The True Tabernacle

Ever since the Word became flesh, God’s Glory has been manifested in Jesus of Nazareth, and all who believe in him behold His splendor.

Jesus is the Logos, the “Word become flesh” in whom the “Glory of God” resides. He is the Greater Tabernacle foreshadowed in the Tent carried by Israel, the place where the Glory of Yahweh was seen in the Wilderness. His full glory is now displayed throughout the World for all men to see wherever Christ is proclaimed. Jesus is the true “light that illuminates every man coming into the world.”

John’s declaration anticipates the later passages of his Gospel linking Christ to the Father. The man from Nazareth who gave his life for all humanity is the final manifestation of the Glory, Truth, and Grace of the Living God – (John 1:14).

[Photo by Andrew Seaman on Unsplash]

It is through this same Crucified and Resurrected Messiah that God is redeeming men and women and the creation itself, a process that will culminate in the arrival of Jesus at the end of the age when he raises the dead, overthrows Death once and for all, and ushers in the “New Heavens and the New Earth,” the true Promised Land.

During her sojourn in the Wilderness, Israel carried the “Tent of Meeting” or Tabernacle wherever she went, the place where Yahweh met His people through their priestly representatives outside the camp, the temporary dwelling place of His presence though access was always limited.

• “Now Moses used to take the tent and to pitch it without the camp, afar off from the camp; and he called it, the Tent of Meeting. And it came to pass, that every one that sought Yahweh went out unto the Tent of Meeting outside the camp” – (Exodus 33:7).

Only Moses on one occasion was granted the favor of beholding the Glory of God, but he was only permitted to see His “backside.” Full exposure to God’s Glory would have ended the Great Lawgiver’s life then and there - (Exodus 33:17-23, 34:1-6).

The Tabernacle was a temporary structure. Its various functions foreshadowed the Greater Tabernacle to come. Moreover, as the Gospel of John confirms, the true and permanent “Tabernacle” is none other than Jesus of Nazareth, the “Word become flesh.”

The Gospel of John applies the verbal form of the Greek word for “tent” to the life of Jesus. In His Son, God “tabernacles” with His covenant people. Just as the God of Abraham dwelt among the tribes of Israel by means of the Tabernacle, so He now dwells among His People through Jesus Christ:

• “The Word became flesh and tented among us. And we beheld his glory, glory as of the only born from the Father, full of grace and truth” – (John 1:14).

ACCESSING GOD

In this same Jesus, all believers behold the Glory of the One True God. Access to Him is no longer confined to the Temple in Jerusalem, the Tabernacle in the Wilderness, the Levitical priests, the borders of the Land of Canaan, or the Nation of Israel. Jesus Christ is the Greater “Tent of Meeting,” the place where the Father meets with His People anywhere on the Earth – (John 1:14).

Both the Ancient Tabernacle and the Jerusalem Temple were “types and shadows” of the greater reality that is found in Jesus. In Him, the Father is revealed, and apart from the “only born Son who is in the bosom of the Father,” there is no accurate knowledge of God on Earth.

The Son “sits” in the very presence of God interceding continually for his “brethren” as their Faithful High Priest, having “achieved the purification of their sins” and “cleansed their conscience from dead works” through his “one for all” sacrifice for sin – (Hebrews 1:1-4, 2:14-18, 8:1-6, 9:14, 10:12).

Every man and woman who believes the words of Jesus “will see the glory of God.” The Son of God is the “way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through him.” Faith in Christ matters, not our biological descent from Abraham or physical location – (John 11:40, 14:6).

The Father can only be known through His Son. Anyone who knows Jesus has met the Father and beheld His Glory. The man who encounters the Nazarene “beholds Him who sent me.” No one can experience the presence of God apart from the ‘Logos’, the “Word made flesh.” The Nazarene is the only place where the Divine “Glory” is manifested openly for all men to see – (John 12:45, 17:24).

When Philip asked Christ to reveal the Father, the Messiah of Israel responded: “He who has seen me has seen the Father!” As he declared earlier, he “that believes on me believes not on me, but on Him who sent me”– (John 2:44, 14:7-9).

In Jesus Christ, the Glory of God is revealed now and forevermore. He is the ultimate expression of the Life-Giving God. Though the Gospel of John maintains the distinction between Father and Son, they speak and act as one. Jesus only declares the words that he first hears from his Father, and the Glory that he manifests is his Father’s Glory.

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SEE ALSO:

• The Word Made Flesh - (Jesus is the ‘Logos’ made flesh, the Greater Tabernacle where the Glory of God is revealed for all men to behold – John 1:14)

• The Salvation of Yahweh - (‘Jesus’ means ‘Yahweh saves.’ In the man from Nazareth, the salvation promised by the God of Israel arrived in all its glory)

• David's Son - (Jesus is the son of David and heir to the Messianic Throne, the beloved Son of God, and the Suffering Servant of Yahweh)

• Grace and Truth - (The Gospel of John begins by introducing key themes that are expanded in the body of the book - Life, Light, Witness, Truth, and Grace)