TABERNACLE means DWELL
Details in the Bible are very significant. The meanings of some are obvious, plain and easily distinguished. In other instances, certain details obscure secrets God has hidden except to those who seek out their meaning. Such seems to be a precious reality found in the Old Testament account of Israel in the Wilderness. It is one such manifestation that we shall look at here.
The second book of the Torah is aptly titled Exodus, beause it relates the historic movement of the children of Israel out of slavery in Egypt to the border of their inheritance, Canaan. Between the two identifiable points of Egypt and Canaan, also called the Promised Land, lay 40 years of wandering in the wilderness. Well over a million people with their herds of sheep and goats moved from place to place. Their encampments and trekking were orchestrated by God Himself through the leadership of the great prophet and His friend, Moses.
During the first Passover night, when the firstborn in every Egyptian home died at the hands of the slaying angel, the Israelites swarmed out of Egypt and kept moving east untl they reached a formidable barrier, the Red Sea. As they walked, God shielded them from the blazing sun by a shadowing Cloud of His Presence. At night a Pillar of Fire lighted their encampments and kept them warm. God Himself was their protector and guide.
MIRACLES
For 400 years the people of Israel had been influenced by the idolatrous and ungodly practices of pagan Egypt. They had not had organized religious practices that worshipped God. Suddenly, outside the confines of Egypt, they were thrust into unfamiliar territory. They didn't know God and cursed Him for tearing them away from the comforts they had known to becoming strangers in a foreign land.
Like a tender Father, God demonstrated His heart of love and power to the Israelites by providing for their needs through miracles. First, He split the Red Sea in two, so the entire company walked to the other side on dry land! Once they were on the opposite shore, God closed the Sea walls, drowning the pursuing Pharaoh and his army. History and archeology corroborate that fact.
Once past the Red Sea, how would such a great number of people survive, particularly because they had fled Egypt in haste and could not have carried many provisions with them? God Himself was their answer. Every morning mysterious white flakes called manna or bread appeared on the ground. The Iraelites harvested enough for a day's portion except on Friday, when they were to keep enough manna for two days. Any excess turned foul.
Every evening God gave His beloved children quail so they had meat to eat. Bread and meat were supplied as miracles to sustain the Israelites for 40 years of journeying in the wilderness.
One can live for days and even weeks without food, but only a few days without water. The Israelites complained of thirst, so Moses struck a rock in the wilderness and from it flowed water to satisfy both man and beast. Water from a rock? What an inconvertible sign of God's great lovingkindness for His own people and their wellbeing.
Each miracle God performed was a tangible, observable manifestation of His love for Israel. Red Sea parting, manna and quail, water from a rock: certainly God was greater than any or all of the idols and gods worshipped by the Egyptyians! But more was to come.
STANDARDS OF HOLINESS
Early in their walk through the wilderness God called Moses to climb Mt. Sinai, where He wrote Ten Standards on two tables of stone. God was bringing Himself even closesr to the people He called His own, but who were very distant from Him. He wanted Israel to know how to attain and maintain an intimate relationsip with Him by obeying and following His teachings. His blessings would follow their obedience to Him. Not only were they to follow the Ten Commandments, but Israel was to learn from Moses' mouth an expanded application of them before they went into Canaan, documented in the books of Leviticus, Numbers and Deuternonomy. The Torah was and still is meant to bless Israel by her obedience to God from a heart of love. All through their leaving of Egypt to the wilderness wanderings, God was wooing the heart of Israel much like a suitor pursues the love of his life.
THE TABERNACLE
While still in the wilderness, God's ultimate pursuit of Israel's heart for His fellowship with them was found in yet another manifestation, the Tabernacle. Soon after God gave His people the Ten Commandments, He called Moses up the mountain again. There He gave Moses the 'blueprint' for the Tabernacle and its fittings. No guesswork was involved. Moses knew start to finish just what to do. As soon as he returned to the encampment, he began delegating tasks, the first of which was to solicit donations of precious metals and jewels, fabrics, and the talents of some within their midst.
Animal hides must be tanned, fabrics woven and embroidered, metal work fashioned for their place in the finished product. Wood carvers, artisans, sewers, and those with an engineering mind were selected to bring the dream to reality. The end creation, the Tabernacle, would be the portable, visible dwelling place of God's Presence among His people.
