Guest blogger Mark West

The Tabernacle

In the tabernacle we see God’s design for His people. God never designed anything so that His people would remain far away. The whole point of the tabernacle was that God wanted to dwell among His people as He said in Exodus 25:8, “And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst.”
Even the elements themselves speak volumes of the relationship that God so desires to have with His people.
First, He instructs Moses on construction of the ark of the covenant. Moses was to construct the ark of acacia wood covered with gold plating as a picture to us of Jesus Christ who came as fully man (acacia wood) and fully God (gold plating). The ark would have a lid called the mercy seat further revealing that God’s will for His people is mercy, not judgment, and that His Messiah would usher in an era of God’s mercy. In Exodus 25:2 God instructs, “in the ark you shall put the testimony that I shall give you.” This further pictures the fact that Jesus carried with Him the message of God, it was within Him just as He desires that the message be within us. God further says, “There I will meet with you,” revealing that Christ is the place where God will meet mankind. Only through a relationship with Jesus Christ will we meet God. God reveals His desire to meet with His people through the ark of the covenant.
Second, He instructs Moses to construct the table for bread. The table reveals to us that God desire to put His people on display. Just as you don’t light a candle to hide it in a bucket, so also God didn’t make us His to keep us in hiding but He desires that through putting His grace to us on display that His name will be glorified and worshiped among the nations. Just as the bread is the body of Christ in communion, so the bread on the table represented the body of Christ, His people. God reveals His desire to showcase His people through the table of bread.
Third, He instructs Moses to construct the gold lampstand. The lampstand was to light the tabernacle just as His people are to be the light. However, and we can’t miss this, the lamp would not have light if oil was not supplied to it. What we see in the lampstand is that God’s people need God’s power to fulfill their purpose of being a light in this world. God desires to showcase His people and it is His power in them that is the essence of the showcase. God reveals His desire to empower His people through the lampstand.
God moves on to reveal the construction of the tabernacle itself. However, in these initial items we see God’s plan and purpose for His people. He desires to show mercy to His people as He meets with them through Christ. He desires to make them the showcase of His grace as they proclaim his gospel of the Kingdom to the nations. He desires to empower them through the filling of His Spirit as they light up this world with His glory and for His glory.
Our challenge as His people is to meet with Him and allow Him to use His power in us to showcase His grace to the nations. This has always been the revealed will and purpose of our God.