Most readers hit Exodus 25 and do one of two things. They either power through it like a legal contract they didn’t fully understand but signed anyway, or they skip it entirely and tell themselves they’ll come back to it someday.
Spoiler alert: Someday never comes.
And that’s a real tragedy because what God was saying through the Tabernacle is one of the most stunning theological statements in all of Scripture. You just can’t hear it if you think you’re reading some ancient IKEA manual.
You’re not. You’re reading a sermon in architecture, and it’s been saying something extraordinary this whole time. So let’s take a look!
Start with the Ask
Before God gives a single measurement or material, He tells Moses exactly what the whole project is for. Book of Exodus 25:8–9 in the TLV:
“Have them make a Sanctuary for Me, so that I may dwell among them. You are to make it all precisely according to everything that I show you — the pattern of the Tabernacle and the pattern of all the furnishings within — just so you must make it.”
Two things are happening here that most readers blow right past.
First, the stated purpose isn’t primarily worship or sacrifice. It’s dwelling. God wants to live with His people. That’s the whole project. Every cubit, every curtain, every piece of hammered gold exists in service of that one desire… proximity. God moving into the neighborhood.
Second, God says this structure has a pattern He’s showing Moses. The Hebrew word is tavnit (תַּבְנִית), meaning a plan, a model, a blueprint. This wasn’t Moses improvising with what was available after the exodus. God had a specific design in mind and He was revealing it. The question worth asking is: a pattern of what, exactly?
Some ancient Jewish interpretations, and one that the New Testament picks up directly, understand the earthly Tabernacle as reflecting a heavenly reality. The physical structure functions as a copy or shadow of something true and eternal. Which means the details matter, because the structure as a whole is pointing somewhere.
The Layout Is a Theology
The Tabernacle had three “zones”, and they were very deliberate. The Outer Court was where Israel gathered. The Holy Place was where the priests ministered. The Holy of Holies was where only the High Priest could enter, and only once a year, on Yom Kippur. Each zone represented increasing degrees of holiness, increasing nearness to God’s presence.
This isn’t just spatial organization. It can be seen as a map of the problem. Holiness and humanity—how do you close the gap between them?
The Tabernacle raises that question structurally. You see it when you walk through the gates. You see it when you watch the priests but can’t go where they go. You see it in the thick curtain separating the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies, a curtain that told the whole story in one piece of woven fabric; there is a barrier, and you cannot cross it on your own.
The furniture reinforces it. The bronze altar in the outer court is where sin is addressed through sacrifice. The laver is where the priests washed before they could minister. The menorah illuminates the interior darkness. The table of showbread holds twelve loaves representing the twelve tribes in constant covenant presence before God. The altar of incense stands just outside the veil with its smoke rising as a picture of prayer ascending. And inside the veil, behind that curtain, the Ark of the Covenant holds the Torah, Aaron’s rod, and the manna. And above it the mercy seat, where God said He would meet with His people.
Many of these elements highlight something about who God is and what it costs to be near Him. Together they tell a story: here is the God who wants to dwell with you. Here is what stands between you. Here is the costly, specific, grace-soaked path through.
The Moment It All Comes Together
You can read about the Tabernacle for chapters and chapters, and Exodus gives you plenty of chapters, but the moment that makes it all land is Exodus 40:34–35:
“Then the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle. Moses was unable to enter into the Tent of Meeting, because the cloud resided there and the glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle.” (TLV)
Moses built it exactly as God specified. Every detail. And when it was finished, the glory of God came down and filled it SO completely that Moses couldn’t even walk inside.
Think about it… the man who had stood before the burning bush, who had been on Sinai for forty days, who had seen the back of God’s glory and came down with his face shining, couldn’t get through the door.
That’s not a logistics problem… that’s a theology. The presence of God is not domesticated. You don’t just stroll on into the holy. The whole structure exists to make a way for relationship while being completely honest about what it costs.
John Knew What He Was Doing
Fast forward to the opening of Gospel of John, and he gives you one of the most intentionally placed sentences in the New Testament. John 1:14 in the TLV:
“And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us. We looked upon His glory, the glory of the one and only from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
John doesn’t just say “dwelt among us.” Most English translations do, but the TLV highlights something important. The Greek word is skenoō, which means to pitch a tent, take up residence, or dwell. John is making a deliberate connection to Exodus. The glory that filled the Tabernacle so completely that Moses couldn’t enter? That same glory is now revealed in human form, dwelling among us.
