Making, building, setting up, taking down, and carrying the parts of the Wilderness Tabernacle was a monumental undertaking. Why add this huge multi-piece structure to all the things that were already having to be transported walking in circles for forty years in the desert? Why not just gather amongst the tents and conduct services? Nothing God does is extraneous; it all has purpose and is part of the plan.
Genesis chapter three says: “He [GOD] drove out the man [from the Garden], and at the east of the garden of he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.” (Genesis 3:24 ESV) (emphasis mine)
This may sound harsh on the face of it, but when filtered through the lens of God’s love and mercy and plan for redemption (which has been from before the creation of the world), we see that this is a necessity. In their current state, Adam and Eve are now separated from God, and, should they remain in the Garden (with or without partaking of the Tree of Life), they are trapped in an unredeemed state. The first step out of the Garden of Eden is the first step on the road to redemption.
In the Garden, God walked with Adam and Eve; He dwelt with them, but until the making of the Tabernacle, there was no meeting place for God and man to come together. God desired a place to meet with and dwell among His people. He wants to be with us; He made us to be in relationship with Him, and He has done everything He can to make a way back to the Garden: “Let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them.” (Exodus 25:8 BSB)
There are many who see the Old Testament as outdated and eclipsed by the New Testament and, I would dare to say, that the number of people who have read the New Testament alone (if they read the Bible at all) far outstrips those who have read the entire Bible. This is my opinion alone, as Google has failed me this time. While stats regarding Bible reading in American are plentiful, I was unable to find any that differentiated between the OT and NT. Interestingly, however, the number of articles with titles such as Why Christians Should Read the OT, Why Christians Should Read the Whole Bible, etc. are plentiful.
Certainly God’s opinion of the value of the Old Testament is implied by His lack of waste in whatever He does and the plethora of quotes by New Testament authors makes it plain that there is gold to be mined there. Things like: “These things (Old Testament) happened to them as examples, and they were written for our instruction upon whom the ends of the age have come.” (1 Corinthians 10:11 ESV);
“For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” (Romans 15:4 ESV)
I love this one because the Old Testament is certainly filled with many struggles and victory by God’s hand and we know that what God has done before, He will certainly do again.
Literally hundreds of scriptures from the Old Testament are quoted in the New, most of them by Jesus Himself; that alone should be enough to convince us of the extreme importance of the Old Testament. As to the evidence of the importance of the Tabernacle, fifty of the nine hundred and twenty-nine chapters of the Old Testament are devoted to it – the same number as in the entire book of Genesis. God is clearly saying, “Pay attention to this!”
Hebrews chapter 3 tells us that the Wilderness Tabernacle is a “shadow of” the real Tabernacle of God in Heaven. It’s amazing that He not only wanted us to know what that Heavenly structure looks like, but wanted His people to have one here on earth.
When Jesus finally returns, He will bring something ultimately better: “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea exists no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of the heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice out of the heaven, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he shall tabernacle with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, their God. And he shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and death shall not exist any more, nor grief, nor cry, nor distress shall exist any more, for the former things have passed away. And he that sat on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he says to me, Write, for these words are true and faithful. And he said to me, It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end….” (Revelation 21:1-6 DBY)
Sonya Richards
3/22\24
