Exodus Chapter 26 Verses 15 – 30

• All of the boards were to be overlaid with gold but we also see the use of silver in the structural composition of the tabernacle…why? Silver in the bible is the metal of redemption or payment.  Jesus’ betrayer was paid off with 30 pieces of silver and therefore, in a way, the foundation (as the silver underlaid the boards) of the Tabernacle speaks of the betrayal of Jesus.
• This is applicable to us as well I believe. Betrayal, hardship, offense, hurt…these things are not enjoyable at all…but they lay the foundation for the work of God in my life, the lessons of God in my life and ultimately laying the foundation of fellowship with God in my life…they make me more like Him as I endure them.  So, I don’t despise offense (I am saying this in the Spirit) but rather I understand, without it I am only a child…with no real foundation.
• Helen Keller once said, “Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it!” It’s the experience of overcoming, growing through and getting through that creates in you the calm of integrity and the security of courage.  Knowing this will perhaps and hopefully fuel you to work through it and overcome it.  Getting stuck in the pain is possible.  All you have to do is nothing.  Winston Churchill once said, “If you’re going through hell, keep going.”  Get up, brush yourself off and glorify God with your life!
• Now, there’s something here about these bars that I want to point out. Four bars ran horizontally on each side linking the boards together but one bar, the middle bar, was not visible.   It ran in the midst of the other boards and could only be seen at the extremes.  In the body of Christ, there are visible things holding us together, things out in the open like sound doctrine, order, leadership, culture…things like that.  But for the Body of Christ that is mature, there is also the unseen and invisible work of the Holy Spirit in each person…as they yield and bend their will to God, that knits us together more and stronger than anything out in the open…if we don’t have that, we will soon be gone.  And when is it seen?  In the results…
• Ultimately there are two things that will progress you in your walk with the Lord and deliver to you personally and to us corporately victory over the things of the flesh. 1) A real and alive and disciplined yet loving friendship and relationship with God on your own and 2) Unity in the church where you worship and fellowship.  You cannot have one without the other.  These are seen clearly in the boards and bars of the Tabernacle.

Exodus Chapter 26 Verses 31 – 35

• There is a pattern of repetition of fours Four colors (which we covered in our last lesson), four pillars (overlaid with gold), four hooks of gold and four sockets of silver.  Four speaks directly of Jesus, first I want to establish that and then I will give you a more explicit nugget of truth.  Four gospels given to us in the canon of scripture detailing the life and ministry of Jesus Christ.  On day four of creation, according to Genesis 1:14-17, light was created…specifically to divide the day from the night, which for me speaks directly to Jesus who is the Way, the Truth, and the Light!  The fourth commandment is the Sabbath and we know from Hebrews 4 specifically that even the Sabbath is a pointer to Jesus as He has provided rest for the weary sinful soul.  There’s way more here but I’ll give you just one more…John 19:23 tells us that as Jesus hung on the cross, His garments were divided up into four parts. 
• Now, much more explicit…as I’ve shown you already how the veil referenced Jesus in symbology…Hebrews 10:19-20 speak directly of the veil being the flesh of Jesus. Ok, so what does that mean since the veil described in Exodus 26 and the veil later that hung in the temple were definitely not made out of Jesus…it means that just as the veil in the tabernacle separated man from the presence of God, and therefore was the joining of God and man…one touching one side and one touching the other, the body of Jesus represented the same thing.  Fully God, yet fully man…and we read in Matthew 27:50-51 that when Jesus yielded His Spirit, when He died in my place, when God’s Spirit, removed Himself from the perfect flesh of men…at that point, the veil failed…no more need, it was overcome, could not remain…
• It says there in the scripture…the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom…God didn’t want to leave anything to the imagination on this one…it ripped from top to bottom, all the way. It didn’t stop half-way and the priests had to finish the job…it ripped all the way to the floor…revealing the covenant completed that was begun with Abraham…with the divided sacrifice…as Jesus was split in two on the cross…and forever after, nothing…  It is finished.  And now we wait for the culmination of all things…sin is already done, man…now we await the new heaven and the new earth…
• Which interestingly is revealed with the tearing of the veil as well. The Holy of Holies was essentially a cube.  20 cubits by 20 cubits by 20 cubits.  According to Hebrews 8:5, the tabernacle had to be built so precisely because it was a copy…an imitation of heaven.  Revelation 21:16, the length, breadth and height of New Jerusalem all the same.  So, what is the meaning?  Jesus is the Truth.  We know that and that is understood.  He is the Light.  We have already established that and there’s more in John 1.  But what is this Way bit?  He is the veil, the doorway, the Way to New Jerusalem for all mankind…who choose to take that highway.  Every other roadway…a dead end…literally.

Exodus Chapter 26 Verses 36 – 37

• This is the entrance to the tabernacle and notice as we close…four colors/threads, speaking of Jesus, five pillars of acacia overlaid with gold, speaking of grace which the hooks grasped firmly to the sockets of bronze, speaking of judgement. This is the only way into the tabernacle…a picture, an imitation, a copy of the New Jerusalem to come…and there is only one entrance…only one way in…yes there is judgment but that judgment is satisfied through the payment that has been made…and now the way in is grace…
• That is the way in to the presence of God for all of eternity and yet for also today…grace will set you absolutely free from pride and from having to prove yourself to God and to yourself. The person you hide…it’s such a shame…would probably be so loved by so many…yet you hide because you’re afraid of the hurt that’s possible by putting yourself out there…grace, man…grace is the cure for fear.
• Every day of our Christian experience should be a day of relating to God on the basis of His grace alone. We are not only saved by grace, but we also live by grace every day.  (Jerry Bridges) I pray, the Lord desires, He died for this…that you might live…grace is the entrance, Jesus is the Way.