Revelation 21:3 → Exodus 25:8

At the head of the tabernacle-instructions the LORD declares His governing purpose, "And they are to make a sanctuary (miqdāš) for Me, so that I may dwell among them" (Exod 25:8) — wəšāḵantî bəṯôḵām, "and I will dwell in their midst," the foundational OT articulation of God residing not over or near but at the very center of His people. The throne-voice that closes the canon takes up that same promise: "Behold, the dwelling place (ἡ σκηνή) of God is with man, and He will dwell (σκηνώσει) with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God" (Rev 21:3). The noun σκηνή and the cognate verb σκηνόω are the LXX's set rendering for the Hebrew שָׁכַן / mišḵān tradition that Exod 25:8 inaugurates, so John's vision is heard as the appointed terminus of the Sinai dwelling-pledge — now joined to the covenant formula ("they will be His people… their God"). This is the headwater of a single canonical chain: Exod 25:8's promise is restated and intensified through Lev 26:11-12 ("I will make My dwelling among you… and be your God") and Ezek 37:27 ("My dwelling place will be with them"), and Rev 21:3 consummates the whole stream at once. The connection is Promise-Fulfillment along the Temple and Presence longitudinal theme — not bare typology, because the σκην-/shakhan thread carries a stated promise of dwelling across the canon to its realization, the escalation total: not a built sanctuary among the people but God Himself immediately with them, the New Jerusalem needing no temple "because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple" (Rev 21:22). The telos: the architectural shadow at Sinai existed for the sake of the face-to-face communion now given without veil — to behold the dwelling God with His people is to see Christ as the One in whom the ache of every sanctuary is finally satisfied, the most desirable End of the whole story of presence.