THE FOUNDATION AND FRAMEWORK OF THE TABERNACLE
By Michael D. O’Neal – Pastor, Gospel Light Baptist Church – Albany, Georgia
Scripture Reading: Exodus 26:15-30
Text: Exodus 26:30
Exodus 26:30 And thou shalt rear up the tabernacle according to the fashion thereof which was shewed thee in the mount.
Introduction: The tabernacle is one of the types, or prophetic pictures, in the Old Testament of the Lord Jesus Christ and salvation through Him. God commanded Moses to MAKE the tabernacle, “that I may DWELL among them” (Ex. 25:8). The tabernacle was a figure, or type, of the true dwelling of God among men later, in the form of the Lord Jesus Christ. Notice the words, MADE and DWELT in the following verse:
John 1:14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father) full of grace and truth.
“and dwelt among us.”
The tabernacle was made for God to dwell among men. Jesus Christ was “made flesh” in John 1:14 “and dwelt among us.”
Jesus said:
John 5:39 Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.
Jesus was talking about the Old Testament scriptures, and more specifically, the writings of Moses in Gen. – Deut.:
John 5:46 For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me.
I believe one of the writings that testify of Jesus in the books of Moses is the passage before us about the tabernacle and its framework.
Tonight we are going to look at
THE FOUNDATION AND FRAMEWORK OF THE TABERNACLE
—
The Boards
The Base and
The Bars
—
and look for JESUS.
I believe these show three characteristics of the Lord Jesus Christ
I. THE BOARDS REMIND US OF THE SECRET OF CHRIST’S DEITY
Exodus 26:15 And thou shalt make boards for the tabernacle of shittim wood standing up.
Exodus 26:29 And thou shalt overlay the boards with gold, and make their rings of gold for places for the bars: and thou shalt overlay the bars with gold.
1 Timothy 3:16 And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.
The boards were
A. Desert wood
1. Reminding us of Christ’s virgin birth (Isaiah 7:14)
2. Emmanuel – God with us (Matthew 1:23)
B. Durable wood
1. Reminding us of Christ’s bodily resurrection, which proved His deity, according
to Romans 1:3-4
C. Of a dual nature
1. Covered with gold, reminding us of the deity and impeccable life of Jesus
2. Jesus: the God-Man
II. THE BASE REMINDS US OF THE SOURCE OF REDEMPTION
Exodus 26:19 And thou shalt make forty sockets of silver under the twenty boards; two sockets under one board for his two tenons, and two sockets under another board for his two tenons.
Tabernacle measured about 45 X 15 feet
There were 100 sockets each weighing a talent, for a total of 100 talents:
Exodus 38:27 And of the hundred talents of silver were cast the sockets of the sanctuary, and the sockets of the vail; an hundred sockets of the hundred talents, a talent for a socket.
A talent is about 100 pounds. You’re talking about 10,000 pounds, or five tons of silver!
What an expensive, precious foundation!
Exodus 30:16 And 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.
The foundation is so important!
Psalms 11:3 If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?
1 Corinthians 3:11 For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
Jesus, and His blood redemption, are:
A. The foundation of salvation
1. Hebrews 9:22
2. Leviticus 17:11
B. The foundation of sanctification (1 John 1:7)
C. The foundation of service (Hebrews 9:14)
III. THE BARS OF THE TABERNACLE REMIND US OF THE SECURITY OF THE BELIEVER IN CHRIST
Exodus 26:26-28 And thou shalt make bars of shittim wood; five for the boards of the one side of the tabernacle, 27 And five bars for the boards of the other side of the tabernacle, and five bars for the boards of the side of the tabernacle, for the two sides westward. 28 And the middle bar in the midst of the boards shall reach from end to end.
The bars brought:
A. Stability
1. They kept the boards from leaning and falling over
B. Singleness
1. Tying everything together
2. We are one in Christ
C. Strength (John 10:27-30)
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Michael D. O’Neal (Proverbs 11:30), Pastor, Gospel Light Baptist Church |