And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them Revelation 21:3

Since my Bible school days in the late 1980’s I have been in an overwhelming and increasing awe, by the significance and mystery of Tabernacle and Worship. The first book I wrote and coauthored with my covenant partner was entitled Purpose in the Kings Call: Intercessory Worship and the Emerging Ecclesia. Everything God created is imbedded with His providential purpose. His sound continuously emanates and resonates through His creation and creation responds with its God given response of worship to the Creator. It has been discovered that even the stars and planets return their individual sound of worship. Lucifer had pipes built into his being to pick up the sound of God and return worship. Lucifer’s pride and desire to supplant the Uncreated Most High God resulted in his expulsion from God’s presence and an unredeemable eternity outside the Presence of God.

In that first book I recounted the elaborate unending worship in the Tabernacle established by King David. No expense was spared, and David understood giving his all to be in the Glory of His Presence. Old Testament prophet Amos gives a Millennial prophecy: “In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old.” (Amos 9:13) Being Millennial means it has not happened yet, but I believe we are on the precipice of its fulfillment.

God has always and will always desire to dwell with us whom He created in His image. All of His creation understands and therefore yearns for the manifestation of the sons of God – you and me dear saints. In Romans 8 Paul says creation groans and travails for our manifestation such that all be redeemed from the curse of sin and its attenuating corruption and bondage. As one reads Holy Scripture, it screams out over and over that God wants to dwell or tabernacle with us. The Hebrew word for tabernacle, mishkan, implies “dwell”, “rest”, or “to live in”. He fellowshipped with man, His most prized creation, in the Garden of Eden. When man fell, God continuously called throughout time to return to Him. Some heard the prophets and dwelt in His presence. His presence accompanied and dwelt with His people for 40 years in the wilderness. The LORD went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light. In that wilderness, God instructed Moses to construct the tabernacle for this reason: “that I may dwell in their midst” (Ex. 25.8). His mercy with us all is only possible from a God who loves. King David is the perfect example of desire to dwell with God. Even though David sinned, his heart was for God. As David was in exile in the Judean wilderness, listen to his heart for God: Psalm 63(TPT) “O God of my life, I’m lovesick for you in this weary wilderness. I thirst with the deepest longings to love you more. with cravings in my heart that can’t be described. Such yearning grips my soul for you, my God! I’m energized every time I enter your heavenly sanctuary to seek more of your power and drink in more of your glory. For your tender mercies mean more to me than life itself. How I love and praise you, God! Daily I will worship you passionately and with all my heart.” David established continual extravagant and costly worship on Mount Zion and wanted to build an extravagant house for God which had to be accomplished by his son Solomon. Jesus the Godman restores the covenant relationship with God and for two thousand years a remnant is still trying to get it right. God patiently awaits the day when King Jesus can take us into the Kingdom Age of the Millennium.

Moses instituted The Feast of Tabernacles, also known as Sukkot, where the people would build and dwell in booths or tabernacles each year, which in the Hebrew calendar falls in the September-October time frame. In Leviticus 23:33-36,40-43, The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days to the Lord. On the first day there shall be a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work on it. For seven days you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord. On the eighth day, you shall have a holy convocation, and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord. It is a sacred assembly, and you shall do no customary work on it…. And you shall take for yourselves on the first day the fruit of beautiful trees, branches of palm trees, the boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days. You shall keep it as a feast to the Lord for seven days in the year. It shall be a statute forever in your generations. You shall celebrate it in the seventh month. You shall dwell in booths for seven days. All who are native Israelites shall dwell in booths, that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.” In temple worship the High Priest entered The Holy of Holies, which housed the Ark of the Covenant, once a year to atone for sin. Psalm 91 speaks of dwelling in the secret place under the shadow of The Almighty (the same shadow of Holy Spirit that created the Incarnation). Our Savior Jesus Christ made everlasting atonement through the once and for all time sacrifice in His Body and Blood establishing the New Covenant, was resurrected and ascended to the Father. Before He sat with Father to ever make intercession for us, He applied His Precious Blood to the Mercy Seat in Heaven. He opened the way to the Presence of God for eternity through the veil of His Body. In Zechariah 13:1we read: “On that day a fountain will be opened to the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and impurity.”

On many of the liturgical church’s altars is a tabernacle housing the consecrated Body and Blood of Christ. Our body is referred to as a tabernacle of Holy Spirit. In 1Corinthians 3:16-17 the Apostle Paul writes “Do you not know that you yourselves are God’s temple, and that God’s Spirit dwells (tabernacles) in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.” Paul writes in Colossians 1:27 about the great mystery or sacred secret: “To whom God was pleased to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Consider the Incarnation spoken of in Isaiah 7:14, “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.” Immanuel – “God with us.” In the New Testament, John speaks to the Incarnation in his Gospel (Jn. 1. 14) by introducing the Word who became flesh and dwelt (Greek “tabernacled”) among us and we beheld His Glory. In John 2:20-21 Jesus referred to his own body as the “temple” wherein the Glory of God dwelled. Later in the Gospel (John 14:10-11) Jesus says the Father dwells in Him and He in the Father.

Finally, we read in Revelation 21:3 “And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.” In other words, God Himself will tabernacle with us for eternity. So, we see that throughout the history of man that God seeks to dwell with us. “In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in His love and in His pity He redeemed them; and He bare them and carried them all the days of old.” (Isaiah 63:9) Choose to tabernacle with the Lord today if you have not and if already there increase your commitment. Tabernacling with God is the only true peace and joy, and source of power to overcome this world. Amen.

Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! Romans 11:33