12 The Lord said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain and wait there, that I may give you the tablets of stone, with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction.” (Exodus 24:12, ESV)

1 The Lord said to Moses, 2 “Speak to the people of Israel, that they take for me a contribution. From every man whose heart moves him you shall receive the contribution for me. 3 And this is the contribution that you shall receive from them: gold, silver, and bronze, 4 blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen, goats’ hair, 5 tanned rams’ skins, goatskins, acacia wood, 6 oil for the lamps, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense, 7 onyx stones, and stones for setting, for the ephod and for the breastpiece. 8 And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst. 9 Exactly as I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle, and of all its furniture, so you shall make it. (Exodus 25:1–9, ESV)

1 “Then bring near to you Aaron your brother, and his sons with him, from among the people of Israel, to serve me as priests—Aaron and Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar. 2 And you shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother, for glory and for beauty. 3 You shall speak to all the skillful, whom I have filled with a spirit of skill, that they make Aaron’s garments to consecrate him for my priesthood. 4 These are the garments that they shall make: a breastpiece, an ephod, a robe, a coat of checker work, a turban, and a sash. They shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother and his sons to serve me as priests. 5 They shall receive gold, blue and purple and scarlet yarns, and fine twined linen. (Exodus 28:1–5, ESV)

1 The Lord said to Moses, 2 “See, I have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, 3 and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship, 4 to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver, and bronze, 5 in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, to work in every craft. 6 And behold, I have appointed with him Oholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan. And I have given to all able men ability, that they may make all that I have commanded you: (Exodus 31:1–6, ESV)12 And the Lord said to Moses, 13 “You are to speak to the people of Israel and say, ‘Above all you shall keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the Lord, sanctify you. (Exodus 31:12–13, ESV)

18 And he gave to Moses, when he had finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God. (Exodus 31:18, ESV)

At this point in Exodus, Yahweh has already rescued the Hebrew people out of Egypt, but now he is in the process of reinventing those same Hebrew people. God had promised Moses that the Hebrews would meet with and worship him on the same mountain of the burning bush. There, God would declare to them his word and prepare them for their destiny.

And gather at that mountain they did. As smoke descended and thunder roared, God spoke through Moses to the people. First, he invited them into a covenant—a marriage of sorts—if they kept it, they would be known as God's treasured possession, a kingdom of priests and a holy nation to the world around them. Resoundingly, Israel accepted God's proposal, so God told them to prepare themselves for the third day when he would declare his covenant to them. When they gathered, God thundered his Ten Commandments to them—a beautiful life designed by a beautiful God. After the Ten, Moses went back up the mountain to be alone with God and listen to the Book of the Covenant, various laws that extended from the Ten, all of which were meant to govern everyday Israelite life.

Then Moses gathered the people, offered sacrifices on their new altar, and read the Book of the Covenant to the multitude. When they said they would keep the words within it, Moses threw the blood of the sacrifice on the altar and on the people as a way to prepare for the mercy and grace they would inevitably need in this new and close relationship with the holy and perfect God. The need for grace—and grace itself—was everywhere.

Then, after a communal meal between God and the elders, Moses trudged back up the mountain for a sixth time to hear God's voice. Yahweh promised to give him tablets of stone on which to store The Ten, so Moses took his assistant, Joshua, entered the cloud and went up on the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights (Ex. 24:15-18). During that time, in our massive passage today, God commissioned Israel to build him a tabernacle. Nearly all of the rest of Exodus deals with this structure and the priests who ministered there. Thirteen of the final sixteen chapters in Exodus deal with this tabernacle—first, Moses received the detailed plans, then, after a terrible interlude involving a golden calf, Moses led them to build. The God who explained humanity's origin in a few short chapters in Genesis detailed Israel's tabernacle complex in painstaking detail.

The incrementally slow detailing of the tabernacle complex has perplexed many Bible readers over the years. What are we to do with the myriad of materials, metals, instruments, garments, and sacrifices that inhabit all these directions? Should we slowly grind our way through a seventeen-part series on the elements found in the tabernacle instructions? Knowing that this tabernacle system was fulfilled in Christ, should we stalk this passage, hunting for types, illustrations, or allusions to Jesus?

