The Tabernacle: Lesson 3

Overview

God Dwelling in the Midst of His People

The tabernacle was set within a large outer court—roughly 75 by 150 feet—with the twelve tribes of Israel encamped around it on all four sides. Daily life for Israel was, quite literally, oriented around the dwelling place of God. Notably, Judah camped on the eastern side, the direction Scripture associates with promise; from Judah would come the promised Messiah. The arrangement preached a sermon by its very geography: the Lord was at the center, and every household lived in relationship to His presence.

The Altar of Burnt Offering

Just inside the entrance stood the bronze altar, where sacrifices were made. Leviticus 1 and Leviticus 2 describe several kinds of offerings: the burnt offering symbolized whole-self surrender to God; the grain offering, made of fine flour with oil and frankincense (no leaven), expressed thankfulness; the peace or fellowship offering pictured communion with God through shed blood, with worshipers, priests, and guests sharing a meal together. The sin and guilt offerings required animal sacrifice—and the animal had to be unblemished, the costliness of the offering scaled to one's means, but the requirement of an offering universal. As Leviticus 17:11 declares, "the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you for making atonement for your lives." Before anyone could draw near to God, atonement had to be made.

A Shadow Fulfilled in Christ

The repetition of these sacrifices, year after year, was itself a sermon: sin keeps coming, and animal blood cannot finally take it away. Hebrews 10:1–10 tells us the law was "only a shadow of the good things to come." The bulls and goats, however unblemished, did not share our flesh. The true and final sacrifice had to be one of us—fully God and fully man, sinless, willingly given. Christ said, "See, I have come to do your will, O God." His was a once-for-all sacrifice, never to be repeated, fully accepted by the Father, as the empty tomb confirms.

Cleansed to Draw Near

Between the altar and the tent stood the bronze laver. Exodus 30:17–21 commands that the priests wash before entering the tent of meeting, "so that they may not die." The unclean cannot stand in the presence of the holy God. Even after sacrifice, cleansing was required to draw near. For us, that cleansing comes through Christ Himself. In John 15:3 Jesus tells His disciples, "You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you." And 1 John 1:7–9 promises, "the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin… If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." We do not sacrifice again; we repent, and we trust the Word that declares us forgiven. When we come to the foot of the cross and to the Lord's Table, we come cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ—drawn near, by His mercy, into the presence of the God who dwells with His people.

Transcript

Thank you so much. 3s

We thank you for your word. 5s

We thank you for the blessings that you continue to pour out on us every single day. 7s

We wake never knowing what the day will hold, but we know that the day is in your hand, 13s

and that your will is perfect, your will is good, and that you carry us in your perfect will every single day. 19s

Lord, we ask that you would use this time of study to lead us, that we would understand your dwelling, 26s

your dwelling in the garden, your dwelling in the in-between time, and your dwelling with us in the eternal forever. 36s

Lord, we thank you and we praise you, and we ask that you would continue to lead us today and always in the name of Jesus Christ. 45s

Amen. 52s

Okay, so today we are going to dig into the temple, and I wish I could build the temple for you, but I cannot. 53s

And the amazing thing is that the temple, or the tabernacle, sorry, is actually quite large. 65s

So we're going to have fun, and we're going to draw. 70s

I hope this... 76s

Okay, and it's lengthwise. 77s

How do I explain this? 83s

So lengthwise, you can see here, and I'm going to draw. 85s

So you don't have... 88s

This is not the visual we're going to use all class. 89s

But you can see that north, the long side is north, so we're going to turn it. 93s

So north is actually going to be over here, which is going to probably bug some of us, but sorry. 99s

Okay, this is not good. 109s

My pen does not work, and I'm really relying on the pen today. 111s

Is there another one? 116s

Yes, very cool. 118s

Does anyone have a marker? 120s

Do you just have a marker? 122s

Oh my gosh! 123s

This is amazing. 124s

Of course she is like the hero of the day. 125s

I don't know if this is from mom's instincts, or grandmother instincts, or just amazing instincts. 132s

