Israel’s tabernacle, in the strictest sense, was the linen tapestry which first overlaid the boards which supported it.

“Thou shalt make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twined linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet: with cherubims of cunning work shalt thou make them… the five curtains shall be coupled together one to another; and other five curtains shall be coupled one to another … and couple the [two larger, 5-piece] curtains together with the taches: and it shall be one tabernacle.” (Exodus 26:1, 3)

This, in turn, was overlaid with 3 coverings: one of goat hair, one of ram skins, and above all a covering of seal skins (badgers in King James). The supporting edifice was constructed of boards standing upright, measuring 1 1/2 cubits wide, evidently 1/2 cubit thick, and standing 10 cubits tall. (Exodus 26:16) They were arranged 20 per side, and 6 in the back, with an extra board placed at each comer. We cannot be sure how those two comer boards were placed.

Each board was supported beneath by two tenons, each projecting into a socket of silver weighing one talent. The sockets, then, were the fundamental grounding of the whole structure – the foundation, so to speak. Since there were (20 + 20 + 6 + 2 =) 48 boards, there would need to be 96 sockets. (Exodus 26:17-25) But four more silver sockets were employed to hold four pillars supporting the vail leading into the most holy. (Exodus 26:32) This brings the total to 100 sockets of silver, and there were none others.

Our focus now is to identify what was symbolized by these sockets. We think it represents the ransom of our Lord, the redemption price delivered up at Calvary. Or, as silver elsewhere represents truth (Psalms 12:6), perhaps it would be more precise to say they represent the truth of the ransom doctrine – the basic foundation truth upon which the plan of atonement and redemption is laid.

To see that the silver sockets are directly linked to redemption, we investigate the origin of those sockets. The silver, as all of the elements of the tabernacle, was received from the people of Israel. (Exodus 25:1-8) But the silver was received in a different manner than the other materials, or even the other metals. Exodus 38:24 speaks of the “gold of the offering” verse 29 speaks of the “brass [copper] of the offering” but when the silver is mentioned, verse 25, it is referred to differently.

“And the silver of them that were numbered of the congregation was an hundred talents, and a thousand seven hundred and threescore and fifteen shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary: A bekah for every man, that is, half a shekel, after the shekel of the sanctuary, for every one that went to be numbered, from twenty years old and upward, for six hundred thousand and three thousand and five hundred and fifty men.” (Exodus 38:25, 26)

Rather than everyone giving as they could, the receipt of silver was as it were a tax upon the adult men, each paying the same amount, a bekah, which is 1/2 shekel.

To summarize: There were 603,550 men age 20 and up. Each gave 1/2 shekel. There are (evidently) 3000 shekels to the talent. The total, therefore, would be 100 talents, 1775 shekels of silver.

Exodus 30:12-16 explains the tax in more detail.

“When thou takest the sum of the children of Israel … then shall they give every man a ransom for his soul unto the Lord, … half a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary … shall be the offering of the Lord. Every one … from twenty years old and above, shall give … The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel … to make an atonement for your souls. And thou shalt take the atonement money of the children of Israel, and shalt appoint it for the service of the tabernacle of the congregation … to make an atonement for your souls.”

The silver sockets, then, are linked directly with the atonement of the men of Israel. The men of Israel represent mankind, so the silver sockets are tied in with the atonement of man. And that which enables the atonement of mankind is the ransom price laid down by our Lord – evidently pictured by the sockets.

But why 100? Well, it is a good round number, and if it were any “un-round” number, we might feel inclined to search for some deeper symbol in the number itself. But it does serve to link those sockets, 100 in number, to three other parts of the tabernacle (used broadly) which have the measure 100 associated with them, and also represent our Lord. They are the gate to the court, the door of the tabernacle, and the vail leading to the most holy. Each of these measures “100” in area. The gate was 20 x 5 cubits, the door and vail each 10 x 10 cubits.

Each of these represents our Lord in one sense or another. It is by faith in Christ that we first have access into the court. It is by consecration of our all to be dead with Christ that we enter into the door of the tabernacle, and begin our development as New Creatures. It is through the veil of flesh rent for us that we have subsequent access into the most holy. (Hebrews 10:20)

It is through Christ that we see the “Way” to reconciliation with God, that we subsequently are begotten by the “Truth” to become “new creatures in Christ,” and finally receive “Life” immortal if faithful unto death. Jesus is the “Way [gate], the Truth [door], and the Life [vail]: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6) The number 100 running through each of these elements of the tabernacle – the sockets, gate, door, and vail serves to link them together as all pictures of essentially the same thing from one perspective or another – in this case, the one thing being our Lord.

A LIFE OR A TALENT

The weight of the silver sockets is also noteworthy. It was a talent. A talent of silver is elsewhere referred to as the price to be paid for a man’s life, and this strengthens the identification of the talent-weight silver sockets as representing the price required for mankind’s life – the ransom.

The account is in 1 Kings 20. The King of Syria had twice attacked the ten-tribe kingdom of Israel, and the Lord had given the victory to Ahab, king of Israel. After the second battle Ahab should have slain the opposing king, Benhadad, but instead made a pact with him and spared him. For this God’s punishment was that Ahab would die. His life would go for the life of Benhadad. This judgment was communicated to Ahab in the following way. A prophet placed himself so as to intercept Ahab in his passage. The prophet pretended to be a soldier, and even arranged to be wounded to make it convincing. He told Ahab that during the battle a man delivered a captive to him with the warning “if by any means he be missing, then shall thy life be for his life, or else thou shalt pay a talent of silver.” Ahab judged the man [prophet] should therefore die, whereupon the prophet explained that just such a judgment was to befall Ahab for freeing Benhadad. (1 Kings 20:42)

The point of the story we concentrate on here is that the prophet equated the value of a life with “a talent of silver.” Why, if not to tell us that symbolically a talent of silver is representative of the ransom of a man’s life? It is very consistent, then, that the silver sockets of the tabernacle, each a talent in weight, point to the price of man’s redemption – the Ransom.

TALENT – WEIGHT HAIL STONES

We will add another reference in a more tentative vein. Silver does represent truth, as referred to earlier. So does water, and hail, which is frozen water. In Revelation 16:21 there is described a “great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent … the plague thereof was exceeding great.” This occurs in the last of the 7 plagues, Armageddon. It refers to the last great conflict which overturns the powers that be. May it not represent the hard cutting truths concerning the rights or worth or value of men (so described as a talent in weight, like the silver sockets) which are the cause for the final overturning?

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