FRIDAY
The tabernacle is presented as sacred space like Eden, but now sin has entered into God’s good creation. Beale and Kim describe it like a song that has been remixed, “…the biblical tabernacle is something of a remix: in this case, a remix of Eden in a context of sin.”* After the Fall of Genesis chapter 3, humanity has been cast out from the Eden temple and the full experience of the presence of God. How will humans be reunited to God? How can sinful humans be in the presence of the Holy God? These are the problems that the tabernacle solves.
First, let’s see the comparison of the tabernacle to Eden. In the creation narrative of Genesis 1, we read seven times “God said.” (Gen 1:3, 6, 9, 14, 20, 24, 26) So in the building of the tabernacle, we read seven times “Yahweh said” (Ex 25:1; 30:11, 17, 22, 34; 31:1, 12) to instruct Moses. The stone tablets were in the ark of the covenant, symbolizing the importance of obeying the words of God. Disobedience to the word of God is the sin in Genesis 3 that led to expulsion from the garden. Just as the seven days of creation conclude with the Sabbath day (Gen. 2:1-3), so the the seventh speech ends with instructions about the Sabbath (Ex. 31:12-17). The completion of the creation and the tabernacle end with similar verbiage (see Gen. 2:1 and Ex. 39:32). God blesses the seventh day (Gen. 2:3), Moses blesses the people after the building of the tabernacle (Ex. 39:43). Examples could be multiplied.
So the tabernacle is presented as a type of Eden, only now sin is in God’s creation. The union between God and his people has been broken. God no longer walks with them in the cool of the day (Gen. 3:8). In the tabernacle there is a wall around the tent, a curtain between the outer court and the Holy Place, and another curtain between the Holy Place and The Most Holy Place. There is separation between the holy God and his sinful people. The most sacred space is off limits to all of humanity but one, and only once a year. The purpose of this visit to The Most Holy Place is not to simply commune with God but to make atonement for humanity’s sin.
The tabernacle, as cool as it is, pales in comparison to the picture of Eden. This is not the “place of delight” in the perfect, full presence of God. This is picture of the spiritual reality that sinful people cannot be in the full presence of the Holy God. God, in his holiness, would consume us.
Yet, it is still a symbol of hope. This perfectly holy God still wants to dwell with his people. He hasn’t left humanity alone to rot in our sin. He, in his compassion, grace, mercy, and love, makes a way for his sinful people to approach him and dwell in his presence. This way, however, is on his terms and only according to his commands. It is a dangerous endeavor to approach the Holy God on our terms and according to our own prescriptions. The tabernacle and worship practices prescribed in the Law reveal that God will only be approached on his terms. So we must always obey his commands.
“As a result, sin does not undermine the mission that God had originally given to Adam. In the Holy Place, God’s presence empowered a prayerful and witnessing community, as represented by the incense, lampstand, and table of bread. However, the outer courts made access to God’s presence possible, where the altar for burnt offering and basin for washing cleansed God’s people from the stains of sin so that they might be acceptable to worship and so that the high priest could represent them and their sacrifice in the holy God’s very presence in the Holy of Holies.”**
*Beale, G. K.; Kim, Mitchell. God Dwells Among Us: A Biblical Theology of the Temple (Essential Studies in Biblical Theology) (p. 38). (Function). Kindle Edition.
**Beale, G. K.; Kim, Mitchell. God Dwells Among Us: A Biblical Theology of the Temple (Essential Studies in Biblical Theology) (p. 46). (Function). Kindle Edition.
Reflection
Imagine you were an Israelite living in this wilderness wandering era with the tabernacle set up in the camp. Imagine yourself walking by the tabernacle every day like you would a park in your neighborhood. What kinds of thoughts and feelings would you be experiencing as you walk by the tabernacle? What would you experience as you watched the sacrifice of the bulls and the rams for 7 days to consecrate the priests? What would you experience on the Day of Atonement when the High Priest would enter the Most Holy Place to make atonement for your sins? What are the truths about God revealed in these ceremonial worship practices?