Mosaic

The Tabernacle of David

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During the Davidic era the tabernacle of Moses and its worship were moved to Gibeon. In addition, David set up a worship center in Zion—a tent of meeting, also known as David’s tabernacle—and instituted a non-sacrificial worship of praise and thanksgiving.

Historical Background of the Davidic Tabernacle

During the period when Eli was priest in Israel, the word of the Lord came through Samuel that judgment would soon fall on the priest and his household (1 Sam. 3:11–14). Unrestrained by their father, Eli’s two sons had been perverting the sacrifices and committing adultery with the women who came to the tabernacle, which displeased the Lord (1 Sam. 2:22).

As a part of the prophesied judgment, Israel was engaged in a war they were losing to their perennial enemies the Philistines. After a particularly debilitating defeat, the elders brought out the ark of God from the tabernacle and carried it into battle with them. Traditionally, a nation’s king led the armies into battle. Israel had no king but Yahweh; so when the ark, which was the symbol of God’s presence with his people, was carried before the armies, it was as if the Lord himself went before them. However, the ark was of no help, since the presence of the Lord had been withdrawn, and not only was the battle lost, but Eli’s two sons were killed and the ark of God was captured by the enemy (1 Sam. 4:2–10).

Months later, after the Philistines experienced plague and death wherever the ark went, they returned it to Israel on a cart pulled by two oxen. When the Israelites who found it were struck dead for looking inside it, the ark was not returned to its place in the tabernacle but was given over to the citizens of Kiriath Jearim, who housed it with a man named Abinadab and sanctified his son Eleazar to care for it. Samuel became judge of Israel and Saul followed as king, and still the ark of God was not returned to the tabernacle. Sometime during these years the tabernacle itself was moved from Shiloh to Gibeon (1 Sam. 6).

After David ascended the throne, he and the elders of Israel went to the house of Abinadab to retrieve the ark (2 Sam. 6:2–4). Surprisingly, however, they did not return it to the tabernacle in Gibeon but put it in a tent, sometimes called a tabernacle, that David constructed for it in the city of Zion, where he lived (2 Sam. 6:17). Priests and Levites were sanctified to carry on worship before it, but except for the initial dedication ceremonies, this worship did not involve burnt sacrifices.

Worship at David’s Tabernacle

From the biblical accounts it appears that David appointed teams of worshipers who served in rotating shifts, day and night. Their duties consisted of praising the Lord with singing, prophesying, and playing musical instruments before the ark (1 Chron. 16:4; 25:1–31). It is reasonable to assume that many of the psalms were both written and used in this context, particularly since they were authored by David, Asaph, and others from David’s worship teams, and because they frequently allude to worship in the tent in Zion.

“O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise,” writes David. “You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings” (Ps. 51:15–16). Asaph sings that the Lord “abandoned the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent he had set up among men.… But he chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion which he loved. He built his sanctuary like the heights … ” (Ps. 78:60, 68–69). Korah testifies, “He has set his foundation on the holy mountain; the Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob” (Ps. 87:1–2). The psalm goes on to sing the praises of Zion and exult in the privilege of being born in that city. It ends, “The Lord will write in the register of the peoples: ‘This one was born in Zion.’ As they make music they will sing, ‘All my fountains are in you’ ” (Ps. 87:6–7). Asaph describes the glory of the Lord radiating from the tent where the ark is resting: “From Zion, in perfect beauty, God shines forth” (Ps. 50:2). Psalm 134:1 commands all the servants of the Lord who stand in his house at night to bless him; this is apparently a reference to the worship teams that served in David’s tabernacle night and day. Many of the psalms speak of praise and worship of the Lord and give instructions about performing these covenant obligations. The people of Yahweh are to clap (Ps. 47:1), lift their hands (Ps. 134:1–2), shout (Ps. 66:1), sing (Ps. 27:6), play instruments (Ps. 150:3–5), dance (Ps. 149:3), and bow and kneel before him (Ps. 95:6). Other psalms admonish the worshiper to sing a “new song” to the Lord (Pss. 96:1; 98:1; 149:1).