Okay, okay. 140s

So we have north, south, east, and west. 142s

So at some point we may turn it, but right now this is how it is. 147s

Okay, so the tabernacle... 152s

Oh, I probably drew this too big, but that's okay. 158s

Alright, this is the outer court. 160s

There is an outer court in which the tabernacle is. 165s

And along the outer court there was linen and poles, and it looked kind of like a fence, 172s

but it was not chain link, and it was really, really long. 179s

So this was approximately 150 feet. 184s

I'm saying approximately because that's how the qubit conversion, the qubit to foot conversion goes. 188s

So we're going to do, it's about 150 feet long, and then 75 feet wide. 196s

Or actually 75 feet long and 150 feet wide. 203s

So we've got this big, big outer court, and all of the tabernacle happenings happen inside this. 206s

And then around this outer court we have all of the tribes of Israel. 214s

How many tribes are there? 12. 221s

Oh, good. 223s

Okay, 12 tribes. 224s

So we've got to the north. 226s

We have the tribe of Nephtali. 228s

Wait, Neph? 234s

Oh gosh. 236s

Okay, we're going to pretend that spelled right. 237s

We have the tribe of Asher. 238s

We have the tribe of Dan. 242s

And they have the count. 247s

We get the count of how many men in each tribe are counted. 250s

So in the tribe of Naftele, there are 53,400 men. 255s

So this grouping, they would be in their tents, they would be in their mobile home units, 259s

and then Asher Dan. 266s

And there are tens of thousands in each of these groupings, each of these tribes. 268s

Then we have down here, we have, oh, so Dan is there. 275s

We have the tribe of Issaqar. 283s

Two S's. 288s

Oh, my goodness. 290s

The tribe of Judah. 291s

And the tribe of Zebulin. 295s

Now, what I find interesting is that the tribe of Judah is at the eastern edge. 302s

And in Scripture, we know that looking toward the east or going toward the east is going toward the promise. 309s

So it's very interesting that Judah is at the east because out of Judah comes Jesus, out of Judah, 321s

comes the promised Messiah. 329s

And so the promise is to the east, is in Judah. 332s

So then we have three tribes over here. 337s

And much like my map of Israel in the spring, this is also not to scale. 343s

So then we have the tribe of Rubin. 350s

We have the tribe of Simeon. 355s

And we have the tribe of Gad. 358s

And then to the west, we have the tribe of Benjamin. 361s

And then Manasseh. 372s

And then Ephraim. 376s

Okay. 380s

So we have all the 12 tribes that are around this huge outer court. 381s

And so they do their daily living, but it is all centered around God being in their midst. 387s

And every tribe surrounds where God dwells. 399s

So then we have the, so what's happening in the outer court is you've got an altar. 406s

It's a bronze altar. 419s

Hold on, I want to make sure I get this. 420s

Yes. 422s

Okay. 423s

So the bronze altar is right here. 424s

And this is where sacrifices happen. 430s

So we're going to put a pause on our drawing. 434s

It's really bad, sorry. 437s

We're going to put a pause on our drawing. 440s

This is the altar of the burnt offerings. 442s

The altar of the burnt offerings. 445s

And so we're going to talk about some of the offerings or the offerings. 448s

And then we're going to focus in a little bit more on a particular offering. 453s

So, so the various offerings, there are, there are burnt offerings which is, we're given the order and, and what these offerings are to be and how they're to be given. 460s

In Leviticus, in numbers, we have a lot of details. 477s

Just like in Exodus, how we have a lot of details on the actual tabernacle, the building, the items within. 481s

We get a lot of details on the offerings. 489s

So, so we read about the burnt offering in Leviticus 1. 492s

Let's go ahead and go to Leviticus. 496s

So, this is right after the book of Exodus or the, yeah, the book of Exodus. 499s

