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When you look at all these items of Israel’s Tabernacle that are recorded in the Torah reading תְּרוּמָה Terumah (“contribution,” Exodus 25:1–27:19), God is giving us a picture in words what Moses saw in Heaven. I’m sure that words fail to describe how much beauty Moses saw in vision in heaven.
The King James Version calls the “kapporet” on top of the Ark of the Covenant a “mercy seat,” but this imagery could be misleading. This container is not a chair for God to seat Himself upon. God is spirit, and when He would appear in the Tabernacle, He would appear in a cloud and in light. When you hear the word “kippur” your mind should immediately think of Yom Kippur, the day in which our transgressions and iniquities are covered.
The KJV translators were not foolish. They understood what Yom Kippur was, but the reason they called the kippur of the ark the “mercy seat” is they wanted the readers to understand that the kapporet is where mercy from HaShem was dispensed. This particular cover had a special function, and by calling it a “mercy seat” the translators were doing their best to convey that in English.
Why did God need a house?
There have been many books written about the construction plans for the tabernacle. I can’t even begin to have the time to read and relay all the Jewish and Christian commentaries about what these different items represented and their physical and spiritual meaning.
All of us had to learn how to follow God. The children of Israel were blessed beyond measure that they had God Himself following them around in the cloud by day and the fire by night. He was already amongst them. God was on the mountain and they were camped surrounding the mountain. Why did God want or need a tabernacle?
We don’t have a temple today. We have churches, but we don’t have a physical temple. If God is able to dwell with us now without a temple, why couldn’t He have done so back then?
There is an inherent problem with God dwelling with people since He is Holy and human beings are not.
Why did God want to live in someplace that can be seen? One thing to think about is that people who engage in idolatry do not literally worship the idol. The physical idol is simply something that has been made to help them focus their attention and prayers from that prototype towards the “god” represented by that idol. The idol is still an object that you are putting in front of God. Idols are also made from things that we consider valuable, such as gold, silver, copper, etc.
God wants us to bring our cares to us directly. He loves us and doesn’t need middle men to hear and answer our prayers.
Our churches and synagogues are meeting places so we can worship God and come together to learn about God. Some are more beautiful than others. We can learn about God in a beautiful building, or we can learn about God in a plain utilitarian building. A church or synagogue with no people meeting to worship God is just a building. The holiness that the building had is gone when no one comes there.
In high priest Eli’s time, when the Tabernacle became a place of usury, corruption and sexual deviancy, God left the Tabernacle, and it totally lost its value and purpose.
What’s the purpose for the Tabernacle?
The apostle Ya’akov (James) explicitly tells us the point of the synagogue, in his discourse in Acts 15:
For Moses from ancient generations has in every city those who preach him, since he is read in the synagogues every Sabbath.
Acts 15:21 NASB
When God destroyed the Temple for good in A.D. 70, He thwarted every attempt to rebuild it because He had left it.
The reason that God wanted a Tabernacle is that He wanted a place on earth where the people could gather to meet Him. What does dwelling with God look like?
Temples of the Holy Spirit
The New Testament tells us that our bodies are Temples of the Holy Spirit, but we are also told that the body of believers meeting together to worship God are also a Temple of the Holy Spirit.
The Messiah was a Temple of God in the flesh (John 1:1, 14).
The center of the Tabernacle was the Ark of the Testimony. It was the center of everything. All of the objects in the Tabernacle were set up to serve that ark. The value of the ark was not in the decoration, but what was in it was what was important.
You can sense this play on words in English, but it’s obvious in Hebrew. There is a Hebrew pun in this. The pun here has a spiritual meaning here. The Hebrew word for ark is ha ‘aron. The first high priest was named Aharon (Aaron). The words sound similar, and it’s no coincidence that Moses’ brother, Aharon, was the one who faced the ‘aron at Yom Kippur. Why is God connecting Aharon to the ark? Why do they face each other at Yom Kippur?
When Aharon enters the most holy place on Yom Kippur, he symbolically wears all the people of Israel and carries them with him in from of the ‘aron. God knew that Moses parents would name their eldest son Aharon and He knew that this man would be His first high priest.
In the case of the ark, the ‘aron, the poles that were used to carry the ark were never removed. This ark, this box, was the reason for the entire tabernacle. Every other item that called for poles could have the poles removed from them, but the ark’s poles were never removed. The poles allowed for the ark to be carried out at a moments notice. The words that were in the ark could also carried out at moment’s notice.
What is what happened physically when the people stopped worshipping Him in the Tabernacle. When they didn’t cherish the tabernacle, God left it.
God wrote the 10 commandments on tablets of stone, but God wants to write His commandments on our hearts. If we are also the tabernacle of God, they are not written on stones, but written on our hearts.
The point of the ark of the covenant itself is the same as our own hearts, with the words of God written on us:
“And I will give them one heart, and put a new spirit within them. And I will take the heart of stone out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in My statutes and keep My ordinances and do them. Then they will be My people, and I shall be their God. But as for those whose hearts go after their detestable things and abominations, I will bring their conduct down on their heads,” declares the Lord GOD.
Ezekiel 11:19–21 NASB
When the people obey God and visit Him in His Temple, He promises to be with them. When we love and obey God from the bottom of our hearts, He will dwell in us but if the people no longer want to obey Him meet Him in the Temple or they no longer obey God from the bottom of their hearts, God will not dwell there.
The tablets in the Ark of the Covenant represents the heart of God, with His law written on them.
The high priest, the Ark of the Covenant and the Messiah are synonymous. They have God’s law written on their hearts, and God’s words are at the core of who and what they are.
Summary: Tammy