Exodus 24-26: The Tabernacle (God's Presence with His People)

"And you shall put the mercy seat on the top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the testimony that I shall give you. There I will meet with you, and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim that are on the ark of the testimony, I will speak with you about all that I will give you in commandment for the people of Israel." Exodus 25:21-22

"And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us..." John 1:14

In the beginning of Genesis, we spoke about God's Edenic plan for his created people. This plan involved perfect presence with God coupled with the complete absence of sin, which is what we saw with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. However, this perfect pattern was quickly broken as God's creation took a bite of the forbidden fruit. Immediately, Adam and Eve were driven out of the Garden, away from God's presence. However, as we will find this morning, God has been restoring that presence with his creation one step at a time.

In Genesis 12, God restarts his Edenic plan with a man named Abraham. God comes to him by grace, offering him a great covenant, that would be unilaterally promised to him and his descendants. This covenant continues down the line of Abraham's posterity, and before you know it there is an entire nation of Israel that are inheritors of this Abrahamic Covenant. However, they find themselves in Egyptian slavery, but God delivers them from that trial, only do deliver them from many others as they wander in the wilderness. Yet smack-dab in the middle of this wandering, God appears to Moses at Mt. Sinai (which we looked at last time) and gives Moses the law, that is, the instruction by which the Israelite people should live since they are a people of a holy God.

Next, we find something amazing in Exodus 25, that is, God asking for contributions from his people for a sanctuary. What is this sanctuary for? You might ask. Well, as we continue to read the chapter, we find God describing further the elements of this "sanctuary" all until we get to chapter 26, where God names this sanctuary the "tabernacle." Well, what is a tabernacle? Quite literally, tabernacle means the place of dwelling (Hb. Mishnak), from the Hebrew "mi" (place) and "shanak" (two dwell). As God is establishing the dimensions and details of his tabernacle, he is doing much more than giving a blueprint for his next favorite building. Rather, he is establishing his presence with his people, that is, he is restoring one step at a time what was originally taking place in the Garden of Eden.

Furthermore, let us look forward in our Bibles to Jesus' fulfillment of the tabernacle, which we see in John 1:14. In this verse, the word "dwelt" that describes Jesus' incarnation literally means "tabernacled." In other words, when Jesus came down to earth, he tabernacled among us. Thus, men would no longer need a tabernacle or a temple (which we will get to later), because God was dwelling with them in the flesh. Furthermore, after Jesus left, he promised his Holy Spirit, so that he might be with his people always (Matt. 28:20) even as they were temples of God (1 Cor. 6:19).

So, what do we do with all of this wonderful information? Answer: stand in awe. You have a loving, gracious, sovereign, and wise God who was both willing and able to not only rescue you from the sin of slavery but also dwell with you forever and ever. Furthermore, stand in awe of the fact that someday, once all of God's children are ransomed to himself, God will dwell with his creation perfectly once again in heaven apart from the presence of sin, just as Adam and Eve did in the Garden. Praise the Lord! We have a God who desires to dwell with us.