The Tent in the Wilderness where God Met with Israel.

When God brought Israel out of Egypt into the wilderness, He set up a system of worship which centred around the Tabernacle-a portable Temple-a large tent with an enclosing wall of curtains. The Levites were trained to erect, dismantle and carry the Tabernacle from place to place. The design of the Tabernacle was given to Moses by God at Mount Sinai (see Exodus 25:8), and it was constructed by the skilled craftsmen of Israel. The Tabernacle contained the 'Ark of the Covenant' (q.v.), which held the stone tablets on which the Ten Commandments were written. In front of the Ark was the place appointed by God for the high priest to come into His presence. The later chapters of the book of Exodus give exact details of the construction, the contents and the worship that was to take place in the Tabernacle.

After Israel entered the Land of Promise the Tabernacle was erected first at Gilgal (see Joshua 4:19) and then at Shiloh (see Joshua 18:1). Later it was moved the Nob (see 1 Samuel 21:1-6), and finally to Gibeon (see 1 Chronicles 21:29) where worship took place even after the Ark of the Covenant had been moved to Jerusalem. Later the Tabernacle was replaced with a Temple (q.v.).
At the transfiguration the apostle Peter speaks of a 'Tabernacle' (KJV), which means a 'shelter', as the word is translated in the NIV.

Both Paul and Peter speak figuratively of their bodies as a 'Tabernacle' (see 2 Peter 1:13-14; 2 Corinthians 5:1-4), meaning that it was only a temporary house for God's spirit and that they would later become part of the living Temple, just as Solomon's Temple had replaced the Tabernacle in the wilderness: "In him [Christ] the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit." (Ephesians 2:21-22).