An Introduction to the Tabernacle

A little over one chapter was needed to describe the structure of the world. But six were used. For the tabernacle.

So it should sort of startle us a little bit. The creation has just a scant amount in the whole overall teaching of scripture. as compared to the tabernacle.

Something's going on here.

Somebody's very important for us.

So, what is going on with the tabernacle in the Old Testament? And why did God take so much time describing it? Stay with us for Renewing Your Mind, as that's what we'll consider today and tomorrow. The Old Testament can sometimes be hard to read. The context is very different than today.

There are descriptions and prescriptions that seem foreign to us. And when we get to Exodus, and start reading elaborate details about this tent, this tabernacle. we might be tempted to skip over these chapters. But if we did. We would miss out on truths that the Lord gave to His people in His Word.

To close out this week, you'll hear two messages from our Guest Teachers 12-part series, God in Our Midst, the Tabernacle, and Our Relationship with God. Daniel Hyde recorded this series and wrote the companion book. And we'll send you both when you give a donation in support of Renewing Your Mind at renewingyourmind.org before midnight tomorrow. Here's Dr. Hyde, the pastor of Oceanside United Reformed Church in Carlsbad, California.

I want to ask you a question to begin with. just in terms of your own understanding of the Lord, your salvation, and your relationship with Him. Uh what's the best biblical Truth, the best key biblical passage or teaching that you would look to in order to understand your salvation. Possibly you would think about the Trinity. Father, Son, Holy Spirit, God, Creator.

Redeemer. sanctifier, perhaps the best place to start would be the life of Jesus Christ. Think about his incarnation, his life of obedience to the law of God, his death, resurrection, ascension. Perhaps for some of us, it would be the book of Romans. And we look to the first part, which deals with our sin, our guilt.

the meat of the book, which deals with our salvation and the grace of God. And finally, which deals with gratitude, how we are to be thankful to God for his redemption.

Now what if I asked you, thinking about your salvation, looking to scripture for how we are to understand it, to limit yourself just to the Old Testament?

So no New Testament teaching, just an Old Testament figure or a story or a book. Where would you look to understand your relationship with God? Maybe you'd think about Abraham. and the covenant that God made with him. Perhaps the Exodus and the great drama and the story of how God liberates his people.

Perhaps you'd think about the Psalms and those 150. prayers and songs that God gave to his people.

Well, I want to lead you in a study of your salvation, your relationship with God. in terms of the Old Testament tabernacle, not necessarily the best place to begin. are the only place to begin, but a good place to begin nonetheless that deals with The triune God, our sins, His amazing grace. how we are to serve him. This is a good challenge for us to start with the tabernacle or to go to the tabernacle because many Christians, and no doubt, putting ourselves in that bucket of people.

We're unfamiliar with the Old Testament. We don't know it as well as we know our New Testaments. One survey I read once kind of illustrates this. where evangelical Christians, professing believers in America were asked various questions about their Bible knowledge. And one of the questions was, who is Noah's wife?

Take a wild guess at what the answer was. Joan of Arc, of course. That just illustrates how little people know about their Old Testament and their Bible knowledge.

So in this first session, I want to begin to introduce you to the tabernacle, what it is, how it fits into the big story. in picture of God's uh revelation. Of his saving grace and how it points us to our relationship with our triune God.

So what was the tabernacle?

Well, it was this temporary tent that existed from the time of Moses at Mount Sinai for about 400 years until King Solomon came and built the lasting structure. of the temple. And the tabernacle has several names in scripture. It's called the sanctuary. signifying that it's a holy place, sanctuary for holy.

It's called the tent of the Lord. It's the place where God temporarily dwelt, like in a tent, just like his people dwelt in tents. It's called the tent of the testimony because the testimony. Is another way of describing the Ten Commandments, the tables of the law, and those are placed inside of the ark, which was inside the tent. It's also called the tent of meeting, the place where the Lord met with his people face to face as with friends.

That's what the tabernacle was. How does it fit into the story, the overall picture of what God was doing and what he was going to do with his people? The tabernacle, as it falls in the book of Exodus. takes place in three geographical places, the book of Exodus does. The first part of Exodus deals with The Lord's people where they were left off in Genesis.

They were in Egypt. They were there from chapters 1 to 13 in exile, waiting to be liberated and given the promises made. To Abraham, After leaving Egypt in the dark of night in the great Passover story, they proceeded throughout the wilderness, and they eventually, as they wandered there for a couple of chapters, 14 through 18, they finally come to Mount Sinai. What's important and what's interesting is that as you look at the story and how it plays out in these geographic locations of Egypt and wilderness. And Mount Sinai, that the book of Exodus, which just means a departure, going out, a leaving.

Most of the book doesn't take place. when they're leaving. Most of the book doesn't take place or doesn't describe that dramatic moment. There's a great climactic section. But most of the book deals in a static place.

