{"id":1512,"date":"2014-07-23T10:11:03","date_gmt":"2014-07-23T10:11:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christian-gospel.info\/?p=1512"},"modified":"2014-07-23T10:11:03","modified_gmt":"2014-07-23T10:11:03","slug":"thoughts-about-the-corners-of-the-tabernacle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christiangospel.online\/?p=1512","title":{"rendered":"THE CORNER BOARDS OF THE TABERNACLE"},"content":{"rendered":"

We should remember that the boards are for the tabernacle; they are not the tabernacle itself.\u00a0 It is the innermost curtain that is the tabernacle.\u00a0 This is clear from Numbers 3:25 and 36.\u00a0 The Gershonites carried the tabernacle, but the Merarites carried the boards.\u00a0 So the boards of the tabernacle are the boards belonging to, and serving the interests of, the innermost curtain, which was the dwelling-place of God.\u00a0 Over this tabernacle were the goats’ hair curtains, which made the tent or covering of the tabernacle., Exodus 26:7.\u00a0 Then there was a covering for the tent consisting of rams’ skins dyed red, Exodus 26:14.\u00a0 Finally, the “covering above”, Exodus 26:14, of badgers’ skins.\u00a0 (Notice in passing the position of the apostrophe in the words goats’, rams’, and badgers’, telling us many animals were involved.\u00a0 If it had been one animal in each case it would have been “goat’s”, ram’s, badger’s).<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0The boards served the same purpose as tent poles, to keep up the fabric of the tent, but because they were substantial boards, standing in a line, they also gave structure and shape to the tabernacle.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0As the boards were “standing up”, we know they were vertical in use, even though their height is described as their length.<\/span><\/p>\n

All 48 boards are of the same size, as are the sockets on which they stood, so the corner boards were not T-shaped or L-shaped as some suggest.<\/span><\/p>\n

The following is a suggestion about the way the corners were arranged:<\/span><\/p>\n

Exodus 26:18\u00a0 And thou shalt make the boards for the tabernacle, twenty boards on the south side southward.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

This is the first side, (because the other side is called the second side in verse 20), so Moses is writing as if he is coming through the gate on the east, and the first side is on his left.<\/span><\/p>\n

26:20\u00a0 And for the second side of the tabernacle on the north side there shall be twenty boards:<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

So we now know what Moses means when he writes about the sides.<\/span><\/p>\n

26:22\u00a0 And for the sides of the tabernacle westward thou shalt make six boards.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Now comes the difficult part!\u00a0 We may speak of the end of the tabernacle, by which we mean the 6+2 boards on the west, but the Scripture does not speak like this.\u00a0 I suggest that the expression “sides of the tabernacle westward” means “the sides of the tabernacle, (that is, the first and second sides of verses 18 and 20), at their westward ends”.<\/span>
\n The six boards are said to be “for” the sides of the tabernacle westward, so they serve the interests of the first and second sides by giving them stability, and also by keeping them at their correct distance apart.\u00a0 Remember there is nothing like this at the east end to stabilise the structure, so everything depends on the west end being stable.<\/span><\/p>\n

26:23\u00a0 And two boards shalt thou make for the corners of the tabernacle in the two sides.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

We learn at least two things here.\u00a0 First, that the two boards are for the corners.\u00a0 Second, that they are in the two sides.\u00a0 This would refer to the two sides, the first and the second, that form the south and north walls of the board structure.\u00a0 So the two boards are in the sides, not in the ends.<\/span><\/p>\n

26:24\u00a0 And they shall be coupled together beneath, and they shall be coupled together above the head of it unto one ring: thus shall it be for them both; they shall be for the two corners.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

We may understand by this the following:\u00a0 “The head of it” refers to the westward-facing ends of the line of boards, which, because they are now forming in Moses’ mind as he writes, can be described as “it”, for the structure is becoming a reality.<\/span>
\n Both of these particular boards are placed in the same way, for “thus shall it be for them both”.\u00a0 They each, then, are coupled together to the head or end of their respective side.\u00a0 And this coupling is done “beneath”, and “above”, and “unto one ring”.\u00a0 By “one ring” I understand “ring number one”.\u00a0 In other words, the first ring, in the first board in the line, through which the bars were inserted.\u00a0 So the corner board is coupled together with the board adjacent to it by the ring that was inserted in the boards to hold the bars.\u00a0 Then the first and lowest ring is lashed (presumably by fine linen cords, “all that serveth thereto”, Numbers 3:36), to the first and lowest ring on the six-board section that we often call the end.\u00a0\u00a0 In this way the three boards forming the corner are doubly fastened, firstly by the rings that pair them together, and then by the ropes that keep the corners square and rigid.\u00a0 This is done beneath, and above, in others words, the fastening is done by means of the lowest ring and the topmost ring of the boards.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We should remember that the boards are for the tabernacle; they are not the tabernacle itself.\u00a0 It is the innermost curtain that is the tabernacle.\u00a0 This is clear from Numbers 3:25 and 36.\u00a0 The Gershonites carried the tabernacle, but the Merarites carried the boards.\u00a0 So the boards of the tabernacle are the boards belonging to, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":10,"footnotes":""},"categories":[221],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-thoughts-about-the-corners-of-the-tabernacle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiangospel.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiangospel.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiangospel.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiangospel.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiangospel.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/christiangospel.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1512\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiangospel.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiangospel.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiangospel.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}