“All that the Lord hath said we will do,” the children of Israel replied after hearing the law of God (Ex. 24). Although Israel had great intentions of keeping God’s perfect law (“this do and live!”), they fell far short of God’s perfect standard of living and were in desperate need mercy. At the moment that the people were vowing fidelity to God, Moses was sprinkling them and the altar with blood. “When I see the blood I will pass over you” (Ex. 12:13) was a covenant of both law and grace. On the day of this covenant, God called Moses back up into Sinai and gave him plans for a sacrificial system. This system would provide atonement for sin and thus a path for an unholy people to a holy God; it would also forecast God’s redemption plan for mankind.
The Provision of the Tabernacle
Exodus 25:8-9 And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them. According to all that I shew thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it.
Revelation 21:3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
God’s desire is to dwell among His people. The tabernacle provided both a sanctuary for the presence of God and a system by which God’s people could approach Him. For over five hundred years, this tent would be the meeting place of God and His people.
“The Tabernacle of the congregation” is the most common name in the Bible for God’s tent. The tabernacle was not only about God; it was also a provision for His people. Everything the children of Israel did would be centered around the tabernacle. They sacrificially gave the materials for it. They camped in physical relation to it. Each Israelite was personally responsible to bring his own sacrifices to it.
The Picture of the Tabernacle
There is only one “Way, Truth, and Life.” The tabernacle pointed with exact precision to how people were to be saved and have fellowship with God. This was the only perfect building ever made! God was the Author and the Builder of this tent. He gave the architectural plans, and He gave his workers wisdom to follow them to their exact prescription. The Tabernacle would be a very graphic portrayal of God’s redemptive plan for both Israel and the world. It was “a figure,” “a shadow,” “an example,” and “a pattern” of the Lord Jesus Christ, Who was tabernacled among men (John 1:14), died for sin, rose again, and is our eternal High Priest.
Hebrews 8:5 Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount.
Hebrews 9:23-24 It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us:
Some of the pictures in the furniture:
1.) The one door leads to the Brazen Alter pointing to the sacrifice of the cross.
2.) The Laver speaks of daily cleansing and fellowship.
3.) The Table of Showbread points to the daily bread of God’s Word.
4.) The Candlestick represents “walking in the light” of the Holy Spirit.
5.) The Table of Incense shows us the power and privilege of prayer.
6.) The Ark of the Covenant pictures mercy, rest, and peace in God’s presence.
Acts 4:12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
John 1:29 The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
God’s pictures are tremendously important. This is why God has always been very jealous of them. He slew Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu, when they offered “strange fire,” to the Lord. He smote Uzzah for touching the ark. Moses was kept from entering the Promise Land for smiting the Rock instead of speaking to it. In the New Testament, saints were sick and dead at the church in Corinth for taking the Lord’s Supper unworthily.
The Prefigurement of the Tabernacle
The tabernacle prefigured two New Testament bodies. God’s presence dwells here on earth now, not in a physical structure but individually in the believer and corporately in the church.
I Corinthians 6:19 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?
II Corinthians 6:16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Ephesians 2:22 In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.
1Timothy 3:15 But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.
The seriousness and gravity of mind that the Old Testament saint had toward the tabernacle is to be found in the New Testament saint with regards to his body and the house of God. You and I must be vigilant to follow the heavenly pattern laid out for us in the Word of God. “Be ye holy for I am holy” (Lev. 11:44; I Pet. 1:16).