Exodus 25-28 contain detailed instructions regarding the Tabernacle, or the designated place of worship for the wandering Israelites. After calling for a freewill offering from the people to furnish the materials for the Tabernacle, God gives very precise specifications for the Tabernacle itself and for each element within the Tabernacle. In reading through these chapters, one cannot help but note the precision given to every single detail for the Ark of the Covenant, the Table of Bread, the Golden Lampstand, the Tabernacle, the Bronze Altar, the Court, the Oil, and the garments for the Priests.
In other words, God is giving them pinpointed instructions for the construction of a facility sufficient enough so that they may approach God. This is about worship. This is about communion with God and maintaining fellowship with God. God says, “In order for you to worship me, this is what the place must look like.” Therefore, in Old Testament times, worship of God was located in a place, the Tabernacle or the Temple.
In the New Testament, under the New Covenant, worship of God is redirected to a new locale. John 1:14 says “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us...” The word for “dwelt” is literally “tabernacled!” Jesus is the New Covenant tabernacle! Jesus is the place where one goes to meet with God, worship God, commune with God, fellowship with God because Jesus is God! (John 1:1) Therefore, the focus of worship is now not directed to a place but rather to a person, the Lord Jesus Christ! And the instructions have changed as well. There is no longer any need for all the tabernacle furniture, we only come to God through Christ in Spirit and in truth! (John 4:23)
I am curious about the notes in my ESV Bible regarding the tabernacle (25:1-31:17 preview note, 23:31-40, 26:1, maybe others). The commentators have a new "take" (for me) on the symbolism intended by the tabernacle. The first possibility is that it is "a tented palace for Israel's divine king" and the second, "a step toward the restoration of paradise" and a "mini-Eden." I've never heard either idea before! The symbolism of the tabernacle set-up and furnishings that I have studied involves pictures of the process of salvation and of Jesus Himself. This viewpoint is not even suggested once in the ESV notes, not even when they are talking about the veil separating the Holy of Holies from the holy place. (Heb. 10:19-22?) The ideas they present are intriguing, and I don't think it is of eternal significance that they didn't choose to give the viewpoint I have been taught ("MY viewpoint"!), but it does make me wonder. Do you have any comment on that, my brother?
ReplyDeleteSecond curious thing: the altar of incense is not described with the rest of the inside tabernacle furnishings in chapter 25, but is "tacked on" 5 chapers later in chapter 30. As the kids say, "What's with that?"
Concerning the symbolism, I do think the Tabernacle points us to Christ ultimately. However, I also see how through the process of sacrifice and law, due to sin, a kind of second Eden is produced. That is, God has made a way through the Law and the Tabernacle to have communion with His people.
ReplyDeleteFor the second question, I am uncertain unless it is simply a matter of the different texts Moses used in his final composition of the Pentateuch.