Exodus — Chapter 25

The Lord commands Moses to take a collection for the Tabernacle. Lapide opens his treatment of Exodus 25-31 by declaring that the Tabernacle is the richest typological figure in the entire Pentateuch. Following Origen (Hom. in Ex. IX), Clement of Alexandria, and Hugh of St. Victor, he teaches that the Tabernacle is a figure of (1) the whole Church, (2) the individual soul, (3) the Body of Christ, and (4) the cosmos. Every material, measurement, and furnishing has mystical significance. The voluntary offering required of the Israelites (vers. 2: \"of every man that offereth of his own accord\") typifies the free gift of self that God requires of every member of the Church.

Of every man that offereth of his own accord, you shall take the firstfruits. The Tabernacle was built entirely from voluntary offerings. Lapide notes that God could have provided the materials miraculously, as He provided the manna—but He chose to involve the people in the building of His dwelling. This is the principle of co-operation: God desires the free participation of rational creatures in His works. He applies this to the construction of the Church: every soul is invited to contribute its gifts, no matter how small.

They shall make me a sanctuary, and I will dwell in the midst of them. This is God's stated purpose for the entire Tabernacle construction: not architectural grandeur but divine indwelling. Lapide notes that the divine decision to dwell in a house made with human hands descends from this first Tabernacle through Solomon's Temple to the Incarnation (the Word pitching His tent, Jn. 1:14) and to the Eucharistic tabernacle on every Catholic altar. He cites Aquinas (III, q. 73, a. 3): the Eucharist is the culmination of the Incarnation, maintaining the real presence of the incarnate God among His people until the end of time.

They shall make an ark of setim wood: two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof, and a cubit and a half the height thereof. Lapide gives a full allegorical treatment of the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark is above all a figure of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who bore the divine Word in her womb as the Ark bore the Law; this interpretation is ancient and universal (Origen, Chrysostom, Augustine). The Ark is also a figure of Christ Himself, in whom divinity and humanity are perfectly united, as the Ark united the divine Law with human hands; and of the sacred Scripture, wherein the divine Word dwells in human language.

Thou shalt make also a propitiatory of the purest gold. The propitiatory (mercy seat, kapporeth) was the golden cover of the Ark, over which the Cherubim spread their wings and between which God spoke. Lapide identifies it as the supreme figure of Christ the Mediator: propitiatorem posuerunt Deum in Christo Jesu (Rom. 3:25). Christ is the mercyseat—it is through His sacrifice that God's justice is propitiated and His mercy made accessible to sinners. He cites Aquinas (III, q. 48, a. 2): the Atonement is both satisfaction and propitiation.

Thou shalt make also two cherubims of beaten gold, on the two sides of the oracle. The two cherubim facing each other over the mercy seat, with wings spread, are for Lapide a figure of the two Testaments facing each other, both looking toward Christ the Mediator who lies between them; or of the two natures (divine and human) of Christ united in the one Person; or of justice and mercy reconciled in the redemption. He cites Origen and Augustine, with Aquinas (III, q. 48) on the reconciliation of justice and mercy in the Atonement.

Thou shalt set upon the table loaves of proposition. The twelve loaves of proposition (panis propositionis) placed on the golden table in the Tabernacle, renewed every Sabbath, are a figure of the Eucharist. Lapide cites Origen (Hom. in Lev.): as the loaves were presented continually before the Face of God, so the Eucharistic sacrifice is offered daily in the Church as a continual presence before the Face of the Father. The twelve loaves typify the twelve apostles and the universal Church's offering.

Thou shalt make also a candlestick of beaten gold. The Golden Menorah with its seven branches is for Lapide a figure of the sevenfold Holy Spirit (Is. 11:2-3; Apoc. 1:4) and also of the Church illuminating the world with the seven gifts of the Spirit. The central shaft represents Christ; the six branches are the six orders of the faithful (apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers, and the baptized people). The almond blossoms on the branches signify the Resurrection, since the almond is the first tree to flower, conquering winter by anticipation.

Look and make them after the pattern, which was shewn thee in the mount. This verse is cited by the Letter to the Hebrews (8:5) as proof that the entire Mosaic liturgy was a \"shadow and image\" of the heavenly reality. Lapide develops this: the Tabernacle was not invented by human ingenuity but revealed from heaven; it is a copy of the divine liturgy perpetually celebrated before God's throne. The Christian liturgy is not a copy of the Tabernacle but the fulfillment of the heavenly reality of which the Tabernacle was itself a copy.