"And the Word became Flesh and made His Tabernacle among us" Jhn: 1:14a
The Tabernacle of God was that place among the People of Israel where they met or communed with God prior to the Temple being built in the Holy City of Jerusalem by King Soloman.
“Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among
them. Make this tabernacle and all its furnishings exactly like the pattern I
will show you. Ex: 25:8-9
The Tabernacle and later the Temple, was divided into an outer court, where the Alter of Sacrifice
was located. Here, the priest would offer the sacrifices which the people
brought. There was also the Bronze Laver where the Priest would sacramental washing would be performed . There was the Sanctuary wherein was the Alter of Incense, the
Showbread Table and the ever-burning Menorah.
Then there was the "back part" of
the Tabernacle; the Holy of Holies. It was here in the Holy of Holies that
presence of God resided and manifested above the very Ark of the Covenant which
held the pieces of the Ten Commandments, the very Word or Law of the Covenant.
Where God Was Met
In this earthly construct, which accompanied
the people of Israel as they were on their pilgrimage through the Wilderness, that
God met with Israel. This Tabernacles served as the point of contact and the
very center of Israel's national Covenant relationship with God, with the very
Creator of all things.
Where Israel went, so went the Tabernacle.
When they camped the Tabernacle would be erected, when Israel moved it would be
collapsed and taken, it was always with them. Num: 1:50,53. Num:2:2,
Num:9:15-23, Num:10:1
The Tabernacle was the place where God resided among the people, the Holy of
Holies was the focus of all that took place there, it was in the "back part" of the Tabernacle. The word used to
describe the Holy of Holies location in the Tabernacle is "Debir" which is literally means the "hinter side" or "back ground."
But a related word to "Debir" is “Dabar". "Dabar"
carries with it more than just a locational aspect, "Dabar" speaks of a sense of history, or frame work of
thought as the Holy Word of God , and in this word we find tells of
"Dabar" can also
be translated as the "Word of God" ,
but not just the Word which is spoken or written, but the actual true essence and origin and substance of all the Word of
God, that is , how it is perfectly expressed and all that the Word of God reveals to humanity about
the Creator of all things.
With "Dabar's"
relation to "Debir" , which tells us
where the Holy of Holies was located in the "back" of the
Tabernacle , that place where the Ark of God was , which housed the
Word of God , the Ten Commandments , and where the Lord dwelt and met his
people, we can understand that we are being given understanding where we
find the true expression of the Word of God and it's perfect clearest
revelation to humanity.
The Word
When St. John the Apostle wrote his account of
the life and Words of Jesus Christ, St. John begins with the "Debir" or the true "background" and essence of all things and their origins and the very Word of God, the "Dabar" that perfect revelation and expression of
God.
St. John would have written his Gospel
with his understanding informed by what we see at the earthly Tabernacle which
accompanied Israel in the pilgrimage to the Promised Land. But St. John,
however, looked beyond that Earthly Tabernacle to the true "Debir" , that is "background"
of all things and the perfect expression of the Holy Word (Dabar) of God.
St. John begins his account in Eternity with God himself and the True Word of
God and that place wherein humanity can truly find the perfect and clearest
revelation about God.
The Word (Dabar), we are told by St. John, is more than just something that God speaks or communicates, but is God himself. That this Word, as God, has “person-hood", for lack of a better word, and is equal to God; for we are told that this Word (Dabar) is God. The Greek which St. John used to write his Gospel translates this word Dabar as Logos, which can mean spokesman or to convey revelation or disclosed of truth or identity.
This very Word of God, we are told by St. John, is the Creator of all things, again stressing the equality with God as fully God.
"He (the Word) was with God in the beginning. Through
him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In
him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind" Jhn:1:3-4
The Word Incarnate
St. John, with the Tabernacle in mind, tells us,
that this Word, who is God in every way, and who is the Creator of all things,
and who is the clearest and purist perfect expression of the very self of God,
and who is the true "background”, or, as
the word "Dabar" indicates in its
relationship with the word "Debir”, is the place
or the way in which we encounter or meet with God as the Children of Israel met
God in the Holy of Holies of the Tabernacle.
It is this Word who enters into the history
through the people of Israel and takes on our very humanity by becoming one of us
and joining us with himself thru the Incarnation.
" The Word became flesh and made his
Tabernacle among us." (14a)
St. John in his account identifies this incarnate Word as Jesus of Nazareth and it
is through Jesus, who we come to see is the true "background"
of all things and is the Tabernacle where we meet the very Creator God of all
things. This means, that everything that the earthly Tabernacle was meant
to be Jesus is.
When St. John writes his Gospel account and
tells us of the Word (Dabar) made flesh. St. John is
telling us that all that the Word of God, (which at that point in the
History of Salvation was the Old Testament), was ever
meant to direct us to and to convey to humanity is now fully and perfectly
found in the divine person of Jesus.
The Old Testament had
as it's object the very person of Jesus and was the written word (Dabar) to create a "background” and a prehistory
of the incarnation, that is, the Old Testament is the
incarnation anticipated, and through that pre-history of the Old Testament God created a cultural context
with in Israel through which and by which to introduce humanities Savior.
