The Tabernacle: The Dwelling Place of God with Man

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Text: Exodus 26:26-28, Exodus 36:31-34

Intro: There were fifteen bars of wood covered with gold. Five were on each side of the Tabernacle and at the back and 5 were for the back or western end. The top and bottom bars were held in place by rings. The middle bar passed through the boards.

Two short bars above and below the middle bar the length of the The Holy Place. The other two short bars extended above and below the middle bar the length of The Most Holy Place.

All of this was according to the pattern and commandant of God and given to Moses on the Mount.

Read: Exodus 26:30

Exodus 26:30 KJV 1900
And thou shalt rear up the tabernacle according to the fashion thereof which was shewed thee in the mount.

The long bars (middle bars) went from one end to the other on both sides and from end to end in the back.

They were there and represented, the beginning and ending of the Tabernacle as the revelation of God among men.

And so, they are a symbol of our Lord Jesus Christ as the beginning and the ending of God’s revelation of Himself to man.

Read: Revelation 1:8

Revelation 1:8 KJV 1900
I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.

Who is claiming to be Alpha and Omega? Our Lord Jesus Christ!

We know this because of what Rev. 1:9-19 tells us.

The Alpha and Omega, is the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. It was used to introduce and emphasize the phrase “the beginning and the ending” as well as “the first and last”. He it is who speaks and calls Himself, “the beginning and the ending, the Almighty!

Modern versions remove the first portion of vs. 11 “which said: Write on a scroll...” NIV

ESV: saying, “Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches...”

They do this because this is very clearly Jesus saying I am Alpha and Omega... They create division between 1:8 and 1:11 as if it is two different people. One being God, and one being a god.

Rabbit trail...

Let’s go to the beginning for a moment...

The very first verse of revelation Gen. 1:1, The Lord God, introduces Himself to us as God. This is the Hebrew name, Elohim, and it declares the very plurality of God!

Vs. 20 and the verses that follow we find the expression “God said”.

To say something intelligent requires not only a voice but a word… In chapter 3 that voice is heard and the One speaking is described as the LORD God.

In vs. 22 The Lord God speaks and says; “…the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil...”

In speaking the Lord God declares Himself in partnership with another person(s) that is equal to Himself!

The key to understanding the plurality found here is simply found in the absolute name of God (Elohim) The name is the plural name meaning more than one person in the being of God.

Since the Lord is the speaker of the Elohim, the only speaker, He is authoritatively and officially, the utterance of the Elohim and therefore He is the very Word of God.

John’s Gospel begins with;

Read: John 1:1-3

John 1:1 KJV 1900
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John 1:2–3 KJV 1900
The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
In Genesis “In the beginning God created...” and then we learn from John’s Gospel that God the Creator was the Word of God, and in Genesis the Word of God is the Lord God, then the Lord God of Genesis and the Word of God in Johns Gospel are One and the Same...

Gen. 1:26 “Let us make man;” in the second chapter the person who “makes” man is declared the Lord God creator of all things. Gen. 2:4 “…in the day the LORD God made the earth and the heavens.” He is the speaker and very Word of God.

John’s Gospel explains that, that Word was made flesh, became incarnate as our Lord Jesus Christ. Since the LORD God was the Word of God, then our Lord Jesus Christ in His pre-existent state was the LORD God, and since the LORD God is the utterance of the Godhead (Elohim), the beginning of the revelation concerning Himself, His mind, and will, our Lord Jesus Christ is Himself that beginning.

Read: John 1:18

John 1:18 KJV 1900
No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.

Being the LORD God of the Old Testament He is therefore the Alpha and Omega, The First, The Beginning of the revelation of God.

All we know of God as set forth in the Old Testament has come through Him.

All manifestation of Him from eternity as recorded in the Old Testament has been by and through our Lord Jesus Christ in His pre-existent state as it is written: Read Micah 5:2

Micah 5:2 KJV 1900
But thou, Beth-lehem Ephratah, Though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, Yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; Whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.

