Exodus 38:29-31 says, “And the bronze of the wave offering was seventy talents, and two thousand four hundred shekels. And with it he made the sockets for the entrance of the Tent of Meeting...and the sockets around the court and the sockets of the gate of the court and all the pegs of the tabernacle and all the pegs around the court.” Verse 27 says, “And the hundred talents of silver were for casting the sockets of the sanctuary and the sockets of the veil; one hundred sockets for the hundred talents, a talent for a socket.” The primary use of the bronze was as a base, a foundation. Likewise, the silver was also mainly used for the base and support of the tabernacle. The fence surrounding the outer court was based on bronze sockets (v. 31), and all the boards and the pillars of the tabernacle were based on the silver sockets and had silver hooks and connecting rods” (vv. 27-28). This indicates that all the experiences of the tests, the trials, the temptations, and the judgment which Christ suffered, and all the experiences of the redemption of Christ are something for the foundation, for the base, of the building of the church. The more we experience the tests and the trials which Christ suffered, and the more we experience the redemption which Christ accomplished, the more we will have something for the foundation of the building of the church.
We must have all the experiences of the suffering of Christ and of the redemption accomplished by Christ as the foundation for the building of the church, and we must also have the experience of God’s nature as the manifestation of what God is. When people come to the church, the first thing they should see is the manifestation of God’s glorious nature, typified by the gold upon the boards of the tabernacle. Whoever would go into the tabernacle, would immediately see the shining gold. Likewise, anyone who comes into the church must see something of God’s divine nature shining among us, the manifestation of the divine nature as typified by the gold. This manifestation of the divine nature is based upon the experiences of the sufferings of Christ and the redemption accomplished by Christ. We have to experience Christ as the bronze, the silver, and the gold, that we may have something to offer as material for the building.
In the picture of the tabernacle, the foundation of the outer court is bronze. Outside the tabernacle, in the outer court, were the attacks of rain and wind. To stand against and suffer every kind of attack, the foundation of the outer court needed the bronze as its material. However, under the boards of the tabernacle itself, there were sockets of silver. This does not indicate the suffering, but rather the redemption of the cross. From the redemption of the cross comes the divine nature of God. All the gold that overlaid the boards was based upon the silver sockets. In the experiences of the believers, the silver follows the bronze, and the gold follows the silver. The redemption of Christ comes from the sufferings of Christ and the experience of the divine nature is based upon the redemption of Christ.