Tabernacle lesson: How does the tabernacle point to Christ?

I love when things work out perfectly.  I’ve been working on getting a tabernacle lesson together for our Sunday School lesson, and due to one thing or another I didn’t get it done in time for it to be chronological for our Bible studies, but in homeschool HISTORY when I looked at the schedule for Illuminations I just about jumped for joy when I saw “Tabernacle lesson,” and I said, “YES!  I’m finally gonna teach this, I’ve been waiting for the Tabernacle lesson!”

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And then I may have gotten an odd look or two.  Okay not really, because my family is rather used to me.

So, how does the tabernacle point to Christ?

First is the outer courtyard, it is set up to show the Israelites were to be kept apart, just as God is separated from sin.  The Israelites were called to live holy lives to show people who God is.  Of course, it’s not possible to actually live a perfect and holy life because we have a sin nature.

Next came the altar of sacrifice, the Israelites would offer a lamb as a sin offering to wash away their sins, this points to Jesus and how he ultimately took away our sins through his death and resurrection.

When the Israelites went inside they encountered the Laver to wash their hands.  This reminded them of their sin, and how sin makes them dirty before God and their sin needs to be washed away.

The Tabernacle, or Tent of Meeting, was a large tent with 4 coverings.  I’ve read a lot of different ideas for what these coverings mean.  All of them felt like they input too much Christian symbolism into the meanings of these coverings.  The big thing I noticed as I studied this was how the outside isn’t decorated.  It’s not as if a goat hair covering is super fancy, as a matter of fact it’s rather common.  God didn’t put all the decorations on the outside, just as he does not look at the outside of us to judge us.  God looks at our heart.

Inside there was a menorah to light the tent.  It shines forth to give the priests light, just as God shines forth to give light.  I need to look and see if it was actually called a menorah or if that term came about because of the Maccabean revolt.  Anyone know?

The table of showbread had 12 loaves of bread on it, one for each of the 12 tribes.  On top, there was also oil and water.  This bread was not for God to eat but as a reminder of how God cared for them in the desert and provided food and water.  At the end of a week, new food was placed there and the bread was eaten by the priests (or as in 2 Samuel, by David when he needed food, so maybe the food was sometimes given to the poor?).

The altar of incense burned sweet-smelling herbs to go up to God.  They reminded us how our prayers to God were sweet and something God enjoyed just as we enjoyed the incense.

Now between the outer room and the inner room, called the Holy of Holies, there was a curtain up.  God dwelled in the Holy of Holies and the curtain was there to protect people from God’s presence.  God cannot abide sin, so to come into His presence with sin was to die.  Each year the high priest would go before God in the Holy of Holies, the Israelites were so aware of their sinful nature that they tied a rope around the priest, in case he sinned and died while in there.

But, here’s the important thing to remember, and one of the important things about how the Tabernacle points to Jesus

When Jesus died on the cross the curtain dividing the Holy of Holies from the rest of the temple was torn in two.  We no longer need that protection because God no longer sees your sin if you’ve chosen to follow Jesus.  Instead, God sees what Jesus did for you on the cross.

There is one final thing in the Tabernacle: The Ark of the Covenant.  God told the Israelites to make it to remind them of all God had done and all He had promised to do.  Inside they put Moses’ copy of the 10 Commandments, a jar of mana, and Aaron’s staff.  All items that showed how God had led them.

Now the Ark of the Covenant is lost, it disappeared when Rome sacked Jerusalem in 70 AD.  I wonder if God didn’t do that on purpose because we no longer need that reminder.  God himself came down to earth as a man and fulfilled His promise of redemption.  We don’t need to hope for a promise unfulfilled because it’s been fulfilled.

If you click on the picture above you’ll head over to the printable lesson plan that includes links to the model I used.  I re-used the Tabernacle from the time we taught this for our Sunday School class, and it’s held up to multiple times of building, and the kids playing with it somewhat.

More Tabernacle lesson ideas

• Gospel Hall printable tabernacle (what I used up above)
• God’s Special Tent– an awesome resource for teaching kids about the symbolism in the Tabernacle and in many Old Testament topics.  It’s also got some great coloring pages to go with it.  I highly recommend getting it.
• Exodus pinterest board-the rest of the Exodus ideas I’ve gathered.