The tabernacle fulfilled . . .

What I wrote yesterday shows how self-focused I am. I know that the entire Bible is a revelation of Jesus Christ, but I missed it. I didn’t realize how God used the tabernacle as part of His preparation for the full revelation of His Son. I was more interested in how I am also His dwelling place.

Today I’m reading Ross’ description in Recalling the Hope of Glory about the purpose of the tabernacle. He says it “was that the LORD might dwell among his people, thereby giving a reality to the truth of His presence with them.”

This means He wanted them to know He was near and approachable, but also that they could not jump into that Holy communion irreverently. The construction of this tent of meeting controlled their access to God. It had an outer court, a Holy Place, and a Most Holy Place. The Israelites could enter the first part, priests the second, but only the high priest could enter the Most Holy Place.

This tabernacle pictured our access to God through the Lord Jesus Christ. I see that in the original language of John 1:14. Most versions say something like, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” However, the word John used for “dwelt” means “tabernacled or pitched His tent.” Jesus came to make His home among us and give tangible reality to the truth of God’s presence with us.

John also wrote, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us.”

Jesus is the visible, touchable tabernacle, and as Ross says, “His flesh being like a tent that covered the glory inside.”

Jesus Himself said His body was a temple that would be destroyed. The book of Hebrews compares the temple curtain torn from top to bottom at His crucifixion to the very tearing apart of His body on the cross at that same moment. By this and because of this brokenness, we now have full and free access to God.

Hebrews 10:19-23 make it clear: “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, His body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful.”

Sometimes I wish I were Jewish. In Romans 9-11, Paul writes about his great burden for his fellow Jews. To them pertains “the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises.” They have the rich heritage of an intimate knowledge of the tabernacle, and those who embrace Christ are able to declare with Paul “the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!” (Romans 11:33) in far more meaningful ways than I can.

Yet I marvel how God reveals Himself in a myriad of ways. He, “who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets” also spoke through a tent made from ordinary things. He uses that tent to point to Jesus and as Hebrews 1:1-3 says, “has in these last days spoken to us by His Son.”

Jesus has been “appointed heir of all things” and the One “through whom God also made the worlds.” He is “the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person.” He also “upholds all things by the word of His power” and “when He had by Himself purged our sins, (He) sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.”

This truly is amazing, and directs my focus toward my Savior. Yet, I’m still awed and confounded by the fact that this same Jesus who is God in the flesh and who died to open the way to God, also chose to tabernacle or make His home in my heart.