Heaven Invades Earth: Understanding the Symbolism & Purpose of the Tabernacle

Chapter after chapter in the book of Exodus relays in painstaking detail the tabernacle’s plan and construction. The entire last half of Exodus narrates the building of the tabernacle (Exod 25–40). Following this, the setting for the entire book of Leviticus is God speaking to Moses from the tabernacle (Lev 1:1). This means Exodus and Leviticus together highlight the central role of the tabernacle for a combined forty-three chapters (Exod 25–Lev 27)!

Despite all of this, we still don’t have quite enough information to know precisely how the tabernacle looked or the precise purpose of each of its pieces. So even though the tabernacle plays a central role for forty-three chapters of the Pentateuch, it resists simple replication.

While this may be frustrating in certain respects, it teaches us something important. We need to pay attention to what aspects of the tabernacle the Bible does reveal. What we find is that the Bible includes details about the tabernacle for theological reasons rather than purely historical ones.

In light of this biblical focus, this article aims to explain not only what the tabernacle looked like but also why (i.e., the theological reasons) Israel built the tabernacle.

What is the tabernacle in the Bible?

The tabernacle was the tent in which God’s glory abided (Exod 40:34; cf. 2 Sam 7:6–7; 1 Chron 17:5–6; Ps 78:60). Since God’s glory dwelled there, the tabernacle united heaven and earth; it was “the tent where he dwelt among mankind” (Ps 78:60 ESV).

Since God’s glory dwelled there, the tabernacle united heaven and earth.

Practically speaking, the Israelites built and used the tabernacle at Mount Sinai. Then during their time of wandering, the tabernacle travelled with the Israelites for forty years. Since the tabernacle could be built and taken apart in a short amount of time, it matched the needs of Israel during their wandering.

In short, the tabernacle was a tent where Israel could meet God during their travels in the wilderness. In other words, the tabernacle was a mobile temple. After they entered into the promised land, Israel would eventually build a permanent temple under the reign of Solomon (1 Kgs 8).

What does the tabernacle symbolize?

The tabernacle symbolically acts as an earthly representation of the heavenly tabernacle (Heb 8:5).

God tells Moses to put together the tabernacle and its furniture “after the pattern for them, which is being shown you on the mountain” (Exod 25:40 ESV). Moses had ascended past “pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness” into the cloud of God (Exod 24:10 ESV; cf. 24:15–18). There, Moses communed with God for forty days in what we might call “highest heaven” (1 Kgs 8:27).

For this reason, Hebrews 8:5 (see also Acts 7:44) explains that Israelite priests

serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, “See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.” (ESV)

Arguably this was a common way to understand the tabernacle. For example, Wisdom of Solomon calls the temple “a copy of the holy tent that you prepared from the beginning” (9:8 NRSV).

In light of this cosmological significance, the tabernacle acts as a sort of microcosm of the created order. Biblical scholar Duane Garrett explains:

There was probably a cosmic dimension to this. That is, the outer chamber represented the lower heavens (what we would call the physical heavens) and the inner chamber, the holy of holies, would represent the upper heaven, God’s abode. The Tent of Meeting was a microcosm of the created universe and of the heavenly throne room that was above the created universe. That is, God’s glory fills all of creation, but there is yet a heavenly throne room that is above and beyond the physical universe. The Tent of Meeting is a smaller version of this cosmic reality. It is also the place where God who dwells in the highest heavens can be present or immanent in the world.¹

Over the years, many Christians have made similar observations. For example, Gregory of Nazianzus in the fourth century wrote:

Or, since Scripture recognizes the tabernacle of Moses as a symbol for the whole world (the world, I mean, of things “visible and invisible”) shall we pass through the first veil, transcending sense, to bend our gaze on holy things, on ideal and heaven transcending reality.²

What are the parts of the tabernacle?

To visualize the following discussion, allow me to provide a brief sketch of the tabernacle’s shape.³ The tabernacle had three sections.

1. The courtyard which one passes through to enter the tent is the first section (Exod 27:9–19).
2. Next, one would walk into a space of about thirty feet inside the tent, which is called the holy place (Exod 26:1–2; 26:33).
3. Afterward, one would pass through the curtain into the most holy place that has a depth of fifteen feet (Exod 26:33).⁴

The most holy place sits at the west side of the tent (Exod 26:22, 27), while the holy place and the entrance stand at the east side (Exod 38:13).⁵

Does the Bible provide details about each part of the tabernacle?

