Symbolism of the Tabernacle

by James Williams

The New Testament (NT), especially the letter of Hebrews, teaches us that much of the Old Testament (OT) was symbolic and foreshadowing. Hebrews 8:1-2, “…we have such a high priest, who has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, 2 a minister in the sanctuary and in the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man.” Notice that there is a true tabernacle which the Lord pitched and not man, and at least part of this true tabernacle is in heaven where Jesus our high priest is now. About the priests who ministered in the earthly symbolic tabernacle, Hebrews 8:5 says, “they serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things.” A shadow is something that doesn’t have any substance to it, but it takes the shape of the thing that cast it. And a shadow cannot actually accomplish what the actual person or actual thing can accomplish, but it takes on the shape. Hebrews 10:1, “For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things.”

The tabernacle had three main sections. The outer court in which was the bronze altar of sacrifice and the laver of water. The whole yard was about the size of one quarter of a football field. Not a very big area. Then there was the Holy Place behind the first veil or curtain when you entered the tent. In it were three pieces of furniture: the seven branched lampstand, the table with 12 cakes of unleavened bread and then the altar of incense right in front of the second veil or curtain. Only the priests were allowed to go in that holy place. Then behind the second veil was the Most Holy Place or the Holy of Holies. And that was God’s room. In it was the Ark of the Covenant, a golden chest in which were placed the Ten Commandments and a jar of that manna stuff God sustained the Israelites with through the desert. At both ends of the lid of the ark were cherubim facing downward with their wings outstretched over the chest. Between and above the cherubim is where God was understood to reside in an intense way. Nobody was ever allowed to enter the most holy place, except the high priest and only once a year on the day called the day of atonement; he would come in with blood from a sacrifice and sprinkle it on the lid of the ark, which was called the mercy seat, through that he would obtain God’s mercy for himself and the people.

The tabernacle, its furniture and the activities that went on there correspond I think to multiple realities. I have three in mind. I’ll share two of them with you just briefly, and then we’ll focus on the third.

First of all, all of this can be seen as…

Symbolic pictures of Christ Himself

• John 1:1, 14… Jesus was the superior sanctuary. He was God in the tent of a human body.
• He’s not just a tabernacle of God, but Christ and the cross are the offerings and altar by which we obtain atonement for our sins.
• Christ is the laver that washes us clean before God.
• Christ is the Bread of the Presence that sustains us spiritually.
• Christ is the lampstand, the light of the world who enables us to see enough to live well and have fellowship with God.
• Christ is the altar of incense from whom the sweet incense of intercession on our behalf ascends to the Father.

So all these things can be seen as symbols of the Lord. Jesus Christ is everything we need to be reconciled to God and thrive as His children.

Another way to look at all this is as…

A symbolic picture of a Christian

“Do you not know,” wrote Paul in I Corinthians 6:19, “that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?”

The three sections of the tabernacle, the outer court, the holy place and the most holy place you can see corresponding to the three components of a human being. I Thessalonians 5:23 calls them the body, the soul and the spirit. I used to think the soul and spirit were the same thing, but that verse seems to suggest there’s a distinction. And so does Hebrews 4:12, which says, “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit…” Sounds like there’s a difference between the two, though they’re definitely very tied together and affect each other. The soul appears to be the psychological and emotional part of us. The soul is really in tune to what’s happening around us. But the spirit is deeper. It’s sometimes called in Scripture the heart. It’s where we have our intuition, motives, faith or doubt, love or hate.

The outer court you can see corresponds to the body, the holy place corresponds to the soul, and the holy of holies corresponds to the spirit. It is there in that innermost part of us, in our hearts, in our spirits that God’s Spirit dwells and communes with us. Galatians 4:6, “Because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying ‘Abba! Father!’”

Our soul, that holy place in us, including our mind, is to be regularly enlightened by the lamp of God’s word and nourished by the Bread of life, and our souls offer the sweet incense of prayer that will travel to the one who dwells in the innermost part of us.

And there are two things we’re to do with the outer court of our bodies, represented by the basin of water and the altar of sacrifice. We are to wash them clean of our sins by being baptized in the name Jesus Christ. And the other thing we’re to do with our body is lay it on the altar of sacrifice. Romans 12:1, let’s look at this verse together. “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God [in other words, in view of what God has done for you, here’s the proper response], present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” He’s talking about total surrender where you say, “God, now my body is yours. I don’t control it. I don’t choose what happens to it. It belongs to you. From now on I’ve decided the work I do, the places I go, the clothes I wear, the food I eat, the things I say with my mouth and see with my eyes and listen to with my ears, all of that is up to you because I have given my body to you.” He says that is a holy and acceptable sacrifice to God and it’s our, some versions says, spiritual worship. Or other versions translate it more literally and I think better “this is your reasonable” or “logical service.” The idea I think is offering your body as a living sacrifice is the least you can do in view of what God has done for you and intends to do for you. Christ gave us our bodies. Christ sustained our bodies. And He gave His sinless body for us. He bore our sins in His body on the cross. So surrendering these bodies He gave us is our reasonable response.

