THE TABERNACLE — GOD PITCHING HIS TENT AMONG MEN: AN EXPOSITION

Scripture teaches that Christ Himself opens the Scriptures, and that the whole of the written text testifies of Him (Luke 24:27; Luke 24:44-45; John 5:39; John 1:18; Heb 1:1-2; Col 1:16-17; Rev 19:10; John 14:6). The Tabernacle in Exodus is not first a record of what Israel built, but a revelation of what God did in Christ, since from Him, through Him, and to Him are all things (Rom 11:36). The arrangement of the passages is the argument. Exodus gives the pattern, the furnishings, and the order; John and Hebrews and Revelation show the substance to which the pattern pointed.

GOD DWELLS WHERE HE HIMSELF PITCHES HIS TENT, NOT WHERE MAN PREPARES A PLACE

The command in Exodus is that a sanctuary be made so that God might dwell among His people (Ex 25:8). The initiative stands on the divine side. The text does not present Israel as ascending to God by wisdom or effort, nor as first attaining holiness and then receiving presence. The text presents God as declaring dwelling and then giving the pattern of dwelling (Ex 25:8-9). The materials came by offering from what God had already given (Ex 25:2-7). The design came from God alone. The One whom heaven cannot contain is the One who must provide the place of meeting (1 Kings 8:27). Israel had been brought out of Egypt by a strong hand (Ex 13:3; Ex 20:2), and yet remained a people in need of a dwelling not of their own making. Scripture teaches that a person is slave to one master or the other, to sin or to righteousness, and that there is no third lord (Rom 6:16-18; John 8:34). The Tabernacle therefore declares grace in its very structure: God dwells where God pitches His tent.

THE PATTERN ON THE MOUNTAIN SHOWS THE TENT WAS COPY, NOT REALITY

God commanded Moses to make the Tabernacle according to the pattern shown on the mountain (Ex 25:9; Ex 25:40; Ex 26:30). Moses was commanded to make according to what was seen (Ex 25:40). The tent was never presented as the reality itself. It was presented as copy, shadow, and figure of the true (Heb 8:5; Heb 9:24; Heb 10:1). Hebrews states that Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with hands, which is a figure of the true, but entered heaven itself to appear in the presence of God (Heb 9:24). The same letter describes the true tabernacle as the one the Lord pitched, not man (Heb 8:1-2). The shadow has no meaning apart from the body that cast it. The Tabernacle must be read backward from Christ, not forward from Israel alone, because the pattern pointed beyond itself to a dwelling that would come in flesh and remain forever.

THE ARK HOLDS THE LAW BENEATH THE COVERING OF BLOOD

At the center of the Tabernacle stood the ark (Ex 25:10-22; Ex 26:33-34). Inside the ark were placed the tablets of the testimony (Ex 25:16; Ex 25:21). Placement is theology in this text. The Law was not set before Israel as a ladder to climb. The Law was set inside, under cover, beneath the place where blood would be sprinkled. Scripture teaches that the Law is holy and just and good (Rom 7:12). Scripture also teaches that by works of the law no flesh shall be justified (Rom 3:20; Gal 2:16). The Law shuts every mouth and makes the whole world guilty before God (Rom 3:19). God commands what is impossible for man in order to expose inability (Matt 19:25-26). The ark therefore holds a double testimony: the Law that accuses, and the covering that answers. The ark with the covering shows the structure of atonement: the Law beneath, the blood above, and God meeting at the place where the two meet.

THE MERCY SEAT IS THE PLACE WHERE GOD MEETS THROUGH PROPITIATION

Above the ark was the mercy seat (Ex 25:17-22). The term denotes covering, atonement, propitiation. The mercy seat was not a separate piece. It was the lid of the ark itself. Law beneath and covering above formed one object. The throne of God among men was therefore neither bare Law nor lawless mercy. It was mercy covering Law, blood covering transgression, at the same place where God promised to meet and speak (Ex 25:22). On the Day of Atonement the high priest entered once a year with blood not his own, and sprinkled it upon and before the mercy seat (Lev 16:14-15; Heb 9:7). Entry carried fear, for no person enters the presence of the Holy One by inherent right and lives (Lev 16:2; Ex 33:20). That blood was shadow, for the blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sins (Heb 10:4). It pointed to the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29; Heb 9:12). In Romans, God set forth Christ as a propitiation through faith in His blood (Rom 3:25). The mercy seat is therefore not finally a golden lid. It is a Person. God meets not where the Law has been kept by man, but where the Law has been covered by blood (Heb 4:16).

