The Tabernacle consisted of two portions, (a) The Holy Place, and (b) The Holy of Holies (Ex. xxvi. 33, 34: and comp. Heb. ix. 2, 3).
(a) The Holy Place, 20 cubits in length and 10 in height and width, was divided from the Holy of Holies by a veil of the most costly materials and the most splendid colours. Without any opening to admit the light from above, it was illumined only by a Golden Lamp or Candlestick, with seven lights, fed with pure olive oil, kept burning day and night, and trimmed each morning by a priest with golden snuffers, who carried away the snuff in golden dishes. From the base, on which the lamp rested, rose a shaft dividing itself on either side into three branches, so that it had seven arms, each adorned with calyxes of almond flowers, apples, and buds of pomegranates or lilies (Ex. xxv. 31; xxxvii. 17–25; Heb. ix. 2).
Opposite the Golden Lamp was the Table of Shewbread (Ex. xxv. 23–29), made of acacia-wood, overlaid with gold, 2 cubits in length, 1 in breadth, and 1½ in height, and standing on 4 feet. It had a border to prevent the loaves from falling off, and was furnished with rings and staves for removal. Belonging to it were cups or spoons for incense, bowls for wine, dishes for bringing and removing the loaves, all of gold. These loaves, called also bread of the face, being set before the face of the Lord (Levit. xxiv. 5–9), were twelve in number, according to the number of the tribes. Baked of the finest meal, flat and thin, they were placed every Sabbath on the Table in 2 rows, 6 in each, and sprinkledwith incense, and accompanied with libations of wine in the golden bowls. Here they remained till the next Sabbath, when they were taken away and replaced by twelve fresh loaves, and eaten by the priests[78] in the Holy Place, out of which they might not be carried, the frankincense having been burnt as an oblation on the Altar of Sacrifice.
Between the Table of Shewbread and the Golden Lamp and immediately before[79] the veil separating the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies was the Golden Altar of Incense (Ex. xxx. 1–11). Made of acacia-wood, in shape a square, 1 cubit in length and breadth and 2 in height, and ornamented round the middle with a golden wreath, it was furnished, like the Altar of Burnt-offering, with horns, rings, and staves; but unlike it was wholly overlaid with gold. On it incense, carefully prepared of four different ingredients (Ex. xxx. 34–38), was placed by the officiating priest morning and evening, with live coals taken from the Altar of Burnt-offering, that the smoke of the incense might perpetually ascend before the Lord. Once a year its horns were sprinkled with the blood of the sin-offering of the Atonement, and on no other occasion, except when a sin-offering was presented for the High-priest or the congregation.
(b) The Holy of Holies, separated, as we have just said, from the Holy Place by a costly veil supported on a screen of 4 pillars, formed a perfect cube of 10 cubits in length, breadth, and height. While the Holy Place, though never penetrated by the daylight, wasillumined by the splendid Golden Lamp, the Holy of Holies was left in utter darkness, symbolical of Him whom no man hath seen, nor can see (1 Tim. vi. 16). Within this most sacred enclosure neither priests nor people as a body, but the High-Priest only, and that but once a year, ever entered. Here stood nothing but the Ark of the Covenant (Ex. xxv. 10–16). This was an oblong chest of acacia-wood overlaid with the purest gold within and without, 2½ cubits in length, 1½ in breadth, 1½ in height. It stood on 4 small feet, which were provided with 4 golden rings, through which staves of acacia-wood overlaid with gold were passed, and which when once inserted were never to be removed. Within it were placed[80] the two stone tables, on both sides of which the Decalogue had been inscribed. Round the top ran a crown or wreath of pure gold, and upon it was the Mercy-Seat, of the same dimensions as the Ark, made not of wood overlaid with gold, but entirely of pure gold. At either end of the Mercy-Seat rose two golden Cherubim, with outspread wings and faces turned towards each other, and eyes bent downwards, as though desirous to look into its mysteries (1 Pet. i. 12). Neither their size nor their form are distinctly described. By some they are thought to have been handed down by patriarchal tradition from those which were placed in Paradise (Gen. iii. 24); by others to have resembled Egyptian models; while Josephus (Ant. III. vi. 5) declares that they resembled no figures known to men, and that in his day their form was utterly lost. In Ezekiel (i. 5–13) we find them likened to compound figures with the head of a man, an ox, a lion, and an eagle, with four wings, two serving for flight, two to cover the body, and straight feet inflexible at the knee. It is not improbable that they representedthe manifold powers of nature—created life in its highest form—their overshadowing wings meeting as in perfect harmony, their eyes cast downwards towards the Divine Law, over which seemingly so rigid and unbending was the compassion of One forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin[81].
