The Tabernacle – Part 1

The Tabernacle, the tent of meeting, is a key part of the story of the Children of Israel. God designed it to be a visible sign of his presence with his people and as a focus for worship. Every detail was significant and looks beyond the Children of Israel to Jesus Christ, the more perfect tent (Hebrews 9:11). In part 1 we are introduced to the Tabernacle, its specific design and why it was needed.

Transcript

So a new series looking at the tabernacle. I don’t know what you know about the tabernacle.   it’s probably one of these,  parts of scripture that we’ve heard about.  one of these parts of scripture that we know roughly something, or maybe we’ve done in depth study, we’ve attended something that is, you know, It’s been a series, a bit like this, where you’ve looked at it.

Well we’re going to take a couple of weeks, more than six probably, it’ll probably take us up to Easter, to think about what it means to know the Tabernacle. Not just the knowledge of the Tabernacle, but how God designed it for how we worship Him today.  And so part one,  there, hopefully you have a handout on your table.

I think there should be one,  each for everyone.  if not, there’s some spares on other tables. This is entitled God With Us, because that’s really the starting point for all of this. And I do want to, we’re going to look at different Bible passages throughout, but I want to read from Exodus chapter 26.

And this is the introduction.  There’s 17 chapters to do with the tabernacle. Let’s go.  So,  we’re going to make our way through them, and there is duplication, and there’s a very good reason for the duplication, and we’ll come to that in due course. But Exodus chapter 26, I’m just going to read the first six verses to give you a sense and a flavor, but really verse one is the important one.

Because this is what God says to Moses, and we’ll look at the context in a moment.  Moreover, God says, You shall make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twined linen and blue and purple and scarlet yarns.  You shall make them with cherubim, skillfully worked into them. The length of each curtain shall be twenty eight cubits, and the breadth of each curtain four cubits.

All the curtains shall be the same size. Five curtains shall be coupled to one another, and the other five curtains shall be coupled to the other. And you shall make loops of blue on the edge of the outermost curtain in the first set.  Likewise, you shall make loops on the edge of the outermost curtain in the second set.

Fifty loops you shall make on the one curtain, and fifty loops you shall make on the edge of the curtain that is in the second set. The loops shall be opposite one another, and you shall make fifty clasps of gold, and couple the curtains one to the other with the clasps,  so that the  May be a single whole  I select those sorry six verses those first six verses just dipping into the middle of this  Because it shows you the detail that we’re going to cover  God has done this so well  that you could almost take a plan and make it yourself And in fact, I have a gift for you this evening  If you would like to build a tabernacle  I have sets of instructions.

Sandra, I can tell you’re, you’re  But you can build a tabernacle in here, page by page. You can make a model if you so desire. And so if you would like to,  it’s not homework for next week.  It’s not Lego, although I have seen a Lego tabernacle, not for sale by Lego, but someone made it.   but in all seriousness, I thought I’m going to just do these.

I’ll leave them here for you. And if you want to take one, even for your own interest, but if you do want to take one and try it.  I would love to be able to have it here and show folks as well. So,  it’s there for you if you do want to have homework,  over,  the next couple of weeks.  I’ve lost track of how many weeks it is to Easter, but you’ve got at least two full months to, to work on it.

I’ve never tried it. It’s one of those things, you know, you always think I’d love to do and then never do it,  because I just wouldn’t be able to do it.  But it is a significant thing in the story of God’s people.  And that’s where we’re going to begin this evening. We’re going to begin with what the story is.

And so there in your handout, it’s divided into three parts. The first part is the historical background.  And then two questions, why did God give instructions for the tabernacle? And then the third, the second question, or the third part, what was the tabernacle? And then, as we did with the previous study in the blank page in your Bible, we’ll also think about the application, why is it important, but the three key parts of, of the learning for this evening.

So let’s, there on page one, look at the historical context.  You can’t really divide the history of God’s people, the children of Israel, from the tabernacle.  It was with them. From the moment of Sinai, right through to the building of the temple, the tabernacle was there. And as we’ll come to look at it, we’ll see that it had really two purposes  for the people at that time.

But this is what God says in  of why, even long before the tabernacle comes, why it was significant for the people to know God. Because it was always God’s intention that these would be his people. And there in Abraham, in Genesis, in God’s conversation with Abraham, in Genesis 17, verse 8, we read, And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings.

