THE Brazen Sea in the court of the Temple took the place of
the Laver of the Tabernacle. All these vessels are the embodiment of Divine
thought connected with the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. As in the
altar we see Christ as our redemption, so in the Layer we have Christ as our
sanctification. One beautiful title by which God is made known in the Old
Testament is Jehovah-Mekaddesham, which means “I am Jehovah that doth
sanctify you.” How does Jehovah sanctify? In Christ Jesus through the
truth (John xvii., 17). The Word of God is the means, and the Word is
effectually applied by the Spirit. This is the truth set forth in the
Tabernacle Laver.
The larger reservoir, the Brazen Sea, suggests the idea of a greater fulness
and more abundant supply. It was thirty cubits in circumference, ten in
diameter. five in height, a handbreadth in thickness. It was constructed to
hold three thousand baths; it generally contained two thousand (1 Kings vii.,
23-26; 2 Chron iv., 2-5, 10, 15) - each bath being calculated to be equal to
seven gallons and four pints of our measure. It stood upon twelve oxen, three
looking toward the north, three toward the west, three toward the south, three
toward the east, their hinder parts inward. The Brazen Sea made by Hiram for
Solomon, standing by the Temple of God, reminds us of the words of the
Psalmist, " With Thee is the fountain of life." It is said concerning
the Laver - " Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet
thereat" (Ex. xxx., 19). The Hebrew expression is "there from,"
teaching that the water was drawn from it; the water IN the Laver remained
uncontaminated. The same explanation will apply to the Brazen Sea: it was for
the use of the priests; they could not reach up to dip their hands into it. In
some old drawings water is represented as flowing from the mouths of the oxen;
the oxen were probably hollow. The brim was wrought like the brim of a cup,
with flowers of lilies, and knops or gourds in two rows, ten knops to a cubit.
This Brazen Sea, with its vast collection of water, presents to us the idea of
unlimited supply; it is emblematic of Jesus in resurrection and in ascended
glory, in whom dwells all fulness of spiritual life, power, and blessing. The
water is typical of the Spirit as given from the risen and glorified Christ. In
John vii., 37, 38, we read, "In the last day, that great day of the feast,
Jesus stood and cried, saying If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and
drink. He that helieveth in Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly
shall flow rivers of living water." Then follows the interpretation,
" But this spake He of the Spirit which they that believe in Him should
receive," when He was glorified. God the Father, the Source of all.
The Brazen Sea is the Fountain-head. But "it pleased the Father tha: in
Him (the Son) should all fulness dwell." He is the vast Reservoir; the
Father the Source. In Christ all fulness dwelleth; and the fulness of the
Father which is in the Son is communicated to us by the Holy Spirit sent from a
glorified Christ. The water in the Brazen Sea, as interpreted by the Lord
Jesus, signifies the Holy Spirit descending from a glorified Christ, as at
Pentecost, remaining in the Church until that Church as the body and bride of
Christ, is made meet for Him to come and receive her to Himself.
THE TWELVE OXEN.
We have a beautiful embodiment of Divine thought connected with ministry, of
which the ox in Scripture is the emblem of patient, laborious service. This
figure is applied by the Apostle Paul to those who minister the Word -
"Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the
corn." The ox treading out the corn for the household represents that
servant whom his Lord has set over His household, to give them their portion of
meat in due season, and who, by going over the Sacred page with unmuzzled
mouth, feeds as he treads it out for others. The oxen through which the water
flowed may be typical of those who, abiding in Christ, and drawing out of His
fulness, minister the Spirit to others, according to that word, "He that
ministereth to you the Spirit "(Gal. iii., 5). This is true ministry -
drinking into the Spirit of Christ, receiving out of His fulness, speaking out
of the abundance of the heart, ministering the Spirit, so ministering grace
unto the hearers.
LIVING WATERS.
