Moses repeatedly, and with very peculiar force and emphasise and his strict adherence to it in every particular is, in the last chapter of this book, mentioned no less than eight times, once after every separate piece of furniture that was madeb. In the New Testament too his compliance with the command is re- peatedly noticed, and the very order itself expressly quoted0. Now what was the reason of this limitation ? Why must only such and such things be made ; and they of such precise mate- rials and shape? The reason was, The whole was intended to typify things under the Gospel dispensation : and as none but God could know all the things which were to be prefigured, so none but he could know infallibly how to designate them to the best effect. Had Moses been left to contrive any tiling out of his own mind, there might have wanted a correspondence between the type and the antitype : but when a model of every thing was shewn him by God himself, the whole must of necessity accord with the mind and purpose of him for whom they were made. We forbear to particularize the correspondence between the shadows and the substance, because that cannot be profitably done without entering more fully into the subject than our time at present will admit of: but that the correspondence was designed of God, and actually exists, and was the end for which such precise orders were given, is beyond all doubt. " The first tabernacle," says St. Paul, " while it was yet standing, was a figure for the time then present;" " and served unto the example and shadow of heavenly things," that is, of things under the Gospel dispensation01.]
But the direction in our text had not merely a typi- cal reference ; for it may properly be considered,
II. As applicable to us —
The tabernacle typified, not only the Lord Jesus, " in whom dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily," but us also —
[" The Church of God is his house e," " the habitation of God through the Spirit f." Yea, every believer is himself " the temple of the living God; as God hath said; I will dwell in them, and walk in them ; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people g." Moreover, God himself, commending the fidelity of Moses in constructing every thing according to his order, draws for us the parallel between the tabernacle erected by him, and that which Christ possesses in our hearts : " Moses verily was faithful in all his house as a servant, for a
a See ver. 40. and ch. xxvi. 30. b Exod. xl. 16 — 33.
c Acts vii. 44. Heb. viii. 5.
d Heb. ix. 8, 9. with viii. 5. before cited. e 1 Tim. iii. lo.
' Eph. ii. 21, 22. s 2 Cor. vi. 16.