All the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.  That’s the significant part  of the covenant that God makes. He says to the people, I will be your God, which means there’s an expectation that they will worship Him.  That they will worship Him only and not look at the other false gods and the idols of the people around them.

So what is key  to the covenant?  is the worship of God.  Now, as we know, the people didn’t really keep their side of the covenant promise. They didn’t always worship God. And so God always had to take a step to show how good he was in saving them.  And that’s what takes us really to the heart of the next part.

Really, it is Egypt that settles what needs to be the tabernacle. It’s the events in Egypt that show the need. For the people to worship God and to visually see him.  And so as Moses goes to Egypt, look at, look at what, as he goes to Pharaoh, look at what he’s told a said of Pharaoh.  What’s the reason why the children of Israel should leave Egypt?

It’s really not because they’re slaves. It’s not because it would be an easier life.  It’s because God wants them to worship Him.  And you shall say to him, says the Lord,  The Lord, the God of the Hebrew sent me to you saying let my people go that they may serve me in the wilderness  But so far you have not obeyed.

This is coming after the first plague in Egypt  If you have a different translation other than the ESV, it won’t say serve It’ll say worship, but it’s that sense of giving everything to God  in service and in worship.  See, in the covenant promise, God promised security. God promised them that he would be their God and he would meet their needs, both, both physically and spiritually.

And this was God fulfilling that promise because this was the greatest demonstration thus far of his salvation, of how true he was to his word.  But once again, we see that the people were not as faithful as they should have been. So in the tenth plague that comes to Egypt, the angel of death, the people leave.

And a significant point in this story that will come up time and again is that as they left, they took with them valuable items from Egypt. That, that’s key for the tabernacle and how it’s going to be built.  But as we know,  even though they were promised the land that Abraham had dwelt in, The promised Land Canaan,  it took them 40 years to get there.

So the map, you know how I love a good map there on your page or on the screen,  shows you their wanderings in the wilderness. First, the wilderness of,  sure,  then down south into the wilderness of sin. But, but look at your map. Look to the top right. There’s Canaan, that, that’s the way they should have gone.

But of course, their wanderings in the wilderness was punishment.  Because they had not been faithful. And they hadn’t been faithful on that whole journey. And so as they escaped Egypt and made their way to the wilderness to Sinai,  the people actually forgot the God of their salvation.  And they grumbled on three occasions.

And you have them there in front of you. They grumbled at Elam. You can find it there on your map. Which is sort of halfway down the Red Sea,  just to show you to it there, and we,  sorry, in Mara first,  the water was bitter, in Exodus 15, 23, at the top of the Red Sea, then Elam, halfway down in Exodus 16, in verse 2, they grumbled about the lack of food.

And so manna was provided  and then in exodus 17 and verse 2,  really inland there towards the south of the Sinai peninsula, they grumbled once again about water and water was provided for them.  But their greatest rejection of God comes In the shadow of Sinai.  Moses is on the mountain.  He’s meeting with God.

And he’s getting the instructions of what it means for God’s people to live in God’s way. Both as a community and in how they’re to worship him.  But the people are impatient because once again they forget God.  And they come to Aaron who’s been  left in charge of them and they say, look, as for this fellow Moses, he could even be dead.

Make for us a God to whom we can worship. And so we have the story of the golden calf and what did they do? They bring all of the valuable things,  that, that they had, women’s earrings, gold earrings, melted down, made this calf, and that’s what they worshiped.  And of course Moses comes down carrying the Ten Commandments and when he sees it he smashes the commandments and he stands in front of the people and he says this in Exodus 32 and verse 26.

Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, Who is on the Lord’s side? Come to me. And all the sons of Levi gathered. around him. That’s why we sung who is on the Lord’s side, because it comes from this portion of scripture.  And as we read, or as we sing the hymn, who is on the Lord’s side, it’s very much applied for the church today.

But yet, if we look at it through the eyes of the Old Testament, it’s still the same message. As Moses cries out who is on the Lord’s side, he’s calling people to him. Not, not to Moses, but to God. That they will take the charge to the promised land, just as God had promised.  And that they would live faithfully for him.

That they would be the ones who would fight the battle. Not just physically against their enemies, but fight that spiritual battle against the evil one.  Now the people do. They repent. And as their punishment, the calf is melted down, and,  crushed into dust, and it’s put in the water that they had to drink.