A number of psalms contain words spoken by the Lord himself. These probably came through various worshipers as they ministered under a prophetic anointing. Musical prophecy, both vocal and instrumental, was a feature of Davidic worship. “David … set apart some of the sons of Asaph … for the ministry of prophesying, accompanied by harps, lyres and cymbals … ” (1 Chron. 25:1; cf. Pss. 92:1–3; 98:5).

Decline and Revival of Davidic Worship

Davidic worship was not based on ritual or ceremony but was a spontaneous response to the moving of God’s Spirit. For this reason it could not be passed to succeeding generations of Israelites, as was the Mosaic sacrificial system. In periods of moral and spiritual decline in the history of Israel and Judah, Davidic praise and worship died out, and in some cases the entire sacrificial system was abandoned as well, as the nations followed their leaders into apostasy and idolatry.

However, each time a righteous king initiated a reform and return to the worship of Yahweh, it was accompanied by worship according to the pattern of the tabernacle of David. Under Asa the covenant was renewed, and Judah “took an oath to the Lord with loud acclamation, with shouting and with trumpets and horns” and sought the Lord “eagerly” (2 Chron. 15:14–15). When the child Joash was crowned king and the worship of the Lord was restored under Jehoiada the priest, “all the people of the land were rejoicing and blowing trumpets, and singers with musical instruments were leading the praises” (2 Chron. 23:13). After cleansing the temple and removing idols from Judah, Hezekiah installed the Levites in the sanctuary with their musical instruments, “in the way prescribed by David and Gad the king’s seer and Nathan the prophet” (2 Chron. 29:25). Hezekiah understood David’s instruction for worship to be a commandment of the Lord. The people worshiped as the singers sang, and the king ordered that the songs be those of David and Asaph (2 Chron. 29:25–30). Josiah followed the example set by Hezekiah, tearing down pagan altars and leading a great national cleansing and reform in Judah. A result of the reform was a revival of worship in which the descendants of Asaph were set in place as leaders “prescribed by David, Asaph, Heman and Jeduthun,” members of David’s original worship team (2 Chron. 35:15).

Zerubbabel returned to Judah from the captivity in Babylon to rebuild the temple of the Lord. In Ezra 3:10–13 it is written that a celebration of worship ensued after the foundation was laid in which the Levites and sons of Asaph praised the Lord with trumpets, cymbals, shouting, and singing, “as prescribed by David, king of Israel” (v. 10). Nehemiah led the returned captives in rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem and in a national purging and return to the covenant. At the dedication of the wall the Levites were instructed to sing and give thanks and to use David’s musical instruments according to the commandments of David and Solomon (Neh. 12:27–46). “In the days of David and Asaph, there had been directors for the singers and for the songs of praise and thanksgiving to God” (v. 46).

Davidic Worship and the New Covenant

A significant feature of the worship in David’s tabernacle was that it was conducted directly in front of the ark, where the presence of the Lord resided. Under the Mosaic system, the ark was kept in the inner recesses of the tabernacle and was seen only by the high priest and then only once each year. David was careful to comply with the stipulation that only the Levites could carry the ark (1 Chron. 15:2), but he did not put it out of the sight of the people. The worship that took place directly before the ark prefigured New Testament worship, in which all Christians are members of the priesthood (1 Pet. 2:9) and have direct access to God’s presence (Heb. 4:16). This is particularly significant in view of James’s interpretation of the tabernacle of David as the church. Commenting on the salvation of Gentiles under Paul’s ministry, James explains to the apostles gathered in Jerusalem,

“Brothers, listen to me. Simon [Peter] has described to us how God at first showed his concern by taking from the Gentiles a people for himself. The words of the prophets are in agreement with this, as it is written: ‘After this I will return and rebuild David’s fallen tent. Its ruins I will rebuild, And I will restore it, That the remnant of men may seek the Lord, And all the Gentiles who bear my name,’ says the Lord, who does these things that have been known for ages. It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God” (Acts 15:13–19).