So, it's the third book in the Pentateuch, the third book in the Bible. 508s

Those first five books, the Pentateuch are the, the, the five books of Moses. 513s

So, it's, it's in Leviticus and we get a lot of the law and a lot of the explanation in the law in Leviticus and in numbers. 519s

So, the burnt offering that would happen on this altar, that is, that is a complete dedication and a complete surrender to God. 527s

When offerings are made and they are burnt, it is giving of your whole self to God on that. 539s

There are various types of offerings. 547s

There are animal, grain and fellowship offerings and we're going to break these down a little bit more here. 552s

But the whole purpose of the sacrifice is, is to, to give, to offer your self to offer what you have. 560s

So, we're going to, we're going to look at the grain offering. 572s

If we go to Leviticus 2, so just turn the page. 576s

So, so the grain offering, it's of choice, flower, the worship or poise, pours oil on it, puts, puts frankincense on it, brings it to the priests. 586s

It's, it's burned and it's offered to the Lord as a pleasing odor. 600s

What's offered or what's left over of these offerings then, the priests are given to feed them. It's, it's for them. 606s

So, you are not to have any leaven, so no rising agent. 616s

So, even within the offerings, there are a lot of, a lot of rules. 623s

The offering of grain was given to God in thankfulness, fine flower, unleavened cakes, roasted grains to the priests, the priests would burn, a handful, and then could eat the rest. 630s

And there wasn't a lot of ceremony involved in this, but it was an offering. 644s

And it was, again, not giving the scraps, but giving what they had that was fine, that was good. 652s

Then we have the peace offering or the fellowship offering, and that symbolized fellowship and peace with God through shed blood. 659s

After some meat was ceremonially waived and given to the priests, worshipers, and their guests could share in the feast as a meal with God. 669s

So, this had a little more ceremony to it. It was, it was the fellowship that they were coming together. 678s

They had some ceremony to it, but, but really it was to have that fellowship with other Israelites and with God. 686s

So, the one that I want to focus a little bit more on here is the sin offering and the guilt offering, the animal sacrifice, which when we read about the animal sacrifices, I can only imagine the scene. 695s

It's brutal. It is brutal. And I say that because this is pointing us toward the ultimate sacrifice that took place, and we're going to get to that, of course. 719s

So, if we open up to Leviticus 17 verse 11, we read, 731s

for the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you for making atonement for your lives on the altar. For as life, it is the blood that makes atonement. 746s

So, we have it set in God's law that it is blood that makes atonement for sins. 759s

The animal sacrifice was absolutely necessary to atonement for the Israelites sins, and just like everything else, just like the grain offering had to be the finest flower or the unleavened cakes, the animal that was sacrificed had to be unblemished, had to be perfect. 769s

An animal sacrifices were made over and over and over again. Animal sacrifices, the sin offerings, the guilt offerings, those were all for paying the price of sin, the sins that are against God. 795s

And so, they're entering into God's dwelling, into this space, and before, and we're going to get to where he dwells, but in the outer court, before they can get any mirror, they have to make atonement, they have to make a sacrifice, they have to try to make it right between them and God. 816s

Various animals were offered, depending on the person's position and income, priests as leaders, and who were examples to others, had to offer larger sacrifices for sin, while the poor could offer what they had. 839s

And it was interesting I was having a conversation with someone in the extended North Ex after service, and a question came up about the sacrifices in Psalm 51, where David says, burnt sacrifices, you don't want, it's a broken and a contrite heart, that is the sacrifice. 857s

So the burnt offerings, the burnt sacrifices, they were continual, they never could stop giving and giving, within the rule of perfection as well. 877s

And it's interesting that it was according what you could give, was what, according to your status. 892s

So if you could not afford a goat, but you could afford a couple of pigeons, then you are going to give a couple of pigeons. 900s

But there was not a question of needing to offer the sacrifice. There was no question that everyone had to bring a sacrifice. 910s

