88 The Tabernacle the pillars that upheld the veil, a total of one-hundred silver sockets formed the foundation of the tabernacle. As each pair of sockets weighed ninety pounds, the cost of the foundation was very great; it has been estimated that this atonement money weighed more than four tons. The redemption money, put to this use by Moses, was doubtless in the mind of the Apostle Peter when, many centuries later, he wrote to his fellow-Christians, saying that Christ had become the Foundation-Stone of the church at a very costly price, even His own precious blood. This, in part, is what Peter said, "Ye know that ye were not redeemed with corrupt- ible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conver- sation received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: who verily was foreor- dained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you" (I Peter 1:18-20). And the Apostle Paul, writing to the Corinthian Chris- tians, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, said, "Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ" (I Cor. 3: 11). There is no other way of access to a holy God than by the blood-stained cross of His only begotten Son, our Saviour. We turn to Exodus 30: 11-16 to learn how this silver for the atonement money was obtained. When the count was taken of the number of the children of Israel, the Lord commanded that every male over twenty years of age-able to go to war-should pay half a shekel of silver as the atonement money. By this act he confessed that he was a sinner, that he deserved to die, and that, by faith in the promised Redeemer, he brought to God the redemp- tion money. The rich were not to bring more; the poor
89 The Tabernacle were not to bring less than the God-appointed sum. Thus all acknowledged that they had "sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3: 23). In the free-will offerings it was not so; each man gave according to his ability. But the price of the redemption money was desig- nated by Jehovah Himself. In this way He was teaching His fallen creatures that natural birth did not admit them into His family, that every sinner had to be "born again" (John 3:3-8), if he would enter into the kingdom of God. Even from the time God made the "coats of skins" for Adam and Eve, to clothe them, He has been teaching sin- ful man that "it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul" (Lev. 17:11). It was when Israel was being numbered that the atone- ment money was received for Jehovah. Does this not re- mind us of the vital fact that we should number among God's people only those who profess to believe in the shed blood of Christ for their salvation? Let us beware of estimating the number of Christians by the population of countries called Christian; for the only true Christians are those who have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, those who have accepted personally the ransom which the Lord has provided. In Exod. 38:25-27 we find that the vast sum of silver paid by those who brought to Moses the redemption money was presented by 603,550 men, each paying his half-shekel. This was the number of men able to go to war. They had been "saved to serve." And is this not ever God's plan for His own? He uses His redeemed children to do His service, to tell others and yet others of His "great salva- tion." We have seen that the tabernacle was a type of the church of Christ, and that the silver foundation fore-
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