19. Our Earthly Tabernacle (The Life of Moses, 385A-388
FROM GLORY TO GLORY
tion. The Apostle has explained the mystery here when he tells us: Whom God hath proposed as to be a propitiation
(Rom. 3.25) for our sins.
By the altar of sacrifices and the altar of incense I under stand the perpetual adoration which all the heavenly crea tures offer within this Tabernacle. For he tells us that not only those on earth and under the earth, but the tongues of all those who are in heaven (Phil. 2.10) render homage to Him Who is the beginning of all things. This is the sacrifice that is agreeable to God, the fruit of lips (Hebr. 13.15), as the Apostle tells us, and the fragrance of prayer.
And even if we should see here skins dyed red and woven hair (Exod. 25.4-5), this will not destroy the chain of our contemplation. For the prophetic vision, which enjoys an insight into things divine, will see a suggestion, in the details mentioned, of the foreshadowing of our Savior's passion. Red symbolizes blood, and the hair His death. For the hair on the body is incapable of sensation; hence it is an excellent symbol of death.
19. Our Earthly Tabernacle (The Life of Moses, 385A-388 A; ed. Danielou, ii. 184-188) These then are the realities the prophet sees when he pene trates the details of the heavenly Tabernacle. Let us now consider the earthly tabernacle. Seeing that Paul in many places identifies the Church with Christ, we may well under stand the servants of the divine mystery, which the Word calls the pillars of the Church (Gal. 2.9), as the Apostles, the teachers and the prophets. For it is not only Peter, John
GREGORY OF NYSSA
and James who are pillars of the Church, and not only is John the Baptist a burning light (John 6.35), but all those are rightly called pillars and lights who support upon themselves the burden of the Church and have become lamps by their labors. You are the light of the world, says our Lord to his
Apostles (Matth. 5.14). And the divine Apostle orders others, too, to become pillars when he says: Be ye steadfast and un movable (1 Cor. 15.58). Indeed he fashioned Timothy into an excellent pillar when he made him, as he tells us him self, the pillar and ground of truth (1 Tim. 3.15).
In this Tabernacle we see too the sacrifice of praise and the incense of prayer being constantly offered from dawn to dusk. The great David helps us to understand this when he offers the incense of his prayer in an odor of sweetness to the Lord, accomplishing his sacrificial act in the lifting up of his hands (Ps. 140.2).
In hearing the lavers we can surely see all those who have been cleansed of the dirt of their sins in the mystical waters.
John was such a laver, washing in the Jordan with the bap tism of repentence; and Peter, too, when he led three thou sand down into the water at the same time (Acts 2.41);
Philip was a laver for the servant of Candace (Acts 8.27) ;27 for all of these were channels of grace for those who shared in this gift.
Again, the courts which surround the Tabernacle, because of their interconnection, may rightly be interpreted as a symbol of the harmony of the faithful in peace and charity
(Acts 4.32). And thus does David interpret it, saying: Who hath placed peace in thy borders (Ps. 147.14).28
The skins dyed red and the coverings of hair for the ornamentation of the temple could well be taken as signify ing the mortification of the sinful flesh (and this is the