Our scripture today comes from the book of Exodus. So if you’ll please turn with me in your Bibles, we will begin with Exodus 25, verses 1 through 9.
The Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the people of Israel that they take for me a contribution from every man whose heart moves him. You shall receive the contribution for me and this is the contribution that you shall receive from them: gold, silver, and bronze; blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen; goats’ hair; tanned rams’ skins; goatskins; acacia wood; oil for the lamps; spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense; onyx stones and stones for setting for the ephod and for the breastpiece.
And let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell in their midst, exactly as I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle and of all its furniture; so you shall make it.”
From there we turn a little further on in the book of Exodus to chapter 33, beginning at verse 1.
The Lord said to Moses, “Depart, go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought up out of the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, ‘To your offspring I will give it.’ I will send an angel before you and I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey, but I will not go up among you, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people.”
When the people heard this disastrous word, they mourned, and no one put on his ornaments. For the Lord had said to Moses, “Say to the people of Israel, ‘You are a stiff-necked people. If for a single moment I should go up among you, I would consume you. So now take off your ornaments that I may know what to do with you.’”
Therefore, the people of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments from Mount Horeb onward.
Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, far off from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting. Everyone who sought the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp. Whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people would rise up and each would stand at his tent door and watch Moses until he had gone into the tent.
When Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent, and the Lord would speak with Moses. When all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people would rise up and worship, each at his tent door.
Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. When Moses turned again into the camp, his assistant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent.
And Moses said to the Lord, “See, you say to me, ‘Bring up this people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, ‘I know you by name and you have also found favor in my sight.’
Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me your ways that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is your people.”
And he said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”
And he said to him, “If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Is it not in your going with us, so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?”
And the Lord said to Moses, “This very thing that you have spoken, I will do, for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.”
This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the gift of grace. We thank you that we have found favor in your sight. Open our hearts, teach us your ways so that we may better know you, love you, and serve you, and continue to rest in your grace. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
So, Emmanuel and the tabernacle—the promise from the Lord that God is with us leads directly to the command for his people to build him a sanctuary, a holy place, specifically a portable sanctuary, so that he might always dwell in their midst wherever they go.
Don’t you think that it would be nice to see and know that you have God dwelling in your midst? Wouldn’t you be comforted knowing that he was there with you? Because you could just look over there and see his place and know that since the lights are on, the Lord surely must be home.
How nice it is for us to have the Lord dwelling with us and how utterly terrifying it is to have God dwelling with us. It is both a joy and a terror, something for us to both celebrate and to dread.
Today we’re going to be looking at the implications of God commanding his people to build a sanctuary for his dwelling and then also having his presence go with them. To the Israelite people, the tabernacle was the visible sign of that the Lord God Almighty was with them.
The cloud of the Lord’s glory would descend from heaven onto the tent, and it would rise up again, governing their travels, telling them when to stop and where to start. This was also where the Lord would meet with Moses, with the priests, and later with Joshua, where he would meet with Moses specifically face to face, meeting him as a friend.
Unfortunately for us, we’re at a point where our wonderful English language fails us. It fails to accurately portray what all is going on here because we have certain Bible words which we think we know the meaning of, yet we often do not. Like, what exactly is a tabernacle? Is it a noun, a unique person, place, or thing, or is it a verb, as in ‘to tabernacle’?
Well, we have to look at how it’s used. The Roman Catholics have a fancy box that the priest will go ahead and put what remains of the host in following a Mass— they call this box the tabernacle.
The Jews, when you go to a synagogue, there’s usually a little closet or compartment at the front of the sanctuary where the rabbi keeps the Torah scroll—this is also called a tabernacle. Then again, there is the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Who’s ever heard them? And guess where they sing? In a place called the Tabernacle.
And sometimes Christians will speak about Jesus, paraphrasing loosely from John 1:14, saying, ‘And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us.’
So what do these four different uses of the word tabernacle have in common? They each refer to something related to the presence of God. Tabernacle, as I said, is one of those Bible words that we will use without actually understanding it because it doesn’t exactly mean what we think it means.
It’s more about how we use it. Tabernacle comes to us now in English from French through Latin, being originally ‘tabernaculum,’ which plainly meant ‘tent.’
‘Tabernaculum’ comes from a shorter Latin word, ‘tabernacle,’ which we also get the word ‘tavern’ from. So what a ‘taberna’ was, it was a small semi-permanent structure that people would go visit for a specific purpose, like a shop or an inn.
And so a tabernacle, a tabernaculum, was actually a smaller structure similar in purpose but mobile, similar to a gypsy wagon or a carnival tent. Now, the tabernacle built by the Israelites is clearly more than just a tent.
