Article 53 actually began on page 5 of the December issue of The Midnight Cry, though it is not indicated, at the top of the center column. The title of the article should be “THE FOUNDATION AND WALLS OF THE TABERNACLE."
      The walls of the tabernacle had a foundation of 96 silver sockets: 40 sockets each on the north and south sides of the tabernacle, and 16 sockets on the west or back end. The front of the tabernacle faced east. The boards were made of acacia wood, overlaid with gold, were about 15 feet high, 27 inches wide, and 18 inches thick.
      Each board had two (evidently large) dowel-like tenons which extended down into two silver sockets, one tenon in each socket: each silver socked weighed a talent (about 91 pounds). There were 20 boards on each north and south side of the tabernacle, and 8 boards on the back or west end. The 48 boards required 96 silver sockets total. The two corner boards of the back end of the tabernacle were coupled together by an evidently strong gold ring at both the top and the bottom, and formed both the northwest and southwest corners of the tabernacle.
      There were five bars or poles of acacia wood overlaid with gold on each side and back of the tabernacle. One of the bars (invisible to the eye) ran through the middle of all twenty boards of each side and the back. Two bars ran separately through strong gold rings in each board in the upper half of all the boards. And likewise two bars ran separately through gold rings in the bottom half of the twenty boards on each side, and the same pattern with the eight boards in the back end of the tabernacle.

      26 "And you shall make bars of acacia wood: five for the boards on one side of the tabernacle,
      27 "five bars for the boards on the other side of the tabernacle, and five bars for the boards of the (back) side of the tabernacle, for the far side westward.
      28 "The middle bar shall pass through the midst of the boards from end to end.
      29 "You shall overlay the boards with gold, make their rings of gold as holders for the bars, and overlay the bars with gold,” Ex 26:26-29.
      The bars or poles were made of acacia wood overlaid with gold, as were all the pillars and boards of the tabernacle structure. Again, the acacia wood spoke of the human nature of Christ and of all the firstborn sons, while the gold speaks of the divine nature which the human body of Christ received in His “new birth” resurrection from the dead, Col 1:18-19; Rev 1;5; Act 13:29-33.
      The gold also prophesied of the “new birth” resurrection of all the firstborn sons when Christ returns, Ps 17:15; Job 19:25-27; 1Co 15:44-58.
      Because of the gross misunderstanding of the new birth, we must continue to emphasize that the human body of Christ only has been born again. The faithful covenant people are only addressed as being born again in the “metaphor” of being His flesh and bone body. The church (in a metaphor) is counted to be the flesh body of Christ, and the members of the church are called the flesh and bone members of human, now born again body of Christ:
      “For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones,” Eph 4:30; 1Co 12:12-27.
      Thus our bodies, as members of His body, were crucified together with Christ as His body; died together as His body, were buried together as His body, and were “born again” together with Him out of the grave as His body, Rom 6:2-5; 2Co 4:10-12; Gal 2:20; 5:24. We have been born again only in the metaphor of being His human now deified body.
      Again let it be emphasized that neither our spirit nor our body has been born again. Only in the metaphor of being the body of Christ, are we counted as being born again. One who is born of God cannot sin, in his spirit or in his body:
      9 “Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God,” 1Jn 3:9.
      Remember that our mind is spirit, a necessary part of our spirit. It is not a part of our body. The brain is flesh and a part of the body, but the mind is spirit and always remains with thespirit, Lk 16:19-31; Rev 6:9-11. Observe from these passages how the spirits of the dead have members, including the mind, as a necessary part of the human spirit.
      See how the spirits communicate with one another as though still in their body, Lk 16:19-31. All the actions of our body, both good and bad, are governed by the mind of our spirit which mind is still sinful, Mt 15:1-20. After the death of our body, the spirit is still governed by the mind, as a necessary part of our spirit. The spirit and the mind do not die when the body and brain die.
      Every detail about the tabernacle structure and ministry was designed by God to bear a prophetic testimony of the unspeakably rich and eternal inheritance promised in His last will and testaments. These testaments progressively reveal the eternally increasing nature of God’s life promised in the tree of life and in all the last will and testaments, Jn 10:10. The saints willbe “born again” when Christ returns, and will continue to grow in knowledge, admiration, love, anddevotion, therefore obviously in authority, power, and deed. God (the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit) will obviously create new things in the many ages of ages to come. And the firstborn sons will be joint heirs with Christ over myriads of things still to be created in those ages of ages to come, Heb 2:5-12.
      God is infinite in all His divine attributes, and His grand design is to conform an innumerable host of firstborn sons into His divine image and likeness, on an eternally increasing basis, Rev 7:9-17. In the many ages to come, God will obviously reveal more and more of His infinite person, with each succeeding age revealing more than in ages past. The firstborn sons will, thereby, forever grow in knowledge, in understanding, in worship, in love, in experience, and in all of God’s glory, authority, and works.
      9 “But as it is written: "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him," 1Co 2:9 (9-16).
      17 “That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
      18 “May be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height -
      19 “To know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
      20 ‘Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,
      21 “To Him be glory in the church, even in Christ Jesus, in all the generations of the age of the ages. Amen,” Eph 3:17-21.
      The least of the firstborn sons will receive the full range of God’s divine attributes, and that will be immeasurably greater than all the people of the nations put together. The divine nature is that much greater than human nature, Mt 11:11.
      10 "The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life (divine life), and that they may have it more abundantly,” Jn 10:10.
      15 “But, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head, even Christ,
      16 “From whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love,” Eph 4:15-16.
      The “rings and bars” in the walls of the tabernacle, served as necessary aids in holding the boards, the walls, and therefore the whole tabernacle firmly together. Godly virtues, fitly joined together, as briefly stated in 2Pe 1:3-11, serve to stabilize our lives individually, and the whole church together, as the metaphorically “new born” body of Christ.
      Again, the silver sockets, supporting the walls and the whole tabernacle structure, address first the redemption provided by Christ in His human birth, life, death, burial, and rebirth into a divine human body. This is and will be true in both His present and future ministries. However, we must ever remember that, in the metaphor, we are His human, now deified, body. And we must be constantly bearing about in our bodies the dying of the Lord, in order to be born again into His divine state of being when Christ returns, 1Co 15:1-2,29-58.
      Without daily bearing about in our bodies “the dying of the Lord Jesus” (2Co 4:7-12), we will not live together with Him in His divine image and likeness as firstborn sons, Gal 4:19 thru 5:4; 2Pe 1:3-12; Jn 15:1-6. We must be constantly “putting off” the “old man” and “putting on” the “new man” in order to be “born again” into God’s divine image when Christ returns, 1Co 15. (to be continued)