Exodus 26:15-30. The Boards of the Tabernacle.
THIS wonderful building had walls made of forty-eight upright boards, ten cubits high, which would have been at least fifteen feet high, and one and a half cubits wide, or twenty-seven inches wide. They were covered over with gold, and had two tenons on the bottom end. There were blocks of silver put into the ground for a foundation, and sockets, or holes in those silver blocks for the tenons to fit into, so each board had a solid foundation in the sand of the desert, or earth, according to the place the Israelites would be in their journey from Egypt to Canaan. Then there were pins or pegs of copper put into the ground, and cords were put over the top of the boards to those pegs on either side, so the boards were held standing up straight, and could therefore support the curtains and coverings which formed the roof, which we considered last week.
There were twenty boards on either side, and six boards on the west end, and one in each corner standing across the corners, and were bound to the corner boards of the sides and back by a ring at the top and bottom, so these bound the sides together.
Then there were three rings in each hoard, except the corner boards, for bars to be put through, so that all the boards were linked together.
We will now consider the lessons God has to teach in this wonderful building, which was His house.
It brings before us a type or picture of the present house of God, which is composed of all the believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. (Heb. 3:6.) Each board therefore would represent individual believers.
You will remember that the wood represented that which is human, and the gold that which is divine. The gold, in this instance, would bring before us God’s righteousness, which is divine, and is put upon all them that believe, so the boards were covered with gold. We read
“The righteousness of God. which is by faith of Jesus Christ, unto all and upon all them that believe.” Rom. 3:22.
Every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ is thus clothed in God’s righteousness, and is therefore fit for God’s presence.
“Of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” 1 Cor. 1:30. All these things we need, and by having Christ we have them all.
The sockets of silver were made of the atonement money which was given as a ransom for their souls, and therefore speaks to us of redemption. (Read Exod. 30:11-16.) Christ is not only our righteousness, but our redemption also, so we can say in the lines of a hymn,
“On Christ the solid rock I stand.
All other ground is sinking sand.”
Have you, dear reader, accepted Christ as your foundation to stand upon? Can you say, I have Him as my righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption”?
ML 05/28/1922