A Sanctuary, That I May Dwell Among Them
God brought Israel out of Egypt and, as He told them, brought you unto myself (Exodus 19:4). At Sinai Moses went up into the cloud and stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights (Exodus 24:18). There God gave him plans for a house. It was a tent, and God said why He wanted it.
“And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them. According to all that I shew thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it.”EXODUS 25:8–9 · KJV
That I may dwell among them. The God who made heaven and earth asked for a tent so that He could live in the middle of His people's camp. He said it again: I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will be their God (Exodus 29:45).
Hebrew mishkan, a dwelling place, from the verb shakan, to dwell, the same verb God uses in Exodus 25:8. Scripture also calls it the tabernacle of the congregation, the tent where God met with Israel (Exodus 29:42).
A Court, a Holy Place, and the Holiest of All
The tabernacle stood inside a courtyard fenced with linen hangings, entered by a single gate. In the court stood the brasen altar and the laver. The tent itself had two rooms. The first, the holy place, held the candlestick, the table of shewbread, and the golden altar of incense (Exodus 30:1–6). Behind a veil lay the second room, which Hebrews calls the Holiest of all (Hebrews 9:3). There stood the ark of the covenant and its mercy seat.
On the first day of the first month of the second year after the Exodus, Moses reared it up (Exodus 40:17). Then a cloud covered the tent, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle (Exodus 40:34). Through the wilderness years the cloud by day and the fire by night rested over it (Numbers 9:15–16), and the tribes camped around it on every side (Numbers 2:2).
It was a place of nearness and of distance at the same time. God was in the middle of the camp, but no Israelite could walk into His presence, because sin had separated them from Him (Isaiah 59:2). Only the high priest entered the holiest, once a year, and not without blood (Hebrews 9:7). Every curtain said, God is here. Every curtain also said, You cannot simply come in.
Built from a Pattern
God did not let Moses design the tabernacle. Look that thou make them after their pattern, which was shewed thee in the mount (Exodus 25:40). Hebrews explains why the pattern mattered:
“Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount.”HEBREWS 8:5 · KJV
The priests served the example and shadow of heavenly things. The word translated pattern is the Greek typos, the word from which we get type (see What Is Typology?). The tabernacle was a true copy of something greater, a figure for the time then present (Hebrews 9:9). It was built to point beyond itself.
The New Testament itself names the tabernacle as a type. Hebrews calls it a shadow of heavenly things and a figure for its time (Hebrews 8:5; Hebrews 9:9). It names the sacrifices of the altar as shadows of Christ's one offering (Hebrews 10:1–10), the holiest of all as a figure of the heaven Christ entered by His own blood (Hebrews 9:11–12; Hebrews 9:24), and the veil as His flesh (Hebrews 10:20). John says the Word dwelt among us with a verb built on the word for a tent (John 1:14). We state those plainly. The New Testament does not name the laver, the candlestick, or the table of shewbread as types, though Jesus calls Himself the light of the world and the bread of life. We present them as pictures that point to Christ, and we build no doctrine on them.
Loading the rest of this article
For Deeper Study
- The Tabernacle: Shadows of the MessiahAmazon David M. LevyA clear guide to the tabernacle's structure, furniture, offerings, and priesthood by a longtime leader of The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry, written from a dispensational view that keeps Israel's future in sight.
- The Tabernacle: The House of BloodAmazon M. R. DeHaanA warm devotional study first published in 1955 by the founder of the Radio Bible Class. Christ-centered throughout, though it finds meaning in more details than this study does.
- Typology: Understanding the Bible's Promise-Shaped PatternsAmazon James M. Hamilton Jr.A careful study of how Old Testament people, events, and institutions, the tabernacle and temple among them, point to Christ. The author writes as a Calvinistic Baptist.
- Foxe's Book of MartyrsAmazon John FoxeThe classic Protestant record of those who died for the faith, from the early church to the English Reformation.
As an Amazon Associate, Theologica earns from qualifying purchases.
What Is Typology?
God filled the Old Testament with pictures of His Son: real people, events, and institutions He designed to point forward to Jesus Christ, who fulfills and surpasses them all.
Open Doctrine