The walls of the court, or church-yard, were like the rest curtains or
hangings, made according to the appointment, ch. xxvii. 9, &c. This
represented the state of the Old-Testament church: it was a garden
enclosed; the worshippers were then confined to a little compass. But
the enclosure being of curtains only intimated that the confinement of
the church in one particular nation was not to be perpetual. The
dispensation itself was a tabernacle-dispensation, movable and mutable,
and in due time to be taken down and folded up, when the place of the
tent should be enlarged and its cords lengthened, to make room for the
Gentile world, as is foretold, Isa. liv. 2, 3. The church here on earth
is but the court of God's house, and happy they that tread these courts
and flourish in them; but through these courts we are passing to the
holy place above. Blessed are those that dwell in that house of God:
they well be still praising him. The enclosing of a court before the
tabernacle teaches us a gradual approach to God. The priests that
ministered must pass through the holy court, before they entered the
holy house. Thus before solemn ordinances there ought to be the
separated and enclosed court of a solemn preparation, in which we must
wash our hands, and so draw near with a true heart.