Tabernacle of Meeting Part 1… what intimacy with the King is all about!?

God has been pressing on my heart for a while now, to write about “tabernacle”/”tent of meeting”. Just hearing those words in my spirit, makes me extremely excited and gives me goosebumps!! :).

A few years ago God started speaking to me about “the tent of meeting”, about “coming into the secret place with God”. Now this “tabernacle of meeting” that I am referring to, is not the tabernacle which God commanded to be built in a central location within the Israelite camp with specific instructions, but rather it refers to a temporary structure where the people could consult the Lord until the more durable tabernacle was completed.

Why, you ask, do I get excited about this specific “tabernacle of meeting”? Well, because (unlike the tabernacle in the centre of the Israelite camp) nowhere in the Bible do I find a scripture verse where God specifically gave Moses the command to erect this tent. This is something he chose to do, a place where he and the rest of the Israelites could “meet with God”. To me this shows that Moses had a relationship with God. It is the difference between “have to” and “want to”. Moses had a special relationship with God, a friendship. Let’s see what the Bible sais about this:

Okey, so my prayer for you as you read the following few verses, is that the Holy Spirit will interpret it to you. Because this is what we aim for…to worship in Spirit and in Truth! (John4:23,24)

Exodus 33:7-11 “Moses took his tent and pitched it outside the camp, far from the camp, and called it the tabernacle of meeting. And it came to pass that everyone who sought the Lord went out to the tabernacle of meeting which was outside the camp.So it was, whenever Moses went out to the tabernacle, that all the people rose, and each man stood at his tent door and watched Moses until he had gone into the tabernacle. And it came to pass, when Moses entered the tabernacle, that the pillar of cloud descended and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses. All the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the tabernacle door, and all the people rose and worshipped, each man in his tent door. So the Lord spoke

to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. And he would return to the camp, but his servant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle.”

In future posts, you will often find me refer to the Hebrew or Greek explanation of words. This is because the Old Testament was written in Hebrew and the New Testament was written in Greek. I find it extremely interesting to read up on the different words in the specific scripture verses in order to roughly understand scripture verses according to the context they were written in.

Reading about the “tabernacle of meeting”, I searched the Hebrew meaning of these words and the actual words in that verse is “tabernacle of the congregation”. Here are the meanings of the words….

Tabernacle: Tent, covering, home.

Congregation: Appointment, appointed time, appointed place, meeting, sacred season, set feast.

WOW!! I don’t know about you, but I’m already almost at the point of jumping out of my skin! 🙂 Isn’t that awesome!! When I read these words, they remind me so much of spending time with Jesus. This is what my/our/your quiet time with God should look like…. An appointment, an appointed time (to intentionally make time for Him), an appointed place (a place that is set apart, where it can only be you and God. What many refer to as your “prayer closet” whether it is a actual closet 😉 or a room or in your garden, whatever works for you, but a place “set apart”), a meeting (this is the expectancy with which you enter into your quiet time with Him – to meet with Him), a sacred season, a set feast (exactly what it is! It is sacred, set apart,a feast with the King.)

My question to you is: Do you have a appointed time and place for a daily meeting with God?

Right there where you are sitting right now, ask Holy Spirit to help you make time for daily meetings with God. Even if its a half hour out of your busy schedule. Do yourself a favour, you will not be disappointed! And I stand in agreement with you, this is my prayer to whoever reads this blog. More of You, Jesus!!

In the next few parts of this topic on “Tabernacle of Meeting” we will discuss this more in detail. Don’t miss out!!