Page 63 - Pentateuch - Student Textbook

chapters 35 through 40. This second description is written in narrative fashion as the tent and its
furnishings are built and assembled. A reference to carrying out the work as the LORD commanded
occurs frequently (36:1, 5; 39:1, 5, 7, 21, 26, 29, 31, 32, 42, 43; 40:16, 19, 21, 23, 25, 27, 29, 32). This is
no small item in the life of Israel.

Yet a quick reading of Exodus 25-31 discovers a structure different from modern places of worship. (The
same can be said of the temple in later history.) The tabernacle is not built to shelter the worshippers.
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The tabernacle is a “portable temple,” a “dwelling-place for the divine presence,” and a place of
holiness (25:8). The concept of a temple does not quite cover the intent of scripture. As the place where
God would be present with his people, the tabernacle was also a palace, and the items in it were
considered palace furniture. The “tent of meeting” (35:21) speaks of purposeful contacts between God
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and Israel (29:42-43). The “tabernacle of testimony” is the place where the Ten Commandments are
kept (38:21; 25:22).

The tabernacle, along with the activities done in the
structure, is designed to reflect God’s true dwelling place
in heaven. It is a “copy and shadow of what is in heaven”
(Heb. 8:5) or “copies of the heavenly things” (9:23). As
with the rest of the law (10:1; Col. 2:17), the tabernacle
was a shadow of the spiritual reality. It was designed by
God to teach through illustration. Every day the nation of
Israel could see a physical structure similar to heaven.
Every day the people could watch services that spoke of
true spiritual relationships. Their experience of God’s
sanctuary and palace where the Ten Commandments
were kept and where they met God was designed to point
to these other deeper realities. An artist draws an outline
House pattern – not a built house before he produces the finished portrait. Spiritually, the tabernacle
and its services were the preliminary sketch, and the person and
work of Christ are the completed masterpiece.
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Eventually God’s tabernacle will be on earth (Rev. 21:3 where “dwelling” is literally “tabernacle”). In the
meantime, God the Spirit dwells in Christians who are the temple of God (1 Cor. 6:19-20; Eph. 2:19-22; 1
Pet. 2:5). And, of course, the Son of God once “became flesh and made his dwelling [tabernacle] among
us (John 1:14), referring to his body as the temple (John 2:19-21). In a variety of ways the ancient
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tabernacle explains something of God’s presence among us in Christ, in the Holy Spirit, and in the New
Jerusalem.

As we work briefly through the tabernacle and its furnishings, we must be careful not to make too much
of the details. Some deliberately reflect future realities. The holy of holies, for example, is a cube just
like the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:16). Yet as God gave instructions about this “shadow” tent, he
communicated in ways understandable to Moses and the people of Israel in their own culture. The NIV
Study Bible has a fine sketch of the tabernacle and an explanation of similar structures used by other

68 George Bush, Notes on Exodus (Minneapolis: Clock & Clock, 1976), 2:71.
69 Ibid., p. 72.
70 F. F. Bruce, Hebrews, 235, n. 9.
71 Ronald F. Youngblood, Exodus (Chicago: Moody Press, 1983), 123.

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