In Pennsylvania in the United States, the Mennonites own and maintain a strange-looking building. It is a full-scale replica of the tabernacle of God, a special tent-like building described in Exodus 25-30. God com­manded the Israelites to make just such a building as his dwelling place among them. The modem Mennonite replica also has within it a mannequin wearing robes like the garments of the high priest of Israel. People come to tour the Mennonites’ building, and as they do so, tour guides explain the significance of the various furnishings.

People who have read the Bible and go on the tour almost always come away excited. They say, “I never understood those Old Testament passages about the tabernacle and the priests. But now that I have seen how it all fits together, and now that I have had some things explained to me, I want to go back to read the passages in the Bible and see how they symbolise who Christ was and what he did.”

I wish that I could take all my readers on that tour. The Israelites long ago did not have to visualise the tabernacle; they could see it. The priests were allowed to enter the rooms at certain times and could explain to everyone else what was there. The people could watch the priests sacrifice the animals. Messages came home to the Israelites that tend to pass us by unless we make a conscious effort to understand. But we also have an advan­tage over them. We can read the New Testament and see the completion of what those Old Testament images pointed forward to.

A Symbol of the Messiah⤒🔗

The Old Testament tabernacle is full of meaning because it is a symbol of the Messiah and his salvation. The book of Hebrews gives much instruction con­cerning the tabernacle.

But only the high priest entered the inner room (of the tabernacle), and that only once a year, and never without blood, which he offered for himself and for the sins the people had committed in ignorance. The Holy Spirit was showing by this that the way into the Most Holy Place had not yet been disclosed as long as the first tabernacle was still standing. This is an illustration for the present time, indicating that the gifts and sacri­fices being offered were not able to clear the conscience of the worshiper. They are only a matter of food and drink and vari­ous ceremonial washings — external regu­lations applying until the time of the new order. When Christ came as high priest of the good things that are already here, he went through the greater and more per­fect tabernacle that is not man-made, that is to say, not a part of this creation. He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption. The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are cere­monially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our con­sciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God (Heb. 9:7-14).

The earthly tabernacle was a copy or a shadow of the true dwelling place of God in heaven (Heb. 8:5; 9:24). It showed what God was like and what was needed to deal with sin. In this way it symbolised what the Messiah was to do for our salva­tion. We may say that it “foreshadowed” the Messiah and His work. It was like a shadow of the Messiah cast backward in time into the Old Testament period. The shadow was always inferior to the reality. The earthly tabernacle was made of earthly things, and could never equal the splendour or holiness of God in heaven. The earthly sacrifices of bulls and goats could never equal the blood of Christ, who cleansed us from sin forever.

The shadow was not itself the reality, but a pointer to Christ who was the real­ity. Yet the shadow was also like the real­ity. And the shadow even brought the reality to bear on people in the Old Testament. As they looked ahead through the shadows, longing for something better, they took hold of the promises of God that he would send the Messiah. The promises were given not only verbally but symboli­cally, through the very organisation of the tabernacle and its sacrifices. In pictorial form God was saying, as it were, “Look at my provisions for you. This is how I redeem you and bring you to my presence. But look again, and you will see that it is all an earthly symbol of something better. Do not rely on it as if it were the end. Trust me to save you fully when I fully accomplish my plans.”

Israelites had genuine communion with God when they responded to what he was saying in the tabernacle. They trusted in the Messiah, without knowing all the details of how fulfilment would finally come. And so they were saved, and they received forgive­ness, even before the Messiah came. The animal sacrifices in themselves did not bring forgiveness (Heb. 10:1-4), but Christ did as He met with them through the sym­bolism of the sacrifices.

A Symbol of God’s Dwelling with Israel←⤒🔗

What did Israelites see when they looked at the tabernacle so long ago? They saw a tent with two inner rooms and a yard outside. In the yard was the Israelite equiv­alent of a stove, namely, a place where meat could be roasted on a fire. A tent means very little to us, but Israelites knew all about tents because they were living in tents themselves. Then God told them to make a tent for him, a tent where God him­self would dwell and meet with them (Ex. 25:8, 22). His tent had rooms and a yard and a fireplace like their own. Yet it was also unlike their own. It was majestic, covered with gold and blue. It was beautiful, because of the symmetry of its dimensions and the artistry of its construction. Do you see?

