Exodus 25:8-9– “Have the people of Israel build me a holy sanctuary so I can live among them. You must build this Tabernacle and its furnishings exactly according to the pattern I will show you.”
The tabernacle was important to Israel’s national life; it symbolized God’s dwelling among His people.
Exodus 29:45– “Then I will live among the people of Israel and be their God,”
God says, “Gather the supplies and build me a Tabernacle!” WHY?
- I want to live among my people.
In Exodus 25:8-9 our text brings together the transcendence of God together with the immanence of God.
“Holy Sanctuary” speaks to the transcendence of God!
The transcendence of God speeches of His holiness. It means that God is outside of humanity’s full experience, perception and grasp. He’s beyond our comprehension.
God is beyond the universe or material existence.
“The Holy Sanctuary”- The Holiness and Transcendence of God!
“The Tabernacle”- The Presence and Immanence of God
The immanence of God means that he’s knowable, perceivable or graspable. It means that God is within the limits of possible, experience and knowledge!
Without the immanence of God, God is untouchable and unreachable, beyond our ability to know and understand.
Without the Transcendence of God we form a god of our own liking. Instead of us being created in His image we create a god in our image!
The Transcendence and Immanence of God belong together!
GOD SAID, “Have the people build me a Tabernacle so I can live among them!”
This is the first time the Hebrew word of Tabernacle (miskan) is used in the Bible and it means “Dwelling Place!”
I want to live among my people
BUT……
- There’s only one way to build the Tabernacle
Exodus 26:30– “Set up this Tabernacle according to the pattern you were shown on the mountain.”
Exodus 25:40– “Be sure that you make everything according to the pattern I have shown you here on the mountain.”
THERE’S NO WIGGLE ROOM MOSES! THERE’S NO AMBIGUITY HERE MOSES!
I THINK THAT’S IMPORTANT FOR US TODAY TO UNDERSTAND!
We have to remember that these were a people that had been in bondage for over 400 years! They were slaves for 10 generations!
They went in to captivity a family of about 70 and were coming out of captivity over a million people.
400 years in slavery to a country that worshipped idols. These people that came out of the bondage had NO relationship with God!
THEY DIDN’T KNOW GOD! SO WHY WAS GOD BRINGING THEM OUT?
Because a few hundred years before this, God made a covenant with a man named Abraham and promised Abraham that a Great Nation would be birthed from his offspring.
Genesis 12:1-2– “The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you. I will make you into a great nation…..”
THEN IN GENESIS 15 GOD MADE A COVENANT WITH ABRAHAM!
God is not a man that He should lie!! It might take time but what God has promised He will fulfill!
If God says He’s going to do something He will do it!
The people who were delivered from the bondage of slavery to Egypt had no relationship with God! That’s why they gave Moses so many problems!
They had no relationship with God and didn’t know him!
So God is teaching them, showing them, giving them illustrations and He uses types and shadows!
The Tabernacle is just a teacher showing the Children of Israel who God is!
THERE’S ONLY ONE WAY TO BUILD THE TABERNACLE!
What the Tabernacle is in shadow is Jesus Christ in reality!
You cannot fully know and appreciate what Jesus did for you until you understand the Tabernacle!
God told Moses, “I’m building a house for my name and you need to be sure you make everything according to the pattern I have shown you!
WHAT YOU BELIEVE MATTERS!!!!!
This notion that as long as your spiritual it doesn’t matter what you believe is a lie from the enemy!
Well as long as the Holy Spirit told me I could this it doesn’t matter what the Bible says! Deception, Deception, Deception!!!!
Christianity has morphed into something that is unrecognizable to what Jesus Christ died for!!
Over 60% of people in America call themselves Christians while only 4% hold a Biblical Worldview!
We have been building a “tabernacle” according to our pattern instead of the pattern of God!
CONCLUSION: As God did with the Children of Israel He only sees two groups of people. Those in a covenant with Him and those who are not.
All God cares about is DO YOU KNOW HIM?
Hebrews 8:1-6– “Here is the main point: We have a High Priest who sat down in the place of honor beside the throne of the majestic God in heaven. There he ministers in the heavenly Tabernacle, the true place of worship that was built by the Lord and not by human hands. And since every high priest is required to offer gifts and sacrifices, our High Priest must make an offering, too. If he were here on earth, he would not even be a priest, since there already are priests who offer the gifts required by the law. They serve in a system of worship that is only a copy, a shadow of the real one in heaven. For when Moses was getting ready to build the Tabernacle, God gave him this warning: “Be sure that you make everything according to the pattern I have shown you here on the mountain.” But now Jesus, our High Priest, has been given a ministry that is far superior to the old priesthood, for he is the one who mediates for us a far better covenant with God, based on better promises.
“Father, thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven!”
God is calling you and me out to be different! He’s calling us out and saying, I want to dwell among you, but you must build according to the pattern I have given you!
It begins with a personal relationship with Jesus Christ!
Holy Spirit, draw every person to Jesus!