Exodus: The Lord and His PilgrimsSample

The chosen metals

Every detail of the tabernacle is divinely commanded, including the fabrics and materials to be used. Nothing is left to human choice, nor does anything need adjustment in the course of construction. The chosen metals are gold, silver and bronze (vv. 24, 25, 29), and each is used appropriately to its place in the whole scheme. 

The altar of burnt offering is of bronze (v. 30). It is the place where the fire of divine holy wrath burns – but is propitiated and satisfied by the substitutionary offerings made there. Bronze therefore symbolises the satisfied and propitiated wrath of God. All the court curtains rest on bronze, including the pillars of the gate screen and the entrance curtain of the tent (27:16–17; 26:36–37). Everything thus rests on a basis of substitution and propitiation, especially the entrance into the court and into the tent. 

The silver used (vv. 25–28) is the redemption money of Israel (cf. 30:13–16; Lev. 27:6; Num. 3:43–51), giving silver the symbolic significance of redemption, the payment of the covering price. All the hooks from which the curtains hang are silver (27:10); the wall boards of the tabernacle rest on silver sockets (26:18–19) and so do the pillars of the veil of the Holy of Holies (26:32). 

Redemption is that on which we depend and is the basis on which we rest, giving us our secure position before God. Therefore the closer in we penetrate to where the Lord himself dwells in holiness, the more everything is of gold – the first metal of the three (38:24). The boards are overlaid with gold (26:29), as are the pillars of the door curtain and of the screen curtain of the Holy of Holies (26:32, 37). 

The only non-gold elements in the tabernacle are the bronze bases of the door screen, and the silver bases of the boards and of the inner sanctuary screen. In other words, we come via the way of substitutionary sacrifice and redemption payment into the pure gold of the divine presence. The source of much if not all this valuable metal is what Israel brought out as legitimate plunder from Egypt (12:35–36): the redeemed consecrate all the fruits of redemption to obey what the Lord commands, and to welcome in his presence at the centre of their lives.

Reflection

Jesus is our Temple (John 2:19–21), our Entrance (Heb. 10:19– 22), and our Forerunner (Heb. 6:19–20).