One of my favourite studies in the Bible is that of typology, how the Old Testament is really a shadow of the New Testament. There are many stories in the Old Testament that are not only true in themselves but are also meant to teach us something about the New Testament. One of these is the Old Testament tabernacle.
In Hebrews 8:5 it says, “They serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven. This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: ‘See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.’” Moses had to be very carefully that he constructed the tabernacle exactly as God showed him or it would not reveal the same things to us today as God intended.
Hebrews is an excellent book for beginning to understand typology and see especially what the Old Testament tabernacle means to us today. However when Paul talks about the layout of the tabernacle he says, ‘we cannot discuss these things in detail now.’ There is more to learn about typology that will involve deeper Bible study but that is still available to those who are interested in learning more about typology.
Paul’s focus is on how Jesus’ can be seen as our High Priest and how He made the greatest sacrifice. In the Old Testament, priests offered the blood of bulls and goats as sacrifices but when Jesus came He offered His own blood as a sacrifice which was infinitely more powerful and was able to cleanse us from our sins once for all. After this there was no longer any need for any further sacrifices.
If you are a member of this website then you can join us over the next few days as we dig deeper into the Old Testament tabernacle typology, if not we encourage you to at least read the book of Hebrews for an introduction to typology as it is a really fascinating subject.
