Tabernacle and Temple
The Tabernacle as Type
God Dwelling Among His People
Description
The entire tabernacle system points to Christ. 'The Word was made flesh and dwelt (tabernacled) among us.' Every piece of furniture, every measurement, every material speaks of Christ. The tabernacle was God's dwelling place among His people—Christ is Immanuel, God with us. The veil separated the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place; Christ's flesh was that veil, torn at His death to open access to God. The tabernacle was built according to the pattern shown Moses on the mount—the heavenly reality of which the earthly was but a shadow.
Key Verses
And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building.
Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh.
Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount.
And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them. According to all that I shew thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it.
Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.