Blood was sprinkled on the altar, the parts of the animals were burned, often with wine poured on them, which was a drink offering, and then other parts were roasted for the priests, since the priests were full-time tabernacle workers, sacrificed animals were their main source of food. 922s

So they sacrificed the animal, they are burning it, but they take the blood, and they are sprinkling it everywhere. 944s

You really think about this, and think about cooking, and you may cut a roast or something, and just the juices, and you kind of go, oh my gosh, I have to wash my hands, and wash my hands, and you clean out the meat. 955s

You just pop, and you sanitize, and this is, it is, psh, psh, psh, psh, just everywhere. 971s

But they had to a tone for their sins. I am glad we are not in that day and age. 978s

Yes, so, so the animal had to be perfect, sacrifices were made on a regular basis. 989s

this. What does this point to? I want us to open up to the book of Hebrews, which is 997s

in the New Testament. It is after the Gospels, after all of Paul's letters, it's the very 1003s

first book. So you go through all the the T books, Philemon, and then you get to Hebrews. 1009s

And we're going to Hebrews 10, Hebrews 10, beginning in verse 1. Since the law has only a shadow 1015s

of the good things to come and not the true form of these realities, it can never by the same 1032s

sacrifices that are continually offered year after year make perfect those who approach. So the law, 1040s

the law of sacrifice, the law of the sprinkling of the blood, the law of the grain offering, the law 1048s

that they had to do this to a tone for their sins, it was a shadow of what was to come. And it says, 1055s

as we just read that it had to be done over and over because people sin over and over. And so with the 1066s

nature of sin, the atonement, the sacrifices had to be made time and time again. We continue. Otherwise, 1078s

this is in verse 2. Otherwise, would they not have ceased being offered since the worshippers cleansed 1090s

once for all would no longer have any consciousness of sin. So if we don't continue to make these 1096s

sacrifices, we'll forget that we're sinners. And then what happens? Then the people, the Israelites, 1103s

all these tribes, if they stop sacrificing, they forget that they're sinners. They are no different 1110s

than us. We forget that we're sinners or we try to forget that we are sinners. And so they had to 1118s

continue making those sacrifices so they would remember that they needed to sacrifice. They needed to 1128s

atone or have atonement of their sin in the presence of God. Verse 3. But in these sacrifices, there is a 1137s

reminder of sin year after year for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. It 1145s

doesn't work. The blood of the animal, it was given to the Israelites for a reason. They needed to 1153s

remember who God was and who they were. But the blood ultimately did not make atonement for their sins. 1163s

Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, Sacrifices and offerings you have not 1171s

desired, but a body you have prepared for me. In burnt offerings and sin offerings, you have taken 1177s

no pleasure. Then I said, see God, I have come to do your will, O God, in the scroll of the book, 1185s

is it is written of me. When he said above, you have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices 1193s

and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings, these are offered according to the law. 1199s

Then he added, see, I have come to do your will. He abolishes the first in order to establish 1206s

the second. And it is by God's will that we have been sanctified through the offering of the 1213s

the burnt offering, the sacrifice needed a perfect, unblemished atonement. 1230s

The bulls, the goats, the rams, the pigeons, even unblemished, they did not share our flesh. 1242s

They did not share our blood. The perfect sacrifice had to be one of us. 1253s

You may recall, the sacrifices to remind the people of their sin, there was no one perfect 1264s

who could be the perfect sacrifice. So Christ, second person of the Trinity, fully God was fully man. 1275s

And he was unblemished. He lived perfectly. So that when the sacrifice of Christ was made, 1290s

which he says, I come to do your will. I come to do the will of God. It is his own will. 1298s

