Exodus 27:17, commentary and pictures

All the pillars around the court were to be joined with silver, with their hooks of silver and their bases of brass, unlike the gold-covered pillars at the entrance of the tabernacle itself. They upheld an enclosure of fine-twined linen hangings, the pillars standing five cubits high and five cubits apart to form a continuous court fifty by one hundred cubits with its twenty-cubit gate on the east. This fitting belonged to the full instructions for the sanctuary and its court given to Moses during his forty days on the mount in Exodus 25-31 and carried out in Exodus 35-40, to be made exactly after the pattern shown him and not left to human fancy. As part of that earthly sanctuary it served as a type, pattern and shadow of the heavenly sanctuary and of Christ's priestly work, setting forth God's plan for dwelling among His people and dealing with sin. Its linen and its gate show the way to God, for the fine linen represents the righteousness of the saints received only through Christ, and coming through the gate by the altar and the laver means coming to the heavenly sanctuary through Christ as the door, the slain sin-offering, and the living Word that cleanses from sin.

Court Construction Details

Exodus 27:17 belongs to the detailed instructions for building the sanctuary and its court that God gave to Moses during his forty days and nights stay in the mount, given along with the tables of stone to the ransomed people bound to Jehovah by solemn covenant as a peculiar treasure, a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation, to preserve them and to provide a system of legal ordinances for guidance. Those instructions are recorded chiefly in Exodus 25-30 or Exodus 25-31 and carried out in Exodus 35-40, with the very minute description in Exodus 25-40 made exactly according to the pattern shown in the mount, and the sanctuary afterward built and set up with each part made according to God's instructions. Its place among these detailed directions after Israel's covenant was ratified shows God's care for what pertains to worship, including provision for the place where the stone tablets of the law would be kept. They included ceremonial requirements and the law of ordinances distinct from the Ten Commandments spoken by God at Sinai.

Because of that sacred character the building was not left to man's fancy in size or manner, but God gave explicit instructions and showed the pattern after which it was to be made, and endowed special ones with wisdom to carry it out, and the instructions were not to be disregarded under penalty of death. The object of the building commanded on the mount was that God might dwell among Israel, with His glory remaining there and their worship centering there and the priests ministering in His presence. These details of pillars joined with silver fillets, with silver hooks and bronze sockets, belong to the sanctuary and its court made according to the pattern shown to Moses, which is a pattern of the heavenly temple with its two holy places.

The verse describes the fittings of the court around the tabernacle as pillars joined or filleted with silver, their hooks of silver, and their sockets or bases of brass or bronze. These details distinguish the court's fittings from the gold-covered pillars at the tabernacle entrance. The court was enclosed by hangings or canvas screens of fine-twined linen suspended from pillars of brass five cubits in height, standing at regular intervals five cubits apart. The linen curtain was about five cubits wide and five cubits or about seven and a half to about nine feet high, fastened to silver hooks, and the enclosure was continuous except on the eastern side.

The court formed a double square fifty by one hundred cubits, or seventy-five by one hundred and fifty feet, one hundred cubits in length, fifty in breadth, and five cubits in height. On the east end was an entrance gate twenty cubits wide, corresponding to the door of the tabernacle on the east in both the sanctuary Moses built and the temple Solomon built, enclosed with curtains of fine-twined linen of the most gorgeous colors. The tabernacle stood nearer the west end, leaving seventy-five feet of open space at the east where the altar of burnt offerings stood and offerings were brought. All the important dimensions of the court and tabernacle were five cubits or some multiple of five cubits, constructed with strict regard to proportion and beauty and of such material as would impress every beholder with the importance of these objects and the purity and sacredness of the worship connected therewith.

One description gives the enclosure as one hundred cubits by fifty cubits, surrounded by brass pillars set in sockets of silver, five cubits apart, on which was hung a curtain of fine twined linen five cubits wide, with the gate on the east side twenty cubits wide. Another description gives the court surrounding the sanctuary as one hundred and fifty feet wide and three hundred feet long, with its entrance facing east.

Sanctuary Meaning and Typology

Sanctuary means a sacred or holy place, commanded to be built so that God might dwell among Israel, with His glory remaining there and their worship centering there and the priests ministering in His presence. That wilderness tabernacle erected at God's command, and Solomon's temple that took the place of the portable tabernacle, was the center of God's worship on earth, with all worship revolving around the holy of holies where the law rested with the mercy-seat over it, including provision for the place where the stone tablets would be kept. Its place among the detailed directions for the tabernacle and its furniture given during the forty days in the mount, recorded in Exodus 25-30 and carried out in Exodus 35-40 for the ransomed people bound by solemn covenant to be preserved as a peculiar treasure, a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation with a system of legal ordinances for guidance, shows God's care for what pertains to worship.

The verse belongs to the law given through Moses, which includes not only the Ten Commandments but also statutes and judgments, civil regulations, and laws about sacrifices, offerings, conduct, health, ceremonies, and morals. Its inclusion places the directions for the tabernacle court among the ceremonial requirements and the law of ordinances written out after the moral law, distinct from the Ten Commandments spoken by God at Sinai and connected with the first covenant and its ordinances of divine service. That ancient ministration of the tabernacle built for ministration involving sacrifices and offerings is called a ministration of death, and its sacrificial service ended when Christ came and died once for all. Its instructions about offerings, sacrifices, and types help trace the substance of the new dispensation from the shadows of the old.

The exact material and construction instructions, with courtyard pillars joined with silver and fitted with silver hooks and set in brass sockets, formed part of the earthly or worldly sanctuary that served as a type, pattern, and shadow of the heavenly sanctuary and temple with its two holy places and of Christ's priestly work, though earthly things could not represent heavenly things perfectly. The full description in Exodus 25 through the end of Exodus, part of God's explicit instructions in Exodus 25-31 for building the sanctuary and preparing its services and made according to the pattern shown in the mount, gives the exact pattern of the atoning work taught through Israel's ceremonies for the errors of the people. The sanctuary so commanded is an object-lesson let down upon earth setting forth God's plan of government and how He deals with those who sought to dethrone Him, and the plan devised from eternity for salvation from sin, executed by Christ as priest upon the throne, still King while executing the priest's office in dealing with sinners. It was made known because God's people are so intimately related to the sanctuary that they cooperate with God in His work through Christ in the sanctuary, the divine and the human cooperating at every step, that He may dwell among them.

The court's fine linen represents the righteousness of the saints, which they can receive only through Christ who is their righteousness. The court with its gate on the east end, corresponding to the door of the tabernacle on the east in both the sanctuary Moses built and the temple Solomon built, shows the way the people came to the sanctuary where God dwelt between the cherubim, through the gate of the court and by the altar of burnt offering and the laver. This means coming to the heavenly sanctuary where God dwells through Christ as the door, as the sin-offering slain at the altar, and as the living Word by which cleansing from sin comes. In this context the hanging at the court entrance surrounding the tabernacle is identified as one of the sanctuary's veils, called masak in Hebrew and kalumma in the Septuagint. The instruction about God's sanctuary in Exodus 27 to 29 calls for examining what one's attitude of heart toward God's sanctuary is.