The dwelling place in the wilderness was never an end in itself; it pointed forward to a greater reality. The structure allowed the presence of the Holy One to dwell among His people, yet it remained a shadow of something more complete to come.
The Hebrew words in Exodus 25:8, commonly translated, “And let them make Me a Sanctuary, that I may dwell among them,” can also be rendered, “that I may dwell within them.” Had Israel been worthy of this reality, a physical sanctuary would not have been necessary, because the same divine presence that came to rest upon the Tabernacle would have rested within each individual.
The Gospel of John echoes this imagery: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). The Greek verb eskēnōsen literally means “to tabernacle” or “to pitch a tent.” In Yeshua, the divine presence did not dwell within a structure made with hands, but in a living person. While He was among us in the flesh, His physical body constituted a perfect sanctuary through which Yehovah could dwell in the midst of His people. What the mishkan represented in symbol, He embodied in fullness.
This is why Yeshua spoke of His body as the House (dweling) of Yehovah when He declared:
Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will raise it up.
John 2:19
These words connect His physical body with the House of Yehovah in Yerushalayim. The suffering and death of the Messiah correspond to the destruction of the Temple, while His resurrection points to the future restoration of the House of Yehovah in the Messianic age. In this sense, the body of Yeshua and the House of Yehovah share a profound and mysterious connection: what happens to one is reflected in the other.
Just as the tabernacle stood at the center of the camp, Yeshua stands at the center of redemption. Access to the Most Holy Place was once limited and mediated through priestly service, yet through Him the way into the presence of God was opened (Hebrews 10:19–20).
In this present age, the pattern continues. If the body of the Messiah corresponds to the House of Yehovah, then His disciples collectively become a dwelling place of the Ruach HaKodesh. For this reason, the apostle Shaul, drawing on Leviticus 26:12, declares to the assembly in Corinth:
“For you are the Temple of the living God. As God has said: I will dwell among them and walk among them; I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
2 Corinthians 6:16
and:
Do you not know that your body is a sanctuary of the Ruach HaKodesh who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?
1 Corinthians 6:19
This does not mean believers are literally a building in which Yehovah must be worshiped, nor a geographic location where He has placed His Name. Our likeness to the House of Yehovah is metaphorical, yet the presence of the Ruach HaKodesh within us is no less real than the Shekhinah that filled the sanctuary.
Perhaps this is what the Messiah alluded to when He told the Samaritan woman:
The hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Yerushalayim… the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.
John 4:21–23
The pattern remains consistent: the Creator desires to dwell among His people. The wilderness sanctuary revealed it, the Messiah embodied it, and the Spirit makes that dwelling reality within those who walk in obedience and faith.
In the world to come, even the Temple will no longer be needed, for the Messiah Himself will be the dwelling of God in the New Yerushalayim:
And I saw no sanctuary in it, for Yehovah God Almighty and the Lamb are its sanctuary.
Revelation 21:22
The body of Yeshua and the House of Yehovah share a profound and mysterious connection: what happens to one is reflected in the other.