THE SILVER FOUNDATION

THE SILVER FOUNDATION

God promised to take up His abode in the midst of His people Israel, provided they gave Him a beautiful and costly palace-temple for a dwelling, made of gold, silver and other suitable material (Exodus 25:1-7), and constructed entirely according to His own design (Exodus 26:30; Acts 7:44; Hebrews 8:5)—”Let them make Me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them” (Exodus 25:8). They agreed, and built the sacred edifice (Exodus 36; Exodus 37; Exodus 38). The Foundation consisted of one hundred blocks of silver, called sockets (Exodus 26:19-25; Exodus 38:27), arranged as follows:—forty along the south side (Exodus 26:18-19); forty along the north side (Exodus 26:20-21); sixteen along the west side (Exodus 26:25), and four across the house (Exodus 26:31-32): in all one hundred. In the diagram on the next page the blocks of silver are all numbered and the place each occupied in the foundation indicated by dots. Sockets 41 and 42, and sockets 55 and 56 being for the corners are so shaped and placed as to suit the corner boards resting on them. See diagram, p. 7.

Union of the sockets.—When placed in rows on the ground to form the foundation, the sockets required to be joined to each other in some way, and most likely this was done by the simple method of dovetailing, as shown in the illustration. By this means each socket was able to go into and take hold of its neighbor: number 2 going into and taking hold of number 1; number 3 going into and taking hold of number 2; and number 4 into number 3, and so on all the way round. Each joining to each and all to each, they formed a basis sufficiently strong to bear up the three golden walls of the tabernacle.

LENGTH AND BREADTH OF THE HOUSE DETERMINED BY THE LENGTH OF THE SOCKETS

It is generally agreed that the tabernacle was 30 cubits long and 10 broad. To form a continuous base of silver under the three walls of a building of the above dimension, it was necessary that each socket should be three- quarters of a cubit long. The size of the sockets is not given in the Scriptures; but as the length of two sockets was equal to the breadth of the board (1 1/2 cubits) which rested on them (Exodus 26:16 with 19), it follows that a socket as required was three-quarters of a cubit long. Each socket weighted a talent (Exodus 38:27), equal to 1500 ounces or 93 3/4 lbs. This quantity of silver is sufficient to form a socket of the above length, and half a cubit broad and a quarter of a cubit deep (see illustration above). We submitted our calculation to a practical silversmith, who measured and then weighed our sockets in his fine scales, and they were not found wanting.

Face or upper side of two Sockets constructed so as to dovetail into each other.

Scale—2 inches to a cubit.

FROM MODEL TABERNACLE. The length of forty sockets (the number at each long side of the house), each three-quarters of a cubit long, is 30 cubits, being the length of the tabernacle. The length of twelve of the back or west side sockets (43 to 54 inclusive), each three-quarters of a cubit long, is 9 cubits, one short of the breadth. The additional cubit is obtained as follows:—Half of socket 42, and half of socket 55, are included in the breadth of the interior of the house, as the back of diagram (p. 7) shows. Together, the two halves measure three-quarters of a cubit, which, added to the above nine cubits, make nine and three-quarter cubits. The breadth of the house extends from the south margin of the socket holes on the one side of the house to the north margin of the socket holes on the other side of the house. The space between said margin and the edge of the sockets, one-eighth of a cubit (see diagram above) on each side of the house, together one-quarter of a cubit, falls to be added to the above nine and three-quarter cubits, and thus gives ten cubits (15 feet) as the internal breadth of the tabernacle as required.

The above diagram is 108th of the size of the Tabernacle. Thirty cubits is equal to one hundred and eight inches.

DIAGRAM OF THE ONE HUNDRED SILVER SOCKETS,
AND THE SIZE OF THE TABERNACLE The illustration of the hundred sockets on p. 7, on the scale of one-sixth of an inch to a cubit, or of 5 inches to 30 cubits, will be found very nearly correct—we say nearly, for the woodcut block has shrunk to the extent of about one-sixteenth of an inch in the process of electrotyping. For the internal breadth of the house and its apartments, measure from the inside margin of the socket holes on the south side to the inside margin of those on the north side; for its length, measure from the inside margin of the socket holes at the back end to the dotted lines at the entrance of the tabernacle. For the length of the holy of holies, measure from the inside margin of the socket holes at the back end to the dotted line, which indicates the threshold of this apartment; and for the length of the holy place, measure from the one dotted line to the other, and the woodcut measurement will be found to be:—Tabernacle, 30 sixths of an inch by 10 sixths. Holy Place, 20 sixths of an inch by 10 sixths. Holy of Holies, 10 sixths of an inch by 10 sixths. As the tabernacle was 108 times the size of the woodcut, by multiplying each of the above measurements by 108, the product will be found to agree with the actual internal size of the tabernacle and its apartments:—Tabernacle, 30 cubits by 10 cubits, or 45 feet by 15 feet. Holy Place, 20 cubits by 10 cubits, or 30 feet by 15 feet. Holy of Holies 10 cubits by 10 cubits, or 15 feet by 15 feet. The diagram of the hundred silver sockets (p. 7) shows the ground-plan of the building to consist, like that of the temple, of two apartments; the outer one, the holy place, a double square, 20 cubits by 10, and the inner one, the holy of holies, a perfect square, 10 cubits by 10. The temple was exactly double the size of the tabernacle.

