Exodus 38:31
And the sockets of the court round about, and the sockets of the court gate, and all the pins of the tabernacle, and all the pins of the court round about. And the sockets of the court round about, and the sockets of the court gate, and all the pins of the tabernacle, and all the pins of the court round about.
The verse records the bases of the courtyard all around and of its entrance, together with all the pegs belonging to the dwelling and to the courtyard, as part of the finished inventory of the sanctuary and its furnishings. It stands in the account of Exodus 35-40 of preparing and erecting the tabernacle in obedience to the directions of Exodus 25-30, after the events of Exodus 19-32, with the dwelling raised on the first day of the first month of the second year after the Exodus. Those bases and pegs were fashioned just as the Lord directed, as part of the completed house over which His blessing and glory came in token of His acceptance of the people's repentance. The dwelling so built was the sacred place God commanded Israel to make from willing offerings that He might live among them and center their worship there, made not after human fancy but exactly after the pattern shown to Moses by craftsmen endowed with wisdom. Its minute detail was written for instruction as an earthly pattern and figure of the heavenly sanctuary and of Christ's priestly work, a beautiful object-lesson given after deliverance from Egypt to teach by forms and rites the great plan of salvation.
Tabernacle Building Record
Exodus 38:31 inventories the sockets of the court round about and the sockets of the court gate, and all the pins of the tabernacle and all the pins of the court round about, among the construction details of the sanctuary and its services. It belongs to the laws and instructions given through Moses, including ceremonial matters that show the substance of the new dispensation through the shadows of the old. These fittings were part of the sanctuary God instructed Israel to build as a place for Him to dwell among them, made according to the pattern shown to Moses. The earthly sanctuary and its construction were a pattern and type of the heavenly sanctuary, and its furnishings and services pointed to Christ and His work, its typical service ending at Christ's death. It belongs to the account of the sanctuary's construction, where the Lord's directions were explicitly carried out.
The verse belongs to the account of preparing and fitting the tabernacle, which was set up on the first day of the first month of the second year after the Exodus. It belongs to the record in Exodus 35-40 of how Israel carried out God's directions for building the sanctuary and making its furniture given in Exodus 25-30. Those who place it in Exodus 33-40 teach that it records the building and setting up of the sanctuary, coming in chronological order after the events of Exodus 19-32 and carrying out the instruction concerning the sanctuary given to Moses in the mount in Exodus 25-31. It was not left to man's fancy but built exactly after the pattern God showed, by men specially endowed with wisdom, under penalty of death for disregard.
The tabernacle structure so described was thirty cubits long, ten cubits wide and ten cubits high, with two apartments separated by a veil, the holy place twenty cubits long, ten wide and ten high occupying two-thirds, and the most holy place a perfect ten-cubit cube. Its sides and west end were upright boards of acacia wood overlaid with gold so it looked like gold, secured at the bottom by tenons fitting into sockets or bases of silver weighing a talent each set in the ground, and held at the top by bars through rings. Curtains reached the ground along the sides. It was covered with a surpassingly beautiful ceiling of fine-twined linen wrought with needlework and angels, with a tent roof of goat's hair, red ram-skins and seal skins over it, and was entered from the east so the ministering priest with his back to the entrance faced west, unlike sun-worship. This is part of the minute description of the worldly sanctuary built in the days of Moses exactly according to the pattern shown in the mount.
The entrance pillars of the tabernacle stood on five brass sockets, a detail noted alongside the verse, which itself names the court sockets and the tabernacle and court pins without further explanation. The court sockets and the tabernacle and court pins were made as the Lord directed, as part of the completed building over which God's blessing and glory came. The sanctuary's inauguration and the manifestation of God's glory showed His acceptance of the people's repentance.
Sanctuary Purpose Foreshadowed
The sanctuary means a sacred or holy place which God commanded Israel to build in the wilderness and asked them to make from free-will offerings so that He might dwell among them and center their worship there and reveal His love, until driven away by persistent sin. It was not left to man's fancy but was made exactly according to the pattern shown to Moses in the mount, by workmen specially endowed with wisdom, under penalty of death for disregard. The marvelously beautiful sanctuary was given after Israel's deliverance from Egyptian bondage with a mighty hand, when hundreds of years of slavery had unfitted them to comprehend God's great salvation and the character He required. It was given as a great multiple object-lesson which by various forms and rites would teach the great plan of salvation.
The minute description of the worldly sanctuary is part of Scripture written for instruction and is an earthly pattern and type of the heavenly sanctuary and Christ's priestly work. It belongs to ceremonial matters that show the substance of the new dispensation through the shadows of the old. Its furnishings and services pointed to Christ and His work, and its typical service ended at Christ's death. The portable tabernacle with its court and fittings was later replaced by Solomon's temple, and both were earthly centers of worship with worship and service focused on the most holy place, where God's law rested beneath the mercy seat.