Two Tabernacles
The scriptures are quite specific with reference to: (1) The Tabernacle of the wilderness and (2) The Tabernacle of the Body – “this tabernacle of flesh.” So clearly related and integrated are these that one is the spiritual reflection of the other.
Unless the Israelite in his wilderness worship could visualise two tabernacles and their significance, his service to God was valueless. Unless the discerning mind could look beyond natural and material things to spiritual realities (where the tabernacle of the flesh was a living reality, a spiritual replica of sanctification and consecration divinely demonstrated in the wilderness tabernacle), the Israelite worshipped God but in vain.
God was rightly insistent that His people “begotten unto a lively hope” should mould their lives according to the pattern demonstrated before them.
In the Hebrew the word ‘tabernacle’ is rendered “dwelling place” – and each was designed as a house in which God would dwell.
FIRSTLY, the wilderness tabernacle was a reflection of divine power, diffused into spiritual majesty as the ‘shechinah glory’ which shined forth above the mercy seat and between the cherubim – a glorious portrayal of the visible majesty of the divine presence.
SECONDLY, the tabernacle of the flesh was to evidence the principles of righteousness sponsored by enlightened behaviour in accord with the divine injunction to shine forth as “the Light of the World”.
In the first century this manifestation was not found in the splendour of Herod’s temple but in the Lord Jesus Christ. God, in His infinite wisdom, disdained to reveal Himself any longer in curtains, gold and silver or costly array – but in flesh – “A BODY PREPARED”.
John 1:14 records, “the word was made flesh and dwelt (tabernacled RV) among us and we beheld his glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and Truth”. It was through Christ that God chose to tabernacle with men.
In the Mosaic dispensation, when the discerning Jew looked upon the High Priest resplendent in his robes of office and performing the will of God in sacrifice and worship, he beheld his ideal, the various garments and appurtenances representing godly characteristics and spiritual qualities; but more than these, he beheld the symbol of God manifested in the flesh.
When Jesus came in the fullness of his work of sacrifice and worship, he needed not to wear outwardly these characteristics of God in symbol as garments - he was “all glorious within”, being clothed in humility and righteousness – perfect qualities of love and obedience. Thus Jesus rightly could say, “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father”. He was, indeed, “God manifested in the flesh”.
Each tabernacle – the wilderness dwelling and the body – was created specifically to show forth “the praises and goodness of him who has called us to his kingdom and glory”. Each tabernacle was a radiant lightstand verifying that God is the author of light and truth.
With each tabernacle, and justly so, the accent was on holiness; and anything that tended to defile was cast out – the basis of divine acceptance being “worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness”.
Each was sojourning as in a strange land – a weary pilgrimage to Zion – “no continuing city” – a wandering in the wilderness.
Each tabernacle was to be constructed to the divine specifications by instruction and guidance to a preconceived pattern, emphasis being that there was no permanency in this existence – it was but a probationary experience.
The tabernacle moved forward by divine counsel; and the Israelites journeyed with it in progress physical and spiritual to the promised land, the natural corollary being that there is not, nor can there be, any standing still in spiritual progress.
All that came out of Egypt, the tabernacle MATERIALS and the people, had to be changed in character. The Egyptian image had to be hidden from view, as that state related to sin and ignorance – an ignorance that God formerly winked at, but now a transformation was required on a divinely-accepted basis of knowledge and spiritual reform. So today the requirements of God are the same; we, as His creatures, must transform ourselves in harmony with the great transformation which is soon to take place on the earth; we must become new creatures.
Finally, the FURNISHINGS of the tabernacle were few and simple, nevertheless wholly adequate to the spiritual needs of worship. There was no lack – it was “thoroughly furnished”; furthermore there was not the unsightliness and impracticability which comes from being over-furnished – crowded and cluttered.
Paul reminds us of the bare essentials of the fundamental furnishings of mind and body: “Be ye thoroughly furnished unto all good works” – those basic qualities with which Jesus was furnished. “Add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, temperance, patience, brotherly kindness” – “for if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ”. These qualities enumerated above are essential elements of the godly character.
In Psalm 118:15 we read, “Salvation is in the tabernacle of the righteous”.
The lesson of the two tabernacles, with its scriptural eloquence, teaches us that to constitute the true Israel of God, we must live “righteously, soberly and godly in this present life”. Let us therefore “present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service” (Rom. 12:1).
Bro. Andrew Lucas (Australia)
