The Boards of the Tabernacle

As we have seen before, the tabernacle of Moses is referenced as the "church in the wilderness" (Acts 7:38).

And just as New Testament believers are likened to the "lively stones" that compose the spiritual church of God (1 Pet 2:5), the materials of the Old Testament tabernacle also typified believers, and their relationship to Jesus and one another. The history of the "boards" (the walls) of the tabernacle serve to illustrate the salvific experience of mankind. Observe with me the many striking similarities:

- The wooden boards obviously first began as trees, and had to be cut down. So it is with mankind as well. The old man is cut down and demolished as he is being prepared to compose the living and lively house of God. Saul (Paul) had this experience on the way to Damascus. He was severed from his old ways and works (Acts 9). Of Moses, Scripture says, "And ye shall be holy unto me: for I the LORD am holy, and have severed you from other people, that ye should be mine" (Lev 20:26).

- Second, the wooden boards were to be dried up before they could be used. Likewise, for the believer, the old sap of carnality must be extinguished before any real good can come of us or in us. David knew this first hand, as he experienced this sovereign purging process: "For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer" (Ps 32:4). Our own "life-blood" is to be replaced by the life-blood of One greater! Our sufficiency is now of God (2 Cor 3:5). For the believer, may any and all "watering" and "increase" come only from Godly ministrations (1 Cor 3:6).

- Just as the wooden boards of the tabernacle, next we too must be thoroughly cleansed. Friend, it isn't enough to be cut down and dried up if we are quick to re-fill ourselves with similar ungodliness (Lk 11:24-26). Rather, as we are cut down and dried of our selves, we must subsequently be rightly cleansed if we're to fill our place in the household of God. The boards of this inner sanctuary were to point one to the Most Holy Place, and how could this happen if the boards were casually and purposely stained with worldly pollutants? Just as with believers, these boards were made clean in order to bear proper witness of the glory resident within.

- These wooden boards were not only cleansed, but were also covered and clothed with gold. What a marvelous type! Believers too are cleansed to be clothed; clothed with the Spirit! "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; [in order] that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith" (Gal 3:13-14). Just as a new beauty was put upon the boards of the tabernacles, so it is with the sinner. As he is saved by grace, and filled with the Spirit, a new beauty becomes his rightful possession! "Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe" (Rom 3:22). Such a "clothing" assures us we have been made "friends of God" (Jas 2:23).

- The boards were then to be fitly framed together. This "fitting together" could only occur as the boards were united upon the foundation. Even so, for us, true unity among believers can only occur through our being joined together in Christ Jesus: "From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part" (Eph 4:16). Notice, however, Paul's warning against disorder among this body: "This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind..." (Eph 4:17). A corporate unified walk is directly correlated to a corporate surrender to the Kingship of Jesus. This is the ONLY means by which these boards of the tabernacle, and us, could ever be "fitly framed together". Even though there is a great cry for ecumenicalism these days, true believers are to find their unity IN CHRIST, never in compromise. We cannot have true union without THE true foundation. As these wooden boards rested upon the "silver sockets of atonement", they also simultaneously possessed a beautiful fellowship with one another. It is no different with the New Covenant believer, who are "lively stones"!

These steps that the boards of the tabernacle possess show us the same truth as is evident in Ephesians 2: Believers are growing and being built up into the holy temple of God: "Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit" (Eph 2:19-22).

Let's take heed, therefore, to these truths today!