That is, in Jesus find all that we need to know about the very God who brought all things into being. In the humanity of Jesus, we meet God in the Tabernacle of Jesus' flesh, as Israel met God in the earthly Tabernacle in the Wilderness.
All that God, the Holy Trinity, the Father,
Son and Holy Spirit, has to share about himself we find perfectly and clearly
revealed in Jesus. The Apostles wrote about their experiences in meeting God in
the person of Jesus and God's invitation to include each and all of us into the
relationship of unconditional divine love. This makes the New Testament,
the incarnation accomplished and experienced.
When we come to Jesus we meet God, not just a
Palestinian Jewish Rabbi who lived two thousand years ago, but the very Creator
God himself, has, and is reveling the Father, the First person of the Holy
Trinity to us in the very self of Jesus.
"All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one
knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and
those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him." Matt: 11:27
This tell us that Jesus is the living Holy of Holies, the perfect
expression of the Law, often called the "Decalouge",
or "Debarim” meaning the Ten words. "Debarim”
which is related to both "Dabar" and
"Debir" both are in view in St. Johns
mind; to speak to us about the Word and its true "history" or "origin" or “background” and which resided within the Ark covered by
the Mercy Seat where the Presences God dwells and communions with us.
St. John
is telling us that the "background” of the
event of Jesus' incarnation lies in his divine person as God the Son the Second
person of the Holy Trinity and Jesus as the Son has entered our humanity.
Jesus is the true pre-history of our Salvation and the means by which it is
accomplished.
In the Tabernacle of his humanity Jesus is where we each and all encounter our
God. God has himself entered time and our earthly lives so that we might know
him, that is to have a relationship with God, here and now and on into
eternity.
"this is eternal life, that they might
know you the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent" Jhn:17:3
Jesus
is the Holy Trinity's living invitation for each and all of us to know
the great God and see his glory.
“Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.
For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life
to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that they know
you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I have brought
you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father,
glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world
began. Jesus Prays for His Disciples “I have revealed you to those whom you gave me
out of the world" Jhn: 17:1-6a
This tell us that eternal life is much more than a state of, or duration of existence but is expressed as a way of life that issues forth out of a close abiding relationship with God through Jesus Christ.
St. John in his Epistles writes to us of the
present assurance of the accomplished salvation and certainty of eternal life
that is our even now, not just someday, but here in now.
"I write these things to you who believe
in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal
life." 1Jhn:5:13
The Prophets of Israel, under the inspiration
of the Holy Spirit, looked down through the ages with a godly anticipation toward
what Christians experience in Christ, yet these Prophets often saw only in part,
and wrote the word which God had revealed to them, that Word which they wrote
has come forth out of eternity from God, the Holy Trinity, in the person of
Jesus thru the incarnation.
…"obtaining as the outcome of your faith
the salvation of your souls. As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied
of the grace that would come to you made careful searches and inquiries,
seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was
indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to
follow." 1Pet:1:9-11
In Jesus God himself has accomplished our
salvation dying and rising for us all, each and all.
"For Christ’s love compels us, because we
are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for
all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who
died for them and was raised again." 2Crth:5:14-15
The Tabernacle With Us
As
stated beforehand the Earthly Tabernacle was with Israel in their wondering pilgrimage
thru the wilderness on the journey to the Promised Land, it never left them but
went where they went. This drawing upon the image of the Tabernacle which St.
John employs is to speak reassurance to any and all who but look unto Jesus,
that Jesus is with us thru all our wondering in the Wilderness of this life in
our pilgrimage to the Promised Land of the Kingdom of God, as certainly as that
earthly Tabernacle was among the Children of Israel.
Even in the moments when Israel went after
foreign gods, that earthly Tabernacle, was still with them, though unveiled of,
yet it remained there among the Children of Israel. never departing.
This brings the assurance and eternal long-suffering of our God, who out of his
eternal love for humanity has vowed in his word never to depart from us nor to
abandon us even as will stumble and fall.
"God has said, "Never will I leave
you; never will I forsake you." Heb: 13:5b
The incarnation is a powerful
demonstration and evidence of God eternal love and commitment toward humanity,
even in humanities wayward state or condition. God did more than just
tell us that he loves us through the Prophets. All the more, God himself came to
as us one in the person of Jesus Christ to show us that unconditional love he
has for each and all, by taking on the burden of all of humanities sins so that
we might live eternally.
Looking ahead into eternity St. John the Apostle records the Words of the Holy
Spirit regarding the ever-abiding presence of God with humanity when he dealers
these words.
"And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying,
Behold, 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
In and through Jesus we encounter the great God through the Tabernacle of Jesus'
humanity the one who came from the very Holy of Holies of eternity that we might,
each and all who will meet their God in the Person of Jesus Christ.
Benediction: May, we each and all meet our God, the Holy Trinity,
in the person of his Holy Son Jesus Christ, who forever abides with us today,
tomorrow and forevermore.. Amen.
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Rev.Todd Crouch, Norman, Oklahoma
If It Is Not About Jesus, Then It Is Not About Anything
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