The Bible provides enough details about the tabernacle to understand its purpose and much of its symbolic intent. But Scripture does not provide exhaustive descriptions of the tabernacle. Biblical scholar Duane Garrett explains:

One may assume that many details are left out since the missing information could be filled in with common knowledge or common sense. Therefore, we should understand that the tent instructions only focus on details that are distinctive and religiously significant. This, in fact, helps to explain a curious feature about this text: there are many details left out, but instructions that are given are often repeated in what seems to be needless redundancy. But the point is to stress what has special meaning, not to state what is obvious or universal in tent making.⁶

In other words, Exodus focuses on what has religious or theological significance.

For example, of the two outer layers of the tabernacle, we know almost nothing.⁷ In contrast, we know much about the seven elements within the two inner layers of the tabernacle. Given the selective nature of the text, we should expect these detailed parts to have theological significance. Exodus itself encourages us to read the details in this way, not only because of its selective nature, but also because it tells us that the tabernacle on earth followed the pattern of a heavenly tabernacle (Exod 25:40).

What does each element of the tabernacle symbolize?

The basic structure of the Bible teaches us to see earthly symbols as signs of heavenly truths. For example, Paul says God always intended marriage in Genesis 2 to symbolize Christ’s union with the church (Eph 5:31–32). The reason why families exist, Paul also reasons, is because God has always been the Father to the Son (Eph 3:14–15).

Likewise, the Bible reveals that elements within the tabernacle signify cosmic and spiritual realities.

The Menorah or Lampstand

The only light source within the tabernacle came from a seven-candled Menorah. The Bible describes the Menorah as a tree with calyxes, petals, and blossoms (sometimes translated as “cups”). According to Numbers 8:4, the golden lampstand’s “base to its flowers” imitated its heavenly prototype.

Within the holy place and on the veil between the holy place and the most holy place, images of Cherubim appeared upon blue or purple cloth (Exod 26:1, 31; 36:8, 35). The light from the Menorah would illumine this image, appearing like a night sky with angels overhead and pointing to the tabernacle’s role of uniting heaven and earth.

As a tree of light, the Menorah reminds of the tree of life in the garden in Eden. As many today recognize, the garden of Eden shares similarities with the tabernacle, both functioning as temples. The Menorah would also shine its light of life upon the showbread, which represents the twelve tribes of Israel. In this way, it visually illustrates the Lord’s face shining upon Israel (Num 6:25).

The table for showbread

When walking in from the entrance, a table sat on the right-hand side of the tent. Upon the table, twelves loaves sat, representing the twelve tribes of Israel (Lev 24:8).

Since Exodus calls manna bread from heaven and the Israelites stored this bread within the tabernacle (Exod 16:4; 31–34), these loaves may also serve to remind Israel of manna from heaven. This manna may have reminded Israel to live by God’s word and not by bread alone (Deut 8:3).

The altar of incense

The alter of incense stood near the veil in front of the entrance to the Holy of Holies (or the Most Holy Place; Exod 30:1–7). Although the altar of incense burned daily (Exod 30:7–8), it played a special role on the Day of Atonement. At that time, the high priest made atonement for it by placing blood upon its four corners (Lev 16:18).

During the Day of the Atonement, the high priest would also bring incense and coal into the Most Holy Place (Lev 16:13). This incense represents the prayers of God’s people ascending through its smoke upwards (Ps 141:2; Rev 5:8; 8:3–4).⁸

The Holy of Holies (the Most Holy Place)

On this Day of Atonement, the high priest would enter into the Most Holy Place, opening the curtain that divides it from the Holy Place. This act symbolized one’s entrance into the presence of God (Exod 25:22).

Readers also know of Moses’s threefold ascent: first, up to God from the earth (Exod 24:1–8); second, up half-way where Moses and the elders enjoyed a meal upon ground like heaven (Exod 24:9–10); and, finally, into the presence of God (Exod 24:12–18).⁹ Further, the Old and New Testaments regularly speak of the world divided into three parts (e.g., 1 Kgs 8:27; Phil 2:10).

