The tabernacle built in the days of Moses was the center of divine worship in Israel. It was a figure for the time then present, indicating that the gifts and sacrifices being offered at that time — while good and righteous and from God — were not yet the perfect sacrifice, which was yet to come (Heb 9:9).

Nevertheless, that tabernacle was glorious: its plans were divinely revealed, its workmen specially endowed, and all its materials were brought “out of Egypt”. It was built, as God told Moses, on the “patterns of things in the heavens” (Heb 9:23). As there was an earthly tabernacle, so there had been before — and still is — a heavenly tabernacle.

The heavenly sanctuary pictured in the Apocalypse, or Revelation, contains cherubim, a seven-branched lampstand, officiating priests (the angels), and the overshadowing glory of God (Rev 4:5,7,10). This is the model upon which the Almighty works.

The Apostle John (who received the visions of the Apocalypse) might have seen from Patmos, looking eastward, a tabernacle pattern written large on the earth:

  • Directly in front of him, he would have seen Jerusalem, with its most holy place, where dwelt the glory of God;
  • To his left, looking north, he would have seen the seven ecclesias of Asia Minor, corresponding to the seven-branched lampstand [in the Old Testament, north and south are left and right respectively — with orientation toward the rising sun being assumed];
  • To his right, looking south, there was Egypt, the “breadbasket” of the ancient world, reminding him of the special shewbread in the tabernacle;
  • Right beside Patmos, there was the Mediterranean Sea, symbolizing the laver, or “sea of glass”;
  • All around were the prayers of the saints, arising like incense from the altar of burnt incense (cp Rev 5:8; 8:3,4; Psa 141:2); and
  • Behind him was Greece and Rome and the rest of Europe: all the “court of the Gentiles”.


The whole tabernacle was erected on bare ground, that is the “dust of the earth”. In figurative terms, it was to be built upon the foundation of humanity, and God Himself was to dwell among men, and be glorified in their midst.

Thus the tabernacle foreshadowed God manifestation, in three distinct stages:

  1. justification, or mental [lampstand = light; laver = baptism];
  2. sanctification, or moral [shewbread, memorial table; incense = prayer]; and
  3. glorification, or physical [the most holy place, with the glory of God].