It deals with Israel at Mount Sinai, so chapters 19 to 40, over half the book is dealing with Israel at Mount Sinai. And there's a wonderful practical as well as theological reason for the fact that God redeems his people, and then most of the time of this book is spent dealing with them at Mount Sinai, various laws, the Ten Commandments, and then most of all, The tabernacle and worship. The great practical and theological reason for that, and the truth that we want to learn, is that redemption. exists for the purpose of invocation. That is, that salvation exists for the purpose of adoration.

We were saved. Israel was saved that they might serve. And so they were saved from Pharaoh in his bondage to serve the Lord. In the same way, we believe and we love the fact that we are made, created, as well as redeemed to glorify God. and to enjoy him forever.

Exodus pictures that for us in a big way from the Old Testament. As well, notice if you have your Bibles open, just look there at the end of Exodus, chapters 19 through 40. The last half plus one chapter of the book of Exodus. Most of that material deals with the actual tabernacle.

So you have in chapters 19 through 24, the Lord entering his covenants, giving his law to his people. But then in chapter 25, that's what we'll pick up here in just a few moments, chapter 25 through 40. The biggest subsection of this book deals with The worship. of the Lord at the tabernacle.

So God gives instructions. To Moses, how to build it, and then we go on to read about the construction of the tabernacle to worship the Lord.

So, a big section of the book of Exodus, the heart of the book, is dealing with worship at the tabernacle. And just to put that in context, all this material dealing with what seems to us A lot of repetitious Sayings, a lot of repetitious chapters, there's a reason for it. One great theologian of the 17th century, Hermann Witzius, contrasted the creation narrative, Genesis 1, with The tabernacle narrative, he said this, God created the whole world in six days. But he used 40. Moses on Mount Sinai for 40 days.

He used 40 days to instruct Moses about the tabernacle. A little over one chapter was needed to describe the structure of the world. But six were used. For the tabernacle.

So it should sort of startle us a little bit. The creation has just a scant amount in the whole overall teaching of scripture. as compared to the tabernacle.

Something's going on here.

Somebody's very important for us.

That might seem boring to us, the details and all the repetition and all the things about loops and clasps and curtains and poles and so forth. But this is important for us. The Spirit of God who inspired the word put it there for a reason. And he put all these details and all these chapters there for a reason. He wanted the Israelites to take notice.

This is important stuff to be saved and to serve. To be redeemed and to worship. And so it's important for us as those who believe that the Old Testament, like the New, is the inspired word of God. That we take it up. and understand its importance.

Now, all these details might seem to us, again, insignificant. Think about, just as an illustration, think about a pearl. Pearl is a beautiful gem and pearl by itself is beautiful, but really by itself doesn't have much purpose. or much use. Ladies, you might think otherwise, but One pearl by itself really doesn't have much use.

But you take one pearl and add another pearl and then yet another. You can eventually make a necklace of pearls, which of course, has a great use and shows great beauty. When we read the tabernacle story, From the Old Testament, we read each and every detail, and we can see them isolated as little pearls. But when we put them all together, they are like a beautiful necklace for helping us understand the beauty of the Lord and for us to serve him with gladness.

Well, how do we take all these details? about the tabernacle and understand the truths of our relationship. with God. This is the task of what we call hermeneutics, which is to derive out of scripture Its meaning. and its purpose.

We're not trying to read into it. We're not trying to add something to the Word of God. Of course, the Lord forbids us from doing that. But we want to be able to take... These passages and derive out of them truth about God and about ourselves, and especially about his relationship with us.

His people.

So let me give you six principles, hermeneutical principles. They'll be short and just mention a few details about each. for us to think about how we can understand and read with prophets. this passage of the tabernacle.

Well, first of all, we have to read these narratives and these stories and all these details as scripture. The Lord Jesus Christ, of course, tells us that The law, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, the law, as we call it, as he called it, is the word of God. And Jesus received Not only the law, not only the book of Exodus, but this section. As the word of God. And he taught his disciples after his resurrection on the road of Emmaus.

He taught two disciples there about the truths of the law, how they pointed to his death and resurrection, his sufferings. and his glory. And so we read it as the word. Paul reminds young Pastor Timothy that from his childhood he was acquainted with the sacred writings, the scriptures. And that they are able to make you wise unto salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.

When he talked about the sacred writings, he's speaking especially to Timothy. of the Old Testament. He knew those words from his infancy. He was taught by his mother and his grandmother the Old Testament, which brought him. to the Lord.

And so these narratives of Exodus 25 through 40, roughly, which is the section dealing with the tabernacle, are just as much inspired in the Word of God as our New Testaments. As Paul goes on to tell Timothy in that famous passage in 2 Timothy 3, 16 to 17. That these words of the tabernacle are breathed out by God, profitable. for teaching, doctrine. Reproof.