Value of the sockets.—Each socket weighed a talent (Exodus 38:27), equal to 1500 oz., worth, when the silver was raised for the foundation, at least £400, so that the value of the hundred was not less than £40,000.

Raising of the silver.—Shortly before the time we are speaking of, God delivered His people out of the hands of their cruel enemies the Egyptians, whom He caused to be drowned in the Red Sea. In consequence, He claimed the Israelite men, whose lives He saved, as His, allowing them, however, with the exception of the Levites retained in His sacred service (Numbers 1:47-50; Numbers 3:11-16; Numbers 3:40-41), to redeem themselves by paying Him a price, so that they might be free to attend to their own and their family affairs. The price—a very small one, to enable every man to give it—was a silver coin, a little larger than our shilling, called a half-shekel (Exodus 30:13), and worth ls. 3d. in our money. When all the pretty glittering coins were counted, it was found they numbered 603,350, being the same as the number of the men (Numbers 1:46), showing that every man paid his ransom money. The 603,350 half shekels, divided by 6000, the number of half shekels in a talent, show that the total amount in talents was 100 talents, and 1775 shekels (or seven-twelfths of a talent). This summation exactly agrees with that of the sacred historian (Exodus 38:25). Of the hundred talents of silver were cast the one hundred sockets, forming the foundation of the tabernacle (Exodus 26:27). The fraction of seven- twelfths of a talent we wish you not to forget. As we shall see by-and-by, it was used for upholding the court wall, so that both sanctuary and court were upheld by the atonement money, a circumstance worthy of notice (see chapter 9, p. 41).

CHRIST AND REDEMPTION The redemption of sinners in some respects is like that of the Israelite men, and in some respects quite different. As God estimated every Israelite man at the same value, and on that account required every one to pay the like price for his ransom—”the rich were not to give more, and the poor were not to give less” (Exodus 30:15)—so He estimates every sinner at the same value, and consequently requires the same price to be paid for every one, for the beggar as well as for the king, for the least as well as for the greatest sinner. Such, however, is the nature of what sinners need to be redeemed from (Galatians 3:13), and such the nature of the soul, that no mere nominal price, as that in the case of the Israelite men, or any price, however great, a sinner might be capable of giving, can suffice to satisfy the law’s demands or those of the holy and righteous lawgiver.

Behind the multitude of faces we meet in our crowded streets and elsewhere, there glitters, though defaced by sin, a priceless gem, an immortal soul which nothing earthly, not even the great globe we inhabit and all that it contains, can redeem—nothing can, save the price paid by Him who loved us and gave Himself for us: “Ye are redeemed not with corruptible things, as silver and gold but with the precious blood of Christ ( 1 Peter 1:18). When the Israelite man paid his ransom, he became, as we have seen, in a sense his own property; but those who by faith have become sharers in the blessings of redemption, have ceased to be their own property and become that of their Redeemer; “ye are not your own, for ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).

CHRIST THE CHURCH’S SURE FOUNDATION The beautiful shining foundation made of the ransom silver, worth forty thousand pounds sterling, constituted a very costly basis, from which our thoughts not unnaturally rise to an infinitely more valuable one, even to Him “who gave Himself a ransom for all.” Prophets and apostles alike testify that He is the sure foundation on which the spiritual edifice rests. Had the sockets not been made of the atonement money as commanded (Exodus 30:16; Exodus 38:27), but of some other material, God certainly would not have acknowledged the tabernacle as His palace-temple. He never would have enthroned Himself in visible symbol on the mercy seat. In like manner, those who substitute their own good works, or anything else, in the room of the Redeemer, on which to build their hope of salvation, are building on the sand, and cannot form a part of that building which is an “habitation of God through the Spirit,” for “other foundation can no man lay than is laid, which is Christ Jesus.” Rest, then, on Him, and on Him alone, and your hope will be founded on Rock that will never fail you, and you will be one of the living stones of the great spiritual temple, and He who dwelt between the cherubim will dwell in you, and be your God.

I stand upon His merit, I know no other stand;
Not e’en where glory dwelleth In Immanuel’s land.