In the Temple of Ezekiel neither Laver nor brazen sea are mentioned; the waters
that issue from under the threshold take their place. They flow down eastward,
at the south side of the altar (Ezek. xlvii.). These waters are emblematic of
life in the Spirit small in its commencement in the new birth, it goes on
deepening and widening as it flows, leading to purity of WALK, as symbolised in
the water reaching to the "ankles." A patient continuance in holy
walking leads to a spirit of WORSHIP; this is indicated by the waters reaching
to the "knees." The prophet was conducted from the SOUTH side - the
side of loving-kindness and grace - back to the NORTH - the side of
righteousness and judgment - a further progress, that of "worshipping God
in the Spirit," realising the holiness of Him whom we worship. "Our
Father which art in the heavens, hallowed be Thy name." The waters now
reach unto the "loins," for worship leads to SERVICE, the bent knee
to the girded loins, occupied with the service of the Master in the hope of His
return. "Waters to swim in." Patience continuance in well-doing leads
the soul into a richer and fuller acquaintance with God, the enjoyment of His
manifested presence, and the communion of the Holy Ghost. Strengthened with
might by God’s Spirit in the inner man, Christ dwelling in the heart by
faith, rooted and grounded in love, the believer is led to comprehend, with all
the saints, what is the length and breadth and depth and height of love Divine;
and, knowing the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, the soul is
"filled into all the fulness of God" (Eph. iii., l9, - .an ocean of
boundless blessedness, without a bottom and without a shore. "God is love;
and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him " - like a
fish in ocean depths, drinking in from the boundless fulness which surrounds
it, and enjoying unlimited freedom in the activity of its happy existence -
"a river that could not be passed over."
THE RIVER FROM THE THRONE OF GOD AND OF THE LAMB.
The river in Rev. xxii. is traced up to its source in God, the fountain of
living waters, and reveals the sovereignty of His grace, founded on the atoning
work of His beloved SON.
Ezekiel xlvii. gives the literal and earthly view, Revelation xxii. the
spiritual and heavenly; while both are millennial.
THE BASES AND LAVERS.
There were ten bases and layers of brass (1 Kings vii., 27, 38), five placed on
the south or right side or shoulder of the Temple, and five on the north or
left side (1 Kings vii., 39). The BASES were SQUARE, four cubits wide, three
cubits high, with ledges, borders, or sides, and certain additions, and
undersetters or supports for the layer. They stood on wheels, one and a half
cubits high, and had gravings of lions, oxen, and cherubim. There are two
Hebrew words both rendered "base" in Kings vii. A base under the
Laver - keen, the word rendered "foot" in connection with the Laver
in the Tabernacle; and the larger base, meeonah, of four cubits by
three. The LAVERS were CIRCULAR, four cubits in diameter; each one contained
forty baths (1 Kings vii., 38). Altogether they appear to have stood about
eight cubits in height. Such things as they offered for the burnt [ascending]
offering they washed in them" (2 Chron. iv., 6). The inward and legs of
the burnt offerings were washed; thus they became typical of Him whose inward
thoughts, feelings, purposes, and desires were ever pure and holy; whose walk
and ways were blameless and undefiled, and who "offered Himself without
spot to God."
"The pots, and the shovels, and the basons: and all these vessels, which
Hiram made to King Solomon for the house of the Lord, were
of bright brass " (I Kings vii., 45).
The Brazen Altar.
IT was twenty cubits square, ten cubits in height (2 Chron. iv.), commensurate
in length and breadth with the Holiest of all (the ATONEMENT IS COEXTENSIVE
with the HOLINESS of God), equal in height to the cherubim, which stood ten
cubits high, whose wings met over the propitiatory. The fire was to be ever
burning (Lev. i., 7-13; vi., 12, 13). Upon this the daily lamb was to be laid
in order (Ex. xxix.. 39). The other sacrifices were laid upon the burnt
offering (Num. xxviii.). The immense size of Solomon’s altar, the orderly
disposition of the wood and sacrifices, would render it necessary that the
approach should be on the four sides. In connection with thc altar of Ezekiel,
steps or stairs are mentioned (Ezek. xliii., 17). The prohibition of steps in
Exod. xx., 26, refers to the primitive altar of EARTH or of UNHEWN STONE,
concerning which it was also said that the lifting up of a tool upon it would
pollute it. The priestly garments afterwards provided obviated the need of the
prohibition (Exod. xxviii., 42).
The vast number of sacrifices at the dedication of the altar of Solomon was an
ineffectual attempt to give expression to faith’s apprehension of the
infinite value of the one atoning sacrifice of Immanuel. The various offerings
were a foreshadowing of those realities of which Christ Himself is the
substance.
THE ALTAR OF EZEKIEL.
