2 Corinthians 3:18
“18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.”
What in the world does this verse have to do with the the golden boards of the tabernacle? If you were asking yourself that question, I’m glad you did! As you know, at one time there was no New Testament. The Apostle Paul wrote approx. 3/4 of it when he penned his letters to the Churches.
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Where did he get his revelations? The Holy Spirit illuminated the Old Covenant for him! That’s why everything in the New Testament is hidden somewhere in the Old. It’s sort of like a dictionary, or Pictionary, of the New. Think of it like an expanded view, filled with wonderful pictures, descriptions, and visual aids. Though all the spiritual truths, tenets, and doctrines we believe and follow are found in the New Testament, the clarifying explanations, descriptions, and details are all found in the Old. These pictures, descriptions, events, and laws are recorded specifically by the Holy Spirit, our Master Storyteller, for our learning and benefit. 💖
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How Does God See You?
Our Heavenly Father sees you and I as equally precious, bright, and shining, like the purest gold, and so valuable as to be priceless. That is just one of the truths the Tabernacle shows us. 💖
The golden boards formed the walls of the Holy Place and Holy of Holies. They were actually made of wood…more precisely, acacia wood…and overlaid with gold. Acacia wood is considered incorruptible because it is very dense, resistant both to disease and insects, just like cedar.
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There were 48 boards in all, each of them standing upright, not laying down. Why 48? Because the Bible says of you and I in the New Testament that we are “In Christ,” 48 times! AWESOME! 🥰
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Typologies.
Wood in the Bible is a typology of humanity. Trees, in that they grow out of the earth, typify man since we were made out of the dust of the earth. The Acacia in tree is most descriptive because it grows in very dry, dusty, desert-like places.
Remember in Genesis 3 where the curse is voiced by God? He said that the devil would “Crawl on his belly and eat dust.” Therefore, this tree is a picture of fallen humanity rooted in this cursed earth; dry and dusty. As long as we are rooted in the dusty, cursed earth, i.e. “unsaved,” he {the devil} can pick our number out of the “hat” any time he wants. We are completely defenseless. 😭
But God doesn’t stop there. He goes on to say that each board is completely encased in gold. Gold in the Bible, as you read in part 1, is a picture of Divine righteousness. EVERY BELIEVER is completely encased in it and protected on ALL sides. Again, HALLELUJAH! 🙌🏻
Gold And Silver.
Silver, on the other hand, depictions redemption. Every time you see it mentioned in the Bible, understand that the Holy Spirit is talking about us as the redeemed of the Lord. Silver trumpets, for example, when sounded, are shouting forth our redeemed status!
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Eternally Secure.
So we, who are made of wood, have been cut off from the curse of this world. We are completely surrounded and encased in Divine righteousness, forever secure, rooted and grounded in the silver of redemption in Christ as bought and paid for by His finished work at the cross! Our salvation is eternally secure! 💖
How God Sees You.
All of the Golden boards are facing each other. They are exactly the same size and shape as every other board, not one above another. Each “Board” can only “See,” as it were, the golden exterior of every other “board.”
When problems arise in the church, it is most often because we fail to “See” every other believer in this way: To “See” their golden exterior…the way God sees them. By overlooking the golden covering and seeing the wood underneath, we find fault. When we do that, we are not realizing that, by focusing on the other’s “board,” we forget about the “Plank” in our own. That is what Jesus was referring to in Matthew 7:3.
Christ In Us; Us In Christ.
All the boards are bound together by two gold-overlaid bars on their exterior and one running right down the middle of them which cannot be seen from outside. This is a depiction of Christ IN us, the Hope of Glory! He is inside; hidden from view.
All believers are held together by Jesus as it says in Ephesians 2:21. “In whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord,”
Hid With Christ In God.
The entire tabernacle is covered by a tent made of animal skins. None of the “golden boards” i.e. us, are visible to the world, again a picture of us as “Hid with Christ in God.” The coverings of the Tabernacle are even more amazing pictures of Jesus which we will cover in depth in Part 9 of this series.
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Remember Who first made coats of skin to cover man? It was God. He made them for Adam and Eve in the Garden. They only had His covering on the outside. But this tabernacle is a picture of what God ultimately had in mind: Jesus inside and, while we are still in our fallible, mortal bodies, we have His covering outside. Occasionally as we walk through life, we will commit sins, but they are immediately taken away by Jesus’ covering.
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The Ark Of The Covenant.
In the Holiest place of all, the Kadosh HaKadoshim or Holy of Holies, is the Ark of the Covenant. This is a picture of our altogether lovely One, our JESUS! He is our Heavenly Mercy Seat! The golden boards are all surrounding and facing “Him” in the Holy of Holies, beholding and reflecting His glory! Of course since Jesus died, there is no more Holy Place because the veil was torn from top to bottom!
Transformed From Glory To Glory.
The Holy Spirit is painting a beautiful picture here of 1 Corinthians 3 that, “We are transformed from glory to glory simply by beholding His glory!” You see, it is impossible to be transformed into His image without continually beholding Him. In so doing, we are just as surely a reflection of Him as these shiny, golden boards who, simply by abiding in His presence, reflecting back to Him His own image off their brilliant surfaces.
What an AWESOME God. He not only tells us He loves us, that we are eternally secure and precious to Him, He shows us in these beautiful pictures drawn for us in the Golden boards of the Tabernacle.
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If you’d like to follow the link below to Part 3, we’ll be talking about the Lampstand and the wonderful things it portrays:
Emmaus Road Ministries 
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