The Tabernacle

Day Nine                       
The Tabernacle                      
Hebrews 9:11-15

The imagery hiding behind the terminology in the phrase “He made His dwelling among us” is of someone pitching a tent. The Word came and pitched His tent among us. Older translations sometimes refer to the tabernacle of God being erected in our midst. That’s a helpful thought. What should we take from it?

When the Word became flesh, in Jesus, God did not take any temporary measures to achieve our salvation. God’s revelation was not a momentary parting of the heavens, allowing Him to blast our sin with a thunderbolt of redemption. There’s nothing fleeting about the idea that God came and took up residence in the person of His Son. This was not a quick visit. God did not stop by on His way to do something else. He didn’t “fit us into His schedule” then go back to doing the things a God has to do. He came, and dwelt among us.

Even the idea of a tent can create the wrong impression, since tents tend to be temporary. This is where the idea of the tabernacle is helpful. Although, in their nomadic days, the people of Israel would move the tabernacle around the country, it wasn’t like erecting a pup tent for a two day hike. The tabernacle may not have remained in one place, but there was still a feeling of permanence about it. Israel did not have to chase God’s Spirit from place to place. Neither should we worry that the Word will soon be gone. Christ came, and He pitched the tent of His tabernacle in our midst.

There’s another implication here that we should not miss. Jesus did not remain in sanitized splendor as the Father dealt with our sin. God did not don surgical gloves or pick up the scalpel of truth in order to rid us of the consequences of our rebellion. Jesus didn’t remain, sitting on a cloud, passing down judgments upon us. Neither did God take up celestial tongs in order to keep us at a distance as He dealt with our sin. Christ came down into our midst. He was born, to peasant parents, in a stable. They laid Him in a manger. He knew the sights and sounds and earthy smells of our existence. He got His hands dirty for our salvation. That’s important. Although a holy God had to be separated from the corruption of sin, He found a way to take that sin away. The unblemished Lamb took the stain of sin, and its consequences, so that we wouldn’t have to. He made Him, “who was without sin to be sin, for us.”

In Old Testament days the tabernacle held the holy of holies. The Ark of the Covenant was kept in the innermost chamber. There, the holiness of God was said to dwell. In these latter days, we have heard, God made His tabernacle among us. Despite the stench of sin, or perhaps because of it, Christ came.

Lord Christ, I remember how You came and lived among us, sharing my poverty and my temptations, my anxieties and my opportunities, my hopes and my fears. Yet, You overcame them all, and through Your perfect life You also overcame the stranglehold of sin. May I live to sing Your praise. Amen.