Corner Boards And Corner Stones

by Keates, A. G. | Category: General | Oct 1987

When the Lord had brought the children of Israel out of Egypt into the desert, He said to Moses, "Let them make Me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them" (Ex. 25:8). They made a sanctuary, not to their own design, but to the pattern given by the Lord. This sanctuary, the focal point for their worship during forty nomadic years in the desert and beyond, was a portable structure of components suitably sized for carrying by the three families of the sons of Levi.

Being a tangible building, the tabernacle was substance for them, but for us it is a shadow or a parable for the present time. Its teaching has to be grasped if there is to be a divine testimony and meaningful collective worship today. In the complex as a whole and in every component there are lessons.

Surrounded by a court of fine twined linen hangings the forty six boards and two corner boards were set vertically to form three sides of the two chambers called the holy place and the most holy place.

To understand the lesson of the two corner boards which have a separate identity from the other forty six boards it might help if we look at the teaching of the corner stone, used in figure several times in Scripture.

The essential difference between a corner stone and other stones in a wall is that the corner stone has two exposed faces while other stones have one. From the two exposed faces of the corner stone three dimensions are projected, length, breadth and height, three dimensions common to every building. Stones in a wall are laid to a line projected from the corner stone, the strength and utility of the wall depending on such alignment.

The position of a corner stone fixes the location of a building, governs its aspect (the way it faces) and establishes its uprightness. The Lord God said, "Behold I lay in Zion for a foundation a Stone, a tried Stone, a precious Corner Stone of sure foundation ... and I will make judgement the line and righteousness the plummet (Is. 28:16,17). The New Testament attests that the Corner Stone is Christ, the Chief Corner Stone, to whom living stones are aligned. Any other datum is false.

The two corner boards are linked with the six rear boards (Ex. 26:23) and numbered with them (Ex. 26:25). Boards standing together have been likened to disciples in collective testimony, shoulder to shoulder as it were. That testimony is "in the Lord", without whom there can be no standing. "Stand fast in the Lord" (Phil. 4:1; 1 Thes. 3:8).

When the work of making all the parts was finished, Moses reared up the tabernacle, setting the furniture in place and erecting the court and the screen of the gate, working from the centre to the perimeter and not the other way round. Witnesses would have seen the golden boards set up on their sockets of silver, the corner boards first, as they were critical in setting out the complex, ensuring that each elevation would face in the direction commanded by the Lord, "the hinder part of the tabernacle westward" (Ex. 26:22).

As the tabernacle boards are in line with the corner boards, so the disciples of the Lord must be in line with Him at all times. To be out of line is a common expression and we must be careful that it is not descriptive of us in relation to our Lord. We can prevent this by keeping our eyes on Him. "Mark the perfect man and behold the upright (Ps. 37:37).

Keates, A. G. | Oct 1987
General