14 - STUDIES IN THE TABERNACLE

14 - STUDIES IN THE TABERNACLE

January 13, 1965

Henry F. Kulp

Exodus 36:1 Then wrought Bezaleel and Aholiab, and every wise hearted man, in whom the Lord put wisdom and understanding to know how to work all manner of work for the service of the sanctuary, according to all that the Lord had commanded.

In this part of the book of Exodus they are building the tabernacle. God had specified to Moses just how He wanted the tabernacle built, and they are building it according to specifications. That would be the term we use in our day. God has told them He would come down and live among them.

Let us look at Exodus 25: 8 And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.

This is where God is telling Moses how to build the Tabernacle, and this Scripture says, Let them make Me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them. God said I am coming down to live among my people. Build Me a house, and then He gave to Moses the specifications for this tabernacle. The world has never had anything like that—a building that God Himself had given a complete plan for building. So the Lord said, If you build it just the way I have specified, I will come down, and the Lord did, and Israel had the Shikinah glory from the cloud in the sky over the Mercy Seat.

1/ Exodus 36: 20 - 23 And he made boards for the tabernacle of shittim wood, standing up. The length of a board was ten cubits, and the breadth of a board one cubit and a half. One board had two tenons, equally distant one from another: thus did he make for all the boards of the tabernacle. And he made boards for the tabernacle; twenty boards for the south side southward:

Now we come to the boards—the sides of the tabernacle itself. The Tabernacle was enclosed with these boards of shittim wood and they were covered with gold, and they formed the sides of the tabernacle. The tabernacle was about 15 ft. high, 15 ft. broad, and 45 ft. long. These boards made the sides and the ends of the Tabernacle. 

2/ There were 48 boards and they were made of wood, and overlaid with gold, and under them were silver sockets. These boards, most Bible teachers believe are types of believers in Jesus Christ—-those who have trusted in Him. Christ is to dwell in the believer. This is not only true in the Church age today, but it will be true in the age to come when the nation Israel experiences the millennial reign of Christ, when the Holy Spirit will be poured out upon all flesh. These boards were just plain wood—that, of course, we said, always pictures tous humanity, and then they were covered over with gold—gold is deity. That’s a picture of a believer in Jesus Christ. Just a plain man or woman, in Christ, showing forth Christ.

3/ Verse 20 And he made boards for the tabernacle of shittim wood, standing up. 

There is something here that I would like you to see. He made the boards for the tabernacle of shittim wood, standing up. We wouldn’t think that they would be any other way, but yet the Lord says it twice. I think God has a truth that He wants us to see right here. We are to stand for Him and I believe this is the believer’s business. As a matter of fact, I don’t think there is much else we can do other than stand. You may be discouraged about your work. You may be discouraged about what you are able to give, you may be discouraged not having more time taken up for the Lord, but after all, I don’t think we can get very far from the Lord in this world, but there is one thing we can do—we can stand for Him.

Ephesians 6: 11 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

Here God tells the Church, put on the whole armor of God that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. We are in fighting territory down here.

Billy Sunday—I can remember him clearly—used to preach and talk about driving the devil out, but no one has ever done that as yet. Satan is still here. He is the god of this age—he is the prince of the world, and there is not much you and I can do about it, but we can stand. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand.

Then look up the 13th verse, Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

That is just another type of standing—then notice, having done all to stand. There isn’t anything else we can do, but it does mean a lot to stand for the Lord Jesus Christ. It means a lot to let your neighbors know that you are the Lord’s. It means a lot wherever you are in any circumstance, to let the people know you belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, and above all, it is important to let Satan know that you are the Lord’s.

4/ In the 6th chapter of Ephesians they weren’t asked to go anywhere, or to get anywhere— they were just asked to stand—to take the sword of the Spirit and fight—but there is also progress in the 6th chapter of Ephesian —-only standing. I think we have a great lesson to learn. No one needs to get discouraged. What we need to do is learn to stand.