Correction for training in righteousness that we might be thoroughly equipped. To serve God in every good work. One Reformation catechism, the Westminster Larger Catechism, tells us that as we think about the Word and we think about receiving it as the Word of God and reading the Tabernacle Story as the Word of God, it tells us that the Holy Scriptures are to be read with a high and reverent esteem of them, with a firm persuasion. that they are the word of God.

So receive them, read them. As the word of the Lord himself. Secondly, We had to read the word and read this tabernacle narrative devotionally. What do I mean by that? It's easy for us to read the words.

and search out for some key. theological proof texts for our favorite doctrine to use against our friend or use against our foe.

some theological proof text, or it's also just as tempting for us to read the word and to try to find some principle for successful Christian living. But above all, the scriptures are to be read with a spirit of devotion, meaning that we are to read them so that we might worship the triune God because of them. and through them. Devotion. worship service.

Favorite Bibles, you can turn with me to Psalm 119. You see there in Psalm 119, which is the great psalm. that extols the word of God. That shows us how the knowledge of The Lord's word. leads us to worship.

to serve him. We read, for example, in Psalm 119 Verse number seven. I will praise you with an upright heart. But notice when. I will praise you with an upright heart when I learn your righteous rules.

We read the word. We hear it read, we hear it preached. We meditate upon it that we might Praise him. And worship him. Notice also at the end of that Psalm, 119, verse 164.

Psalm 119, 164. The psalmist says seven times A day I praise you. Again, notice why. Why seven times a day, which is a way of saying all the day. His whole life is devoted.

to serving, to worshiping. Praising God. Notice why, for your righteous rules, because of the words. Because of what the Lord teaches us in his law. Throughout Old and New Testaments, we can now read this and we can say, because of your wonderful word, your righteous rules.

I praise you seven times. a day and so we need to read the word Devotionally, Martin Luther, no doubt uh familiar Figure in church history to many of us. He wrote in one of his comments on Psalm 119. He wrote about this very thing. As we read Psalm 119, he says, we learn three things about reading the word.

that we are to read the word with prayer.

So we are to pray the Lord to open our eyes to understand it, and as we read it in a spirit of prayer, a spirit of devotion. We are to read it also, he said, with meditation. That is to think about it, to ponder it, to let it sink in. to our hearts and to our minds. And then finally, he said that that leads to what he described as a spiritual conflict or an attack.

As we pray, as we read the word, as we meditate upon it, as it begins to change our hearts and our minds and our lives.

Something happens. Our sins, right, begin to rise up. The world around us sees a difference in us. The devil himself. Begins to fight us.

And so, as we read the word in a spirit of devotion with prayer and meditation, knowing that that's going to lead to a spiritual attack, we grow. In the Lord. And so, as we read these narratives of the tabernacle, we have to be claimed by their authority. These are the word of God. We have to understand them with the spirit of prayer and expect God to inscribe their teaching upon our hearts as we meditate upon them and even as we are being challenged.

by the world of flesh and the devil. Let me also mention a third principle for how we are to read these as the Word of God, is that we're to read them in the light of the New Testament. With the light of the New Testament, think about the New Testament as a pair of glasses. that the Lord gives to us, that we are enabled. to read now the Old Testament.

Rightly. Think about the Old Testament and the New Testament and how they relate to each other as a two-volume book. If you just have The Old Testament, what do you have? You have volume one. You have the first half.

If you don't have the New Testament, you don't have the second volume, the first volume is incomplete. You're not able to understand it. What's it saying? Why is it saying it? Where is it going?

And so forth. St. Augustine once wrote, With that in mind, he said that in the Old Testament, the New Testament is concealed. But in The New Testament, the Old Testament is Revealed.

So we have in the Old Testament, the New Testament hidden. We have the truths of the New Testament, but yet they're, as we'll see, in what are called types and shadows. It's very dark. not quite as clear yet. But as we come to the New Testament, we begin to see that the Old Testament makes sense, it comes to light.

And it shows us the Savior. Hebrews chapter 1 tells us that very same thing. If you want to turn there with me, Hebrews chapter 1, verses 1 and 2. where we see the relationship between what God said in the Old Testament. And what he now says to us in Jesus Christ, in the New Testament, he tells us that long ago.

At many times? And in many ways. God spoke to our forefathers by the prophets, so, Old Testament. that big part of your Bible, the first two-thirds of it. Many times, many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets.

Back then. But now, in these last days, he says, He has spoken to us by his son. And then he goes on to describe the son. Who he is. He's the heir.

He's the creator. He's the radiance of God's glory. He made purification for sins and so forth. The Bible comes to its culmination. And to its conclusion.

in Jesus Christ, and so we must read the tabernacle with him in mind. What's it saying about him? How is it saying that? Where is it going? The Apostle Paul tells us that if we read the Word of God, the Old Testament especially, apart from Jesus and the work of the Holy Spirit, it's like having a veil over your eyes.

