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Why is the Tabernacle so important?

“Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them. Make this tabernacle and all its furnishings exactly like the pattern I will show you. Exodus 25:8-9

The tabernacle was a portable temple the Israelites used in the wilderness. They had no place of worship similar to it in the book of Genesis. Offerings, then, occurred on crude, hand made stone altars constructed wherever they were at the time.

Now that God had rescued the Israelites, they needed a place to show their appreciation.

The tabernacle is a forerunner of the permanent temple that would be constructed in Jerusalem.

The tabernacle was the place where people confessed and dealt with their sins. It was here they received forgiveness.

The tabernacle foreshadowed Jesus Christ.

But when Christ came as high priest of the good things that are now already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not made with human hands, that is to say, is not a part of this creation. He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption. Hebrews 9:11-12

Jesus performed a sacrifice far greater than anything offered in a tabernacle. He sacrificed his own life, his own blood. He established a new covenant that superseded the covenant established in the tabernacle, a permanent one.

The tabernacle represented a new level of worship and sacrifice, foreshadowing the ultimate sacrifice yet to come.