The erection of the tabernacle.
I. THE TIME.
1. It reminded them of their deliverance from Egyptian bondage; "this month shall be unto you the beginning of months" (Exodus 12:2). God's dwelling-place is ever erected amid the adoring remembrance of his redemption. "The love of Christ constraineth us."
2. It was a consecration of the year upon which they were entering. It struck the key-note of the after time. The joy of the new year was to rise into the greater joy of the new life. The joy which hallows all time is that of reconciliation to, and union with, God.
II. THE ORDER OF CONSTRUCTION.
1. The tabernacle was first erected in which God was to be served. The duty to serve God is confessed before the power is attained or the way understood.
2. The tabernacle is next furnished, and the altar and laver and outer court set up. The means are given of reconciliation and service. It is not enough to be convinced of duty. God must be waited upon for power. His way must be taken. "No other foundation can any man lay."
3. All things are anointed with the holy oil. The spirit hallows and energizes all the means of grace which God has given.
4. The priests also are anointed; we, too, must be so in order to serve, and we shall be if we come, as they did, into the midst of what God has provided and sanctified for man's redemption.
III. THE ERECTION OF THE TABERNACLE WAS FOLLOWED BY ITS IMMEDIATE USE. So soon as the shew-bread table was placed, the bread was set in order upon it. The lamps were immediately lighted. He burnt sweet incense upon the altar before the veil. On the altar of sacrifice he offered burnt offering and meat offering. At the laver "Moses and Aaron and his sons washed their feet." Belief should follow fast upon the heels of knowledge. God has sent forth his salvation, not to be the subject of intellectual interest and theological speculation, but to touch and change the heart. The bread of life has been given to feed the perishing, not merely to be examined, weighed, analysed.—U.
HOMILIES BY D. YOUNG