A tent among the tents

After the calf, you might expect God to withdraw. Instead he gives instructions for moving in. The tabernacle is a tent — the same thing everyone else in the camp lives in — placed at the centre, so that the God of the mountain travels at walking pace with his people. It is built entirely from what the people bring, and they bring so much that Moses has to tell them to stop. Two craftsmen are named and said to be filled with the Spirit of God, the first people in Scripture described that way, and it is for skilled work with cloth and metal and wood. When it is finished the cloud settles on it and the glory fills it. The point of the exodus was never just getting out of Egypt. It was this: God with them, at the centre of the camp.