Now another, very powerful to me, way we can look at this…

Symbolic of the path from the world, that is separate from God, into heaven with God

Hebrews 6:19-20 says Jesus has entered within the veil, he means within the second veil, he’s gone into the true most holy place, into heaven itself where God dwells. And He’s gone there as a forerunner for us, meaning he’s opened the way for us to go there too.

Access was enabled the moment Jesus breathed His last on the cross. We have testimonies in the NT gospels that the moment Jesus died at the ninth hour, at 3pm, the veil that covered the most holy place in the temple was suddenly torn in two from top to bottom. The timing was perfect, because 3 pm began what was called the hour of prayer (Acts 3:1) and a priest would have been standing right before that veil to offer incense when it suddenly ripped in two. Can you imagine? I bet that priest came out shaking like a leaf. It symbolized that entrance into the true most holy place has now been made available.

The outer court can be seen as the world. How do we go from the world to heaven with God, where our forerunner has gone?

Well, in the courtyard outside of the tabernacle were two pieces of furniture. The first thing one would see when he entered the courtyard was a large bronze altar on which all the sacrificial animals were offered to God. Being right there in front when you walked in was a continual reminder that sinful human beings have no access to the holy God unless sinless blood is shed, a sinless life taken on their behalf to cover their sin. When you read in Leviticus you will find that there were many different kinds of sacrifices offered on that altar for different purposes and different kinds of sins. But the book of Hebrews teaches us to see the death of Jesus on the cross as the fulfillment of all those sacrifices. The various benefits of the various sacrifices can be ours through the one sacrifice of Christ. Let’s look at some things in Hebrews 10. “For since the Law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near. 2 Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins? 3 But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. 4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” Now, he’s not saying they didn’t need to offer those sacrifices. God required them to offer those. And God made the offering of those a way for them to obtain forgiveness, that is as long as they offered them with penitent hearts. In Leviticus, repeatedly it says when the sacrifice is offered, the worshiper “will be forgiven” (Leviticus 4:20, 26, 31, 35; 5:10, 13, 16, 18; 6:7). But the Hebrew writer is saying, in the mind of God, animal sacrifices do not really pay for the sins of people. Animal sacrifice does not make amends for human sin. God forgave people back then when they did what He told them to do for forgiveness, because He knew what Christ would do on their behalf and ours. Let’s keep going here in Hebrews 10, verse 5, “Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, [and here’s a quotation from Psalm 40. These words of the Psalm are put in the mouth of Jesus when He was on earth. This pictures Jesus on earth saying:] “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me; 6 in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. 7 Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.’“ Animal sacrifices never satisfied God’s sense of justice for the sins of men. What God willed to pay for mankind’s sin was the body of Jesus. Jesus said, “I have come to do your will O God, to offer the sacrifice You really want.” At verse 8 the Hebrew writer elaborates on this. He says, “When he said above, “You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law), 9 then he added, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He abolishes the first in order to establish the second [Jesus took away the old sacrificial system and established the second better sacrifice]. 10 And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” How much more grateful would we be for the death of Christ, if like those ancient Israelites, we had to continually be bringing our livestock to the tabernacle to atone for our sins? For them to discover that Jesus’ one sacrifice takes care of all sin we have ever done and will ever commit, must have been amazing. Only through appropriating the benefits of Christ’s death on the cross through faith in Christ and repentance are we ever going to enter heaven with God.

