More than 3,000 years ago, God instructed His people to build a tent where His presence would dwell and heaven and earth would meet together.
Eventually, King Solomon replaced the tent with a permanent temple. Then, the temple was replaced with a non-geographic, portable worship in the Great Commission (Mt. 28:18 20). Nonetheless, reflection on this tent and its contents is a very pleasant thing. It teaches us about God, the world, human beings, Christ, worship, and the church. It’s not always easy to discern the exact meaning of every detail in it, but it is pleasant to think about. As the 17th century Dutch theologian Wilhelmus à Brakel said speaking of the high priest but equally applicable to the tent and the temple:
The entire priesthood, and particularly the high priest, was a glorious type of the Lord Jesus Christ, as the apostle subsequently shows us in his letter to the Hebrews. Furthermore, each particular matter had its specific meaning. However, we do not presume to be an expositor of each particular. We do indeed have our thoughts concerning this subject, and find meditation thereon a sweet work, but as we cannot speak about it with certainty, we shall remain silent, leaving everyone free in his thoughts concerning this. I wish to neither concur nor contradict, since we would not be able to agree with others in all things.
I think Brakel’s caution is helpful, but I believe we can share with each other our ideas that will help each other reflect on the meaning of the tent of God for us today.
To begin with, here is an overview of the structure of the tent with its furniture:
Here are a few suggestions for thinking about this structure:
- The tent is constructed as a picture of the universe. Earth is the outer court. The holy place is the heavens. The holy of holies is the highest heaven, the throne room of God (see the helpful discussion of this in Mitchell Kim and G.K. Beale’s excellent book on the temple, God Dwells Among Us).
- The ark represents God’s throne and law that is over the world. Note that the tablets of the Ten Commandments were in the ark.
- The altar of incense represents the prayers of the people by which they commune with God.
- The bronze altar and basin in the outer court represent the cleansing that sinners need and that God provides in order for them to come into His presence.
- The seven lights on the candlestick represent the seven visible lights in the sky and the light that God gives to the world through His Word.
As you think about the tent of God or the temple, one can conceive of a variety of ways in which the tent points to other realities in God’s revelation beyond the tent itself.
- The tent points to Jesus who is the One in whom heaven and earth meet (John 1:1, 14).
- The tent points to the work of Christ who is our great High Priest (Heb. 2:14 18), where earth and heaven meet in His atoning sacrifice.
- The tent points to the worship of the church because in it heaven and earth meet together (Heb. 12:22 24).
- The tent points to us, for with God’s Spirit dwelling in us, we become a place where heaven and earth meet together.
- The tent points to the new heavens and new earth when heaven and earth are finally and fully united together (Rev. 21:23).
There are innumerable other connections that one can draw. I find that these images help me see aspects of God and His work with us that I would not see as clearly otherwise. The Old Testament represents jewels just below the surface; the New has them on the surface. Both provide riches for our growth in grace and knowledge.