The Holy Place of the Tabernacle: The Church

The construction of the Tabernacle building may be studied in the twenty-sixth chapter of Exodus. The building was an elaborate tent constructed from upright boards covered with four kinds of material.

The first layer of material, that which formed the ceiling of the Holy Place, was fine linen. The upright boards and the linen were the actual Tabernacle of God.

The Tabernacle of God was protected under a covering called the Tent of the Congregation, which was black goats' hair. There was a covering over this tent made from rams' skin dyed red. The fourth and final outer layer of material was of the skin of porpoises (King James version—badgers' skins).

The Tabernacle building, which was surrounded by the Courtyard, had wooden walls on the north and south sides and at the western end. The door of the Holy Place was constructed from dyed linen hung on five posts. The door was on the eastern end of the Tabernacle building—on the side of the land of promise toward which God was marching with His saints.

The three wooden walls were constructed from thick, upright boards standing on silver sockets. The building was barn-like in profile, ten cubits high, ten cubits wide, and thirty cubits in length. It was sectioned off by the veil on the western end, with the eastern two-thirds of the length being the Holy Place and the western third the Most Holy Place.

There were five bars running horizontally through rings installed on the outside of the three wooden sides. (It is possible that one of the five bars ran through holes drilled in the sides of the upright boards, bringing the boards into alignment.)

The interior of the Holy Place was beautiful in appearance, offering a startling contrast to the drabness and wildness of the wilderness in which Israel was wandering. Sparkling white linen, with its blue, purple, and scarlet colors, was seen on the door, the ceiling, and the veil. Figures of cherubim were created in the ceiling and on the veil. The interior walls were of the polished fine gold with which the upright boards of the walls were covered.

In the Holy Place were the Table of Showbread, the Lampstand, and the Altar of Incense. The room was lighted at night by the seven lamps of the Lampstand. The incense burning on the Altar of Incense filled the area with the holy perfume. The floor of the Tabernacle building was the uncovered ground of the desert.

This is a picture of the Church, of the members of the Body of Christ. In the heart of each saint is the Table of Showbread (the body and blood of Christ); the Lampstand (the eternally indwelling Holy Spirit who brings forth the power of the testimony and the moral nature of Christ); and the Altar of Incense (the continual offering up of adoration and supplication to the Father by the Lord Jesus Christ).

Covering the Christian personality is the sparkling white linen curtain, speaking of the righteous Nature of Christ assigned to and developed in the saints by the grace of God, resulting in righteous behavior on their part.

The Tent placed over the righteousness of the saints (over the linen curtain) was of black goats' hair, typifying the law of sin that still is in our body and by reason of which we must remain constantly on guard.

Over the black goats' hair Tent was the covering of rams' skins dyed red, which portrays the covering of our personality with the blood of Christ. The blood of the Lamb is a perpetual covering over the Church, protecting us from the wrath of God when the Lord passes over the world to judge the demons and their works (Exodus 29:15).

Finally there was the tough waterproof covering of porpoises' skins, the rugged protective hide that we Christians develop as a shield against all the fiery arrows of the wicked one. "Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Christ" (II Timothy 2:3).

The acacia-wood (shittim-wood) boards that formed the sides of the Tabernacle building indicate the humanity from which the Church of Christ is constructed. Wood signifies humanity. The boards stood in sockets of silver. Silver, as used in Scripture, speaks of redemption. The work of redemption is the delivering of the saint from the personality and behavior of Satan and his demons.

The boards were covered with gold (which symbolizes Divinity) so that the wood no longer could be seen. When Christ is formed in us and we are abiding in Christ, the wood of our humanity is covered with the gold of Christ's Divine Nature.

The Holy Place of the Tabernacle of the Congregation typifies the members of the Church, the Body of Christ. We enter through the door of the Holy Place, portraying our death to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. We also enter resurrection to life lived in the wisdom and strength of the Holy Spirit of God.

In the Holy Place we eat the flesh of Christ and drink His blood. In the Holy Place we receive the priestly anointing of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit works in and with us in various ways, always bringing us to the place where we are fit to be presented to the Lamb as His Wife. We serve the members of the Body of Christ with our ministries and gifts. We bring forth in our personality he fruit of the Spirit—the moral nature of the Lord Jesus Christ.

In the Holy Place we grow in our ability to communicate with God in praise, adoration, worship, supplication, intercession, spiritual battle, thanksgiving, and meditation.

The Holy Place of the Tabernacle speaks of the area of sanctification in our lives in the same manner in which the Courtyard speaks of the area of justification and salvation in the Day of Judgment.

Sanctification, the second area of redemption, is concerned with our moral re-creation. We become God's witnesses, His prophets, kings, and priests, testifying to every man, woman, boy, and girl—and to the heavens as well—of the Person, nature, purpose, will, and ways of the one true God and of His Son, Christ.

We who "bear the vessels of the Lord," who deal in the holy things of God (and that includes every member of the Body of Christ), must be clean. We must learn to distinguish between good and evil. We must separate the holy from the unholy, the clean from the unclean.

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