If I am critiquing that method I am only critiquing myself because I have done them. But what I would like to do here is flyover this passage in an attempt to learn about God. What are we to discover about our God, our story of redemption, and our lives with this God from this passage? The Bible has many ways of teaching us, but one of its best methods is to teach divine truth through imagery, and these chapters on the tabernacle give us intense visual aids to understand spiritual realities.[^1]

To Meet With Us

The first point we should consider is that this tabernacle was referred to as the "tent of meeting"—here are in the rest of the Bible—because God wants to meet with his people (Ex. 27:21, 2 Ch. 5:5). God's heart for this tent of meeting was expressed when he said, "Let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst" (25:8). He wanted to be with them, and, at that point, a tent was the perfect structure for him to inhabit.

Later on, during Solomon's reign, this tabernacle tent would be rebuilt as a permanent temple in Jerusalem. It made sense that God's moveable tent would turn into God's permanent building at that time because Israel had found their homeland. But, during the exodus, it would not have made sense for Israel to build a temple out in the wilderness.

Nor did it make sense for them to remain in God's presence at Mt. Sinai. They were a people on the move, on their way to the Promised Land, so they lived in tents—and God wanted to live with them, so he told them to build him a tent. God would not remain at Sinai but with his people. Thus, the tent became a mini-Mt. Sinai that traveled with them wherever they went.

But the entire tabernacle complex brings us back to God's original intention for humanity. So much of the imagery found throughout the tabernacle is reminiscent of the garden of Eden.

Like Eden, the tabernacle was a place of divine-human interaction—God would dwell and fellowship with his people there.
Just as Eden was the byproduct of God's seven days of creation, each started by God's voice, the tabernacle was the byproduct of seven statements from God—seven times in Exodus 25-31 we read the phrase "the LORD said."
Like Eden, the Sabbath is mentioned with the Lord's seventh saying about the tabernacle's creation, just as the Sabbath was mentioned on the seventh day of creation.
Like the paradise of Eden, the tabernacle was filled with precious medals, spices, produce, and images of fruit—a beautifully designed space just like Eden.
Just as the Garden of Eden was closed to Adam and Eve when the cherubim were placed at its entrance, so cherubim were depicted on the tabernacle curtains and on the lid of the ark of the covenant.
Just as Eden had the tree of life, so the tabernacle had a lampstand that resembled a tree, complete with branches and almond blossoms.

In other words, the tabernacle was brimming with God's Genesis intention that we would be in a loving relationship with him. So when God calls this the tent of meeting, we can know he is reclaiming a small, holy space to carry out his original plans for humanity. As long as Israel prioritized that facility, there would always be an Edenic place on earth where God dwelt with man.

The mixture of his holiness and our sinfulness forces a separation between us, but through this tabernacle complex, God did what he could at that time to close the gap. God is said to be found in the innermost room on the lid of the ark of the covenant, and through a complicated set of cleansing, rituals, sacrifice, and priestly regulations, God could dwell again with his people. The tabernacle isn't a picture of God creating barriers to himself but knocking down barriers we originated so that we could know him.

I am certain you and I do not know how interested God is in us. But the image of the tabernacle should help us. Doesn't the ornate design of, and intricate worship at, the tabernacle speak to us of God's deep love for humanity? Doesn't it illustrate God's love for us?

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16, ESV)

When I tour an art museum, I appreciate the experience but, without an art history class under my belt, my appreciation only goes so far. Because of this, when an art expert or artist tours an art museum, they will inevitably take longer and get more out of it than I will. My cursory understanding leads to only a surface-level appreciation, while their detailed understanding leads to an in-depth appreciation of the art at hand. In a similar way, it is one thing to quickly pass through the halls of God's love. Saying things like, "God wants to know you and meet with you," sounds nice enough to those without an appreciation for him and his holiness, but when we look these tabernacle chapters in the face, we realize another facet of the enormity of his love. He did all this, he took all these steps, just to be with his people. God so loved the world.