David prophesied this very thing in the Psalms when he wrote, “All the nations you have made will come and worship before you, O Lord; and they will bring glory to your name” (Ps. 86:9). “All kings will bow down to him and all nations will serve him.… All nations will be blessed through him, and they will call him blessed” (Ps. 72:11, 17). The author of Hebrews concurs when he writes to the church, “You have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God … to thousands … in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven … to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant … (Heb. 12:22–24).

Davidic Worship and the Church

In Christian worship, the Psalms have been normative, along with the instructions given by the Lord through David for the kind of worship he desires. Paul instructs the church to sing (Eph. 5:18–19), to lift their hands (1 Tim. 2:8), and to rejoice (Phil. 3:1; 4:4). He tells the Roman Christians that their whole bodies are to be offered to the Lord as a service of worship (Rom. 12:1–2). God’s people are to sing “in the Spirit” (1 Cor. 14:15; Col. 3:16), a possible reference to the “new song” commanded by David. This practice is carried on in a number of modern churches as a musical interlude, sometimes called the selah, in which the congregation engages in free-flowing vocal and instrumental praise to the Lord. Selah is thought to be related to the verb salal, used in Psalm 68:4 for the “lifting up” of a song. It is usually interpreted to mean a musical interruption or pause in the worship pattern.

The tabernacle of David, like the temple, is a foreshadowing of the worship of the church of Jesus Christ. It provides a model of God’s people entering his gates with thanksgiving, coming into the court of the king through praise, offering anointed sacrifices with their entire beings, night and day. “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that confess his name” (Heb. 13:15).

The Work of the Priest in the Tabernacle

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The legislation in the Pentateuch assigned numerous duties to the Hebrew priests and Levites. Chief among them were maintaining and transporting the tabernacle (Num. 3–4) and performing the rituals and liturgies associated with Israelite worship in the sanctuary (Exod. 28–29). It is likely that some of these duties were determined by lot and discharged on a rotating basis (cf. 1 Chron. 23–24).

Bronze Basin or Laver. The priests were to wash their hands and feet at the laver upon entering the tent of meeting (tabernacle proper) and before ministering at that altar of burnt offering (Exod. 30:17–21).

Altar of Burnt Offering. The national festival, daily, and individual sacrifices took place at the altar of burnt offering. Mosaic law instructed the priests to prepare and sacrifice a year-old lamb in the morning and evening each day. This burnt offering was to be accompanied by grain and drink offerings (Exod. 29:38–46; Num. 28:1–8).

The Mosaic legislation prescribing the five basic sacrifices offered to God by the people of Israel is found in Leviticus 1–7. Three types of sacrifices were required: offerings of expiation, offerings of consecration, and offerings of fellowship.

The offerings of expiation included a six-part ritual, three acts performed by the worshiper and three acts performed by the priest. The worshiper brought his offering to the gateway of the tabernacle (perhaps in the forecourt on the north side of the altar of burnt offering). He then laid his hands on the sacrificial victim and confessed his sin and guilt. Then the worshiper slaughtered the sacrificial animal. The priest cut the victim into pieces, arranged the sacrifice on the altar, and ignited the burnt offering. During this process the priest collected the blood of the victim in a basin and dashed it against the four sides of the altar. Then the priest and his family, or the priest and the worshiper, ate the remaining portions of the offering as a sacrificial meal.

Non-animal sacrifices were prepared by the worshiper; this preparation included anointing the offering with oil and frankincense, and in some cases baking without leaven. The worshiper brought the sacrifice to the entrance of the tabernacle. There the priest received the sacrifice and burned a portion of it on the altar of burnt offering. The priest was permitted to retain the remaining portion of the offering as a sacrificial meal for his family (Lev. 2:1–10).

