Why did God rescue Israel from Egypt?

The last verse of the tabernacle instructions answers the question plainly.

After five chapters of measurements, curtains, priestly garments, and ordination rites, Moses records why all of it was commanded: "And they will know that I am YHWH their God who brought them out of the land of Egypt — for the purpose of my dwelling among them" (Exo 29:46).

The Hebrew at the end of that sentence is three words: le-shokhni be-tokham — "for the purpose of my dwelling among them." The word translated "dwelling" is שָׁכַן (shakan), the verb that names both the act of settling and the tent built for it (the מִשְׁכָּן, mishkan, tabernacle, is literally "the place of the shakan"). The le- prefix on the infinitive form marks this as a purpose clause. In plain terms: this is what all of it was for.

The exodus was not finally about leaving Egypt. Escaping slavery was real and necessary. But the closing statement of the tabernacle instructions says the goal was something more than rescue — it was residence. YHWH redeemed Israel so that he could move in.

This reframes everything before it. The ten plagues, the Passover, the crossing of the sea, the covenant at Sinai, the forty-four years of blueprint and construction — they all aimed at this: a God settling in the center of his people's camp. Numbers 2 describes the Israelite encampment arranged around the tabernacle on all four sides. The spatial picture is the theological point: the dwelling (mishkan) sits at the geographic center of the community, because YHWH's shakan is not a nearby presence but an in-the-midst-of-you presence. The Hebrew word for that spatial intimacy is בְּתוֹך (be-tokh), "in the midst of" — it appears three times in two verses (Exo 29:45–46), hammering the point home.

The same formula opens the instructions and closes them. At Exodus 25:8, before the first measurement is given, YHWH says: "And I will dwell (shakan) in their midst." At Exodus 29:45, after the last regulation has been given, he says the same thing again: "And I will dwell in the midst of the sons of Israel." Identical verb, identical preposition, identical referent. Everything in between — ark, lampstand, altar, priestly vestments, daily sacrifice — is enclosed inside that promise, like a frame around a painting.

"And they will know that I am YHWH their God who brought them out of the land of Egypt, that I might dwell among them — I am YHWH their God."

Exo 29:46

That purpose runs through the rest of the canon. When Solomon builds the temple, YHWH repeats the Exodus 29:45 promise almost word for word: "I will dwell in the midst of the sons of Israel" (1 Ki 6:13). When Ezekiel sees the eschatological temple in vision, he hears the same promise again — but now with one added word: "forever" (Ezk 43:7). And when John describes the incarnation, he uses a Greek verb (eskēnōsen, from the same root as the Greek word for tent) that reaches back to the Hebrew shakan itself: "The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us" (Jhn 1:14). The arc ends in Revelation, where the announcement over the new creation is simply this: "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will tabernacle with them" (Rev 21:3).

The exodus had a destination. It was not the promised land — or rather, the promised land was itself a means to something more. The destination was God moving in among his people, settling at the center of their life, and staying.

The full study on Exodus 29:38-46 traces the shakan promise from its opening in Exodus 25 through Ezekiel's "forever" and John's incarnation, all the way to the new creation where the tabernacle of God is with men and there is no need for a building at all.