This paradox also prepares us for the uses of ‘skene’ and ‘skeno’ in Revelation – seven altogether, as we might expect ! Two verses contain both noun and verb together; we will start with the first of these, and leave the second for our grand finale. At the beginning of chapter 13, John sees a beast “coming up from the sea”; the dragon gives him power and great authority, so that, in verse 6, “he opened his mouth for blasphemies against God, to blaspheme his name and his tabernacle (‘skene’), those dwelling (‘skeno’) in heaven”. The tent which, on earth, was a symbol of transience is now ‘an everlasting tent’. On earth, the relentless ticking of the clock is a constant reminder that our tents are wearing away, and will one day collapse – but in heaven there are no clocks! In the same way, the Tabernacle, which in the wilderness represented both God’s presence with his people and his separateness from them, has now become his permanent dwelling-place: the ‘antitype’, we might say, has become the ‘type’ which God showed to Moses on Mount Sinai. But perhaps the most important, and wonderful, feature of this verse (6) is the word that isn’t there, and the comma that is there instead: “to blaspheme --- his tabernacle, those dwelling in heaven”, not “his tabernacle AND those dwelling in heaven”. On earth, God’s Tabernacle kept him apart from his people; in heaven, God’s tabernacle IS his people. A building made-by-human-hands cannot contain the God who made everything, yet God is pleased to regard the hearts of his faithful saints as his heavenly tabernacle. This same truth is expressed by the converse of the ‘tent’ image in another wonderful verse, earlier in the book, 7.15. At the beginning of this passage (v.9), John has seen a much more encouraging vision: “a great multitude that no man could number”, arrayed in white robes and gathered before the throne. In verse 14 John is told by one of the elders that these “are those that came from the great tribulation, who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb”. In the next verse he continues “he who sits on the throne will pitch his tent (the verb ‘skeno’) with them – beautifully translated by NIV as “spread his tent over them”. If it is true that the tabernacle that God dwells in is his people, it is also true that the “everlasting tent” that we look forward to is God himself: he is our tabernacle. This paradox, or dual perspective, can be seen throughout the NT. If we hear Jesus knocking at the door of our lives and ask him into our ‘tent’ (Rev 3.20), we find the even greater truth that we are now ‘in Christ’, the phrase which, for Paul, seems to be the definition of a Christian. The most succinct and direct statement of this truth is found on the lips of Jesus himself: “On that day” (the Day of Pentecost ?) “you will realise that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I in you” (John 14.20).
Saturday, 10 December 2011
SKENE 24: Tents in Revelation (13.6, 7.15)
This paradox also prepares us for the uses of ‘skene’ and ‘skeno’ in Revelation – seven altogether, as we might expect ! Two verses contain both noun and verb together; we will start with the first of these, and leave the second for our grand finale. At the beginning of chapter 13, John sees a beast “coming up from the sea”; the dragon gives him power and great authority, so that, in verse 6, “he opened his mouth for blasphemies against God, to blaspheme his name and his tabernacle (‘skene’), those dwelling (‘skeno’) in heaven”. The tent which, on earth, was a symbol of transience is now ‘an everlasting tent’. On earth, the relentless ticking of the clock is a constant reminder that our tents are wearing away, and will one day collapse – but in heaven there are no clocks! In the same way, the Tabernacle, which in the wilderness represented both God’s presence with his people and his separateness from them, has now become his permanent dwelling-place: the ‘antitype’, we might say, has become the ‘type’ which God showed to Moses on Mount Sinai. But perhaps the most important, and wonderful, feature of this verse (6) is the word that isn’t there, and the comma that is there instead: “to blaspheme --- his tabernacle, those dwelling in heaven”, not “his tabernacle AND those dwelling in heaven”. On earth, God’s Tabernacle kept him apart from his people; in heaven, God’s tabernacle IS his people. A building made-by-human-hands cannot contain the God who made everything, yet God is pleased to regard the hearts of his faithful saints as his heavenly tabernacle. This same truth is expressed by the converse of the ‘tent’ image in another wonderful verse, earlier in the book, 7.15. At the beginning of this passage (v.9), John has seen a much more encouraging vision: “a great multitude that no man could number”, arrayed in white robes and gathered before the throne. In verse 14 John is told by one of the elders that these “are those that came from the great tribulation, who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb”. In the next verse he continues “he who sits on the throne will pitch his tent (the verb ‘skeno’) with them – beautifully translated by NIV as “spread his tent over them”. If it is true that the tabernacle that God dwells in is his people, it is also true that the “everlasting tent” that we look forward to is God himself: he is our tabernacle. This paradox, or dual perspective, can be seen throughout the NT. If we hear Jesus knocking at the door of our lives and ask him into our ‘tent’ (Rev 3.20), we find the even greater truth that we are now ‘in Christ’, the phrase which, for Paul, seems to be the definition of a Christian. The most succinct and direct statement of this truth is found on the lips of Jesus himself: “On that day” (the Day of Pentecost ?) “you will realise that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I in you” (John 14.20).
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