Verse for the Day, 23 October 2014.

Exodus 37:1-9, “Bezalel made the ark of acacia wood. Two cubits and a half was its length, a cubit and a half its breadth, and a cubit and a half its height.  (2)  And he overlaid it with pure gold inside and outside, and made a molding of gold around it.  (3)  And he cast for it four rings of gold for its four feet, two rings on its one side and two rings on its other side.  (4)  And he made poles of acacia wood and overlaid them with gold  (5)  and put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark to carry the ark.  (6)  And he made a mercy seat of pure gold. Two cubits and a half was its length, and a cubit and a half its breadth.  (7)  And he made two cherubim of gold. He made them of hammered work on the two ends of the mercy seat,  (8)  one cherub on the one end, and one cherub on the other end. Of one piece with the mercy seat he made the cherubim on its two ends.  (9)  The cherubim spread out their wings above, overshadowing the mercy seat with their wings, with their faces one to another; toward the mercy seat were the faces of the cherubim.”

After the giving of many instructions the work of constructing the tabernacle commences. Exodus 37 and 38 record the whole construction process for us. If when reading these two chapters you find yourself wondering, “Have I not read this all before?” you would be right. This is almost a carbon-copy of Exodus 25, where God gives the instructions to Moses on how the tabernacle is to be built. Therefore we ask, why is there this repetition, is it truly necessary?

The repetition of all this information is not needless, nor is it just relating general information to us. It is telling us two important truths. Firstly, God did all that which He said He would do to help construct the tabernacle. It is not as though Moses came down from the mountain with a clear and detailed blueprint of each and every article. Moses had to relate it all orally, trusting that he would be understood. God worked specifically in the lives of Bezalel and Oholiab, gifting, equipping and guiding them to undertake this work exactly as God desired it to be done. What God revealed to Moses, is what God led these men to build in perfection.

Secondly, in Exodus 25 Moses is given the very clear command to obey what God has told him, to follow the plan perfectly, without any deviation whatsoever. Had it not been for these two chapters, Exodus 37 and 38, we would have no way of knowing that God’s instructions and designs were precisely followed and obeyed. Because of these two chapters we are able to read of the obedience of Moses and the craftsmen.

As believers in Jesus Christ, these two truths are of encouragement to us. As we read God’s Word, we come to see and learn of the manner in which it calls us to obedience. Many times these calls to obedience, to live in a godly manner, are difficult. We fear that we lack the wisdom and ability, the strength and willpower to do that which God is calling upon us to do. This chapter teaches us that obedience is important, though we may see it as vastly intimidating, or beyond our abilities, we need to strive after obedience. As we do this we can draw confidence and comfort from the fact that God will equip, strengthen and enable us to do that which He asks us to do. He demands complete obedience, but He helps us greatly by means of His Holy Spirit to strive increasingly after this obedience. God challenges us through His Word to grow, and He supplies us with everything that we need in order to grow. God calls us to obedience, to walk in holiness and to honour Him in all things. God also supplies us with His Spirit, grace and strength, He enables us, gives us wisdom and discernment, He helps us to persevere and protects us. All this God gives to us so that we might be able to walk in greater obedience. God is good and gracious towards us, even to the point that He helps us to obey Him!

Our good and gracious God, thank You that You are a God who is holy and perfect, a God who requires complete obedience. We thank You that though we are constantly disobedient, we have been covered and saved through the obedience of Christ. We thank You for Your Spirit, Your Word, the gift of prayer and the Church, all these means that You have given to us, so that we might honour You through our obedience. Thank You that You help us to obey Your Word. We pray that we may show ourselves to be willingly obedient, may we find it a joy and delight to do Your will and walk according to Your Word. Amen.

Verse for the Day, 22 October 2014.

