The Tabernacle Bars

The Tabernacle bars…Ex 26:26-29, May, 20, 2008

26 “And you shall make bars of acacia wood: five for the boards on one side of the tabernacle,
27 “five bars for the boards on the other side of the tabernacle, for the far side westward.
28 “The middle bar shall pass through the midst of the boards from end to end.
29 “You shall overlay the boards with gold as holders for the bars, and overlay the bars with gold.
30 “ And you shall raise up the tabernacle according to its pattern which you were shown on the mountain.
Do you remember the little children’s chorus? :
“BUILDING UP THE TEMPLE?
That is what were talking about in these scriptures…building the tabernacle of God…and where does He abide today?
In the lives of His people, amen?
This is going to be good tonight! When I was looking at this material; these scriptures and especially this verse that says “And you shall raise up the tabernacle according to its pattern which you were shown on the mountain
My heart sort of said …pitter patter …so lets get at ‘er
Let us consider the purpose of the bars tonight and see their parallel reflected in the N.T. and what they mean to you and I.
The bars consolidated or kept the whole as one. The boards already had two tenons that fit into the silver sockets and sort of clung to the foundation…they were fitly framed together…The nkjv puts it thusly in Eph. 2:21 “in Whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord” Notice the word “grows” here…we are His temple but we are not instantly perfected are we? We grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord, can you say amen? Hallelujah! The whole building fitted together…Bezaleel fitted everything together…he saw to it that it was properly fitted..the Spirit does that as we yield to His will in our lives..and the next verse says “in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.” We are the dwelling place of God tonight! Some of you are thinking …right! I know him and he isn’t all that great …who does he think he is anyway? I’m a slow learner and therefore He is still working on me…have patience cause I’m going to make it by His grace.
The boards were fitly framed together but they still required strengthening in their lateral support. They needed to be kept from falling sideways. They had a relationship to the boards beside each other but not to the whole.
The boards are of no value to the temple as long as they remain individual boards just as stones are of no value to a building as long as they stay individual stones or in a rock pile. They must be drawn out and chosen by the mason and placed where he wills…isn’t this good?? Look at what Peter describes us as in 1 Peter 2:3-5. We offer up sacrifices…
It took specialized workmanship, called of God like Bezaleel was to place these “lively” stones into a temple for the Living God…it takes the Holy Spirit to work this in our lives and He uses specific ministries to accomplish His goals. He gives “gifts unto men” and I’m not talking about material things but I’m speaking about certain specific ministries that He places within the true church of the Living God.
Notice what verse 1-3 says here in 1Peter 2, “Therefore laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the Word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.” We, in order to be a living stone must lay aside all malice…and we must lay aside all deceit, we must lay aside all hypocrisy, we must lay aside envy….and all evil speaking…I must daily put off the “old man and his deeds” I must daily “put on Christ” You have to choose to love someone…love is a choice and it must be unconditional to really be love. That is why there are so many broken homes today and we need to be on guard always, amen?
We will see as we go on in the ministry of the bars…
There were five bars on three walls each facing in a specific direction…nothing was haphazard, five northward, five southward, and five westward…the front had pillars for the gates…we’ll talk about them later, but not tonight. The walls had one center bar that went the entire length of the wall, the other four went halfway two above the center bar and two below. They were made from the acacia wood covered with gold…today we would call them poles. Each board had three gold rings, one in the middle, one halfway to the bottom and one halfway to the top.The poles were slid through the rings.
This made one solid steadfast wall. And yet it was portable. It had to be portable. Can you imagine the work involved in setting up and tearing down? When God says it is time to move on we had better be ready. We’d better know what is required of each one of us.
All the bars including the center one were made of wood and gold ,…let’s detail this picture of the wall:
Each board was cut from one individual tree, to say that in another way…each board was once a tree;
Each tree had to have its own personal cutting down..each one had to be severed as an individual tree;
In order for this to happen each one of them had to submit to the craftsmen’s axe. . Each tree had to have its branches cut off and be hewn into a board. Each board had to be individually clothed in gold. Each board had to have its hand grasped to the foundation.
However there is still more to be done before Gods plan can be finalized…they must come together as one wall, as one building for Gods’ dwelling place. Read those two verses from Eph. 5:21,22 “In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord: In whom ye also are builded together for a habitation of God through the Spirir” Gods’ habitation is you and I tonight.
So what is the meaning of the bars and rings that we read about in Ex? The answer is found in the fourth chapter of Eph. Verses 4-6, “There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling: one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all”
The rings were gold speaking of Diety…no humanity in pure gold. And what is the specific purpose? To keep the bars in place so that the bars can keep all the boards together as one body. Notice what it says here in Eph.
One Body.
One Spirit. One Lord.
One God…there is only one God and we call Him Jesus.!!!
Look at verses 8-10 of Eph. 4
Over in Isaiah ch.11 vs. 1-10 speaks of Jesus coming in power and He is referred to the rod of Jesse
This center rod of Jesse, humanity clothed with Diety, reaches from Eternity to Eternity, from God to earth and to Hell and back to God. Rev. 22:13, John 1: 1-3, Micah 5:2,
Each wall only has one long bar, it is the longest bar in the whole tabernacle and holds all the boards and bars together
The entire wall is held together by this bar.
Col. 1:17 – He is before all things and by Him all things consist
The word consist in the original is really saying – in Him all things have been permanently framed together
Col. 2:9-10, Rom. 8:35
These four bars – wood overlay with gold are kept in place by the three golden rings and these too have a ministry to the boards.
The boards are standing on the foundation but are maintained and are effective because of the center bar which is supplemented by the other four.
This is the ministry found in Eph. 4:11-16
We need to do the following –
To come into the unity of the faith
And the knowledge of the Son of God
Unto a perfect man
Unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ
And if we do that we will –
henceforth be no more children
Won’t be tossed to and fro
Carried about with every wind of doctrine
But we will speak the Word in truth
Grow up in Him in all things and the end result will be the whole fittly framed together
If we are grounded in His redemption, we have a sure foundation
We are the boards bound to one another by the center bar which is our Lord Jesus Christ- a sure foundation
When we are supported and ministered to by the four bars we surely are fittly framed together………. A habitation of God through the Spirit