Chapter Eight - The Tabernacle On Earth and Heaven

 

CHAPTER EIGHT

The Tabernacle On Earth and Heaven

Christ and the Believer as the Dwelling Place of God

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“What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost

which is in you, which ye have of God?”

— 1 Corinthians 6:19

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The Shadow and the Substance

The Tabernacle of Moses was never the origin of divine order — it was a copy, a shadow of a pattern that already existed in Heaven itself (Hebrews 8:5). When Moses received its design on the mountain, he was given a visible expression of an eternal reality: the structure, the priesthood, the sacrifices, the holy days — all of it pointing toward a fulfillment that had not yet come.

That fulfillment is Jesus Christ.

He is the true Tabernacle — the dwelling place of God among His people (John 1:14). In Him, the shadow becomes substance. He is the Mercy Seat, where justice and mercy meet. He is the High Priest, who enters God's presence on behalf of all people (Hebrews 9:12). He is the Sacrifice, the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). He is the Holy of Holies, made accessible through His own blood. When He died and rose again, the veil that separated humanity from the presence of God was torn in two (Matthew 27:51) — and access was no longer mediated through priesthood or offering, but through faith in Him alone.

The Heavenly Tabernacle: Christ's Ongoing Intercession

The fulfillment does not end at the cross. When Christ rose, He did not enter a structure made by human hands, but heaven itself, to appear now in the presence of God on our behalf (Hebrews 9:24). There, in the true and heavenly Tabernacle — the pattern after which Moses' earthly tent was only ever a shadow (Hebrews 8:1–2) — He ministers even now as our great High Priest.

He entered once, not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood, having obtained eternal redemption (Hebrews 9:12). What the earthly high priest did year after year, sprinkling blood upon the mercy seat for a covering that had to be repeated, Christ accomplished once for all time, at the true Mercy Seat in heaven itself — a sacrifice that never needs repeating, because it was never insufficient to begin with (Hebrews 9:23–26).

And He is not finished ministering. Scripture says He “ever lives to make intercession” for those who come to God through Him (Hebrews 7:25). At this very hour, Christ stands before the Father on behalf of His people — not pleading as though the case were still in question, but as the One whose blood has already spoken, and who continues to hold His people before the Throne (Romans 8:34).

This carries a beautiful implication for prayer. The prayers of the saints do not rise into empty air. Scripture pictures them gathered in golden bowls of incense before the Throne (Revelation 5:8), rising with the smoke of a greater incense at heaven's altar before God (Revelation 8:3–4) — the very picture the psalmist prayed for himself: “Let my prayer be set before You as incense” (Psalm 141:2). Every prayer offered on earth ascends into a Tabernacle that is not empty, and to a Priest who is never silent.

The Believer as Temple

The fulfillment does not end with Christ. It extends to all who receive Him.

When a person is born again — surrendering to Jesus Christ as Lord — they become a temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19). God no longer dwells in a structure of stone and wood, but in the living temple of the human heart. This is the Tabernacle pattern continuing into the present age: every believer becomes a sanctuary where God dwells, not through their own effort, but through the sovereign work of His Spirit.

This carries weight for how a believer lives. “You are not your own; you were bought with a price” (1 Corinthians 6:19–20). Conduct matters. Character matters. The way one lives, speaks, and acts matters — because the Spirit of God dwells within. Believers are called to present their lives as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable (Romans 12:1) — to maintain the holiness of the temple through obedience and surrender.

And this extends beyond the individual. The Church — the body of Christ, gathered — is itself described as the temple of God (1 Corinthians 3:16), the living sanctuary where His Spirit dwells corporately, continuing this pattern across history and into every nation.

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This is why the sovereignty of God matters to the nations, and not only to individual believers: nations are made of people, and among those people are living temples of the Holy Spirit. How a nation treats its people — whether it protects the family, whether it establishes justice — carries spiritual weight, because God's own dwelling places walk among them.

From stone and wood, to flesh and blood, to the hearts of all who believe — the dwelling place of God has always been moving toward His people.

“Let it be on earth as it is in Heaven.”

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Susan Donoho, MBA - Crown and Scepter Life - ALetterToTheWorld.com