him there an offering by fire from Jehovah. Therefore we conclude, and it is reasonable to do it, that thousands upon thousands of animals were burned every year. The meat offering (Lev 2:1-10). This was an offering consisting of the products of the earth. There was no stated time for this offering, hut am pious Israelite might offer it when the circumstances in his case required or permitted. The peace offering (Lev 3:1-17). It required the infliction of death upon a victim unoffending and defenseless: therefore the times and circumstances oft recurring and oft required him when this offering should and could be presented to God. We may righteously and rightly and appropriately conclude, therefore, that many peace offerings were presented at the brazen altar near the door of the tabernacle of the congregation of Israel. The trespass offering. If any man trespassed against God or against man, an offering was required at his hands; and as men then were like men now, it is reasonable to suppose that there was scarcely a day or an hour that some one was not present at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation with his trespass offering that he might honor God, obey God, or reconcile his neighbor (Lev 5:1-19). The sin offering was more important and doubtless more frequent, because all were sinners and the law was designed to give them a knowledge of sin. And all of these little statutes given in detail were given for the purpose of defining and exhibiting and showing sin to them, therefore the sin offering. There are four different classes for sin offerings described here. Some of them are for the purpose of settling the question with the priest, some with the common people, some with the congregation. Under certain circumstances the blood was carried into the tabernacle of the congregation and there God’s name was honored in the doing of what He commanded. It will not be necessary for me to go into particulars because I only want to show that the blood of the covenant that God enjoined on them was the blood of goats and calves, and that it flowed constantly, and we might say that there is a red stream of blood from the summit of Calvary flowing down to meet it there and that every sin that was committed from that time back that had been sincerely repented of, was washed out in the blood of Him (Lev 4:1-35).

National offerings—the daily offerings (Exo 29:38-42; Num 28:9). There was required at the hands of Israel an offering every morning and evening. The offering was doubled on the Sabbath day which made in the neighborhood of eight hundred animals in a year put to death at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. Blood flowed every day in the history of Israel as long as they lived up to the commandments of God, Indeed I may say that the warm blood was constantly flowing. God said to them that He gave them blood to make an atonement for their souls, and I believe that I will be just and safe in saying that the blood around that altar never got cold (Lev 17:11). The feast of the passover and the unleavened bread (Exo 12:43-49). No stranger was allowed to partake of that feast. It was inclusive for Israel, exclusive for all others. And during all the seven days they honored God in remembering the great deliverance that He wrought for them when He brought them out of the land of Egypt. They were required the first time, and presumably always after that, to take a lamb of the first year for each family provided the family was large enough to consume it, and the presumption is that when all the males of Israel came to appear before God at the place where the tabernacle sat, that thousands upon thousands of lambs were slain and these lambs were typical of the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. At the feast, however, a number of special offerings were made: fully eleven. These were made, understand, in addition to the morning and evening sacrifices and the special sacrifices of the Sabbath, the daily sacrifice was doubled on the Sabbath day, and were peculiar to the feast of the passover kept in memory of the last night and of the passing of the angel over the homes of Israel in Egypt. The feast of weeks (Lev 23:16-21). This was the feast kept in recognition of the beginning of the harvest. Thirteen animals were sacrificed at this feast. The feast of tabernacles (Lev 23:34-44). In my judgment one of the most remarkable institutions in Israel. It was kept in order that they might remember their sojourn of forty long years when they were in temporary habitations, and at each recurring annual feast of the tabernacles they took the boughs of trees and made temporary dwelling places to keep in memory that they had once no better place than that, and that God had delivered them. Including the special offerings on the eighth day of the feast of tabernacles, one hundred and ninety-nine animals were slain.

Feast of trumpets (Num 29:1-5). Blowing of trumpets, honoring God with a joyful sound! It was a musical feast; and at that feast ten animals were sacrificed to God.