Within the Tabernacle were divisions of space. The large outer court was the entry point. Jew or a convert to Judaism came there to offer sacrifices to Jehovah for sins they had committed. Next was the inner court, the Holy Place, where the priests worshipped and ministered on behalf of the people. Hidden within and beyond the confines of the inner court was the sacred place called the Holy of Holies, where God's Presence dwelt in the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark was a box made of wood overlaid with gold. The lid was overshadowed by two gold cherubim. In the Ark at God's direction Moses placed the stone tablets with the Commandments, Aaron's rod that had budded, and manna from the wilderness. Each was an emblem of God's power and might on behalf of His children. Each bore memory of an epochal move of God that demonstrated His favor. All together, they bore witness to the eternal covenant God had made with Abraham and His people, a covenant He would never, could never break; one He would keep forever!
To service the Tabernacle and come before God in the stead of the people, God selected Moses' brother Aaron and Aaron's sons to be priests who offered sacrifices to God and ministered on Israel's behalf. The rest of the tribe of Levi He chose to serve daily in the Tabernacle as assistants to the priests.
THE ARK OF THE COVENANT
Whenever God gave the call to break camp and move on, the Tabernacle was carefully disassembled and carried, supported on poles on the shoulders of the Levites. All of its parts were holy, but of them all, the Ark of the Covenant was treated with greatest awe and devotion. No one dared touch it, lest they be stricken dead! It was holy and not to be profaned.
Many years after the children of Israel possessed the Promised Land and had become a nation, their worship of God became decadent. Phinehas and Hophni, the priest sons of Eli, the high priest, had profaned the Tabernacle with their immoral practices. They were not true to followng God's statutes and laws and led the people into gross sinning. God declared judgment against them. In a subsequent battle against the Philistines, Israel lost the war. The Ark of the Covenant was taken by the Philistines to Ashdod into the house of Dagon, their chief idol/god.
Not until David became king of Israel did the Ark once again come into the possession of the Israelites, this time with great celebration. All the way to Jerusalem, David danced before the the Ark and offered sacrifices every several steps along the route, so great was his joy. Once in the city, David pitched a tent where the Ark was settled to rest, but not in a Holy of Holies behind a thickly-woven curtain, as in the Tabernale. God's Presence was in plain sight.
Not relying on the priests, David himself offered burnt offerings and peace offerings to the LORD there in that tabernacle. I Chronicles 16:7-38 rings out with the song of praise David assigned Asaph to sing:
"...Make known His deeds among the peoples. Sing to Him, sing praises to Him. Speak of all His wonders."
Oh, the wonders God had done for His children in the wilderness. What greater wonders He had performed in bringing israel into the Promised Land and forming them into a nation.
"Remember His covenant forever, the word which He commanded to a thousand generations, the covenant which He made with Abraham, and His oath to Isaac. He also confirmed it to Jacob for a statute, to Israel as an everlasting covenant, saying, 'To you I will give the land of Canaan, as the portion of your inheritance.'"
PROPHETIC ACTIONS
Little did David know that his worshipful actions, not as king but as priest, pointed ahead thousands of years to Revelation 21:3.
"And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them.'"
True. As king, David accumulated wealth to build God a magnificient Temple in Jerusalem. God deserved more than a tent. No longer would the Ark of the Covenant rest in a temporary structure. Solomon followed his father's desire and built the impressive Temple edifice that gave the Ark a permanent and prominent home in the city of David.
The people were scattered by tribe across the land of Israel. In the wilderness the Tabernacle had been in the center with the tribes camped around it. Once they occupied the land of Canaan, geographic distance made God's Presence being close to the people impossible. Thus, God required the men of the entire nation to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem three times a years to worship in the Temple. Two feasts, Passover and savuot or Pentecost, were each one day long in the spring. The third feast, sukkot or Tabernacles, was in the fall and lasted seven days.
God emphasized these three feasts so His people would observe three major milestones from their history yet to be fulfilled:
- Passover, the death of His Son as the perfect Lamb of atonement who died for the sins of the world so their sins could be forgiven;
- Pentecost, the outpouring of His Holy Spirit on flesh to empower them to live and walk in holy, empowered lives;
- Tabernacles, when the people built booths remeniscent of their tents during the wilderness wanderings and God dwelled among them, also in a tent
While the Temple was awesome and God honored it, He wanted the Israelites to always remember the time they spent in their wilderness tents when He dwelled among them, also in a tent. It was a time when He wooed their hearts to Himself.
