“So all the work for the tabernacle, the tent of meeting, was finished. The Israelites did everything just as the Lord had commanded Moses. . . .The Israelites had done all the work according to everything the Lord had commanded Moses. Moses inspected all the work they had accomplished. They had done just as the Lord commanded. Then Moses blessed them.” (CSB – Read the chapter)
There’s an old saying that goes like this: Practice makes perfect. It sounds good, but it’s not really true in that form. A more accurate rendering would be this: Practice makes permanent. If you do something enough times, you will always do it that way. But if you don’t do it quite correctly all of those times, you will always do it wrongly. In order for practice to make perfect, it has to be evaluated. Once the tabernacle construction was complete, it came time to evaluate what they had done. Let’s take a look at how this process unfolded.
The people had worked hard. They had followed the instructions. It was time to get the thing all put together so that it could be used as designed. There was just one last hurdle to clear. They brought all the various parts and pieces to Moses for inspection. He was the one who had received the original plans from God, after all. He was in the position of giving things the final thumbs up or thumbs down to declare the project successfully completed.
What we see here, then, is Moses doing just that. He inspected every single piece and part. “The tent with all its furnishings, its clasps, its supports, its crossbars, and its pillars and bases; the covering of ran skins dyed red and the covering of fine leather; the curtain for the screen; the ark of the testimony with its poles and the mercy seat; the table, all its utensils, and the Bread of the Presence; the pure gold lampstand, with its lamps arranged and all its utensils, as well as the oil for the light; the gold altar; the anointing oil; the fragrant incense; the screen for the entrance to the tent; the bronze altar with its bronze grate, its poles, and all its utensils; the basin with its stand; the hangings of the courtyard, its posts and bases, the screen for the gate of the courtyard, its ropes and tent pegs, and all the furnishings for the service of the tabernacle, the tent of meeting; and the specially woven garments for ministering in the sanctuary, the holy garments for the priest Aaron and the garments for his sons to serve as priests.” Like I said: every single piece and part.
What was Moses inspecting for? Excellence. When we do something for God, it should be done with excellence. That doesn’t mean that someone who is not professionally skilled at whatever she is doing should not bother doing something for God. Rather, we should all look to bring God our best. If you are doing something or making something, make it to the very best of your ability. He is worthy of this, and in fact throughout the Scriptures He expects and demands it. The requirements coming in the next book for what sacrifices should be like are stringent. A sacrificial offering was supposed to be entirely without blemish. God would much later blast the people for bringing their leftovers and afterthoughts to Him rather than their best.
Okay, but why is there such a focus on perfection and excellence? Does that really matter? Well, think about it like this: If you have company coming over who you want to impress, you clean your house, you put on nice clothes, you use your best dishes, you pull out your best recipes. You generally seek to impress by offering up the best version of whatever it is you present to them. That’s normal. When we consider someone important, we naturally show it by bringing them our best. God isn’t worthy of any less. If we don’t strive for excellence in our offerings, we are communicating that we don’t really think He’s worthy of our best. Given that that’s not true, we wind up worshiping someone or something other than Him, but calling this other thing by His name. It’s a sneaky version of idolatry that ultimately leads to false worship and fake churches masquerading as real ones.
This error in orthodoxy and orthopraxy has wrecked the faith of far too many people over the centuries. God is worthy of our best. Period. If you are not going to bring Him your best, don’t even bother. Then, go and ask yourself the important question here: Why are you not going to bring Him your best? Do you not think He’s worthy of it? Do you not trust Him enough to give it to Him? Do you not really believe in Him at all, but are giving lip service to some level of belief to appease the people around you? While behaving yourself into a belief isn’t necessarily a bad thing, not ever actually getting to the point of belief that you are trying to behave yourself into is. If you’re just putting on a show, stop lying to everyone (including yourself) and accept where you really are. Then, decide if you really want to stay there and why.
In the end, though, the real emphasis of this passage is not that Moses checked everything over really thoroughly. The real emphasis is that the people had followed the Lord’s instructions to a T. In fact, in the span of just 12 verses, that idea gets repeated three times. Moses might as well have highlighted and underlined and put it in bold and italics. In a modern book this would have gotten a full page focus quote. The Israelites followed God’s instructions just right.
This is emphasized so much here because it is the most important part. God wants obedience. This is not merely because He’s egotistical or megalomaniacal. This is because He’s God and we’re not. He’s the Creator and we’re the creatures. God wants to be in a relationship with us in which both parties are received and accepted fully for who they are. God does this for us by creating us and inviting us into a relationship with Him in the first place. We do this for Him by acknowledging Him as God and living in light of that. This mental acquiescence on our part is demonstrated by our willingness to do what He says. Our obedience is the outward sign of our faith. It is the substance of our faithfulness.
Just like the people of Israel demonstrated and were praised for here, when God has given us a set of instructions, our best bet is to do what He said. To take any other path will necessarily lead us away from Him. It will be a reflection of the fact that we are not following Him at all, but merely something or someone else to whom we’ve errantly given His name.