Feast of new moons (Num 28:11-15). Eleven animals were sacrificed. Whenever a new moon appeared all Israel, that is all Israel that tried to know God piously, turned their eyes to the altar of God. All of us like to see the new moon come back, and we call it "new" though it is not. It is the same old moon, but it is new to us. There is always a feeling of gratification that we have lived to see the moon come back again and so they celebrated it with a feast unto God. The feast of the annual atonement. As this is very important, I shall go rather more into particulars. As a preparation for this annual festival, if I may so call it, certain offerings were presented. After the ordinary morning sacrifice was presented (Exo 28:38-42), a special offering was made, consisting of one young bullock, seven lambs, one ram, one kid of the goats, accompanied by meat offerings of flour mingled with oil (Num 29:7-11). In the sixteenth chapter of Leviticus we have a full and graphic account of the transactions of this day. On this day about fifteen animals were sacrificed to God. I will read again. Speaking of the priest: "He shall put on the holy linen coat, and he shall have the linen breeches upon his flesh, and shall be girded with a linen girdle, and with the linen mitre shall he be attired: these are holy garments; therefore shall he wash his flesh in water, and so put them on. And he shall take of the congregation of the children of Israel two kids of the goats for a sin offering, and one ram for a burnt offering. And Aaron shall offer his bullock of the sin offering which is for himself, and make an atonement for himself, and for his house. And he shall take the two goats, and present them before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation (Lev 16:4-7)." On that day the priest not only slew the animals but the blood was carried into the holy place and into the holy of holies and there the solemn act of making an atonement for their souls was consummated. I want to keep before you brethren this though: —that the word "atonement" was the word of "at-one-ment, " or reconciliation, for bringing conflicting parties into harmony again And the idea of the covenant of God, of the tabernacle of God. of the worship of God, of the knowledge of God, that existed in that day may again be seen in the thought that this is the blood of the covenant which the Lord had enjoined upon them. What blood was it? The blood that they carried into that tabernacle to make an atonement for their souls was the blood of a goat, or of a bull, or of an ox. I call your attention to anther striking thing. You have read it many a time no doubt, but I think I can give you a lesson from it this morning that you never have had. I have urged the material idea in this service, the sacrifice of animals, the pouring out of the hot blood of a defenseless and sinless and innocent victim. Now I submit this proposition: The blood would soon putrefy, the animal itself would soon go back to dust, and as a striking proof of the temporary character and of the inefficiency of these offerings, of the want of absolute cleansing power, every sacrifice presented on that altar was salted with salt. "The salt of the covenant of thy God (Lev 2:13)." Why? The priest may not have seen the reason; the worshipper may not have seen it, but it was there. That by the very act of salting the sacrifice it was established and proclaimed that the power of that covenant was of so fleeting a character, so ephemeral a character, so weak in its nature, that the very sacrifice of the altar would smell of putrefaction in a little while; and therefore they placed the salt upon it. When I announced my theme as the tabernacle and the worship of Israel I had in my mind the disposition to emphasize their temporary character. The tabernacle could be taken down and borne on the shoulders of men; and the worship itself smelled of blood, smelled of the remains of an unoffending victim. And so transitory was it that only the salt could preserve it from putrefaction under the blazing sun of the wilderness. I think I have made my point. I think I may justly return to the text of yesterday’s discussion and reach my climax in this argument in the words of Paul: "Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away (Heb 8:13)." Brethren, as a matter of fact, but for the power of God the covenant would have vanished in the very hands of Moses. There are things known to chemists which on exposure to light and heat, evaporate forever. So passing, so transitory was the very character of the sacrifices of Israel that it looked as though the very thing itself would pass away, would putrefy in the hands of the priests, and hence the covering of the sacrifice with salt as an emblem of the fact that the covenant and the law themselves, and the worship and the administration were nothing and would pass eternally away. But I am not done with this. For a few years after the tabernacle was built it was carried from place to place in the wilderness. It was the center of the camp. All eyes were turned to it, because there Jehovah manifested His glory when He manifested it at all. And finally after Moses the man of God had died, after Joshua had succeeded him, after they had crossed the Jordan and gone into the land of Canaan, they set it up at Shiloh (Jos 18:1). There the tribes went in obedience to the word of God three times a year to the Feast of the Passover and Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Pentecost, the Feast of Tabernacles and any other feast to which they chose to go, and at any time they chose to go with their burnt offerings, their trespass offerings, their peace offerings or their sin offerings. The fortunes of the tabernacle I shall not trace. We are only interested in the building as it gives us an idea of the transitory character of the institution under which it was set up. Finally, however, when the promise was fulfilled and when Israel’s domain extended from the river of Egypt to the Euphrates, David desired to build a house for God, but He forbade him. At last Solomon builded the house (1Ki 6:1-10). And lo, it was a house builded elaborately, costly, beautifully, grandly. And although its cost could scarcely be estimated it, too, was transitory. It was a reproduction of the tabernacle in many respects, larger in dimensions, more elaborate in design, more costly in execution; it was still the house of God. But as an evidence of its temporary character the house was tom down. It was ravaged and the vessels of the Lord were carried by the hands of Gentile sinners into Babylon. This temple was rebuilt later. I call your attention to the time of the return from the day of the captivity. I want to impress the thought that from Sinai to the Cross of Jesus the First Covenant was the covenant of God with His people. Listen! I repeat: From Sinai to the Cross there was one covenant. That covenant was made at Sinai.

