The tabernacle of God.
The study of the tabernacle is so rich in meaning to the Christian and so pregnant with Messianic significance that we can spend a lifetime in the study of it and only begin to understand the riches and the depth of truth that lies within the study of the tabernacle.
After Israel left Egypt while in the wilderness a vision was given to Moses build a Tabernacle according to the pattern which God showed him in the mount. (Exodus 25:8-9) "Then have them make a sanctuary for Me, and I will dwell among them. Make this tabernacle and all its furnishings exactly like the pattern I will show you."
God told Moses to build the Tabernacle EXACTLY like the pattern He showed him. The Tabernacle was designed by God Himself. Nothing of the Tabernacle was made by any ideas that came from man; it all came from God.
Within the Holy Place of the tabernacle, there was an inner room called the Holy of Holies, or the Most Holy Place. Judging from its name, we can see that it was a most sacred room, a place no ordinary person could enter. It was God’s special dwelling place the Shekinah Glory in the midst of His people.
God also promised that He would dwell within the Holy of Holies above the Mercy Seat of the Ark of the Covenant. Exodus 25:22 And there I will meet with you, and I will speak with you from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are on the ark of the Testimony, about everything which I will give you in commandment to the children of Israel. The Tabernacle, is the Dwelling Place of God (Exodus 36:8-39:43) This ark was placed in the holy of holies; the blood of the sacrifices was sprinkled, God is said to dwell, or sit between the cherubim, on the mercy-seat.
This was where God would meet with His people. God had been leading Israel through the desert as a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. With the tabernacle, God was creating a home for Himself on earth. The tabernacle would go with Israel wherever they went—from this point on Israel would be known as the people who literally had God dwelling in their midst. The tabernacle was God’s creating a way for His presence to dwell on earth in the midst of His people.
Before Israel had a chance to fully take in God’s presence they took God for granted, they almost lost it. As soon as God delivered the covenant to Moses on Mount Sinai, Moses walked down the mountain to convey it to the people. But what Moses encountered was shocking. He left a discussion with God Himself only to find the people of Israel dancing and worshipping a golden calf that they had created. The first two commandments (Moses had just watched the finger of God carve these into stone) were “You shall have no other gods before me” and “You shall not make for yourself a carved image ... for I the LORD your God am a jealous God” (Ex. 20:3–5). It seemed that God’s covenant with Israel was over even before it began.
The way that God responded to Israel’s idolatry was that about three thousand men died as a direct result of their sin. The nation of Israel came uncomfortably close to losing the presence of God. Ultimately, God went with His people, and they carried the tabernacle from place to place until God gave them the land of Canaan as He had promised. After Israel was well established in the land, David became the king of Israel. David decided that he wanted to build a temple, a permanent dwelling to replace the tabernacle. Because David had been a man of war, God told David that his son Solomon would build the temple instead.
As soon as God’s glory descended and filled the temple, God warned Solomon that His presence would dwell among them only as long as they remained faithful to His covenant and obeyed His Law. In other words, God was dwelling in the midst of His people, but only as long as their lives acknowledged His presence. (Read 1 Kings 9:1–9)
Tragically, God’s warning in 1 Kings 9 became a reality. In the book of Ezekiel, God’s people found themselves in exile as a punishment for rejecting God’s reign. Ezekiel records the glory of God departing from the temple (Ezekiel. 10–11), an event that was just as dramatic as God’s glory filling the temple in 1 Kings 8. Once again, God’s people found themselves alienated from God’s presence on earth. It had become clear that the tabernacle and temple would not be the ultimate solution, so how would humanity be able to live in God’s presence?
From the time God led Israel out of Egypt it was always in God’s plan to tabernacle, within man. Once again, Jesus solves the problems raised by the events in the Old Testament. John opened his gospel by describing Jesus as the Word, who was with God in the beginning, and who was God. Then John said something that is shocking in light of what we’ve been saying about God’s presence on earth: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).
This is not the usual word for “dwelt” (κατοικέω ) but rather is the Greek word for “tabernacled.” ἐσκήνωσεν from σκηνόω - skēnóō – properly, to pitch or live in a tent, "denoting much more than the mere general notion of dwelling" As in the tabernacle (or tent) in the wilderness, where the glory of God was resident for a time. That phrase, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us,” carries huge significance. The word John used for “dwelt” literally means “set up a tent.” this tabernacle exists in the person of Jesus Christ as He walked this earth. As you will see, it also will be inclusive in the body of Christ His church ἐκκλησία as prophesied in the old testament.
Isaiah 26:19 (NKJV) “Your dead shall live; Together with my dead body they shall arise.Awake and sing, you who dwell in dust; For your dew is like the dew of herbs, And the earth shall cast out the dead.”
The dead here is Israel! With Jesus, and resurrection, the problem of God’s presence among His people is solved once and for all. Jesus shows us what it looks like for people to dwell with God and what it means for humanity (The Gentiles that come into the same hope.) to embody the presence of God. With Jesus, we never have to worry about losing the presence of God.