As the second person in the Trinity, to give of himself his perfection to be the sacrifice. All 1309s

of the previous sacrifices they were made, they were needed to be made. But when Christ gave 1321s

himself, it was the final and the only sacrifice needed and recognized by God because it was the flesh 1327s

of our flesh, unblemished, perfect, given once for all. And I think it's really important to 1341s

highlight that his sacrifice was once for all. There are some Christian denominations that believe 1352s

that when communion is being given, that it is a re-sacrifice of Christ, that he is being re-sacrificed 1361s

upon the altar. He's already done that for us. He's been there. He did that. He was triumphant 1372s

over it. And so it is one sacrifice for all. So then moving on, we have the altar, then we have 1381s

the bronze labor. And this is a basin of some sort. It's a basin that after the sacrifice, 1399s

the priest would fully take over. So people would bring their sacrifices and the priest would be 1412s

working with the people to make a tonement. And then the priest fully takes over. And he would 1418s

come to this basin to wash himself. He would use the labor to wash. Let's go back to Exodus 30. 1424s

So we're going back to the second book in the Bible. Yes. 1438s

The Jewish people, like of these people? I don't think that they would know what was to come 1450s

necessarily. This is not me saying that I have this for sure in scripture. This is just me 1458s

kind of thinking it through. So because this was a law that was given to them and this was 1464s

something that they had to do. And we know that these first generation, they were not super loyal 1474s

to God. And they didn't get to go to the promised land because they were so stiff next. So 1483s

as the generations die out and these tribes continue to get filled and they keep wandering and moving. 1489s

And the tribes are kind of turning over to the newer generations. They would still see this as 1497s

laws, what they had to do. And I think that we have some, I mean you think about like King David, 1504s

he knows we see that he has faith in the promised Messiah, but we don't know to what extent he fully 1513s

knows of who or what that is. And so the Jewish people do not sacrifice still. The temple was destroyed. 1524s

And there's a big search for the perfect red heifer, which I don't know, you see news stories 1536s

every once in a while about that. But yeah, I don't think they do. Although with the kosher laws, 1547s

I will say they still do butchering kosher. My uncle, this is totally not in my notes, so forgive me. 1558s

My uncle talks about being in Boy Scouts when he was six and they went to a butchering place like 1568s

the feedlot. And they went, I don't know what Boy Scout leader thought this would be a good field 1575s

trip, but they went. And they saw the Gentile cows being killed. And then they saw an 1584s

a rabbi would come. And it's just terrible. But the cow was placed in a certain position and 1595s

and you know, cut and the blood was drained. And so that kosher law to a certain extent is still 1605s

happening, but they didn't continue with a sacrifice then. It was or like the burnt offering. It was 1612s

yeah. There is a reason. I say this a lot. There's a reason I'm not in medicine. There's a reason 1621s

I'm not a butcher. I don't do that. Okay. In Christ time, they were still doing sacrifices. Yes, 1628s

yes. Because the temple was still there. So this is the the mobile tabernacle. But then when the 1638s

temple is built, they had, they still had and we're going to get to the holy of holies, they had 1646s

that within the temple. So they were still doing sacrifices. The money changers were selling 1652s

sacrificial animals. And so yes, that was still happening. Modern day Jews do not 1660s

still do this. Where were we? Oh, yes. Exodus 30. So we're talking about being clean. Okay, 1668s

so Exodus 30. Oh, I'm not even there. Are you all there? Awesome. Okay, then we're going to keep 1680s

on going. Exodus 30 beginning in verse 17, the bronze basin, the labor, the Lord spoke to Moses, 1687s

you shall make a bronze basin with a bronze stand for washing. You shall put it between the tent 1695s

of meeting and the altar. Notice the cleansing happens. The sacrifices made, the cleansing happens, 1699s

then we don't have this part in our picture yet, but then they get to approach the presence of 1710s

God. So the sacrifice, they have to be made clean before they can go into the presence of God. So 1717s

verse 19, well, back up a little bit to part of 18, you shall put it between the tent of 1727s

meeting and the altar and you shall put water in it with the water, Aaron and his sons. Those are 1733s

the priests. She'll wash their hands and their feet. When they go into the tent of meeting or when 1738s

they come near the altar to minister to make an offering by fire to the Lord, they shall wash with 1742s

water so that they may not die. So getting near the presence of the Lord, even though they've made 1748s

their offering, they still have to be made clean or they will die. So they still have to be cleansed. 1755s