Tabernacle translates from the Hebrew word ‘mishkan’ and is best described as a dwelling. Tabernacle refers to the whole complex including the curtains, the implements, and the altar—not just the central tent where the holy place and most holy place were, containing the ark of the covenant.
The mishkan, this tabernacle, was built to be the dwelling place of the Lord in the midst of his chosen people. This was the place where God would meet with his people and where they could enter his presence for worship and fellowship.
And the Lord commanded the Israelites to build this mishkan more for their benefit than his own. God does not need a tent to live in, but the people needed a visible sign to comfort them, to reassure them, and to prove and remind themselves that God was with them. They required proof of Emmanuel.
Now the Lord gave Moses a very specific set of instructions for the construction and operation of this tabernacle—the hows, the where’s, and the who’s. The reason, the necessity for following all these instructions was actually to protect the people from the Lord’s wrath.
These were instructions in holiness so that the people might approach God without fear of destruction. The layout of the tabernacle established a series of layers, degrees of holiness, serving to constantly remind us of our separation from God due to our sinfulness.
At the very center of the tabernacle was a tent containing two chambers. The innermost was the most holy place; this is where the ark of the covenant was kept, or is also called the holy of holies. This is the place that was considered to be the throne room of God on earth. This was a room into which the high priest was allowed in one time a year on the Day of Atonement after all these many sacrifices had been made to cleanse him, the people, and all the implements in the tabernacle itself of the people’s sinfulness.
But even then, the high priest was not sanctified enough to look upon God. He also needed to bring incense and smoke to create a cloud to cover God from view. Further out was the holy place. This was separated from the most holy place by a thick curtain.
Here, the golden lampstand, the menorah, was kept burning 24/7, representing God’s light in the world. Here also was a table with the showbread or the bread of presents, which were 12 loaves of freshly baked bread put out on the table once a week and was kept always in God’s presence as an offering to him and a reminder of his provision for the people.
Outside of the tent was a basin used for washing the hands and feet of the priests, washing them and cleansing them before they ever entered the holy place. This reminded them and us that everyone must be cleansed before we can enter God’s presence.
Then beyond the basin was the altar where sinners would bring their sacrifices to the Lord and for the priests to make atonement on their behalf, paying the debt of their sin. For us, it was Christ’s sacrifice on the cross that is our atonement and his blood is what cleanses us from our sin.
Now the altar, the basin, the tent were all set up within the courtyard of the tabernacle. This courtyard contained the whole of the sanctuary and it was enclosed by a fence on three sides, while the fourth side had a single gate to allow entrance.
The tabernacle was always set up in the same way, in the same orientation, with this single gate being set up facing the east. So this divinely prescribed layout of the tabernacle is actually a foreshadowing of God’s plan to redeem his people so that we might safely return to him, to come before his throne and receive grace and mercy.
Approaching the Lord, entering the sanctuary from the east, foreshadows our end of exile. Remember Adam and Eve? They were exiled from Eden, driven out into the east away from the Lord’s presence.
So we respond to his call by moving back in his direction. Entering in through this single solitary eastern gate reminds us that there is only one way to be restored to God’s presence and grace.
God’s prescribed way—a sacrifice of atonement and a cleansing for sin—was required before a person could draw near to God and before they could enter into the holy place. While the Israelites never actually entered any closer than the courtyard, a priest would carry their sacrifice into the holy place into the Lord’s presence to mediate on their behalf, to carry their atonement.
But now for us, all of us who call upon Christ, we’re ordained into a priesthood of all believers, because our great high priest Jesus has opened the tent. He has cleared the way for our entrance into God’s presence.
So the tabernacle, which served as the model for how man is redeemed and restored to fellowship with God, was a physical sign of God’s desire for us to be drawn into closer communion with him. A sign of God’s presence with his people—a sign of Emmanuel’s relationship with us—God being with us so that we could then be with him.
So God commanded the Israelites to build a sanctuary for him to dwell in among his people. He defined each of these particular barriers and rituals to protect the people. The fences, the gate, the tent of the tabernacle were not meant as a defense or protection for God, you know, to keep the wrong people out.
Instead, they were protection for the sinful people to protect them from the absolute pure holiness of God, so that they would not be destroyed in their sinfulness. Because God loves his people, he wants a relationship with us. He wants to dwell among us, in our midst, surrounded by us, living in fellowship and community with his elect.
God loves his people so much that he commanded this sanctuary to be built as a safe space for he and the people to meet. Right? “And let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell in their midst.” Wherever his people would go, they knew that God was with them because this sign of his holy presence was always with them.
