It symbolized God's presence with his chosen people. When the command was given to Moses to build a sanctuary, the Lord said, "Let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them" (Ex. 25:8). "And I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will be their God" (Ex. 29:45). This, then, was one main purpose of the tabernacle, and its chief aim, – to represent the sublime truth which is so often insisted on in other scripture, namely, that God actually does so draw near his people that it may be truthfully said he dwells with them, and makes his home among them. The language of the New Testament is just as explicit. In 2 Corinthians 6:16 the Spirit of God thus testifies: "For ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people."

Another design of the tabernacle was to show how completely God identified himself with his chosen flock. He dwelt among them, making a tent his abode, himself a Pilgrim and Wayfarer as they. If there were obstructions to be encountered, if hardships were to be borne, if enemies to be met, he would share in every trouble and every danger. "In all their afflictions he was afflicted." His iden­tity with them was so close that assaults against them he resented as aimed against himself, as we see in the instances of Amalek and Balaam. He might have serious dealings with his people on account of their follies and sins, as we know he often had. But this was discipline in his own family – the authority he wielded and the obedience he required in his own house. These were matters to be adjusted between himself and those whom he had brought into covenant relation with him. He would not permit a stranger to intermeddle there­with.

It was in virtue of God's presence in the taber­nacle that holiness was so repeatedly enjoined upon Israel, and all impurity and uncleanness so strictly forbidden (Num. 5:3, etc.). It was his dwelling among them that made them what they were – a peculiar people, a separate and holy people, God's own possession and portion. All this was a historical reality in Israel. Nevertheless, it was a type of something better and more glorious – for the church now, and for the redeemed in glory. God now identifies himself with his children in an even more intimate way than in the tabernacle. He once dwelt among his people; now he dwells in them.

But this type looks forward to a still more majestic realization. It will find its last and most complete fulfilment when the eternal City of God shall descend out of heaven and glorify the redeemed earth with its effulgent light, its unapproachable splendour; when it shall at length be proclaimed, "The tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God" (Rev. 21 :3) .

It was a remarkable illustration of God's method of bringing sinners to himself. "Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; and having an High Priest over the house of God; let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith" (Heb. 10:19-22). Three great truths are embraced in this passage: First, an accepted sacrifice, by which the sins of all believers are expiated and put away. Second, an opened sanctuary. Christians are now admitted into the very presence of God, and stand before him accepted in the same measure as the blessed Re­deemer himself. Third, a glorious Intercessor, whose plea for his people never fails, because based on his own finished work. But now it must be apparent to all readers of the Epistle to the Hebrews, that the inspired writer is here, as in so many other places, drawing his imagery from the rites observed at the tabernacle, and clothing his thoughts in the priestly and sacrificial language of the sanctuary of the wilderness. Just as an Israelite could approach God only by means of blood, so Christians now come to God through the blood of Christ, who is both the Sacrifice and the Priest. Access to God beyond the veil in the olden time was only through the blood of atonement. Access to God now in heaven is not otherwise. It is, it can only be, by means of the Great High Priest who offered himself without spot unto God. For a thousand years and more God taught his people by a mighty object-lesson that salvation comes alone through propitiation for sins. The tabernacle was a parable and a picture, graphic and vivid, of God's way of saving the lost.

God's forgiving mercy and saving grace could reach the lost only through an adequate atonement. His justice and law must be vindicated, his wrath appeased, and every charge against the guilty must be cancelled in righteousness, before he could pardon and save. This was the supreme necessity. And Christ met fully and forever the tremendous necessity. By his own blood he entered into the holy place and settled the question of sin for believers before the face of God. Our Great Priest satisfied God perfectly about sin, and obtained eternal, redemption for us. By him we now come to God, and have the right and privilege to come. By him we have the same measure of acceptance with the Father, and the same standing, as Jesus himself. The new and living way to God is now opened to all who will draw near.

It was a prophecy of Christ's incarnation. In John 1:14 we read "And the Word was made flesh (became flesh), and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth." The Son of God assumed human nature – took unto himself a "true body and reasonable soul." He did not cease to be the Word, the Son of God, when he became man. For John immediately adds that he dwelt among us – he, the eternal Word. Literally, it is, "He tabernacles with us." The use of this picturesque term points to the tabernacle and the presence of the Lord in its most holy place. This is confirmed by the words following – "and we beheld (contemplated) his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father." When the tabernacle was completed and set up according to the divine directions, we are told that the glory of the Lord filled it (Ex. 40:43). Thus John connects the incarnation and personal presence of the Son among men with the earlier presence of the Lord with his people in the wilder­ness. He there dwelt with them, and walked among them. But now he is come to take up his permanent abode with men by "wedding himself forever to their flesh." This word "tabernacled" is peculiar to John, and denotes a permanent stay, an everlasting abode. Besides, it should be remembered that Jesus identified his own body with the "temple" (John 2:19). Thus the building of a house for the Lord, and his visible occupancy of it, prefigured the time when he would identify himself with his people in a far more intimate and glorious way – that he would in grace and truth take up his abode with them, becoming one with them in human nature, and so fulfill the mighty prediction of his servant Isaiah, "Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel (With us God)" (Isa. 7:14).

There is a sort of progress in the manifestation of God to his people: first, his presence in the tabernacle; second, the incarnation of Christ; third, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in believers; fourth, the descent of the New Jerusalem into the glorified earth.