This had better be understood ere with uncovered head and unshod feet we enter it. A full and accurate description is furnished us in chaps. 26, and 36. of Exodus. It stood on the west side of the Court in a line with the gate. The solid framework was composed of forty-eight boards, twenty north, twenty south, six west, with a corner board at each end. These boards were of shittim-wood overlaid with gold―the human and Divine natures of our Lord. Each individual board expressed the same vital and fundamental truth. We see Christ in the structure as a whole, and Christ in each of the boards. Not believers, but Christ and Christ only. The boards were ten cubits (15 feet) in length, and one cubit and a half in breadth. Thus the breadth of each board was the exact height of the Mercy-seat (chap. 37:6), and also of each of the two parts of the Brazen Altar, divided by the brazen network on which the sacrificial victim was laid (chap. 27:1, 5). Christ in the combined glory of His Person―Divine and Human―is the truth represented in each board. The infinite capacity of Christ to bear Divine judgment, is taught us in the Brazen Altar. The Mercy-seat of gold sprinkled with the blood of atonement, is Christ on high in righteousness and glory, before Whom, and in Whose holy presence, we are privileged to stand without fear.
“Hither, then, your music bring,
Strike aloud each tuneful string;
Mortals join the hosts above,
Join to praise redeeming love.”
The north and south sides of the Tabernacle were each composed of twenty boards. Thus the length of the holy building would be thirty cubits (45 feet), the boards being a cubit and a-half in breadth. Its height was ten cubits (15 feet). Its width was exactly the same, namely, ten cubits (15 feet). Each board was maintained in its place by two tenons, or hands, which again were grasped by two sockets of silver. Two sockets under each of the 48 gold-covered boards are 96, then there was a socket under each of the Lear pillars supporting the beautiful veil―in all 100 sockets of silver (26:15, 25, 32). The quantity of silver used for the sockets and ornamental parts of the pillars is stated in chap. 38:25-28. Sustaining the Court there were 60 pillars, each resting on a base or socket of brass, hooks and fillets above being of silver. The door of the tent was suspended on five pillars each resting on a socket of brass―this gave 65 sockets of brass. Then in order to bind the boards in one compact body of strength and security, five bars of shittim-wood covered with gold―same as the boards―ran along the two sides, and also along the end at the west; fifteen bars in all being inserted in rings of gold attached to the boards. The third or middle bar stretched across the whole length of the building―45 feet; of the length of the other cross-bars we are not informed.
The middle bar unlike the others was made “to shoot through the boards from the one end to the other” (36:33). This peculiar arrangement must have added greatly to the strength and security of the building. Thus inside and outside, through and through it was one inseparable compact whole. The unity in the Person of the Lord―the unity of nature and attribute―is our strength as we contemplate our blessing in the duality of His Person and Wondrous Being. What wonders and mysteries are wrapped up in Him Whose “Name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace” (Isa. 9:66For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6)). The corner boards at the extreme end―north and south―were coupled together at top and bottom by rings of gold, in addition to the tenons and silver sockets at the base. These corner boards then would knit the ends so firmly by their fastening of rings, tenons, and sockets, or blocks of silver, that a break-down was impossible, while the sides were equally upheld and maintained by the bars.
The boards may have been coupled―board to board―at the top as the corner boards were, but of this we are not informed. The cross bars would be sufficient no doubt. Here then we have the Rock of Ages embodied in the Tabernacle. The Person of the Lord in Divine and Human nature — the gold and wood — is the mighty basis of our faith. Divine right to the throne of the Eternal was His, yet He stooped as man to the death of the Cross. The Lord Jesus Christ in the double glory of His person―in His two-fold nature―Deity and Humanity―is the grand basis of Christianity. It is on Him the Cross rests. What a tower of strength and rock of salvation we have in the contemplation of our Divine and adorable Lord and Saviour.
“JOIN all the glorious names
Of wisdom, love, and power,
That mortals ever knew,
That angels ever bore:
All are too mean to speak His worth.
Too mean to set my Saviour forth.”
Then over this fast, firm, and solid frame-work four coverings were spread, each setting forth Christ in a distinct and special character.