There was one priesthood. That priesthood was Levi’s priesthood. There was one law. That was the Law of Moses. There was one order of worship. That was the Order of the Tabernacle merged into the first temple, the second temple, the third temple. I turn now to the testimony of this writer here and let you see what is said of that rebuilt temple. We do not know very much about it. We do know the fact that it was not on the scale of grandeur that characterized the first, but I will read to you this much: "In the first year of Cyrus the king, the same Cyrus the king made a decree concerning the house of God at Jerusalem. Let the house be builded, the place where they offered sacrifices, and let the foundations thereof be strongly laid; the height thereof threescore cubits, and the breadth thereof threescore cubits (Ezr 6:3)." Let it be noticed here that this temple was to be built on the same old site on Moriah where Abraham had offered his son Isaac unto God, at the same place where sacrifices had been previously presented. This temple passed away, and the temple that is so often mentioned in the time of the Messiah was the temple of Herod. It was built by a foreigner. I have never been able to discover any adequate motive in this man for doing this. Perhaps some better historian may. That was the temple we read about in the New Testament. I want to repeat: First, the tabernacle at Sinai; Second, the temple of Solomon; Third, the temple rebuilt in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah; Fourth, the temple of Herod. The last temple was perhaps more magnificent than any of the others. I want to talk about that just a little. This is the temple and the service of the temple that perpetuated the same old tabernacle worship. A great many people seem to lose sight of the fact that the first testament or covenant was in force during the entire life of Jesus on earth. Listen! Write this down, underscore it, emphasize it: That from the inauguration of the tabernacle worship at mount Sinai to the cross of Jesus the first testament or first covenant was in force and no other covenant, no other testament, no other law was in force; that it was inclusive so far as Israel was concerned, and exclusive so far as others were concerned; the law or covenant and the sacrifices were kept to the front all the way, and therefore when I talk to you about the temple I am showing you that during the life of Jesus and during all the years from Sinai to the death of Jesus, this first covenant was in force. Many lose sight of this fact and think that the Gospel began when John began to preach, or that it began in its fulness when Jesus began to preach. Jesus was a Hebrew and lived and died as a Hebrew under that testament. In the first chapter of Luke mention is made of this temple. Zacharias, a priest of the course of Abia, was ministering in the temple and the angel of God came and told him of the birth of John. You see at the very time that John’s name is first mentioned the law was still being enforced, the administration was still going on, there had been no change, and it is the very same temple in which Anna abode (Luk 2:36-37). She was a godly woman, a widow old in years, and she stayed in the temple day and night and served God. It was not the temple of Solomon—it was the temple of Herod; but the idea and the worship were the same as the worship in the wilderness. They had perhaps added some elaborateness to it in the way of music and ceremony, but in reality the facts are exactly the same. It is the same temple in which Jesus our Master argued and disputed with the doctors of law (Luk 2:46). You remember the story A very interesting one it is. That He tarried behind when He had gone up with His parents to worship according to the law, and they went on thinking He was with the company, and then discovering that He was not, went back and found Him in the temple asking and answering questions, sitting with the lawyers. And His parents wanted to know why He had done this, and He said, He was about His Father’s business. From this very temple Jesus our Master drove the speculators (John 2:12-16). They had gone in there and were buying and selling. All men are naturally speculators in one way or another. It was all right to buy and sell animals for sacrifices, but these men had taken possession of the house of God and were speculating, and the Lord made a whip of cords and ran them out of the house of God. He told them it was wrong; that His house should be a house of prayer, but they had made it a den of thieves. Speculation I suppose is all right, but they had gone too far, and in the estimation