Whenever a census was taken, the half shekel reminded them they were “bought with a price.”
A piece of timber is very weak by itself, but gains strength by having a good foundation, and by being tied to other pieces. So it was with the tabernacle, and so it is with God’s people. What was the foundation under each board or frame? “You shall make forty sockets of silver under the twenty boards: two sockets under each of the boards” (Ex 26:19). What! Silver laid in the dust? Yes, that’s correct. And so it was when Christ laid His glory in the dust (see Ps 7:5, Darby) to redeem the creatures of dust. Where did the silver come from? There were 603,550 men of fighting age. Each, whether rich or poor, was to give “half a shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary…an offering to the Lord” (Ex 30:13). That’s about a quarter of an ounce each, and was called “a ransom for his soul unto the Lord” (v 12, kjv). The total: “one hundred talents and one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five shekels” (38:25). There were 48 boards, requiring 96 bases, plus four bases for the pillars of the veil. The silver given by the 600,000 came to five tons! Thus each board rested on the ransom of 12,500 souls. The rest of the silver, amounting to 1,775 shekels, was to fashion the silver caps on the pillars of the courts. Imagine! The One who laid Himself down to be the Cornerstone has also been lifted up to be the Capstone of the building! Some say these boards must speak of Christ, for they are fashioned from the same wood and gold as the ark. Yes, but now it is Christ displayed in His mystical body “being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit” (Eph 2:22). Only one Son came from glory, but now He is “bringing many sons to glory” (Heb 2:10). We by grace, like those boards, can allow the beauty of the Lord to shine through us.