God was saying that he was majestic and beautiful. But he would not simply remain in heaven and let Israel go its way. He would come right down among them. They were living in tents. He too would be in a tent, side by side with their own tents. They were going to the promised land. He too would travel to the promised land, as his tent was packed up by the Levites and moved to the next encampment. The spe­cial cloud of fire symbolising God’s pres­ence was a more intensive, miraculous form of the same reality. God would be among them, right with them, “Immanuel” (see Mat. 1:23). A bright cloud of glory sym­bolising God’s presence accompanied the Israelites and came over the tabernacle after it was constructed (Ex. 40:34-38; Num. 9:15-23).

The theme that God dwells with his people was fulfilled with the coming of Jesus Christ. In fact, the tabernacle fore­shadowed the fact that Christ would become incarnate and dwell among us. “The Word became flesh and lived for a while (tabernacle) among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). Christ’s glory super­seded the bright cloud of glory. Now Christ sends his Holy Spirit like a cloud of fire to make his church and his people into a tabernacle of God (Acts 2:2-4; 1 Cor. 3:10-17; 6:19).

The tabernacle expresses another side to the character of God, namely, that he is holy and inaccessible. The altar, several cov­erings, and two sets of curtains bar the way into his presence. No one can enter into the inner room (the Most Holy Place) except the high priest, and even then he does so only once a year in a special ceremony, dur­ing which he is protected from his sin and from the accusation of the law by the blood that he sprinkles on the mercy seat (Lev. 16). Death is threatened to transgressors of God’s holiness (Ex. 19:12-13, 21-25). Even the priests may suffer death if they do not honour God (Num. 10:1-2; Lev. 22:9; 16:2; Ex. 30:21). They are especially in danger of death as they approach the inner rooms of the tabernacle. The high priest must take special care not even to see the atonement cover when he performs his actions in the Most Holy Place (Lev. 16:13).

By these means the Lord shows the pre­ciousness of the love between the Father and the Son. The tabernacle symbolism points to Christ. Defilement of this sym­bolism constitutes an attack on Christ, and so rouses God’s indignation in intense form. The same truths also embody a les­son concerning Christ’s sacrificial death. God’s holiness is so great that faults against him deserve death. Christ himself was per­fectly holy. But when he bore our sins and “became sin for us” (2 Corinthians 5:21), the Father had to put him to death. To this death he consented willingly, and went like a sheep to slaughter, because of his love for us and his hatred of sin’s rule over us (1 Pet. 2:24; John 10:18).

Christ had to die. There was no other way by which we might enter into the true tabernacle in heaven and enjoy the blessing of God’s presence forever. But now, because Christ has died, the animal sacri­fices are ended, and we have access to God with freedom (Romans 5:1-2). The veil bar­ring the way to God’s presence is taken away, or rather fulfilled in the body of Christ. Christ does not bar us out, as the veil did, but provides the way in. “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” (Heb. 10:19-20). The veil has become the gate into the security of the sheepfold (John 10:7-9).

For those outside of Christ, the death penalty for violations of God’s holiness says something else. When Christ returns to judge the world, God’s holiness will appear in intense form. Just as at Mount Sinai the mount was covered with the glory of God’s holiness, so at the Second Coming the world as a whole will be cov­ered with his glory (2 Thess. 1:7-10). The wicked must experience eternal death, because they are violators of the holiness of Christ. God’s love for Christ also implies his hatred for Christ’s enemies and his zeal to vindicate Christ’s honour. “Those who honour me I will honour” (1 Samuel 2:30) is true also at the last day. When Christ receives the full honour due to him (Phil. 2:10, 11), all rebellion is utterly crushed.

A Symbol of Heaven←⤒🔗

What happened to the tabernacle? After the years in the wilderness, the Israelites entered the Promised Land and settled down. Instead of living in tents, they built houses for themselves. Fittingly, King Solomon was commissioned by God to build a permanent house for God, the temple, which replaced the mobile tent-like tabernacle. The temple had the same basic arrangements as the tabernacle, two rooms and an outside yard, but each of the hori­zontal dimensions was doubled.

