Exodus 25:8,9
SOon after God had brought the Israelites out from their enslavement in Egypt, He gave them the Law, which included not just the Ten Commandments, but a whole series of moral and ceremonial rules. In that discourse at Mount Sinai, He also told them to build a special tabernacle.
God devoted quite a number of chapters in Exodus to detail how the tabernacle and its furnishings and contents were to be made. He told Moses that after its completion, Levites alone were to be in charge of it and its furnishings. Also, when the tabernacle set forward, only the Levites were to take it down: and when the tabernacle was to be pitched, only the Levites were to set it up.
It thus becomes clear that God has meant the tabernacle to represent something very important spiritually, especially since Levites were representative of born-again believers. So I would like to share with you in this message the significance of the tabernacle and of the various names the Bible has used to identify it.
I. Sanctuary
The subject of the tabernacle first appears in Exodus 25, where God said to Moses in verse 8: “And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.”
In that statement, God called the tabernacle a sanctuary and defined it as a place where He might dwell among His people. On the latter point, God elaborates in Exodus 29:45,46:
And I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will be their God. And they shall know that I am the Lord their God, that brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, that I may dwell among them: I am the Lord their God.
The body of believers. Like the ceremonial laws and feast days, the Old Testament tabernacle was really a shadow of things that were yet to come; the reality is found in Christ. Indeed, the New Testament speaks of the body of Christ as God’s temple. We read in Ephesians 2:19-22:
Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.
II. Tent
When the construction of the tabernacle was completed, we read in Exodus 39:33:
And they brought the tabernacle unto Moses, the tent, and all his furniture, his taches, his boards, his bars, and his pillars,...
In that statement, God identifies the tabernacle with the tent. A tent, like the one we sleep in when we go camping, is a temporary shelter. So, the tabernacle had something to do with our pilgrimage toward the Promised Land.
The physical body we believers live in is also temporary. While whosoever believes in Jesus Christ has eternal life, his human body must still experience death, unless he happens to be the last generation living when the Lord returns. When a Christian dies physically, his soul goes to be with the Lord, but his body is buried. Only on the last day will he be given a new and permanent body that is spiritual and glorified.
Concerning the believer’s body, II Corinthians 5:1 says, “For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” Our present body, you see, is like a tent. We inhabit it only while waiting for our permanent residence in heaven.
Abraham understood this truth well. Of him, Hebrews 11:9,10 says:
By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
III. Tabernacle
Used alone by itself, the word “tabernacle” especially points to the dwelling place where God spoke to Israel through Moses. Exodus 33:10,11 states:
And all the people saw the cloudy pillar stand at the tabernacle door ...And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. And he turned again into the camp.
That God abode in the Old Testament tabernacle was really a picture pointing to His abiding with believers now. Jesus says, “If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him” (John 14:23).
The condescending grace of God in willing to fellowship with believers is also seen in Revelation 3:20: “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.”
Individual temples. God uses the term temple in connection with the body of individual believers as well. We read in I Corinthians 6:19,20:
What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.
Much comfort can be derived from God’s presence with His own. Hebrews 13:5 records these words of Christ: “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.”
And after the death of Moses, God told Joshua, “Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest” (1:9).
The knowledge that God dwells within us is also a warning for us. This is seen in the words of the psalmist as he realizes that there is no place that he can go to escape the presence of God. We read in Psalm 139:7-12:
Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.
Just as it is a blessing to know that we have God’s presence with us, it is sobering to realize how immediately and inevitably our disobedience in either actions or thoughts displeases God and grieves His Spirit.
IV. Tabernacle of the congregation
For more than a hundred times, God refers to the tabernacle as “the tabernacle of the congregation”. That it is of “the” congregation stresses the fact that in Old Testament times there was only one congregation among which the Lord came to dwell, and that congregation is Israel.
Likewise, God is united today with only one body of people. Of this body, we read in I Corinthians 12:13: “For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.” Later in that chapter, we further read in verse 20, “But now are they many members, yet but one body.”
So, when Jesus says, “I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matt. 16:18), He is not referring to a local church, a denominational group or even the entire corporate church. He was talking about the eternal church that comprises only and all the people whom He died on the Cross to save. Individual believers are members of that one body.
Since the Old Testament tabernacle was the tabernacle of the congregation, it is clear that God did not want divisiveness within the congregation. So, too, within the eternal Church there should not be divisiveness. We have different spiritual gifts and skills, some more some less, but the Bible stresses in I Corinthians 12:25,26:
That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another. And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it.
V. Tabernacle of the Lord
In a dozen verses, the Old Testament tabernacle was referred to as “the tabernacle of the Lord”. This expression emphasizes that the tabernacle belonged to the Lord; it was not just a physical place where certain rituals were performed. It was symbolic of God dwelling among His people.
It is awesome enough to realize that God actually dwells in the lives of believers. But it is all the more awesome to think that the Almighty God would single us believers out as His people.
Prophesying the day when He would save His elect from all nations, God said in Ezekiel 37:26-28:
Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore. My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And the heathen shall know that I the Lord do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore.
VI. Tabernacle of Testimony
In Exodus 38:21 and Numbers 1:50 and 53, God uses the term “the tabernacle of testimony”.
Within the Ark of the Covenant that was placed inside the Holy of Holies of the tabernacle were the Ten Commandments, Aaron’s rod that budded and a pot of manna. These were collectively a testimony of the holiness of God, the need to our approaching Him the right way, and the sustaining power of God.
The Ten Commandments were especially a testimony of God’s righteous standards. These standards could never be lowered, because without the proper sacrifice that fulfilled all the requirements of the law, man could never enter God’s presence. And having been sanctified by their priest, the Israelites were to be testimonies in their personal lives of God’s righteous standards.
Ambassadors. So also, those of us who have been given faith to trust in Christ are to be radiant testimonies of His holy standards. Since believers are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, they should reflect to the world the characteristics of God. Each person who knows Christ as Savior needs to ask himself, “What do others see in me?”
The Bible says that believers are “ambassadors for Christ” (II Cor. 5:20). This means we are His personal representatives to the world. Given this awesome responsibility, we must always be mindful to reflect the righteous standards of God in the way we live. Others are watching our lives, so each of us must ask, “What are they learning from my life about the Lord Jesus Christ?”
VII. Tabernacle of Witness
The seventh name the Bible uses for the tabernacle is “the tabernacle of witness”. We first see it in Numbers 17:8:
And it came to pass, that on the morrow Moses went into the tabernacle of witness; and, behold, the rod of Aaron for the house of Levi was budded, and brought forth buds, and bloomed blossoms, and yielded almonds.
Moses was instructed to keep that rod in the tabernacle as a witness that He had invested authority in Aaron.
Believers today are invested with God’s authority. Jesus says in John 15:16, “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain.”
We who know Christ as Savior are chosen as a royal priesthood to act and speak on the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible tells believers in I Peter 2:9, “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” Believers are not called just to say some nice things about the Bible, but they are to speak with the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ because they possess His written Word.
As the tabernacle witnessed to the Old Testament world, we who know Christ today are to witness for Him. Before He ascended to heaven, Jesus said, “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
Our Lord has given us the authority to be His witnesses, but what kind of witnesses are we? Do we know His Word, and do we magnify Him in our daily lives as well as with our words?