5/ Exodus 36: 24 And forty sockets of silver he made under the twenty boards; two sockets under one board for his two tenons, and two sockets under another board for his two tenons.Under each board were two silver sockets. 

Actually, the foundation was out of proportion to the building itself. The foundation, scholars tell us weighed 5 tons, and it was made of solid silver sockets. Every building depends upon its foundation, and this was founded on silver. I don’t suppose any other building in the world has ever had a silver foundation, but this building had a silver foundation-solid silver, and there in the wilderness. There were 100 silver sockets under the tabernacle. Where did they get the gold and the silver, for that is an interesting study in itself.

6/ Exodus 30: 11- 15 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, When thou takest the sum of the children of Israel after their number, then shall they give every man a ransom for his soul unto the Lord, when thou numberest them; that there be no plague among them, when thou numberest them. This they shall give, every one that passeth among them that are numbered, half a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary: (a shekel is twenty gerahs:) an half shekel shall be the offering of the Lord. Every one that passeth among them that are numbered, from twenty years old and above, shall give an offering unto the Lord. The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel, when they give an offering unto the Lord, to make an atonement for your souls.

Silver here is called atonement money—which was required of every single Israelite. None were to be exempt. Failure to furnish the silver meant death and cutting off from the assembly of Israel. The amount, however, which was to be given by each individual was easily within reach of all, poor and rich alike. It was a very nominal sum—it amounted to half a shekel, or less than 35 cents for each individual.

7/ Now let us look at Exodus 30: 12 When thou takest the sum of the children of Israel after their number, then shall they give every man a ransom for his soul unto the Lord, when thou numberest them; that there be no plague among them, when thou numberest them.

Then notice, verse 13 This they shall give, every one that passeth among them that are numbered, half a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary: (a shekel is twenty gerahs:) an half shekel shall be the offering of the Lord.

This was the time of the numbering of the people. God said to Moses, take the people by tribes, and by families and number them. Let them all pass before you, and as each man comes, he was to bring a token to show that he was a redeemed soul—that token was a little piece of silver, called a half a shekel. It was not to purchase his ransom, because he was already ransomed. For they had been redeemed by the blood of the lamb. This was simply a token —that token is your testimony. You have not paid your half shekel until you have given your testimony. But God said to Moses, when you number the people, every man that is numbered shall bring his token to show that he is a redeemed soul. That was necessary, because there were a lot of folks who had come out of Egypt with the Israelites that were not Jews at all—they were not Israelites, they were not ransomed.

8/ Exodus 12: 38 And a mixed multitude went up also with them; and flocks, and herds, even very much cattle.

There was a great host of people, probably all nationalities, and they were not able to prove that they were from any tribe. It was a very serious condition to have those people among the nation. You may say, “Why?”

Numbers 11:4 And the mixt multitude that was among them fell a lusting: and the children of Israel also wept again, and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat?

It was the mixed multitude that did that. They reminded the Israelites that they had only manna to eat, and Israel got into trouble over these folks, and God sent firery serpents among them to slay them. But remember it was the mixed multitude that did the damage. So God said to Moses, you get the people together and number them, and every man that can prove he is a redeemed soul, must bring a token.

9/ Numbers 1: 18 And they assembled all the congregation together on the first day of the second month, and they declared their pedigrees after their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, by their polls.

Every man had to declare his pedigree. A man would say, I am really an Israelite, I know my family, I know my forefathers, I know what tribe I came from. Whether it was Rueben or Judah or Gad or whatever tribe it was. A man had to declare now. People ought to be able to prove that they are children of God. You say, Do you mean that everybody who is saved ought to know it? Certainly. A wonderful thing has transpired in your life.  You have been taken out of the power of darkness, into the body, the Church, and you have been saved from hell and you are on your way to Heaven, you are a heavenly people—why shouldn’t you know it?

10/ Exodus 30: 15 The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel, when they give an offering unto the Lord, to make an atonement for your souls.

This shows that everyone in Israel in this matter of bing ransomed should be equal. There were the rich and the poor, there were the wise and the unwise, but they came the same way.

