The tabernacle and Christ

The Outer Court

In the tabernacle of Moses · Exodus 25 to 40 · The court and the gate

The outer court was the large fenced enclosure around the tabernacle, screened by white linen hangings and entered by a single wide gate on the east. It was the place where the people brought their offerings and where the altar and laver stood. Its one gate quietly teaches what Jesus later said plainly, that he is the door, and that there is one way into the presence of God.

And thou shalt make the court of the tabernacle: for the south side southward there shall be hangings for the court of fine twined linen of an hundred cubits long for one side:Exodus 27:9 (KJV)

What the outer court was

The court was a rectangle about a hundred cubits long and fifty broad, roughly a hundred and fifty feet by seventy-five, fenced with hangings of fine twined linen five cubits high, hung on sixty pillars set in sockets of brass. The length of the court shall be an hundred cubits, and the breadth fifty every where, and the height five cubits of fine twined linen. Within this white wall stood the bronze altar and the bronze laver, and at the far end the tent of meeting itself.

The linen wall was too high to see over and too plain to climb, a barrier of dazzling white marking off the holy ground from the common camp. It said, in cloth, that God is holy and set apart, and that a sinner does not simply wander into his presence. Yet the same wall had an opening.

The one gate

There was exactly one way in. On the east side hung a gate twenty cubits wide, made of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen, wrought with needlework, the same colors as the veil and the tent, marking it out from the plain white of the surrounding hangings. It was wide, so that no one who wished to come was crowded out, and it was the only gate, so that everyone who came, came the same way.

For Israel this was a daily, practical thing. A worshiper leading a lamb to be offered did not choose his own approach or invent his own entrance. He came to the appointed gate, and through it to the altar. The whole arrangement taught that access to God is real but not arbitrary; it is by grace, and by the way God provides.

How it points to Christ

Here honesty matters. The New Testament does not single out the tabernacle gate and say, this is Christ, in so many words. But Jesus took up exactly this picture when he said, I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and again, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. The one wide gate in the linen wall is a fitting and faithful illustration of that truth, and Christians have long read it so.

The gate's colors reach forward as well. Blue, purple, scarlet, and white linen appear again in the veil and the priestly garments, and readers across the centuries have seen in them heaven, royalty, sacrifice, and righteousness, all met in Jesus, though Scripture does not assign each color a fixed meaning, so we hold such readings gently. What is certain is the shape of the truth: one holy God, one appointed way in, freely open to all who will come. The court that made room for the whole nation to draw near, yet only by the gate God set, is a true picture of the Savior who says, whosoever will, and also, no man cometh but by me.

The white wall and the open gate

Two things struck anyone who came near the court: the dazzling white of the linen wall, and the single colored gate that broke it. The white spoke of a righteousness the worshiper did not have and could not climb over. Five cubits high, the hangings stood taller than a man, plain, seamless, and unbroken, a wall of purity around the dwelling of a holy God. Without a word it said that God is righteous and that sinners cannot simply stroll into his presence on their own terms.

And yet the wall was not endless. The one wide and welcoming gate was mercy set into the righteousness. It did not lower the wall or dim its whiteness; it opened a way through. So the court held together the two things a sinner most needs to know: that God is holy, and that God has made a way. Neither truth cancelled the other. The righteousness stood unbroken all around, and the door stood open, wide enough for a whole nation to enter.

This is exactly the shape of the gospel. In Christ God does not pretend the wall is not there; his righteousness is fully upheld at the cross. But in Christ the way through is thrown open to all who will come, so that God is just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. The court fenced with white and pierced by one gate is a standing picture of a salvation that is at once perfectly holy and freely offered.

Why the court still speaks

The outer court reminds us that coming to God is neither impossible nor casual. There are those who imagine the wall is all there is, that God is too holy and too far to be reached, and to them the gate says, there is a way, come. And there are those who imagine there is no wall at all, that any road leads home, and to them the single gate says, there is one way, and it is Christ. The court answers both the despairing and the careless in the same design.

To stand at the gate is already to have begun. The worshiper who came in did not have to be clean before he entered; he came in order to be made clean, bringing his offering to the altar just inside. So the invitation of the court is the invitation of the gospel: come as you are, but come by the door God has set. Whosoever will may come, and no one who comes by Christ is ever turned away.

Jesus' words I am the door and I am the way (John 10:9; 14:6) are explicit; the tabernacle gate is not named in the New Testament as a type of Christ, so reading it as a picture of him is a faithful devotional reflection grounded in his own words, not a direct claim of Scripture. The meanings sometimes assigned to the four colors are traditional and are held loosely here.

Related: The bronze altar · The tabernacle overview · Who is Jesus? · The whole tabernacle