2. The preparation for the directions which God gave for the building of this tabernacle is declared, Exod. xxiv. The body of the people having heard the law,—that is, the ten words or command- ments,—which was all they heard, Deut. ix. 10 (what God spake to them was written in the two tables of stone), they removed unto a greater distance from the mount, Exod. xx. 18. After their removal, Moses continued to receive from the Lord that summary of the whole law which is expressed, chap. xxi, xxii, xxiii, And
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all this, as it should seem, at the first hearing, he wrote in a book from the mouth of God: for it is said, chap. xxiv. 4, that he “wrote all the words of the Lorp;” and, verse 7, that “he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people.”
3. The Jewish masters suppose that it was the book of Genesis that is there intended; for, say they, the rest of the law was not yet written, namely, before God himself had written or engraven the ten words on the two tables of stone. But this is a fond imagina- tion, seeing the book which Moses read contained the form and tenor of the covenant made with that people at Horeb, and is ex- pressly so called, and as such was then solemnly confirmed and ratified by sacrifice. It may therefore be supposed that there isa prolepsis used in the recording of this story, and that, indeed, the confirmation of the covenant by sacrifice, which was accompanied with the reading of the book, was not until after the third return of Moses from the mount with the renewed tables, But this also may well be doubted, seeing this sacrifice was prepared and offered by the “young men of the children of Israel,” verse 5; that is, the first-born, whose office was superseded upon the separation of Aaron and his sons unto the priesthood, which God had designed before that last descent of Moses from the mount. We must there- fore leave things in the order wherein they are set down and re- corded. It appears, therefore, that Moses wrote the law as he re- ceived it from God. This being done, he came down and read it in the ears of the people; and he proposed it unto them, as con- taining the terms of the covenant that God would have them enter into. This they solemnly engaged to the performance of, and thereby had their admission into a new church-state. This being done, the whole was confirmed by sacrifice and the sprinkling of blood, to prefigure the great confirmation of the new covenant by the blood of Christ,;as we shall see afterwards.
4, Things being thus settled, Moses goes up again into the mount, to receive directions for that worship of God which he appointed and enjoined unto them in that church-state whereinto they were newly admitted. And here, in the first place, the Lord instructs him in the frame and whole fabric of the tabernacle, as that which was an eminent type of the human nature of Christ, and so indis- pensably necessary unto the solemn worship then ordained as that no part of it could be rightly performed but with respect thereunto. This, therefore, with all the parts and utensils of it, should now come under consideration. But there are sundry reasons for which I shall omit it in this place; as,—(1.) The most material things be- longing unto it must necessarily be considered in our exposition of those places in our apostle where they are expressly insisted on. ' (2.) Many things relating unto it, as the measures of it, some part of
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the matter whereof it was made, divers colours used about it, are very dubious, and some of them so absolutely uncertain that the Jews themselves can come to no agreement about them; and it is not meet to enter into the discussion of such things without more room and liberty than our present design will allow unto us. (3.) Many learned men have already travailed with great diligence and skill in the discovery of all the several concernments of the taber- nacle and temple; from whom the reader may receive much satis- faction who hath a mind to inquire into these things. Add unto all this, that the writing of this part of these discourses is fallen upon such a season as affords me very little encouragement or assistance to enlarge upon it. Only, that the reader may not go away without a taste in one instance of what he might have expected in the whole, I shall choose out one particular utensil of the taber- nacle, and give an account of it unto him; and this shall be the ark and its attendancies.
5. The ark was the only furniture of the most holy place, the most sacred and holy of all the utensils of the tabernacle and temple. And it was the same in them both, as is evident, 1 Kings viii. 4-6. Tt was the repository of the covenant,—for so the law, written by the finger of God in tables of stone, is often called metonymically,—and being anointed, Exod. xl. 10, became DWP YP, “ holiness of holi- nesses,” or most holy; a type of Him who was to fulfil the law and establish the covenant between God and man, being thereunto anointed as the Most Holy, Dan. ix. 24. It was also the great pledge of the presence of God in the church; whence it. is not only some- times called his “glory,” Ps. Ixxviii. 61, “He gave iM28DN,” “his glory,” beauty, majesty, “into the hand of the enemy,” when the ark was taken,—whereon the wife of Phinehas cried, 7i32 °%, “Where is the glory?” 1 Sam. iv. 21, because therein the glory departed from Israel, verse 22,—but in its presence also glory was said to “ dwell in the land,” Ps. Ixxxy. 10, 1133 wie, because therein the Shechinah or Chabod, or glorious presence of God, dwelt and abode among his people; yea, it hath the name of God himself attributed to it, by reason of its representation of his majesty, Ps. xxiv. 7, GLO.