Directions for Arranging the Tabernacle

Having completed the components of the tabernacle, receiving divine approval of the work, the Israelites had but one thing left to do before the tabernacle could be used for worship—put the pieces together. Exodus 40 describes the first time that the pieces of the tabernacle were assembled into the final sanctuary.

In directing the assembly of the sanctuary, the Lord first told Moses how to arrange the various elements of the tabernacle, including its furniture. The basic arrangement and design of the components according to the tabernacle’s blueprints has already been described in some detail, so verses 1–8 give us only the briefest summary of this information (see Exodus 25–27; 30–31; 35–38). Some new information, however, is given. Verse 2 says that erecting the tabernacle was to occur “on the first day of the first month.” The first month of the year for Israel was the month in which God’s people left Egypt and the month in which they celebrated Passover (Ex. 12:2, 18). It corresponds to mid-March through mid-April, the exact beginning and end shifting a bit from year to year because Israel followed a lunar calendar and the Passover always had to be celebrated in the spring. All this tells us that almost an entire year passed from the exodus to the completion of all the components of the tabernacle, since Moses was told to erect the tabernacle on the first day of the first month, not the same day as the exodus but the first day of the following year. That day was yet future, even if only by a few hours or days, when Moses received the directions in today’s passage, so we know that the tabernacle pieces were finished before the year of the first Passover had ended.

Exodus 40:2 makes provisions for assembling the tabernacle in a single day. The tabernacle was highly portable, and the Israelites did not require much time to disassemble and reassemble it. Thus, the sanctuary was fit for a nation that would be on a journey for some time in the wilderness as they made their way to the promised land. Getting the sanctuary set up in less than a day was especially important. Too much delay, and it would be easy for the people to lapse into forbidden forms of worship. Note that the tabernacle is called the “tent of meeting” in verse 2. This is not the same “tent of meeting” that Moses had used to meet with God while the tabernacle components were being constructed (Ex. 33:7–11), but it was a fit designation for the place where Israel met with the Lord.