A Comparison between the Great Pyramid and the Tabernacle, continued

Having heeded the call echoed by the Apostle Paul to all believers residing within the courtyard condition, viz.

“We beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God“—if you feel gratitude for the manifest love of God, and desire to please Him and enter into the blessings to which you are called– “your high calling“–that you do more than you have yet done. If you would follow the example of our Lord, as you have agreed to do, you must not only make a profession of faith in the redemptive work of Christ and an effort to cleanse yourselves from the defilement’s of the flesh, but you must likewise be willing to surrender (to sacrifice) your will, with all its worldly cares, ambitions and desires, for that of the Father’s, and not this alone, but your all, your very life itself, that “you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, your reasonable service.” Rom 12:1

…we went on to make a full consecration of ourselves, that is we entered into covenant relationship with the Father, “a covenant by sacrifice” Psa 50:5 (Compare with Lev 20:7) and so passed beyond the first vail into the first chamber of the Tabernacle proper, the “Holy” or “holy place”.

“Those who pass through this first “vail” into the “holy place” are the ones who fulfill their “covenant by sacrifice,” called saints. All believers coming through the “curtain” are “called to be saints,” but only those who obey the call and yield themselves sacrifices “make their calling and election sure.”

Thus this first vail represents clearly our death to the world. The flesh is left outside, voluntarily given over to death and destruction, while we as new creatures in Christ, go beyond this vail, and enjoy a newness of life. Thus we fill two pictures: our earthly nature has been given up, deprived of life, and is being taken without the camp to be destroyed, while our new nature is at the same instant within the first vail, not as men, but as members of the High Priest’s body. We are not only dead with Him, but also alive with Him. “We are buried with Him by baptism into death” (Rom. 6:4), “wherein also ye are risen with Him.” (Col. 2:12.) The natural body is no longer we, for “we are not in the flesh, but in the spirit.” (Rom. 8:9).

We claim then that our going through this first vail represents the death of the natural fleshly will or mind, and that our entering the inside of the Tabernacle represents our entrance to the condition of the spiritual or new nature.

“For ye are dead, (as men)” “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above; set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth, for ye are dead.” (Col 3:1-3) For God “hath raised us up, (in the spirit of our minds,) and made us sit together in heavenly places (spiritual conditions as represented in the Holy and Most Holy) in Christ Jesus (Eph 2:6).” Extracts taken from R153

Standing now within the first chamber of the Tabernacle, the Holy the first thing we notice is that just about everything in this room is either made of gold or covered in gold even the very walls themselves, the only exception being the elaborate tapestry hanging above our heads and the first and second vails. We also note that there are only three items of furniture located in this chamber, to the north wall the “Table of Showbread”, to south wall the “Golden Lampstand”, and before us to the west the “Golden Altar”.

“It is noticeable that all the furniture inside the Tabernacle was of gold, or covered with gold, while in the “Court” everything was of copper. Wood, which was the base covered with these metals, was used, we believe, to make the articles of lighter weight, more easily portable, than if of solid metal. This was an important consideration when they traveled.

These two metals, gold and copper, were used, we think, to represent two different natures–copper representing the human nature in its perfection, a little lower than the angelic nature; and gold representing the divine nature, far above angels, principalities and powers. As gold and copper are much alike in their appearance, yet different in quality, so the human nature is an image and likeness of the divine, adapted to earthly conditions.

“The fact that all things in the Tabernacle were made of gold, representative of the divine nature, implies that it represented the condition of such only as are called to the divine nature. Only those of the Levites who were consecrated to the work of sacrificing (the Priests) had access to the Tabernacle; so only those of the household of faith who are consecrated to sacrifice, even unto death, enter the divine conditions represented in the Tabernacle.” T17, 18, 20

And so we see that the dividing line between the earthly (or natural man), the unconsecrated believer, and that of the spiritual (the New Creature), the fully consecrated is the “First Vail” or “Vail of Consecration” the “door” to the Tabernacle. This distinction between the natural and the spiritual being pictured in the tabernacle by the use of “copper” as used in the courtyard and “gold” in the tabernacle itself.

All of the various golden items used to depict the spirit nature, more specifically the divine nature were kept hidden from the sight to those without both by means of the tabernacle’s coverings and by means of the door to the tabernacle, this included not only the various furnishings, but likewise the very walls themselves as well as the gold covered pillars upon which the two vails were hung.

As was in regards to the posts of the courtyard so too with regards to the pillars of the tabernacle, both represent a distinction between one condition of being and that of another condition of being, those on one side of the curtain wall and those on the other side.

The Courtyard Pillars (at the present time) represent the faith justified, (believers) standing inside the wall of faith, The bare wood represents their corruptible nature nevertheless their being set in copper sockets represents justification and thus their standing as that of perfect human beings. These individuals reside within the courtyard or tentatively justified condition.

The “Door” posts (or Pillars) represent the spirit begotten, “new creatures in Christ Jesus” residing within the “Holy” behind the First Vail, the vail of consecration and the death of the human will. These pillars were covered in gold symbolic of the divine nature. Their being set in sockets of copper represented how “we have this treasure [the divine nature] in earthen vessels” (2 Cor 4:7); i.e., our new nature is still based upon, and rests in, our justified humanity (the copper sockets).

We will elaborate further on the Pillars of the “Most Holy” when we reach that segment of our study.

As stated our new nature (spirit nature, presently merely the new mind) depicted in the gold covered pillars is hidden from the outside world, “hidden in Christ”, behind the “Vail of Consecration” it is not something that can be seen nor appreciated by the “natural man”, regardless of whether he be a believer (in the courtyard condition) or not, it is a mystery which has been hidden in God from the beginning of the ages (Eph 3:9)

We died (figuratively) when through consecration we passed beneath the first vail, not only as individuals, being joined to the “one body”, the one Head, apart from which we have no life, but likewise we died as human beings, as natural men, from hence forth our life has been “hidden with Christ in God” (Col 3:3, 4), we are risen beyond the first vail new creatures in Christ Jesus, spirit beings, although still but in our embryo condition, still residing in these earthen vessels.

In our next post we will discuss just what it means by entering the first chamber of the Tabernacle, the “Holy”.