The True Tabernacle

"We do have such a high priest, who sat down at the right
hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven… the true
tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by man" (Heb 8:1,2).

What is meant by "the true tabernacle"?

The word "true" here is the Greek "alethinos". "Alethinos" is derived from "alethes", which is the negative of "lanthos", meaning hidden. Thus "alethes" means, literally, ‘not hidden’, or ‘revealed’. As used in the New Testament, it does not mean ‘true, in contrast to false’, but rather ‘real and complete, in contrast to the imperfect or the pattern’. We might put it this way: first there is a pattern, and then there comes the reality. In each case, God has "written", by one means or another, a pattern, set of instructions, or prophecy, of what would become the most perfect reality only in His Son.

This definition holds true through all the usages of the word in the New Testament. A few examples, from the writings of John:

In contrast to the sun, Jesus is "the true light" that gives light — spiritually — to every man (John 1:9; cf 1John 2:8). Not that the sun was anything like a "false" light, but that — bright and essential as it is — the spiritual "light" of the man Jesus Christ means far more.
In contrast to the manna in the wilderness, Jesus is "the true bread from heaven" (John 6:32). The other manna was real enough, but it was a mere pattern of the "bread of life" which is Christ.
"I am the true vine," Jesus tells his disciples (John 15:1). What the grapevines, and the grapes, and the wine only symbolized, Jesus made real in his life, death and resurrection.

The "true" reality to be found only in Christ — of all aspects of the worship and service of God — is also described elsewhere in Hebrews, even when the same word "alethinos" is not used. In fact, it may be said to be the theme of the Letter:

Paraphrasing Hebrews 9: As long as the first tabernacle (or Temple) — the "earthly sanctuary" — was standing, the way into the Most Holy could not be disclosed, because the regular offerings and sacrifices could not cleanse the conscience of the worshiper. But Christ, when he came, approached the Most Holy through the more perfect tabernacle — his own flesh, in which he shed his own blood! Thus he became the better sacrifice, so as to purify all things in a way that no other sacrifices ever could. Having accomplished this by the one perfect sacrifice of himself, he then entered into the one "true" ("alethinos": v 24) tabernacle, heaven itself, of which the earthly tabernacle was only a pattern.
Next, in Hebrews 10, the writer plainly sees the rending of the curtain, or veil, in the Temple at the time of the crucifixion (Matt 27:51; Mark 15:38; Luke 23:45) as symbolic of the opening of direct access to God’s presence accomplished by Christ’s sacrificial death (Heb 10:19,20). Thus, for our author, although he does not explicitly say so, the tearing of the Christ’s "flesh" in the crucifixion is analogous to the tearing of the curtain in the temple. Through his death Christ opened the way to God’s presence (cp Eph 2:14-18).
Thus Christ became the "great priest" in a way that no Aaronic priest could ever have been, and the only means of truly drawing near to God (Heb 10:21,22).
Moreover, he became THE (only, true) "altar" (Heb 13:10), from which all who serve God may eat.

To summarize, not only is Jesus Christ the "true tabernacle". He is also the only "true priest", for he offered the only "true sacrifice" in the rending of his flesh, which was the only "true veil". Thus he becomes for us the only "true altar".

One greater than the Temple
The true "tabernacle", in which the LORD dwelt most completely, was the man Christ Jesus. The old tabernacle itself — including its servants and services — was a "shadow" and a "pattern" of what is in heaven, i.e., in the mind and purpose of God (Heb 8:5). In fact, the Law itself, in all its particular details, is only "a shadow of the good things that are coming — not the realities themselves" (Heb 10:1).

Several passages point to Jesus Christ as the true "temple", greater than all other "temples" that came before:

Matthew 12: Here Jesus justified himself and his disciples picking and eating ears of grain on the Sabbath by referring to David and his men, when hungry, eating the consecrated bread of the tabernacle (1Sam 21). Then he concluded, "I tell you that one greater than the temple is here" (v 6).
This is not the only time Jesus compares himself to the Temple. When, at the beginning of his ministry, he drives the moneychangers out of the Temple for the first time (John 2), he demonstrates his dedication for his Father's house (v 16). He carries the lesson a significant step further when he says, with seemingly little connection to the context: "Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days" (v 19). When the Jews say that such an idea is absurd, since the Temple had been 46 years in building (and even then was not finished), then the explanation is given (by John, in something like a historical footnote) that "the temple he had spoken of was his own body" (v 21). Now the contextual significance becomes clear: Jesus's zeal for his Father's house would lead, soon enough, to his own arrest, trial, and execution. In bringing this about, his enemies the Jews would in effect destroy "God’s (true) temple", but in the three days it would be erected again — in his resurrection! (The irony is that Herod's Temple, being but a pattern of the true "temple", would be destroyed within a generation of that time, never to be rebuilt again.)
John 1:14: Looking back on such incidents, and by then realizing the full significance of the resurrection and ascension of his Lord, John could write — in the preamble to his Gospel: "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory… the glory as of the only Son from the Father" (NIV, RSV). The power of this verse is in the Greek word translated "made his dwelling"; "skenoo" means literally a tent, tabernacle, or encampment. The RV margin catches this perfectly: the Word made flesh "tabernacled" among us! The LORD God had said to Moses, "Have [the people of Israel] make a sanctuary [‘miqdash’: holy place] for me, and I will dwell among them. Make this tabernacle [‘mishkan’: dwelling place, tent] and all its furnishings exactly like the pattern I will show you" (Exod 25:8,9). What was done in an instructive mode in Exodus was done in the most wonderful reality in the first century: The LORD God pitched a tent, and dwelt among His people, on the earth, in the person of His only-begotten Son.
Colossians 2:9: So is stated plainly what has been illustrated in all the above: "In Christ all the fullness of the Deity [‘Theos’: God] lives in bodily form." Of course, it was in the Tabernacle and the Temple that the fullness of God was supposed to dwell among men.

