Tabernacle

Simply Put

Ligonier Ministries

Religion & Spirituality, Christianity

5 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 3 June 2025

⏱️ 5 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Why does the Old Testament contain exacting instructions for building a meeting place with God? Should we follow these assembly instructions today so that God may dwell with us? Today, Barry Cooper explains the role of the tabernacle and the One who has fulfilled it.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	I just moved house and as you'd expect there's been a certain amount of hammering,
0:04.3	screwdrivering and also puzzling over the instructions for Swedish flatback furniture.
0:09.8	People are sometimes surprised when you tell them that the Bible contains instructions for assembly too,
0:14.9	but sure enough, there they are.
0:17.6	In the Old Testament, in the Book of Exodus, we have painstaking instructions given
0:22.4	by God to his people so that they could construct the tabernacle. The tabernacle was a portable
0:29.9	palace for the God of Israel, a place in which God could dwell among his people as they
0:35.4	travelled towards Canaan, the promised land.
0:38.5	Later, once God's people reached Canaan, a permanent version of the tabernacle was built,
0:43.8	the temple. The tabernacle was effectively a large and elaborate tent, 45 feet long,
0:51.1	15 feet wide and 15 feet high. The frame of it was made of wood overlaid with gold.
0:58.9	It had no solid roof or front wall, but instead was covered at those points by four layers of
1:05.2	cloth and animal skin. Inside it there were two rooms. The larger room, 30 feet by 15 feet by 15 feet, was known as the Holy Place. It contained an altar on which incense was burned, a golden lambstand and a wooden table overlaid with gold for the bread of the presents. Twelve loaves intended to remind the twelve tribes of Israel
1:29.9	of God's covenant with them and his provision for them. This was, after all, the God who had
1:34.9	sustained them with bread from heaven as they made their way through the wilderness. Further inside
1:41.6	the tabernacle, separated off by an elaborate and heavy curtain, there was the smaller of the two rooms, a perfect cube, 15 feet by 15 feet by 15 feet.
1:54.7	Called the Most Holy Place, this room contained the Ark of the Covenant, a wooden chest overlaid with gold, containing
2:03.6	the stone tablets on which God had written his law. The appearance of the Ark was like a throne,
2:09.6	or more specifically like the footstool of a throne. The tabernacle then was the earthly meeting place
2:16.6	where God stooped to meet with his people.
2:20.5	As the Lord says in the book of Isaiah, heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool.
2:27.6	But God not only gave extremely exacting instructions for building the tabernacle,
	...

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