To Extend Grace

The second point we should consider is the triumph of grace at the center of this entire structure. Modern Christians can easily be intimidated by all the blood sacrifice and threats of death scattered throughout the tabernacle passages of the Old Testament. In our text today, Aaron and his sons are warned about performing the priestly rites according to God's directions so that they may not die (Ex. 28:35, 43, 30:20-21). Blood of bulls and rams are smeared on altars, earlobes, fingers, and feet, not to mention sprinkled on the garments of the priests (Ex. 28:12, 16, 20, 29:21, 30:10). And once each year, the high priest went into the most holy compartment of the tabernacle, the holy of holies, and sprinkled the blood of the national sacrifice on the lid of the Ark of the Covenant (Lev. 16). The ark was the first thing described to Moses. At the center of the tabernacle was the ark, its contents, and its lid, the dwelling place of God. The tabernacle had to be described with God and his ark as the starting place, pushing outward from the center in its description, because the whole point of the entire tabernacle system was to get back to God.

We must remember the tabernacle's place in redemptive history. God's hand had been forced in Eden, and humanity, for their protection, had to be banished from God's presence. He is love, but he is also holy, and anything unholy cannot handle the full blast of his glory. Once Jesus came, the pathway to becoming fully and permanently holy in God the Father's sight was paved, but at this point in the story, the tabernacle was as good as it got. God designed all this as a road back to himself.

And the tremendous reality here is that it worked! God's grace triumphed, and his people, though they would inevitably break his covenant, could meet with God through the tabernacle and its system. God, in all his glory, majesty, and holiness, could dwell with his people. Grace had won! When Israel did not keep the Ten Commandments that were stored inside the ark, they could be rescued by the blood that was placed on the lid of the ark.

Many of us read these details with a sigh of relief that Jesus fulfilled all these elements for us. The blood of bulls and goats just doesn't go all that well with our after-service bagels on the patio! But to feel that relief might miss the point. Gospel-loving Jesus-followers are intensely blood and sacrifice-oriented people. We believe that the blood of bulls and goats could never permanently remove the stain of sin but that it took the blood of the incarnate Son of God to save us. As Hebrews says, "By a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified" (Heb. 10:14). We are, in other words, a people of his blood.

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. (Hebrews 10:19–22, ESV)

Ever since I was a little guy, I have prided myself on having good handwriting. But, no matter how hard I try, my handwriting is always hindered by my left-handedness. No matter how a lefty configures his hand, because we write from left to right, his words are bound to smudge and smear. I am always on the hunt for pencils and pens that will give me clean writing—but I have mostly resorted to the typed word as a result. I can remember handwriting papers in school—blue ink smeared on the entire thing.

That smeared ink is a great metaphor for my life. No matter how hard I try, I so often muck up the facets of living. My relationships, my purpose, my attitudes, my drives—all of them are smudged by my sin. But God's grace triumphs over my brokenness; the blood of Christ covers and cleanses me of my sin.

Test Our Earnestness

The third point we should consider is that all these directions surrounding the tabernacle were a true test of Israel's earnestness. Did these Hebrew people truly want God? Were they genuine in their desire to keep his covenant? Their response to these pages would tell the story.

Throughout the directions, the phrase "you shall" is repeated over 150 times. You shall make. You shall put. You shall set. You shall hang. You shall receive. You shall bring. On repeat, God gave Israel his directions for their tabernacle. It was up to them to obey or not. They were to do everything according to the plan they were shown on the mountain (Ex. 26:30).

On top of this, the entire passage is bracketed with the responsibility of these redeemed people to provide the materials and supply the craftsmen for the work (Ex. 25:1-9, 31:1-11). God started this section by saying, “Speak to the people of Israel, that they take for me a contribution. From every man whose heart moves him you shall receive the contribution for me" (Ex. 25:2). And the section closed with the calling of two men, Bezalel and Oholiab, craftsmen who would take the compiled materials from the contribution and make the tabernacle out of them (Ex. 31:1-11). God wrote The Ten on the two tablets with his own finger, but he required skillful people to build his house. Then, there was one last plea from God for everyone to prioritize one day each week. The Sabbath was a keystone habit, so he said, "Above all you shall keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you" (Ex. 31:12-17).

