Exodus 25:8-9
That I may dwell among them
The reason is given before the first measurement. The pattern is shown rather than described, and the instruction is to make it after it.
Objects of the Bible
The tabernacle
A building designed to be taken apart, because the people it belonged to were not staying anywhere.
Fifty chapters of the Pentateuch are given to it, which is more than creation, the flood and the patriarchs combined. Everything about it is portable: boards that lift out of silver sockets, a covering of skins, rings and staves on every item heavy enough to need carrying, and a rule that the staves stay in the rings. It is a temple built by people who knew they would be moving in the morning.
Scroll down to the story
The movements, in the order the text gives them.
The story of The tabernacle
- 01
- 02
Exodus 31:1-5
Filled with the spirit of God in wisdom
The first man in Scripture said to be filled with the spirit is a craftsman, named, with his assistant named too.
- 03
Exodus 40:17-33
So Moses finished the work
The assembly is described piece by piece in order, and each step ends with the same phrase: as the LORD commanded Moses.
- 04
Exodus 40:34-35
Moses was not able to enter
The moment it is finished it becomes unusable by the man who built it, because the glory fills it.
- 05
Numbers 9:15-23
At the commandment of the LORD they rested
The tent sets the calendar. Two days or a month or a year, the camp stayed as long as the cloud stayed.
Why it matters
The purpose is stated once, early and plainly: let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them. Not that they may visit, that he may dwell. The pattern is shown on the mountain and the workmen are named and said to be filled with the spirit of God in wisdom and in understanding, which is the first time in Scripture that phrase is used of anybody, and it is used of craftsmen. When it is finished the cloud covers it and the glory fills it, and Moses cannot go in.
3 songs
The music
Every song in the catalogue whose passage falls inside these chapters.
