This week we enter the nineteenth weekly Torah portion, Terumah, which in Hebrew means “offering.” At this point in the Exodus story, the Israelites have just witnessed the dramatic crossing of the Red Sea and stood at the base of Mount Sinai to receive the covenant. They have been given the foundational instructions for living as set-apart people. Now, God has a plan for a communal building project.
Voluntary Giving
In Exodus 25:1-2, the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the people of Israel, that they take for me a contribution. From every man whose heart moves him, you shall receive the contribution for me.” He follows this in verse 8 with the purpose: “And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst.”
God provided the intricate blueprints for this wilderness dwelling and its ritual furnishings. The Tabernacle, known in Hebrew as Mishkan, was meant to be an earthly microcosm of God’s celestial sanctuary. In order to imitate heaven, the artisans would require a good deal of gold and silver, yarns and linens, spices and precious stones. This Tabernacle served as a visible sign of God’s abiding presence in the center of the camp. It was a portable structure, meticulously engineered for travel and built for daily worship. Constructed out of wooden beams and layers of unusual fabrics—including goat hair, tanned ram skins, and a mysterious leather that historians can’t identify.
The Israelites held a collection for these materials, and there was a heavy emphasis on the spirit of the gift. God specified that the offering was only to come from those whose hearts compelled them to give. The contributions were entirely voluntary and charitable; no one was taxed or coerced into building God’s home. But give they did. The response was so generous that Moses eventually had to send word throughout the camp that the coffers were overflowing and the people should stop bringing gifts.
How did nomadic and newly freed slaves own such abundant valuables? The Exodus story briefly mentions that, before their dramatic delivery from Egypt, the Israelites asked their Egyptian neighbors to help finance their exodus. After witnessing the terrifying signs and wonders of the God of Abraham, the Egyptians provided for the Hebrew slaves whatever they asked. And so, the Bible laconically states that they “plundered the Egyptians.” The Egyptian booty came in handy for the building of the Tabernacle.
The Blueprint
According to the plan given to Moses on Sinai, inside a curtained courtyard, the Tabernacle furniture included a large copper altar, accessible by ramp, for animal sacrifices. Next to it was a bronze laver for the priests to wash their hands and feet. Gold-plated beams and poles bolstered the holy place’s tapestries and overhangs.
Composed of two sections, the Tabernacle’s first room contained a gold-plated menorah, table of showbread, and altar for incense. Behind the inner veil, they kept the Holy of Holies, or Kodesh Kodashim. The cubic sanctuary housed the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark is most exceptional in an otherwise aniconic religion for its connection to the immaterial God. The Ark was God’s throne and footstool—fashioned out of acacia wood, gilded with gold, and topped with winged cherubs. The angel’s gold wings stretched out over the Ark’s pure gold cover. Inside the Ark, only four feet long and two and half feet deep, Moses placed the tablets of stone with the Ten Commandments.
Garden of Eden and Tabernacle Parallels
The question naturally arises for the curious reader: why does the writer of Exodus spend so much time offering a verbal blueprint for the Mishkan? Usually, the amount of textual space a given story occupies in the Bible reflects its importance. If God created the world in only two chapters of Genesis, why does it take six chapters to build the Tabernacle? The answer may lie in the intentional parallels the biblical authors draw between the two events.
If you look at Genesis 2 and compare it with Exodus 39 and 40, you see the same repeating verbs: make, sanctify, work, and bless. While one tells the story of God creating the universe, the other gives instructions for man to create a resting place for God in the midst of his creation.
These linguistic mirrors are clearly intentional, even if the full mystery remains open for interpretation. The story of scripture begins with Adam and Eve enjoying the presence of God in the Garden of Eden and concludes with the return of Eden in the New Jerusalem at the end of Revelation. In between those two points, the Tabernacle and the Temple provided an Eden in a fallen world for the people of Israel.
According to the author of Hebrews, the Mishkan was “a copy and shadow of what is in heaven.” Moses had to ensure that his chief architect, Bezalel, carried out the divine directions exactly. The limitless God in all of his infinite might commanded his people to create a finite space to reveal a portion of his glory. That tall order required elaboration. After all, heaven wasn’t built in a day. According to Jewish tradition, the Tabernacle was stored deep underground when Solomon completed the First Temple. Because it was built collectively and voluntarily, God never allowed it to be destroyed or looted, only hidden.
Purpose of the Tabernacle
This leads us to wonder: Why did God need the Tabernacle? Why did the creator of the universe even allow for himself to be limited to a tent? Doesn’t that mean God was condescending to the imagination of men and allowing himself to seem like all of Israel’s neighbors’ gods with their temples and altars? The truth is, God didn’t need the Tabernacle. Man did. God used the Tabernacle to invite his people back through the gates of Eden. He desired to once again be in their midst, to be known by them and worshiped.
Crucially, the Jews never conceived of the Tabernacle as a container for the divine. This understanding is reinforced throughout the prophets and the history of Israel. In Isaiah 66:1, God asks rhetorically, “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool; what is the house that you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest?” Even Solomon, at the dedication of the grand Temple that succeeded the tent, acknowledged this limitation in 1 Kings 8:27, saying, “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you; how much less this house that I have built!” The structure was never about trapping the creator, but about providing a focus for the creation to offer praise.
The Tabernacle was one of the first steps towards God’s rescue plan for humanity. He reached out to one family in one place through means that felt familiar to them at the time. The Tabernacle, as a symbol of God’s intent to close the gap between himself and his creation, was ultimately fulfilled in his son. Jesus, himself, said he came to Tabernacle among us. That means the Tabernacle still lives!
Join me next week for a continuation of our study on Exodus. I hope Bible Fiber can be of use to you if, in 2026, you are committed to going deeper into God’s word and reading with discipline and regularity. If you would like to get the study questions that go with this episode, visit our website and sign up for the newsletter: www.thejerusalemconnection.us
Study Questions for Terumah (Exodus 25:1–27:19)
1. The Nature of the Offering (Exodus 25:2): In this verse, God tells Moses to take a contribution from every person whose heart moves them to give. Why do you think God made the funding for such a vital national project entirely voluntary? It would have been simpler to collect a mandatory tax from everyone. Consider what this says about the type of dwelling place God wanted to build. What does it tell us about the relationship he seeks with the people?
2. Creation vs. Construction (Exodus 25:1-9 and Genesis 1-2): The Bible tells the story of the creation of the whole universe in a very short space. Genesis 1 and 2 cover it in just a couple of chapters. In contrast, the instructions for the Tabernacle take up many chapters in Exodus. Why is there such a massive difference in the amount of detail? In the first story, God makes a home for humans. In the second, humans make a home for God. Why did the human project required so much more explanation?
3. The Purpose of the Vessels (Exodus 25:10-40): This section lists the specific furniture for the sanctuary. You have the Ark for the law, the Table for bread, and the Menorah for light. These objects define the character of the space. If the Tabernacle is a small model of heaven on earth, what do these specific items teach us about God? Think about how these three things—law, food, and light—act as a bridge between the divine and the human.
