Tabernacle

How lovely is Your tabernacle, O Lord of hosts!
My soul longs, yes, even faints for the courts of the Lord;
My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.
– Psalm 84:1-2

Does God need a house? King David obviously thought so, and he was intent on building one. The Lord’s response was essentially, “Why do you think I need a house? I’ve been traveling with your ancestors for generations in a tabernacle—everywhere they went.” (You can read the whole narrative in 2 Samuel chapter 7.) Eventually God did commission David’s son, Solomon, to build a temple to honor the name of the Lord. Still, it was not like God was homeless. The whole point of the tabernacle was to provide a tangible way for the Hebrew people to know the presence of God through their years of wilderness wandering.

So what is the difference between a temple and a tabernacle? Size, for sure, but regarding design, furnishings, trim, and other such things, Solomon’s Temple and the tabernacle were made the same way. Yet there is at least one key difference: mobility. Once the temple was built in Jerusalem, no one was going to pack it up and move it down to Jericho, up to Capernaum, over to Caesarea, or anywhere else. It was going to stay right where it was built (at least until it would be torn down by a foreign army). In contrast, the tabernacle moved with the people. When God told the people to move to the next stage of their journey, the tabernacle would be taken down, transported, and erected once again at their next camp.

I remember a sermon preached many years ago—by now it must be twenty years or more—by an Army chaplain during an annual conference session in West Virginia. I don’t recall the officer’s name, but I remember quite well the sermon title and the illustration with which he began. The sermon was called Tabernacle People Trapped in a Temple Mentality. It is one of those titles that almost preaches the sermon itself. The chaplain began the message by relating an incident that happened during a deployment to a war zone. He was in his tent quarters when a soldier came walking in and sat down. The soldier was obviously disturbed, but didn’t say anything immediately. He just sat there with a look of despair on his face. After a few moments the chaplain asked, “How can I help you?” This was the soldier’s reply: “I just needed a place to be.” Ponder that for a moment.

After sharing this experience in his sermon, the chaplain pointed out a simple but important feature of a tent. There is no threshold; you don’t have to cross anything to enter. A tent offers easy access. One only has to move the flap and step through the opening. No locks, no barriers, just access. If you haven’t picked up on the parallel yet, let me point you to it by asking a question. What was the tabernacle? That’s right, a tent. Elaborate, ornate, meticulously designed, but a tent nonetheless. Think of what that meant for the Hebrew people in wilderness places. They didn’t have to think of God as being far off, a multi-day journey to Jerusalem. God was right there. They could see His tent from their own.

Okay, I can already imagine someone wanting to point out that the people couldn’t just go in the tabernacle anytime they wanted. It is true, there were many parameters regarding who, when and how much access to the tabernacle was allowed. These were put in place to maintain the sense of God’s holiness and order. Still, what peace it must have brought to the people to have visual affirmation of God’s presence.

God provides us a “place to be.” It may not always be a physical place, but in every other way it will feel like home. Why? Because God is there. He “tabernacles” with us. I love Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase of John 1:14 in The Message: “The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood.” Even the ultimate redemption of creation includes this promise: “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them” (Revelation 21:3). In Christ we always have a place to be, for God is always with us. What better place than in the tabernacle of the Lord?

Better is one day in Your courts,
Better is one day in Your house,
Better is one day in Your courts,
Than thousands elsewhere.
– Matt Redman