The Tabernacle, a Shadow of Christ

Jesus overturns the tables in the market of Annas. Pilgrims had raised their animals with great care, yet here those animals were turned away as blemished, and only the ones the traders themselves sold were allowed through. It was a place for wringing money out of the people.

Every room and every feast of the tabernacle is a shadow of Christ. The fire on the altar of burnt offering was never to go out, but Nadab and Abihu offered unauthorized fire and died in the very garments they wore. They had met God, yet they did not put away the habits of the world, and they treated the ordinances he had set as a light thing.

The temple can fall, and so can church offices and people. But Jesus Christ tore the veil at the cross, and so we now enter the Most Holy Place and walk with God. We are those justified by faith alone, with no works of our own. Our hope is that the worship and prayer we offer before God will be without the slightest deviation.