The Tabernacle, The Framework Of The Tabernacle, Exodus 26:18-24, Part 3 - Lesson 35

We continue our study of the boards surrounding the Most Holy and Holy Place of the Tabernacle.

We have said these boards are like soldiers at attention facing obediently into the place where God is manifested and where His character is manifested in the Ark of the Covenant, the Mercy Seat, the Table of Showbread, the Candlestick and the Table of Incense.

These boards also typify the body of Christ surrounding the head of Christ shown in the Holy places.

Now the actual Framework of the Tabernacle consisted of 48 of these 10 cubit tall Boards, 20 Boards for the South Side, 20 Boards for the North Side, 6 Boards for the West Side, 2 Boards for the corners on the West end giving a total of 48 boards.

There were no boards on the east end, that end being the entrance through the first veil, into the Holy Place.

Exodus 26:18-24 defines the required boards, for as in everything about the tabernacle God makes no allowance for deviation from his very specific plans.

In this passage as in many other passages He uses the words "Thou shalt."

Now the word "shalt" allows no room for deviation.

It is a command word, it is not a word like "may" that we use "as you may" meaning you have room to "may not."

Shalt is not in vogue in this "doing your own thing age", but God has no "doing your own thing age."

For God majors in "Thou shalts" and "Thou Shalt nots."

Everything in God’s creation obeys God’s "Thou shalts" and "Thou Shalt nots" except man whom God declared the sinner because of disobedience to His "Thou shalts" and His "Thou shalt nots."

We live in an age where the very idea of authority is questioned and if authority is questioned were does obedience come in.

Of course obedience goes away as authority goes away.

We sacrifice authority in favor of persuasion.

This is Satan’s quest for it is against God.

But God’s "Thou shalts" and "Thou shalt nots" still overrule.

We hear this "Thou Shalt" in God’s orders to Moses concerning the construction of the boards.

And thou shalt make the boards for the tabernacle, twenty boards on the south side southward. ¹⁹And thou shalt make forty sockets of silver under the twenty boards; two sockets under one board for his two tenons, and two sockets under another board for his two tenons. ²⁰And for the second side of the tabernacle on the north side there shall be twenty boards: ²¹And their forty sockets of silver; two sockets under one board, and two sockets under another board. ²²And for the sides of the tabernacle westward thou shalt make six boards. ²³And two boards shalt thou make for the corners of the tabernacle in the two sides. ²⁴And they shall be coupled together beneath, and they shall be coupled together above the head of it unto one ring: thus shall it be for them both; they shall be for the two corners.

These 48 Boards formed one tabernacle.

In the number 48 we have the factors 4 X 12.

Four is the number of the earth and four also speaks of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ recorded in four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, the message of which is commanded to go into all the world.

The Gospel is to reach to the four corners of the earth.

There were twelve tribes of Israel.

There were TWELVE loaves in the Table of Showbread.

The Church is built upon the foundation of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

There are twelve foundations in the heavenly Jerusalem, and twelve gates and twelve pearls with walls 12 times 12 cubits.

There were two corner boards of special construction and they speak to us of Christ who is the Cornerstone (Psalms 118:22; Isaiah 28:16).

The Corner boards were to give stability to the Tabernacle for they were instrumental in squaring off the building and giving it its alignment.

Even so Christ and His Apostles were that which gave that initial stability to the early Church.

They laid the foundation and got the building off the ground on the proper alignment being firmly laid in God's Word.

Coupling rings, which were to be beneath and above the Corner Boards, supported the Corner Boards.

These rings would give added rigidity to the Framework and would be instrumental in keeping the Boards from leaning.

These rings were very important to the overall strength of the Framework, and yet, they were virtually unseen when the Tabernacle was fully erected.

A ring always speaks to us of the eternal nature of God.

The unseen binding ring would best apply to the ministry of the Holy Spirit who is unseen and yet BINDS believers (Boards) together to make up the ONE BODY, the ONE BUILDING, of CHRIST.

Now every Board was to be overlaid with pure gold.

