1. The Outline of the Tabernacle
Audio Only1. The Outline of the Tabernacle - for Notes.pdf
The Tabernacle of Moses in the wilderness is the primary organizational pattern upon which the writers of the New Testament placed all the truths of the gospel. The writers of the gospel used the Tabernacle, its parts and its furnishings in four ways.
- As a description of Christ Jesus in His Person and work.
- As the definitions of the elements of our salvation.
- As a pattern describing each one of us personally.
- As a description of our walk into all the knowledge of God and of our Salvation already complete.
Three Basic Definitions. In order to fully receive what the Tabernacle teaches us, we must include three further understandings.
- First, the Tabernacle is made for journeying. Its parts are designed to be carried, and we know its meaning in the context of the journey of Israel to Solomon’s temple.
- Second, the Tabernacle truths can be known fully only in conjunction with the same truths coming through the seven Feasts of Israel’s year.
- Third, we apply the meaning of God’s direction, quoted by the writer of Hebrews – “See that you make all things according to the pattern shown you in the mountain.”
The Pattern. According to the pattern means:
- The Lord Jesus in his Person and walk IS our pattern in almost every way. The only thing that is unique between He and us is His outward human personality and His particular task in ministry.
- Our knowledge of gospel truth must be organized by the parts of the Tabernacle in order for us to know the gospel as it is.
- The unfolding of our personal knowledge of God must follow the pattern God has set. There is no skipping of anything we imagine falsely we don’t want.
The Tabernacle Parts. [the picture of the Tabernacle]
The Camp. The Camp: For the bodies of those animals, whose sacrificial blood is brought into the Holiest by the high priest, are burned outside the camp. Therefore, Jesus also, that He might make the people holy [utterly connected with God] through His own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore, we should go forth to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach [accusations against Christ] (Hebrews 13:11-13 – rough draft).
This is also referencing the scapegoat outside the camp, and thus to the pattern of Jesus for us in 1 John 3:16 – and we also are committed to setting forth our souls for our brothers and sisters.
The Outer Court. The Gate: No one comes to the Father except through Me (John 10 &14). You must be born again (John 3). Receive the Holy Spirit (John 20).
The Outer Court: But (do not measure) the outer court for it is given to … be trampled (Revelation 11). Therefore, being sent away from the first words of Christ, on the basis of perfection {the fullness of Christ} we should carry on [bring forth]; not laying again the foundation of turning our minds away from dead works… (Hebrews 6).
The Altar of Sacrifice: For indeed Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us (1 Corinthians 5:7).
The Outer Court. [The picture of the Tabernacle again, framed on the outer court.]
The Door. The Bronze Laver of Washing: For judgment I am come into this world that those who do not see may see, and those who see may be made blind (John 9:39). The washing of the water of the word (Ephesians 5).
The Door: I am the Door (John 10). And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance (Acts 2:4).
The Holy Place: There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit – For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body… and have all been made to drink into one Spirit (1 Corinthians 12).
In the Holy Place. The Table of Set-forth Bread: I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. – He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him (John 6).
The Lampstand: But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all (1 Corinthians 12). The seven lampstands which you saw are the seven churches (Revelation 1:20). The Spirit will guide you into all truth (John 16).
The Altar of Incense: The sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory to be unveiled in us (Romans 8). …Incense… with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne (Rev 8).
The Holy Place. [The picture of the Tabernacle again, framed on the Holy Place.]
Into the Holiest. The Veil: The veil in the temple was torn in two (Matthew 27). Through the veil, that is, His flesh (Hebrews 10).
The Holiest: God is love (1 John). Having a bold proclamation of entrance into the Holiest (Hebrews 10). That you might be filled with all the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:19).
The Ark of the Covenant: And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1). You are an epistle of Christ… written on tablets of fleshy hearts (2 Corinthians 3). Abide in Me and I in you (John 15). Walk just as He walked (1 John 2).
Utterly with God. The Mercy Seat: And He Himself is the propitiation all around our sins (1 John 2). Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need (Hebrews 4:16). Hearts sprinkled from an evil consciousness (Hebrews 10). We have received the ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5). And judgment was given to them (Revelation 20).
The Pillar of Fire: And there I will meet with you (Exodus 25). We are out from God… love is [always flowing] out from God; and everyone loving out from God has been conceived of God and knows God (1 John 4).
The Tabernacle Parts. [The picture of the Tabernacle again, framed on the Holiest.]
The Patterns in the Verses. Here again are the four things the Tabernacle teaches us.
- A description of Christ Jesus in His Person and work.
- A pattern describing each one of us personally.
- A description of our walk into all the knowledge of God and of our Salvation already complete.
- The definitions of the elements of our salvation.
You can go through each one of these verses, and you will find each one of these four things being expressed through them – and all other gospel verses as well. The Tabernacle is our pattern of understanding.
Applying the Patterns. Jesus – Us – Our Way – Definition
The Gate: No one comes to the Father except through Me (John 10 &14). You must be born again (John 3). Receive the Holy Spirit (John 20).
The Altar of Sacrifice: For indeed Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us (1 Corinthians 5:7).
The Ark of the Covenant: And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1). You are an epistle of Christ… written on tablets of fleshy hearts (2 Corinthians 3). Abide in Me and I in you (John 15). Walk just as He walked (1 John 2).
It Is Finished. BUT –. We must keep always the rule of Romans 8:30 – it is finished.
The New Testament does NOT present an entrance into God. It presents an entrance into the knowledge of God. The difference between the two is the difference between death and life.
The only place we have ever lived, the only place we exist is inside of God inside of the Holiest of all. The path from outside the gate through the parts of the Tabernacle and into the Holiest is a path into the personal knowledge of what is already the only thing true.
Always Personal. NOTHING of the work of Christ has ever done anything for anyone – unless the knowing of what it means enters personally into each one, received entirely through faith. Thus the view of the Tabernacle as a path into the knowledge of God is an emergency rescue, God’s way to get us out of the horrors of ignorance and into the joy of our Salvation.
Our problem is that we have turned our ignorance into a false knowledge of self, and thus each step through this Way is required for us to receive Jesus’ identity as our own. And this Way IS and WILL ALWAYS BE personal to each one, forever.
Three Patterns in One. Yet the Tabernacle does not just show us the way into the knowledge of God. In fact, the Tabernacle shows us three patterns.
- Our way into the knowledge of God, that is, our emergency rescue.
- The meaning of living inside of Father, of sharing Hheart with God, and of living together as the Church.
- The way for God through us out into the knowledge of all creation.
These other two patterns shown to us by the Tabernacle are the topic of Symmorphy IV: Covenant.
Redemption and Salvation. This teaching, then, will begin with the emergency rescue, what it means, and how it applies to each believer in Jesus. Redemption is the emergency rescue. Salvation is where we live – inside of the Holiest, inside of Christ.
Every detail recorded by Moses in Exodus 25-40 has immediate meaning as applied to the knowledge of our redemption. But when we turn around upon the Mercy Seat, sharing Hheart with God, every detail through the same chapters now applies directly to our life as the Church and to the Unveiling of Jesus Christ through us to all creation.