God had very strict rules concerning His holiness and not profaning anything called holy. When David acted as priest in a tabernacle without partitions made by walls and a Holy of Holies hidden from view, God pointed to a day yet to come. The passage from Revelation quoted above reveals His ultimate desire.
For those who choose to love and obey God from a heart of love for Him Himself, God has a wonderful, eternal honeymoon planned for heaven. Always in Scripture, whenever God was approached in some manner, He hid His face. Clothed in glory so bright He cannot be discerned, men could see only His back. But in heaven He will climax what centuries have been leading to in His ordering of time. He has been calling out a holy people by whom He may be seen fully in all His glory forever. We shall look on His face!
THE HEAVENLY TABERNACLE
To quote the Revelation passage once more
"And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, 'Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and He will dwell among men, and He they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them.' "
Eternity in heaven with God is what the entire Old Testament narrative about Israel's wandering in the wilderness is about. How beautifully God illustrated His absolute care of us, His own redeemed Bride, through providing water, food, covering of light and fire for illumination, protection and warmth. But most important is the Tabernacle. God among us!
Jesus' name given to Joseph by the angel was Emmanual (Matthew 1:23), meaning God with us. For 33 years God tabernacled with Israel in the person of Jesus, the precise reproduction of Himself in every aspect of His character and essence. He healed, He preached and revealed truth, He delivered people from demons and disease, and endured temptations of every type. His countrymen saw Him face to face but did not recognize Him, because they were unholy. Instead, they condemned Him as being an imposter or a bastard!
It has always been God's purpose to have a people dear to His heart who love Him for Himself...a people among whom He can live and fellowship. Always, God's holiness has prevented us from seeing His face, because we could not continue to live if we saw Him full view. His glory would slay us!
NO LONGER AN ARK
But the Revelation passage proclaims to us that in heaven, wherever and however it shall be, God Himself, not just Jesus who bore His image, will walk among us in perfect fellowship and love! He Himself will be our Tabernacle without walls, our Ark of the Covenant. No more walls of animal skins or any other prohibition. What a glorious hope we have! Just as the Tabernacle of David had no curtains to seclude the Ark, God won't need an Ark to hide His glory. We shall see Him as He is.
I John 3:2-3 says:
"Beloved, now we are the children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, beause we will see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure."
John looked forward to the day when God tabernacles with us in heaven and so did the writer of Hebrews, who says:
""Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord.
God in all His holiness will reveal Himself to those who are holy. We shall live in that love relationship in all eternity. Eternity is not length, breadth, height, or depth. Eternity is a place, not a measurement. It is NOW. It is 'I AM.' Eternity is God Himself! And He will tabernacle with us forever!
THE IMPERATIVE: HOLINESS! THE HOPE: FACE TO FACE WITH GOD!
Beloved, what a glorious promise God has given to us who purify ourselves. Passover made possible the forgiveness of and freedom from sin, but we must be the one to repent and seek God's forgiveness. Pentecost brings the power of the Spirit of Christ into our spirit, so that we can be cleansed of impurity and walk holy before God. And both experiences point to our time of Tabernacling with God forever in eternity. Only the holy will see God.
"...you are to be holy to Me, for I the LORD am holy; and I have set you apart from the peoples to be Mine" Leviticus 20:26.
"...but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, 'You shall be holy, for I am holy.' " I Peter 1:15-16.
"There will no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bond-servants will serve Him; they will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads." Revelation 22:3-4.
We must be holy to see God's face. We cannot live carelessly and expect to see Him one day. Holiness means we ask God to search us out and see if He finds any wicked way in us (Psalm 139:23-24). While we're in the world, we're not to be of it. God sets us apart to be His and His alone, but we must pursue holiness as we put to death all impurity in us as the Holy Spirit reveals it to us.
We have the third feast day yet to look forward to: Tabernacles! And we shall see Him as He is and be with Him forever, for HE will tabernacle with us! Let that be the hope of your heart!