Tag: Understanding the Old Testament

Digging in Deeper: Exodus: 40:34-38

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“The cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Moses was unable to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud rested on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. The Israelites set out whenever the cloud was taken up from the tabernacle throughout all the stages of their journey. If the cloud was not taken up, they did not set out until the day it was taken up. For the cloud of the Lord was over the tabernacle by day, and there was a fire inside the cloud by night, visible to the entire house of Israel throughout all the stages of their journey.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Here at last, then, we come to the end. We have been slowly but surely working our way through the narrative of Exodus for a little over a year and a half. And while we haven’t hit every single word directly (especially over these last few posts for reasons I explained as we were getting started on them), I’ve linked you to every bit of the text. More than once. I’ve never tackled a project like this with such thoroughness, and I’ll admit that I was a little leery at the start because of its sheer size and scope. Yet God has been good and faithful. Personally, I’ve come to understand just how thoroughly soaked in the Gospel the Exodus narrative is, and I hope you have too. It is soaked in the Gospel, but it is not the Gospel. We are reminded of that here at the end with a potent pointer to just how good and important the Gospel is. As we wrap up this whole journey today, let’s marvel together at another way God was planting the seeds of the Gospel long before it became a reality.

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Morning Musing: Exodus 40:1-33

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“The Lord spoke to Moses: ‘You are to set up the tabernacle, the tent of meeting, on the first day of the first month’. . . .Moses did everything just as the Lord had commanded him. The tabernacle was set up in the first month of the second year, on the first day of the month. . . .Next Moses set up the surrounding courtyard for the tabernacle and the altar and hung a screen for the gate of the courtyard. So Moses finished the work.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

What does God want from us? More than anything else, He wants a relationship with us. He wants us to be in a right and proper relationship with Him. How do we know when we have that? Because we do what He says. Our faithful, willing obedience is the first and best sign that we understand who He is, who we are, and are willing to accept those two truths wholly. Our obedience is the best proof that we are right with Him. In this final description of Moses’ work with the tabernacle, this is where the emphasis lies: that Moses did what God said. Let’s talk through what we see here and about why this is a good pointer to something that is still true for us today.

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Morning Musing: Exodus 39:32-43

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“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.

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Digging in Deeper: Exodus 36:8-39:30-31

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“All the skilled artisans among those doing the work made the tabernacle with ten curtains. Bezalel made them of finely spun linen, as well as blue, purple, and scarlet yarn, with a design of cherubim worked into them. . . .They made a medallion, the holy diadem, out of pure gold and wrote on it an inscription like the engraving on a seal: Holy to the Lord. They attached a cord of blue yarn to it in order to mount it on the turban, just as the Lord had commanded Moses.” (CSB – Read chapter 36; chapter 37; chapter 38; chapter 39)

I’ve talked before recently about the fact that my church is in a building process. We’ve been here for a long time. In fact, they have been slowly walking down this path for twice as long as I’ve even been here. Just before Covid hit we at long last thought we were at the point we could start building. But then we couldn’t because of Covid. And for a while we were pretty discouraged. All that work on developing plans and we weren’t going to get to actually build it. And yet, by God’s grace, here we are again: ready to build. Developing plans to build without actually building is pointless. Israel had plans to build. It was finally time to bring it into reality. Let’s talk about how that process unfolded.

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Digging in Deeper: Exodus 36:2-7

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“So Moses summoned Bezalel, Oholiab, and every skilled person in whose heart the Lord had placed wisdom, all those hearts moved them, to come to the work and do it. They took from Moses’s presence all the contributions that the Israelites had brought for the task of making the sanctuary. Meanwhile, the people continued to bring freewill offerings morning after morning. Then all the artisans who were doing all the work for the sanctuary came one by one from the work they were doing and said to Moses, ‘The people are bringing more than is needed for the construction of the work the Lord commanded to be done.’ After Moses gave an order, they sent a proclamation throughout the camp: ‘Let no man or woman make anything else as an offering for the sanctuary.’ So the people stopped. The materials were sufficient for them to do all the work. There was more than enough.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

One of the things you have to learn as a parent is that you can’t do everything for your kids. Some parents learn that lesson better than others. You can typically tell which parents are which by looking at their kids. If you do everything for your kids, they won’t learn to do anything for themselves. They won’t learn to take ownership of things and make their own responsible, informed decisions. They won’t gain the satisfaction of contributing meaningfully to a project, of working hard and seeing the fruits of their labors. When God commanded the building of the tabernacle, He could have just plunked it down in the middle of camp fully completed. But He didn’t. He brought the people in on the project. And, to their credit, they responded. Let’s talk about what we see here and how God still works today.

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