He Tabernacled Among Us
Jesus is the True and Greater Tabernacle in whom the presence and glory of God reside and manifest for all men to behold – John 1:14.
The gospel of John presents Jesus as the dwelling place
of God, the Greater Tabernacle where his glory is seen. Moreover, the
worship desired of men by the Father takes place “in the spirit and truth.”
Access to His presence is no longer limited to the Temple in Jerusalem or the Tabernacle
in the wilderness.
The relevant statement in John
echoes the incident at Mount Sinai when God inscribed His ten “words” on
the stone tablets. In Jesus, His word has now “become flesh” and
manifests in the man from the small and insignificant village of Nazareth. As the
prologue declares:
- “The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us. And we beheld his glory, the glory as of an only-born from a father, full of grace and truth” – (John 1:14).
TABERNACLE
The Greek verb rendered “tabernacled”
is skénoō (Strong’s - #G4637), meaning “tabernacle, to pitch a tent,” and it is related
to the noun skéné used for “tent” or “tabernacle” in the Greek
Septuagint version of Exodus, the “tabernacle” of Israel before
which the nation of Israel worshipped Yahweh in the wilderness.
Thus, in the man Christ Jesus,
God now “dwells” or “tabernacles” among his people. As Yahweh commanded
Israel, “Construct a sanctuary for me that I
may dwell among them” - (Exodus 25:8-9, 33:7-11).
Before the Tabernacle, the
presence of Yahweh was represented by the pillar of cloud by day, and the pillar of
fire by night. And just as God revealed His presence among the people of Israel
in the Tabernacle, so, today, He makes His habitation among His covenant people
in His Son, Jesus of Nazareth, the one in whom “the word became flesh” -
(Exodus 40:34-35, Numbers 9:15-23).
FULLNESS
John continues in his prologue
- “we beheld his glory… FULL of grace and truth.” The statement employs further
imagery from the Exodus story.
Moses asked Yahweh to show him
his “glory,” but no man could “see my face and live,” not even
Moses. For that reason, God placed Moses in the “cleft of a rock” when
He passed by, permitting him only to see His “backside” as He descended
in the cloud and passed before the Lawgiver while proclaiming:
- “Yahweh, Yahweh, a God of compassion and grace, slow to anger and abundant in loving-kindness and faithfulness” - (Exodus 33:17-23, 34:1-6).
But today, the glory of God is revealed
in Jesus. Unlike Moses, his disciples behold His full glory in Christ, not just
His “backside.” And this is the glory like that of “an only-born from
a father…full of grace and truth.”
The last statement corresponds
to the proclamation that Yahweh is “abundant in loving-kindness and
faithfulness.” The glory seen only by Moses is now revealed for all to see
in Jesus, the True and Greater Tabernacle where God dwells and through whom He
manifests His unfiltered grace
and truth.
His presence is no longer
restricted to any man-made structure or limited by a geographic location. Jesus
is the final place where God reveals His glory and grace, the FULFILLMENT
of all that the original Tabernacle foreshadowed - (2 Corinthians
3:18, 4:4-6).
Thus, the glory of God found in
Jesus Christ is full, visible, and available for all to behold, both now
and forevermore.
