The Tabernacle Part 1 Thursday January 5, 2006

Our Pastor was mentioning that he wanted to expand our church especially on Wednesdays; including teens and kids ministries. The areas to focus more on are:
Fellowship
Family
Community
Consider plugging into this, and it is for every age group. As far as we are concerned, perhaps on occasion we could go to church instead of having the Life Group.


Today Dawn will be sharing about the Tabernacle:
Jesus said, "For where two or three have gathered together in My name,
I am there in their midst." Matthew 18:20

About 10 years ago, Dawn was in Lancaster PA, and there was a life-sized model of the Tabernacle. This really inspired me to study about the Tabernacle. Recently, on Wednesday mornings, four girls come to the school where I work, and they constructed a model of the Tabernacle. Not life size, of course. So we started studying the tabernacle. And thinking about each part of it.

So what do we know about the tabernacle:

--Holy Ground, something holy.
--God's presence
--different sections
--place for washing
--Only priests were allowed inside, in the OT, and they had bells on.
--They tied ropes around the ankles of the priests so they could pull them out if something happened.
--God's dwelling place
--Colors: red blue and purple

The tabernacle had the Israelites camped around in their respective tribes. John 1:14--The tabernacle dwelt (Greek for Tabernacle) among us.
Exodus 25-40; Lev 1-27; Numbers 1-2

Reasons to study the tabernacle

• Place in history
• God's dwelling place Ex 25:8
• Shadow lesson of Christ, His Church, and the individual believer
• Heavenly Architect
• Copy of the Heavenly Sanctuary
• Illustrated the only approach to God
• God's call to intimacy

Names of the Tabernacle

• Tabernacle--tent or dwelling place
• Sanctuary Exodus 25:8 - a holy place, place set apart
• Tent of Testimony or Witness
  
• House of God
• Tent of the Congregation
  

The tabernacle is like a photo album of God. Showing Him in different ways, and His different ministries. Why is blood necessary? Watch the tabernacle and see if you can hear Him calling you. The Lord hears our heart, He wants us to hear His heart. Just like a mother can hear the baby's heart in the womb. (Man looks on the outward appearance...verse?) The Lord is calling us to intimacy, and from that flows all the ministries and the fruit. Isaiah 61:6 God is calling us to be His people, His priests. The tablets of the Law were in the tabernacle. This was also a visualization of the one true God to the unbelievers. The word "tent" is used, not a permanent dwelling place, pilgrims live in tents.

General Outline of Structure

• In the midst Exodus 25:8
• Three parts
• Encampent
• Materials used
• Time to build

The Courtyard

• Fence
• Gate
• Brazen Altar

There is the courtyard, and in the building there are two rooms. The first room, is the Holy Place. And then the Holy of Holies, which the priest visited one day of the year. There is also furniture in the tabernacle.

There were 3 million Israelites walking together in the desert! If they walked 50 abreast, they would be 12 miles long! Yet it was orderly.