The Tabernacle of God

Ever since the Word became flesh, God’s Glory has been manifested in Jesus of Nazareth, and all who believe in him behold God’s splendor.

Jesus is the ‘Logos’, “the Word made flesh,” in whom “the Glory of God” resides. He is the Greater Tabernacle foreshadowed in the Tent carried by Israel, the place where the Glory of Yahweh was seen in the Wilderness. This glory in all its fullness is now displayed for all men to see wherever Christ is proclaimed. Jesus is the true “light that illuminates every man coming into the world.”

John’s declaration anticipates the later passages of his Gospel that link Christ to the Father. The man from Nazareth who gave his life for all humanity is the final manifestation of the Glory, Truth, and Grace of the Living God – (John 1:14).

[Tent at twilight - Photo by Valery Sysoev (Turkey) on Unsplash]

It is through this same Crucified and Resurrected Messiah that God is redeeming men and women and the creation itself, a process that will culminate in the arrival of Jesus at the end of the age when he raises the dead, overthrows Death once and for all, and ushers in “the New Heavens and the New Earth,” the true Promised Land.

During her sojourn in the Wilderness, Israel carried “the Tent of Meeting” or Tabernacle wherever she went, the place where Yahweh met His people through their priestly representatives outside the camp, the temporary dwelling place of His presence, though access was always limited.

• “Now Moses used to take the tent and to pitch it without the camp, afar off from the camp; and he called it the Tent of Meeting. And it came to pass, that every one that sought Yahweh went out unto the Tent of Meeting outside the camp” – (Exodus 33:7).

Only Moses was granted the favour of beholding the Glory of God, and on only one occasion, but he was only permitted to glimpse His back as he passed by momentarily. Full exposure to God’s Glory would have ended the Great Lawgiver’s life then and there - (Exodus 33:17-23, 34:1-6).

The Tabernacle was a temporary structure. Its various functions foreshadowed the Greater Tabernacle to come. Moreover, as the Gospel of John confirms, the true and permanent “Tabernacle” is none other than Jesus of Nazareth, the “Word made flesh that tabernacles among us” – (John 1:14).

The Gospel of John applies the verbal form of the Greek word for “tent” to the life of Jesus. In His Son, God “tabernacles” with His covenant people. Just as the God of Abraham dwelt among the tribes of Israel in the Tent of Meeting, so He now dwells among His People through Jesus Christ.

ACCESSING GOD

In this same Jesus, all believers behold the Glory of the One True God. Access to Him is no longer confined to the Temple in Jerusalem, the Tabernacle in the Wilderness, the Levitical priests, the borders of the Land of Canaan, or the Nation of Israel. Jesus Christ is the Greater “Tent of Meeting,” the place where the Father meets with His People anywhere on the Earth – (John 1:14).

Both the Ancient Tabernacle and the Jerusalem Temple were “types and shadows” of the greater reality that is found in Jesus. In Him, the Father is revealed, and apart from “the only born Son who is in the bosom of the Father,” there is no accurate knowledge of God on Earth.

The Son “sits” in the very presence of God, where he intercedes for his “brethren” as their Faithful High Priest, having “achieved the purification of their sins” and “cleansed their conscience from dead works” through his “one for all” sacrifice for sin – (Hebrews 1:1-4, 2:14-18, 8:1-6, 9:14, 10:12).

Every man and woman who believes the words of Jesus “will see the glory of God.” Christ is “the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through him.” Faith in Christ and obedience to him matter, not our biological descent from Abraham, nationality, or physical location. The worship desired by God is “in spirit and truth” – (John 4:20-24, 11:40, 14:6).

The Father can only be known through His Son. Anyone who knows Jesus has met the Father and seen His Glory. The man who encounters the Nazarene “beholds Him who sent me.” No one can experience the presence of God apart from the ‘Logos’, “the Word made flesh.” The Nazarene is the only place where the Divine “Glory” is manifested openly – (John 12:45, 17:24).

When Philip asked Christ to reveal the Father, the Messiah of Israel responded: “He who has seen me has seen the Father!” As he declared earlier, he “that believes on me believes not on me, but on Him who sent me”– (John 2:44, 14:7-9).

In Jesus Christ, the Glory of God is revealed now and forevermore, and nowhere else. He is the living expression of the Life-Giving God. Though the Gospel of John maintains the distinction between Father and Son, they speak and act as one. Jesus only declares the words that he first hears from his Father, and the glory that he manifests is his Father’s Glory.

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SEE ALSO:

• Shadows or Substance - (The types and shadows of the old covenant find their substance in the Son of God, in his priesthood and New Covenant – Hebrews 8:1-5)

• His Incomparable Covenant - (Jesus inaugurated the superior New Covenant through his Death and Resurrection, rendering the old covenant obsolete – Hebrews 8:6-13)

• The Tent Pitched by God - (Jesus intercedes without ceasing for his people in the true heavenly Tabernacle, one not made with human hands)

• Le Tabernacle de Dieu - (Depuis que la Parole est devenue chair, la Gloire de Dieu a été manifestée en Jésus de Nazareth, et tous ceux qui croient en lui voient Sa splendeur)