And God's invitation for them to build the structure would then extend to every future generation to use the structure—Come to God's house. Worship the LORD. Pursue him. Seek his face. In fact, one way to understand all the Old Testament prophets is that they were messengers who kept calling God's people back to this covenant. Whenever Israel drifted from the Sabbaths and true worship of God, whenever they atrophied into cold liturgy rather than white-hot worship, the prophets were there to implore them. Every one of the sixteen prophets wanted Israel to revive. Some of them—Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, Amos, Zephaniah, and Zechariah—implored the people to "seek the Lord." In one particularly poetic exhortation, Hosea said, "Break up your fallow ground, for it is the time to seek the Lord, that he may come and rain righteousness upon you" (Hos. 10:12).

This test of earnestness follows God's people into the church era as well. When Jesus spoke to John about the seven churches of Asia Minor, he told the highly accomplished Ephesian church that they had abandoned their first love (Rev. 2:4). They needed to "remember from where" they had "fallen; repent, and do the works" they had done "at first" (Rev. 2:5). And Jesus exhorted the lukewarm Laodicean church to come to terms with their spiritual bankruptcy and begin turning to him in a genuine way (Rev. 3:15-18). Jesus was looking for those who would accept the invitation of his knock and open the door—he said, "I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me" (Rev. 3:20). Jesus' invitation sounds so similar to Yahweh's invitation to Israel to build his tabernacle so that he might "dwell in their midst" (Ex. 25:8).

Hebrews tells us that Jesus is our great high priest who paved the way for us to be in a relationship with God. He did this by laying down his life for ours on the cross and then rising from the grave. As a result, we should "with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need" (Heb.4:16). God is there. His throne of grace is accessible. And he invites us to pursue him. Let us earnestly and boldly enter in.

When you become a born-again believer in Jesus, you gain access to the entirety of God. This can be intimidating, like someone saying you have just been given access to Mt. Everest—Where do I begin? I am too weak for this journey! But when you are born again, you are born of the Spirit, and he acts as the ultimate mountain climber living within. Paul taught that the Spirit of God searches out the thoughts of God, helping us "understand the things freely given us by God" (2 Cor. 2:6-13). So, as we approach Yahweh with the Spirit's aid, we are strengthened in our quest to know God by God himself.

Temporary Structure

It might be obvious that this tabernacle was a temporary structure. This does not mean it was bad. It just means it was fulfilled in Jesus—and it all pointed to Jesus. John said that when Jesus incarnated, he tabernacled among us (John 1:14). And Hebrews says that the tabernacle and its priesthood waited for Jesus—

But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. (Hebrews 9:11–14)

Jesus has come. He has dwelt among us. And now, because of his blood, we can truly serve the living God.

Study Questions

Head (Knowledge, Facts, Understanding):

What are the key materials and items used in the construction of the Tabernacle as described in Exodus 25-31, and what might their significance be?
How do the detailed instructions for the Tabernacle in Exodus reflect God's character and his desire for worship?
How does the concept of the Tabernacle as a "Tent of Meeting" align with God's intention for his relationship with Israel?

Heart (Feelings, Impressions, Desires):

What emotions or thoughts arise when you consider the detailed care God took in designing the Tabernacle?
How does the imagery of the Tabernacle as a reflection of the Garden of Eden impact your understanding of God's desire for fellowship with humanity?
In what ways do the sacrificial practices and the role of the high priest in the Tabernacle affect your perception of sin and atonement?

Hands (Actions, Commitments, Decisions, Beliefs):

What practical steps can you take in your life to create a space (literal or metaphorical) that honors God's presence as the Israelites did with the Tabernacle?
How can the principles of worship and sacrifice in the Tabernacle guide your daily living and spiritual practices?
Reflecting on the Tabernacle's role in the Old Testament and its fulfillment in Christ, what personal commitments can you make to deepen your relationship with God?

[^1]: Alec Motyer, The Message of Exodus: The Days of Our Pilgrimage, ed. Alec Motyer and Derek Tidball, The Bible Speaks Today (Nottingham, England: Inter-Varsity Press, 2005), 250.