In Galatians chapter five we read,
For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Galatians 5:14)
This is a remarkable statement, don’t you think? Everything that the law teaches and demands can be summed up with the command to love your neighbour as yourself.
The reason Paul can say this is that loving your neighbour is what God was doing for Israel when He camped with them in the wilderness and was what Jesus was doing when He came into this world and “tabernacled” with us (John 1:14), giving His life for the sake of His friends.
In short, what we do unto our neighbour (who bears the image), we do unto God Himself.
In Exodus 19 after a three-day preparation at the foot of Sinai, the people were now assembled before the Mountain and ready, beginning with the 10 Commandments, to receive the Words of the Covenant.
This was followed in Chapters 21-23 by various Laws about Slaves, Restitution, Theft, Social and Family customs, Sabbaths and Festivals. Among the laws given here, there are repeated examples of how Israel was to love his neighbour.
Man is to do justice to his neighbour in any dispute, he is to avoid saying or doing anything that would dishonour his neighbour and he is to provide a covering for his neighbour in need and restore to his neighbour whatever is lost on account of him. (Exodus 21:33-34; 22:1, 7, 14, 26)
These laws are then suddenly “interrupted” by an instruction to build the Tabernacle.
The appearance of this instruction in the middle of the law is important. The tabernacle was to be the seat of God’s earthly government. Sitting smack-bang in the middle of the Israelite camp, the tabernacle would govern the social, ethical and judicial life of the nation as they travelled through the wilderness.
In giving the law and then directing Israel to build a tabernacle in which He would dwell, God was moving into the neighbourhood. And in moving into the neighbourhood, God would begin to demonstrate the cost of neighbourly love.
This is consistent with the way God has worked throughout history with His creation. Having just given the law in the 10 Commandments, God, through the function of the tabernacle was coming to Israel in order to fulfil the law in Himself.
Turning to our text in Exodus 25 we read this,
And let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst. Exactly as I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle, and of all its furniture, so you shall make it. (Exodus 25:8-9)
There are three words used in this passage that describe the kind of neighbour God would be.
“Let them make Me a Sanctuary…”
The word Sanctuary, means, “Holy Place”. In Genesis, the garden in Eden was a sanctuary as were mountains, wells and anywhere else God chose to reveal Himself to man. (cf. Exodus 3:5).
The tabernacle was a portable house and, just like the ancient world, it was a miniature three-story universe. The first area of the tabernacle was the courtyard. Inside the courtyard was the Holy Place and inside of that was the third area, the Most Holy Place or, the Holy of Holies.
And so, one of the first things Israel learnt through the tabernacle was that God was a holy neighbour. The tabernacle, and all that was in it, where God’s holy things. Loving your neighbour, therefore, meant living a life of holiness before your neighbour.
“That I may Dwell in their Midst.”
Secondly, in building the tabernacle, God was doing more than, “passing by”, as He did on Mount Sinai before Moses. God was more than a parading monarch.
The idea behind this phrase, “Dwell in their midst”, is, “to settle down”, or, “take up residence.”. It’s what men do when they get married, and it is considered permanent.
In moving into the neighbourhood, God was becoming a permanent neighbour.
Looking out of your tent window each morning you could see His house. This would have been an amazing sight. Not only would it be a reminder that God was Holy, but it was also a reminder that God was near: It was a visible prompt to “Be Holy for the Lord is in your midst” (Deuteronomy 23:14).
You would not be ignorant of His presence and He would be a God who knew, cared and acted upon the hope and struggle of His neighbour (cf. Deuteronomy 7:21).
“According to the Pattern of the Tabernacle….”
The third word used to describe Gods’ moving into the neighbourhood was the word, “Tabernacle” itself.
The Hebrew word used here is also the word translated “Shepherds Tent” in Songs of Solomon 1:8. With this expression, God was identifying with His tent-dwelling shepherd people in the most wonderful way.
Not only would living next door to God bring to mind the Holy life that He commanded, not only would He be the kind of neighbour who was near, God was loving Israel as His neighbour by identifying with them.
Their struggles would be His struggles. Their joy, His joy. And by this action, God was revealing to Israel the way in which He would redeem the world.
The instruction to build the tabernacle represented what God would later accomplish through the government of His Son. And so John records,
and the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us… (John 1:14)
In Jesus, to use Paul’s expression (2 Corinthians 5:2-4), God was putting on our tent; taking on a body of mortal flesh and establishing His residence in our neighbourhood as the Holy One of Israel (Isaiah 12:6).
As our neighbour, what the tabernacle represented, Jesus fulfils by showing us that neighbourly love is costly love.
It is a love that meant surrendering His divine attributes and heavenly home in order to be with us. It is a love that meant sacrifice and a willingness to lay down His life for His friends. It is a love that identifies with others and makes our suffering His suffering, our battles His battles and our death as His death …
…so that His life might become our life.
As tabernacles of His Spirit, each of us is called into a neighbourhood to love our neighbour. What might this look like?
Firstly, this means living lives of holiness before our neighbour (Ephesians 4:24-25). Secondly, it means proximity. One of the characteristics of the modern world is a desire for geographical distance and privacy. But loving your neighbour demands the opposite.
In the tabernacle of the wilderness, God drew near to His people. As His tabernacles, we witness to the goodness of God by drawing near and engaging in the lives of our neighbours day by day.
This doesn’t mean that we’re always banging on their door (Proverbs 25:17). It does mean that our door is open. It means we are involved in the life of the community. It means that we are seen and we are heard.
Stephen, in Acts 7:44, calls the tabernacle the, “tent of witness”. As a neighbour, that is what our lives are to be. A living testimony to His love and His holiness.
Loving your neighbour, therefore, requires that you, “turn up” and that you do not, “tone down” the demands of holiness in the presence of your neighbour.
When they look out their window and see us, what do they see? Why do they observe in us that would make them conscious of God?
Thirdly, as the Lord’s tabernacles, we are to identify with the struggles and hopes of our neighbours. This is the remedy that keeps us from becoming, “Holier than thou” regarding our neighbour.
Our lives should appear very different and yet never indifferent.
Holiness does not mean we don’t get our hands dirty in the grime and mess of other peoples lives. We do not remain aloof from the plight and pain of our neighbour. Quite the opposite.
Loving our neighbour means identifying with them just God identified as a Shepherd and as Christ identified with us – right down to the bones.
Loving our neighbour acknowledges that we suffer and struggle with the same temptations and trials that they do and calls us to show the same compassion that Christ has shown us. It calls us to open our hearts to those in need. To share in their sufferings, and to hold out the offer of forgiveness and restoration through Jesus.
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