So here one would not be over-reading the text to see the entrance into the most holy place as being akin to entering into highest heaven to commune with God. The reason why is that the tabernacle with its outer court, Holy Place, and Most Holy Place also has a threefold pattern that ends in God’s very presence (Exod 25:22).¹⁰

The light of the Menorah shining upon the dark fabric of cherubim further cements this symbolism. Before entering the Most Holy Place, the Holy Place which the priest walked through was illuminated by a tree of life with figures of cherubim on the walls and curtain watching him. These images of cherubim in the tabernacle symbolize the real cherubim whom Ezekiel’s vision showed guarding God’s presence around his throne (Ezek 1:16; 10:18, 20). Likewise, Psalm 78:69 says, “He built his sanctuary like the high heavens, like the earth, which he has founded forever” (ESV). As the Bible repeatedly tells us, temples are where heaven and earth, God and man, meet. The same is true of the tabernacle which is a mobile temple.

Temples are where heaven and earth, God and man, meet. The same is true of the tabernacle which is a mobile temple.

After the high priest entered into the Most Holy Place with the coals and incense, God’s glory would illumine the room as it appears above the ark of the covenant with two cherubim on either side (e.g., Exod 40:34–38).

The ark of the covenant looked like a box with a flat cover upon it (Exod 25:10–22). Having sacrificed a goat, the high priest would then atone for the sins of the people by applying the blood upon the mercy seat or place of atonement (Lev 16:15–19).

Visualize and study the different elements of the tabernacle using Logos’s infographics.

Does the tent of meeting differ from the tabernacle?

During the long elaboration on the construction of the tabernacle in Exodus 25–40, it sometimes speaks of the “tent of meeting.” At times, it seems as though the tabernacle and tent of meeting are different structures. But upon closer examination, Exodus makes it clear that the tent of meeting and the tabernacle are two names for the same thing.

For example, Exodus 40 speaks of furnishing both the “tabernacle,” the “tent of meeting,” and even “the tabernacle of the tent of meeting” interchangeably. Consider the following:

He put in place the screen for the door of the tabernacle. 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. He set the basin between the tent of meeting and the altar, and put water in it for washing. (Exod 40:28–30 ESV; emphasis added).

Further, Leviticus 1:1 follows directly upon the glory of the Lord filling the tabernacle (Exod 40). Yet its first verse reads: “The Lord called Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting” (Lev 1:1 ESV).

The implication is clear: the tent of meeting is the tabernacle.

What is the relationship of the tabernacle to Eden?

Origen of Alexandria regularly argued that the end of all things is like the beginning (e.g., On First Principles 1.6.2). In the new heavens and earth, a tree of life blooms. Likewise, a tree of life thrived in the garden in Eden. Between these two poles—the beginning and the end—the Bible tells a story of restoration to Eden.

As a later stage in the history of redemption, the tabernacle carries similarities to the garden in Eden. Some of these similarities are:

• The garden too was a place in which God dwelled or at least moved (Gen 3:8; Lev 26:12; Deut 23:15; 2 Sam 7:6–7).
• Cherubim stand at the entrance east of Eden as they do in the tabernacle and temple (Gen 3:24; 1 Kgs 6:23–28, 29; Exod 25:18–22; 26:31).
• The rivers that flow down from Eden imply the garden stood on an elevation (Gen 2:10). Temples likewise sit on elevations throughout the Bible (e.g., Ps 24:3). So the garden had temple-like qualities.
• God gave Adam and Eve the vocation “to tend and keep” the garden, a word pair only used of priests within the Pentateuch (Gen 2:15; Num 3:7–8; 8:26; 18:5–6). This word pair suggests a priestly service for Adam and Eve.

The garden in Eden functioned as a temple, a place where God and humans could meet.¹¹ Likewise, the tabernacle takes up this role as a mobile temple.

What is the role of the tabernacle throughout the Bible?

The Bible develops the concept of places where God and humans meet, starting with the garden of Eden. After Adam and Eve are exiled east of the garden, away from the tree of life, the tabernacle continues this concept. The tabernacle with its tree-candle (Menorah) shines the light of God unto the people of God, who are symbolized in the showbread.

The tabernacle moved around geographical Israel during the timeframes of the conquest and kingdom. It moved to Shiloh (Josh 18:1), to Nob (1 Sam 21), and then Gibeon (1 Chron 16:39). Eventually, Solomon transported the tabernacle with the ark of the covenant to the temple (1 Kgs 8:4). Solomon’s temple replaced the mobile tabernacle, establishing in it one location, the place where God placed his name (Deut 12:11).