What does Solomon foreshadow? Why, the work of Christ, of course. Solomon was the son in David’s line, the line leading to the Messiah. He built a dwelling place for God, foreshadowing Christ who builds his church (Matt. 16:18) and who is himself the chief cornerstone (Eph. 2:20) or foun­dation (1 Cor. 3:11). Christ builds not on the earthly Mount Zion but on a heavenly site: “But you (Christians) have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God” (Heb. 12:22). Solomon himself recognised that the true dwelling of God is in heaven. As he dedicated the temple he spoke of the earthly temple as a place where God had put His name (1 Kings 8:29). Heaven is the true dwelling place of God (1 Kings 8:30, 43) and the place from which God hears. Thus Solomon recognised what we have learned from Hebrews, that the tabernacle and temple were shadows of heavenly things. God dwells in a special sense in heaven. Of course in the broadest sense, as Solomon reminds us, “The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you” (1 Kings 8:27). Yet in a particular way the visible sky repre­sents God’s own majesty and inaccessibility. Even more inaccessible than the visible sky is God’s special throne room as we find it described by prophets like Isaiah (Is. 6:1-13), Daniel (Dan. 7:9, 10), and John (Rev. 4:1-5:14). From God’s throne angels issue to perform His commands.

When God came down in a cloud at Mount Sinai, the cloud symbolised both God’s heavenly character and his inaccessi­bility to human eye. Moses went up to meet God, foreshadowing Jesus’ function as a mediator between God and man. On the mount Moses received a pattern for the tabernacle. What else would it be than a heavenly pattern, since he received it by symbolically going up to heaven? Thus the book of Hebrews appeals to the fact that God instructed Moses to “make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain” (Heb. 8:5).

When we look at the tabernacle again, we see unmistakable signs of symbolism of heaven. The two cherubim by the ark are replicas of angelic heavenly beings guarding the throne of God (cf. Ezek. 1; Gen. 3:24). More figures of cherubim are woven into the veil that guards the way into the Most Holy Place (Ex. 26:31). Still more cheru­bim are woven into the 10 curtains that constitute the main material of the tent, enclosing the two rooms (Ex. 26:1).

The curtains are woven with blue, sym­bolising the royal blue of heaven. The Ten Commandments are the very words of God, heavenly words in the fullest sense. They are written on tablets that Moses received from the mount, that is, from a symbolic replica of heaven. They are placed in the ark of the testimony (Ex. 25:21), the most holy object in the entire tent. The ark itself is a box with the approximate shape of an ancient king’s footstool. Thus the ark represents part of God’s throne room in heaven. Fittingly, the space above the ark is empty, because God may not be seen and no images of him are permitted (Ex. 33:20; 20:4-5; Deut. 4:15-19). Thus the tabernacle as a whole is a replica of heaven. When God comes to dwell with the Israelites, he brings down to them in his wonderful condescen­sion a little replica of heaven.

Practical Lessons←⤒🔗

In its own time, though the tabernacle did not say everything, it still said a great deal. It had some very practical lessons for the Israelites. To a large extent, they can still be lessons for us today as well.

First, because of its symbolic connec­tion with heaven, the tabernacle reminded the Israelites that God was the true God, the exalted Lord of the whole universe, not simply a god confined to a local spot. God is the exalted, universal Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords. Likewise, we should recognise now that God our Father and Christ our Redeemer is the heavenly Lord, the Lord of all (Matt. 28:20; 1 Cor. 8:6). We must obey him and not be intimi­dated by human claims to wisdom and power (1 Pet. 3:14-17).

Second, because the whole universe was God’s house, the tabernacle depicted for the Israelites the way in which God’s care was demonstrated in their day-to-day cir­cumstances. Food, life, and light all derived from God who had made the whole uni­verse as his dwelling place and their home. Likewise, we today are to see our circum­stances and our daily blessings not as the product of some chance, impersonal process, but as the provision of our God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. We are to pray to God to give us our daily bread (Matt. 6:11). We are to seek first his king­dom and his righteousness, with the confi­dence that all earthly needs will be ours as well (Matt. 6:33).

Third, the tabernacle as a unique struc­ture reminded Israel that they had unique privileges. Out of all the nations of the world God chose them to be his people, and condescended to live among them in a special way (Ex. 19:5-6; Deut. 7:7-8). Likewise, in New Testament times God dwells in a unique way in the church (1 Cor. 3:16) and in individual Christians (1 Cor. 6:19; Rom. 8:9-17). This indwelling distin­guishes us from the world at large. We are not to become proud, because God’s favour is a gift to undeserving sinners (Rom. 5:6-10; 2 Tim. 1:9-10). But we are to be thankful for our special status: we are children of the great King! We are to remember that as people chosen out of the world we are spiritually separate and are not to follow the ways of the world (John 15:19; 17:15-19; Eph. 2:1-10; 5:1-6:9; 1 Pet. 1:13-3:12).