That’s their punishment. But the covenant is renewed, and God maintains his promise to them. Promise of safety and security, both physically and spiritually. The promise of a home  in Canaan, the promised land.  But now there will be a very visual  presence of God with them. And that comes in the form of the tabernacle.

So, this is the turning point of God’s people.  Sinai is the moment. Where they’re not only constituted as, as a people group, as a nation,  but they are constituted for the worship of God.  Because now they’re told how to worship him.  And that brings us on to the second part and the first of the two questions.

Why did God give instructions for the tabernacle?  And the simple reason is, God has always wanted to dwell.

Whenever you go back to the garden,  how does God discover the sin of humanity?  He walks with them in the cool of the evening.  God has always wanted to dwell with his people.  And whenever we looked in Genesis at Abraham,  when Abraham thought it was three visitors,  they were described as God’s messengers.

In fact, at one point it is described, the angel is described as the Lord himself.  You see, God has always wanted to dwell with his people,  and now the community has grown so big, they need a, a, a very big thing in the middle of the camp to see. One of my favorite portions of Exodus is actually over in chapter 33, and it, it talks about the tent of meeting, but it’s, it’s not the tabernacle, it’s actually the tent that Moses would go out.

So it was set outside the camp and Moses would go  and the way that it’s described in Exodus 33 is that Moses would go and he would talk with God as a man talks with a friend.  Moses had access to God like no one else.  Moses was the only one who could take the message from God and bring it to his people.

But what happened when Moses went out to that little tent of meeting to meet with God?  All of Israel, the text says, came out and stood at the doors.

Because they knew the presence of God was there, and so that was really an early version of the tabernacle that served Moses and God, but the tabernacle itself would serve the whole nation.  But it’s that idea that God wanted to be near, he didn’t,  he didn’t remove Moses out of sight. Moses didn’t have to go up the mountain and into a cloud again.

Everyone could see the presence of God. And of course there’s that description then as Moses meets with God with his face shining.  God has not only wanted to be with his people,  but he’s also wanted to prove. That he is with his people.  So there’s three things here that help us understand,  why God gives such specific designs for the tabernacle with understanding his desire to dwell with us.

And the first is it demonstrates to the people how serious God took their worship of him. Every detail, every measurement will be given to us and we will. look at them and try and understand why. Now, it’s not going to be some calculated formula that, well, if it’s 12, it must be a symbol of the 12 tribes and the 12 disciples and all of that.

The measurements are designed  to show us that there’s something, a golden thread, as I like to call it, going through all of human history, but that continues into eternity.  And so whenever we look at the tabernacle, what we see is we see it not only speaking to the people, not only as a foreshadowing of Christ.

But also as a foreshadow of eternity, of heaven and what it will mean to dwell with God for all eternity.  And so in being so detailed and so specific,  God is telling his people that he takes Their worship of him seriously,  because after all he is the only one true God.  Any other God in the nations around them is a false God.

They can do nothing. We’ve seen that in 1st Samuel, whenever the Ark of the Covenant was taken and put up beside Dagon, the greatest God of the Philistines, what happened? Fell over. God was having fun, because it proved that there is no other God.  But Yahweh, the God of Israel, the God whom we know now as the God of our salvation through his Son, Jesus Christ.

So the tabernacle is presented to the children of Israel, but also to us,  as to how serious God takes their worship and our worship of him.  Secondly, it shows how important it was for worship to be ordered.  There’s a sequence to how everything’s done,  and this demonstrates an order.  When God talks about the sacrifices, there is a way that they have to be done.

They have to be done by, by certain people, because that is their role as given by God.  And so he’s telling the people, as God organizes them socially into tribes, with laws, So worship is organized so that they can worship him  properly, appropriately. Not like the other nations who, who just did what, whatever their whim was,  whatever they thought was right.

And again, we saw that whenever the Philistines went to their priest. They had no idea. They were making it up as they went along.  But what God does is he presents a model  in very physical form in the tabernacle of the order  that he expects in worship.  And finally,  we get the instructions God gives them  as they are because it presents the commitment required of the people to worship God.

And that’s where we’ll actually begin in part two. We actually will begin with what is expected of the people.  God doesn’t want the people simply to just rock up.  He doesn’t want this to be habit. He doesn’t want this to, to form,  as it were, what they do on a particular day in the week.  God says that, that worship must be engaged.

