Tent Stakes and Tent Cords…

Exodus 25:1-9(KJV)

And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring me an offering: of every man that giveth it willingly with his heart ye shall take my offering. And this is the offering which ye shall take of them; gold, and silver, and brass, And blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and goats’ hair, And rams’ skins dyed red, and badgers’ skins, and shittim wood, Oil for the light, spices for anointing oil, and for sweet incense, Onyx stones, and stones to be set in the ephod, and in the breastplate.  And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.  According to all that I show thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it.

I was visiting with a friend recently about a ministry he had been involved in some years ago. He supported a tent ministry and everywhere they went he worked to setup and breakdown the tent wherein were held revival services. It was a tent that required great effort to erect. It was a covering to house the moving of the Spirit of God and the people that came to find Him, a Holy Tent, a Holy Tabernacle, if you would accept it like that.

Scripture describes so well for us a picture of the tabernacle that would house the Ark of the Covenant where God would meet with the High Priest for the purposes of receiving an offering from the people to represent their Sin.

• The last 15 chapters of Exodus describe the Tabernacle in its infancy as God gives privately to Moses the plan and the construction of a place where His Spirit could meet with His creation.
• It was to be very elaborate, something very special to a people living in the wilderness!
• From their own plunder and wealth, every person brought a free-will offering to present to Moses the items needed to build the tabernacle and all the articles of furniture to be housed within.

Included in this offering were cloths woven and coupled together to use as covering for the entire tabernacle and as walls to create a courtyard wherein sacrifice was to be made. Additional cloth was used to create the garments of the priests. Specific styles of wood, along with gold, silver, brass and precious stones were offered up. Goat hair, rams skins dyed red, badger skins. Oil for light, spices for anointing, and incense.

Craftsman were named that were cunningly able to manipulate all these precious gifts into the building of the tabernacle.

Buried within all of this information, one thought kept hammering home to me some months back. With all the beauty this tabernacle presents to the people, there are some items that are so important as to keep the tabernacle upright.

• What are these important things?
• What is needed to make this House of God mobile during these wilderness years?
• Can you even imagine what those things might be?

Tent Stakes and Tent Rope

The Bible refers to these important items in a varied style of language

• Tent stakes are often called “pins” and they were to be made of brass – frequently pounding them into the ground and pulling them out required they be strong and up to the task.
• Tent Rope was often called “cords” and though no description was given of their makeup I can only imagine that they needed to be strong and able to hold back the weight of the tent material during the heat, the cold, the wind, the rain and the unrelenting sun of the wilderness.

I began to ponder tent stakes and tent rope and the important role that they play in the House of God.

• It matters little how elaborate the inside and the outside of the house may be, if there are not stakes and rope for the singular purpose of keeping the entire structure in its assigned place!
• It matters little how much the Glory Cloud is able to fill the tabernacle if the stakes and ropes do not keep the tabernacle upright!
• It matters little how many sacrifices are made for sin if the House of God cannot even stay standing!
• It matters little your victories, and the enemies defeat, if we are not strongly supporting the House of God.

Everything about the tent stakes and rope is important!

Tent Stakes

Every tent stake is craftily made to take the stress of anchoring into the ground so that God’s house doesn’t waver when the storms of this world pound against it!

At various locations around the tabernacle, tent stakes must face different trials. No two anchor points are necessarily identical.Where one faces good ground, the next might face stones.

As every stake is held into place by some willing soul, a trained man will lift up the sledge and begin to swing at the stake to pound it into the ground – through baked and hardened dirt, through rocks that need to be split in two, through the light surface level and into the hard level underneath.

Let me share this concept of anchors with you two different ways.

You need an anchor in your life! There is no better Anchor than Jesus Christ!

• You may look like you are stable, but when the storms pound into your life, without an anchor you will just blow away…
• Hebrews 6:9-20 ⁹But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak.¹⁰For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have showed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister.¹¹And we desire that every one of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end:¹²That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.¹³For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself,¹⁴Saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee.¹⁵And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.¹⁶For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife.¹⁷Wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath: ¹⁸That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: ¹⁹Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; ²⁰Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.

You need an Anchor for your Soul! You need something that can take the pounding of the sledge to drive it deep into your life to hold you when storms come. Do not trust to your own knowledge, or ability, or even spirit. You must trust Jesus!

Psalms 20:7 Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.

• When you are in the darkest time of your life, there is no other Anchor Stronger

• Than the Name that saves,
• Or the Name that causes demons to tremble,
• Or the Name that can heal,

• This is the Name above all Names!

Are You Anchored In Jesus?

The Stake is An Anchor for the House of God!

This church needs Anchors that will hold it up when the storms pound upon these walls. You are the stake that is pounded into the ground surrounding every corner of this local assembly and every one of you is a valuable part of this church!

• 1 Cor 12: 27-31 ²⁷Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular. ²⁸And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues. ²⁹Are all apostles? are all prophets? are all teachers? are all workers of miracles? ³⁰Have all the gifts of healing? do all speak with tongues? do all interpret? ³¹But covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet show I unto you a more excellent way.

This church will not last long if you are not Anchoring it Safely during your time here!

• Storms of financial ruin pound on every corner, but God owns the cattle of a thousand hills.
• Storms of demon action can pull at the weakest link and if the surrounding anchors are not strong then an entire side of the church will fail.

Are you Willing to be the Anchor of this church?

Tent Cords

Every cord is twisted into the strongest binding so that it will pull out on the walls and hold the pillars up when the weight of all nature storms against the House of God. It’s not just a simple strand, but there is strength to hold when one cord is braided with two others.

• A threefold cord is not easily broken (Ecc 4:12).

If the Stake is an Anchor, then the Cord is the Binding between God’s house and the Anchor. An anchor is no good without a chain creating the link between it and a ship.

I would like to compare the Tent Cords to the Word of God.

• Psalms 138: 2 I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.

You do not erect the House of God by yourself. Every rope I have seen is nothing more than the twisting of smaller strands.Joined together, their tensile strength is greater than what they are able to do by themselves.

• Jesus is that friend that sticketh closer than a brother, but you need others in your life to make you strong.
• My wife is my helper – when I’m down she lifts me up, when she’s down I lift her up, when we’re both up then Glory to God, when we’re both down then our struggles are many.

You need someone here to help you sharpen your edge of service.

• Proverbs 27:17 Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.
• The Word of God needs to be the integral part of your existence – Read all of Ps 119.
• They Word have I hid that I might not sin against thee…

Closing

• Jeremiah 10:18-20(KJV) For thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will sling out the inhabitants of the land at this once, and will distress them, that they may find it so.    Woe is me for my hurt! my wound is grievous: but I said, Truly this is a grief, and I must bear it. My tabernacle is spoiled, and all my cords are broken: my children are gone forth of me, and they are not: there is none to stretch forth my tent any more, and to set up my curtains.

My tabernacle is spoiled…..All my cords are broken…

Do not let it be said that you…

• Did not have an anchor firmly entrenched in Jesus that helped to support you and this church.
• Did not have the Word firmly entwined in your life to bear the weight of the court and tabernacle..
• Who will be a tent stake in this church today?
• Who will be the tent cord in this church today?