Friday: Further Thought – The Tabernacle

Daily Lesson for Friday 26th of September 2025

Further Thought:

Read Ellen G. White, “The Tabernacle and Its Services,” Pages 353–358, in Patriarchs and Prophets.

Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com

“The construction of the sanctuary was preceded by a divine act of redemption, namely, the deliverance of Israel from the enslaving power of Egypt. This, in turn, was followed by God’s willingness to enter into a permanent covenant relationship with His people. He would be their God, and they would become His people (Exodus 6:7). The way they would relate to Him and to each other was defined by the covenant law. The tabernacle was indeed a place of meeting, a place where God and humans came together. It was only after redemption and the establishment of permanent union with God through the covenant that the people had access to God in His dwelling place.”—Andrews Bible Commentary: Old Testament, “Exodus” (Berrien Springs, MI: Andrews University Press, 2020), p. 226.

Meanwhile, Ellen G. White describes the purpose of the sanctuary services: “Thus in the ministration of the tabernacle, and of the temple that afterward took its place, the people were taught each day the great truths relative to Christ’s death and ministration, and once each year their minds were carried forward to the closing events of the great controversy between Christ and Satan, the final purification of the universe from sin and sinners.”—Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 358.

Discussion Questions

Central to the worship services in the sanctuary was the shedding of blood. All sorts of animals were sacrificed, and their blood was used in almost all the temple rituals. What did the blood symbolize, and what did all these sacrifices ultimately point to?
However amazing it is that God, the Creator of the universe, would in the sanctuary dwell among His people, how much more astonishing is it that He would come to dwell among us as one of us, a human being? That itself would have been an amazing expression of love. But then to offer Himself as a sacrifice for sin—that is, to die in our behalf? What does this teach us about the character of God? Also, what does this teach us about how much God wants to see us saved into His eternal kingdom?
Read Hebrews 8:1-6. What does it tell us about how the earthly sanctuary reflected what Jesus is doing for us now in the heavenly sanctuary?

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Friday: Further Thought – The Tabernacle — 1 Comment

Maurice Ashton on September 25, 2025 at 1:35 pm said:

We have reached the last lesson of the quarter. It has been an interesting journey and also a challenging one. Maybe, we have had a bit of a rethink about our own “exodus” experience. Hopefully, we have not ended this quarter without some sort of arrogant, “I am better than those awful Hebrews” attitude. Rather, it has been a challenge to renew our relationship with the God who loves us.

I would like to conclude with a paragraph from C S Lewis’s, “Mere Christianity”. I probably should have started the stiudy with this quote:

And what did God do? First of all, He left us conscience, the sense of right and wrong: and all through history there have been people trying (some of them very hard) to obey it. None of them ever quite succeeded. Secondly, He sent the human race what I call good dreams: I mean those unusual stories scattered all through the heathen religions about a god who dies and comes to life again and, by his death, has somehow given new life to men. Thirdly, He selected one particular people and spent several centuries hammering into their heads the sort of God He was— that there was only one of Him and that He cared about right conduct. Those people were the Jews, and the Old Testament gives an account of the hammering process. P42

I don’t think God has stopped hammering. It is not just about good behaviour; It is about a transformative relationship with God that continues into our relationships with one another.

And for Sabbath, another slideshow to enjoy Some more of New Zealand

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Seventh-day Adventist Bible Study Discussion

Friday: Further Thought – The Tabernacle

Read Hebrews 8:1-6. What does it tell us about how the earthly sanctuary reflected what Jesus is doing for us now in the heavenly sanctuary?

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Friday: Further Thought – The Tabernacle — 1 Comment

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