Exodus 26:29,  And thou shalt overlay the boards with gold, and make their rings of gold for places for the bars: and thou shalt overlay the bars with gold.

Again, the same thought as in many other articles of furniture in the Tabernacle, which were made of shittim wood overlaid with gold, that deity overlaid humanity in CHRIST AND also the CHURCH.

Jesus is the God-man.

The man of heavenly gold, the man of earthly wood.

He received the wood, or human nature from His mother Mary, making Him the Son of Man.

He receives the gold or Divine nature from His heavenly Father, GOD, making him the SON OF GOD.

The Boards overlaid with gold also point to the believer (wood) who is standing IN CHRIST.

The believer is cut off from the old desert life of sin, his natural glory is stripped off, he is planed, shaped and fashioned to God's pattern and measurements.

Every time you peel an orange, every time you pare a fruit or cut a vegetable and discard much of it, you are reminded of God’s pruning in the life of His children.

He desires only the fruit, He desires only that which pleases Him, all else of your life is discarded as He aims you toward conformance to His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Only those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ can bear fruit and those who believe not will never bear fruit and are to be totally discarded as chafe.

In CHRIST we are BORN AGAIN of the incorruptible seed of the Word of God (1 Peter 1:4, 23).

And as such we become PARTAKERS, not imitators of the DIVINE NATURE (2 Peter 1:4) and that takes divine pruning.

1 Peter 1:4,23,  To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fades not away, reserved in heaven for you; Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which lives and abides for ever.

2 Peter 1:4,  Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

That corruption has been pared, has been pruned, has been removed not by your efforts but by divine efforts for only the divine can prune to His satisfaction.

Now for each of the 48 Boards, there were two sockets of silver.

40 Sockets for the 20 Boards on the North Side, 40 Sockets for the 20 Boards on the South Side, 16 Sockets for the 8 Boards on the West Side bringing a total of 96 Sockets in all.

The sockets were made of SILVER.

Where the silver came from is answered in Exodus 30:11-16 where Moses instructed every man who was over the age of 20 to bring a half shekel of silver to the Lord.

This half shekel was to be after the shekel of the sanctuary, which was equal to 20 gerahs.

This meant that each half shekel was 10 gerahs.

This was God's standard and points to the 10 Commandments, God's Divine Standard of the LAW.

This money was to be ATONEMENT MONEY for the souls of the people for they were brought out of Egypt by the Lord.

The poor as well as the rich were to pay the same amount for himself.

None could pay for another.

The soul had to be redeemed with silver, and as it was, God promised to prevent plagues from coming upon them.

Exodus 30:11-16,  And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, [12] When you take the sum of the children of Israel after their number, then shall they give every man a ransom for his soul unto the Lord, when you number them; that there be no plague among them, when you number them. [13] This they shall give, every one that passes among them that are numbered, half a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary: (a shekel is twenty gerahs:) an half shekel shall be the offering of the Lord. [14] Every one that passes among them that are numbered, from twenty years old and above, shall give an offering unto the Lord. [15] The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel, when they give an offering unto the Lord, to make an atonement for your souls. [16] And thou shalt take the atonement money of the children of Israel, and shalt appoint it for the service of the tabernacle of the congregation; that it may be a memorial unto the children of Israel before the Lord, to make an atonement for your souls.

Psalm 49:7-8,  None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him: [8] (For the redemption of their soul is precious, and it ceases for ever:)

Silver always speaks of atonement and redemption.

It also speaks of ransom money and the price of a soul.

Jesus was sold for 30 pieces of silver.

Matthew 26:15,  And said unto them, ‘What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you?’ And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver.

Peter interprets this symbol for us in the New Covenant when he writes:

1 Peter 1:18-21,  Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; [19] But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: [20] Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, [21] Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.

The silver atonement of the Old Covenant becomes the BLOOD atonement of the New Covenant (1 John 1:6-7).

The Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ under the New Covenant takes the place of the "ransom money" that was established under the Mosaic Covenant and the Tabernacle God ordained Moses and the nation to build.

