Chapter 5
General Principles for God's Dwelling with Human Beings,
Prefiguring Union with Christ

What general principles may we see illustrated by the joint operation of the tabernacle, the sacrifices and the priests?

The interaction of tabernacle, sacrifices and priests

In many ways the tabernacle, the sacrifices, and the priesthood go together. None of them is really workable or even intelligible apart from the rest. The tabernacle must have sacrifices and priesthood to provide cleansing and access for sinful people. To be of any value, the sacrifices must be presented in the presence of God by priests whose special holiness qualifies them to approach God. The priests must themselves be consecrated and cleansed by sacrifices and must have a space and equipment with which to accomplish their work.

On a more fundamental level the priesthood, the tabernacle, and the sacrifices together express three aspects of God's dwelling with human beings. God's relation to human beings always involves his personal presence, his order, and his power exerted to bless or to curse.

The priesthood represents the fact that God's relation to human beings is a personal one. Sinful human beings cannot enter God's presence on their own; hence, they must be represented by others who are themselves persons.

The tabernacle structure itself represents the divinely imposed order. God's holiness involves beautiful regularity, an architectural order imposed by God's own commands or law. The ten commandments are another form of God's order. They specifically articulate the order for the life of human beings, whereas the instructions for constructing the tabernacle articulate an order for God's own dwelling and the elements involved in communion with him.

Moreover, the tabernacle contains many instances of replication or copying. The tabernacle as a whole is a copy of a heavenly pattern (Heb. 8:5). The holy place is a less exalted replica of the most holy place. The courtyard is in some respects a replica of the holy place (for one thing, it has similar shape). The priest is a replica of the tabernacle. Since Israel is a "kingdom of priests" (Exod. 19:6), they are all to imitate their Father in heaven, to "be holy as I, the LORD your God, am holy" (Lev. 19:2). Thus the tabernacle expresses in a visible way the fact that the order of God himself is to be imposed and replicated in Israel as a whole and in every Israelite dwelling place (for they dwell in tents after the pattern of God's dwelling).

The sacrifices embody preeminently the aspect of God's power exerted for people's benefit. Sacrificial animals, by acting as a symbol for atoning substitution, take away curse and result in blessing to the people for whom they are presented.

However, we cannot rigidly separate these aspects of God's communion with human beings. For example, the theme of God's order is manifested not only in the tabernacle with its orderly structure and arrangements but by the sacrifices and the priesthood. The sacrifices and the priestly actions must be performed exactly as God's law-order prescribes them. The priests must be clothed in special, heavenly garments, thereby indicating that they must have God's order and righteousness imposed on them or represented in them rather than simply appearing in their own innate imperfection.

Similarly, the power of God to bless or curse is visible in each area. The sacrifices, as we have seen, manifest God's power to cleanse from sin and defilement. But the priests demonstrate the same operations of power because they are involved in priestly actions manipulating the sacrifices in order to accomplish the blessing. In addition, they are given authority to pronounce a verbal blessing on the people (Num. 6:22-27).

The personal character of God's presence is shown most vividly by the priests who are themselves persons. But the whole symbolism of the tabernacle is also a reminder of God's personal character because it is a tent-house, a dwelling place for persons. The sacrifices, however, admittedly show the personal character of communion with God only in indirect ways. They are presented by worshipers who are persons and manipulated by priests who are persons. Moreover, by placing a hand on the animal the worshiper signifies a kind of personal identification with the animal. The blood of the slain animal represents the animal's life--not personal life, but at least the life of an animate creature. As we have observed, the deficiency in animal sacrifice is remedied only when Christ becomes not only the priest but the offering as well.

These three themes or aspects of God's dwelling are manifested in each of the three spatial areas of the tabernacle. Let us begin with the Most Holy Place. The personal presence of God is symbolized most vividly by the ark. The ark is the container for the "testimony" or covenant, the two tablets with the Ten Commandments, in which God speaks to his people (Exod. 25:21; 40:20; Deut. 10:5). It is closely associated with God's presence throughout the Old Testament.¹ God is represented as most immediately present in the space between the cherubim: "There, above the cover between the two cherubim that are over the ark of the Testimony, I will meet with you and give you all my commands for the Israelites" (Exod. 25:22). The power of God to bless or curse is represented most vividly by the atonement cover. Its very name reminds us of the need for atonement and the provision that God himself makes to satisfy violation of his law. The orderliness of God's dwelling is represented most vividly by the tablets of the law contained inside the ark. These tablets specify the order that the people of God must follow as they dwell in his presence.