But through Israel’s history, she sinned against God and his glory left the temple. After the exile, the rebuilding of the temple disappointed. God commanded the prophet in Haggai 2:3 to say:

Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How do you see it now? Is it not as nothing in your eyes? (ESV)

Because of this lessened glory, the text causes us to consider something greater to come. Through Haggai, God says:

Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land. And I will shake all nations, so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of hosts. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, declares the Lord of hosts. The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, declares the Lord of hosts. (Hag 2:6–9 ESV)

In a future revelation to Haggai, God reiterates his early promise to shake the heavens and earth.

Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying, I am about to shake the heavens and the earth. (Hag 2:21)

Where else does this happen but in the heavenly city, Mount Zion above, where the true tabernacle and throne of God reside? Quoting Haggai’s promise (Heb 12:26), Hebrews interprets this prophecy as referring to the heavenly Zion:

This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire. (Heb 12:27–29 ESV)

In this Mount Zion above, Christ serves as our everlasting high priest before God the Father.

Eventually, heaven and earth will become, in the fullest sense, the place where God and man meet. No longer will the tabernacle represent an outpost or embassy of God, but the Lord will make a new heavens and new earth where he will dwell with his people forever.

Eventually, heaven and earth will become, in the fullest sense, the place where God and man meet.

There a city will reside in the shape of a box (a cube; Rev 21:16). It will take the form of the Holy of Holies within which will lay the Ark of the Covenant. And there, God and men will meet (Exod 25:22). In the end, we see that the tabernacle always pointed to a new heavens and new earth in which God dwells (Rev 21–22). At that time, the whole world will become like the Holy of Holies—God and men will once again commune freely with one another.

The end of all things with the tree of life in the new heavens and earth restores the sinless enjoyment of life that the garden promised. Here everything, in a sense, is a temple because access to God no longer has the same boundaries it did across redemptive history.

Conduct an in-depth study on the tabernacle using Logos’s Factbook. Get it free, if you don’t already have it.

What happened to the tabernacle?

When Solomon dedicated the temple, priests brought the tabernacle and the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem:

And they brought up the ark of the Lord, the tent of meeting, and all the holy vessels that were in the tent; the priests and the Levites brought them up. (1 Kgs 8:4 ESV)

First Kings 8:6 only notes that the Ark particularly enters into the temple’s Most Holy Place. Since the tabernacle, its vessels, and its furniture are not explicitly mentioned, one can only assume they were stored in the premises.

Curiously, 1 Kings 8:9 says, “There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets of stone that Moses put there at Horeb” (ESV; cf. Exod 25:16, 21: 40:20; Deut 10:1–5). This means that the container of manna and rod of Aaron were no longer in the Ark (Heb 9:4–5). Nothing in the text tells us where these items went. Only God knows.

What is the relationship between the tabernacle and the Christ-event (gospel)?

Thomas Aquinas identified the uniqueness of Scripture in its ability not only for its words to represent an object in the world (this is normal) but also for these objects to point beyond themselves to some other reality (ST.I.Q1.A10). The reason why created objects carry meaning beyond themselves is because God created them to do so. For example, the heavens above declare the glory of God (Ps 19:1). So the sky has meaning because God placed meaning in it when he created it; this meaning is objective, not subjective.

Likewise, God placed meaning into the tabernacle. The tabernacle not only refers to a mobile temple in Israel’s day, but it also points to Christ and the New Covenant.

When John tells us that “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14 ESV), he uses language that specifically draws our mind to the tabernacle. The word used here for “dwelt” (σκηνόω) can refer to setting up a tent (tabernacle) as it often does in the Greek Old Testament (LXX). The next part of John 1:14 also connects the incarnation of Jesus to the tabernacle: “and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (ESV). God’s glory also indwelt the tabernacle.

Likewise, the language of being “full of grace and truth” (πλήρης χάριτος καὶ ἀληθείας) in John 1:14 corresponds to Exodus 34:6, where God reveals himself to Moses (πολυέλεος καὶ ἀληθινός [LXX]; וְרַב־חֶסֶד וֶאֱמֶת [BHS]). This linguistic connection further cements the notion that the Logos became flesh to “tabernacle” with humanity.

The tabernacle portrayed a place where God and man could meet. In Jesus, God and man unite uniquely since in his person Jesus is the union of God and man.

For this reason, Hebrews likens the flesh of Christ to the veil that separated the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place. When speaking of “the new and living way,” Hebrews identifies Christ as our heavenly high priest who “opened [the new way] for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh” (Heb 10:20 ESV).

The tabernacle portrayed a place where God and man could meet. In Jesus, God and man unite uniquely since in his person Jesus is the union of God and man.