Note this 15th verse. They all had to come the same way. A man may have been extremely wealthy, but when he came to Moses and said, I am of the tribe of Joseph, or Benjamin, I can declare my pedigree—I would like to make a gift, because of this wonderful matter of being ransomed. Moses would say, no, we don’t want your gift, all we want is half a shekel, we ought to be saying that today. We don’t want your money, we want your testimony. A testimony is worth more than all your money. The important thing among God’s people is a testimony—not your half shekel.

11/ Now go back to Exodus 30: 13 This they shall give, every one that passeth among them that are numbered, half a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary: (a shekel is twenty gerahs:) an half shekel shall be the offering of the Lord.

Notice, that, after the shekel of the sanctuary. A shekel was a common coin used in the market, and God said let every man bring half a shekel. That was his token that he was a redeemed man. That is all it was, it corresponds to your testimony—your testimony is your half a shekel. It was the shekel of the sanctuary. In the sanctuary they had a very fine scale, and they had pieces of money that were just made. When a man brought a shekel, he could not bring a shekel that had been used in the market with most of the superscription rubbed off. You heard about a thin dime? You could’t bring a thin shekel to the Lord. It had to be a shekel of the sanctuary—it must not be something that had all the superscription gone.

Actually, Modernism is that today—it is a thin dime, and it doesn’t have any testimony.

Remember, Psalm 107: 2 Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy;

That is what the Lord wants. He wants your half shekel.

12/ There is a wonderful thought about a testimony. About telling a thing. Nothing is yours unless you tell it. That is the matter of gossip, and it is a lesson we have to learn. Someone comes up and tells you something, and you don’t want to hear it, but you’ve heard it before, you knew what they were going to say, and that thing that they had told you about someone else can lie in your mind and be harmless, perfectly harmless, but the moment you tell it, you are guilty. The moment you tell it to someone else, you have made it your own, and you are guilty. So when you tell it, it is yours, and God wants you to give your testimony for Christ.

13/ To impress upon you about this ransom money--many, many years later, King David was to be painfully reminded of this lesson, for you remember, he numbered the people without token money. We remember about David’s great sin. He commanded the people to be numbered, and over the objections, Joab ordered a census, but failed to collect the half shekel of silver and this resulted in the death of 70,000 of the men of Israel. So the ransom money was important.

14/ But where did the children of Israel get this money?

Exodus 12: 33 - 36 And the Egyptians were urgent upon the people, that they might send them out of the land in haste; for they said, We be all dead men. And the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneadingtroughs being bound up in their clothes upon their shoulders. And the children of Israel did according to the word of Moses; and they borrowed of the Egyptians jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment: And the Lord gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they lent unto them such things as they required. And they spoiled the Egyptians.

Remember, after the last plague when the first-born was dead, the Egyptians told the Jews to go—go right away. But the Israelites said, we will go if you give us your gold and silver, and the Egyptians said, take it and go. The Lord knew about the Tabernacle, because the Lord had told them to ask the Egyptians for this money.

Exodus 11: 1, 2 And the Lord said unto Moses, Yet will I bring one plague more upon Pharaoh, and upon Egypt; afterwards he will let you go hence: when he shall let you go, he shall surely thrust you out hence altogether. Speak now in the ears of the people, and let every man borrow of his neighbour, and every woman of her neighbour, jewels of silver and jewels of gold.

He knew they would need it for the tabernacle. So there was provision from Egypt.

15/ I want you to look at I Peter 1: 18 Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers;

That is a reference to the Old Testament type of redemption. Even silver. Our redemption is by blood.

Acts 20: 28 Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.

If you go into a business establishment and buy something and lay down the price on the counter then it is yours. So the Lord Jesus Christ came into this world and purchased the church with His great, red, rich, round drops of blood. You are redeemed, you are purchased, so redemption should be our speaking point—-telling forth the fact that we have been purchased by the blood of Christ.

AMEN

1/13/2965 / 13 - STUDIES IN THE TABERNACLE / 04/27/2025