Worship must be taken seriously. And so the first act we’re gonna see is that  there’s no command to bring things for the construction.  Whoever has it in their heart The text says, is to bring what is needed.  God doesn’t demand it from these people, because he wants to see their true heart, their true heart in worship of him.

So in Exodus 25,  here we have just how serious God takes it.  Verse 9 says exactly,  As I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle,  and of all its furniture, you shall make it.  Moses was commanded to follow every letter He was to follow every detail because it was significant.  to what God intended for worship, because ultimately the tabernacle is God’s design.

It’s not man’s design. It  wasn’t just about throwing up a tent as if you were going camping. Oh, well, we’ll have a good look and see, you know, look at the campsite. Where’s the hill? Where’s the gradient? Well, we’ll have our chairs in the sun. We’ll have them in the shade. Where are we going to put this?

Where are we going to put that?  no, we didn’t like that the last time. You know, kids ruled off the air mattresses, so we’ll do it the other way around this time.  That wasn’t going to be an option  because the tabernacle was not man’s design.  It was God’s.  They couldn’t change it. They couldn’t vary it in any way.

It had to be the way that God had said.

And we actually jump to the New Testament at this point to learn something about the tabernacle. We’re going to look at two sections of Hebrews chapter 9. The first is verses 1 and 2. And in verses 1 and 2 of Hebrews 9 we read, Now even the first covenant had regulations for worship, and an earthly place of holiness.

For a tent was prepared, the first section, in which were the lampstand, and the table, and the bread of the presence. It is called the holy place.  See, God designed it the way he did because it would be a holy place because his presence would fill it.  He was truly going to dwell with his people.  And so looking back, looking to the Old Covenant as it was through the eyes of the New Covenant in the New Testament, they recognized it as the holy place  because God wanted to dwell and therefore everything God had said had to be done correctly, but We have to move on as New Testament people into the New Covenant.

And that’s where we read then later in chapter 9, verses 11 and 12, But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent,  Not made with hands, that is, not of this creation, he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves, but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.

The tabernacle, and what we learn about it,  is a foreshadow  of what Christ will fulfill on Calvary’s cross.  The tabernacle was set up to have priests,  Levites, what would be an early version of the temple, only not as on biggest scale because the people were much. Smaller in terms of their numbers.  Where there was a day of atonement and sacrifice would be made for the sins of the nation.

Well that would be done away with because an even greater sacrifice would come, once for all, for the sins of many, Jesus Christ. And that’s why the writer of Hebrews says that he is the more perfect tent. He’s the more perfect tabernacle. He is the perfect tabernacle, because in him is fulfilled all the requirements of salvation.

So as we will go through this series, we’re gonna keep looking to Christ.  Every peg, every bit of furniture, every curtain rail, every placement of where everything is, is significant  because it speaks of Christ, but it will also speak of eternity and what eternity is for us.  And of course, whenever we look at this series in the Tabernacle, it’s all going to cumulate in what,  how Exodus 40 finishes the book.

Because there in Exodus 40 and 34 we read, Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle. Once everything was in place, Once they had done everything that God had required of them,  then God moved in.  He moved in to dwell with his people.  And he was with them in that form until they settled in the land.

And then ultimately the tabernacle was no longer needed when the temple was built by Solomon. So that’s It’s history in many ways, and that’s why God gave such specific directions and instructions about how it would be made.  So let’s go to part three and our second question for this evening.  What was the tabernacle?

Well, there’s a few points here,  and ultimately it was a movable tent. It had to be, because there’s 40 years of wandering in the wilderness. So this had to be able to be packed up, put away, moved on, and put up again. So that the people would always know that the presence of God was with them wherever they went.

And so as they moved, they had the assurance that God was with them, leading them.  Even though it was the most roundabout way for 40 years. God was still with them and still fulfilling his promise of getting them to the promised land. Now, you have there,  to the right of your,  page,   a model that comes from the ESV study Bible off, off the tabernacle.

You’re gonna see different images of this, depending on how people have interpreted certain things. Some people have done illustrations that are a square box. Others have done it more,   I don’t know what that is, more angular.  and so, you’re just going to see different ways of understanding,  how it, it was made.

