If you were an Israelite during the 40 years in the wilderness who wanted to go to the tabernacle, the outer court was certainly the first thing you would notice. A wall of fine white linen surrounding the tabernacle, this outer court separated the tabernacle from the rest of the world while representing its contents. In order to come to God, to offer your sacrifices, or make your offerings, you needed to see the outer court and follow its perimeter to pass through its singular gate.
The Structure of the Outer Court
From Exodus 27:9-19, we learn about the design and structure of the court.
The 100 cubit x 50 cubit (150 ft x 75 ft) outer court surrounded the tabernacle. On the north and south sides stood twenty bronze pillars supporting a long curtain made from fine woven linen. The east and west sides each had ten bronze pillars, but while the west side was a full fifty cubits of fine woven linen, the east side had a gate in the middle. This gate was made of blue, purple, and scarlet threads in fine woven linen.
(source: https://www.jesus-resurrection.info/image-files/xexodus-tabernacle.jpg.pagespeed.ic._5j2fGJj5p.jpg)
What Does the Outer Court Represent?
It’s all great and well to see what this part of the tabernacle was made of and what it looked like, but what does that have to do with me? As the first part of the tabernacle encountered by someone who wanted to approach God, the outer court represents the first stage of any Christian life: finding Christ.
The Fine Linen Curtains: The Humanity of Jesus Christ
Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.” And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.
(Revelation 19:7-8 NKJV)
One of the most prominent features of the outer court was the many, many feet of fine linen which stretched around the entire structure of the tabernacle. According to the Bible, fine linen is often associated with a person who shows a fine, righteous humanity (c.f. Rev. 19:8, Pro. 31:22, Gen. 41:42).
Jesus Christ, as God in the flesh, represented the highest degree of such a humanity. When He walked the earth, He embodied compassion and love for all kinds of people. From tax collectors to sinners, from lepers to pharisees, Jesus taught, cared for, healed, and forgave countless people who came to Him.
His Humanity in Us
Just as the outer court would be the first encounter a God-seeking man would find, so too is the humanity of the believers the first thing we encounter when seeking God today. Titus Chu writes:
Actually, not many of us believed in God because we saw God; rather, almost all of us believed in God because we saw a man. … The reason we believed in the Lord is because in the church we met a man, we shook hands with a man, spoke to a man, and got along with a man. However, he was not an earthly, coarse, or vulgar man, but a man possessing and expressing Christ’s human virtues.
– Titus Chu. The Tabernacle: The Pathway to Maturity pp. 62-63
This Humanity in Action
I have witnessed such an expression of Christ’s humanity in the saints many times throughout my life, but as I think of this type of experience in our Christian lives, I am reminded of one elderly couple I labored alongside for the gospel a couple of years ago. This couple lived near a college campus, so we would regularly invite students to their home for dinner and Bible reading. Many times we never got to the Bible reading.
You see, very quickly after enjoying the wonderful home-cooked dinner, we would find desserts brought out with cups of hot tea as the husband began to talk. He loved to tell stories of his life, of experiences he had with God, and about how God changed him from a crude and short-tempered man who could curse up a storm into the mild-mannered, smiling, and soft-tongued man who sat with us at the dinner table.
At the end of the evening, the wife of this couple would inform any newcomers of a simple rule she had: “I’m a hugger,” she would say gleefully, “so next time you will have to pay an entrance fee: one hug.” As a non-hugger, this seemed like such a strange requirement — one that I thought for sure would cause these students to run for the hills.
But that is not what happened! Much to my surprise, the students were quickly attracted back to this home. To the students, the home-cooked meals, the stories, and, yes, the hugs, became a welcoming token of love and comfort to every visitor. The rich humanity of Christ expressed by this couple was the most attractive thing in the world to them.
The more we encounter the fine humanity of believers, the more likely we are to find, or even to seek, the gateway to the Christian life.
The Gate: Our One Way to God
For the gate of the court there shall be a screen twenty cubits long, woven of blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and fine woven linen, made by a weaver.
(Exodus 27:16 NKJV)
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
(John 14:6 NKJV)
The fine linen curtains do not, by themselves, allow a person entrance to the tabernacle. That function is reserved for the gate. This gate is distinct from the rest of the linen because it has blue, purple, and scarlet threads woven throughout. This gate is the singular entrance to the dwelling place of God. Anyone who wanted to interact with God, to make offerings to Him, or to be where His glory was, needed to go through this one gate. There was no other way.
In the gate we see blue, the color of the sky, representing a heavenly nature. We also see purple, the color of royalty (c.f. John 19:2-3), showing a kingship. We even see scarlet, portraying redemption (c.f. Isaiah 1:18, Matthew 27:28, 1 Peter 2:24). Finally, we again see the fine linen, showing the highest human virtues.
Jesus Christ matches all of this. In John 1 we find that Jesus was in the beginning with God, and was Himself God — that is, He was heavenly (John 1:1-2). In Matthew we find that Jesus is King (Matt. 27:11). Throughout the New Testament we see that we were redeemed by His blood (Rom. 3:24, Eph. 1:7, Heb. 9:11-12). Jesus testified about Himself, saying, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). Jesus is the way to the Father. He is the gateway to every stage in our Christian life. We receive redemption and eternal life through Him, and through Him alone. As Peter testified in Acts, “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). There is no other way.
Conclusion
Every life starts somewhere. For the life of a Christian, it often starts by being drawn to the fine humanity of Christ as expressed in His saints. As these virtues attract us to men and women of Christ, these same men and women direct us to Jesus Christ as the entry point for a life with God. In Him we pass from stage 0 to stage 1 in our Christian life. Next week, we will talk about the bronze altar, the first piece of furniture which awaits every Christian after passing through the entrance gate.
How have you experienced the humanity of Jesus in the brothers and sisters around you? Was such a humanity the reason you came to faith in Jesus? If not, how did you come to Him? Share your story in the comments below!