Yeshua is presented as the place where the holiness of God and the need of humanity meet.
The Tabernacle, in its structure and function, points toward this reality. The lamb on the altar. The bread of presence. The light of the menorah. The incense of intercession. The mercy seat above the Law. The whole system…all of it…points toward a deeper fulfillment.
This is why the curtain in the Temple tore at Yeshua’s death. From top to bottom. The Gospels present this as a moment of profound significance. The barrier the curtain represented had been dealt with. The question the Tabernacle raised for generations—how does a holy God dwell with humanity—had reached its turning point.
Verse Mapping Aid
Mishkan (מִשְׁכָּן) | mish-KAHN
The Hebrew word most commonly translated “Tabernacle.” Its root is shakan (שָׁכַן), meaning to dwell, to settle, to take up residence. This is also the root of the word Shekinah, a later term in Jewish tradition used to describe the manifest presence of God. The Tabernacle wasn’t named after its shape or its materials. It was named after its purpose: it was the dwelling, the place where God settled among His people.
My Final Thoughts
The chapters in Exodus that your eyes glaze over are some of the richest in all of Scripture. God wasn’t filling pages with building codes. He was revealing something deeper in wood and gold and woven linen, in zones and curtains and furniture, in smoke and lamplight and blood.
The whole structure raises a question that the rest of the Bible wrestles with: how does a holy God live with people who aren’t?
Yeshua is the answer… not as a replacement of the story, but as its fullest expression. He is the place where you can come near.
The curtain is open. You don’t have to stand in the outer court anymore.
Bible Study Questions
Read Exodus 25:8-9. What does God give as the purpose for building the Tabernacle? What does that tell you about what God was after in His relationship with Israel?
What’s the significance of God giving Moses a specific pattern rather than leaving the design up to him? What does that tell you about God’s intentionality?
Walk through the three zones of the Tabernacle. What do you think each zone is communicating about holiness and access to God?
Read Exodus 40:34-35. Why do you think Moses couldn’t enter even after building the structure exactly as instructed? What is that moment saying theologically?
Read John 1:14. Knowing what you now know about the Tabernacle, what does it mean that John chose the word “tabernacled” rather than simply “dwelt”?
Reflection Questions
Before reading this post, did you tend to skip the Tabernacle chapters? What was behind that? How has your perspective on those chapters changed?
The Tabernacle was structured around the reality that getting near a holy God requires a specific path. How does that reality land in your own faith? What does it mean to you that Yeshua is that path?
The whole Tabernacle existed to answer the question of how fallen humanity gets near a holy God. How does knowing Yeshua is the fulfillment of that question change how you approach your own prayer life and relationship with God?
Action Challenges
This week, read Exodus 25-27 slowly and with fresh eyes. As you go, write down what each element might be saying theologically. Don’t just catalog the furniture. Ask what each piece is pointing toward.
Find one moment in your day this week to sit quietly and remind yourself that the curtain is open. The Holy of Holies is not off-limits to you. Spend five minutes simply being present with God, not performing, not asking, just present in the place Yeshua made available. Then journal what that felt like.
If this study stirred something in you, share it with a friend who’s been skipping those Exodus chapters and needs someone to tell her she’s been walking past gold.
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About the Author
Diane Ferreira is a Jewish believer in Yeshua, a published author, speaker, seminary student, wife, and proud mom. She is the founder of She’s So Scripture and She Opens Her Bible. She is the author of several books, including The Proverbs 31-ish Woman, which debuted as Amazon’s #1 New Release in Religious Humor, as well as Holy, Hormonal and Holding On.
She is currently pursuing her graduate degree in Jewish Studies in seminary, with her favorite topics being the early church and Biblical Hebrew. Diane writes and teaches from a unique perspective, bridging her Jewish heritage with vibrant faith in the Messiah to bring clarity, depth, and devotion to everyday believers.
When she’s not writing, studying, or teaching, you’ll find her curled up with a good book, crocheting something cozy, traveling, or playing her favorite video games.
Tree of Life (TLV) – Scripture taken from the Holy Scriptures, Tree of Life Version*. Copyright © 2014,2016 by the Tree of Life Bible Society. Used by permission of the Tree of Life Bible Society.
Diane! When you make it to the Negev, come see the Tabernacle replica at Timna Park :)