The Holy Place contains furnishings suggesting the same truths. The personal presence of God is suggested by the bread of the Presence, not only because it is named after the "Presence" of God, but because it suggests the privilege of having a meal in communion with God. The power of cursing, blessing, and atonement is suggested most immediately by the altar of incense, because its smoke conceals the wrath of God and because it receives blood from some of the sacrifices offered on the bronze altar. The order of God is suggested by all the carefully constructed furnishings of the Holy Place, but perhaps most of all by the lampstand because it lights the Holy Place and thereby reveals the order. In the darkness human beings feel lost and in disorder, but when the light comes it gives them order. Since the lampstand also has a symbolic relation to the lights of heaven, it suggests the most fundamental orderings of the universe and of time, such as God has ordained them.

Finally, the courtyard contains suggestions of the same truths. The personal presence of God is suggested most by the contact between layperson and priest. The power of blessing, cursing, and atonement is symbolized by the use of sacrificial animals in order to make atonement and thereby bring blessing to the people. The order of God is suggested by prescribed rituals for each kind of sacrifice, as well as by the fixed presence of the bronze altar and the laver.

In each of the main spatial areas of the tabernacle precincts, the fundamental aspects of God dwelling with human being are symbolized. In each case the three aspects are not ultimately separable from one another, but the various features of the tabernacle precincts represent one or the other of the aspects more prominently. In this respect also each precinct of the tabernacle is a replica of the more holy precincts, and the Most Holy Place is a replica of the intimate dwelling of God in heaven.

In addition, we might perhaps discern within each major precinct of the tabernacle a distinct emphasis. For instance, God is most immediately present in the Most Holy Place, and so this Place most vividly represents the personal presence of God. The courtyard with its sacrifices and sacrificial procedures speaks of the power of God to make atonement. The Holy Place is a place of intense order, where each item of furniture has a distinct shape and function, and where the items together symbolize the order that God imposes on the universe at large (order of lights of heaven, seasons, agriculture, etc.). But since all three of our aspects are really manifested in all three precincts of the tabernacle, perhaps it is best not to attribute much significance to the possibility of these distinct emphases.

Interestingly, Moses himself, at least to a degree, embodies all three of these aspects in his own person. First, consider the theme of personal presence. Moses as a person mediates between God and the Israelites. Moses went up to Mount Sinai, symbolically representing an ascent into God's heavenly presence, while the people stayed at the foot of the mountain (Exod. 19). After hearing the terrifying voice of God, the people asked that Moses be the regular mediator of God's words (Exod. 20:18-22; Deut. 5:23-33). Next, consider the theme of blessing and cursing. Moses is the mediator of God's judgments. When Israel apostasized from God in the wilderness, Moses pronounced judgment on them and called them back to God. In the great sin of the golden calf, Moses even proposed to offer himself as a substitute, and thus functioned in a manner parallel to the regular function of animal sacrifices (Exod. 32:31-32). Finally, consider the theme of order. Moses is the ultimate human authority and leader of the Israelites, and serves to mediate God's order to them in the form of commandments.

Covenant

The tabernacle arrangements and the priesthood are closely related to the covenantal form of God's dealings with Israel. According to Exod. 19:5 and other texts, God's relation to Israel had the form of a covenant, that is, a formalized pact with sanctions (see Exod. 24:7-8; 34:10-28; Deut. 29:1, 9, 14, 21; etc.). When such pacts were made between human beings, the parties expressed loyalty to one another and spelled out their mutual obligations (for example, Gen. 21:26-31; 26:28-30; 31:44-54; etc.). They also took an oath calling down curses on themselves if they did not keep the terms of the covenant. Thus all covenants necessarily had three parts, (1) an identification of the parties involved ("identification"); (2) specification of their mutual obligations ("stipulations"); and (3) an oath indicating how God (or, in polytheistic contexts, gods) would reward obedience and punish disobedience to the stipulations ("sanctions"). When God uses the covenantal form to establish and express his relation to Israel, these three elements of the covenant express respectively the principles of (1) personal presence, (2) divine order, and (3) God's power to bless or curse and to make atonement through substitution.

