God's Three Tents

When I was a kid, summers were spent sleeping in a tent. This was before the age of RVs, tent trailers, or motorhomes. You know, before glamorous camping (“glamping”). Back in the day, “roughing it” was the only option. No hot water. We cooked over an open fire or gas burner. Bugs were everywhere. In the rainy Pacific Northwest slugs slimed everything. One morning we woke up to find a toothbrush had been left on the picnic table overnight and a little slug had crawled onto the bristles like a perfectly shaped blob of yellow-brown toothpaste. Blecht! To ward off the rain, Dad strung up tarps all over the campsite. His system of multicolored tarps and ropes rivaled any spider’s web-building skill. Us kids were tasked with pushing off the accumulated pools of water with a stick so they drained on the ground. Great fun to try to soak one of your siblings unaware.

We couldn’t afford the latest gear, so our accommodation during those wet summer campouts was an old canvas tent. Broken poles were held together by various metal brackets and duct tape. It weighed a ton. The thick walls smelled like dirt, campfire smoke, and mildew - the smell of my childhood.  

No matter where we went, Mum and Dad were always with us. Even away from our regular fixed address, crammed in an old tent with a myriad of blue and orange tarps overhead, we were still home. Our family was together. Evidence of my parents’ presence was all over that campsite. Our makeshift accommodations were just temporary until we got back to our little townhouse in the city.

These two characteristics of camping trips - the presence of my parents within a temporary dwelling - are the same characteristics the Bible describes God dwelling in a tent. In fact, throughout human history, God has lived with his people in three distinct tents. 

Let’s explore each of them. 

THE TABERNACLE

When Israel escaped from slavery in Egypt, God commanded them to carry around a big tent. The Tabernacle was his home with his people, so that wherever they went God’s presence would be there too. 

The typical Hebrew word for “tent” or “tabernacle” in the Old Testament was 'ōhel. When God delivered the laws for his people to Moses, he dictated specific instructions for construction and maintenance of the Tabernacle. 

You shall make the tabernacle ('ōhel) with ten curtains of fine twined linen and blue and purple and scarlet yarns… The length of each curtain shall be twenty-eight cubits, and the breadth of each curtain four cubits; all the curtains shall be the same size. (Ex 26:1-2, ESV)

Because of his extreme holiness, there needed to be a special place for God’s presence to dwell, to keep the people safe from his unapproachable glory. Extensive rituals for priests to enter the Tabernacle were carefully followed. After its construction, 

the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle… For the cloud of the Lord was on the tabernacle by day, and fire was in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys. (Ex 40:34-38, ESV)

God’s presence was always with his people, in the same way that my parents were still with me while we camped. Although the Tabernacle was temporary, it didn’t reduce the intensity or the fullness of God’s presence. 

Generations later, the temporary Tabernacle was replaced with the permanent Temple in Jerusalem. Constructed by Israel’s third king, Solomon, this brick-and-mortar structure was built with the same care and attention to detail that the Tabernacle was. However, because Israel was settled in their permanent home, the Tabernacle was no longer needed. As ornate as it was, the Tabernacle - God’s first tent - was a shadow of what was coming later. 

JESUS

To discover the second of God’s tents, we should explore the terminology of tents in ancient Greek. 

Skēnē (feminine noun): the most common term for “tent”. It referred to Israel’s Tabernacle.

Skēnos (masculine noun): a less common term for “tent”. It was used as a metaphor for the human body, which is taken down after death (2 Cor 5:4).

Skēnoō (verb): “to dwell” or “to reside”, as in a tent.

Skēnōma (neutral noun): translates often to “dwelling place”. This term was a combination of skēnē and oma (“tumor”, “structure”, “mass”). It could also refer to the human body as a temporary dwelling (2 Pet 1:13-14).

Skia (feminine noun): “shadow”, “shade”, “outline”.

Skeuos (neutral noun): “vessel”, “jar”, “instrument”, “tool”.

Skēnopēgia (feminine noun): combination of skēnē and pēgnymi (“pitch”, “fasten together”). This term temporary shelters that were erected during the Jewish Feast of Booths.

Skēnopoios (adjective): pertaining to tentmaking.

As you can see, all these terms start with the same few letters. This is the clue to help us discover God’s second tent. 

The Word became flesh and dwelt (skēnoō) among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (Jn 1:14, ESV)

As we saw, the word skēnoō relates to dwelling in a tent, that is, a temporary dwelling. This makes perfect sense when we look elsewhere in the Bible.

[Christ Jesus], who existed in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but emptied Himself by taking the form of a bond-servant and being born in the likeness of men. (Phil 2:6-7, NASB)

Think of my family going camping for the summer: as we packed up, we emptied our house of necessary belongings, then packed it all into our vehicle. Upon arrival at the campsite, all our gear (and the members of my family) were transferred into our old canvas tent. In the same way, Christ left his heavenly home and “camped” on earth. He temporarily lived as a man, but there was no reduction in the presence of God within him.

In Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. (Col 2:9, NLT)

Just as the fullness of God lived in the Tabernacle in the wilderness, so did his fullness reside within Christ on earth. 

Thus, the second tent that the Bible describes God dwelling in is Christ’s earthly body.

THE CHURCH

When Jesus ascended to heaven, his “body” on earth was thereafter the body of each person who believed in him. 

Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. (1 Cor 12:27-31, ESV)

Those who follow Christ are where God dwells. Our very bodies are the temporary dwelling places of the Lord in this world. 

Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. (1 Cor 6:19-20, ESV)

Just as with Jesus, we see the same tent-language with respect to believers.  

I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place (skēnē) of God is with man. He will dwell (skēnoō) with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.” (Rev 21:3, ESV)

The Spirit lives in us. We are God’s tent, his earthly temple, until our bodies are replaced with permanent ones on the other side of death.

SUMMARY

Throughout history, God has filled each of his three tents with his Holy Spirit. The dwelling place was temporary (the Tabernacle, the physical body of Christ, the physical bodies of each believer), but his presence was no less within each, ensuring he would always be with his people. In each case, the temporary tent was a foreshadow (skia) of the permanent dwelling place (the Temple, the divine body of Christ, the heavenly resurrected bodies of each believer) that was yet to come. 

Just like the smell of that old canvas tent would forever remind me of the summers of childhood, each of God’s tents had his fragrance. The spiritual scent of the Holy Spirit is evidence of his presence among his people. 

Thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. (2 Cor 2:14-16, ESV)

First, the Tabernacle; second, Jesus’ earthly body; third, his church. Three tents, each temporary but no less full of God’s presence. Whether in our temporary bodies or permanent homes, God never leaves us.

© D. B. Ryen Incorporated, June 2025.