Tabernacle Studies Part 6.
The ten curtains. Exodus 33:18-23; 34:5-8, 28; Matthew 5:17,18; John 1:14-18.

The inner curtain was made up of two sets of five smaller curtains, joined by golden taches = means of at-tach-ment.
Only when the word ten is linked with the word commandments is the word “dabar” used for commandments.
“Dabar” is the equivalent to the Greek word “logos”, the title given to Christ by John.
Logos = a statement, theme, topic, not a single word.
So each of the ten commandments is a statement about God as well as a command. (First, He is the only true God; Second, He deserves undivided loyalty; Third, His name is too worthy to be devalued; Fourth, He is Creator, and seeks the best interests of His creatures; Fifth, He is the archetypal Father; Sixth, He is the Living God; Seventh, He is holy; Eighth, He is a giving God; Ninth, He gives faithful testimony; Tenth, He gives contentment).
Since the “Logos” became flesh and tabernacled, and since logos = dabar, we can say that each small curtain represents a command of the law, and Christ not only kept that command, but expounded it by His life in the flesh, and so revealed God. But He did it in grace and truth, in curtain-like gentleness, not stone-like harshness.

Isaiah 42:21 prophesied that the Messiah would “magnify the law and make it honourable”, and this He did. He magnified it by keeping it perfectly; He made it honourable by clearing away the misunderstandings about it caused by those who had made the law of no effect by their tradition, Matthew 15:6.

We learn from Matthew 5:17 that Christ did not come to destroy the Law, but to fulfil it.
The rabbis said to “fulfil the law” means two things:
To fully obey it.
To fully explain it. The Lord did both, and displayed God as He did so.
The law was written on two tables of stone, for it had a God-ward and man-ward side. The lawyer was commended for knowing that “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God…love thy neighbour as thyself” summed up the law, Luke 10:25-28.
Just as the two sets of five were joined by golden hooks, so Christ held together both aspects of the Law. His love to God and His love for men was in perfect proportion.

Christ fully expressed God in grace and truth. The first representative of the law could not see the glory of God fully; the last representative of the law, (John the Baptist), declares that Christ is superior. We see the full glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, 2 Corinthians 4:6.

Grace and truth gloriously displayed.
John 1:14. The Word…only begotten Son…beheld His glory…full of grace and truth- the way the glory of God was made known.
God is love, and hence shows grace.
God is light, and hence reveals truth.
The only-begotten Son shares Divine life, and therefore manifests the grace and truth of God.

Grace and truth received:
1:16 And of His fulness have all we received- those born again receive from this full reserve of grace and truth, and further grace corresponding to the grace we need. All believers have it- it is not earned.

Grace and truth maintained:
1:17 Law was given by Moses- he handed over tables of stone. Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ- He fully expressed both, and maintains them still.

1:18 No man hath seen God at any time- neither Moses or Aaron could see God.
The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him- As Son He shares Divine life, as one in the bosom of the Father, He declares Divine secrets.