The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us - John 1.14

The tabernacle was the temple designed and given to Israel in Exodus 35-36. It served the exact purpose as Solomon's temple and the later temple in the first century. The only difference was that it was a portable tent/temple that could be set up and taken down as Israel traveled. When it was set up it was always in the center of the camp with the tribes of Israel arranged around it in a circular fashion so that the first thing that the people saw as they left their tents was the tabernacle. The tabernacle served several purposes primarily being the place where God's glory dwelt. Glory in the Bible is used in several senses. One, is that God's glory is a manifestation of his beauty, splendor, radiance, holiness, and magnificence. It is interesting that the Hebrew word for glory also means 'heavy' or 'heaviness'. This is a clue as to why no one could see God's face and glory in the Old Testament. It was because God's glory, holiness, and splendor was too 'heavy' for humans to bear.

Another purpose for the tabernacle was that it was a place of God's revelation. The law of Moses (the stone tablets) was kept in the tabernacle and they revealed the nature of God. By reading and understanding these laws no one would be uncertain of what God was like or what he expected from Israel. It was his 'word' to Israel (and to the world). God sometimes spoke from the tabernacle (emphasizing again that it was a place of his word and revelation) and it was called, at times, 'the tent of meeting' as in Leviticus 1.1. This title of the tabernacle is highly significant because it reveals God's deep desire to meet with his people and make himself known.

The tabernacle was also the place of sacrifice, actually substitutionary sacrifice. The various animals, sheep, bulls, and birds were sacrificed in the place of the one who had broken God's laws and commands. Forgiveness and restoration with God could only come about by the shed blood and death of the sacrificial (and innocent) victim and the tabernacle was the only acceptable place where the sacrifice could take place (There are some who object to the idea of a substitutionary sacrifice citing the awful nature of such blood-letting, but the death of these innocent victims forces us to reflect on the awful nature our disobedience, selfishness, and sinfulness is in God's eyes, Scripture is clear that the penalty of our rebelliousness and disregard of our creator is death. What makes this doubly serious is that God is not an evil dictator or a self-centered, heartless despot which means there is no good reason to disobey or spurn him. God's ways are summed up in the Great Commandment which is to love him with all our being and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Sin, as the Bible defines it is much more then stealing, cheating, killing, etc. It is our defiant refusal to obey this great commandment even though there is no good or real reason to do so).

The tabernacle was also the special place of God's presence for Israel. God was not far off or distant, but dwelt in the midst of his people. The tabernacle as a tent was portable which meant that God led and traveled with Israel through all their situations and circumstances whether good or bad.

John 1.14 literally states that Jesus tabernacled/tented  in our midst showing that he is the living fulfillment of what the tabernacle represented. The Gospel of John states that we see God's glory in a way that we can bear in Jesus, yet that full glory of God is present (1.14). Jesus is also our 'tent of meeting' who by becoming fully human shows God's deep desire to have fellowship with us. Jesus is called 'The Word' in John 1.1 because he reveals God (and is also God), we can understand who God is and his ways and desires through Jesus (he is God, yet one of us). Jesus is also our place of sacrifice in that he himself shed his blood on the cross as an innocent substitutionary victim (he 'covers' all our sins and rebellion against God and against one another by taking the punishment of death and eternal judgment for such acts upon himself). Jesus represents the only 'place' where God will accept this substitutionary sacrifice, God freely forgives us and covers our sins only in Jesus. The blessed result of this is that Jesus is always in 'our midst'. As being truly God and yet truly human he is not distant, far-off, or unsympathetic. As our 'tabernacle' he  travels with us through all of our situations and circumstances. Like the tabernacle of old he is always in the center of our lives