Jn.1:14 – TLV – And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us. We looked upon His glory, the glory of the one and only from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Jn.1:14 – NIV – The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
AMPC – Jn.1:14 – And the Word (Christ) became flesh (human, incarnate) and tabernacled (fixed His tent of flesh, lived awhile) among us; and we [actually] saw His glory (His honor, His majesty), such glory as an only begotten son receives from his father, full of grace (favor, loving-kindness) and truth.
The very center of the Jewish faith for many centuries was the tabernacle of Moses. The Lord instructed Moses to build this ornate tabernacle, a tent, to house God Himself among His people during the time of the exodus from Egypt to the land of Israel. The literal glory of God descended in a cloud and dwelt among the children of Israel for the forty years as they traveled to the Promised Land. This tangible presence of the Lord is what distinguished Israel from all the nations of the world.
Now take a moment, forget your pre-conceived ideas about this story and began to consider just how radical this scene is. God, Almighty God, the Creator of everything actually came down among the people of Israel and made His home in a tent. Tents are basically for campers and homeless people. Rich people don’t live in tents and you would think that God would never consider living in a tent but nevertheless, here He is.
Today’s verse from the gospel of John takes everything even a step further. This verse literally says that the Lord tabernacled or pitched His tent among us when He became a human being. Not only did God live in a tent for hundreds of years, He now lives in a human body. This is how Brian Simmons describes this verse.
“This is the fulfillment of Isa. 7:14. The “God with us” is Jesus Christ our Immanuel. He is among us in that he is in human form, a man for all eternity. The Greek and Aramaic reads, “he pitched his tent among us.” This takes us back into the book of Exodus where God came down and lived in the tent (tabernacle) in the wilderness.”
Jesus is the fulfillment of the tabernacle of Moses. He doesn’t live in a palace or an extravagant temple, He lives in the body of the son of a carpenter from Nazareth in Israel.
