A Biblical Vision, Part I: Mastering the Old Testament Witness to Christ

Sess ion 4: Jesus as Ful f i l lment of the Tabernacle, Pr iesthood, Sacr i f ices, and Fest ival s 59

(6) Tabernacle of Testimony, Exod. 38.21

(7) Tabernacle of Witness, Num. 17.7, 8

2. The Tabernacle is a symbol of God’s dwelling place with his people, Exod. 25.8-9 – And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst. [9] Exactly as I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle, and of all its furniture, so you shall make it.

a. God is holy and inaccessible, except through the means by which he outlines and determines.

Deut. 23.14 Because the Lord your God walks in the midst of your camp, to deliver you and to give up your enemies before you, therefore your camp must be holy, so that he may not see anything indecent among you and turn away from you. Matt. 18.20 For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them. Matt. 28.20 . . . teaching them to observe all that I have

b. This theme of God dwelling with his people was fulfilled in the incarnation of Jesus Christ, John 1.14 – And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

c. As the tabernacle was situated in the midst of Israel, so Jesus lives in the midst of his people, until the very end of the age, Deut. 23.14 with Rev. 1.13; Matt. 18.20; Matt. 28.20.

3. The Tabernacle is a way for God to reveal through type the one true way of salvation.

commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.

a. Approach to God through atonement by blood sacrifice, Lev. 17.11 cf. Heb. 9.21-22.

b. Christ’s sacrifice is based on the pattern of the type prefigured in the sacrificial system of Israel and the tabernacle, Heb. 9.23-24 – Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. [24] For Christ has

Rev. 1.13 . . . and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and

with a golden sash around his chest.