Exodus 38:11
And for the north side the hangings were an hundred cubits, their pillars were twenty, and their sockets of brass twenty; the hooks of the pillars and their fillets of silver. And for the north side the hangings were an hundred cubits, their pillars were twenty, and their sockets of brass twenty; the hooks of the pillars and their fillets of silver.
Exodus 38:11 records the north side of the court of the wilderness sanctuary, with hangings of fine-twined linen a hundred cubits long carried on twenty pillars standing in twenty sockets of brass, joined by silver hooks and bands. It belongs to the minute account of the earthly sanctuary built in the wilderness at God's command, whose instructions were given to Moses in the mount and then carried out by divinely endowed workmen. The sanctuary was given after deliverance from Egyptian bondage as a great object-lesson of the plan of salvation, that God might dwell among His people and reveal His love. Its fine linen represents the righteousness of the saints received through Christ, yet the whole wilderness structure was only typical of the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched and not man, pointing to the Lamb of God until it passed away forever at the death of Christ.
Sanctuary Setting and Construction
Exodus belongs to the worship division of the Bible's second book, chapters 25 to 40, whose name means going out and recalls the departure of Israel from Egypt after they had grown more and mightier than the Egyptians. Delivered from bitter bondage and oppression, Israel became a nation with thorough organization, efficient leadership, a complete code of laws, and an established form of worship. The verse stands in the very minute account of the earthly sanctuary built by Israel in the wilderness at God's command, made exactly according to the pattern shown to Moses in the mount. That account first gives God's instructions to Moses in the mount in Exodus 25-31 and then records the building and setting up that carried out the Lord's directions in Exodus 35-38.
The tabernacle thus prepared and fitted was set up on the first day of the first month of the second year after the Exodus. It was given after deliverance from Egyptian bondage as a great multiple object-lesson by forms and rites to teach the great plan of salvation, because slavery had unfitted Israel to comprehend God's salvation and required character. It was the dwelling place God asked the people to make so He could dwell among them and reveal His love, built by workmen specially endowed by God according to the divine pattern given to Moses in the mount. It was a movable, worldly sanctuary first pitched in the wilderness after God brought Israel out from under Pharaoh across the Red Sea, built in the heart of the wilderness as a movable dwelling-place that God might dwell among men, with its dimensions, material, furnishings and all exactly according to the explicit directions given to Moses in the mount in Exodus 25 to 31 and described in Exodus 25 to 40.
The verse records the north side of the court, one hundred cubits of fine-twined linen hangings supported by twenty pillars set in twenty brass or bronze sockets, with silver hooks and connecting bands or fillets, enclosing the court. It belongs to the laws given through Moses, which include instructions about offerings, sacrifices, and the sanctuary as well as moral and civil laws. The court itself was one hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide, and five cubits high. The sanctuary building had sides of upright boards set in silver sockets and held by bars, with curtains forming the roof and reaching the ground along the sides.
The worship of that sanctuary centered on the holy of holies, where the law of God rested beneath the mercy seat. The account of building and inaugurating the sanctuary and its services ends with blessing and glory coming upon the congregation and the completed building. That manifestation of God's glory showed His acceptance of the people's repentance.
Purpose and Symbolism
The north-side hangings belong to the detailed provision for Israel's sanctuary, the dwelling place God asked the people to make so that He might dwell among them and reveal His love. That side was a hundred cubits of fine-twined linen, carried on twenty pillars set in twenty bronze sockets, with silver hooks and connecting bands. The fine linen itself represents the righteousness of the saints, which they receive through Christ, who is their righteousness.
That wilderness sanctuary was a movable dwelling-place in the heart of the wilderness, first pitched after God brought Israel out from under Pharaoh across the Red Sea, with its dimensions, material, furnishings and all exactly according to the explicit directions given to Moses in the mount in Exodus 25 to 31 and described in Exodus 25 to 40. Though it answered every purpose for which it was constructed, it was always typical of and foreshadowed the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched and not man. It served unto the shadow of heavenly things, with all its rites pointing to the Lamb of God, until with the death of Christ and the rending of the veil it passed away entirely and forever.