1 - STUDIES IN THE TABERNACLE

1 - STUDIES IN THE TABERNACLE

Henry F. Kulp

Exodus 19: 4 Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself.

Up to this point in the book of Exodus we have seen the mighty power of God bringing the children of Israel out of Egypt, and we have seen the power of the blood. The Lord delivered three million people out of the hand of Pharaoh, not with an army, not with might; not with soldiers, but with the blood of the Lamb. God said to Moses, I am going to bring you out ow take a little lamb and kill it and sprinkle the blood. That was the end when they did that they were free. They went out free from Pharaoh, and crossed the Red Sea into the desert. Now they are out in the desert with the Lord and here in Exodus 19: 4 we read, Ye have seen what I did onto the Egyptians, and now I bear you on eagle’s wings, and brought you unto Myself.

He loved them, they were His people. God created the nation for Himself. Israel is not a nation like other nations. Down through the years they tried to get back among the nations, but they were not very successful, for God called them from among the nations.

1/ So the important point is, I have brought you out of Egypt to get you to Myself. I have brought you here. It is true they didn’t want the Lord God very much, but the Lord wanted them, so he brought them out to the wilderness to have them there so that He could come down and dwell among them. He wanted to dwell among them.

Exodus 25: 8 He said, And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.

So, as you study the book of Exodus, you will find that the main thing that will grasp your heart and mind is that God wanted to dwell among men, and He did so in the Tabernacle in the wilderness.

2/ There are two things to see in the Tabernacle. We have just given you number one, that God wanted to dwell among His people on the earth. Then secondly, it is important for us to recognize that the only value in studying the Tabernacle is to find out more about the Lord Jesus Christ.There is absolutely no real benefit in knowing about the Tabernacle, unless you see Christ in it. Everything about the Tabernacle speaks about Jesus Christ. He is everything. There is nothing in the universe worth knowing but Him. There isn’t any knowledge worth having beside that of knowing Christ. Paul said—that I might know HIm. And he said, for Whom I have

suffered the loss of everything. So let us pray as we go through the tabernacle study that we will learn more about the Lord Jesus Christ, and find the Lord Jesus Christ everywhere in the Tabernacle.

3/ The first point—He came to dwell among men.

Exodus 25: 8 And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.

The Lord had to leave this world when sin came in. God had to withdraw His presence. There was a presence of God in the Garden of Eden—they walked with God, they talked with God, but when they fell into sin, God had to withdraw, but the Lord had a plan, an eternal purpose, a plan by which He could come back and dwell among the human race, because he loves the human race. So after he gave the Law, he called Moses up into the mount, and gave Moses the plan whereby He could come down and dwell among His people. God gave Moses what we call the tabernacle. There had never been a dwelling place for God since the Garden of Eden. He never dwelt anywhere on earth. God never dwelt with any man on this earth. God appeared unto Abraham. He appeared unto Jacob. He appeared unto Noah, and talked with him, but God didn’t dwell with anyone. God’s dwelling place was not with man, from the Time of the Garden of Eden, until the time of the giving of the Tabernacle in the wilderness.

4/ Now let’s notice something else…

Matthew 1:23 Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us. Just spend a moment with this verse—Behold, a virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth a son, and shall call His Name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us. 

God has come down in the Person of Jesus Christ. He has come down to dwell among men, but to do so, he had to put on humanity. Because men could not live with God in His glory. God put humanity and Deity in one body. Back in the Old Testament, in the Tabernacle, God was with Israel in the Shekinah Glory, but now God came down so that He could dwell among men, and He was veiled in human flesh.

5/ But where does God dwell now? Some people think He dwells in a church building. They call the church building the house of God, and they call the auditorium the sanctuary. No, God doesn’t dwell in a building made of stone, brick, mortar, steel or wood. If God dwelt here in this building, He would be alone most of the time, wouldn’t He? But God does dwell on earth, but He does not dwell in buildings as such.

I Corinthians 6: 19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

Your body is the Temple. God does have a temple on this earth. He dwells in each saved person in the room tonight that the Holy Spirit lives in. If we should be driven out of this building tonight because of persecution, because of what we believe because of Jesus Christ, we could meet in a cave, we could meet in a garage, and have just as much blessing, and have the Lord with us just as much because He does not live in buildings.

