Excerpt from The Tabernacle of Moses

Why do we study the tabernacle?

Simply because the tabernacle is filled with vital imagery and symbolic language that provides a window into the Everlasting Covenant. It gives us an understanding of how God works in bringing to pass His divine purpose in mankind.

Called the ‘tabernacle of meeting’, this structure is a complete statement regarding fellowship – the fellowship of the Godhead, and the fellowship of God’s people in time and creation.

Purpose of Symbolic Language

There are many ways in which God chooses to communicate the mystery of His divine purpose to us. The language of the symbol is a major one of these. We see it as early as the first chapter of Genesis when God said the sun, moon and stars would be for signs and seasons. Then, immediately after the fall, God slew an animal, using its skin to clothe Adam and Eve. This was the first prophetic picture of Christ’s offering at the cross. The language of the symbol then flows richly through the whole of the Old Testament and into the ministry of Jesus Himself, whose parables are full of symbolic keys.

Why does God use the language of the symbol?

Solomon said, ‘It is the glory of God to conceal a thing but the honour of kings is to search out a matter’. Jesus Himself spoke in parables, and when asked by the disciples why He did so, He responded, "Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. It is clear that God has encoded the mysteries of His divine purpose so that only those to whom they belong will understand them. A mystery, by its very nature, belongs to those who are chosen. How reassuring for us, then, that we have been chosen in Him ‘from the foundation of the world’. Not even the angels understand what God has intended for His church.