Mini-Eden
The tabernacle, like the garden of Eden, is where God dwells, and various details of the tabernacle suggest it is a mini-Eden. These parallels include the east-facing entrance guarded by cherubim, the gold, the tree of life (lampstand), and the tree of knowledge (the law). Thus God’s dwelling in the tabernacle was a step toward the restoration of paradise, which is to be completed in the new heaven and earth (Revelation 21:9-27).
Source: Exodus 25-31, ESV Study Bible.
House of Yahweh
The tabernacle represented Yahweh’s house among the Israelites—he would soon encamp in his large house in their midst, and they would encamp around his house according to their tribes in concentric circles (Num 2). He himself was symbolically represented as dwelling in the “back room” of his house by means of the ark. In the tabernacle’s “front room” were several pieces of furniture, the sorts of things that represented the furniture of a home, though on a grander scale. The first of these pieces of household-style furniture to be described is the table. It was primarily for food—a dining table of sorts, symbolizing the fact that Yahweh really did live among his people and inhabit his house in much the same way that they inhabited theirs.
Source: Conservative Evangelical Scholar: Douglas Stuart, in his commentary Exodus (NAC, 2006), p. 572
Was Moses shown the heavenly tabernacle above?
