The Worldly Sanctuary.—Continued

Notes

1. The experience of David in carrying the ark was well calculated to impress him with the importance of carrying out the Lord's instructions, without presuming to vary from them. God is particular. He gives directions for His worship and His work, and they are the wisest and best that can be given. They are not arbitrary in their nature, but they are exactly adapted to meet man in his fallen condition, and raise him to eternal glory and immortal life. Again and again has the Lord sought to impress our minds with the importance of implicit obedience to His requirements. Numerous examples are given us in His word which illustrate the fact that He is particular. The cases of our first parents, Cain and Abel, Nadab and Abihu, Israel's observance of the Sabbath at the falling of the manna (Exodus 16), Ananias and Sapphira, and others, might be cited. Let us ever remember that the willing and obedient shall eat the good of the land. Isa. 1:19.

2. It is not without significance that the mercy seat and the law of God beneath it were so closely associated, and that God's presence was manifested just above them between the cherubim. Here all the service of the sanctuary centered. Here the presence, character, and government of God were represented. The law of God is the "justice and judgment" which are the habitation of His throne. Ps. 89:14. It contains the eternal principles which form His character and are the foundation of His government. These include mercy and love as well as justice, for God's law is the reflection of all the attributes of His character. The Saviour classes mercy as one of the weightier matters of the law. Matt. 23:23. But while the law contains the principle of mercy and requires it of all, yet it does not fully reveal it to fallen man. It reveals man's guilt, and gives the knowledge of sin, but it is by the gospel and in Jesus Christ that the character of God and His law is fully revealed. The cover of the ark was called the mercy seat, because here mercy had her seat, and sin, the transgression of the law, beneath the mercy seat, was pardoned and removed by virtue of the blood of the atoning sacrifice which was there ministered. "Thus in the work of Christ for our redemption, symbolized by the sanctuary service, 'mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.'" Ps. 85:10.

3. "The showbread was kept ever before the Lord as a perpetual offering. Thus it was a part of the daily sacrifice. It was called showbread, or 'bread of the presence,' because it was ever before the face of the Lord. It was an acknowledgment of man's dependence upon God for both temporal and spiritual food, and that it is received only through the mediation of Christ. God had fed Israel in the wilderness with bread from heaven, and they were still dependent upon His bounty both for temporal food and spiritual blessings. Both the manna and the showbread pointed to Christ, the living Bread, who is ever in the presence of God for us. He Himself said, 'I am the living Bread which came down from heaven.' Frankincense was placed upon the loaves. When the bread was removed every Sabbath, to be replaced by fresh loaves, the frankincense was burned upon the altar as a memorial before God."—Patriarchs and Prophets, page 354.

4. "There being no windows in the tabernacle, the lamps were never all extinguished at one time, but shed their light by day and by night."—Patriarchs and Prophets, page 348.