Sarah wrote:..............
Also:
My friends argue that God forbade "images" to be made for "religious" purposes, why did He design and utilize the cherubim on the Ark of the Covenant, and in the embroidery on the curtains of the Tabernacle?
Quite a long passage with a lot of detail, but hope these few verses answer that. Would bet there are oodles of teaching & metaphors of Yah's home in it.
Exo 25:8 “And they shall make Me a Set-apart Place, and I shall dwell in their midst.
Exo 25:9 “According to all that I show you – the pattern of the Dwelling Place and the pattern of all its furnishings – make it exactly so.
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Exo 29:43 “And there I shall meet with the children of Yisra’ĕl, and it shall be set apart by My esteem.
Exo 29:44 “And I shall set apart the Tent of Meeting and the altar. And Aharon and his sons I set apart to serve as priests to Me.
Exo 29:45 “And I shall dwell in the midst of the children of Yisra’ĕl and shall be their Elohim.
Exo 29:46 “And they shall know that I am יהוה their Elohim, who brought them up out of the land of Mitsrayim, to dwell in their midst. I am יהוה their Elohim.
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Exo 31:18 And when He had ended speaking with him on Mount Sinai, He gave Mosheh two tablets of the Witness, tablets of stone, written with the finger of Elohim.
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Exo 36:1 “And Betsal’ĕl and Oholiaḇ, and every wise-hearted man in whom יהוה has given wisdom and understanding, to know how to do all work for the service of the set-apart place, shall do according to all that יהוה has commanded.”
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Exo 40:34 And the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and the esteem of יהוה filled the Dwelling Place.
Exo 40:35 And Mosheh was not able to come into the Tent of Meeting, because the cloud dwelt on it, and the esteem of יהוה filled the Dwelling Place.
Exo 40:36 And when the cloud was taken up from above the Dwelling Place, the children of Yisra’ĕl went onward in all their journeys.
Exo 40:37 But if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not set out till the day that it was taken up.
Exo 40:38 For the cloud of יהוה was on the Dwelling Place by day, and fire was on it by night, before the eyes of all the house of Yisra’ĕl, in all their journeys.