In the wording of Exodus 26:15-30, the boards are mentioned as being made of acacia wood, Exodus 26:15-16. Because wood grows out of the earth, and because Adam was made by God from something He had already made, i.e. the dust of the earth, wood stands for ‘human’, as in Psalm 1:1-3.
The boards are to be standing upright, Exodus 26:15 / Exodus 36:20. God specifies to Moses the size of each board, that is, about fifteen feet long and two and a quarter feet wide, Exodus 26:16 / Exodus 36:21.
The number of boards, Exodus 26:18 / Exodus 36:23, there were twenty boards on each of the South sides, Exodus 26:18 / Exodus 36:23, North side, Exodus 26:20 / Exodus 36:25, and six boards on the West side of the tabernacle, Exodus 26:22 / Exodus 36:27, plus two boards to strengthen the western wall at its corners, Exodus 26:23 / Exodus 36:24.
They are fixed into silver sockets to stand, Exodus 26:19 / Exodus 26:21 / Exodus 26:25 / Exodus 36:24 / Exodus 36:26 / Exodus 36:30. Silver in the scriptures is used as the purchase, redemption price of a life, twenty silver shekels for Joseph in Genesis 37:28, thirty silver shekels for Jesus in Matthew 26:14-15.
When the wood is robustly standing in the silver sockets, it means that we have a testimony that we belong to God, we concede ‘we are not our own, we have been bought with a price’, 1 Corinthians 6:19-20.
There were two ‘extra’ boards, strengthening the corners of the western side, Exodus 26:23 / Exodus 36:28. This west-facing wall is called the ‘thigh’ in Hebrew, implying strengthened standing in the body of Christ.
These extra boards strengthened the corners, the weakest part of the structure, in the same way as the pillars at the door of the sanctuary, Exodus 26:36-37, and the veil, Exodus 26:31-37.
The boards each had an individual standing in the two silver sockets, but they were strongly connected together by the bars. There were five bars, four of which passed through rings on the outside of the boards, plus the middle bar, which passed through the centre of each board.
There are two long walls of boards, Exodus 26:24 / Exodus 36:29, one signifying the Jews and the other the Gentiles. Neither could they profit under the law nor could they keep the commandments of God. The only hope was the promised Messiah, in whose blood all might be brought near again. All the ‘boards’ stand in His redemption only.
Any man in Christ is a new creation because the old things have passed away, ‘behold, they have become new’, 2 Corinthians 5:17. The new creation in Messiah of one new man, Ephesians 2:15, is corporate; Jewish believers and Gentile believers are saved by His grace through faith alone, Ephesians 2:8, that nobody may boast.
Through Jesus the Messiah, Christ, we both have access in one Spirit to the Father, Ephesians 2:18. In Him, we are fitted together as the boards in the tabernacle so that God may have His dwelling place in the one Spirit, Ephesians 2:22. God is operating powerfully in us to accomplish this, Ephesians 3:20-21.
When many boards together have the same testimony, we are ‘those who have obtained a like precious faith in the righteousness of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ’, 2 Peter 1:1. The boards were held together by five bars, the middle one of which passed through the centre of the boards, Exodus 26:26-27 / Exodus 36:31-32.
The boards and their bars were made of acacia wood overlaid with gold, Exodus 26:29 / Exodus 36:34, as were the pillars of the entrance door to the sanctuary, Exodus 26:36-37. The gold overlay, Exodus 26:29 / Exodus 36:34, points to Peter’s words, ‘that you might become partakers of the divine nature’, 2 Peter 1:4, and ‘glorify God in your body’, 1 Corinthians 6:20.
The first mention of gold in the Bible is in Genesis 2:11-12. It was ‘in the hills’ already, as created by God, and is spoken of as ‘good’, just as God said of everything He had made in Genesis 1. Because it is precious and was created directly by God, gold stands for ‘divine’.
The delay in mentioning the gold overlay gives us an indication that the wood, signifying the ‘human’ element, has to be worked on and fitted, qualified in order to have the gold, the ‘divine’ element, as its overlay.
Peter gives us the reason that we humans must have ‘escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust’ and realise we ‘have been given precious and exceeding great promises, that through these you may become partakers of the divine nature’, 2 Peter 1:4.
We must be the wooden boards that are standing up in the silver sockets, not lounging around in or harking back to the garlic and onions of Egypt as Israel did, Numbers 11:5-6. The wood is no longer growing in soil or even in the desert sand.