He is the very manifestation and expression of Almighty God!

From all eternity He has been the visibility of God;

As it is written: Phil. 2:6-7

Philippians 2:6–7 KJV 1900
Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:

If the form He took upon Himself (a servant) made Him visible as a servant, then the form He had of God before He veiled it with flesh represents His visibility as God.

At no time has God been seen apart from Him, and never can He be.

If Alpha represents Him being the beginning of the revelation of God, then Omega represents Him being the ending of that revelation. The completion...

Therefore, God is to be seen and known in this world through the humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The God Who became man.

The man Who is God.

The eternal God-man

All there is of God is in Him; as it is written:

Colossians 2:9

He is the beginning and the ending, He is the in-between, He is the circumference, He is the center, and He is every extension thereof.

The long bars of the Tabernacle held it together.

We could say it this way, the Tabernacle consisted in the long bars. Without them it would have fallen apart.

In this the long bar is the symbol of our Lord; for it is written: Read Colossians 1:17

Colossians 1:17 KJV 1900
And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
Consist - meaning put together, permanently framed together.

How wonderful, all things… Have been made, put together, permanently framed, and held together in Christ.

The universe is held together by Him.

Because Christ is, all things are; and because of Christ, all things continue to be.

It is not the law of gravity that holds all things together, but the man, Christ Jesus, our Lord!

Two words of focus for us today:

“In Him”

Read:

John 1:4, 2 Corinthians 5:21, Colossians 2:10, Colossians 2:9.

John 1:4 KJV 1900
In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
Ephesians 3:11 KJV 1900
According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord:
In Him is the purpose from the beginning...
2 Corinthians 5:21 KJV 1900
For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
In Him, we who believe, are complete!
Colossians 2:10 KJV 1900
And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:
Think of that!!!
Colossians 2:9 KJV 1900
For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
All there is of God is in Him!
And we who believe in Him are complete in Him, filled up in him. So full that in God the Father’s sight we lack nothing! In Christ we are perfect!

The binding and holding together of the Tabernacle by the bars in emphasized in the two corner boards. Imagine that… Read: Exodus 26:23-24

Exodus 26:23–24 KJV 1900
And two boards shalt thou make for the corners of the tabernacle in the two sides. And they shall be coupled together beneath, and they shall be coupled together above the head of it unto one ring: thus shall it be for them both; they shall be for the two corners.

These boards were like a long V, they met the bars and with them held the Tabernacle together. Again a declaration that “in him all things consist.” (absolute connection between His eternality, His humanity and His deity.)

In number there were “three” long bars.

There were twelve short bars in total, six above and six below the middle bar.

The six above with the middle bar made seven.

The six below with the middle bar made seven.

Seven is the number of completion.

We see this illustration: All things in Heaven and here on earth are to be headed up in Him as the Risen Man, as the Eternally Incarnate Son of God. As it is written: Read Ephesians 1:10

Ephesians 1:10 KJV 1900
That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:

The time is coming, that hour called “the fulness of times” the age in which all time, and seasons flow. The time where all things will be headed up in Him; when He will be seen as the Lord God to the glory of the Father, confessed by a prostrate universe as the Only Begotten Son of God, King of Kings, Lord of lords, eternal Head of all things, the eternal visibility of God, and eternally visible as man!

Science today is motivated by man’s desire to be head of all things. (Like the first man Adam.) Any scheme to rebuild this world, or the exalting of man’s natural humanity will fail.

In this scheme, the world looks to Adam, but it is not on fallen Adam that we are to look...

It is in the one that was “made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death” the One now crowned with honour, seated at the right hand of God the Father, the glory of the Father, the Lord Jesus Christ. The One in which all things are under His feet.

He it is to whom we are to look!

It is He in whom humanity is to find all fulfillment of hope! It is by and through Him the world is to be delivered, lifted up, and eternal life given to all those who are “In Him.”.

All things were bound up and secured in the long bars of the Tabernacle.

All things that are to be permanent and glorious are secured in Christ.

He is the beginning and the ending!

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