Note.
HISTORY OF THE TABERNACLE.Such was the Pavilion-Temple which Moses constructed according to the pattern shown him in the Mount. The chief facts connected with its history are as follows.
i. During the wanderings in the wilderness it was the one place, where Jehovah “met His people,” and where from the ineffable glory above the mercy-seat He revealed His Will. There the Spirit came upon the 70 elders and they prophesied (Num. xi. 24, 25); thither Moses and Aaron were summoned on all important occasions, as on that of the rebellion of Miriam (Num. xii. 4), of the unfaithfulness of the spies (xiv. 10), of the rebellion of Korah (xvi. 19), of the sin of Meribah (xx. 6); there on the death of Moses his successor was solemnly appointed (Deut. xxxi. 14).
ii. During the conquest of Canaan it was, probably, moved from place to place, wherever the host of Israel was encamped.
iii. Afterwards it was brought to Shiloh (Josh. ix. 27; xviii. 1; xix. 51), on account, doubtless, of its secluded and central position, and as being within the territory of the powerful tribe of Ephraim, to which Joshua belonged, and here it remained during the entire period of the Judges (comp. Josh. xix. 51; xxii. 12; Judg. xxi. 21).
iv. But in the time of Eli, the licentiousness of his sons stained the sanctity of Shiloh, and degraded the Tabernacle almost to the level of a heathen temple (1 Sam. ii. 22), while the capture of the ark by the Philistines (1 Sam. iv. 22) still further dimmed its glories, and Samuel himself sacrificed at other places, Mizpeh (1 Sam. vii. 9), Ramah (ix. 12; x. 3), Gilgal (x. 8; xi. 15).
v. After this it was for some time settled at Nob (1 Sam. xx. 1–6), and thither also misfortune followed it: Saul murdered the priests (1 Sam. xxii. 11–19), and Abiathar fled with the sacred ephod to David (xxiii. 6).
vi. In the time of David and Solomon we find it at Gibeon (1 Chron. xvi. 39; xxi. 29), but the ark was now removed to Kirjath-jearim, and afterwards, on the capture of Jerusalem, to that city, where a new Tabernacle was constructed to receive it (1 Sam. vi. 17; 1 Chron. xv. 1). Its glory now waned more and more, it became connected with the worship of the high-places (1 Kings iii. 4), retained only the old altar of burnt-offering (1 Chron. xxi. 29), and eventually it seems to have been either taken down, or left to be forgotten and “vanish away[82].”
CHAPTER II.
THE PRIESTS.
Ex. xxviii. xxix. Lev. viii. ix. Num. iii. iv.
PRIOR to the Mosaic period, as has been already noticed[83], the head of each family and the firstborn appear to have exercised all kinds of government, ecclesiastical as well as civil, being both kings and priests in their own houses.
At the departure, however, from Egypt, it was declared that all the firstborn were specially sanctified to God in token of the mercy shown to them there (Ex. xiii. 2), and when Moses received the Divine commands concerning the construction of the Tabernacle, it was ordered that from the children of Israel Aaron and his sons should be specially selected to minister in the priests’ office (Ex. xxviii. 1). Subsequently, when the whole tribe of Levi displayed such signal zeal on the occasion of the construction of the golden calf (Ex. xxxii. 26), that tribe was separated for the service of the sanctuary, and accepted in the place of the firstborn,as the royal guard to wait on Israel’s King (Num. i. 47–54; iii. 5–13).