But, but there you have it there.  and it’s on the screen as well to show you exactly what it was going to be like, and in a way trying to represent the size of it. And just showing you where everything is. All the bits of furniture that we’re going to look at.  But everything was movable. It had to be.

It had to be taken down. And it had to be put up again.

So on one hand, the tabernacle was a visible expression of Israel’s faith.  God was there. Their God. Who promised to be their God, and they would be his people.  So, sometimes we can balk against visual things because we always think of idols as visual.  But God intended it that as the people moved, they would see his presence.

Every morning they woke up, woke up before they moved on, they saw God’s presence at the center.  And as they packed up, they would see those designated for carrying and moving this going ahead of them  with what was the tabernacle and the court and everything that was needed for it ahead of them going to the next stop.

So it was to be very,  visual of their faith and, and it represented a fundamental truth and conviction for them about God, that he desired to live among them. They needed to be reassured of this, that he wasn’t gonna be here one moment and pop off the next He was always going to be there, that his pattern had never changed, as he’d always designed to, or desired to dwell with his people.

That was still going to be the case.

But it also represents God’s desire or plan to intervene in human history and to fix a broken creation.  Because ultimately that’s what worship is. The tabernacle wasn’t just a visual sign of God’s presence, but it was also the focus of Israel’s worship.  Not that they were worshipping the tabernacle as a tent.

But because the presence of God was there, they were worshipping God.  And so he was going to restore the relationship that was broken through creation by people’s faithful worship of him. That’s why it was ordered and set in the way it was.  But it would also be,   a microcosm of God’s original intentions for his creation.

Because the tabernacle encapsulated in miniature the characteristics of God’s original design for the world. And so from the beginning, God showed his desire to dwell with his creation and have a relationship  with human beings. So it’s much more than dwelling.  In creation, it was that relationship  that was broken and fractured.

And so the tabernacle represents the opportunity to restore that relationship  with humanity.

And it also answers the question  of how can a holy God live among corrupted people.  Well, he made it in a way that they could,  where there would be blood sacrifice, atonement for sin, a recognition that God was the only one to be worshipped, because he was the only one who could save them, as demonstrated from Egypt, physically,  but also spiritually, as the blood was shed on the altar of that Lamb.

And so studying the tabernacle will give us a greater appreciation of God’s desire to dwell in our midst, and And help us understand his plan of redemption and allow us to better understand our calling to be holy.  So that really takes us for our introduction this evening. But there’s one final thing just to look at because all too often we can simply think of the tabernacle as just that tent.

And there in your handout and on the screen as well, you have where the tabernacle fits in the whole tent,  or in the whole compound of the court.  And you would have the the altar there where sacrifice would be made and the smoke going up, but a pleasing aroma to the Lord that the people would see and know their sins were forgiven.

But then you also have the place where the priest and the high priest would go in and intercede for the people.  speak on their behalf before God, just as Moses did,  so that people would know God was their God.  And so even though we’re looking at the tabernacle, we’ll be very much looking at what these other aspects of it are,  why there’s replication in its design, what the symbols mean, and what they show people.

Because once we understand that, and again, it’s not a key to work out a great mystery,  but once we see it in the light of other scriptures in the New Testament, we understand what has been God’s eternal plan of worship.  Because in many ways, worship, although its form may have changed, its purpose hasn’t.

But I think we’ll also be surprised that when we look at aspects of the tabernacle, we’ll see that it still feeds into our worship today. And so we join with all of God’s people throughout history in what has been a practice of worship for all of these generations.  But as we’ve said in so many of these studies, there’s no point studying these because I, we can fill our heads with facts, biblical facts.

But unless we see there’s application for today, then it really simply is a study,  of those facts.  And so it’s application for us today is one of  understanding worship. What is God’s desire for our worship of Him?  Because it’s God who has designed worship. You’ve perhaps heard me say that in our call to worship, that it’s God who invites us into worship of Him.

Because He’s the one who tells us how good He is. He’s the one who assures us of pardon and salvation. He’s the one that gives us the information so that we can know just how good he is, and so we will want to worship him.  But just like salvation, and just like faith, worship must begin with God.  Doesn’t begin with us.

