Verse 11 says, “And likewise for the north side in length there shall be hangings a hundred cubits long, and its twenty pillars and their twenty sockets of bronze; the hooks of the pillars and their connecting rods shall be of silver.” The phrase “of bronze” governs both the sockets and the pillars, just as the phrase “of silver” refers both to the hooks and the connecting rods. Therefore, both the sockets and the pillars were of bronze. Because they have followed a rather ambiguous translation, some Bible teachers may think that the pillars were made out of another material, perhaps silver or acacia wood. However, neither silver nor acacia wood fits the picture, and neither of these matches the spiritual significance here.
The bronze pillars signify Christ judged by God being the standing and supporting strength of the separation of God’s building. Christ is not only the base of the separation; He is also the standing and supporting strength of the separation. Thus, both the sockets and the pillars are Christ. But this Christ is not a glorified Christ—He is a judged Christ. Today we need to live this judged Christ. In order to express Him to others, especially to outsiders in the world, we need to be judged in our daily living. If we are judged in everything day by day, we shall express Christ as the righteousness of God.
My intention here is not simply to give teachings from the types as admonitions or exhortations to good behavior. No, here we have something more basic, more crucial. If we live Christ, we shall find that His life is a judged life. In Him there is an element of judgment. Therefore, the more we live Him, the more our daily life will be judged. This judgment will give us the base and the supporting strength to bear the righteousness of God as His expression.
With the court of the tabernacle there was a total of sixty sockets and sixty pillars: twenty on each side, ten at the rear, and ten at the front. (The front ones were arranged in two groups of three and one group of four.) The number sixty here signifies Christ in the likeness of the man of flesh (Rom. 8:3; John 3:14) being judged by God according to His righteousness. The number six is implied here. Christ was judged by God in the likeness of the man of flesh, or in the likeness of the flesh of man. In other words, Christ was fully judged by God in the flesh of man. This does not mean that Christ had fallen flesh. No, He had the likeness of fallen flesh and He was judged in this flesh. This also is an element of the judged life of Christ. In this judged life there is an element of the flesh of man being judged by God. We all are men of flesh. Our flesh must be judged, and in Christ it has been judged already. When we live Christ, we experience God’s judgment on the flesh.
The number sixty implies the number six. But if we add sixty pillars and sixty sockets, we have the number one hundred twenty. This means that eventually sixty is swallowed up by one hundred twenty. In the number one hundred and twenty we do not have the number six. How can the number six be swallowed up? This happens by having the pillars standing in the sockets. The point here is that if we live Christ, the judged life of Christ will make us sockets and also standing and supporting pillars. If we are sockets without being pillars, we are still in the number six. Likewise, if we are pillars without being sockets, we also remain in the number six. But if we are both pillars and sockets, we no longer have the number six. Instead, the number sixty is swallowed up by the number one hundred twenty.
When we live Christ, His judged life will bring our daily life under the judgment of God. Daily we shall be judged in every way. Then we shall have the sockets and also the pillars to bear the righteousness of God as His expression. This is not a teaching for the purpose of exhortation. On the contrary, this is a revelation in the Bible to show us where our salvation is. Our salvation is in the judged Christ.