It is intermediate in size between that of the Tabernacle and that of the
Temple of Solomon (Ezek. xliii.). The "bottom," bosom, or ashpit, on
the ground, is a square of sixteen cubits, and one cubit high. The lesser
settle or ledge is fourteen cubits square, and two cubits in height; the altar
itself twelve cubits square, four cubits high. The sacrifices offered PREVIOUS
to Christ’s offering of Himself were FORESHADOWINGS of the work
accomplished on the cross; the only thing which in the Christian Church takes
their place is the Lord’s Supper, COMMEMORATIVE of His broken body and
shed blood. Sacrifices will come again into observance during the last week of
Daniel’s seventy weeks, and in the millennium (Ezek. xliii., 18), with
significant alterations. In the MILLENNIAL period there is no mention of the
evening lamb, only of the morning (Ezek. xlvi., 13). The evening sacrifice has
received its accomplishment in the Cross of Calvary; the morning lamb is the
memorial, or the bringing to remembrance, of the same. Neither any mention of
the Feast of Weeks, or Pentecost; it has received its accomplishment in the
present Church dispensation. Neither of the Day of Atonement; the High Priest
of our profession is now in the Holiest, presenting in ANTITYPE the blood of
the bullock on behalf of Himself and the Church, His house. The sacrifice on
behalf of Israel is foreshadowed by Aaron going the second time into the
Holiest with the blood of the goat. The sacrifices to he offered on the
millennial altar will be commemorative remembrances of the ONE
great sacrifice offered ONCE FOR ALL, complete and perfect for eternity.
The Courts and Gates.
THE Courts of the Temple were three in number, as follows : - First, the Great
or Outer Court, five hundred cubits square, where the people assembled to
worship God. It was open to all.
Second, the Court of the Priests, three hundred cubits square. It was for the
priests and their servants, the Levites, alone.
Third, the Court of the Altar, one hundred cubits square, with the altar of
burnt offering in its centre.
The Separate Place, whereon the Temple stood, one hundred cubits square. The
Court of the Altar and the Separate Place formed what was named the Inner
Court, which was surrounded by a wall five cubits thick, built of three rows of
hewn stones, with cedar beams on the top.
The Outer Court was elevated above the surrounding ground by flights of seven
steps in front of the three gates, and the Court of the Priests was elevated
above the Outer Court by flights of eight steps.
The walls of the Outer Court and Court of the Priests were six cubits broad and
six cubits high. There were three gates to the Outer Court - the North Gate,
the East Gate, and the South Gate. There was no gate to the west. There were
three gates to the Court of the Priests, over against and corresponding to the
three gates of the Outer Court. 4 These gates had two porches each.
THE TYPICAL TEACHING OF THE COURTS.
These courts are only mentioned in 1 Kings vi., 36, and 2 Chron. iv., 9; their
dimensions are fully given in Ezekiel, chapter xl. The Court of the Gentiles
and the Court of the Women, said to have been connected with Herod’s
Temple, were an innovation of Herod himself. There is nothing said about them
in the Word of God.
The Outer Court, with its flight of seven steps, may be regarded as a type of
earthly and millennial rest.
The Court of the Priests and the Inner Court, ascended by flights of eight
steps, we may regard as typical of resurrection and heavenly rest.
The arrangement of the courts also affords much valuable instruction regarding
our approach to God and our nearness of communion with Him.
As WORSHIPPERS in the Outer Court, we simply know and realise ourselves as
belonging to the people of God, the redeemed of the Lord.
As MINISTERING in the Court of the Priests, the believer is reminded of his
heavenly calling, his priestly standing and privileges, by virtue of his
anointing by the Spirit.
The Court of the Altar, with its ever-ascending sacrifices, reminds him of the
ground of his acceptance with, and access to, God.
While the Separate Place, with the sanctuary erected upon it, teaches the
necessity of separation from evil, and of the need of that holiness which
becometh God’s house for ever, in all who draw near to commune with a holy
God, in whose sight evil cannot dwell.
THE COOKING PLACES.
