In Exodus 25-31 God gave Moses the instructions for building the tabernacle and making the furnishings in it. You may wantt to go back to the blog article on Exodus 26-30 for pictures of the tabernacle, the coverings, the furnishings, and the priestly garments. Exodus 35-40 tells about the actual building of the tabernacle, its furnishings, and the priestly garments. The people volunteered to bring the materials: gold, silver, skins for curtains, linen, etc and they brought so much that they were told to quit bringing any. It has been estimaed that the value of the materials donated was 70-100 million dollars in today’s currency. God gave the Spirit to certain craftsmen to enable them to build with. It took about 6 months to build everything and it was completed about one year from when they left Egypt. Exodus 39:⁴² So the sons of Israel did all the work according to all that the Lord had commanded Moses. ⁴³ And Moses examined all the work and behold, they had done it; just as the Lord had commanded, this they had done. So Moses blessed them.” In chapter 40 Moses put everything it its proper place and location.

THE GLORY OF THE LORD Exodus 40:³⁴ “Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. ³⁵ Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. ³⁶ Throughout all their journeys whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the sons of Israel would set out; ³⁷ but if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not set out until the day when it was taken up. ³⁸ For throughout all their journeys, the cloud of the Lord was on the tabernacle by day, and there was fire in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel.”

The main idea of the tabernacle is that it was a visible place of the dwelling of God among Israel. Exodus 25:8: “And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.” Exodus 29:45-46: “And I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will be their God. And they shall know that I am the Lord their God… Shekinah is a Hebrew word meaning “that which dwells” or “the dwelling presence”. While the exact word Shekinah does not appear in the Hebrew Bible, the root verb shakan (meaning “to dwell” or “to pitch a tent”) is used frequently. Rabbis later used Shekinah to describe tangible encounters with God. The tabernacle was later replaced with the temple that Solomon built, and God dwelt in that temple. God’s presence filled Solomon’s Temple as a radiant cloud of glory during its dedication, According to 1 Kings 8 and 2 Chronicles 5, when the priests placed the Ark of the Covenant inside the Most Holy Place, a thick cloud filled the house of the Lord so intensely that the priests could not continue their work. Later in the history of Israel, the glory of the Lord would depart from the temple due to the sins of the people (Ezekiel 10-11) which led to the destruction of the temple in 586 BC by the Babylonians.

Ezekiel predicted that when the Messiah would come: Ezekiel 37:27: “My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Ezekiel predicted that the glory of God would return to the temple in Ezekiel 43:1–5, “coming from the east and entering through the east gate to fill the temple.” There is much debate over what Ezekiel’s temple was in Ezekiel 40-48, but I believe it is fulfilled in church, the temple of God in the New Testament. God came to dwell in His people, the church, a spiritual temple not physical. “The New Testament reveals that this physical tent foreshadowed Jesus coming to “tabernacle” or dwell among us, and later sending the Holy Spirit to live inside believers. John 1:14: “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” The Greek word for “dwelt” is skenoo, which literally means to “tabernacle” or pitch a tent. 2 Corinthians 6:16: “…For ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” Revelation 21:3: “And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.” Zechariah 6:12 predicted, “‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, “Behold, a man whose name is Branch, for He will branch out from where He is; and He will build the temple of the Lord.” I believe that temple that Jesus built for God to dwell in is the church. The same Shekinah glory that filled the tabernacle fills the church today where God dwells in His people.