TABERNACLE Quick Facts no.3
A FOUNDATION OF SILVER
The tabernacle proper rested on 100 silver foundation stones, each weighing approximately 100lbs. That’s 10,000 lbs or five tons of silver! Silver is the currency of redemption. Slaves in the old testament times were redeemed with silver. Joseph was sold by his siblings to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver Gen. 37:28. Jesus fulfilled prophecy when he was betrayed and delivered into corrupt hands by Judas Iscariot for thirty pieces of silver Zech. 11:12.
Where would all the precious metal needed for the tabernacle foundation come from? In Exodus 30 God gave these instruction to Moses regarding the means of procuring such a large amount of silver.
EXODUS 30:11-15
11 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 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. 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. 14 Every one that passeth among them that are numbered, from twenty years old and above, shall give an offering unto the LORD. 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.
Half a shekel was a minuscule amount. In today’s value it is the equivalent of a dollar or two. Both rich and poor could participate in this offering. This demonstrates that our redemption is not in any ability or resource of our own.
The silver foundation, because of it’s association with the price of redemption, further pictures the blood atonement as the foundation of our redemption as New Testament believers.
I PETER 1:18-19
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; 19 But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:
The silver sockets of the tabernacle have long ago been lost. How good it is to know that the foundation of the cleansing and atoning blood of Calvary still stands!
