Sabbath: The Tabernacle
Daily Lesson for Sabbath 20th of September 2025
Image © Pacific Press
Read for This Week’s Study: Exodus 35:1-35; Exodus 36:1-7, Genesis 1:1, Exodus 36:8-38; Exodus 37:1-29; Exodus 38:1-31; Exodus 39:1-31, Hebrews 7:25, Exodus 40:1-38, John 1:14.
Memory Text:
“Then the cloud covered the tabernacle of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. . . . For the cloud of the Lord was above the tabernacle by day, and fire was over it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys” (Exodus 40:34,38, NKJV).
The principal task of God’s people in the Old Testament (as well as for us today) was to live in close relationship with the Lord; to worship and serve Him; and, also, to present the right picture of God to others (Deuteronomy 4:5-8).
In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve hid from God because their sin made them afraid of Him. Sinfulness makes humans naturally afraid of God, and this fear twists our view of His character. The good news is that God takes the first step to span this rift and, on His initiative, He repairs the gap and the broken relationship. He calls the sinner back to Himself: “ ‘Where are you?’ ” (Genesis 3:9, NKJV).
Thus, our primary mission is to present the correct character of God and His loving and righteous acts to those around us. When people are attracted to God and are convinced of His unselfish love toward them, they will give their lives to Him and obey what He tells them to do, knowing that it is for their own good.
The sanctuary demonstrated God’s closeness to humanity and revealed the greatest truths to them, which is how He saves those who come to Him in faith.
*Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, September 27.
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We have become very comfortable discussing the sanctuary, it symbolism and its purpose. Seventh-day Adventists have, perhaps more than other Christians, applied a prophetic interpretation of its services to the work of Christ as both sacrifice and mediator. The issue we should probably think about is how to we make that meaningful to those who know nothing about it. I suggest that knowledge is the easy bit; applying it meaningfully is the really hard bit, and for us it should be the work of a lifetime.
The temple, all three versions of it became a national, and, dare I say it, a cultural icon for the Hebrews. It was a rallying point for identity. Somewhere along the way it lost its sense of the presence of God in their midst and its underlying message that that presence needed to be shared with their neighbours.
While we do not have a temple as such in the Seventh-day Adventist church we do have a body of knowledge that we like to think is distinctly ours. And maybe that has become our cultural symbol.
Jesus said: