The Old Testament Tabernacle

Theological Significance of the
Old Testament Tabernacle


There are three leading themes that constitute the theology behind the Old Testament Tabernacle. They coincide and overlap in places, but remain distinct enough to separate them and analyze them individually. They are: Holiness/Purity, Atonement, and the Presence of God.

1.) Holiness/Purity
The most obvious reality of the Tabernacle is that it is a place of Holiness. Everything about it is concise, arranged exactly as God instructs, to the ultimate purpose of purity. God forbids the immediate environment from being desecrated with impurity, in order to keep His dwelling pure and holy. This concept merges with the Presence of God, but we will explore that later. However, the entire concept of holiness means that man will fall short of the mark, simply because we are not pure or holy.
So in one regard, the Tabernacle is an illustration (perhaps even a reminder) that we cannot please or exceed God of our own deeds. God’s grace is the only thing that can rapture us from our sin. This takes us to the item of Atonement.

2.) Atonement
As stated above, it is impossible for mankind to please or exceed God of our own deeds. It is humanly impossible to do something – anything – that would delete the impurity created by our human sin. We are a cursed race, and every one of us will sin. Therefore, only God’s grace can save us.
In the Old Testament, atonement for our sin is offered with the slaying of a perfect lamb. It was merely ritual, only a ceremony performed at God’s request, that He might wipe clean their sin. He wanted to see their devotion, to offer them a choice. But why a lamb?
A lamb was merely an allegory. A picture of Christ Jesus, who’s death would be the ultimate sacrifice. The white wool of the perfect lamb represented the absolute holiness of Christ, who was sinless…perfect in every regard.
It is notable, however, that many of the Jews eventually came to view the ceremonial atonement as a periodical sort of “fire insurance”. As if their reluctance would please their Creator. This ceremony became a “human deed” in itself, and lent itself to the subconscious notion that it, in fact, was man’s responsibility to earn their way to heaven.




3.) Presence of God
God dwelt in the Holy of Holies. In the most sacred place, the God of the Hebrews was there. His house was guarded by a veil…and the threat of death to all but the High Priest on the appointed day. And even then, if the Priest was not pure at heart, he was killed upon his entrance.
Again, this lends to the concept of Holiness/Purity. The average human being simply could not approach God. Jehovah was far too holy, too removed. It was a national affair. Israel was to be a “nation of priests”, and so their entire economy, government, migration, all their battle plans…revolved around the fact that God was with them.
Imagine God living in the White House. Prophesying to the Defense Department, breathing divinity into the nation’s internal affairs, managing the treasury, conducting treaty signings in foreign nations. And demanding that once every year, our President purge himself of his iniquity, and come before the living God in facedown worship.
Our entire perspective as a nation would be radically altered. Americans traveling abroad would be international representatives of the glory of God. Our nation’s success would flourish openly on the power of the Almighty, and everywhere we went, we would deliver God’s image through our lives.

But God doesn’t live in the Tabernacle anymore. When His son sagged with His last breath on the cross, the veil of the Temple was torn wide. We don’t need a High Priest. We can enter the Presence of God freely. He beckons to us, and all we need to do is respond. We don’t have to kill a lamb, we just have to surrender.
And now that God lives in us, we are living representatives of the glory of God. Our success flourishes on the wondrous beauty of our King, and everywhere we go, we shine God’s glory through our lives. It is upon us…whether we will misrepresent our Lord, or live like He did. He has washed our sins away, and we are giddy with thankfulness. We clutch to His grace, and thank Him for His mercy. Because He is God, and we are not. He is holy, and we are not. But He died that we could enter into the Holiest places with Him, and all we have to do is surrender

