Exodus 25:40 ESV And see that you make them after the pattern for them, which is being shown you on the mountain.
God commanded them to build a tent
When we read Exodus 25 in its entirety, we can be bogged down with the details. Specific details of the framework and coverings for the tent. And while these details may seem somewhat peculiar to us, they are given so that we understand that God gave Moses the pattern. God initiated this building project. God commanded Moses to build Him a tent. The Israelites were dwelling in tents and so would God.
God employed men to build it
The Tabernacle, in another aspect of it, was a product of human art and skill. The plan was Divine; the materials were from God; but the workmanship was man’s. It is a characteristic of the “spiritual house” that God is now building on earth, that it also is being reared by human agency, and that each individual has it in his power to contribute something to its beauty. Every holy life that is being lived is the weaving of a beautiful fabric for the adornment of this house. God’s willingness to dwell with Israel in this wilderness-made abode reveals the lengths he will go to dwell with those he loves.
Philippians 2:5-8 ESV [5] Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, [6] who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, [7] but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. [8] And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
God was willing to come and dwell in a tent
Magnificent as it was on the inside, it was but a paltry abode to offer to the maker of heaven and earth – to the possessor of all things. Yet Jehovah did pattern it for man to make. He sought an abode with men. In some aspects, his dwelling in the Tabernacle was a grander thing than his inhabitation of the infinities of space. It told of a God who desires to enter into personal relations with his creatures. He will stoop as far as holiness permits, in his endeavor to reach them, and to lift them to communion with himself. The tabernacle, glorious as it was, was but the type of dwelling places more glorious than itself. We have found these types in the humanity and humility of Jesus; in the renewed heart of the believer; in the redeemed Church as a whole. God prefers the temple of the humble and contrite heart to the grandest building ever reared by the hands of man (Isaiah 57:15).
The Tabernacle is a temporary dwelling
The Tabernacle was but a temporary abode as they journeyed through the wilderness. Even the glorious temple of Solomon was but a temporary building. Even Herod’s temple was temporary.
Matthew 24:1-2 ESV [1] Jesus left the temple and was going away, when his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple. [2] But he answered them, “You see all these, do you not? Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.”
God’s plan all along was to dwell in a house not made by hands. He gave us these types through the OT to reveal that he would one day dwell in human form and ultimately in spiritual form inside the believer. What a glorious plan.
Against even the least degree of image-making, there was a stern edict; and we might also have expected that there would be equal sternness in forbidding the creation of a holy house. For what on the face of it would seem more probable than this, that the erection of a holy house would lead them to idolatry? They have worshipped the temple. Is this why it was destroyed? Only God himself is worthy of worship. By the way, I cannot find in scripture where God commanded the temple to be built. It was certainly in David’s heart and permitted by God for Solomon to build it, but unlike the Tabernacle, the pattern was not given by Jehovah. No such dwelling place was a necessity for him but was necessary for the people. Not only a necessity; and so we see they were more than permitted, they were even commanded, to construct the tent enclosure that should be called the house of God. When we want to find one of our friends, we look for him at his house. He who has the heaven for his throne and the earth for his footstool, chose to come and dwell in a tabernacle.
John 1:14 ESV [14] And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Jesus came to dwell among us. The word dwelt is the word tabernacle in Greek. He came to dwell in a human perishing body, a temporary house, to reconcile us to God. The Tabernacle in the wilderness was there to reconcile Israel to God. The daily, weekly, and seasonal offerings and sacrifices were but temporary. All of which pointed to that great day when Jesus, Lamb of God, would lay down his own life for us on the cross.
In all this, it was a type of the church of God.
Ephesians 2:19-22 ESV [19] So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, [20] built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, [21] in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. [22] In Him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
Are you part of God’s building? If not, You are certainly part of His plan. Won’t you join Him in His work?
1 Corinthians 3:9-16 ESV [9] For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building. [10] According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. [11] For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. [12] Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— [13] each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. [14] If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. [15] If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. [16] Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?