Exodus 26 · a question people ask
Does every detail of the tabernacle stand for something?
Exodus gives the measurements, the materials and the colours, but doesn't say what any of them mean. It says where they came from: "You shall set up the tabernacle according to the way that it was shown to you on the mountain" (26:30), as 25:9 and 25:40 also say. Hebrews says the priests "serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things" (Hebrews 8:5) and speaks of a way "through the veil, that is to say, his flesh" (Hebrews 10:20). Christians read the rest of the details in two main ways. Both agree that the pattern came from God (26:30) and that Hebrews reads the tabernacle as pointing to Christ (Hebrews 9:11, 9:24).
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
Look for meaning in the parts
Those who hold this view note that Hebrews calls the tabernacle "a copy and shadow of the heavenly things" (Hebrews 8:5) and "a symbol of the present age" (Hebrews 9:9), and finds a meaning in the veil itself: "through the veil, that is to say, his flesh" (Hebrews 10:20). Since Hebrews does this with one part, they look for meaning in other parts of the tabernacle too.
Hebrews 8:5 · Hebrews 9:9 · Hebrews 10:20
Keep to what the New Testament explains
Those who hold this view note that Hebrews, after naming the ark, the cherubim and the mercy seat, says, "of which things we can’t speak now in detail" (Hebrews 9:5). They give meanings only where the New Testament gives them, and read the rest as what God commanded for the place where he would dwell (25:8; 26:30).
Hebrews 9:4-5 · Exodus 25:8 · Exodus 26:30
The verses
“According to all that I show you, the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all of its furniture, even so you shall make it.”
“See that you make them after their pattern, which has been shown to you on the mountain.”
“You shall set up the tabernacle according to the way that it was shown to you on the mountain.”
“who serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, even as Moses was warned by God when he was about to make the tabernacle, for he said, “See, you shall make everything according to the pattern that was shown to you on the mountain.””