Jul 1 - TABERNACLE - Exodus 26:1

Make the tabernacle with ten

curtains of finely twisted linen and

blue, purple and scarlet yarn,

with cherubim woven into

them by a skilled worker.

Exodus 26:1

 

God is holy.

 

We are not.

 

Nothing in Scripture (or really in life) makes sense until we understand this first principle.

 

Here, though, is the second key principle:

 

God is holy and we are not.

Nevertheless, God wants to be with us!

 

And that’s basically what the rest of the book of Exodus is about! (The journey to the Promised Land will still take three more books – Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy – but much of the rest of the book of Exodus is God describing his dwelling place when he comes to dwell among the Israelites.)

 

Indeed, in Exodus 25 God starts talking to Moses about what that dwelling place – the Tabernacle – should look like. Now, the Tabernacle was, in simplest terms, a big tent. And God described – in explicit detail – its size, shape, fabrics, and furnishings. He described who could enter into which portions of the tabernacle, and he described what they (especially the priests) should be wearing when they did.  In great detail, God described what should occur within the tabernacle over the course days and weeks and months and seasons; most especially the Lord detailed the specific sacrifices that should happen … and on what schedule.

 

Reading much of the second half of Exodus, it’s easy to get lost in all of the details – height vs. width, clean vs. unclean, gold vs. bronze, Aaronic priests vs. Levites. If you want to get caught up in the glorious details (including the love and prefiguring) of the Tabernacle, I urge you to study Beth Moore’s A Woman’s Heart: God’s Dwelling Place. (Hint: It’s not just for women!)

 

Today, however, we’re not going to get caught up in the details. We’re going to focus on the big picture: God wants to be with us, to dwell with us. And since he’s holy (and we’re not), he sets the conditions for His holiness dwelling with our imperfection. But … God wants to be with us. He wants to dwell with us.

 

Say that again and again (about fifty times) and then read the greatest fulfillment of God’s heart and God’s intent. At the beginning of the Gospel – John 1:1,14 – we are told that … “In the beginning was the Word (Jesus), and the Word (Jesus) was with God, and the Word was God. … and the Word (Jesus) became flesh and dwelt (literally “made his 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.”

 

Now, apply the truth of those first two key principles – the ones that explain all of Scripture (and really all of life) -- to the purpose of Jesus’ coming to earth …

 

God is holy and we are not.

Nevertheless, God wants to be with us!

 

Jesus is “God with us” (that’s the literal meaning of “Emmanuel.”) And why did he come to “tabernacle among us”? Since God is holy and we’re not, he came so that he could take the penalty of our unholiness (sin) upon himself and thus make us “holy and blameless” (Eph 5:27) so that we might enter eternally into his presence.

 

(I’ll be you didn’t know that a bunch of chapters about fabrics and furnishing, tents and tabernacles, were part of the key to understanding the whole Bible! But that’s God for you. It all ties together!)

 

In Christ’s Love,

a guy who went

pop-up-tabernacling recently

(Mary Louise and I went camping

in our pop-up camper)