Is it really that important?

It's All-Age on Sunday and we're looking at the Tabernacle as the place to meet with God in the wilderness. If you know your Ancient Near Eastern history, you'll know something of the significance of tents as meeting places. It's not odd then that God should choose a tent as a place to meet with the people during their journey. After all I don't suppose there was always going to be a convenient mountain available.

Anyway, I was looking for a helpful drawing or plan so that I could explain to folk on Sunday how big it was and what it might have looked like when I came across photographs of two full sized replicas. How amazing. I don't know why I'm amazed that someone should choose to do this, I've often thought it would be a fascinating thing to do or see.

Amidst all the helpful and interesting things, I also came across the more dubious end of the spectrum of speculation about the Tabernacle. My favourite was the wonderful maths of taking the perimeter and height of the outer court to get the number of years between Moses and Jesus, the dimensions of the holy place to get the era of the church (it's all going to end in 2034 apparently), and some other dimensions somewhere for the 1,000 year reign of good old dispensational eschatology.

I can't help thinking that this rather misses the point of God choosing to live in a tent alongside the people he loved and called. It seems to me that the Tabernacle, and the tent of meeting before it and the Temple after it, are all cries from God's heart to find a way to draw near to people. A way by which unholy people can be in close proximity to a holy God. It's what he's always wanted to do, right from the garden with Adam and Eve, to the incarnation in Jesus. God comes close. He wants to live amongst us and has paid a great price so to do. 

Less prophetic mathematics, more presence please Lord.