Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 41:17 — 29.3MB)
Subscribe: RSS
The Tabernacle, God’s mobile embassy on Earth, was not merely a magic charm to give you the desires of your heart. That is how the surrounding nations engaged with their deities.
Rather, the Torah reading תצוה Tetzaveh (“you shall command,” Exodus 27:20–30:10) teaches that the Tent of the Testimony guides us toward how our hearts are tuned to the harmony of Heaven. How much more, then, would the Tabernacle made man — Messiah Yeshua (Christ Jesus) — reveal the Father to us.
Parallel passages: Ezekiel 43:10–27; Hebrews 13:10–16; Deuteronomy 25:17–19; 1Samuel 15:1–34
What started in Sinai did not stay in Sinai
Why were the children of Israel at the mountain? Why were they commanded to build a Tabernacle for God? We got a preview of that in the prior Torah reading, תְּרוּמָה Terumah (“contribution,” Exodus 25:1–27:19):
“Let them construct a sanctuary for Me, that I may dwell among them. According to all that I am going to show you, as the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all its furniture, just so you shall construct it.”
Exodus 25:8–9 NASB
The Tabernacle on Earth is a pattern of God’s dwelling place in Heaven. In the Torah reading תצוה Tetzaveh (“you shall command,” Exodus 27:20–30:10), the second installment of descriptions of the Tabernacle, we can see further how every part of the Tabernacle on Earth has an equivalent in Heaven.
When you look at the various elements of the Tabernacle, we see that it was designed and appeals to all the five senses. God was dwelling on Mt. Sinai but He did not desire to stay there. He desired to travel with His people wherever they went.
Moses had been invited in the highest height of Sinai to meet personally with God. And we see later (Leviticus 16) that Aaron once a year enters the Most Holy Place at God’s personal invitation. At the area part way up the mountain, God had invited not only Moses, but also Aaron, Joshua and the 70 leaders of Israel to come closer to Him, although they were not invited all the way to the top.
At the base of the mountain, the people of Israel were invited to gather there to approach, but they were required to prepare themselves to approach the presence of God. They did not “come as they are.” The Tabernacle was a way to transport the experience of Sinai with them wherever they traveled. The Tabernacle was the mobile Mountain of the LORD.
Within the Tabernacle, the words, law and testimony of God were given pride of place in the Most Holy Place.
When Phillip asked Yeshua to show the 12 the Father, He said if they had seen Him, they had seen the Father. If the Tabernacle was a representation of the Father, then how much more was the “word made flesh” in Yeshua, also a representation of The Father.
The most important mission of the Messiah was to reveal the Father. That was not just for the sake of knowledge to win a trivia game but for the sake of fellowship between us and God. Family know each other and grow together but when they separate, they grow apart. If we are away from each other for many years, when we come together again, we can speak of the past but we have nothing to connect us to each other in the present. This is not the kind of relationship God wants with His people.
The prayers of the people are also acknowledged in the Tabernacle with the altar of incense, which smells really good. But the Torah also tells us that the burning sacrifices are a “soothing aroma.” The smell of flesh is not a sweet pleasant smell like burning incense is. But what makes the sacrifices a soothing aroma to God is when those offerings are brought by people who love Him. The sacrifices represent His people who want to be as close to Him as possible and this desire for connection is “soothing” to God.
The clothing makes the man
Everything the High Priest wore hold deep symbolism. The onyx stones on each shoulder, carved with the names of the 12 tribes, represent the High Priest carrying the people of Israel on His shoulders, with their burdens.
The breastplate also had 12 stones on it, carved with the names of the tribes. Here, the needs of the tribes are also on the priest’s heart and his heart beats along with them.
The High priest used the Urim and Thummim objects to determine God’s will for His people, and the priest carried them in the breast plate. They represented complete light and perfection. The priest has to have his mind and his heart engaged at all times as he performs his duties in the tabernacle.
“To the twelve tribes who are dispersed abroad: Greetings. Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”
James 1:1–4 NASB
When we meet up with Jacob, his mother had convinced him that he was incomplete without the birthright so when they conspired to trick Isaac to get it, he ended up living with his uncle Laban. He found a woman he wanted as a wife but he was given another woman instead but then he got the woman he wanted, too and the trials he went through taught him how to truly be a complete man so by the time Jacob met with his brother Esau again, he was truly complete and content.
What happens when you don’t obey God to the letter
We read in 1Samuel 15:1–34 how Saul obeys God most of the way, but not all the way. God had a valid reason to want to take the descendants of Amalek, particularly their leadership out. God wanted Agag killed but all Saul did was arrest him. He also did not wipe out all their belongings either, choosing to save some of the best animals and the gold, silver, etc. and give them to God, but God says in the Torah not to bring ill-gotten gains into His house. Saul pretended that he was somehow blessing God or doing God a favor by not obeying his orders 100%, but God called him out.
David, unlike Saul, understood what God really wanted of His people. Saul did not really understand what he was supposed to repent from, even though Samuel made it clear that God expected HIs instructions to be followed to the letter and Saul fell short of it. As the king, God held Saul to a higher standard than He held the common people. Saul wanted to do things his own way. Saul may have had regret for what he did wrong but he did not repent.
For You do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it; You are not pleased with burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.
Psalm 51:16–17 NASB
David committed a crime far worse than Saul’s, yet God called David a man after His heart. That was because David understood repentance in a way that Saul never could.
The Tabernacle, God’s mobile embassy on earth, was not merely a magic charm that is there to give you the desires of your heart. That is how the surrounding nations engaged with their deities. As long as you did things the right way, in the right order, you can unlock the blessings. But God does not look at the outside, but on the inside. Even if you come into the Tabernacle with lots of money, if the money is from ill-gotten gains, or the money is given with ulterior motives, God does not accept those type of offerings.
At Purim, we read the book of Esther. It is supposedly “godless,” but the story does not exist without God and His faithfulness to His promises to His people.
Summary: Tammy