Our church group were reading through Genesis and
Exodus. They are on to Acts now!
In Exodus God gives a lot of space to describing the details
and construction of the Tabernacle. Now,
the New Testament (Hebrews) gives us permission to see that all the Tabernacle
stuff tells us about Jesus – all kinds of revelation. Then we read in John 1.14
The Word became flesh
and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One
and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Those words his dwelling translate a Greek phrase –
εσκηνωσεν εν ημιν (eskēnōsen en hēmin) which
carries the idea that Jesus encamped, pitched his tent or TABERNACLED among
us. We have permission to think of the
Tabernacle as a picture of Jesus Christ – the Word become flesh – living among
his creatures on earth.
Now, we need to remind ourselves that we must read Scripture
with the help and guidance and revelation of the Holy Spirit. All kinds of things can “go wrong” when the
human intellect gets hold of God’s Word!
Something to notice in the accounts of the Tabernacle is
that God starts with the item closest to Him – the Ark and Mercy Seat. When the Tabernacle is built he starts with
what is closest to the people – the outer fence! That is, probably, quite easy to
understand?
Heb 10:19-20 Therefore, brothers, since 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.
It is possible to read through the Exodus description of the
Tabernacle and get interested in the big items and miss the detail! By this I mean that we can miss items like
pegs, nails, loops and ties. Everything
had to fit together and be fixed together.
When we study Scripture and discover more and more about God in the
person of Jesus Christ we need to make sure that we are tying things together,
fixing things IN HIM. Like Paul says to
Timothy –
Do your best to
present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be
ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.
We can grasp a truth and fail to fix in with other truth
about the Lord. We can present something
which is not whole, not sound doctrine.
Without the pegs and nails, loops and ties, poles and sockets, the
Tabernacle would have fallen apart! Now
the point of all this can be seen when we understand that all believers in
Jesus are his priests and therefore are commissioned to carry something of Him
(the Tabernacle). We read about this in
the book of Numbers. Some priests were
privileged to carry the Ark, the Lampstand, the Curtains, the boards covered in
gold … and so forth. However, others
were privileged to carry the pegs, nails, laces ,ties, poles and sockets. Without them serving faithfully, the
“Tabernacle” is not complete.
If we truly want to present Christ to the nations then we
must all play our part in showing everyone who he is. After all we are his Body!
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