Specific ritual sacrifice was also prescribed for the national and festival worship gatherings. Especially prominent were the Passover, the Feast of Firstfruits, Pentecost, and the Day of Atonement. Sacrificial instructions for these and other national and festival holy days are outlined in Exodus 12:3; 29; Leviticus 16; 23; and Numbers 28–29. The instructions to the priests for keeping the fire burning on the altar of burnt offering are in Leviticus 6:8–13.

Table of Shewbread and Lampstand. The priests were charged to keep the lampstand (Hebrew mƒnorah) burning during the hours of darkness (evening until morning) each day (Lev. 24:1–4). The priests also prepared twelve loaves of bread to be arranged on the table of shewbread in two rows of six loaves each. The loaves were to be garnished with frankincense and were replaced every Sabbath by the priests (Lev. 24:5–8).

Altar of Incense. The priests were commanded to burn incense twice daily on the altar of incense, which stood before the curtain of the tabernacle separating the Most Holy Place from the sanctuary. The incense offerings coincided with the snuffing out of the lampstand in the morning and the lighting of the lampstand in the evening (Exod. 30:1–10).

Once a year sacrificial blood was sprinkled on the altar of incense to purify it as part of the Day of Atonement ceremony (Lev. 16:18–29).

Curtain or Veil of the Tabernacle. The curtain was made of wool, dyed blue, purple, and scarlet, and was embroidered with cherubim. The curtain divided the tent of meeting into two sections: the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place. Once a year, on the Day of Atonement, the high priest was permitted to go beyond the curtain into the Most Holy Place (Exod. 26:31–35).

Ark of the Covenant. The ark of the covenant was the visible symbol of God’s holy presence and covenant relationship with Israel. The ark contained the tokens of Israel’s redemption from slavery in Egypt: the stone tablets of God’s law, a bowl of manna, and Aaron’s rod. The ark of the covenant resided in the Most Holy Place. Annually, on the Day of Atonement, the high priest appeared before the ark to burn incense and sprinkle blood of the sacrifice on the mercy seat resting on the top of the ark. The ritual made atonement for the tabernacle, cleansing the sanctuary of Israel’s uncleanness and transgressions (Lev. 16:11–19).

Mosaic Worship and the Exodus

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After the Exodus the worship of Israel became more formalized, characterized by the Mosaic institutions and regulations. The commitment to the law of the covenant became the central feature of Israelite worship.

Worship forms became more formalized in the book of Exodus. Yahweh’s active intervention in Israel’s history is characterized in the contest with Pharaoh. The deliverance from Egypt embodied the essence of Yahweh’s relationship with his people; the “Song of Moses” (Exod. 15) enshrined deep-seated truths. One of Israel’s great festivals looks back to this experience of liberation. The remembrance of the Passover incorporates Jews of every generation as actual participants in the Mosaic exodus.

Despite their murmurings through the desert wanderings, the Israelites learned to know Yahweh as he provided food for them and called them his own. The desert experience in later worship became symbolic of God’s provision and care (Deut. 8:1–20). God’s instructions for the building and arrangement of his dwelling in the tabernacle and the details pertaining to the priesthood, the sacrifices, and the worship service were very specific. Many chapters of the Pentateuch are dedicated to the details of the tabernacle’s construction (Exod. 25–31). Worship and the manner in which worship was offered were evidently extremely important to Yahweh.