And God says in Exodus 29 concerning the tabernacle, “There I will meet with the people of Israel and it shall be sanctified to my glory. I will dwell among the people of Israel and will be their God, and they shall know that I am the Lord their God who brought them out of the land of Egypt, that I might dwell among them. I am the Lord their God.”
So having the tabernacle, the people would know that God is with them and that he alone is their God. And they would remember that he’s the one who brought them up out of Egypt, brought them up for them to be with him.
The tabernacle was where they heard whatever God commanded, the place where they would glorify him, where they would worship the Lord God, where they would meet with him as he meets with them.
So the tabernacle was also called the tent of meeting because here God would meet them.
Now the portion of conversation recorded between God and Moses in our first passage happened while Moses was still up on Mount Sinai the first time receiving the law—the tablets, the instructions for building the tabernacle.
However, the second conversation happens shortly after the incident with the golden calf, before Moses returned to the Lord and had renewed the covenant. Considering this temporary tent of meeting while the tabernacle was still being built, Moses pitched his tent far off away from the camp.
It was removed and set apart from the people—not with them. Why? Because they were still guilty of sin. For the altar had not been finished; their sin with the golden calf had not yet been atoned for. The people could not be in the Lord’s holy presence; God would not go among them lest they be destroyed.
God was showing mercy to his people by withholding the fullness of his wrath. Here he also reaffirmed the promise of his continuing faithfulness to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and their descendants—his promise to give them the promised land.
Except he now adds a negative, saying, ‘I will not go up among you lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people.’ Why was God telling Moses that he would no longer go with his people?
God was telling Moses that since the people were so stubborn and loathe to give up their sinfulness, if he went among them and they did not change, he would destroy them for their wickedness. God still would bless Moses and the Israelites with all the physical worldly blessings and good in the promised land, but he would not give them the spiritual blessing without their sincere unwavering repentance.
God was still for his people, but the people who had worshipped the golden calf had left the Lord. It was now their responsibility to repent—to return to him, to turn away from the way of sin and all those golden items that they had taken with them out of Egypt.
When they left, those items were intended by God for the eventual construction of this tabernacle, but they had used some of this wealth for their idolatrous profanity. So the remainder of it was given up and surrendered entirely to the Lord in his glory.
By removing their jewelry as a sign of their repentance for their idolatry, they discarded the jewelry to remove a temptation to craft an idol again. For it was from that jewelry that Aaron had made the first idol, the calf—this was a symbol of their rejection of a love for worldly goods in preference of spiritual and godly things.
A moment of repentance for them, which unfortunately they don’t keep going on, but Moses, after the people had sincerely repented, now interceded with God on their behalf. He met with God, conversed with God, prayed to God that he would still go with them and still be their God because the Lord had claimed them to be his people.
But let’s pause there. I need to make a side note here about intercessory prayer. I talked about this a little bit earlier. We affirm it as Christians, even as Reformed Presbyterian types, that prayer is absolutely necessary works of our faith.
We also understand and affirm that God already knows what we need before we ask him, but we must not pray and expect God’s mind to be changed because he doesn’t change his mind.
Prayer is not about what we want, but is more about aligning ourselves with God’s will, recognizing his work and giving him the glory. Intercessory prayer glorifies God, not ourselves.
James wrote, “You ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions,” because oftentimes we do not pray according to his will. Instead, we pray according to our own fleshy and selfish desires, so God often answers our prayers with “no.”
But whenever we pray “thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” and mean it, by praying with the Holy Spirit for what the Lord wills, then God smiles upon his children and says “yes.”
Prayer is an important part of our conversation with God. Prayer humbles us because when we pray, we acknowledge his power and mercy. We submit to him out of our own insufficiency, and sometimes it seems that the Lord will go to extreme lengths to get our attention to return and refocus us on who and what it should be.
Soapbox over! Now, God had said he would not go with the Israelites because they would be destroyed in their sinfulness. Yet, after they repented and Moses prayed on their behalf, the Lord said, “My presence will go with you and give you rest.”
Moses’s prayer did not change God’s mind; instead, Moses and the people’s hearts were changed back toward the Lord through their act of prayer and their repentance. When they prayed and acted according to his will and desire, the Lord promised to continue being with his chosen people, to be their Emmanuel.
Their status was changed in their repentance—they moved relationally back to be with God. They were now ready for God to go with them, and Moses understood how important the Emmanuel promise is.
Moses, he was raised in an Egyptian court, exposed to all manner of idolatry, and he recognized that these idols were either mute stone, people, men, or just unintelligent animals. The Egyptian gods could not help them; they were powerless to help because they were nothing more than sinful humanity’s fantasies.