Between the boards and the desert is a significant quantity of silver, two silver sockets, each weighing fifty-seven kilos, one hundred and twenty-five pounds, form the base for each board.
There are two interpretations of the five bars, Exodus 26:26 / Exodus 36:31.
1. They refer to the lowliness, meekness, longsuffering and love, plus the uniting bond of peace, in Ephesians 4:1-3, that are required for us all to walk worthily of our calling
2. They refer to the five classes of gifted persons the ascended Christ gave to equip the saints for building, apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers, Ephesians 4:11.
Since the bars are made of acacia wood overlaid with gold, the most lovely human virtues, plus the divine appointment, it seems to me that both may be correct.
The tragedy of church history, in our own age as much as in previous ages, is that appointed, gifted ones have not shown the worthy virtues sufficiently, either towards one another or towards the people they shepherd and teach.
The virtues come first, in order to keep the oneness of the Spirit, Ephesians 4:3, the gifted ones and their equipping come afterwards, in order that the body of Christ may be built up until we all arrive at the oneness of the faith and the full knowledge of the Son of God and maturity in Him, Ephesians 4:12-13.
God’s plan of salvation and His purpose in the building are not individualistic in the Book of Exodus. The wood may have come from different acacia trees, but all the boards ended up fashioned and fitly framed together in one structure, which was God’s dwelling place, Ephesians 2:21.
Before moving on, it’s important to consider the significance of God’s dwelling place in the Bible. The first mention of the house of God is when Jacob has his dream at Beth-El, ‘house of God’, while fleeing from Esau, Genesis 28:10-22. This is confirmed when Jacob returns to Beth-El, Genesis 35:1-15, God appears to him there, speaks to him there, and the house of God is there, God’s dwelling place.
Jacob goes down to Egypt, where Joseph is, a few hundred years pass and following the Exodus from Egypt, around 1450 BC, God appears to Moses at Mount Sinai and dictates to him the design of the tabernacle and gives the ‘Ten Words’, Exodus 34:28, the Ten Commandments. The tabernacle was to be God’s dwelling place, Exodus 25:8-9.
Later on in Israel’s history, around 1000 BC, the temple was built in Jerusalem. King David did much of the preparation, and his son, King Solomon, oversaw the building. God then dwelt in the temple on Mount Zion in Jerusalem, Psalm 132:13-14.
The children of Israel numbered many hundreds of thousands in their family Passover meals and exit from Egypt. Yet God brought them out into the wilderness to experience one food source and one water source, with one goal of God’s speaking, the one centre for worship, one building, the tabernacle, Exodus 25:8.
The dwelling place of God is the one purpose for which we have been purchased by God with the redeeming blood of Jesus Christ, the Messiah. However, due to the repeated sinfulness of Israel and her kings, God’s glory departed from the temple, and it was no longer His dwelling place.
In the New Testament, we read that, Jesus Christ is the ‘Word (who) became flesh and dwelt (tabernacled) among us’, John 1:14. God dwelt in Christ, as the apostle Paul wrote, Colossians 2:9. Furthermore, those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ become a dwelling place of God, Ephesians 3:17 / 1 Corinthians 6:19.
Then, corporately, the believers in Christ are the church, which Paul terms ‘the holy temple in the Lord’ and ‘the dwelling place of God in the Spirit’, Ephesians 2:21-22, ‘the house of God, the church of the living God’, 1 Timothy 3:15.
At the end of the New Testament we read ‘behold the tabernacle of God is with men and He shall dwell with them and be His people and God Himself will be with them and be their God’, Revelation 21:3, as New Jerusalem comes down to the new earth out of heaven from God,’ Revelation 21:2 / Revelation 21:10. Throughout the Bible, God desires a dwelling place and reveals the details of that dwelling place to people who are attuned to Him.
Entering through the door to the sanctuary into the first room, the Holy Place, the gold of the boards is shining all around and the cherubim covering is overhead. This is why we must be sanctified wholly, our entire spirit, soul and body, to be preserved without blemish as shining boards in the house of God, 1 Thessalonians 5:23.
Here are the furnishings of the tabernacle: the showbread table, Exodus 25:23-30, the lampstand, Exodus 25:31-40, and the golden incense altar, Exodus 30:1-10.