Christ the living "Temple" of God
Against this background, let us contemplate some scenes from the Gospels, when Christ is in or near the Temple — when, we might say, the Greater Temple (Matt 12:6) is set alongside the Temple of Herod; when the perfect is shown in the setting of the imperfect, the substance alongside the shadow, and the eternal alongside the temporary:

(1) The consecration of the baby: Jesus and the Temple of Herod are seen together for the first time in Luke 2, when Mary and Joseph bring their baby into its precincts to offer the sacrifice of consecration for the child (vv 22,23; cf Exod 13:2, 12) — though all they have is the sacrifice of the poor: "a pair of doves or two young pigeons" (v 24; Lev 12:8).

In our mind’s eye we pause a moment to gaze upon Herod’s temple. It was one of the wonders of the ancient world, awesome and majestic, pure and white and dazzling. Into its beautiful courts comes a little family.

There are crowds on every side; moneychangers and cages of birds; sacrificial animals and rich-robed Sadducees. Here and there little cliques of earnest Pharisees engage in debate. We smell the odor of burning flesh from the altar, and in the background a choir sings holy chants. It is the house of God.

Now we know, however, that there are two houses. God has two houses. The one house is visible and ostentatious, richly decorated, luminous, lovely, and altogether awe-inspiring. The other "house" is a tiny baby. The real "temple of God" is held in his mother’s arms. The "mercy seat" has been fashioned by God out of a woman; that "mercy seat", and not the golden one hidden behind the lavishly decorated curtains in the Most Holy Place, is the place where God Himself will truly meet with man. The baby held by his young mother is to be — all in one — "altar" and "offering" and "priest".

We feel compelled to call upon all the "blind" people going about their business in Herod’s Temple: ‘Stand up and take notice! Then bow down before your king.’

But no, not yet; some years must pass first. Meanwhile Joseph and Mary prepare to offer the sacrifice of the poor before departing, and returning to their humble, obscure home.

(2) The young man Jesus: Further on in the same chapter (Luke 2), but 12 years later, the boy Jesus — practically a young man, and son of the covenant — accompanied his parents to the Temple for the keeping of the Passover.

With his keen mind and spiritual bent he would have already grasped, with a special fascination, the teaching of the passover. Other boys might be infatuated with the account of the plagues, the parting of the Red Sea, or the courage of Moses, and surely Jesus would also be impressed by such things. But it is not hard to imagine the little Son of God being drawn, in deep wonder, to ponder the lamb without blemish, prepared and watched, and then slain without uttering a sound, its blood sprinkled on the doorposts.

The "Lamb of God" who would "take away the sin of the world" was not made in a moment. His character was the work of many years. Slowly, painfully, from that first revelation as a child and a young man, through the years to come, he "learned obedience" in ever more difficult lessons, until at last he was ready for the supreme test.

Did the child of twelve read and contemplate, and did he understand, the words of Isaiah? "Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities… he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth" (53:4-7).

The feast being ended, the pilgrims packed up and left Jerusalem, but the Son of God could not just yet tear himself away from his Father’s house. In the midst of the teeming crowds, Joseph and Mary supposed that Jesus was in the company of some of their "relatives and friends" (Luke 2:44) also returning to Nazareth. When they discovered he was not with their company of travelers, they retraced their steps and found him sitting in the temple, in the midst of the legal scholars, listening carefully and then posing them questions. "When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, ‘Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you’ " (Luke 2:48).

To this mild rebuke, Jesus replied: "Why were you searching for me?... Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?" (v 49). Where else should a son be, except in his Father’s house? These are the first recorded words of Jesus, and they bring into focus the essential purpose of his life. Mary did not fully understand his words. But she kept all these sayings and cherished them in the motherly storehouse of memories. Later... much later... it would all become clear. She would hear his words, spoken from the cross: "It is finished" (John 19:30). His life’s work of dwelling in his Father’s house, and exemplifying everything that that house meant, up to and including his sacrificial death: "It is finished". Then Mary would understand.

