The instruments of the tabernacle, manuscript Sinai Greek 1186, 81 recto.
At the peak of Sinai, God revealed the tabernacle to Moses in sacred vision, and commanded him to make the same upon earth, that the worship offered here below should be a reflection of the worship that is offered in the heavens. ‘And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them. According to all that I shew thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it’ (Exodus 25:8-9).
In the Epistle to the Hebrews, we read that the earthly tabernacle was ‘the example and shadow of heavenly things’ (Hebrews 8:5).
Jesus has become our High Priest, not after the order of the levitical priesthood, but according to the order of Melchisedec, the priest and king who blessed Abraham (Hebrews 7:1). Entering into the true tabernacle in the heavens, Christ offered himself as a blameless sacrifice once and for all. ‘We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man’ (Hebrews 8:1-2). ‘But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us’ (Hebrews 9:11-12).
This understanding is still very much a part of Orthodox services. At the fifth prayer of Orthros the priest prays,
Μνήσθητι, Κύριε, τῶν ἀγρυπνούντων καὶ ψαλλόντων εἰς δόξαν σὴν καὶ τοῦ μονογενοῦς σου Υἱοῦ καὶ Θεοῦ ἡμῶν καὶ τοῦ ἁγίου σου Πνεύματος. Γενοῦ αὐτῶν βοηθὸς καὶ ἀντιλήπτωρ· πρόσδεξαι αὐτῶν τὰς ἱκεσίας εἰς τὸ ὑπερουράνιον καὶ νοερόν σου θυσιαστήριον.
Be mindful, O Lord, of those that watch and offer psalmody unto thy glory, and that of thine Only-begotten Son and our God, and of thy Holy Spirit: be thou their helper and upholder; accept their supplications at thy heavenly and intellectual Altar. (Translated by J N W B Robertson, 1894)
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