Wisdom's Corner
The Boards of the Tabernacle

There were 48 boards in the walls of the Tabernacle. You can read about the boards in Exodus 26. The boards were made of shittim wood. This wood is a very enduring wood.

There were corner boards. These boards are probably representative of Christ. These boards gave the framework for the rest of the walls. In the New Testament Christ is referred to as the chief cornerstone that was used to give the framework for buildings of the first century.

The rest of the boards may represent the church. Shittim wood (acacia wood) came from small thorny trees. It required alot of patient work to prepare the wood for use. It required removing the thorns, hewing and smoothing the wood. Then many pieces would have to be fit together to make a board. Each one of us must undergo removal of spiritual thorns and must be polished to be of proper use in the church.

The boards were covered with gold. The gold was pure and represents Christians being covered by Christ. Pure gold had been tried in the fire. We cannot appear pure in the sight of God without the covering we get through Christ.

There were five bars that held the boards together. It is interesting that one of them ran through the middle of the boards. The others were on the outside of the boards. These bars may very well represent the One God and Father(Ephesians 4:6). He is said to be above all, through all and in us all. Unless we are bound together by the One True God, the church will fall apart and be useless.

The boards were held up by fitting into sockets made of silver. These formed the foundation for the walls. Christ is the foundation for the church (1 Corinthians 3:11). When the boards were small trees, they were rooted in the ground of this world. But as boards in the Tabernacle, they no longer were in this world, but were held up by the sockets. When we become Christians, we are no longer get our spiritual nourishment from this world. We stand on Christ.

The Boards of the Tabernacle are another wonderful picture of the church and Christ. Keep reading your Bible to learn all you can about our Great God. And if any of this is hard to understand, ask an adult to help you.

Mark McWhorter

Copyright 2001

Published by The Old Paths Bible School
(http://www.oldpaths.org)