The prophet is shown a place in the priests’ court, on the "two sides
westward" or "hinder part," where the priests are to boil the
trespass and sin offering and bake the meat offering [gift offering] is next
brought into the outer court, in each of the four corners of which he is shown
a smaller court, forty cubits long by thirty broad, in which were places for
boiling the sacrifices of the people (Ezek. xlvi., 19- 24). Sometimes the word
"joined" or "attached- chamber" is rendered"
parlour," as when Samuel took Saul into the parlour and gave him the
portion set for him (1 Sam. ix., 22). These attached-chambers of the outer
court are for the use of those who come up to worship, either for retirement,
prayer, conference, or as a place in which to partake of the peace offering. In
the peace offering, God accepted a part, "the food of the offering made by
fire unto Jehovah" (Lev. iii., ii). All the fat that covered the inwards
was burnt as incense on the altar; this was God’s portion. The priest who
sprinkled the blood, and who is typical of Christ, has his portion out of the
accompanying meat or gift offering; the wave breast, emblematic of sympathy and
affection, and the heave shoulder, the emblem of strength and service, were
given to Aaron and his sons, from off the sacrifices of the peace offerings, by
a perpetual covenant (Lev. vii., 28-34). The remainder is the portion of the
worshipper who offers his sacrifice of peace offering unto Jehovah. Thus we get
a beautiful type of fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ,
and with the whole priestly family, in the one offering of Him who hath made
peace through His blood.
GALLERY AGAINST GALLERY IN THREE STOREYS.
In the outer court, probably on the west, behind the Temple, Ezekiel was shown
in vision a building consisting of attached-chambers, in three storeys, with
galleries in front (Ezek. xlii., 1-8). These galleries, it appears, were over
against, and corresponding with, the galleries of the Temple on the north and
south sides. The attached, or joined, chambers were entered from one into
another, from north to south. The breadth of the Temple on the west, including
the sanctuary and the side chambers on the north and south, was fifty cubits.
The length of the walls of ths structure, including the attached-chambers, was
also fifty cubits (verse 7). Before the side-chambers of the Temple, on either
side, were galleries in three storeys, extending outward ten cubits north and
south. Similarly, before the attached-chambers of this building, north and
south, were galleries in three storeys, extending outward ten cubits on either
side. Thus the galleries of the building, in three storeys, were over against
the galleries in three storeys of the Temple.
The expression GALLERY AGAINST GALLERY in three storeys (Ezek. xlii., 3) may
thus be explained. The attached-chambers connected with this building in the
outer court, in CONTRAST with the side-chambers of the Temple, DECREASED ifl
size as they ascended, being probably seven, six, and five cubits respectively.
The doors leading into them, from one to another, faced the north - the
galleries taking out a cubit from the attached-chambers on each storey, similar
to the way in which each storey of the side-chambers took out a cubit from the
walls of the Temple. These attached-chambers, proceeding frori north to south,
from the side emblematic of justice and judgment to that of mercy and
loving-kindness, and diminishing in size as they ascend upward, teach us that,
in proportion to deeper views of Divine love, and higher contemplation of
Heavenly glories, self, and the space occupied by self, will diminish in equal
proportion.
THE PRIESTS.
The priests, the Levites, the sons of Zadok, that kept the charge of My
sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from Me, THEY shall come near
to Me to minister unto Me, and they shall stand before Me to offer [bring near]
unto Me the fat and the blood, saith the Lord God [Sovereign-Lord Jehovah] :
THEY shall enter into My sanctuary, and THEY shall come near to My table, to
minister unto Me, and they shall keep My charge " (Ezek. xliv., 15, 16).
These priests appear to be typical of those who believe in Jesus in the present
dispensation, when Israel as a nation have gone astray from God.
"When they enter in at the gates of the inner court, they shall be clothed
with linen garments" (verses 17, 18). In all their ministrations, whether
at the altar or within the sanctuary, nothing of woollen is to come upon them.
In the worship and service of the sanctuary above, there will be the absence of
all that is carnal or exciting; all will be spiritual and holy. "And when
they go forth into the utter [outer] court, even into the utter court to the
people, they shall put off their garments wherein THEY ministered, and lay THEM
in the holy chambers [attached-chambers], and they shall put on other
garments" (verse 19). As those who ministered in the court of the priests
were rcquired to change their apparel when they went out to the people in the
outer court, even so the risen saints, the heavenly priesthood, in their
intercourse with earth during the millennial period, will not be seen in the
same glory in which they minister in the heavenly courts above. No high priest
is mentioned; the prince (not a king) takes a prominent part in providing the
sacrifices (Ezek. xlv., xlvi.). The Lord Jesus will unite the Kingship and High
Priesthood in His own Meichisedec office.