They shall wash their hands and their feet so they may not die. It shall be a perpetual ordinance 1763s

for them, for him and for his descendants throughout their generations. The unclean cannot be in the 1768s

presence of the pure and clean God. The unclean cannot be in the presence of the pure and clean 1776s

holy God. Let's go to the gospel of John chapter 15. That is the fourth gospel. 1787s

So gospel of John chapter 15. 1798s

Verse beginning verse 2, he removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every 1809s

branch that bears fruit, he prunes to make it bear more fruit. You have already been cleansed by 1817s

the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me as I abide in you, just as the branch cannot bear 1823s

fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine. Neither can you unless you abide in me. So Jesus 1829s

is saying that his disciples, his apostles, have been cleansed by his word, by what he has spoken 1836s

to them. Let's go over to first John. That's the, if you go past all of Paul's letters, go past the 1844s

book of Hebrews, past Peter. If you get to Revelation, you've gone too far. And these words that we're 1853s

going to read are probably going to be very familiar to you. But first John chapter 1 beginning in 1862s

in verse, in verse 7, if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one 1871s

another. And the blood of Jesus, his son, cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we 1880s

deceive ourselves. And the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just 1889s

will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness, our cleanliness comes through 1895s

Christ. The sacrifice has already been made. The cleanliness that we have is by his promise of 1906s

forgiveness, by his word of cleansing, by his word telling us that we are forgiven. So the one 1916s

perfect sacrifice has already been made for our sins. And then we repent of our sins. And we are 1927s

told that he will forgive us or that he does forgive us. Not because we're going to sacrifice again, 1934s

not because we're following all of these rules, but out of his own mercy and love. He forgives us 1942s

of our sins and we are cleansed through him. And we know that the sacrifice, the one sacrifice that 1950s

was needed for all was accepted because when the women went to the tomb, there was nobody. 1961s

He had been raised. The sacrifice had been accepted. And so we know as the sacrifice was accepted, 1970s

when we come to the Lord, when we come to the foot of the cross, when we come to the table, 1978s

we are cleansed through the blood of Jesus Christ. And we have that promise and we have that promise 1984s

in his word. Pastor Eivl Sermon is beautiful today, just outstanding to hear about 1991s

speaking scripture to yourself. It's amazing. God gives us his word so that we can know him and 2000s

know of the cleanliness that we have with him. We're going to get to, yep, good. We're going to 2010s

get to this part. I'm going to just draw the one part up here. Okay. Just so we have at least a 2018s

more complete picture. So then we have the tabernacle. Ooh, that it is not a trapezoid. 2026s

It's a rectangle. No, it's a, yes, it is a rectangle. It is a rectangle. So we have the alter, 2040s

the labor, and then we have this tent. And this is where we have the tent that's covered in that 2045s

fine woven fabric. It's very elaborate fabric. And this is broken into two parts. This is also not a 2053s

rectangle. This, so this is 150 feet. This right here is 45 feet in length 15 across. 2063s

Then it's broken into two parts. This part is 30 by 15. And this part is 15 by 15. 2083s

So we have this rectangle broken into two parts. This is the tabernacle. It has a curtain here 2092s

and entrance there. So the burnt offering is made. The priests are washed before they can enter 2100s

into this first place called the most holy place. But it's not the holiest of holies. We're going to 2107s

visit in here. And we're going to talk further about sacrifices, about the veil, and focus in 2124s

really on the arc of the covenant. I cannot wait to get to that. There's so much there. So that's 2131s

very exciting. So in the meantime, have an amazingly wonderful and safe Thanksgiving if you are 2138s

traveling and joy wherever you're traveling to or to wherever you're traveling, not to end in a 2143s

proposition. And yes, and I am so thankful that we have this time together. And I will be 2149s

thankful to be here again in two weeks. All right. God bless. 2155s