The Tent of Meeting

Today in my Bible reading plan we read through Leviticus 8-10. I will be covering chapter 10 and the death of Nadab and Abihu on Sunday. These 3 chapters deal with the Priests and their Holiness towards God and more about God's Holiness towards the people. But as I have been reading through the book so far this week a title for the Tabernacle has stuck out to me; "the Tent of Meeting".

The tent of meeting or the tabernacle was called this by Moses in his writing because it was the place where the people met God. God dwelt and hovered over the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies. God's cloud and fire would also hover over the actual tent itself. Moses tells us that when the cloud or fire would rise and move the people were to move with it. The tent of meeting is where the people brought their offerings to meet God and sacrifice to Him. The tent of meeting is where Moses and Aaron would talk to God and hear from Him. The tent of meeting is where Yahweh was at and when the people wanted to see or hear from Him, that is where they would go.

Now understand this clearly, the tent of meeting does not equal our church building. Let me say that again, the tent of meeting/tabernacle does not equal our church building. Yes we gather in our church building with others in our faith family to worship God. Yes we go to the church building to hear from God and His Word and respond back in worship. But we do not need to go to the church building to only hear from and meet with God. We have the Holy Spirit living in us every minute of every day. We can talk to God every minute of every day and do not need to go to a place to do so. We have God living in us, which the Hebrews before the Cross did not have. The building is not what matters when the people gather, it is the people gathered together in community and fellowship for worship. We have the tent of meeting in our bodies, which Paul makes clear as a tent of sorts. And our tent/body is where true worship takes place as Paul states, "present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God." Out tent of meeting is our bodies not the church.