Bible Talks: The Boards and the Sockets of the Tabernacle

From: Messages of God's Love: 1970

• 3 min. read • grade level: 9

Exodus 26:19-30¹⁹And 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. ²⁵And they shall be eight boards, and their sockets of silver, sixteen sockets; two sockets under one board, and two sockets under another board. ²⁶And thou shalt make bars of shittim wood; five for the boards of the one side of the tabernacle, ²⁷And five bars for the boards of the other side of the tabernacle, and five bars for the boards of the side of the tabernacle, for the two sides westward. ²⁸And the middle bar in the midst of the boards shall reach from end to end. ²⁹And 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. ³⁰And thou shalt rear up the tabernacle according to the fashion thereof which was showed thee in the mount. (Exodus 26:19‑30)

THE BOARDS of the tabernacle stood upright, but they were not driven into the ground. At the bottom of each board were two tenons which fitted into two sockets or blocks of silver. If you turn to Exodus 30:12-16¹²When thou takest 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 thou numberest them; that there be no plague among them, when thou numberest them. ¹³This they shall give, every one that passeth 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. ¹⁴Every one that passeth among them that are numbered, from twenty years old and above, shall give an offering unto the Lord. ¹⁵The 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. ¹⁶And 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. (Exodus 30:12‑16), and then chapter 38: 25-28, you will see where the silver of which the sockets were made came from. When the people were numbered, every man was to give a half shekel of silver as a ransom for his soul unto the Lord. The rich must give the same as the poor, and this “atonement money” was set apart for the service of the tabernacle. The silver sockets, being made of the ransom money, then speak of atonement, of the blood of Christ, which He gave as a ransom for many. “For it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.” Lev. 17:11¹¹For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul. (Leviticus 17:11).

This ransom money amounted to something over 100 talents of silver. Out of the talents one hundred sockets were cast for the sanctuary, “a talent for a socket.” Since silver speaks of redemption, so we have the blessed and precious truth that each believer stands before God on the ground of redemption, the purchase price being the blood of Jesus.

The Apostle Peter in writing to Christians speaks of the ransom money paid by the Israelites, and reminds them how much greater the cost by which they had been redeemed. “Ye know ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold... but with the precious blood of Christ, as of Lamb without blemish and without spot.” 1 Pet. 1:18,19¹⁸Forasmuch 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; ¹⁹But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: (1 Peter 1:18‑19).

There were one hundred of the sockets, that is, ten times ten. They then would tell us how the blood Christ, represented by the silver, fully met our responsibility toward God, has answered to all His claim and cleared us completely and forever.

Surely the remembrance of the great price paid for our redemption should make all of us who are the children of God feel how much we owe our Redeemer, and we ought to live only to please and serve Him.

“To live as those

Who bear a blood-bought name

As those who fear but grieving Him;

And know no other shame.”

To keep the boards from falling’ out of the sockets, they were fastened together on both sides and at the end by five bars of wood covered with gold, passing through golden rings. The boards were coupled at the corners by rings. Since the ring is a symbol of security, and is endless, and since the bars were to strengthen and secure the framework, perhaps we have here a type of the eternal security of the believer, as also of the Church. Some also see in the five bars a type of the five gifts to the Church, given “for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.” (Eph. 4:11-13¹¹And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; ¹²For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: ¹³Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: (Ephesians 4:11‑13)).

ML-07/19/1970

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