Regardless of whatever divinity he may have believed in beforehand, way back in Egypt and in Midian, Moses could never again deny the truth of the Lord. After God Almighty, the living God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, revealed himself to Moses from the bush that burned but was not consumed, every nation on earth has their own gods, but only Israel is unique because they actually have the God of truth with them.
They have Emmanuel, and the church today shares in that same blessing. Knowing the Lord and the truth of him allowed Moses to be comforted, encouraged, and confident when he spoke to Pharaoh because he had faith that God was with him.
For the Lord told Moses during that first encounter, “Now therefore, go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.” Moses understood how important the Emmanuel promise is, and that is why he interceded with the Lord for the people—to ensure that the Lord would be with them and that he would be present with them, that he would be their God with us—Emmanuel.
Moses understood the reality and truth of God, that he is as well as who he is. He understood how special it was for the Lord of heaven and earth to come and be with his chosen people and how unique this is.
All those who are called into fellowship with the Lord are set apart, distinct, and separated from other peoples because of this unique divine relationship that we’re brought into by his grace.
Christians, we believers are different from other people because of Emmanuel, because the truth is with us—the truth is on our side. So we can and we must stand on the side of truth.
After God had told Moses that he would not go with the Israelites, the people mourned. They mourned and cast off their jewelry, their fancies, all their decorations of personal vanity in grief and repentance because they realized that God’s presence was better and more important to them than worldly wealth.
Moses approached the Lord personally in prayer, interceding for them because he had a personal relationship with God. He wished that God’s people would also have that same kind of relationship—to have the confidence and be assured that the only living God, the Lord of all creation, was with them—to know and believe that he is the source of strength, their defense, and their only hope for life.
Moses said to the Lord, “Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me your ways that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is your people.”
See, Moses represented all the people before God just as he represented God before all the people. He wanted to be sure that this blessing of communion with the Lord was shared with all God’s chosen people.
Moses leaned upon and depended upon the favor from God that he had received. But what was this favor? The word underlying favor here is best understood by a more familiar Greek term: ‘karis.’
‘Karis’ is one of the Apostle Paul’s favorite words; it describes the whole of his life, his personal relationship with Christ. ‘Karis’ is how Paul and every other Christian is saved.
‘Karis’ is the Greek word for grace—God’s grace, especially as shown to sinful humanity. ‘Karis’ is the total unmerited favor and love from our heavenly Father for his children and people.
So Moses asked God, “Now therefore, if I have found grace in your sight, please show me your ways that I may know you in order to find grace in your sight.” He asked this for the people. He asked in faith to share God’s grace with the people. He asked to share grace with them, us, and all of the elect throughout all of history.
Paul wrote that, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not of your doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works so that no one may boast.”
Grace is a gift—the sovereign gift of God, plain and simple—and it is received by our faith in Christ the Lord. Jesus said, “For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment: what to say and what to speak, and I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say therefore, I say as the Father has told me.”
And also this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
This is why I spend so much time talking about God’s grace and the law of God, gospel, and law. We have been given God’s grace so that we may follow his ways and receive his grace.
Knowing the Lord, knowing Christ means we obey his commandments, which we now want to do, for God has given us the desire to obey.
All our expanding capacity to obey is given only by the gift of the Holy Spirit to every believer by his sovereign grace so that by our faith in Christ we are justified and may rest in God’s gracious presence eternally.
God still gives us his grace now; he gives us the Scriptures, the Bible, to know his ways, to know him and his son Jesus so that we may receive his grace and the free gift of eternal life.
The Lord’s presence at the tabernacle supported the Israelites’ faith. His presence dwelling with them gave them the confidence and trust necessary to take possession of Canaan, to obey God, and to find their rest.
Emmanuel dwelling in the midst of Israel blessed them. He showed them his favor, defended them against their enemies, provided manna and quail for them to eat, divided the Jordan River, shattered the walls of Jericho, and gave them cities to live in which they did not build—all because he is Emmanuel.
God’s presence dwelling among his chosen people is a gift of grace. God with us means that we can be with God.
The Lord does not want to keep his distance from his people; he wants his people to come to him safely and remain in his presence. Moses and the Israelites understood that living in the presence of the Lord was the greatest blessing possible, greater than any worldly reward.
And that great reward of dwelling with the Lord our God is eternal life. And Christ, like Moses but far greater, interceded with the Lord on our behalf. So now we are saved by grace, not works, and are confident that his presence is with us and he will give us rest.
So approach him by faith, because the Lord will always dwell with his people. Wherever we go, his whole glory fills the earth, but his presence dwells with those whom he has called and who call upon his name and come to him by faith.
He is Emmanuel. Amen.