THE LAMPSTAND IS LIGHT NOT KINDLED BY MAN

Outside the veil, in the holy place, stood the lampstand and the table (Ex 25:23-40; Ex 26:35). The two furnishings form one testimony in two forms: life depends on light not generated by man and on bread not provided by man. The lampstand was pure gold, with seven lamps, burning continually before the Lord (Ex 25:31-37; Ex 27:20-21). The continual burning confesses that Israel dwelt in darkness and could not enlighten itself. Scripture teaches that Christ is the true Light that enlightens every man (John 1:9; John 8:12). He is the Light of the world, and the one who follows Him does not walk in darkness (John 8:12). The lamps were a shadow of the true light, for the Lamb is the lamp of the city that needs no sun (Rev 21:23). Light does not rise from the human heart. Light is given. The heart deceives the will (Jer 17:9). The lampstand shows a people kept in light by a flame they did not kindle, pointing to the One who is Light in Himself.

THE TABLE HOLDS BREAD NOT PROVIDED BY MAN

The table bore the bread of the Presence, twelve loaves set before the Lord continually (Ex 25:23-30; Lev 24:5-9). Scripture teaches that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God (Deut 8:3; Matt 4:4). The bread was not provision offered by man to God. It was provision set before man by God. The table points to the true Bread that came down from heaven (John 6:32-35). Christ is that Bread. The one who comes to Him never hungers, and the one who believes in Him never thirsts (John 6:35). Faith is present possession: the one who believes HAS eternal life (John 6:47). The life is possessed now, not merely promised for later. Man does not light the way. Man does not feed the soul. The slave is slave to one master or the other (Rom 6:16-18), and the table shows that sustenance comes from the Lord alone. The bread in the presence was figure; the Bread in flesh is substance.

THE ALTAR STANDS AS DEATH BEFORE DRAWING NEAR

Before nearness to the tent, the altar stood in the courtyard, in the open, where all could see (Ex 27:1-8; Ex 40:29). Upon it the burnt offering was consumed (Lev 1:3-9). The fire never went out (Lev 6:13). The order matters. The way to God is not by instruction first, but by death first. No person approaches the Holy One without blood. The worshiper laid a hand upon the head of the animal, confessing that the death was his, transferred to another (Lev 1:4). The animal died in his place. Without shedding of blood there is no remission (Heb 9:22; Lev 17:11). The altar declares that sin is not excused. Sin is punished. Either the sinner dies, or a substitute dies in the place of the sinner. There is no third way. Atonement precedes fellowship. The old sacrifices repeated because they could not perfect (Heb 10:11). The altar points forward to a death that would not need repeating.

THE CURTAIN DECLARES SEPARATION UNTIL GOD TEARS IT

Even after sacrifice, the priest could not pass beyond the veil. The curtain hung between the holy place and the most holy place (Ex 26:31-33). It was woven with cherubim, the same guardians who stood at the gate of Eden barring the way to the tree of life (Gen 3:24; Ex 26:31). The curtain declared that God is there, and man is not. It declared that the way into the holiest was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle still stood (Heb 9:8). Man did not tear it. Man could not tear it. When Christ died, the veil was torn in two from top to bottom (Matt 27:51; Mark 15:38; Luke 23:45). The direction is the doctrine. From top to bottom, not from bottom to top, as if human hands had reached up and ripped it. From top to bottom, as if the hand of God had reached down and torn it. The flesh of Christ, torn on the cross, is the veil torn open (Heb 10:19-20). He entered once into the holy place, not with the blood of goats, but with His own blood, having obtained eternal redemption (Heb 9:11-12). The separation is ended not because man became holy, but because God in Christ bore the separation and broke it.

