THE TABERNACLE OF DAVID

David built a tabernacle with no veil, with unlimited access to the mercy seat, the place where the presence of God was manifest.  It was a preview of the New Covenant where we could all enter into the Holy of Holies in Jesus Christ our High Priest.

Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.  

Hebrews 4:14-16 

The throne of grace is a very similar term to the Mercy Seat, David had successfully removed the need for the outer court, and the inner court and all their trappings and religious procedures, he even removed the veil from between the Holy place and the Holy of Holies and with an open face He dwelt in the presence of the Lord. His delight in finding this place was best stated in Psalm 27.

One thing I have desired of the Lord,That will I seek:That I may dwell in the house of the LordAll the days of my life,To behold the beauty of the Lord,And to inquire in His temple.Psalm 27:4

After the tabernacle of David, had been established during his 40 years as king and continued into Solomon’s 40-year reign, Israel returned again to the tabernacle of Moses, and the tabernacle of David was first neglected and then lay in ruins… Why?  

How could this happen?

Now, I am speaking to my generation, the baby boomers in America. 

We were there in the 1970s, amidst the music, the counter culture, the anti-materialism, ideological, love, peace, people above things era. And it was in that same time period that prayer furnaces were being established with college kids on campuses across this country; A precursor to the coming charismatic renewal, where we experienced the presence of the Holy Spirit everywhere, people gathered together, in houses, in schools, in bible studies, in prayer meetings, even in churches. 

We experienced the gifts and ministries of the Holy Spirit, word of knowledge, word of wisdom, healings, deliverance from demonic spirits, and we saw unprecedented numbers of conversions. We saw God operating in power and glory outside the four walls of Moses’ tabernacle. He was meeting people where they lived, on the streets, in the artist quarters, even in the drug saturated hippie culture. The media called it the Jesus people movement.  We were there! Or at least we lived during the same time and saw it happen close to us if not happen to us.

How do we experience that intense move of God and enjoy that level of intimacy with Jesus, that raw passion for the things of God and then eventually turn again to the more beggarly elements of  Moses’ tabernacle and once again find ourselves immersed in all the religious rigmarole. Why do we return to the forms of religion, once we have tasted the sweetness of His presence?

This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? Galatians 3:2

I think there is something of the elements of erosion like what is indicated in Mark 4:19 in the parable of the word.  Things that choke out the word and make it unfruitful.

1.    the cares of this world, 
2.    the deceitfulness of riches 
3.    the desire for other things

Contrast this especially number 3 the desire for other things with Psalm 27:4 “one thing I have desired of the Lord” not security, not fame, not riches, not power, but to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. Somehow I don’t think David was talking about Moses’ tabernacle.

My prayer today is for those of us who were in the Jesus people movement of the 70s. To return to our first love, return to intimacy in the presence of the Lord.

Did you know that God promised in Amos 9:11 that he will rebuild the tabernacle of David? He was foretelling of the promise of the Holy Spirit. Where again there was 

• NO BLOOD SACRIFICE
• NO VEIL
• NO OTHER MEDIATOR but the man Christ Jesus. 

This promise is also quoted in Acts 15:16  

‘After this I will return
And will rebuild the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down;
I will rebuild its ruins,
And I will set it up;

as it says in 2 Corinthians 3

The veil was removed in Christ Jesus.

But their minds were blinded. For until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament because the veil is taken away in Christ. 

But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. 

Nevertheless, when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 

Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 

But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

That means that as we continue to look into the law of liberty (David’s Tabernacle) we see the glory of God not just on God’s face but as in a mirror that means the glory is on MY face as I am being transformed into the same image from glory to glory just as BY the HOLY SPIRIT.

²² But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. ²³ For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; ²⁴ for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. ²⁵ But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, (David’s tabernacle is the tabernacle of liberty) and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.

¹⁷ Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 2 Corinthians 3:17

Brothers and sisters let us go up with joy to the house of the Lord, where we can slip behind the veil and spend some time with the lover of our soul.