It begins with him as he reveals himself to us  and really the greatest demonstration of this is There in John chapter 1 and verse 14 Words familiar to you because we’ve looked at it just a number of weeks ago and in many ways I do love this this verse in John’s prologue  So, speaking of Christ as describing the Word, And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, And we have seen his glory, Glory as of the only Son from the Father, Full of grace and truth.

You may not  recognize it, But this verse in John’s prologue Is filled with the language of the tabernacle.  Have a look at it again,  And just look at that last bit first.  The glory. We have seen his glory. Glory as of the only son from the father.  In the building and structure of the tabernacle, the people got to see God’s glory.

They got to see God come down and dwell in the tabernacle.  They got to see God moving them throughout,  you know, that pillar of cloud by day and that pillar of fire by night.  They got to see the glory of God on Moses face.  As he had met with God.  And so here, no longer did there need to be a tabernacle.

Because Jesus was the one who demonstrated and displayed the glory of God.  So that’s the first part of this verse that speaks of,  the tabernacle. But, but it’s the first part that actually tells us more.  Because the word became flesh. And the word dwelt is the Greek word  Eskinoson,  just if you’re interested.

What’s more important,  maybe that should be your homework, try and write that out a couple of times, you know, in Greek and, and you can, that can be your party trick from here on in. Eskinoson. But what that means is to fix one’s tabernacle.  So let me read it for you in its literal translation for that word.

And the word became flesh and pitched his tent.

The Word became flesh  and fixed his tabernacle.  You see, what did the writer of Hebrews say? That Jesus was the perfect tabernacle, or a greater tabernacle.  And John tells us the exact same. That he came to pitch his tent. He came to be the tabernacle that we needed to know the glory of God. The grace of God.

Christ came  as the human form of the tabernacle.  He came so that we would know how to worship God through Him. Because it actually turned out, even though God provided a way, time after time after time, people failed to obey Him.  They abused the sacrifices. They didn’t take them seriously.  And so came the one sacrifice for all, That on that altar that was in the court of the tabernacle, that blood would be shed.

That as a priest would have gone into the Holies of Holies, no more was that needed. Because Christ was the mediator between us and God.  And so the application of this overview is really the overview of salvation.  That it is good news for us because we know it.  But yet tonight we have a greater picture  that we simply don’t have two parts of the Bible  But we have one story of God’s salvation that runs through human history and that will take us To eternity.

I hope that that’s good news this evening  I’ve said again a couple of times in application. Sometimes it’s not about going out of this room and doing something  Sometimes it’s actually capturing a greater view of God  So that as we wake up in the morning, we sense him greater than he was today because of how we see the pictures or the pieces of the picture of salvation more and more completed and filled in.

But you can do a little bit of work on this  because there are some questions to think about. Now you’re not going to sit around these at your table. These are more to take home and and have a wee look at but they’re there for you to take time, take 10 minutes Tomorrow or the next day not too long after that and simply think about why this is important  So when you think of the tabernacle what comes to mind, you know, what have you thought of the tabernacle?

Why is it so important that it takes up 17 chapters of Exodus almost half of Exodus? is dedicated to the tabernacle, its instruction and its actual building.  Secondly, from this introduction, what do you think this series of studies on the tabernacle will teach us about our worship of God today?  That’s a question of expectation.

What are you expecting to learn? You may not know it all  yet, but, but what are you expecting?  And it’s that question again of how do we approach God? How do we worship him? And thirdly, how can greater understanding of the tabernacle draw you closer to God? As you live for him,  you’re probably going to discover that that’s a question that’s going to come up again and again In this because that’s what we want.

We want to worship god more We want to draw closer to god as we live for him and I hope this series  Will help us to do that.  So as we finish for this part this evening, let me pray for us  Our Father God, we thank you that as we look at your word, yes, specifically in Exodus, but how other parts of scripture  speak of this tabernacle as well.

Thank you that you have given it to us so that we may learn it, not just in its context in Exodus, but also what it means for us today as inheritors of the new covenant, what it means to see Christ fulfilling the tabernacle.  That he is the greater tabernacle, he is the tent of dwelling in which we find salvation  and we are restored to you.

So as we think about what we’ve been looking at this evening, as we think about what it means to learn all of this, may it not just be head knowledge, but may we have a greater sense of worship.  May we know you as the God who continues to dwell among us,  the God who desires to be among us and to meet with us.

And may you draw us ever so much closer to yourself.  And we pray this in Jesus name.