The Throne of Law The Throne of Law

2. The Throne of Law

In Exodus 25-31; 35:4-39:43, the law is given concerning the building of the tabernacle, i.e., the tent of meeting: “And let them make me a sanctuary: that I may dwell among them. According to

all that I shew thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it” (Ex. 25:8- 9). This pattern had to be strictly followed, without variation. When the ideal or symbolic temple of the future, i.e., the Kingdom of Christ, is portrayed through Ezekiel, again adherence to the pattern is required (Ezek. 43:10). This

emphasis on the absoluteness of the pattern is spoken of also in Hebrews 8:5; 9:23.

Thus, first , the pattern of the tabernacle is given by God and is entirely His work. J. Edgar Park sees it as man’s work and “man’s response to God.” “As the Creator made the earth for man to dwell in, so man must make a dwelling for the Creator.” Park does not see this as a historical account, nor as revelation.110 This may be a pretty thought, but it is not true. The pattern and materials are required by God, and His subjects are expected to obey. When subjects build a palace for their monarch, it is not as a “response” to him, but in obedience to their king.

This, of course, points to the second aspect of the law of the sanctuary: the tabernacle is more than a tent of meeting: “It is the palace of the King in which the people render Him homage.”111 At this point a central fallacy of the ecclesiastical approach to the subject appears. Earnest biblical scholars have, while affirming their faith in the fundamentals, still shared in the modern belief that religion is an ecclesiastical matter. In their analysis of the typology and symbolism of the tabernacle, they stress its relation to ecclesiastical worship.112 But the reduction of religion to the church is a modern heresy; the domain of religion is the whole of life, and the concern of the sanctuary was the total life. The tabernacle was the palace of God the King, covenant Lord of Israel, from whence He ruled the nation absolutely. Israel presented itself at the palace, not only to worship but to be commanded in every respect and in every area.

Third , as a result, there could only be one sanctuary, because there is only one true God, one God, one throne, one realm to govern. Since there was one law governing God’s realm, there was one source of law, the palace. Because of the ecclesiastical point of view, it is difficult for men to see the tabernacle as primarily and essentially God’s palace or dwelling-place; for the church- oriented mind, it was primarily and essentially a place of worship. Even a moment’s reflection will make this point clear. The law required all males to appear thrice annually at the palace:

Three times in the year all thy males shall appear before the Lord GOD. (Ex. 23:17)

Thrice in the year shall all your men children appear before the Lord GOD, the God of Israel. (Ex. 34:23)

It will be objected by some that these three feasts are described as “holy” convocations (Lev. 23:4) and are thus clearly and essentially worship.

But it is a serious error to associate holiness with worship; worship in itself is not holy and can be blasphemy; holiness does not refer to worship but to God in all His ways and in all His being. Thus, all godly activity, whether it be in the home, field, court, church, or school, is holy activity. The “medieval” perspective, although corrupted by Neoplatonism, was still more biblical than the modern concept of the state as a profane and secular agency, i.e., outside the palace of God and separate from Him. Because the monarch represented God’s ministry of justice, and because he ruled as the vicegerent of Christ the King, the office of the monarch was thus seen as a holy office.

The king was, indeed, a likeness of Christ. The coronation rite transformed him sacramentally into aChristus Domini, that is, not only into a person of episcopal rank, but into an image of Christ himself. By this rite, Professor Kantorowicz writes, “the new government was linked with the divine government and with that of Christ, the true governor of the world; and the images of King and Christ (were) brought together as nearly as possible.” Such dramatic representations of the meaning of the monarchy were not confined to the king’s coronation. On the great religious feasts of the year, “the king’s day of exaltation was made to coincide with the . . . exaltation of the Lord” in order to make “terrestrial kingship all the more transparent against the background of the kingship of Christ.” In Capetian France as elsewhere, such religious feasts often were made the occasion for the king’s festive coronation; and, as the political assemblies of the realm were likewise held on these feasts, the interweaving of the two spheres was underscored by liturgical pageants that stressed the sacerdotal dignity of kingship.

What appears to us as no more than festive pageantry was, in point of fact, an act of sacramental as well as constitutional significance. It was precisely his anointment asChristus Domini that raised the king above even the most powerful dukes. In the political controversies of the early twelfth century this fact is adduced again and again.113

However, because of Neoplatonism, the concept of continuity made for a oneness of being between God and the king which led to ruler worship and an anti-Christian order. In terms of the biblical discontinuity of being between God and man, the typology of king as vicegerent must be

maintained. The typology cannot be transformed into a continuity concept.114

Holiness has reference, thus, primarily and essentially to God, and, secondarily, to all things done in His name, according to His word, and to His glory. All things were created by God wholly good, and therefore holy, separated and dedicated to Him. Men, by their fall, have become profane. The goal of redemption is the restoration of the universe to holiness, its re-creation, and

the separation of the reprobate or Canaanite from “the house of the LORD of hosts” (Zech. 14:20- 21).

