I was told,
“Without having a tabernacle, one is not saved.” I was
actually taken back and paused; I could not believe my ears!
This set me off into researching the Tabernacle.
Moses as described in Exodus 26 built the first Tabernacle.
First, the tabernacle is seen as a
tented palace for Israel’s divine king. He is enthroned on
the ark of the covenant in the innermost Holy of Holies (the Most
Holy Place). His royalty is symbolized by the purple of the curtains
and his divinity by the blue. The closer items are to the Holy of
Holies, the more treasured items are the metals (bronze→silver→gold)
of which they are made.
The other symbolic dimension is Eden. The tabernacle, like the
garden of Eden, is where God dwells, and various details of the
tabernacle suggest it is a mini-Eden. These
parallels include the east-facing entrance guarded by cherubim, the
gold, the tree of life (lampstand), and the tree of knowledge (the
law). Thus God’s dwelling in the tabernacle was a step toward the
restoration of paradise, which is to be completed in the new heaven
and earth (
Revelation
21-22).
The tabernacle represented Yahweh’s house among
the Israelites —He would soon encamp in his large house in their
midst, and they would encamp around his house according to their
tribes in concentric circles (Numbers 2).
He Himself was symbolically represented as dwelling in the “back
room” of his house by means of the ark.
In the tabernacle’s “front room” were several pieces of
furniture, the sorts of things that represented the furniture of a
home, though on a grander scale. The first of these pieces of
household-style furniture to be described is the table. It was
primarily for food—a dining table of sorts, symbolizing the fact
that Yahweh really did live among his people and inhabit his house in
much the same way that they inhabited theirs.
And as the storyline of redemptive history progresses, we see that
Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of these shadows:
Jesus
is the true tabernacle.
John
1:14 tells us that “the Word became flesh and
dwelt [Gk. σκηνόω] among us,” and the Greek
translation of “
tent of meeting” is σκηνὴ
μαρτυρίου (
Ex.
33:7). In other words, when Jesus became the
God-man he “tabernacled” among us. (And of course Jesus spoke
about “the temple of his body” [
John
2:19,
21],
and Paul taught that because we are united to the risen Messiah “we
are the temple of the living God” [
2
Cor. 6:16].)
Jesus’ body is the curtain ripped in two that brings us
to the holy presence of God.
“Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy
places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he
opened for us through
the curtain, that is, through
his
flesh. . . .” (
Heb.
10:19-20). (See also
Matthew
27:51: “the curtain of the temple was torn in
two, from top to bottom.”)
Jesus is the great high priest over the house of God.
“. . . and since we have
a great priest over the house of
God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of
faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and
our bodies washed with pure water.” (
Heb.
10:21-22)
Jesus is the full and final sacrifice.
“Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”
(
John
1:29).
“. . . We have been sanctified through the offering of the body
of Jesus Christ once for all. . . . Christ had offered for all time a
single sacrifice for sins . . . By a single offering he has perfected
for all time those who are being sanctified.” (
Heb.
10:10,
12,
14)
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In my place of residence, there is no physical veil, ark,
lampstand, altar of incense, or for that matter anything representing
a Tabernacle. The Messiah Y'shua (Jesus Christ) represents my
Tabernacle and anything else made of gold, silver, wood or whatever
is simply a form of an idol.
Ekklesia, that which Jesus is
building, is the spiritual house of living stones (see 1 Peter 2:5),
and I am a member thereof, chosen by Him before the very foundations
of the earth were laid.
In the Book of Romans, Paul spoke out against the
Jews who were trying to force the Gentile believers to become Jewish
in order to be followers of Christ, taking on their traditions, feasts,
and even circumcision. But we are no longer Jews, no longer
Gentiles, but rather all in Christ.
PRAYER: