What was the tabernacle of Moses?

The second expression, used also for the first time in this song, is "the sanctuary" (v. 17), and it evidently alludes to the holy place which God purposed to have built for Himself - in the midst of His people and in the "mountain of His inheritance," in the land of promise. But God anticipated this blessing in the wilderness, and gave directions to His people to make Him a sanctuary, that He might dwell among them. This sanctuary was also called the "tabernacle," a word which properly means "a dwelling-place." God said to Moses, "Let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them; according to all that I show thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it." (Ex. 25:8-9.) This earthly tabernacle, "the figure and shadow of heavenly things," served to make known,

This is variously styled the 'tabernacle of testimony, or of witness,' the 'tabernacle of the congregation,' or 'tent of meeting.' It was the place recognised by Jehovah, where, as dwelling among them, He met His people, and where in separation from the outer world His will was made known. It was to be made after the pattern shown to Moses in the mount, and when it was completed Moses bore witness that it had been constructed as the Lord had commanded. It is worthy of notice that none of its details were left to the ingenuity of Moses: he had simply to carry out his instructions. We read in the N.T. that the things made were patterns of things in the heavens, but not the very image of them; they were patterns of things that were before God, which were not to be materialised.

The tabernacle concerning which the Lord instructed Moses was the earthly place of worship of Israel; it was the means of a continued relationship of a holy God with a sinful people. But besides this the tabernacle and its worship foreshadow in the completest way the Person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ. The epistle to the Hebrews bears witness to this. The types in the tabernacle are simply inexhaustible. The word "tabernacle" in the Hebrew is mishkan, which means dwelling-place. The construction and arrangement were not left to man. God gave Moses the instructions and showed to him a pattern.

We now proceed to consider the sanctuary itself, in which Jehovah would deign to dwell amongst men. While it contained symbolisms, some at least of which were to be found in the temples of the gods of the heathen, in its teaching and idea it was absolutely different from any other erection upon the earth. We have to remember that the sanctuary was the tabernacle of the wilderness, a tent amongst Israel's tents, adapted to the circumstances of the people on their way to the land of promise. When Israel was settled as a nation in Canaan, the sanctuary took the form of a temple. Israel had only just left Egypt; a wealth of Egypt's treasures was in their camp, and the arts and trades of Egypt were to their hand. God used for His purpose what was common to the camp, and communicated lessons of the deepest spiritual import by means of the materials and skill which were common to the people.

God dwelling in the midst of His redeemed people is one of the great truths of the Bible. The book of Exodus is occupied with the details involved in this great and wonderful blessing (Ex. 25-40). After the nation of Israel was delivered from its tyrant Pharaoh, God gave directions to the nation through Moses, the man of God, concerning the Sanctuary. He desired to dwell in the midst of His redeemed and covenanted people. The pattern was given to Moses by God, and Moses obediently directed the building of the Tabernacle according to that pattern. When the Tabernacle was completed according to God's will, His glory filled the beautiful structure. From out of the Tabernacle God gave instructions how He was to be approached in worship, etc. (Lev. 1:1). God was worshipped and the people were blessed.

All of these things were for the purpose of making a sanctuary for God to dwell in among the children of Israel (v. 8). This was temporary in view of the eventual building of the temple by Solomon (1 Kings 6). In regard to this tabernacle, however, nothing was left to the discretion of Moses. Verse 9 is clear that God Himself decreed the entire pattern of the tabernacle and its furniture, just as God today has laid down the full truth concerning the church of God and all its arrangements. Nothing is left to the wisdom or discretion of any of His saints or servants.

Tabernacle, God's dwelling-place. It was a wonderful building, which represented, for the time in which it was erected, and indeed for all time, the extreme of cost and value. No expense was spared, no magnificence was wanting, to make the dwelling-place of God as glorious and wonderful an abode as the eye of man had ever seen, and yet a fitting accompaniment to the wilderness.

To the Sanctuary we next come. This was a structure of boards overlaid with gold, with a curtained roof overhead. It consisted of two parts, and was divided into two chambers. Of two parts was it composed, the one called the Tent Ohel, the other called the Tabernacle, or dwelling place Mishcan (Ex. 26:1, 7). Into two chambers was it divided, the outer one called the holy place, the inner called the most holy (Ex. 26:33). On three sides were the boards, viz., the south, the west, and the north. And like the court, on none of those sides was there any entrance. At its east end was the entrance behind a screen of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen, which, stretching across the whole width of the Tabernacle, thus formed its eastern side.

If we look at the description of the tabernacle, we shall see it was an oblong tent divided into two parts, the holy place, and the most holy. The whole mass of the people might come no farther than the brazen altar in the court of the tabernacle, on which the sacrifices were offered — type of the death of Christ in atonement for sin. Beyond this the people dared not go. The priests, the sons of Aaron, might go farther, having first washed at the laver which stood betwixt the altar and the door of the tent. They went inside the first covering into the holy place, to perform the service of the tabernacle, but the veil shut them out from the most holy place. Within that veil they might never go; what was there, their eyes might never look upon.

The New Testament teaches us that the tabernacle of the wilderness expressed by its figures the greatest Christian truths. In the early Church this was a common belief, and the fathers of the Christian Church so regarded it; their testimony is, "Whatever was done by Moses in the wilderness with regard to the tabernacle, was a type and figure of spiritual mysteries. The tabernacle was intended for frequent change of locality; it has left no ruins. Long since it passed out of the desert where it was made. The men who formed its guardian "walls" marched with it to their promised land and are no more. It was not designed to be permanent. In the Book of Exodus we have a full and exact description of it; yet not of the whole of it, for the details of certain parts are not described, and in others, proportions which would enable us to form a perfect model of it, are omitted. The object of the description is to afford spiritual instruction, and we have therefore to learn from omissions as well as from minutely recorded details. Further, the order of the descriptions varies in certain instances; for example, when the instructions were given on the mount for its formation, the throne of God came first in order, (Ex. 25:10) but when the erection was set up on the plain, first of all the boards of the pavilion were erected. (Ex. 40:18.) The reason is apparent; in moral order in the mind of God, His throne occupied the first place; in the order of construction, the golden walls of the pavilion, wherein He should dwell, came first, and we have to read the description not merely as mechanical critics, but as students of moral principles.

The dwelling of Jehovah was composed of an erection formed of two golden chambers covered with beautiful tapestry, and having nails for doors, and this was called the Tabernacle; over this was a covering of spun goats' hair, called the Tent; and over the tent were the skins called the Covering. The habitation, or dwelling, for such is really the meaning of the word rendered "tabernacle," was the immediate place of Jehovah's presence, and this was adorned on every side by the curtains. The tent was intimately connected with the dwelling, almost forming an integral part of it, and was composed of curtains of woven work, no doubt as delicate and beautiful as a cashmere shawl. The covering composed of skins was twofold, the innermost part being made of rams' skins, dyed red, the outermost being made of badgers' skins. The proportions of the habitation and of the tent are given, those of the covering are not stated.