I often imagine the beauty of the tabernacle like that of a famous cathedral or centuries-old stained glass on the walls of an old church. Its beauty and ornateness captivates you, humbles you, leaves you in awe, and ultimately moves you to worship. You can feel the transcendence and immanence of God at the same time. Think about Notre Dame. People travel from all over the world to behold its beauty.
I think this universal experience and desire teaches us something about all those made in the image of God. It tells us that we want to worship and behold that which is beautiful. We want to sit in the presence of something that makes us feel small and insignificant while at the same time experiencing the grandeur up close and personal.
The Boundaries of God’s Nearness in the Tabernacle
Now imagine you are the Israelites, God’s chosen people. Yahweh has freed you from slavery in Egypt, parted the Red Sea, provided manna from heaven, and is guiding you to the land that He promised to your forefather, Abraham. You will finally live as His people in His land.
He now gives you instructions for the construction of the tabernacle, a beautifully detailed sanctuary where Yahweh will dwell with His people. In Exodus 25:22, He tells Moses that in the tabernacle, “there I will meet with you.” Amidst the gold, jewels, curtains, and beautiful structures, Yahweh would be there.
But Yahweh wouldn’t just meet Moses anywhere within the tabernacle. You see very quickly that He draws them back to Eden. He reminds them that because of their sin they no longer have access to the presence of the one who made them. It is within the holiest place that the ark of the covenant lived. It would be guarded by cherubim. The High Priest would gain access to Yahweh only through sacrifice (Exodus 25:17-22).
The Cherubim guarding the ark of the testimony in the most holy place within the Tabernacle would have certainly reminded the Israelites of their first brother, Adam. He was cast from the garden, which was guarded by Cherubim so that he and Eve could not re-enter (Genesis 3:24).
It is no wonder that the Israelites wanted to be near God but were so scared to approach Him. Yahweh’s holiness was put on full display in the dwelling place of the tabernacle. God would be with His people, but there were still boundaries and limits to how close they could come due to their sin.
The moveable, temporary dwelling place was always meant to point to something greater. The yearly priestly sacrifices were never going to be enough to deal with the sins of Israel, which is why they couldn’t be near to God forever as they were meant to. They were stuck to follow and tremble, unless God did something else.
The Nearness of Christ
In Christ, God provided something greater than the grandeur of the tabernacle. All the instructions in Exodus 25-27 are beautiful, but what we have in Christ is more beautiful and more sure than a dwelling place constructed by human hands. Hebrews 9:11-12 says, “But now Christ has come as the high priest of the good things to come. He passed through the greater and more perfect tent not made with hands, that is, not of this creation, and he entered once for all into the Most Holy Place not by the blood of goats and calves but by his own blood, and so he himself secured eternal redemption.”
We don’t have to set-up a tent where God is because He has made His home in us! Through the Holy Spirit, we are being led into all truth, life, and knowledge of God. Unlike Israel, we don’t have to show up worrying about if we broke the rules or if our sins are too much. As both the perfect sacrifice and High Priest, Christ was able to break down the wall of hostility that separated God from His people. Now we can approach the throne of grace with confidence (Hebrews 4:14-16). As Christ’s blood covers the mercy seat, our sins are forgiven once and for all.
What beautiful news this is! In Christ, the glory and the nearness of Yahweh are ours to enjoy forever. Hebrews 10:19-23 tells us how we should respond to all that has been accomplished for us in Christ saying, “Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, by the fresh and living way that he inaugurated for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in assurance that faith brings, because we have had our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. And let us hold unwaveringly to the hope that we confess, for the one who made the promise is trustworthy.”
