The Tabernacle

The Tabernacle was a portable sanctuary commissioned by God at Mount Sinai and built by Israel under the craftsmanship of Bezalel and Oholiab. Its outer court held the bronze altar of sacrifice and the laver of cleansing; the Holy Place contained the lampstand, table of showbread, and altar of incense; and beyond the veil stood the Most Holy Place, where the Ark of the Covenant rested under the wings of the cherubim. Every measurement, fabric, and metal was specified by divine pattern, because the Tabernacle was a 'copy and shadow of the heavenly things' (Hebrews 8:5). It travelled with Israel through the wilderness for forty years, pitched at the centre of the camp, with the cloud of God's presence above it by day and fire by night. The book of Hebrews reads the entire structure Christologically: the veil, the priesthood, and the blood all point forward to Jesus, the true tabernacle who pitched His tent among us.