The tabernacle was God’s palace; it was the sanctuary because it was God’s palace or dwelling- place. In the wilderness, and in the early years, God made His palace as the people made their dwellings, in a tent. It was tardily, with David, that the people became mindful of the contrast between their houses and God’s palace, still in a tent (2 Sam. 7:2). The building of this temple,

house, or palace of God, was deferred by God to the reign of Solomon (2 Sam. 7:4-29).

The tabernacle, and the Temple after it, remained primarily as palace, not house of worship. Worship was local, and its place was in the family. The sabbath was kept in the home, not in the sanctuary. To see the tabernacle and the temple as church structures is to misread the Bible. That there was worship at the sanctuary does not alter this fact. Man worshiped God everywhere: when he killed meat, game or domestic animals, the blood was shed in worship. Prayers and sacrifices were offered before battle, and the sin of Saul was that he did not wait for Samuel to come and perform the offering (1 Sam. 13). But the normal place of worship was the home, where the

Fourth, the tabernacle thus has no counterpart in the church. When at the death of Christ, the veil of the temple was rent in twain (Matt. 27:51), the end of the temple as God’s palace was openly set forth. The new temple is Jesus Christ, who was crucified for declaring Himself to be the true temple, built by His resurrection (Matt. 26:61; 27:40; John 2:19-21, etc.). By the indwelling Holy Spirit, believers are now in a sense temples of God (1 Cor. 3:16-17), as is the church also, which is spoken of as “the house of God” (1 Tim. 3:15; 1 Peter 4:17), but the “church” as so designated is not a visible habitation or structure but the entire visible congregation or church of Christ. The temple, or, more accurately, the tabernacle, has its fulfilment in Christ, and the true holy of holies is now opened to men of faith in that through “the blood of Jesus” God’s covenant people have access to the throne (Heb. 10:19-22).

The tabernacle had three rooms. First, there was the court, open only to the covenant people and, while fenced off, was open to the sky. The second room was open only to priests and was veiled while still lighted. The third, the holy of holies, was veiled and dark, and only the high priest entered it, once a year. In heaven, God dwells as Ruler of the universe; in the tabernacle, God dwelled “in His condescending grace” as ruler of His covenant people.115

With the incarnation, the tabernacling presence gave way to the incarnate God-man, Jesus Christ. With the ascension, the Holy Spirit continues the work of government; the Holy Spirit thus cannot be separated from law and government in any sense. However, even more, a new stage appeared with Christ in the rule of God the King. The heavenly sanctuary, the throne of the world, became the throne of Christ, who reigns now to subjugate all His enemies (1 Cor. 15:25), so that the triumphant prophecy be fulfilled, “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever” (Rev. 11:15). In terms of this purpose, the covenant men were told by Jesus Christ, “All power (all authority or dominion) is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations . . .” (Matt. 28:18-19). The church is sent into the world as part of Christ’s imperialism, to subjugate the world to His reign.

Fifth, in the holy of holies, the throne of God is the law. Fairbairn called attention to this clearly:

The connection now indicated between the revelation of law in the stricter sense, and the structure and use of the sacred dwelling, comes out very strikingly in the description given of the tabernacle, which, after mentioning the different kinds of

material to be provided, begins first with the ark of the covenant — the repository, as it might equally be called, of the Decalogue, since it was merely a chest for containing the tables of the law, and as such was taken for the very seat or throne from which Jehovah manifested His presence and glory (Ex. xxv. 2, 9, 40 etc.). It was, therefore, the most sacred piece of furniture belonging to the Tabernacle — the centre from which all relating to men’s fellowship with God was to proceed, and to derive its essential character.116

The ark contained the treaty, the covenant law between God and man. The ark was thus the repository of the law and symbolized the law. The giving of the law was God’s grace to His covenant people, and His throne is that same law. The law sets forth the justice and righteousness of God, and it is His government declared in its details and principles. The central meaning of the ark is to be seen in terms of the law. “There can be no doubt — that the proper contents of the ark were the two tables of the covenant, and that to be the repository of these was the special purpose for which it was made.”117 The ark was not a normal chair: it was more obviously a chest, and the emphasis was on the contents of the chest as the covenant between God and man, as the basis of God’s rule, and the throne of His kingship. It does impossible violence to the kingship of Christ, therefore, to separate it from the law, or to see His work as the end of the law.

God did not make the altar His throne, because the altar, however important, set forth atonement, the beginning of new life for God’s people. The goal of atonement, of redemption, is the rule of God over a kingdom wholly subject to the law of the covenant, and joyfully so. This joyful submission to law was fully manifested in Jesus Christ, who declared, “Lo, I come to do thy will, O God” (Heb. 10:5-9), and who, as King, reigns in terms of a law He gave and He fulfilled.

The tabernacle thus has a central significance to biblical law: it declares God’s throne to be His law, and it declares that the throne of law governs the world.

It is truncated and defective faith which stops at the altar. The altar signifies redemption. It sets forth thus the rebirth of the believer. But rebirth for what? Without the dimension of law, life is denied the meaning and purpose of rebirth. Not surprisingly, altar-centered faith is heaven- centered and rapture-centered rather than God-centered. It seeks an escape from the world rather than the fulfilment of God’s calling and law-word in the world. It has no knowledge of the throne.