of Christ, the man who does that is a thief. It was the same temple that the disciples exhibited to Jesus (Mat 24:1-2). It is a fact that these people were proud of the temple. It was a grand, glorious, beautiful and costly structure, and so they asked the Master to behold the magnificence there, to behold the wonderful building. The idea is that it is our building! He said to them that not a stone should be left one on top of another that should not be tom down. This is the very same temple in which Jesus the Master taught (Mat 26:55). He declared that He had been with them daily in the temple teaching, showing that the temple was standing, that the annual sacrifices or feasts were going on during the entire life of Jesus. Did He not go up to the passover? Was not one of the very last acts of His life to keep the Passover with His disciples because He wanted to obey the law? Does not that prove my contention that the covenant inaugurated at Sinai was in full force in the days of Moses, in the days of Joshua, in the days of Samuel, Saul and David, and Isaiah and Jeremiah, and all the prophets, and in the days of John, and in the days of Jesus Himself? Yesterday I was very particular to establish the fact that God made a covenant with Israel, that He made it with Israel alone and that that covenant consisted of what God said and what they said they would do, and you wondered why I was so particular. I wanted to establish one point from which we could survey the revelation of God. I will establish another. It was the very temple the veil of which—O that I could ring the thought from one end of this broad land to the other—was rent in twain from the top to the bottom when Jesus dropped His head upon His blood-stained and heaving breast and from the depths of His broken heart cried: "It is finished." What does that prove? It proves, if it proves anything, if anything is capable of demonstration, that the law, that the covenant, that the administration inaugurated at mount Sinai did not end until Jesus Christ the Master shed His blood. I said the stream of blood that flowed at the altar marking the way through the wilderness, marking all the history of Israel, of the tabernacle, and in all the temples, flowed down until it touched the foot of Calvary’s hill, that the blood of Jesus ran down and thus it was that He died for the transgressions under the first testament. I believe, brethren, that the most important discovery that any man can make in the word of God is to find out the one thing that this first covenant, this old covenant, extended right down to the Cross.

What is the significance of the rending of the veil of the temple? I will tell you. It is very important that you should know. Why was it rent? I asserted that the ark of the covenant was kept in total darkness. It was considered so sacred that when a man honestly thought he was doing God a service and laid his hand on it, he died (2Sa 6:6-7) Why was it that the people who out of curiosity looking into it died (1Sa 6:19)? There were thousands of them. Because it was a sacred thing. No human eye save the eye of the priest, and he only then with blood in his hands—for blood is life!—was permitted to look down and see the sacred spark that flashed and burned and scintillated over the mercy seat. It was sacred. It was wrapped in total darkness. Not one ray from the golden candlestick shone in there, not one ray from the sun, the king of day, penetrated the awful, the profound, the death-like stillness of that Inscrutable Mystery. No human being unauthorized could look on it and live. But when Jesus Christ our Lord and Master suspended on the cross, dying for the sins of the world, came down to the end, and when His heart broke, it broke the secrecy of that covenant, for the breaking of His heart was the breaking of the covenant dedicated at Sinai. The veil of the temple was rent. The hand of God rent the very veil. He had ordered it put up and the ark of the covenant and the mercy seat and the shekinah were sacred no more. That is what it means. It means that the covenant is sacred no more. It means that the veil of the mystery is sacred no more. It means that now all these things are taken out of the way and that He who is on the cross is shedding blood that will seal another covenant, and the very act of the rending of that veil was equivalent to saying from the depths of Calvary’s excruciating agony as the blood ran down on the sin-cursed earth: Behold ye dying sinner! This is the blood of the covenant that God hath enjoined on you, and on you, and on you, until the last echo of history, until the last syllable of recorded thought!