If Exodus 25 spotlights Tabernacle furniture that symbolized God’s presence, chapter 26, with its description of curtains and frames, highlights God’s distance from his people. The furniture was to be hidden away under curtains. And the curtains that would most clearly indicate the presence of God—those with the cherubim—were to be hidden under other curtains.
The Tabernacle was forward movement in the plan of redemption. God was coming to dwell with his people. But it was also a sign that more needed to be done for God’s people to be restored to full fellowship with him.