THE WORD TABERNACLED IN FLESH AS THE TRUE TENT

All of this was shadow until the Word became flesh and tabernacled among men (John 1:14). The verb in John is the verb of the tent. John does not present the Word as merely visiting. John presents the Word as pitching His tent. The same glory that filled the Tabernacle, so that Moses could not enter because the glory of the Lord filled it (Ex 40:34-35), now dwelt in a Man. The glory beheld was the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:14). The Tabernacle was the dwelling in figure. Christ is the dwelling in truth. In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily (Col 2:9). The ark pointed to Him. The mercy seat pointed to Him. The lampstand pointed to Him. The table pointed to Him. The altar pointed to Him. The curtain pointed to Him. He is not one part of the Tabernacle. He is the whole of it. He is the pattern Moses saw, now made flesh. God did not remain distant. God became the tent. The glory that once filled the tent so that Moses could not stand now walked among sinners, touched lepers, and ate with tax collectors (Matt 9:10-13; Luke 15:1-2).

THE ONCE-FOR-ALL ENTRY IN HEBREWS ENDS REPETITION

Hebrews gives the exposition of the entry that the Tabernacle foreshadowed. Christ entered once into the holy place, not with the blood of goats, but with His own blood, having obtained eternal redemption (Heb 9:11-12). He did not enter to offer again and again. He entered once, and He sat down, for the work was finished (Heb 10:11-14; Heb 1:3). He offered Himself once, without spot, to God, to purge the conscience from dead works (Heb 9:14). The old sacrifices repeated because they could not perfect. The new sacrifice is once because it did perfect forever those who are sanctified (Heb 10:14). Repetition belongs to shadow. Once-for-all belongs to substance. The high priest under the old order entered with fear and with blood not his own (Lev 16:14-15; Heb 9:7). Christ entered with His own blood and sat down at the right hand of God (Heb 1:3). Sitting denotes completion. The conscience is purged not by repeated acts of man, but by the single offering of Christ. The veil torn and the Priest seated belong together: the way is opened because the offering is complete.

THE CONSUMMATION IS GOD TABERNACLING WITH MEN FOREVER

The Tabernacle does not end in the wilderness. It ends in the wedding. The movement of Scripture is from a garden where God walked with man, to a tent where God dwelt among men, to a Man in whom God dwelt among men, to a city where God shall dwell with men forever (Gen 3:8; Ex 25:8; John 1:14; Rev 21:3). The city is the bride, the wife of the Lamb (Rev 21:2; Rev 21:9-10; Rev 19:7-9). The Tabernacle was never an end in itself. It was a figure of the marriage. God pitched His tent among men that He might present to His Son a spotless bride (Eph 5:25-27; Eph 5:31-32; Rev 19:7-8). John heard a great voice saying that the tabernacle of God is with men, and that He will dwell with them, and that they shall be His people, and that God Himself shall be with them, and be their God (Rev 21:3). That is the consummation of Exodus 25:8. The tent becomes the city. The glory that filled the Tabernacle so that no man could enter now fills the city so that no temple is needed, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple (Rev 21:22). The lampstand is no longer needed, for the Lamb is its light (Rev 21:23). The veil is no longer needed, for the separation is ended and the servants shall see His face (Rev 22:4). The bread is no longer a figure, for the marriage supper of the Lamb has come (Rev 19:9).

Thus the Tabernacle answers the question every religion asks and none can answer: How can a holy God dwell with unholy men? The answer is not that God overlooks sin. The answer is not that man improves himself. The answer is that God Himself pitched His tent, God Himself provided the blood, God Himself tore the veil, God Himself became flesh, God Himself bore the wrath, and God Himself will dwell with His people forever. Man did not make the way. Christ is the way (John 14:6). Man did not kindle the light. Christ is the light (John 8:12). Man did not bake the bread. Christ is the bread (John 6:35). Man did not open the veil. Christ is the veil torn and the way opened (Heb 10:19-20). From Him, through Him, to Him are all things (Rom 11:36). The Tabernacle is His. The dwelling is His. The bride is His. And the one who believes HAS eternal life (John 6:47).