Thanks for your answer. Are you thinking that I was saying that the Tabernacle was God? I'm sorry if I was that unclear. I'm saying that it, like so much of OT worship, was symbolic and foreward-looking, and that what it symbolized was the presence of God which would ultimately be fully realized in Messiah Jesus (Isaiah 7:14; John 1:14).
The very word translated "Tabernacle" is mishkan, which comes from the root shakan, "to dwell." It thus really means "a dwelling-place." (The non-Biblical word Shekinah comes from the same root.) God Himself explains the significance in Exodus 25:8-9:
And let them make me a sanctuary , that I may dwell (shakan) in their midst. 9 Exactly as I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle (mishkan), and of all its furniture, so you shall make it.
Jesus abode very briefly within Mary, and little is made of that period. The glory and presence of God was seen in His incarnate life and ministry, as John says in John 1:14, where I believe he alludes to the mishkan by using the Greek skenoo, which has similar consonants. That's what he has in mind.
Dan
>>Jesus abode very briefly within Mary, and little is made of that period. <<
Little is made of that period? Hmmm... Luke 1:26-80; Rev 12:1-5; Matthew 1:1-25... Let alone ALL those Old Testament prophecies which predicted or foreshadowed the events.
But I wouldn't count how much is "made of" a certain event by how many verses are spent on it. After all, the gospels spend 90 verses on that, and only 48 verses on Easter Sunday, And I will CERTAINLY concede that Easter Sunday is far more important!