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. 3:66But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end. (Hebrews 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. 3:2222Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: (Romans 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. 1:3030But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: (1 Corinthians 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. 30:11-1611And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 12When 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 30:11‑16).) 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”?