Entwined

Life hurts.
We are born into the world, condemned by the reality of Adam’s failure. This is a difficult concept to accept, even if you understand it fully. The first man, molded of dust, and vitalized with God’s own breath…sinned, and screwed up the universe for the remainder of earth’s existence. God put a human on this earth, and a helper. Everything was pure. One small, selfish decision – probably just a shrug from Adam – changed the relationship between God and man for thousands of years afterwards. WHAT?!
What in God’s name was Adam thinking?
If he was living today, it would be hard not to throw a fist in his face. We’re paying the consequences for his actions. That’s why life hurts. If you want to get ultra-specific, then yes, it was Adam who screwed up our reality today. But if any one of us had been in his position, we’d have done no better. It was MAN who did this.
And THAT’S why life hurts so bad.
God knows all this. He’s omniscient. It’s his nature to know it. So he addressed the problem, and sent ambassadors. A collection of supernaturally gifted individuals, created perhaps solely for the purpose of delivering messages from God to His children. Guess what?
We killed them.
They were called the prophets, and we, stupid mankind, murdered them. Again, we have screwed up our universe. This is getting out of hand. How many servants can the Owner of a vineyard continue to send? Ten, twenty, a hundred? No. The blood that has been shed must be reconciled. Wiped clean from the Creator’s dearest: His precious, precious children. So he does what must be done. He sends His Son.
The Son is on an epic mission. To do what Adam had neglected to do at the dawn of reality. To save mankind. Guess what?
We killed him, too.
But God knows this, and has known it since the beginning of time. It is all part of His plan. And it will all lead to love. Thanks to the death and resurrection of God’s only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, we have a wonderful choice: we can communicate with God PERSONALLY. Yes, on an individual, day-by-day basis. No more of this ambassador ceremony. God has restored us to the purity of Eden, and now we too can walk with God in the cool of the day.
On that day, when our Lord sagged with his last breath on the cross, and the skies darkened…the veil was shredded. The temple was turned upside down. Now the Gentiles didn’t have to stay in their court. Or the women in theirs. Or the men, or the priests. You could walk into the Holy of Holies and stand before God, purified. It is God’s grace that gave us this. His mercy, sparing us from the consequence of our sin. Oh, but guess what?
We pretended it never happened.
Even though the basis of Christianity itself is solely the wondrous cross…so many Christians just ignore the Holy of Holies. Pretending that the veil is still there, perfectly fine to leave it that way. It is too great a challenge to our fallen nature to REPENT of sins we don't want to admit we commited. To accept the grace of God and hand Him our lives is painful. Its places God before us, in control of us. We are no longer autonomous, able to control our own destinies. So we just ignore the cross altogether. What a spit in the face of God! What a sacrilege, an abuse, a sin! We have trampled God’s grace. First, our violation of creation in Eden. Then, our shunning of the prophets. Then we killed God’s Son. Now we desecrate the new covenant with our ignorance.
We are a sick, sinful people. It’s a miracle in itself that God doesn’t wipe us off the planet as he did with the people in Noah’s time. But wait…He will.
The end is coming. The last days are drawing near, assuming we aren’t in them now. There is a time coming when your choices will be irrelevant. Where you will finally MISS grace. Where salvation will literally pass you by.
Turn. Entwine yourself in Love, for He awaits you with a passion. Step into the Holy of Holies and never look back. This is the greatest end. We must worship our Creator, bow at His feet. Hand our lives back to Him and admit that it was WE who stole them. This will lead to Love. And God is Love.

New Skin

What are we? What were we?
What have humans done to creation, and in turn, to the Creator?
We are not wholly to blame. The sickness that seeps from our veins, it destroys. Have we made it? Is sin a product of our own disregard to God's pure and perfect rule in Eden?
Partly.
Evil (and sin) crept out the door which we opened. We have provided it a portal to enter our lives, and like water, its nature demands that it drips in. But for now, we must realize that though we are not the essence of evil (quite the opposite: God's glorious creation), we have become so encrusted with it that our own traits of glory are cloaked behind a scab of transgression.
When cast in a light of holiness, only evil can be seen. We appear priests of Lucifer, delivers of death. We serve a sickening slave god. Black death. A turmoil of chaotic fury, swinging recklessly through the heavens, wrenching stars from orbit. A plague, an illness.
We have contracted iniquity, and we shall die of it.

And at that moment, as despair plays its havoc on a condemned soul... ...rescue.
The clouds part, and through the retreating darkness of the thunderstorm, shines hope. Like a spark igniting into a prism, that epic, striking love explodes at us. It slithers into a flame, into a raging fire, into a mad inferno. Our scab of sin shrivels like paper before a flame. And beneath: new skin.
We shall know no fear - only glory. When we see the joyous chorus praising, we cry the name of our lovely Redeemer.

"Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!"

He does not fail.
Evil no longer prevails.
He is our strength in the blistering gale.
He is our King, and He has torn back the veil.

He is Jesus. He is Jesus.