The Tabernacle: A Place of Reconciliation

1 Now even the first covenant had regulations of divine worship and the earthly sanctuary. 2 For there was a tabernacle prepared, the outer one, in which were the lampstand and the table and the sacred bread; this is called the holy place. 3 Behind the second veil there was a tabernacle which is called the Holy of Holies, 4 having a golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which was a golden jar holding the manna, and Aaron’s rod which budded, and the tables of the covenant; 5 and above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat; but of these things we cannot now speak in detail. 6 Now when these things have been so prepared, the priests are continually entering the outer tabernacle performing the divine worship, 7 but into the second, only the high priest enters once a year, not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the sins of the people committed in ignorance. (Hebrews 9:1–7)

Father in heaven, this morning we choose the faithful way, and put your Word before our eyes, that we may cling to the Scriptures. Teach us, Lord, Your ways and Your testimonies. You are good, and You do good; teach us Your Word. Amen.

Introduction

We must get the Gospel right.

We must get the Gospel of Jesus Christ right. Why? Because “it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek” (Romans 1:16), but only if it’s actually the Gospel.

What is the Gospel? Paul summarizes it this way:

1 Corinthians 15:1–4 NASB95

Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,

The second phrase of First Corinthians 15:3 is so very important: Christ died for our sins. Jesus didn’t simply die. His death was not merely a token, or an example. Some say that Jesus died on the cross to show us how lovable we are. No, Jesus died on the cross to satisfy God’s wrath against our sins, which condemned us.

We must get the Gospel right, but as we know …

Many have no Gospel.

Many have no Gospel. They worship other gods, or no god at all. They are lost in their sins. They are the ones the Bible calls ‘Greeks’ or ‘Gentiles’ or ‘Barbarians.’

Many have the wrong gospel.

And some who claim the name of Jesus Christ have the wrong gospel.

Some have added to it by making salvation partly a matter of works or human responsibility.

Others take away from it, denying the need for repentance, or personal faith.

Sometimes the gospel becomes a means of personal therapy.

Sometimes the gospel is hyphenated – the social gospel, the black gospel, the feminist-gospel, the prosperity-gospel.

Any additions, subtractions, or redefinitions corrupt the true Gospel into something counterfeit and merely human.

This is one reason that the Lord sealed the Tabernacle in the pages of Scripture. It gives us a reminder of both our need for the Gospel, and the promise of the Gospel.

The Tabernacle is a reminder of the Gospel.

As we see in Hebrews 9, the desert Tabernacle, built 1,400 years before Jesus was born, is a reminder of the Gospel, not only of mankind’s need for a Savior, but God’s promise of a Savior. This is why the desert Tabernacle still matters so much to us.

This is why, 3,400 years after Yahweh gave Moses the plan, the desert Tabernacle still matters. It’s a reminder that God reconciles sinners to Himself, and that He does so through a substitutionary death.

The Tabernacle

A Reminder of Separation

We’ve already talked about this, so I’ll just briefly remind you, that the very design of the desert Tabernacle emphasized the infinite gap between holy God and sinful man.

The altar was a reminder.

The first object you would see in the courtyard of the Tabernacle was the altar. The message of the altar was clear: “You can’t get close to God without death.” This goes back to Genesis 2:17, when God warned Adam, “in the day you eat of it, you will die.” Adam did die spiritually the very moment he sinned, and he began to die physically. Every human being owes a death to God. In the Tabernacle, the Lord graciously allowed men and women to temporarily substitute an animal’s death, but in time their own death would be required.

The bronze basin was a reminder.

Between the altar and the tent of meeting stood a large, bronze basin that was to be kept full of water. Every priest had to wash his hand and his feet every time he prepared to approach the alter or the Tabernacle. If he failed to do so, he would die. We might think that the priests were involved in the holiest work a man could do: mediating between holy God and sinful man. But the priests were equally sinful men, and never allowed to forget it.

The veils that closed off the holy place and holy of holies were reminders.

It was just a handful of steps from the altar and the bronze basin to the tent of meeting, yet there was no open access to the holy place. Sin kept men from the light of God, the bread of life, and intimacy in prayer.

A select few were permitted to enter the holy place each morning and evening to tend the lampstand, offer incense, or refresh the showbread, were always aware of the veil that closed off the holy of holies. Behind that veil was the Ark of the Covenant, the emblem of God’s presence on earth. It was so very close, but shut off to all except the high priest, and then only one day a year, and only after extraordinary preparations.

A Promise of Reconciliation

The altar was a picture of a permanent substitutionary death.

Just as Yahweh had provided the substitute for Isaac on Mount Moriah, He would provide a substitute for human sin. And the Word tells us that in the fullness of time the Lord Jesus Christ took our place on the cross, and His once-for-all-time death finally and truly paid our debt to God. The altar was where substitutes were offered in place of the sinner. Jesus Christ died on the cross as a perfect substitute, one that did not merely cover sin for the time being, but took it away forever.

The bronze basin was a picture of permanent cleansing.

The bronze basin was a prophetic promise by God that one day, in the fullness of His time, there would be a permanent solution for the cleansing of sinful men and women. That cleansing would not need to be repeated over and over again, but would be once for all time. I think it’s worth remembering that the primary purpose of cleansing is not to make us feel better about ourselves, but to make us acceptable to God. Cleansing through the death of Jesus Christ washes away the legal and moral judgment of our sin. The cleansing of our conscience is a work of the Holy Spirit, and won’t be completed this side of eternity.

The veils to the holy place and the holy of holies were pictures of constant access.