(3) The cleansings of the Temple: These cleansings, at the beginning of his ministry (John 2), and at the end (Matt 21:12-14; Mark 11:15-18; Luke 19:45-48), have been considered somewhat above. It seems these were the times when, firstly, Jesus announced the purpose of his ministry, and lastly, he brought his ministry to a conclusion by returning to the same place where he had first announced himself — to offer a final challenge to the entrenched authorities. At the same time, these cleansings emphasized to the people of Israel that, as the Son of God, the Father’s house was by all rights Jesus’s house — with which he would do what was necessary. If it was defiled, he had the authority to cleanse it. If its worshipers failed to heed his warnings, he had the authority to destroy it. And finally, in the culmination of his Father’s purpose, he has the authority to establish it again, to build it up, spiritually and physically, and to dwell in it forever.

(4) Healing and preaching: On these occasions of cleansing, the Lord also healed people, and taught in the precincts of the Temple. Thereby he emphasized that he wasn’t just one more worshiper seeking God’s presence there — but rather that he was God’s representative, and thus God’s presence.

When he performed miracles of healing, it was by the Hand of God, and he was illustrating the true purpose of that shadowy Temple: it was to bring spiritual healing to all who are ill and dying, all who are beset by the infirmities of the flesh and spirit.

And when he taught the people there in the Temple, he was surely teaching them, fundamentally, what the literal Temple was expected to illustrate: God had chosen to dwell among men, and to manifest His character and His purpose to them, and through them. The single man, this most extraordinary man, was His agent, His messenger — worth more than all the gold and all the fine furnishings; worth more than all the money and all the sacrifices; worth more than all the prophets and priests and kings who had come before. In him, the fullness of Divinity "tabernacled" in human form.

(5) Matthew 26: After his arrest, Christ was taken to be "judged" by the Sanhedrin, meeting at the palace of Caiaphas the high priest (vv 57-59), close by the Temple, over which Caiaphas presided. In the midst of this great assembly, Jesus stands out as the true "high priest", and the true "judge". "Tell us," said Caiaphas, "if you are the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God" (v 63). "Yes, it is as you say," Jesus replied. "But I say to all of you: In the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven" (v 64). The one whom they were "judging" was himself the true "judge", and one day — after his return from heaven — he will pronounce judgment on these men... at his palace, next to his temple!

I cannot read this passage without thinking of a little poem, entitled "What shall we do with Jesus?" In our lives, we can all sometimes act as "judges"; we try to make judgments, to decide what’s important in our lives, how we prioritize our time and our activities, and how we live our lives. Probably we do so whilst giving thought to the man Jesus Christ. What emphasis do we put on this man? What emphasis on our Father’s message through him? On our relationship with him? On our relationship with our other family members? On our relationship with our brothers and sisters? When we try, in our own ways, to "judge" how to live with Jesus beside us, what to do with this man Jesus, then we may be sitting alongside Caiaphas and his colleagues. We may also be "judging" Jesus! So we ask: What shall we do with Jesus?

Jesus is standing in Caiaphas’ hall,
Friendless, forsaken, betrayed by all.
Hearken, what meaneth the sudden call:
"What will you do with Jesus?"

Jesus is standing on trial still.
You can be false to him, if you will,
Or you can be faithful through good or ill.
"What will YOU do with Jesus?"

"What will you do with Jesus?"
Neutral you cannot be.
Someday your heart will be asking:
"What will HE do with ME?"

The Temple of the Living God
Finally, we must remember that God’s purpose, brought to fruition in Jesus Christ, was not finished. God is a Creator whose creative work has not ceased since the beginning of the universe. He is working to "create", today, individual believers who will make up His eternal spiritual Temple, of which Jesus Christ is the cornerstone:

"Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, which is in you, which you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body" (1Cor 6:19,20).
"What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: ‘I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people’ " (2Cor 6:16).
"As you come to him, the living Stone — rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him — you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ" (1Pet 2:4,5).

Then comes the end, as we can experience it:

"And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God’… I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp" (Rev 21:3,22,23).

One day, all the threads of our character, and all the experiences of our lives, will be brought together in the pattern our Heavenly Father intended. One day all the individual strands and threads which make up each of our lives will be brought together, and woven and interwoven, into the perfect fabric, a perfect robe. The tapestry will be complete. As the holy garments of Israel’s high priests represented all the nation, and all those for whom he made offerings, so we — though individual beings, with our own lives — will be bound together in one royal robe, and placed upon the shoulders of our Lord. We will be his "crown of rejoicing", his multitudinous bride, his eternal companion, the garment of his glory:

"Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you" (Matt 25:34).

" ‘They will be mine,’ says the Lord, ‘when I make up my treasured posses sion’ " (Mal 3:17).

George Booker, Austin Leander, TX

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