Almost all within the preterist community understands death and resurrection as spiritual and communal as well as individualistic in scope. However many do not grasp the full force of the resurrection as resurrection over sin-death and the ‘body of death” as it pertained to being under the Law. (Rom.7:24; 2 Cor.3:7) The Law could not bring forth resurrection life! (Rom.8:2; Gal.3:21)
For the Jew this was a resurrection from one covenantal body to another more glorious body – being united to Christ Himself! Becoming that spiritual house itself where God would dwell or tabernacle!(1 Peter 2:5; Rev.21:3) For the Gentile it was a transition from a body of meaningless works to the same body of life. (This was the mystery Paul spoke about. (Eph.3:3-7) The Gentile labored outside the Law, and their efforts were just as futile as the Jew who wrestled trying to fine life by keeping the all the commandments. The body of life, or the New Covenant, was the promise made to the dead body of the Old Covenant people. The Gentiles would come into that New Covenant “law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” (Rom.8:2) just as the Jews would, through faith, but it starts first with the Jews. Jesus Himself told the Samaritan woman at the well … Salvation is of the Jews (Jn.4:22) Therefore the true Israel of God (Gal.6:16) would be a tabernacle built up together of both Jew and Gentile for a dwelling place of God as the resurrected body of Christ!
As we have been pointing out in our past articles the Exodus of the first century was about the church going through its own desert wandering to ultimately enter the promised land as the resurrected body and house of God! It was the construction of the new and better tabernacle / temple of God. The apostle James recognized this immediately when news of the Gentiles coming into the faith was made known to him:
Acts 15:13-18 (NKJV) 13 And after they had become silent, James answered, saying, “Men and brethren, listen to me:14 Simon has declared how God at the first visited the Gentiles to take out of them a people for His name. 15 And with this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written: 16 ‘After this I will return And will rebuild the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down; I will rebuild its ruins, And I will set it up; 17 So that the rest of mankind may seek the LORD, Even all the Gentiles who are called by My name, Says the LORD who does all these things.’18 “Known to God from eternity are all His works.”
When we view the body of Christ who tabernacles among us (Jn.1:14) when He became a man, we need to view Him as a covenantal encompassment of the Old Testament body. He was born a Jew under the law and sinless under that law. (Rom.15:8; Gal. 4:3-5) In a word – Jesus is Israel or the dead. (Acts 4:2; 26:6-8) Jesus is of course the firstborn from the dead. (Col. 1:18) This must take on so much more in meaning knowing that He certainly was not the first person to ever raise from the grave. Then those who are at His coming would be raised. (1 Cor. 15:23) Jesus first came to bear sin-death under the law; He came to resurrect into salvific life into a new body, first for Himself, and then for His body the church.
This whole time while God is building this temple, a spiritual tabernacle to dwell in when the resurrection was to take place; the unbelieving Jews were busy building (finishing) their own Temple made with hands! One was a building, a tower, or Temple being constructed that had God as the engineer. The other of course was being engineered and built by men. Sounds a lot like the Tower of Babel doesn't it? Funny how God even stepped in to stop that building! Then scattered the people! Like the tower of Babel, the Jews certainly were making, or had already made a name for themselves! The temple was one of the seven great wonders of the ancient world! Yet God was about to do the same thing and “come down” in A.D. 70 and bring that work to nothing! (A large part of Herod’s rebuilding of the Temple was completed before his death in 4 BC, however, many do not know that the work of rebuilding still continued for almost 68 years after his death. When we read of Jesus cleansing the Temple during the first Passover of his ministry in Jn.2:13-22 we read that it had by that time been under construction for 46 years. The work was not entirely finished until 63 AD, which was only 7 years before it’s destruction in A.D. 70!)
The resurrection of Jesus is essential in Christian doctrine. The topic of resurrection of Christ is a favorite sermon subject. The apostles spread this good news around into all the world to both Jew and Gentile! What is missing today, sad to say, is the story of the full resurrection of Christ! The initial act of resurrection began with Jesus on a Sunday morning when He rose bodily out of the tomb. Many may not have thought of this before, but this is the beginning of the resurrection story! The fullness of the resurrection was not until A.D. 70 when the “Body of Christ” known as the church united with Him in His resurrection! This also is Christ’s resurrection.
The apostles preached in Jesus the resurrection of the dead which greatly disturbed people. (Acts4:2) The apostle Paul likened the resurrection to the union of a man and wife becoming one flesh. (Eph.5:22-32) This union or presentation of the church to Himself certainly points to the marriage and resurrection where the two become one in full resurrection life. At this time they were going through the exodus journey betrothed to Christ. (2 Cor. 11:2) It was a progressive transition where the church would be joined to Him at the end of the world (age) resurrection event! At that time Israel and their dead body would with His dead body (dead according to the old mode) arise, awake, and sing, as the earth would cast out its dead! (Isa.26:19) Likewise the Gentiles who were once without without Christ and aliens of the commonwealth of Israel (Eph.2:11-13) were being brought near becoming the Israel of God. (Gal.6:16) They also were becoming the tabernacle, the temple, and new dwelling place of God!
Eph. 2:19-22 (NKJV) 19 “Now, therefore, you (Gentiles) are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, 22 in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.”
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