A Christmas Meditation 

     I trust we are focused on celebrating the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ to earth as we think of Christmas.  One thing that will help us keep that focus is to mediate on the statement in John 1: 14, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”

     You are probably aware that the word “dwelt” here means “to pitch a tabernacle, or tent.”  It is clearly used to associate Jesus’ coming to earth with the Tabernacle in the Old Testament.  In fact, that Tabernacle becomes a type of Jesus Christ.  With that in mind, let’s think of a few of the ways the Tabernacle pictures Jesus Christ.

1.       The Tabernacle was totally God’s plan and initiative.  God takes ten chapters of Genesis to give all the details and information about the Tabernacle (only two chapters given to creation).  Jesus Christ coming to earth was totally God’s plan and initiative.  Galatians 4:4, “But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law.”

2.       The Tabernacle was temporary.  It was never intended to be permanent, it was designed to be moved, and was to be replaced by a glorious building, the Temple. Jesus Christ in human flesh was a temporary arrangement.  He only lived that was bout 33 years. Then He died, was buried, and was raised up to a glorified eternal body.

3.       The Tabernacle was not attractive from the outside.  According to Exodus 26: 14 the outer covering was of badger skin: just rough, plain, brown skin.     Jesus was not outwardly “beautiful.”  Pictures with halos or light glowing from Him are incorrect.  Isaiah 53: 2 says, “For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground.  He has no form or comeliness; and when we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him.”

4.       The Tabernacle was God’s dwelling place on earth at that time.  Exodus 25: 8, “And let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them.”  Jesus was God dwelling on earth—Colossians 2:9, “For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.”

5.       The Tabernacle was where God met man.  Exodus 25:22, “And there I will meet with you, and I will speak with you from above the mercy seat…”  Jesus is the meeting place of God and man. John 14:6, “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.’”

6.       The Tabernacle was the place where sacrifices were made.  Leviticus 1:3, “If his offering is a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a male without blemish; he shall offer it of his own free will at the door of the tabernacle of meeting before the LORD.”  Jesus offered one sacrifice, of Himself, that was the end of sacrifices.  Hebrews 9:28a, “So Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many…”

7.       The Tabernacle had only one door.  Exodus 27: 16 describes it, “For the gate of the court there shall be a screen twenty cubits long, woven of blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and fine woven linen, made by a weaver. It shall have four pillars and four sockets.”  Jesus declared Himself to be the one and only door to eternal life.  John 10: 7-10, “Then Jesus said to them again, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.  All who ever came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them.  I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.  The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.’”

      These are just a few of the comparisons of the Tabernacle and Jesus.  May our meditation be upon the Lord Jesus.  As you think of other comparisons, share them with me by the e-mail address on this web page.