His BLOOD is our atonement, our ransom, our redemption and the price for our soul.

This is the price by which we were bought.

This is the STANDARD that God has set for our redemption.

The Bible says that Jesus came to minister and give HIS LIFE A RANSOM for many."

That word ransom has its root meaning in this Old Covenant Tabernacle where the boards were placed in SILVER SOCKETS.

We have been placed into HIS BODY through the precious blood of His sufferings on Calvary.

This is God's standard and all must meet this standard.

None can pay for another to get into the Kingdom of God’s Son.

No one can be numbered in the TRUE CHURCH and with the SAINTS unless they are redeemed with this price.

Calvary is the silver mine, the vein of silver to which we all have access that we might obtain the price of atonement.

As we find our place in CHRIST, God's judgment is stayed off our lives and eternal souls.

What a glorious picture of our Redeemer in these boards.

What a glorious thought to see how God unfolded His great plan of redemption inside this Tabernacle of Moses.

Another thought seen here in the silver is found in relation to the result of the numbering of the people.

In this numbering there were found to be 603,550 persons.

Exodus 38:25-28,  And the silver of them that were numbered of the congregation was an hundred talents, and a thousand seven hundred and threescore and fifteen shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary: ²⁶A bekah for every man, that is, half a shekel, after the shekel of the sanctuary, for every one that went to be numbered, from twenty years old and upward, for six hundred thousand and three thousand and five hundred and fifty men. ²⁷And of the hundred talents of silver were cast the sockets of the sanctuary, and the sockets of the veil; an hundred sockets of the hundred talents, a talent for a socket. ²⁸And of the thousand seven hundred seventy and five shekels he made hooks for the pillars, and overlaid their chapiters, and filleted them.

Now 603,550 people results in a collection of 301,775 shekels of silver that were collected from this group of people, one half shekel from each person.

This amount of silver results in 100 talents plus a remainder of 1775 shekels, for each talent was composed of 3000 shekels.

3000 into 301,775 shekels results in 100 talents with a remainder of 1775 shekels.

We are told that each socket supporting the boards used up one talent for the sockets so the boards used up 96 of the 100 talents of silver.

In addition there were four Sockets needed for the four pillars that upheld the veil.

So all of the silver used for atonement was used up in the sockets with the exception of 1775 shekels which was set aside for the hooks, chapiters and the connecting rods in the pillars of the Outer Court.

If each Socket was comprised of 3,000 shekels, then each Socket represented the redemption price of 6,000 souls, for each board had two sockets.

Symbolically each Board was, therefore, upheld by 12,000 redeemed Israelites.

In the book of Revelation, 12,000 of each tribe of ISRAEL are redeemed from the earth to go forth and spread the word of the Lord during the Great Tribulation.

Revelation 7:1-8,  And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree. [2] And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, [3] Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. [4] And I heard the number of them, which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel. [5] Of the tribe of Judah were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Reuben were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Gad were sealed twelve thousand. [6] Of the tribe of Aser were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Nepthalim were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Manassas were sealed twelve thousand. [7] Of the tribe of Simeon were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Levi were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Issachar were sealed twelve thousand. [8] Of the tribe of Zebulon were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Joseph were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Benjamin were sealed twelve thousand.

These sockets were the very FOUNDATION of the Tabernacle.

The Boards each had TWO TENONS  (two hands or feet) by which they stood in the silver Sockets.

The Sockets of silver were the foundation or standing place for these boards.

No Board had its feet in the desert sands of this world, but each stood in redemption metal.

We as believers must never forget our salvation and redemption does not hinge on the world's system or the world's economy.

We are standing upon the BLOOD FOUNDATION of the LORD JESUS CHRIST.

I Corinthians 3:11,  For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

All other foundations are as sinking sands.

Even as Moses laid the foundation of silver and atonement for the Old Covenant Tabernacle, so the Apostle Paul lays the proper foundation of Blood-Atonement for the New Covenant Church.

Matthew 7:24-29,  Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: [25] And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. [26] And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: [27] And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it. [28] And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine: [29] For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.