The general significance of the tabernacle and its ordinances, of which the ark was the kernel, was a negative one, as is declared: "The Holy Spirit this signifying that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while the first tabernacle was yet standing" (Hebrews 9:8). Such an enunciation was necessary. God had taken the seed of Abraham according to the flesh to Himself as a nation; and it was natural for them to assume that He had taken them into complete communion. Any assumption to this effect was constantly barred by the tabernacle and its ordinances, whose effect was to hold the nation at a distance and make them feel that their union with God was far from perfect. A way of reconciliation, peace, and union was in purpose, but it was "not yet made manifest" while the tabernacle was in use.
But the tabernacle was more than a proclamation of this fact. It was a prophecy of the way that should be manifest in due time, of "good things to come", "the shadow of heavenly things", "the form of knowledge and of the truth", "the shadow of things to come", "having their substance in Christ" (Heb. 10:1; 8:5; Rom. 2:20; Col. 2:17); and also from the statement of Christ that he had come to fulfil the law as "the way". We know what is testified of Christ in simplicity and fulness and truth. We need not to grope for the light in the midst of shadows... In doing this we must not limit the substance to the individual Christ. Though applicable to him in the first instance, it comprehends every accepted constituent of the multitudinous Christ. We must remember that the individual Christ is but the head of a body, and that the body and the head are one; and that the full purpose and manifestation of Christ is not realised till this whole community with head and body -- Bridegroom and Bride -- are in the immortal occupation of the earth to the glory of God the Father.
(By Robert Roberts)