6/ Now notice, Colossians 1: 27 To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Christ in us. We should recognize, as we walk through this wilderness world, that Christ is in us. This should have a bearing upon the places we go. One man asked if he should go to a certain place, and he friend said, NO, and he asked him why, and he said, because I would have to take the Lord with me. I can’t leave the Lord outside, the Lord has to go with me wherever I go.

7/ We said that in the Tabernacle you should see Jesus Christ. We told you last Sunday night all God talks about is Jesus Christ.

Hebrews 1: 1 God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;

That should be translated, God in time past, God spake unto the fathers. In these days he is speaking to us all about His Son. That is the way it ought to read. 

In the Old Testament He spoke to the fathers, and in these days to us, and all he talks about is His Son. God loves His Son, and God talks about His Son, and God wants to have you talk about His Son, so let us talk more about Jesus Christ.

Philippians 3: 8 Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,

Paul says, I have suffered the loss of all things for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. Now the word, excellency is super.

We laud about super things these days. Sometimes we use it about our car, and we say it is a super car. That is the word that Paul uses. Super knowledge. It is better than anything else.

8/ They were told to bring materials that the Lord wanted for the building of the tabernacle, and in Exodus 25: 4 And blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and goats' hair, Here we have three colors—blue and purple and scarlet.

Just for a starter let us look at those three colors and see how they speak of Jesus Christ. These three colors have a wonderful rich teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ. First of all, blue is the heavenly color. Blue speaks of Heaven. Almost everyone is unanimous in this teaching, and the only Heavenly life the world has ever had is the life of the Lord Jesus, for that life was absolutely heavenly. Everything he said could have been said in Heaven. A lot of things that you and I say couldn’t be said in Heaven. If you were in Heaven, you wouldn’t say some of the things you say now, but not so with the Lord Jesus Christ. He never said anything He had to change. He never said anything He had to be sorry for. You couldn’t say that about Abraham. The Jews were real proud of Abraham—they were the children of Abraham. But Abraham went down into Egypt and told a lie to save his life. And then he did it a second time, and God had to plague men who were kings in order to save Abraham and Sarah. Then the life of Moses wasn’t heavenly either. He killed a man, and the life of David certainly wasn’t heavenly, but the life of Christ was different from all mankind.

Just notice John 8: 23 And he said unto them, Ye are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world.

No one that ever lived could say that. He said, You are here and you belong here. But I am from above, I don’t belong here. Then there is another verse I would like you to notice, 

II Corinthians 4: 6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Now notice, in the face of Jesus Christ. That is the only face that shows Heaven and God. That is why I think they should never try to draw a picture of Christ Jesus, because you can’t put Heaven in it, and you can’t put God in it. The Lord is not like the pictures you see, that isn’t Jesus Christ, that is just someone’s imagination, and a very poor imagination at that. The glory of God is in the face of Jesus Christ, and the more we know Him the more we see the glory of God in that face.

9/ The second color is purple, and of course, everyone knows that is the royal color. The Lord Jesus Christ was not only Heavenly, but He is royalty. He is really the only One down here Who has real royalty.

I Timothy 6: 14, 15 That thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ: Which in his times he shall shew, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords;

There is the only Potentate—the only one real King. The word, potentate is a word used only once in the Bible—and it comes from the word that can be translated in English by dynasty. Dynasty means a line of kings who reigned indefinitely, but this word is used for the Lord. He is, in Himself, a dynasty. Everything that a dynasty means, He is that. He is the dynasty. He is the only King. Then notice the last part of the 16th vs Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen. Who only hath immortality. 

Somebody asked me about that the other day. Immortality means a body that never dies. Eternal life is not immortal life. Eternal existence is not immortality. If God has saved you and has not saved your body, you would not be immortal. As an unclothed spirit with the Lord, you could live forever with Him, but you would not be immortal. God made us two-fold, inward man and outward man. And we are not complete without a body. Now the Lord Jesus Christ was a Man and He had a body that was immortal, and He is the only One at the present time Who has a body that is immortal.

10/ The third color is scarlet—that is sacrifice. Blue, heavenly—purple the royal color, scarlet, the sacrificial color. Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.

As the Lamb of God, He had to die. All the sacrifices of the Old Testament spoke about Him. There are many different sacrifices. There were bullocks, there were goats, there were calves, there were lambs, and they were sacrificed at different times for different purposes, but every one spoke of the Lord Jesus Christ. Scarlet—that is the blood color.

AMEN

1 - STUDIES IN THE TABERNACLE