Again, you read it with darkness. It's obscure. It doesn't quite make much. Much sense, but yet now we have the coming of the Savior and He's poured out upon us on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit. He now reveals to us, Paul says elsewhere.

the deep things of God.

So he tells us, for example, in 2 Corinthians chapter number 3 that when the Old Testament is read, the Old Covenant is read, there's a veil over the eyes of those who are in unbelief. But yet we have the Spirit now, where the Spirit of the Lord is, there's freedom. And so we all, with unveiled face, behold the glory of the Lord. and are being transformed from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord.

Who is the spirit?

So, read your Old Testament, read the tabernacle story with me, having the veil of unbelief removed. and then having a pair of glasses put on, that help you to understand the fullness of what's going on there. And that leads to a fourth principle. That we are to read the Old Testament, especially the tabernacle, as fulfilled in Jesus Christ. I recall what Jesus said to the Pharisees as they searched the scriptures.

And he rebukes them because they thought that in them They had everlasting life, but these are those that testify about me. He's rebuking them because they thought, in all the obscure details and knowing all the ins and outs, that that was saving. No, in fact, he says, these must lead to me. And so Jesus Christ is like the key that unlocks the door. for us to then enter the Old Testament.

And begin to stand in awe and wonder. And in particular, he tells us very clearly in the Gospel of John, as John writes about Jesus, telling us that the Word became flesh. and dwelt Among us, and that word dwelt there, no doubt you've probably heard, is a word that's used in the Greek translation of the Old Testament to speak of the tabernacle. When the word became flesh, he made his tabernacle. Among us, he's the tabernacle.

He's the one. Who is the glory of God? That's why John goes on to say, John 1:14, that we have seen his glory, the glory of God that dwelt in that tabernacle and later in that. Temple. Jesus tells the Samaritan woman at the well that the day is coming when worship would no longer happen on this mountain or in Jerusalem.

These certain special high places where the temple was in Jerusalem, but the hour is coming and now is when the true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit. And in truth. He's speaking of the Holy Spirit and he's speaking of himself who is the truth. That's what I can say to Two and three believers, whenever there's just two or three, and wherever they happen to be, if they gather together in his name, there I am in the midst of them. And so we need to read the Old Testament tabernacle story as.

fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Fifth, and just very shortly, we have to read them simply. Read them simply. What do I mean by that? There's lots of symbols.

There are a lot of details. But it's nuts. important for us to to get so bogged down in all the minutia that we miss the big picture.

So we have to read them simply. We have to ask ourselves, not about, well, what is the significance of the colors necessarily, one at a time, or the roundness of a clasp, or the kind of wood that was used to make the poles. We have to ask ourselves bigger questions. What does this passage say about God and about me, about my Savior, and about how I am to be saved by him? Sixthly, and finally, with a read these narratives to instruct us morally.

They're not just for theology, but they're for ethics. They're for godliness, for holiness. We are to be holy as the Lord our God Himself. is holy.

Well, as we do this, as we read the Lord's word, as we read this tabernacle story in this way with all these details and these big pictures in mind, we'll come to know the Lord experientially through his word. He's entered a covenant relationship with us. How can we know the truth of what this relationship is about? by studying His Word in this tabernacle story. When we do that, we are drawn closer to him in face-to-face covenant friendship.

and relationship.

So that as Paul says, we can comprehend what is the breadth, the length, the height, the depth, to know the love of God in Jesus Christ. Six principles from Daniel Hyde to help us understand and benefit from a study of the tabernacle. Thanks for being with us on this Thursday edition of Renewing Your Mind. I'm Nathan W. Bingham.

Our guest teacher today is Dr. Hyde. And he recorded this series to study the particulars of this first tabernacle so that we might better understand Jesus. the one who John tells us dwelt or tabernacled among us. It also has a companion book, so the Tabernacle could be the theme of an upcoming book study.

We'll send you the 12-part series on DVD, along with digital access to the messages and study guide. A copy of the book God in our midst. When you give a donation to help further the reach of Renewing Your Mind at renewingyourmind.org or when you call us at 800-435-4343. The tabernacle narratives have much to teach us about God. about sin.

about redemption in Christ. and about how we are to live for God today. And above all, they reveal Christ.

So take the time to work through all twelve messages or read the book when you request today's resource offer with your donation. At renewingyourmind.org, or when you use the link in the podcast show notes. And if you live outside of the US and Canada, the digital version of this offer is waiting for you at renewingyourmind.org/slash global. Thank you. God provided the tabernacle to teach Israel about true and heavenly things concerning Him.

and how he relates to his people. And that's what we'll consider tomorrow. Kia on Renewing Your Mind.