Hebrews teaches us what the heavenly sanctuary accomplishes through its earthly imitation. As Hebrews 10:1 explains, “the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities” (ESV). As both high priest and sacrifice, Christ opens up a new and living way to God (“living” because Christ lives; Heb 10:19–20). He does this by offering his flesh on the cross through which we can come directly to God (Heb 4:16). What previously only the high priest could do once a year, we now, as a kingdom of priests, can all do by approaching the Father through his Son Jesus Christ (1 Pet 2:4–10).

This relationship between the good things to come and earthly shadows explains why while on the cross, the curtain in the temple tore apart (Matt 27:51; Mark 15:38; Luke 23:45). The tearing of the veil symbolizes that the way to God was now open. And in particular, this happens at the moment Christ offered his flesh on the cross for atonement (Heb 10:20).

When the Spirit of Jesus indwells us (e.g., Rom 8:9), we unite to Christ, our high priest, who brings us into the presence of the Father (e.g., Heb 4:16). So Paul says we are now seated in heavenly places because we are in Christ (Eph 1:3, 20). By union with Christ, we receive the Spirit of Christ, becoming his spiritual temple (Eph 2:19–22). Likewise, Peter will call Christians living stones of a spiritual house, i.e., a temple (1 Pet 2:5). By faith we walk on earth while also enjoying heavenly realities through the Spirit.

Put succinctly, “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?” (1 Col 6:19 ESV). As the body of Christ, the church shares the same Spirit that Christ has, that is, the Holy Spirit. By being in Christ who unites heaven and earth in his body, we share in this priestly blessing, so that we can approach the throne of grace in heaven while on earth.

Resources for further study

G. K. Beale’s The Temple and the Church’s Mission gives the best one stop shop explanation for the theme of temple across Scripture. Since the tabernacle is a mobile temple, Beale’s work will also help your understanding of the tabernacle.

The entire book of Leviticus has its setting at the entrance to the tabernacle or the tent of meeting (Lev 1:1). For this reason, Michael Morales’s book Who Shall Ascend the Mountain of the Lord? provides some context for the word of God that preceded from that tent.

For a spiritual classic, read Gregory of Nyssa’s Life of Moses. You can also read my chapter on this book.

You can also read my chapter on how the tabernacle and the Bible imply metaphysical conclusions about the nature of reality.

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1. Duane A. Garrett, A Commentary on Exodus (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Academic, 2014), 579–80.
2. Gregory of Nazianzus, On God and Christ: The Five Theological Orations and Two Letters to Cledonius, trans. Frederick Williams and Lionel Wickham (Crestwood, NY: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2002), 28.31.
3. During the Summer of 2018, I enjoyed listening to Paul Martin’s series on the book of Exodus at Muskoka Bible Centre. These messages have enriched my understanding of the tabernacle and inform my discussion here.
4. The total length of the tabernacle was 30 cubits or about 45 feet. See Nahum M. Sarna, Exodus, JPS Torah Commentary (New York: Jewish Publication Society, 1991), 167. The dimensions can be somewhat easily discerned within the narrative ofExodus 26:15–25.
5. This section largely comes from a prior writing of mine called “Earliest Christian Jesus-Devotion and Metaphysics,” in Written for Our Instruction: Essays in Honor of William Varner, eds. Abner Chou and Christian Locatell, 211–34 (Dallas, TX: Fontes Press, 2021), 219.
6. Garrett, Commentary on Exodus, 571–72.
7. Garrett, Commentary on Exodus, 571.
8. Goldingay, Old Testament Theology, 1:398.
9. On this, see Wyatt Graham, “Is Moses a Paradigm for Christian Spirituality?” in Reading Scripture, Learning Wisdom: Essays in Honour of David G. Barker, eds. Michael A. G. Haykin and Barry H. Howson, 171–93 (Peterborough, ON: Joshua Press, 2021).
10. See the above section “What does the tabernacle symbolize?” and my chapter “Earliest Christian Jesus-Devotion and Metaphyics” for a fuller explanation of the cosmic dimensions of the tabernacle.
11. For a fuller list of connections, see Gordon J. Wenham, “Sanctuary Symbolism in the Garden of Eden Story,” in I Studied Inscriptions from before the Flood: Ancient Near Eastern, Literary, and Linguistic Approaches to Genesis 1–11, eds. Richard S. Hess and David Toshio Tsumura (University Park, PA: Eisenbrauns, 1994), IV:399–404.