Fourth, the tabernacle symbolised Eden, and thereby reminded the Israelites of their sinful, lost, separated condition as descen­dants of Adam. Entrance into Eden was barred to them. And yet they could enter in a sense, when the priest entered as their representative. Hence, the tabernacle spoke both of being lost and also of the promise of overcoming sin through a representative man, ultimately through Jesus Christ our final high priest (Heb. 7:27-28). Like the Israelites, we need to be reminded of the misery of our sinfulness deriving from Adam and of the hope — and now present reality — of redemption, restoration, and adoption into God’s family and house through Jesus Christ.

Fifth, the tabernacle symbolised the people of God corporately. Israel as a col­lective body was called upon to imitate the beauty, order, holiness, and purity of the tabernacle itself. It was to embody beauty, order, holiness, and purity in its own com­munal living. This principle was most evident in the case of Israelite families. The families lived in tents just as God lived in His tent. Their own work in constructing and repairing their tents, caring for their animals, cooking and eating their food, dis­tinguishing clean and unclean, separating right from wrong, and instructing their children was to be modelled after the work of God who was their heavenly Father (Deut. 8:5), and who was the exalted Head of their spiritual household.

For example, a humble task like washing the cookware was an echo of that exalted work of God the Saviour in which he cleanses the tabernacle and ultimately cleanses the whole universe through the work of Jesus Christ. Mending clothing was an act by which Israelite clothing was restored to being a reflection of the exalted clothing of the high priest and the curtains of the tabernacle, which in turn pointed forward to the perfection of righteousness, beauty, order, and spiritual “mending” in Jesus Christ and his “robe of righteous­ness” (Is. 61:10).

Likewise, the church in our day is to be holy. The church is not a voluntary associa­tion to be governed as its members see fit, but a dwelling place of God. It ought to be structured according to the orders of its commander, the Lord Jesus Christ. Our families and our homes are to reflect the spiritual purity, beauty, and orderliness that was temporarily pictured through the tabernacle and is now supremely set forth in Jesus Christ himself. Christ’s work of cleansing the universe was definitively accomplished in his death and resurrection. But when we wash dishes in his name we do our little work of cleansing, which humbly reflects his great work.

Sixth, the tabernacle symbolised the people of God individually. The Israelites were commanded to keep their bodies pure, pure first of all from sin but also from ceremonial defilements that symbolised sin. In the New Testament the bodies of Christians are temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6:19). We are “to purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of rever­ence for God” (2 Cor. 7:1). Sexual sins as sins directly against the body are strongly forbidden (1 Cor. 6:18-20).

Seventh, the tabernacle pointed forward to the New Jerusalem, the final dwelling of God with human beings. The Israelites were supposed to look forward to God’s salvation in the future and to pray for his coming. By doing so they were to stir themselves up to be faithful to God and to trust him in their own time. We have now received the down-payment of our salva­tion through the gift of the Holy Spirit (Eph. 1:13-14; 2 Cor. 1:22). But we must stir ourselves up to long for the second coming of Christ when we will receive fully what God has promised.

Eighth, the tabernacle symbolised God himself. The teaching of the Old Testament did not reveal the mysteries of the trinitar­ian nature of God as fully as they have now been revealed. But the Israelites were being instructed by the veils and the not-fully­-analysable symbols to realise that God’s character and his purposes were unfath­omably deep, and that their salvation rested in God’s own character and wisdom. We now know, in the light of fuller revelation, that the God of Israel is our trinitarian God, the one God revealed through the work of Christ as he obeyed the Father through the power of the Holy Spirit.

The tabernacle points forward to Christ the final dwelling of God with human beings, but also to the Father and the Spirit who in Christ reveal the fullness of the Deity to us (Col. 2:9). For us as well as for the Israelites, the tabernacle is a revelation of God himself. His holiness, his beauty, his majesty, his purposes of salvation. The law of Moses is intended above all to draw us into communion with this wonderful God, to adore him, to worship him, and to enjoy his presence forever. We are members of his household, adopted sons of a heavenly Father, and brothers of Jesus Christ our elder brother (Rom. 8:17, 28-30).