The stage has now been completely set, the lights are humming, the crowd has gathered, it’s time to fire this beast up. God speaks to Moses and tells him it’s time to erect the tabernacle. This happens on the first day or the first month of the year, which seems very unlikely to accidentally coincide with when the Israelites actually completed all the work. More likely is they got it done some time before that and God waited to provide the instruction as to when to put it together so that it matched the start of the year.
They are kicking off the new year in worship (the same time of year of the Passover celebration as well). I know we’ve kind of traded it out for college football, but firing up the new year with a reminder of God’s presence among us and a right prioritization of worship as it begins anew seems like a pretty good call. Also, note that all of this was to be completed on that day, meaning it shouldn’t take more than a day to get set up. Remember, this was a mobile operation, whenever God moved the nation was to follow, including the tabernacle. And when they stopped moving, this thing had to be set up quick. So, we get a run through here to confirm the design was up to the task and indeed it was.
There’s nothing surprising about what occurs. All that God had them build, Moses sets up. It’s not just him, even though the text says he did it, Moses would have enlisted some Levites help him out with certain things (the ark of the testimony had to be carried with two poles and the multiple layers of cloth over the Holy Place are certainly too unwieldy for one man to wrangle on his own). In either case, all of it gets set up and anointed (cleansed) for use. This includes the priests (more detail to follow in Leviticus).
Over and over again we are given confirmation that Moses does as God commands. Everything is up to snuff and comes together without a hitch. And so Moses finishes the work.
Once it’s all up, the cloud, the manifestation of God’s presence among the people, covered the tent of meeting (now the holy of holies, not that little tent outside the camp) and His glory fills the tabernacle. What does that mean? Could be a lot of things but most likely it’s something akin to what happened to Moses’ face before in God’s presence, except that it is so expansive that it “fills” the tabernacle. Even without further detail, we should be confident that this is something physical that the nation can see.
But Moses isn’t allowed to enter. Why not? This seems odd, Moses has been in God’s presence numerous times. He’s been on Mt. Sinai, he’s been in the tent of meeting outside the camp, he was the one dude who was allowed to handle the 10 Words and put them in the ark. What gives here? It’s relatively simple, God has now come to reside there. And, like we discussed earlier with the bell on the priest entering the holy of holies, you don’t just walk into Yahweh’s house. This is not unlike a builder constructing a new house for one of ya’ll. Sure, as it’s being built the man has full access, can come and go as he pleases, is trusted to move put the walls up and move the furnishings around and otherwise oversee the project. But, once you move in, he doesn’t get the key anymore and he can’t just walk in whenever he wants. This is Yahweh’s residence, you can’t just walk in, even if you’re Moses.
Now, what we find happens a lot is that God’s cloud sits above the tabernacle, not in it, which allows the priests to go about their day to day business without an issue. And besides, most of the time this cloud was out in front of the people, leading them. Whenever the cloud left the tabernacle and headed out, the people followed. When it stopped, the people set up the tabernacle and lived life until the cloud moved again. All relationships that had been broken with their rebellion in the golden calf incident have been set back to right. Yahweh is their God and they are His people, and He has forgiven their transgressions and is going to lead them in the promise we were reminded of in chapter 1, the one made to the man Israel and his children. The land of promise yet awaits them.