We have spoken of how we are made the righteousness of God in Christ, and of our perfect standing in Him. It is so natural for us to be occupied with ourselves, and with our own unworthiness, that some might wonder how we could be brought into such a wonderful place of favor. A couple of weeks ago a young man was talking to a friend about the way of salvation. He told him that he was sure he was suitable to go straight to heaven to be with the Lord if he died. His friend replied, “You mean to say that you have been sinning for over forty years and that you can go straight to heaven: I don’t believe it.” The young man was able to tell him that his only title to glory was the blood of Christ which had cleansed him from all sin (1 John 1:7). This is exactly what was typified in the sockets of silver in which the boards stood.
The Silver of Redemption
The silver used to make these sockets was obtained from the redemption money about which we read in Exodus 30:11-16. Silver, therefore, speaks to us of the cost of our redemption. Now, of course, we know that we are “not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold ... but with the precious blood of Christ” (1 Peter 1:18-19), and this is what the silver typified. Each board stood upon two sockets of silver into which were fitted two tenons, or hands, which held the boards upright. How beautifully this typifies the two hands by faith laying hold of what the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished for us at Calvary. We are utterly unworthy in ourselves, but it is through Christ’s mighty work of redemption and through the value of His shed blood, that we are now in a place of perfect acceptance and favor before God. Surely the thought of this makes us want to sing what another wrote many years ago,
“This is my story, this is my song
Praising my Saviour all the day long.”
Uniting Bars
When these boards were set up we have noticed that they were held in their places at the bottom by standing in these sockets of silver. In addition to this there were five bars of shittim wood overlaid with gold running along the sides, and there were loops of gold in the boards there, through which these bars passed. The standing was on silver (redemption ground) alone, but the five bars above kept them in their places according to God’s plan. Five speaks to us of weakness, and perhaps these boards would typify to us the gifts which an ascended Christ has given to the church for our edification and blessing (Ephesians 4:11-16). God has given us the written word of the apostles and prophets, and we rejoice that there are still those who are gifted to evangelize, as well as pastors who care for the saints, and teachers to instruct them in the truth.
When the Lord saved us He did not want us to become independent of all other believers, any more than the boards of the tabernacle were independent of one another. When we accepted Christ as our Saviour we became members of the one body of Christ — “members one of another” (Rom. 12:5). Undoubtedly the precious truth of this has been lost to many of God’s dear children, but God’s purpose is that all the gifts should be working together, though in a sense of their own weakness, like the five boards, to “keep the unity of the Spirit, that the building may be “fitly joined together,” (overlaid with gold and with bars of gold) according to the character of God.
Further Meditation
1. What does the silver teach us?
2. One of the bars was twice as long as the other two. Which one and why?
3. The Glories of Christ by H. F. Witherby gives some wonderful and very simple instruction on the tabernacle that would help in studying it further.