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The Tabernacle shadowed His redemptive work on the cross. All the boards of incorruptible wood, covered over with gold, stood upon the redemption price, the atonement money of God's people. Every board of shittim wood was tenoned and mortised into the sockets of silver, even as every mem- ber of the true church is united to Christ, rests upon Him, and can not be separated from Him. If that is not true of you, my friend, then you are not a member of the church of the living God. You may be in The Church of England or The Church of Rome; you may belong to one denomination or another. But unless you are joined to Christ, unless He is the sole Foundation upon which you rest, you are not in the church of God. The Jewish tabernacle had no other foundation than that of the silver sockets; yet it was never blown down. It braved every desert storm. The wilderness is a place of rough winds; it is called a "howling wilderness." But the sockets of silver held the boards upright, and the tent de- fied the rage of the elements. Even so the born-again child of God can testify to the eternal truth that Christ, the Foundation-Stone of the church, is the only sure Foun- dation against all the storms and shifting sands of the wilderness which is this godless world. Satan may do his worst; the church of the Lord Jesus will stand for all eter- nity. "The gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Matt. 16: 18). These are the words of our living Lord! Each hoard of the tabernacle was provided with two tenons-not one, but two; and each tenon was imbedded in its own socket. The word for "tenon" is "hand," sug- gesting the hand of faith which lays hold upon the :finished work of Christ for a standing before God. My friend, does the hand of your faith reach out after God? Here is the divine provision for it in the work of Christ. Each
91 The Tabernacle board stood upon two sockets. Why two? ~ecause two is the number of competent witness and testlillony. The law of Moses said that "at the mouth of two witnesses" a thing should be established (Deut. 17:6). Under t~e Jewish law a murderer was stoned. to death on the testi- mony of two witnesses. Thus two 1s the number of com- petent witness; and the two sockets for each h~ard_ in the tabernacle suggest that we know that our salvation 1s ete~- nally secure! Because God's Word is "forever settled m heaven," we may know that we are saved, for all the end- less ages! Moreover, our Lord Himself said, "If two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven" (Matt. 18: 19). Again, as each board stood upon two socke_ts, so also the same, equal grace is provided for each believe_r. No Christian is more saved than another, however vaned the capacities of the different members of_ :he c~urch may be. Temperaments, experience, opportumt1es differ; hut not the gift of God's grace in saving the souls of men! A groove was made in the socket for the tenon so that, when the hoard went down in the socket, the tenon was the exact size for the place provided for it. There is noth- ing that fits so perfectly the poor sinner's need as does the work of Christ. Faith drops its hand into the place pro- vided for it. Then, just as the tenons, imbedded in the sockets were invisible, so also the believer does not parade his own faith. It is not on exhibition, but is hidden in that upon which it rests. Now the boards were not sus- pended from the sockets; they did not hold on to them; they rested upon them. So also the believer is not clinging to Christ, or holding on to salvation, as though all de-
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