The SanctuarySample

As You Were Shown

Life is often best understood not by asking What? or How? but by asking Why?

And so it is with the intricate and complex instructions for building the tabernacle. One of the Why questions could be answered, ‘Because God commanded it’, as in the verse above. But this is not the same as a parent telling a disobedient child – ‘Because I told you!’

And so, over time, the tabernacle, the altar, the sacrifice, and the blood lead to the statement – ‘For without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness [of sin]’ (Hebrews 9:22).

So the Why is more profound than any investigation of form, structure, and function of a ceremonial building and its rituals. It turns out that the answer to Why is in the loving act of the Most High God to restore us to Himself.

If we try to work it out in our human wisdom we completely miss the point. For example, I can only begin to understand the implications and consequences of my sin when I realise that only blood, as per the blood of Jesus Christ in the New Testament, can cleanse it and provide forgiveness.

And so as you continue to read the elaborate design and function of the tabernacle, please say to yourself, ‘Lord, thank you for demonstrating the care to which you go to reveal your plans, provisions, and purposes to Israel, that through them we might know and find you too’.

Written by JOHN SCOTT

Want more? Check out the Real Hope Conversations Podcast and delve deeper into the topic of Exodus 23-27. Available wherever you listen to podcasts.