Unlike most churches today, the Tent of Meeting (the tabernacle) was not mainly a place where people gathered to meet. It was first of all the dwelling place of God. It functioned like the palace of a king. God was Israel’s divine King, and the Tabernacle was his royal tent.
In this way, churches today are more similar to later Jewish synagogues, where people gathered to worship and learn (see also study note on 40:2).
The last section of Exodus completes God’s self-revelation to Israel. Through these events, God brought the people out of the spiritual darkness that had held them in slavery.
This section includes three main parts:
Instructions for building the Tent of Meeting (chapters 25–31).
The story of the golden calf (a wrong attempt to secure God's presence, chapters 32–34).
The report of building the Tent of Meeting (the correct way to secure God's presence, chapters 35–40).
These chapters show that God’s ultimate goal in delivering Israel from slavery was to live among them.
God wanted to share his presence with his people. However, because God is holy (completely pure and set apart from sin), people could experience his presence only in the way he commanded.
They could not approach him through pagan practices (worship methods of other nations) or through human manipulation (trying to control or force a god to act).
The building of the Tent of Meeting is described here, even though some instructions in Leviticus were given earlier (see 40:1–2; Leviticus 25:1; 27:34; Numbers 7:1). This event shows the goal of the entire exodus story: God came to live among his people.