Covenantal loyalty and communion can be expressed in a multiplicity of ways. Symbolic actions and signs can be said to sum up God's covenantal relation to Israel (Gen. 17:10-11; Exod. 31:16). The tabernacle itself is a kind of sign of God's covenant, because through its symbolism God indicates that he undertakes to dwell with Israel and bless them as they remain faithful to his law-order. But though it is symbolized in a variety of ways, a covenant is by nature a formalized verbal pact. The pact generally includes all three major elements, namely, identification of the parties, stipulations, and sanctions. These three major elements usually appear in fixed, 1-2-3 order because this order represents a smooth logical and literary development. A covenant first identifies the parties, then specifies their obligations, and then tells about the future consequences of their behavior.

At this point we must compare our own analysis with other discussions of covenantal forms. Meredith G. Kline's analysis of covenant, building on previous work by by George Mendenhall and others, sees major Old Testament covenants as falling into five distinct literary parts, parallel to the distinct parts of so-called suzerainty treaties made by Hittite kings in the second millennium B.C.² Powerful Hittite kings or "suzerains" made treaties with subordinate rulers or "vassals." The vassal promised loyalty, obedience, and support to the suzerain in return for the suzerain's blessing and protection. Since even pagan Hittite kings derived their authority from God, their practices inevitably imitated the authority of God in certain respects. God providentially controlled the whole situation in the Ancient Near East in such a way that these Hittite treaties became a suitable analogy for the Israelites to understand better God's dealings with them.

The Hittite treaties customarily had six distinct parts: (1) a preamble identifying the suzerain; (2) a historical prologue, recounting previous relations with the vassal; (3) stipulations, specifying the duties of the vassal; (4) provision for deposit of the treaty in the temple of the vassal and for periodic public reading; (5) list of gods as witnesses; (6) curses and blessings for violation or loyalty to the treaty.³ In the monotheistic context of God's revelation to Israel, God is himself the sole divine witness; hence we ought not to expect anything corresponding exactly to part 5 of the Hittite treaties.⁴ After eliminating part 5, Kline finds that the Book of Deuteronomy can be analyzed as a treaty with five parts, a preamble (1:1-5), historical prologue (1:6-4:49), stipulations (5:1-26:49), sanctions (27:1-30:20), and a final section that he entitles "dynastic disposition: covenant continuity" (31:1-34:12).

But there are some notable differences between the Hittite treaties and the Book of Deuteronomy. For example, the final section of Deuteronomy in 31:1-34:12 contains provisions for continuation of the song of Moses (Deut. 32) in the memory of the people and for deposit of the document in the ark (31:19-21, 24-27). Thus it corresponds in some ways to section 4 of the Hittite treaties. But it contains other material as well that connects to point 4 only in a distant fashion. In addition, points 4 and 6 of the Hittite treaties occur in the Book of Deuteronomy in the reverse of their normal order. Finally, the preamble in Deut. 1:1-5 introduces Moses in the key role, by using "These are the words which Moses spoke . . . ," in a manner analogous to the preambles of Hittite treaties, "These are the words of the Sun Mursilis, the great king, the king of the Hatti, the valiant, . . . ."⁵ But God rather than Moses is the great king who makes a treaty with his people; hence the preamble of Deuteronomy does not correspond exactly to anything in the Hittite treaties.

Altogether, it appears that the formal literary structure to the Book of Deuteronomy does indeed correspond to the structure of Hittite treaties. But the correspondence arises from a loose and free adaptation of a treaty form rather than the use of an exact replica of the form. The number and the arrangement of distinct literary sections of the treaties is not quite preserved in Deuteronomy.

According to Mendenhall and Kline, the same treaty form is also visible in the ten commandments. We have a preamble ("I am the LORD your God"), a historical prologue ("who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the land of slavery"), stipulations (the ten commandments of Exod. 20:3-17), sanctions (20:5-6, 7, 12), and provisions for deposit (25:16). But here the correspondence with Hittite treaties is even looser. The preamble and the prologue are compressed into a single sentence so that they no longer form two distinct literary sections. The sanctions are interwoven with the stipulations rather than being arranged in a separate section. The provisions for deposit and reading of the treaty are not included at all in Exodus 20, but are discussed only at later points in the Mosaic narrative. Thus the Hittite treaty forms of the Ancient Near East are used with considerable freedom within Exodus and Deuteronomy.