So then, what is it that God has given us the instructions to do? Well, the first and most important thing is to accept that in Christ He died in our place and rose from the grave to make life available to everyone. Accepting that means choosing Him as our Lord over and against anything else. With Him as our Lord, we are right to do what He said. Okay, then what did Jesus say? He said to love one another after the pattern of His own sacrificial, self-giving, generous, compassionate, kind, gentle love for us. That is, we treat people like He did. We love them like He did. Doing that is a sign that we are following Him faithfully and well. Not doing that, is a sign that we aren’t. It really is that simple. As Jesus Himself said, we’ll be known by our fruits.
The application here is easy: The best offering you can give to God is your faithful obedience to His command to love one another the way He loved you. Do that, and do it with excellence, and you’ll pretty well always be on the right track.
The Nexus 
I suppose it is very like the way young people are raised in the faith.
If they are taught to trust and then presented with what they are told are facts, i.e. the gospels, and then schooled over and over, especially in a more closed environment, it will eventually become semi – permanent.
Couple this with the tacit threat of hell ( in whichever form it is presented) then it will likely take quite a serious jolt to snap that person out of what had been ostensibly indoctrinated into them.
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That does indeed sound like something you would suppose given your well-rehearsed worldview commitments.
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This is more or less how children are reared in the faith.
How do you think Muslim children are raised in their faith?
A bit closer to home. YEC. Straightforward no nonsense indoctrination.
Now show me with evidence and examples how your branch/sect is any different from the two I listed above.
My “worldview commitments” have nothing to do with it.
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Try as you might, you can’t and won’t ever escape the fact that your worldview commitments (methodological naturalism, scientism, and etc.) have everything to do with what and why you believe what you do. That’s how philosophy works. You’re like Stephen Hawking insisting that philosophy is dead. For as smart a guy as he was, that was a remarkably clueless thing to say given that it was a statement of philosophy. Alas…
As for the rest…adherents of every worldview do worldview training with their kids. That’s how worldviews get passed from one generation to the next. If your point is simply that Christian parents commonly do Christian worldview training with their kids, then, yes, that’s true. So did you with your kids. It may not have looked the same, and it may not have been intentional, but it’s what you did all the same.
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The differene being pretty much everything I taught my children can be supported with evidence.
When it comes to the Christian Worldview, ( Muslim abd Hindus are likely the same) in the absence of any evidence whatsoever for the foundational tenets of your faith you are required to indoctrinate your children.
So, ostensibly a case could be made that you are lying.
It is here one would ask: When there is ample evidence to show that certain religious claims are devoid of any evidence and others are flat out refuted by evidence why do you insist on lying to children?
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I’m so impressed. You managed to stick the landing way faster than you usually do. Christians are liars. Both feet firmly planted. Well done.
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Maybe the term is a bit harsh, but how would you describe imparting information which is stated as fact when one knows this to not be the case?
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What you describe there is lying or rank indoctrination. That’s exactly the word I would use for it. But what you describe and what I do or any other Christian parent does are two different things. Your worldview commitments don’t allow you to see it as otherwise, but that’s been our communication problem since the beginning. I just ignore all of that stuff from you now. Or occasionally mock it or otherwise respond with sarcasm.
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You acknowledge that it is lying yet in the complete absence of evidence you insist your worldview is true.
Therefore on what basis do you believe you should continue to lie to children?
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I don’t think I should lie to my children, no. But I haven’t lied to them before, so your premise that I have been lying to them in the past such that I could “continue” to do so is flawed. Your premise is also flawed in its assumption that I acknowledged myself to be lying in the first place. I did no such thing. I reject both premises entirely rendering your attempts to make a point here worthless. It is a matter of worldview commitment that forces you to the conclusion that I am being dishonest about anything in intentionally passing my faith on to my kids and every other kid that falls in my sphere of influence.
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If it has been unequivocally shown that certain aspects of doctrine are false and yet one continues to assert they are fact perhaps the correct term here would be wilfull ignorance?
I might have been inclined to suggest self deception, which would account for the continued retrieval to “Christian worldview. ”
However, if we grant the probability of even a basic understanding of such things as the HGP, archaeology, plate tectonics and geology for example then self-deception likely does not enter the frame.
This raises the unsavory question of why would one continue to promote as fact, especially to children, a narrative that flies in the face of scientific evidence.
Selfish self-interest comes to mind;the need to protect one’s position and social standing irrespective of the potential harmful effects this has on others.
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Those are all conclusions your worldview beliefs force you to make in light of the debate we are having, yes.
I think what cracks me up about this whole back and forth we keep having is just how bad you are at it. For some reason you keep reading a Christian devotional blog day after day. And day after day you try to engage me in what amounts to the same basic debate. You keep trying to persuade me that Christianity is irrational and worth abandoning in favor of secularism. I have long since lost count of the number of times you have told me with glowing confidence that I will one day wake up and realize it’s all a lie, and then I’ll feel really bad about abusing my kids for years. The best way I have come up with to describe it is that you are an evangelical atheist. Your commitment to proselytizing your particular faith (and, as we established with the multiverse debate, it is a faith position) is admirable, if pointed in the wrong direction.
