Tabernacle Lectures (4)

When you read Exodus chapters 25-40, it talks about the tabernacle. Chapters 25-35 talk about God telling Moses on the top of the mountain to command the children of Israel to build the tabernacle. And after that, from chapter 36 until the last chapter, the exact same story of the tabernacle is repeated. The tabernacle was made by Bezalel and Aholiab, who were established following the guidance of God, so chapter 40 talks about them setting it up. It is the same story of the tabernacle, but the first time it is talking about the tabernacle that will be made, and the second time it is talking about the tabernacle that has been made.

There is a meaning behind the story of the tabernacle appearing twice with the exact same content. The Israelite people did not need the tabernacle while they were in Egypt. The law came down when they were living in the desert, and it was given so the Israelites could realize their sins. The reason God gave humans the law is not so we keep it well and come out before God. It was given because we realize our sins through the law, so we come out before Jesus Christ’s blood and our sins are washed. If you come to realize your sins through the law, you cannot go out before God in that state of having sin. Because we have to wash our sins, through the tabernacle we can go out before God. Like when there is the law, there has to be the tabernacle, it is showing us that the person who realizes his sin can only go out before God through the blood of Jesus Christ.

When there was no law, no one was afraid of sin and there was no reason to hide from God. But when the law came, it pointed out their sins, but it did not resolve their sins, so people could not go out to God. So they resolved their sins through the tabernacle and came before God.