The children of Israel went out of Egypt, journeyed a long distance in the wilderness, and, by God’s provisions in different ways, eventually arrived at the mount of God (Exo. 18:5). On this mountain God first decreed the law, which was instituted according to what He is, as His testimony. Then He charged the children of Israel to make a tabernacle for Him according to the pattern He showed them on the mount (Exo. 25:40). Through this tabernacle they could sacrifice to God; that is, they could worship and serve God.
Before God told the children of Israel to make a tabernacle and an altar for Him, He first declared to them His law (Exo. 20:1-21) as a preparation for them to make a tabernacle and an altar for Him. Without being exposed and enlightened by the law, man could not sense the need for the tabernacle and the altar.
Apparently, the law of God given in Exodus 20 consists merely of some commandments that God wanted man to keep. Actually, it is a portrait, a description, of what God is. God is love and light; God is also holy and righteous. God enacted His law according to what He is. Because He is a God of love, light, holiness, and righteousness, He enacted the law that is of love, light, holiness, and righteousness to correspond with His attributes. Therefore, the law enacted by God is God’s portrait, description, and testimony.
The law of God has a negative function and that is to expose man’s true condition so that man is afraid to draw near to God. Since the law of God is of love, light, holiness, and righteousness, it exposes the sinner’s true condition, which is contrary to God’s attributes, so that man is afraid to draw near to God. Thus, the sinner is aware of his sins and conscious of his need for Christ and His redemption, typified by the tabernacle and the altar.
In Exodus 25 God said to Moses, “And let them make a sanctuary for Me that I may dwell in their midst. According to all that I show you, the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all its utensils, even so you shall make it” (vv. 8-9). On Mount Sinai not only did God’s people receive the law, which revealed what God is and exposed their true condition, but they also received the vision of God’s dwelling place—the tabernacle. This tells us that the desire of God’s heart is to have a dwelling place on earth with His redeemed. This is the goal of God in saving us.
The tabernacle which God charged Moses to build is a type of the incarnated Christ. John 1:14 says, “And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us.” The incarnated Word, Christ, is the tabernacle which God pitched on earth among men.
Through His incarnation Christ put on human nature to be God’s concrete expression in humanity. Colossians 2:9 says, “For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” From the time that Christ became incarnate, clothed with a human body, the fullness of the Godhead began to dwell in a concrete way in Him as the tabernacle. Furthermore, 1 Timothy 3:16 says, “Great is the mystery of godliness: He who was manifested in the flesh.” In the flesh means in the likeness, in the fashion, of man (Rom. 8:3; Phil. 2:7-8). Christ appeared to people in the form of man (2 Cor. 5:16), yet He was God manifested in man—He was the embodiment of God in the flesh. He is a God-man, having two natures, the divine nature and the human nature, with the divine nature existing in the human nature and being expressed through the human nature.
Through His incarnation Christ not only brought divinity into humanity but also became a tabernacle to God as God’s habitation on earth among men. According to the Old Testament history, the tabernacle was God’s dwelling on earth; Christ as the tabernacle is God’s dwelling in humanity.