Even apart from the comparisons with Hittite forms, it is clear that Exodus 20 with its ten commandments constitutes a covenant between God and his people Israel (Exod. 34:8; Deut. 4:13, 23; 5:2; 9:9). To these central words are added supplements and explanations, such as we find in Exodus 21-23 and 34:10-26, and such supplements also are said to belong to the covenant (24:7; 34:27). After the people broke God's covenant in the incident of the golden calf, it was renewed in Exod. 34:10-28. The Book of Deuteronomy as a whole constituted a second renewal, appropriate to the situation where the people were on the point of entering the promised land (Deut. 29:1, 9).

In a rough way the five sections of a treaty correspond to the three themes that we have already discerned in the tabernacle and its ministry. The preamble and historical prologue preeminently express the theme of God's personal presence; the stipulations express his order; and the sanctions and provisions for deposit express God's power to bless and curse and therefore the importance of preserving of the words for the future. Thus the same basic principles concerning God's relations to Israel are expressed in both the tabernacle and the covenant documents.

There are nevertheless some differences between themes expressed in the tabernacle and in the covenant documents. The tabernacle is a fixed, static symbol. As such, it is suited for representing the constancy of God's communion with his people Israel. The covenantal documents, on the other hand, can directly speak of the past and future of God's dealings with Israel. The historical prologue narrates past acts of deliverance. The sections on sanctions and on deposit of the documents can be expanded to speak of the future. Even in this respect, however, we must not underestimate the significance of the tabernacle. The setting up of the tabernacle announces God's victory and celebrates the glory of God; as an act of worship it forms the climactic event in the exodus from Egypt. God delivers the people from slavery under false gods and oppressive masters in order to bring them into allegiance to the true God and true master of a new household of faith. Thus the tabernacle has natural connections backward in history to the events of the Exodus. In addition, the sacrifices are reminiscent of the passover lamb and more distantly of Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac. The tabernacle also includes forward-pointing elements, since it is only a copy and shadow of the real sanctuary in heaven, and since its sacrifices can never remove sins for all time. Access to God and communion with him is still barred by veils. The tabernacle is thus a symbolic form of the promise of a future coming of the new Jerusalem.

The themes of God's dwelling with human beings are all fulfilled in Christ. First, Christ expresses the personal presence of God. "For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form" (Col. 2:9). "Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, `Show us the Father'? Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me?" (John 14:9-10). God comes uniquely to meet us and even to dwell within us through Christ: "On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you" (14:20). "My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him" (14:23).

Second, Christ expresses the order of God, in that his character is the perfect pattern of righteousness: "you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God--that is our righteousness, holiness and redemption" (1 Cor. 1:30). "Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature" (Rom. 13:14).

Third, Christ expresses the power of God to atone for sin, since he has died as the final sacrifice for sins: "Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people" (Heb. 9:27). "He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world" (1 John 2:2).

Since Christ is the fulfillment of the whole of Mosaic revelation, we may expect to find these three themes throughout the Books of Moses. Whether we subdivide them into three emphases or five or some other number matters little.

Thus I can appreciate and partially agree with the work of Ray R. Sutton, That You May Prosper: Dominion By Covenant (Tyler, TX: Institute for Christian Economics, 1987). Sutton defines a five-point schema for covenants and then finds the schema reproduced throughout Scripture. Nevertheless, Sutton and I are not quite saying the same thing, in two respects.

First, I claim only that certain very general themes are found throughout Scripture. Sutton appears to suggest that these themes usually occur in a fixed order in a text, and that they represent a major factor in the literary structure of many biblical books (e.g., Hosea, Psalms, Matthew, Romans, Revelation). If such is indeed his claim, then he is obviously asserting something much more specific than my approach. The Book of Deuteronomy does show a five-point literary structure, as Kline has shown. But Sutton's claims with respect to other biblical materials are implausible. In fact, they are in some tension with my claims. If my themes are thoroughly pervasive in Scripture, as I would claim that they are, all three of my points and all five of his can be found in any passage whatsoever. Hence the fact that Sutton is able to find his themes in (say) passages from Romans does not serve as any weighty indication of some underlying literary structure to the Book of Romans.

Second, I claim that my three points are merely one way of grouping together and organizing our thinking about God's communion with human beings. Other ways, using different categories, might serve us as well, provided that they pointed out to us major biblical themes and helped us to see how these themes come to focus in Christ. There might be four or five points or only one or two. By contrast, Sutton appears to claim that his scheme is the way (p. 14). (On the attractiveness of have a single model or grid for analyzing the teaching of Scripture, see Poythress, Symphonic Theology, and idem, Science and Hermeneutics.)