Exodus 25:8
Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them. (NIV)
Today’s Reading: Exodus 25:1-9 and Hebrews 9:1-28
I feel the section we are entering needs an introduction. God is about to reveal to Moses in minute detail how to build the tabernacle and everything in it. In fact, God will tell Moses multiple times that he is to build it precisely as he is told. No creativity or deviations are allowed with the utmost attention given to every detail. We must ask why?
The main reason is because the tabernacle points to Jesus. Jesus is the fulfillment of this structure. Every decoration, dimension and detail is to point to Jesus. “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us (John 1:14).” The greek word used by John for dwelling is skēnoō implies pitching a tent and can be translated literally as tabernacle. In other words, John 1:14 says, “Jesus became human and tabernacled among us.” Just as God would dwell with His people the Israelites in His tabernacle, Jesus would also dwell with his people except that Jesus himself is the tabernacle.
Hebrews will be an often-referenced book for us as we study the tabernacle. It’s deep and often difficult to understand so I hope that our study can unpack some of the hidden gems that it contains one day at a time. The unknown author of Hebrews tells us, “Now the first covenant had regulations for worship and also an earthly sanctuary. A tabernacle was set up … [as] an illustration for the present time” (Heb 9:1-2, 9). After Jesus died and rose from the grave, it became clean that the earthly tabernacle was a picture of salvation.
God’s presence dwelled in the Holy of Holies inside the tabernacle. Once a year, the High Priest had to go into the tabernacle and into the Holy of Holies – the sanctuary of God. Animal sacrifices had to be made and blood had to be sprinkled in a variety of places in order to cleanse everything before the High Priest could enter the Holy of Holies. “But when Christ came as high priest of the good things that are now already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not made with human hands, that is to say, is not a part of this creation. He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption” (Heb 9:11-12).
When Jesus died and sacrificed his own blood, he became the High Priest who entered the true Holy of Holies where God resides. “For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with human hands that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence” (Heb 9:24). Through Jesus’ body, the true tabernacle, Jesus fulfilled the purpose of the earthly tabernacle once and for all. At the moment Jesus died “the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom” (Matt 27:51) and made God’s sanctuary available to all of us.
Proverbs 25:2 says, “It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings.” God has hidden amazing pictures of our salvation in Christ within the tabernacle. Every spoil taken from the Egyptians became an offering the Israelites gave to Moses to build the tabernacle that would point us to Jesus.
Christ in the Old Testament 
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