4 He shall [set in] order the [nerot] lamps upon the pure candlestick [Menorah Hatehorah]before Yahweh continually [tamid].

The entrance of thy words giveth light

The oil [for the lampstand in the holy place] was to be supplied by the children of Israel; "pure oil olive beaten for the light" (Lev. 24:2). This is in harmony with the fact that Israel has furnished the men who were the mediums of the oil-word, and that the same was delivered in much affliction--beaten for the light. Whether this was an intended meaning we are not informed, but the correspondence is striking.

The exclusion of the natural light is evidently a part of the symbolism. There was no window in the tabernacle, and the light that would have come from the open roof was intercepted by the several coverings that were laid across. We have no indication of the divinely intended meaning of this, beyond what may be furnished in the Scriptural question:

"Who can by searching find out God?" and the apostolic statement: "The natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned".

As we behold the darkened interior of the structure intended to symbolize the relation of God to man, lit only by an apparatus forming part of the symbolism, we are plainly informed that "the light of nature" can throw no light on the question of what man's relation to God is, or what God's purpose with him is, or how man can be acceptable with God.

In short, that "religion" is an affair of revelation exclusively, and that "natural religion" is a myth.

There is truly no such thing as natural religion. Religion, to be religion, must be a means of actual reconciliation with God, and it is from God only that we can learn the terms of this reconciliation.

What man devises is not religion, but will-worship, or worship according to human will. It may be acceptable to man: but if it is not acceptable to God it has no reconciling power, or power to bind again what has been broken, and, therefore, is not religion--all which is in perfect accord with the fact that natural light had no place in the interior of the tabernacle of the congregation.

Law of Moses Ch 14

6 And thou shalt set them in 2 rows, 6 [The number of man - 2x6 (12) Kings and priests] on a row, upon the pure table before Yahweh.

The smoking frankincense (v7) on the twelve cakes may tell us that the class in Israel who are reckoned as the true and final commonwealth of Israel are those only who are as an odour of a sweet smell to the Creator in the genuine thanksgiving and praise that ascend continually from their circumcised and enlightened minds. It is not enough to have Abraham's blood; there must also be Abraham's faith and obedience.

The fact that the cakes were eaten by the priests touches the truth at three points.

1. Only the class of mankind who are called and constituted "priests unto God" are the qualified and destined partakers of the hope of Israel.

2. This hope can only be eaten in the holy place to which the truth calls men, by the gospel and baptism, outside of which men are "without Christ, and having no hope", as Paul alleges in Eph. 2:12. 3.

In the final evolution of things natural, Israel in their twelve tribes disappear by absorption in the priestly order, who, largely recruited in numbers at the close of the thousand years, become at last the sole and immortal survivors of earth's population in the perfect state to which the whole purpose is tending.

Law of Moses Ch 15

7 And thou shalt put pure frankincense upon each row, that it may be on the bread for a memorial, even an offering made by fire unto Yahweh.

On the right-hand side of the holy place, against the inner side of the south wall of the chamber, stood a table about 3 ft. long, 18 in. broad, and 2 ft. 3 in. high, made of hard wood covered with gold (Exod. 25:23). On it were placed two piles of cakes, of fine flour, six in a pile, twelve in all. On each pile (or row) was placed a vessel containing a quantity of frankincense in process of burning. The cakes were to be renewed every sabbath, and the old ones eaten by the priests in the holy place.

They were called the shewbread (Exod. 25:30), because always on show, "before the Lord". But what were they there to show? First, the national constitution in twelve tribe subjection to the law of Moses. We learn this from their number, which connects them with the "twelve tribes of Israel", and from the statement that the cakes were to be considered as taken from them as an offering for a memorial.

This clue unites with certain apostolic expressions in attaching an Israelitish character to the whole economy of true religion and hope and holiness, as existing in this imperfect state. The holy place figures this economy, and it is meet, therefore, that it should contain the insignia of its national association. We know who said "Salvation is of the Jews" (John 4:22), "to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and giving of the law . . . and the promises" (Rom. 9:4). We are all familiar with Paul's description of the hope of the gospel as "the hope of Israel" (Acts 28:20), "unto which hope", as he further said, "our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come" (26:7).

The moderns have entirely forgotten this aspect of the salvation which the gospel discloses and offers. The twelve cakes of the shewbread may suffice to recall them to the truth in this matter. "The bread of God" (as the shew-bread is called, Lev. 21:6) "is he that cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world" (John 6:33); but the essence of it is Israelitish, not only in its historical associations, but in its future development.

Law of Moses Ch 14

16 And he that blasphemeth the name of Yahweh, he shall surely be put to death, and all the congregation shall certainly stone him: as well the stranger, as he that is born in the land, when he blasphemeth the name of Yahweh, shall be put to death.

It is an indispensable corollary of belief in God that His name should be had in reverence, and should never escape human lips in the spirit of flippancy--not to speak of profanity.

There are those who think that the meaning was that men should not take a false oath; that if they swore by the name of God to do a thing, there was a sacred obligation of performance that God would never release; that God would hold the man guilty who invoked His name to a covenant he did not perform.

The scope of the subject requires that something much higher than this should have been intended. God is certainly displeased with covenant-breakers and perjured persons: but His displeasure does not arise from the fact of His name having been used to pledge them to performance, but because the person promising or covenanting has failed to perform whether the promise or covenant were entered upon with the name of God on the person's lips or not.

It is the profane or flippant use of God's name that is condemned at any time, for any use in any connection. We never read of the non-performance of a covenant being described as taking the name of the Lord in vain: but we read the illustrative case of "the son of an Israelitish woman, whose father was an Egyptian ", who blasphemed the name of the Lord and cursed, and who (being put in ward that the mind of the Lord might be shown), was condemned to death (Lev. 24: 11-15).

The spirit of unutterable reverence towards God is the spirit which every institution of the law was calculated and intended to generate. Sacrifice means nothing so much as this. The position of the tabernacle in the midst of the assembly, guarded on every side by the ranked tents of the Levites, taught no other lesson.

The first petition of "the Lord's Prayer" enforces it: "Hallowed be Thy name". How often occurs the interjection throughout the law: "I the Lord your God am holy". "Fear thy God". "He is worthy to be had in reverence of all them that come near him" "He is a great God, and a great King above all gods .... O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our maker... He is greatly to be praised: he is to be feared above all gods: for all the gods of the nations are idols, but the Lord made the heavens. Honour and majesty are before him: strength and beauty are in his sanctuary. Give unto the Lord, O ye kindreds of the people, give unto the Lord glory and strength. Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name... O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness; fear before him, all the earth" (Psa. 95-96 and other places).

The very pith of the third commandment is the spirit that moved the Psalmist to exclaim, "O that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men"

This is the spirit of the truth, apart from which the system of the truth is but a skeleton of dry bones. It led him to desire the manifestation of the glory of God with an ardour that he could only compare with the fierce thirst of the hart kept a long time from water. There is a great distance between this state of mind and that which would take the name of the Lord in vain.

The latter is the more common state of mind: and, therefore, it is a matter of command that we avoid the foolish habit of taking the name of the Lord in vain; and a matter of intimation that God will hold guilty the man who indulges in it. The existence of a command with this terrible adjunct is a help against the folly when we remember it, as to which, it is never to be forgotten that the mercy of the Lord is in store for "those who remember his commandments, to do them".

Law of Moses