Advent24 - Day 14

Saturday – December 14

Read: And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)
 
Reflect
The True Tabernacle
by Charles Spurgeon
If you look attentively at the verse before us, and if you are in some slender measure acquainted with the original languages, you will perceive that John here compares Christ to that which was the greatest glory of the Jewish Church. Let me read it, giving another translation: “The Word was made flesh, and tabernacled among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”

Now, you remember that in the Jewish Church its greatest glory was that God tabernacled in its midst: not the tent of Moses, not the various pavilions of the prince of the twelve tribes, but the humble tabernacle in which God dwelt, was the boast of Israel. They had the king himself in the midst of them, a present God in their midst. The tabernacle was a tent to which men went when they would commune with God, and it was the spot to which God came manifestly when he would commune with man. To use Matthew Henry’s words, it was the “trysting place” between the Creator and the worshipper. Here they met each other through the slaughter of the bullock and the lamb, and there was reconciliation between them twain.

Now, Christ’s human flesh was God’s tabernacle, and it is in Christ that God meets with man, and in Christ that man has dealings with God. The Jew of old went to God’s tent, in the center of the camp, if he would worship; we come to Christ if we would pay our homage. If the Jew would be released from ceremonial uncleanness, after he had performed the rites, he went up to the sanctuary of his God, that he might feel again that there was peace between God and his soul; and we, having been washed in the precious blood of Christ, have access with boldness unto God, even the Father through Christ, who is our tabernacle and the tabernacle of God among men.

Now let us draw the parallel a little further. The greatest glory of the tabernacle itself was the most holy place. In the most holy place, there stood the ark of the covenant, bearing its golden lid called the mercy-seat. Over the mercy-seat stood the cherubim, whose wings met each other, and beneath the wings of the cherubim there was a bright light, known to the Hebrew believer by the name of the Shekinah. That light represented the presence of God. Immediately above that light there might be seen at night a pillar of fire, and by day a spiral column of cloud rose from it, which no doubt expanded itself into one vast cloud, which covered all the camp, and shielded all the Israelites from the blaze of the broiling sun. The glory of the tabernacle, I say, was the Shekinah.

What does our text say? Jesus Christ was God’s tabernacle, and “we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father.” Jesus is not the tabernacle without the glory; he is not as the temple when the voice was heard with the rushing of winds before the siege of Jerusalem (Ezekiel 1:24; 10:1–22), crying, “Arise, let us go hence,” (John 14:31 kjv) but he is the temple in which God himself dwelt after a special manner; “For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily” (Colossians 2:9).

The apostle however points to a surpassing excellence in Christ the tabernacle, by which he wondrously excels that of the Jewish Church. “Full of grace and truth.” The Jewish tabernacle was rather full of law than full of grace. It is true there were in its rites and ceremonies foreshadowings of grace, but still in repeated sacrifice there was renewed remembrance of sin, and a man had first to be obedient to the law of ceremonies, before he could have access to the tabernacle at all. But Christ is full of grace—not a little of it, but an abundance of it is treasured up in him. The tabernacle of old was not full of truth, but full of image, and shadow, and symbol, and picture. But Christ is full of substance. He is not the picture, but the reality; he is not the shadow, but the substance.

Here, O believer, rejoice with joy unspeakable, for you come to Christ, the real tabernacle of God! You come to him who is full of the glory of the Father; and you come to one in whom you have, not the representation of a grace which you need, but the grace itself—not the shadow of a truth ultimately to be revealed, but that very truth by which your soul is accepted in the sight of God. I put this forth as a matter for you to think over in your meditation.
https://www.spurgeon.org/resource-library/sermons/the-true-tabernacle-and-its-glory-of-grace-and-peace/#flipbook/
 
Respond
Take some time to think through the tabernacle of the Old Testament and how it was a shadow representing what Jesus was in reality. It will help you to see Jesus in a new way this Christmas season.
 
Rejoice
Silent Night
 Silent night, holy night
 All is calm, all is bright
 Round yon Virgin, Mother and Child
 Holy Infant so tender and mild
 Sleep in heavenly peace
 Sleep in heavenly peace

 Silent night, holy night
 Shepherds quake at the sight
 Glories stream from heaven afar
 Heavenly hosts sing Alleluia
 Christ the Savior is born
 Christ the Savior is born

 Silent night, holy night
 Son of God, love's pure light
 Radiant beams from Thy holy face
 With the dawn of redeeming grace
 Jesus Lord, at Thy birth
 Jesus Lord, at Thy birth