A Bible Study prepared and presented for World Day of Prayer 2007 by Pastor Stephen Pietsch. Suitable for small groups or individual study.
Introduction:
- How many of you have done some camping in a tent?
- What is the best thing about it? (maybe it’s an adventure!?)
- What do you least like about it? (discomforts & lack of security?)
- Would you like to do it permanently? Most people say 'definitely not!' We all eventually want to go to our permanent home – to solid walls and a strong roof for more safety, security and reliability.
The Bible is full of tent-talk – in fact you could say that there is a kind of tent-theme threaded throughout the Old and New Testaments. In the next while I’d like to briefly “pull this thread” and see where it leads...
God’s people are tent dwellers:
Let me tell you something: God’s people in this world have always been tent-dwellers, campers.
- Abraham, like many people in the ancient world at that time, was a landless nomad; a wandering Aramean (see Deuteronomy 26:5). When you are nomadic, you cannot build a permanent home, not even a simple one, because you own no….? Land! God called him told him (Genesis 12) that he was giving him a permanent home – land. But he has to travel to get there. In Genesis 18, Abraham is still living in a tent, and indeed Abraham never gets to settle down all that permanently.
- Pulling the thread a bit further….After God rescues Abraham’s descendents, the people of Israel, from slavery in Egypt. Moving through into Exodus, they become ... what? Nomads – travellers, for 40 years in fact – no permanent home, tent dwellers who are on their way to their permanent home – the land ( powerful words in Hebrew that are still precious to Israelis today “Ha Aretz” – the land). Jewish people still celebrate a festival to recall this time in their history – the feast of tabernacles – celebrated in the autumn.
God tents with his people:
God’s people are tent dwellers – so if God wants to be with them, ie. to camp with them (because that is what it means to be God’s people), what does he need? A tent! Now we know that God doesn’t actually need somewhere for himself to roll out his sleeping bag. He does not need any earthly dwelling. But he needs a tent in order to be present with, in the midst of his people – a place where his people can meet him and speak with him. So in Exodus 25:8 God says to Moses “Have the people make a sanctuary for me that I may dwell among them”. God gives Israel instructions for pitching His tent – his tabernacle (literally dwelling). This word is a special word – it is hardly ever used in the Bible to refer to a dwelling for a human being. It is a word that is reserved for God’s dwelling place, his tent.
God’s people are tent dwellers and God wants to be with him, so he makes himself part of their camp – he tents – tabernacles with his people Israel.
But there is a bit of a problem here – God is holy. The people are not holy; at least they cannot remain so. What will happen if God’s holiness comes into contact with a sinful person? Destruction! (“Woe is me” says the prophet Isaiah when he realizes that he is in God’s holy presence – Isaiah 6:5). Sin keeps defiling them and they continually need to be purified and cleansed.
So this is why you have the elaborate and carefully set out instructions for how this tabernacle is to be built; instructions for how sacrifices are to made and how and through whom and when and where the people can approach God’s holy presence.
The old tent is destroyed:
Later on of course, the tabernacle (the tent) is superseded when Solomon builds God a house a real building – a temple in Jerusalem, where God came and was present among his people.
So at last Israel and God too had a permanent dwelling…..you think?
No – it might have been more permanent, but where is that temple today? What happened to it? The Babylonians destroyed it, then another was built and destroyed, and then another (the temple that Jesus and disciples would have visited). And that too was destroyed in AD70. So even the great impressive temple built of stone and cedar is not permanent, but really is also only a kind of tent. It’s gone now. So is there no tent or dwelling for God on earth? Why do you think God allowed his dwelling to be destroyed? Doesn’t he want to be with his people and tabernacle with them anymore?
Jesus – God “tabernacles” in the world:
Well, now we pull the next bit of the thread, we come to the next and most important part of this tent journey through the Bible.
'Isn’t God dwelling with his people anymore?' we ask. The tent Moses built in the wilderness is gone. The Jerusalem temple is gone - destroyed. Where was God’s tabernacle in the world after that? Where is God’s tabernacle in the world today? Where can God’s people meet with God? Where are the priests and sacrifices that can help us get rid of our sin so we can come to God and live with God?
Well? What do you think? (gather some answers)
Key Scripture References:
- John 2:19-22– Jesus is God’s temple in the world and for eternity
- Philippians 2:6-8 – God has humbled himself to take on flesh and blood
- Hebrews 8:1-2– Jesus is the true high priest and sacrifice for all people
God has come to tabernacle with human beings in Jesus – God’s holy presence on earth, God’s tabernacle, God’s temple, God’s priest, God’s once and for all sacrifice for all sin, has come to dwell on earth, not just to save and redeem one nation to be his own, but to save and redeem all people – all people are united under God’s tent, Jesus.
Do you remember how Jesus is speaking one day to his disciples in the courts of the temple and they are saying “what great stones”. And Jesus says “Well, let me tell you, not one stone will be left standing on another” (Mark 13:2). Jesus knew that that temple built with hands was not needed anymore, but the real temple, the real tabernacle of God – his own Body – would not be destroyed – his enemies tried to destroy it, but they couldn’t. Jesus rose from the dead and now lives and rules eternally.
As we read in Ephesians 4:10, Jesus has not only risen to life, but has ascended to the right hand of God, in order that he might fill all of heaven and earth. He has extended God’s holiness and presence and glory, he has spread God’s tent over the whole universe.
God tabernacles with us:
We, like God’s people have always been on earth, are still nomads, travelers, pilgrims. We live in fragile temporary accommodation (in 2 Corinthians 5:1-9 Paul calls our earthly bodies tents that are passing away). This is not our real home, this world. It is not where we will ultimately belong and live forever. So while we are travelling in this world, we need God’s presence with us, and that presence is Jesus, with us through His Spirit, and through his Body and blood in the Eucharist, and through his Word.
One of St Paul’s favourite ways to describe this presence of God is to say we are “In Christ” (eg. Ephesians 2:13) as if we almost physically are in him and so share in his nature and his gifts. To be in Christ is to be taken into the Holy presence of God.
Like Israel out in the wilderness however, we need our sins forgiven, so we can come into the tabernacle of God’s presence. Jesus, who is our high priest, brings us to God, and is also the sacrifice whose blood pays for our salvation. He is the new and living way (Hebrews 10:20) into God’s presence.
This is made very real to us when we receive the forgiveness of sins through Jesus. He welcomes us into God’s holy place, the tabernacle. As we worship and live together we shelter under this tent of God’s forgiveness and gracious protection.
The tabernacle of God is with human beings
The next and last part of the thread we are going to pull is: Revelation 21:2-4
Here St John shares his vision of the heavenly eternal City of God. Here right at the end of the Bible, you have almost the same words as we read back near the beginning, in Exodus 25 – build a tabernacle so that I can be with my people, and here we have “now the dwelling (tabernacle – same word) of God is with men”. And as you read on in this chapter, who do you find is the centre of this city, the temple, the sanctuary? – Jesus, sitting on the throne, the Lamb.
Yes, the tabernacle of God is with human beings. God wants to be with us. He wants to gather us – all people of all nations - together under his one tent, his eternal tent, his heavenly sanctuary, where he wants to welcome his whole creation, through his Son Jesus Christ, who is the true tabernacle of God, God’s glory shining on us and throughout the whole cosmos.