Today, I thought I’d meet my thousand words by taking down notes and sharing what I picked up from this Bible study we have at our church, every Tuesday. The topic the speaker is facilitating has the theme, ‘Christ in the Bible’ – pointing out how we can see Christ and His finished work for us in each and every book of the Bible, as we ought to. You’ve probably seen that I shared a bit about this earlier; I think we were talking about Genesis back then. While I’m excited about sharing this, I’m also doing this to put my head back into it, because for the past couple of Tuesdays I was in attendance, but I wasn’t really present, you know what I mean? I mean, the Pastor was talking, but I was doing all sorts of other things while he was sharing in the background. I thought, not today; I thought I’d get back to it, and not only take down notes, but share it as well. Hit two birds with one stone.
“Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them. Make this tabernacle and all its furnishing exactly like the pattern I will show you.”Exodus 25:8-9
“Then the cloud covered the tent of the meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.” Exodus 40:34-38
Moses could not enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. From the cloud that the Israelites could see, He dwelled within the tabernacle. He didn’t just want to be seen; no, His purpose and pleasure was to dwell among us.
The tabernacle beautifully typified Christ in every detail. We’ve been made not only as tabernacles, but temples, and if we read that even the furnishings had much detail, so the temple would also be made with much detail, much power and peace. Indeed, we have been fearfully and wonderfully re-made.
Another way to see it is that Christ is the Living Tabernacle. John 1:14, 16: “The Word became flesh and made His dwelling (tabernacled) among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
Man’s approach to God back in the Old Testament was through a High Priest coming from the Outer court into the Most Holy Place. At the Altar the burnt offering was made, blood was sprinkled on the mercy seat. Look at this in comparison to God’s approach to man: From the Most Holy Place, He burst into the Outer court.
The common thing between these two approaches is the blood that was shed. The access between God and man was only made possible by the blood of the Lamb, and Christ is the Lamb of God that took away the sins of the world.
And it doesn’t stop there. God didn’t just specify the furniture because He had attention to detail. There was purpose and symbolism to each item in the tabernacle. I took a screenshot for us to just look at it, versus me typing it all.
As early as the tabernacle we see how Christ truly proved how He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. And as we believe in Christ, we see that this salvation we have implies that we ourselves have not only been made tabernacles ourselves, but Temples of the Holy Spirit, where worship happens.
We are temples of the Holy Spirit, where meetings also happen. Meetings, as in full accessed-meetings between God and man, celebrations of the complete reconciliation Christ paid dearly for each and every one of us. Anyone and everyone else with a religious background may seek a building and define it as a temple… however, the Holy Spirit is represented in each of us as He is represented in all of us collectively – the body of Christ is His temple.
“And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and He will dwell with them. They will be His people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”Revelation 21:3-4
Because we have been made Temples of the Holy Spirit, we (1) appreciate God’s love and presence in us daily, and we (2) approach His throne boldly because of the blood of the Lamb, and we (3) anticipate the blissful joy of being God’s temple both now and forever.
That was the lesson, but two things came up while we were talking after the good pastor concluded.
- Again, the point that we have not only been made temples of the Holy Spirit, but we have also been ‘tabernacle-d’ with Christ; and not only were specifications for the tabernacle given, but what was going to be put inside was also discussed in detail, adds a new perspective to when the Psalmist would say that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. There are different aspects to how we have been made new creations. We can look at it from the outside from different angles and see new, fresh perspectives of how we are loved. Consequently, we can go INSIDE and see how God spares no detail in the bells and whistles. And in all this, we couldn’t tell anyone else that we’ve been made better temples or tabernacles than they have, or that we have better implements or furniture that they do. Why?
- We’ve been re-made the way we are, because God enjoys each and every one of us precisely how we have been built. There may be many points where we could all agree, but there are many other ways we differ from one another… but the way we are all unique furthers the reason for us to celebrate the common denominator we all have – that of us being saved and bestowed and lavished with God’s everlasting love, through Jesus Christ and His finished work. Another beautiful thing we see here is that while we may be able to enjoy God’s presence… Take note that it works both ways. The Creator of the Universe enjoys our presence. I don’t know about you but that impacted me right then and there as I heard it shared.
If you’ve made it this far, I just want you to remember – God enjoys your time. He’s excited about you.
JB's Personal Brain Defragmenter 
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