Christians know a thing or two about evangelism. It’s kind of our thing. And one of the things we have come to know and understand is that if you don’t have any respect for the people with whom you are trying to share the Gospel, you’re generally not going to do a very good job. As the old saying goes, “Honey attracts more flies than vinegar.” The most effective Christian evangelists do their work so well because they genuinely love the people they are working with.
You’ve never managed to get past the absolute animosity you have for religious belief generally and Christianity in particular. You think it is all little more than dangerous nonsense. As you are now making clear on parallel threads, you consider teaching Christian doctrine to kids to be child abuse. In short: you hate the people you are trying to convince to believe like you do. That’s what makes you so bad at this.
On this end of things, it ranges from sad to infuriating to hysterical. I suppose I could just block or ignore you, but the whole thing is funny enough to me that I just keep letting you try to make your case. I guess somewhere along the line I thought you might get better at it, but if anything, your disdain only seems to increase. That, of course, begs the question: why keep coming back and reading a Christian devotional blog every day when you think so little of Christianity and its adherents?
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We have previously established that evidence and fact are completely independent of worldview.
Your continual insistance to the contrary suggests a strong degree of wilfull ignorance.
For example, your worldview may encompass the belief that pigs can fly, but we both know the fact is they can’t.
That you may insist on holding to this belief come hell or high water is decidedly odd, and maybe a little sad, all things considered.
However, that you pass on such a preposterous belief to others and especially children, and insist you must be given special dispensation should be cause for concern, don’t you think?
But of course, telling children pigs can fly is a ridiculous notion, and, as far as I am aware does not happen.
On the other hand indoctrinating them to believe they are born sinners who, to ensure eternal life after death, require the redemptive power of a first century crucifixtion victim who you claim is Yahweh incarnate. And while you have absolutely no evidence whatsoever to support such a preposterous claim you insist it is perfectly reasonable and sound.
It is fortunate that, unlike your religious doctrine, children who refuse to accept the claim pigs can fly will not result in them being told they will be going to hell for eternity.
There is absolutely no intention on my part to try to deconvert you, of that you have my word.
My understanding has always been that those who walk away from religous belief do so because of the realization that what they have been indoctrinated to accept as truth/evidence is invariably nothing but vacuous nonsense devoid of any scientific merit.
It is BECAUSE I think so little of Christianity why it holds a fascination.
Oh, and I hate nothing, with the possible exception of Manchester United, and then only on a really bad day.
😂
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That entire response is a perfect example of worldview thinking. That you can’t see or won’t understand that is why your arguments continue to be so very uncompelling. Oh well…
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That you simply retreat to your worldview is the perfect illustration of why you are wilfully ignorant and are determined to maintain your position come hell or high water.
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I didn’t retreat to my worldview, I merely pointed out your slavish commitment to your own…which you continue to demonstrate with every comment you make. Your comment here is yet another example. The idea that I am willfully ignorant only makes sense on your set of worldview assumptions.
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“Willful ignorance is a decision made to avoid becoming informed about something and making undesirable decisions that such information might prompt.”
This is Exactly the position you adopt.
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It is exactly the position I adopt…through the lens of your worldview beliefs.
The humorous irony here is that the charge of willful ignorance puts you in perfect agreement with the apostle Paul in Romans 1:20-21, just from the other side of the line.
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We have already established worldview has no bearing on evidence or fact.
Pigs cannot fly no matter how much you insist they do.
Your insistance is simply wilfull ignorance.
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You realize you just keep making my point over and over again, right? Or maybe you don’t, and that’s why you just keep repeating yourself. Who knows. Either way, you’re just not very good at this. Busy day ahead of me. That’s all for this one.
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In actual fact by every reply all you do is further illustrate your wilfull ignorance.
Your Christian worldview, which is underpinned by supernaturalism and has absolutely no evidence whatsoever to support it’s claims, does not have the slightest bearing on fact or evidence.
In truth a great many of your religious claims have been soundly refuted by a scuentific evidence. The same scientific method/ evidence by which so many areas of your life depend, in some cases, quite literally.
To use my previous example once more. Pigs cannot fly. In the face of irrefutable evidence to assert otherwise is wilfull ignorance.
To indoctrinate such a belief into children is delusional and should be regarded as child abuse.
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He makes the point I have been stressing at the 1.30 mark.
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Well, yes, when you tell them something that isn’t true, that would be lying. Those churches and pastors should have been ashamed to have proclaimed the doctrines they did on those questions without anything in the way of Biblical support. I agree with Hitchens on that much. That’s why I do my level best not to ever do that. I would have been curious to hear what Frank Turek (the guy sitting on to his left) said in response to Hitchens’ argument there. I suspect it would have been pretty interesting.
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If you agree with Hitchens then while I maintain teaching it is child abuse I apologise for suggesting you indoctrinate kids about the doctrine of Hell. I understood that you, as Baptist, believe in Hell as a place of everlasting punishment for sin.
I know what Turek believes.
The debate is online if you are interested.
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