Food for thought

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The Tabernacle in the Wilderness

The main subject in the Bible from the beginning of Genesis through
Revelation is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. The eternal God
exhausts the resources of human language to tell forth the wonders,
the grace, the mercy, and compassionate love God has for all men
everywhere. He uses as illustrations the material things round about
us, things with which we are familiar, to better enable us to understand
that His Son is the Mediator, the One and only way that sinful man can
approach a sinless God. The furnishings of the tabernacle are used to show
us God`s way of approach to Himself. The Son of men is the Brazen Altar, is
the Laver, is the Shewbread, is the Light of the world, and is also the Altar
of Incense. He is the blood sprinkled Mercy Seat in the Holy of Holies.

The children of Israel had been in bondage and slavery in Egypt. God called
Moses to lead His people out of captivity to the Promised Land. The first
twelve chapters of Exodus record the terrible sufferings of that bondage
and God`s deliverance. We are told of the beginning of that long journey,
when God led His people, some one million five-hundred-thousand of them,
with their cattle and personal goods, out of Egypt by the way of the Red Sea,
by the waters of Marah, by the wells of Elim. God led the Israelites, His
children,across the desert waste to a camping place at the foot of Mount Sinai.
Then, according to Ex. 25:8, when Moses was upon the mountain, God spoke to him
and said, "...let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them."

Then God gave Moses detailed instructions concerning the construction of
that sanctuary which was called the Tabernacle in the Wilderness. When
that Tabernacle was finished- parts of it made of wood overlaid with
gold-God came down and dwelt there in the midst of His people. Wood
speaks forth the Lord`s humanity, and gold speaks of His Deity. Centuries
later, long after dwelling in their midst during the wilderness journey, the
LORD came down from the Glory above to be born of a virgin. He came down
and dwelt among men in a body of flesh and bones; He was God manifest in
the flesh. In John 1:14, we read "And the Word [that is God] was made flesh,
and dwelt [i.e., tabernacled] among us, (and we beheld his glory,, the glory as
of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth." He tabernacled
or dwelt among His people in the days of long ago during the wilderness
journey.

He is here now to tabernacle among us today, and our bodies are now the
temples of the Holy Spirit! The tabernacle was some forty-five feet in
length, and about fifteen feet in width; the rear end and two sides were
made of boards, each board about fifteen feet in height by two inches in
thickness. The tabernacle stood in a courtyard surrounded by curtains of
fine, white, pure linen, some eight and one-half feet high, enclosing an area
of 175 feet in length and eighty-seven and one-half feet in width. The
entrance, which was on the east side of this courtyard, was closed by a
curtain of fine twined linen in blue, purple and scarlet. Let us consider how
purple is made. Blue and red are mixed to make purple. Blue, the blue of
heaven, speaks of God`s deity. The scarlet speaks of earth, and the two
together picture for us the deity and humanity of God. At the one entrance
was the Brazen Altar upon which the sacrifice of a spotless lamb was
burning continually. Next wasthe Laver at which the priest washed his hands
and feet; then, entering intothe Holy Place at the right was the Table of
Shewbread, and on the left was the Golden Candlestick. Just before the
entrance to the Holy of Holies was the Altar of Incense. In the Holy of Holies
stood the Ark of the Covenant, the blood sprinkled Mercy Seat and the
overshadowing Cherubim. All of these articles of furniture are placed in the
shape of a cross. Then, even then God showed us that He would come out of
the holy of holies and be sacrifice upon a cross.

When God gave the instructions to Moses for building the tabernacle, he first
spoke of the ark of the covenant where God dwelt, and then of the brazen altar,
which depicts God coming to man. But when man comes to God he comes by the
one gate of entrance, then on to the brazen altar and then finally into the holy
of holies! Yes, God so loved the world that He provided this way of approach to
Himself through the one door, Christ Jesus.

My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if
any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:
And he is the propitiation [mercy seat] for our sins: and not for ours
only, but
also for the sins of the whole world.  1Jn.2:1,2

In His service
frank w.