Now, the other piece of furniture in the outer court as you moved closer to the tabernacle was the laver, a large bronze basin of water. We’re not given the dimensions of it. I think it was probably bigger than it’s usually pictured. It was in the water of that laver that the priests in their consecration ceremony to become priests, had to be bathed. And every time before they entered the tabernacle they had to wash their hands and their feet there. So before one could draw near to God’s presence He had to have a sacrifice to cover his sins and he had to be clean. And so do we. Let’s look at a passage together. Titus 3:5, “he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness [anyone who is saved, it is not because they’ve lived such a good life that they deserve to be saved, it’s not that at all], but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.” Regeneration – that’s new birth language. The word for renewal means renovation. Like what you might do with your kitchen sometime. You do a renovation where you tear out the old rotten stuff you don’t like and make it new in there. The Spirit of God does some powerful renewing renovating work in us in the water of baptism. The way Paul describes it in Romans… outside of Christ we are each a slave of sin. Sin is our master and we cannot get out from under his control. He describes the bondage at the end of chapter 7. “15 I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. … I agree with the law, that it is good. It’s like I’m not doing it, but sin that dwells within me… For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19  For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.” That’s real slavery, when you’re unable to not sin, when you can’t live in the righteous ways you want to live. Real freedom is when you’re free not to sin, when you don’t have to listen to that old master or do as he says. Release from the power of sin in our lives, Paul says, we receive when we’re baptized. Romans 6:3…

The cross and the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit make us fit to enter the holy place, which is church (which is not a building nor is it a denomination), it is the body blood bought, it is Spirit changed people all over the earth. The NT pictures Christians as both the temple of God and as the priests who minister in the holy place. I Corinthians 3:16, “Do you not know that you [plural, y’all Christians] are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?.”  I Peter 2:5, “you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” So we are the stones that make God’s temple, or in the tabernacle imagery, we’re the boards and curtains, the walls of the Holy Place. And we are the priests who minister in there.

What are blood bought, Spirit changed priests to do in the holy place until our time comes to go with Jesus into the most holy place?

Well, on the south side of the front room was a pure gold lampstand with 7 branches with almond blossom shaped cups, fueled by oil. The priests were to keep it burning continually, even through the night (Exodus 27:20). The priest would tend to these lamps daily. It certainly served the practical purpose of providing light in this tent that had no windows. But it also had symbolic significance for God providing us with the spiritual light, the guidance we need. We have a lampstand we are to tend daily. Psalm 119:105, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” Psalm 119:130, “The unfolding of Your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple.” Proverbs 6:23, “For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching is light.” II Peter 1:19, speaking of the OT Scriptures it says, “…to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place.” Now, a lampstand by itself doesn’t give light unless it has oil to fuel it. I Corinthians 2:12, “Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.” As Christ opened the minds of his disciples after his resurrection to understand the Scriptures, His Spirit in us will do the same if we humbly submissively tend the lamp of God’s word.

Toward the second veil, right in front of it, was the altar of incense. And every morning and late afternoon a priest was to offer incense on this altar, and the smoke would pass through the veil into the Most Holy Place. The incense God desires of us at least a couple times a day, is sincere fervent prayers. Psalm 141:2, “Let my prayer be counted as incense before You…”  In Revelation chapters 5 and 8, the prayers of the saints are pictured as fragrant incense that ascends to God (Revelation 5:8; 8:3).

Then the third piece of furniture in the holy place, on the north side, was called the Table of Showbread. On this table there were always to be 12 cakes of unleavened bread, one for each tribe of Israel. They were called the Bread of the Presence. Every Sabbath day, the priests would replace the cakes of bread with new ones. The old loaves, they would take to a special location and eat them together. And perhaps it was an act of fellowship and deepening friendship with God. Sharing someone’s bread is an act of friendship and fellowship. You know Jesus commanded disciples before His death, to get together regularly and share bread and a drink of the fruit of the vine together. And when they do so to remember Him and to see in the bread they share His body which was given for us and in the juice His blood that was shed for us and that seals the new covenant between us and God. It’s a memorial meal like the Passover. It’s also a covenant meal like the covenant meals you see throughout the OT. It’s a meal to renew and recommit ourselves to our covenant with God. It’s also a sacrificial meal like the peace offering meals of the OT, where the worshipers would eat part of the sacrifice to deepen their relationship with God and appropriate the benefits of the sacrifice. The Lord’s Supper I believe is all that. It’s not just so we don’t forget what he’s done for us. I think if we take it with right attitudes it’s also a time when we encounter the Lord in a special way and receive a blessing from him of some kind. In our reading this last week, Exodus 20:24 struck me. It says, “…In every place where I cause my name to be remembered I will come to you and bless you.” I Corinthians 10:16-18 compares the Lord’s Supper to the peace offering meals. It says as we partake we’re sharing the body and blood of the Lord. We’re receiving benefits of His sacrifice.

So all these things, the Lord’s supper, prayer, the Word with the help of the Spirit, these are the things that prepare us for when the time comes to cross that second veil and be with Jesus. They keep us ready to follow our forerunner into the holy of holies.