The tent of meeting illustrated the mobility of Yahweh. Unlike the pagan gods, who were deities of limited geographical areas, Yahweh went with his people as an ever-present reality through their wanderings. In the desert wanderings Yahweh led Moses and the people to Mt. Sinai. Here an encounter with Yahweh grounded Israelite worship in an event that would profoundly affect the rest of Judeo-Christian history. The covenant of Sinai bound the whole nation of Israel to Yahweh. The nation received the Law, that is, the Decalogue, and the Book of the Covenant, which would direct its future. The covenantal relationship and the commitment to the Law of Yahweh became the stamp of Judaism. Ironically, one of the historic high points of Yahweh’s relationship with his people also revealed the sin and the alien worship that God’s people were tempted to embrace later (Exod. 32). The golden calf became a reminder of the syncretistic nature of God’s people. From this point forward false versus true worship would be a theme for the worshipers of Yahweh.

The Exodus was a fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham (Gen. 12:1–3). The book of Exodus is pivotal in describing the central experience of the Hebrew people. This story records the celebrations and ritual acts of Israel that arose in response to the liberation event that gave freedom to a nation. Exodus records the transformation of the old pagan notions into new forms, such as covenant and law, that brand Israel as unique among nations, with the Passover rite (Exod. 12) at the heart of all.

References to the Practice of Jewish Worship in the New Testament

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The New Testament records a number of occasions on which Jesus, the apostles, or the early Christians are found taking part in Jewish festivals or other acts of worship. The accounts of these events involve terminology descriptive of Jewish worship.

Jesus and Jewish Worship

As an infant, Jesus was presented in the temple; since he was the first child of Mary and Joseph, they offered the mandatory sacrifice (thusia) to redeem the firstborn (Luke 2:21–24). As a young man, Jesus went with his family in pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover (hē heortē tou pascha), as was their annual custom (Luke 2:41–42). At the beginning of his public ministry, he would teach in synagogues (sunagōgē, “assembly”), including the ones in his hometown of Nazareth (Luke 4:14–16) and in Capernaum (John 6:59), where he later seems to have made his home. The synagogue was an institution not primarily for worship but for prayer and instruction in the Scriptures. But on one occasion, at least, Jesus also attended the Jewish Feast of Booths or Tabernacles (hē heortē tōn Ioudaiōn hē skēnopēgia) in Jerusalem; Jesus sent his brothers on without him but later went up privately and began to teach in the temple in the middle of the feast (John 7:2–14). On the last day of the feast (“the great day of the feast,” tē megalē tēs heortēs), Jesus spoke of the river of living water, the Holy Spirit, which was to flow from those believing in him (John 7:37–39). His imagery may have been drawn from the ceremony of the “drawing of water,” a post-Mosaic addition to the Feast of Tabernacles in which the priest at the altar poured out a pitcher of water drawn from the pool of Siloam.

Jesus and the Passover

The best-known of Jesus’ observances of the feasts of Israel is, of course, his participation in the Passover (Greek pascha, cognate to Hebrew pesaḥ) with his disciples on the night of his arrest (Matt. 26:17–30; Mark 14:12–26; Luke 22:7–38). As head of the “family” of his followers, Jesus gave instructions for preparation of the meal on the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread (hē prōtē tōn azumōn, Matt. 26:17), when the Passover lamb was to be sacrificed (Mark 14:12). At the end of the meal, Jesus and his disciples sang a hymn (humneō, “sing a hymn,” Matt. 26:30), no doubt the “Egyptian Hallel,” Psalms 113–118, an act of praise that was traditionally sung at Passover and on other festive occasions. Within this outward framework of the meal celebrating the old covenant, Christ instituted the sacred meal of the new covenant, transforming the bread and wine of the feast into the symbols of his body broken and his blood shed for the forgiven people of the kingdom of God (Matt. 26:26–29).

