The first few times I tried reading the Bible through from start to finish, the place where I ran into trouble was the section on the Tabernacle. I could get through the genealogies in Genesis, which only lasted a chapter or so at most, but the tabernacle account contains six chapters (Exod. 25-31) of building instructions and lists of materials, dimensions, parts of pieces of furniture, and so on. These chapters are followed by the story of the Golden Calf, which lasts about three chapters, and then five more chapters (Exod. 35-40) of descriptions of the building instructions being carried out. This raises the question of why the text places so much emphasis on how the Tabernacle was constructed.

Exodus 40:16-33 contains a summary of the chapters about the building of the tabernacle. As you read through this, the climax of the narrative look for the phrase “as the Lord had commanded Moses” and count how many times it appears.

^“16 This Moses did; according to all that the Lord commanded him, so he did. ¹⁷ In the first month in the second year, on the first day of the month, the tabernacle was erected. ¹⁸ Moses erected the tabernacle. He laid its bases, and set up its frames, and put in its poles, and raised up its pillars. ¹⁹ And he spread the tent over the tabernacle and put the covering of the tent over it, as the Lord had commanded Moses. ²⁰ He took the testimony and put it into the ark, and put the poles on the ark and set the mercy seat above on the ark. ²¹ And he brought the ark into the tabernacle and set up the veil of the screen, and screened the ark of the testimony, as the Lord had commanded Moses. ²² He put the table in the tent of meeting, on the north side of the tabernacle, outside the veil,²³ and arranged the bread on it before the Lord, as the Lord had commanded Moses. ²⁴ He put the lampstand in the tent of meeting, opposite the table on the south side of the tabernacle, ²⁵ and set up the lamps before the Lord, as the Lord had commanded Moses. ²⁶ He put the golden altar in the tent of meeting before the veil, ²⁷ and burned fragrant incense on it, as the Lord had commanded Moses. ²⁸ He put in place the screen for the door of the tabernacle. ²⁹ And he set the altar of burnt offering at the entrance of the tabernacle of the tent of meeting, and offered on it the burnt offering and the grain offering, as the Lord had commanded Moses. ³⁰ He set the basin between the tent of meeting and the altar, and put water in it for washing, ³¹ with which Moses and Aaron and his sons washed their hands and their feet. ³² When they went into the tent of meeting, and when they approached the altar, they washed, as the Lord had commanded Moses. ³³ And he erected the court around the tabernacle and the altar, and set up the screen of the gate of the court. So Moses finished the work.”

The number you should have gotten is seven. Seven is often described as the Biblical number of perfection, and the reason for this comes from Genesis 1. In this famous passage, everything that exists is created in six days, and God rests on the seventh. So seven is associated with the completion of creation.

The number seven is actually all over Genesis 1 if you count how many times certain key words and phrases are used. For example, the phrase “And God saw that it was good” appears six times. A final statement, “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold it was very good,” brings the total to seven. Maybe you’re thinking, “Well, the phrase appears once each day. What’s so special about that?” The thing is … it doesn’t. Day 2 doesn’t have the phrase “And God saw that it was good,” but Day 3 has it twice to bring the total back up to 7. So when the Tabernacle narrative contains a formula of commendation seven times, it’s a deliberate echo of Genesis 1

If you’re not convinced that the reference is deliberate, note the last verse I read: “So Moses finished the work.” Compare that to Gen. 2:2 “And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done.”

If that’s still not enough to convince you, let’s go back a little ways from the Exodus passage I read to Exod. 39:43. “And Moses saw all the work, and behold, they had done it; as the Lord had commanded, so had they done it. Then Moses blessed them.” Here we have the themes of work being done and of blessing after the work, just as God blesses his creatures with fruitfulness after creating them.

In other words, the Tabernacle, God’s presence with His people, is the final part of the creation story. Humanity’s communion with God was the goal of creation. It’s also the goal of the Exodus; God says to Pharaoh, “Let My people go that they may serve Me,” and like their service to the Pharaoh in Egypt, this service takes the form of a building project – but it’s for God, not for Pharaoh.

But the Tabernacle is also dangerous. There are all sorts of warnings in the later instructions on how to move it. The Kohathites, the Levites who are assigned to carry the Ark and other holy objects, are told that they can’t touch or even look at the objects, or they’ll die. The objects are carried on poles that are put through golden rings on the sides of them, and they’re covered with special coverings by the priests so the Kohathites stay safe.

But in spite of this danger of holiness, God still provides a way for His people to approach Him through the system of sacrifices and the ministry of the priests. The High Priest has the names of the tribes of Israel engraved on his breastplate so that when he comes before God once a year on the Day of Atonement, he essentially brings the whole people with him. Now that Jesus has ascended to the throne of God, he acts as that priest interceding for us, bringing us before God, too.

So why does the Bible spend so much time describing the Tabernacle? Well, it’s the goal of everything that has happened so far, but it’s also pointing to a greater goal. As the Golden Calf incident shows, the Tabernacle is not made by sinless people. The Israelites are still not worthy to approach God, except through the High Priest once a year.

When John 1:14 says that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, the Greek word there is the word for “tabernacle.” Jesus and what He won for us is the ultimate fulfillment of what God promises us through the detailed account of the Tabernacle – that God is with us even as we wander through this broken world, and even when that wandering is our own fault, He provides the perfect offering for sin.

And this is the other reason why the Bible spends so long on the Tabernacle. We have a God who revels in details. God doesn’t relate to humanity in the abstract; he wants to come and have relationships with specific humans. Of course, this is most obvious in the Incarnation, where God became a specific man who lived in a particular time and place. It’s also true in the particular history of Israel, where God was present in an actual, physical location for this one group of people at a particular point in time. And because of that, we know that He also cares about the particulars of our lives.

I’d like to conclude with the rest of Exodus 40, which is the end of the book of Exodus, because it summarizes my main point: That God is with us in our wanderings.

^“34 Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. ³⁵ And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud 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 people of Israel would set out. ³⁷ But if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not set out till the day that it was taken up. ³⁸ For the cloud of the Lord was on the tabernacle by day, and fire was in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys.”