Veils and curtains and doors are made to allow access. The very existence of the veils that closed off the holy place and holy of holies was a prophetic promise that, one day, permanent access would be possible. What no one the wilderness could imagine was that access would not just be provided to all priests, or to all Jewish men, or to all Jewish men and women alike, but to people of every tongue, tribe, nation, and kindred. Hebrews 4:16 says,

Hebrews 4:16

16 Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (Hebrews 4:16)

We can draw near with confidence to the throne of grace because the veil has been removed, and we have free and instant access at all times.

Jesus Obtained Eternal Redemption

Jesus Christ did what the Tabernacle could never do: He obtained and provides eternal redemption.

Look at Hebrews 9:11-12 with me:

11 But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation; 12 and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. (Hebrews 9:11–12)

The Scripture doesn’t say that Jesus sought eternal redemption for us, but that He obtained eternal redemption for us. He completed the work. He finished it. He offered Himself on the cross for our sins, and then He took His own blood to heaven and poured it out on the heavenly Ark for our redemption and reconciliation.

When we are born again in Jesus Christ, the eternal redemption He has already obtained is applied to us, once for all time. It covers the entire span of our existence, from the moment of conception, all the way through the fullness of eternity. It completely ends the need for an earthly mediator, because the Lord Jesus is our mediator, interceding for us in heaven:

Hebrews 7:25

25 Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. (Hebrews 7:25)

Ecumenism – treating all religion as essentially the same – is very, very popular in the world. But only Jesus Christ can save. Every other belief, no matter how sincere, leads to hell. So we should not be eager to join ourselves to those whose doctrines deny the Lord and the Gospel. Rather, we should hate every teaching and system that diminishes Christ and dilutes the Gospel, and feel pity for those who are trapped in those lies.

Some will say, “Well, no one has a right to tell someone else that their beliefs are wrong.” That’s obviously untrue.

For one thing, the person who says to me, “You can’t tell someone their beliefs are wrong,” is telling me that my beliefs are wrong!

For another thing, we are commanded by Scripture to speak the truth in love. That’s why Jesus rebuked the Pharisees and warned His own disciples not to fall away. It’s why Paul told the Greeks in Athens, “you are worshiping false gods.” It’s why Paul called the Christians in Galatia ‘mindless,’ ‘idiots,’ ‘morons.’ They were in the process of abandoning the true Gospel for a false one, and that doesn’t deserve any respect.

The Gospel tells us that Jesus died one death. He made one offering. He carried out one sacrifice. Jesus died once: once for all the elect, once for all their sins, once for all time. He obtained eternal redemption. We rest in that truth and promise.

Bringing it Home

God keeps His promises.

Romans 15:4

Romans 15:4 says,

For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. (Romans 15:4)

The Old Testament Scriptures were given for our encouragement. They encourage us because in them we see God at work on earth, among His people, fulfilling His purposes through them. They were not always faithful, just as we are not always faithful. Even when they were faithful, they often fell short of the mark.

But God keeps His promises. Listen to Galatians 3:22:

Galatians 3:22

22 But the Scripture has shut up everyone under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. (Galatians 3:22)

Why is such a dark picture of mankind painted by God? In order to bring about perfect salvation, not salvation that depends upon our works or good intentions, but salvation that depends on the faithfulness of God the Father to keep His promises, salvation that depends on the work of Jesus Christ on the cross, salvation that depends upon the power of the Holy Spirit to transform us.

The Tabernacle was a picture of the redemption God promised to sinners. That picture was fulfilled, perfectly, wonderfully, in Jesus Christ.

God has kept the promise of the Tabernacle.

Many thousands of years ago, Yahweh gave His people a simple, unimpressive tent. In that tent He revealed His eternal intention to dwell with His people in wonderful communion, and His promise to reconcile sinners to Himself.

He painted a picture of Jesus Christ in the Tabernacle, and promised to reconcile us when we had no hope at all. Jesus is fully God and fully man, just as the materials of the tent reveal. His death on the cross satisfied the wrath of God, just as the sacrifices on the altar promised. He washes us clean of our sins, just as the bronze basin promised. He tore open the veils for us, and gave us free and instant access to the Father.

The Work of Christ Changed Everything

What does the Tabernacle have to do with us? Think about this with me. Virtually the entire system of the Law, from the commandments to the sacrifices to the offerings to the Tabernacle itself, was concerned with a single issue: how can sinful men and women be made acceptable to holy God? Most of the work of the priests went into maintaining the uneasy, temporary truce between Yahweh and His people.

The requirements on the people are called, by the apostle Peter,

Acts 15:10

“a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear” (Acts 15:10)

But because of Christ’s fulfillment of the Law, including the prophetic promise of the Tabernacle, our time is not spent trying to be right with God. We have been granted tremendous freedom in Christ.

When we sin, we bring no sacrifice; we point to the already sacrificed Christ and say, “There is my offering!” And we point to the resurrection Jesus and say, “There is my righteousness!”

When we come to worship it is not with the blood of animals, but with

“the sacrifice of praise” (Hebrews 13:15).

We are not called to a specific place – the Tabernacle – at a specific time – the required sabbaths and feasts – but rather

“worship the Father in spirit and in truth” (John 4:23).

Jesus fulfilled the prophetic picture of the Temple of God so that we ourselves who believe in Him would become the Temple of God:

First Corinthians 3:16

16 Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? (1 Corinthians 3:16)

If this is new to you, then I urge you to repent and believe in Jesus Christ for your salvation. He has made peace with God for all who will trust in Him. Let that be you, today.

What a place of privilege and rest we have been given!

Please be encouraged to take this truth seriously, and to ask the Lord to help you experience it fully, day by day. Commit yourself to rejecting anything that even suggests that Christ’s work was insufficient or incomplete.

Jesus paid it all, so all to HIM I owe; sin had left a crimson stain, but He washed it white as snow!

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