Jesus and Mosaic Institutions

During his ministry, Jesus evidenced a respect for the institutions of Mosaic worship, though he often criticized the Pharisees and their scribes for their superficial and casuistic approach to the Torah. After healing a leper, Jesus instructed him to follow the Mosaic procedure outlined in Leviticus 14:1–32, showing himself to the priest and making the required offering (Mark 1:44). In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus spoke of the need to be reconciled with a “brother” member of the covenant community before offering worship. “Leave your gift there in front of the altar [thusiastērion].… First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift [prosphere to dōron sou]” (Matt. 5:24). Jesus told of the respected Pharisee and the despised publican, who collected taxes for the Roman administration, both of whom entered the temple to pray; he commended the publican, who threw himself upon the mercies of God, rather than the Pharisee, who saw himself as spiritually superior (Luke 18:9–14). In an extended diatribe against the Pharisees, Jesus utters a remarkable statement concerning the temple and its altar. The Pharisees had taught that the worshiper’s gift is more important than the sanctuary, so that one is obligated if he swears by the gold contributed to the temple or by the gift on the altar; to the contrary, Jesus declares it is the temple (naos) that makes the gold holy and the altar (thusiastērion) that sanctifies the gift (Matt. 23:16–22). Jesus’ high view of the Israelite sanctuary—the destruction of which he nevertheless predicted—is foundational to an appreciation of the depth of temple symbolism in the New Testament’s picture of the body of Christ as the temple of the Holy Spirit (2 Cor. 6:16) or of the Lord God and the Lamb as the temple in the midst of the people of the new covenant (Rev. 21:22).

The Early Church and Jewish Worship

Luke concludes his gospel by mentioning that, after the resurrection, the followers of Christ “were continually in the temple blessing [eulogeō] God” (Luke 24:53 rsv) and continues this theme into the book of Acts in recording that the earliest Christians of Jerusalem frequented the temple for prayer (Acts 2:46). This attendance in the temple was not participation in the sacrificial rites conducted by the Jewish priesthood. Christians understood that the crucifixion of Christ had fulfilled these and brought them to an end. However, a number of synagogues met within the precincts of the temple for study and prayer; these were the assemblies in which the Christians participated. According to Acts 2:42, the early Christians of Jerusalem applied themselves “to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer,” literally “the prayers” (hai proseuchai); these were probably the traditional public prayers of the Jewish assembly, since Acts 3:1 records that Peter and John were going up to the temple “at the ninth hour, the hour of prayer” (nasb). The importance the early believers attached to participation in the worship of the Jewish community is signified by the fact that it was on the day of Pentecost, one of the three annual feasts mandated in the Torah (Lev. 23:16; Deut. 16:10), that the apostles were filled with the Holy Spirit and for the first time publicly proclaimed the crucified and risen Jesus as “both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36). The Greek term for the Hebrew “Feast of Weeks,” hē pentēkostē, literally means “the fiftieth,” as it falls fifty days after Passover.

Separation from Jewish Institutions

As time went on, the participation of Christians in Jewish worship decreased. In the early stages of Christian missionary expansion, the apostles used the synagogues of the Jewish diaspora as forums for the preaching of Jesus as the Christ (Acts 9:20; 13:5; 13:14–43; 14:1; 17:1–4). As opposition developed within the Jewish community, however, Christian involvement in the synagogues became a less attractive proposition. Theological factors, of course, played their part in the separation, along with persecution. In time the radical departure of the new covenant faith from the traditions of institutional Judaism became more readily apparent to Christian thinkers. In the teaching of Paul, Christian faith is the true and free “Jerusalem that is above” (Gal. 4:26), whereas “the present city of Jerusalem … is in slavery with her children” (v. 25) and is persecuting those born “by the power of the Spirit” (v. 29). The book of Acts (Acts 21:23–28) records that Paul undertook a Jewish vow of purification and paid the expenses of four other Jerusalem Christians who were under an oath or vow (euchē). Paul thus showed his willingness to please the Jerusalem church by participating in strict observance of the Law. Some Asian Jews, however, seeing Paul in the temple and knowing of his affiliation with Gentiles, led an attack on Paul for defiling the temple, which resulted in Paul’s final imprisonment. Troubled relations with synagogues persisted in the first century and, in places like Smyrna, generated great ill-feeling (Rev. 2:9).