Exodus 36:1-7  "Bezalel and Oholiab and every craftsman in whom the LORD has put skill and intelligence to know how to do any work in the construction of the sanctuary shall work in accordance with all that the LORD has commanded."  (2)  And Moses called Bezalel and Oholiab and every craftsman in whose mind the LORD had put skill, everyone whose heart stirred him up to come to do the work.  (3)  And they received from Moses all the contribution that the people of Israel had brought for doing the work on the sanctuary. They still kept bringing him freewill offerings every morning,  (4)  so that all the craftsmen who were doing every sort of task on the sanctuary came, each from the task that he was doing,  (5)  and said to Moses, "The people bring much more than enough for doing the work that the LORD has commanded us to do."  (6)  So Moses gave command, and word was proclaimed throughout the camp, "Let no man or woman do anything more for the contribution for the sanctuary." So the people were restrained from bringing,  (7)  for the material they had was sufficient to do all the work, and more.

This is a rare moment in the history of this generation of Israelites. Throughout the Exodus there has been the constant theme of ingratitude, discontentment and complaining against God. They have questioned God’s goodness and the truth of God’s promises, and worst of all they have incited God to wrath by their idolatrous actions. But Exodus 36 stands apart from this general theme, as the people give, they give sacrificially and they give generously. They give to the point that there is an over-abundance and they are instructed to give no more. It is an encouraging picture of people giving generously to a God who had given generously to them and would continue to do so for many generations to come.

Not only did the people give, many of them also set themselves to the work of constructing the various aspects and objects of the tabernacle. We are told that many craftsmen and people gathered to do the work, they turn aside from their own work of providing for their own families and worked to build the tabernacle. They gave of themselves and used the skills, abilities and gifts that God had given them, for the work of God. This sacrificial giving and service would have led to greater joy when the tabernacle was completed, as well as an increased appreciation of it.

As has already been mentioned, this is a rare moment in the life of this generation, for they will soon resort back to their old ways. Thus whilst this chapter demonstrates a desire to give to and serve God, this desire cannot endure when there is no change of heart. The people give sacrificially of their possessions, but they do not give sacrificially of their hearts, of their lives. While their hearts and lives remains unchanged, all their external actions and desires will never endure, nor will they be anything more than external actions. The reason for this, is that these external desires are not prompted by an internal reality. They are moved to give and to serve for a time, but they have not given themselves wholly unto God. Lasting, genuine worship and service of God can only be prompted from the inside out. A heart, a life changed by God and given completely over to God, will produce worship and service that will endure and will continue on even in the midst of trial and hardship. Why is this? A heart, a life that is given wholly unto God is turned back to what it was created for, and that is to worship and serve God. We were created, designed to worship and serve God in all things and at all times, but our sin has led us to worship everything else but God. Until that sin is dealt with our worship of God, even when it is elaborate, will not be true of our hearts and lives. This is why Jesus tells us in John 4 that the Father seeks after those who worship in spirit and in truth. In other words God seeks the worship of those whose hearts are filled with the truth and who lives have been changed by God. Therefore it is only through Christ that we can find this new heart, life and worship. Christ restores us back to our created design.

For those of us who are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we have more reason than any other to worship and serve God, generously and sacrificially with all of our lives. God may have given much to the Exodus generation, but He has given us exceedingly more in the giving of Christ. Not only has God given abundantly to us, He has also turned us back to being able to truly worship and serve Him, for His glory and for our joy. The challenge comes to us today, to be people who are seeking to worship and serve God with our lives, in all things, at all times. We should desire to give constant evidence to the world of that which is an inward reality in our lives, to show them the great joy and life that is found in the constant worship and service of God. Each time we fail to do this, we are displaying our old nature, the nature that did not worship God in truth, but worshipped self instead. Our desire should be to worship and serve God and God alone. Let us give ourselves wholly to this glorious privilege of being able to worship and serve God in all that which we do today. Let us do it for Him, for the increase of His glory and to lead those who don’t worship God to have cause to worship God.

Our great and majestic God, all the angels of heaven bow before Your throne and offer up their worship. How we long to add our voice to their today, for You have been exceedingly, abundantly gracious towards us through the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank You that You have turned our hearts back to being able to truly worship and serve You. We thank You for the deep joy, peace, hope and comfort that fills our hearts and lives when we worship You. Thank You that through this we are able to draw all the closer to You and have a glorious fore-taste of heaven. We pray that today we would give external evidence of what is an inward reality, that You have changed our lives for our eternal joy and good. May we worship and serve You throughout the day in everything that we do. Amen.

Verse for the Day, 20 October 2014.

Exodus 35:4-9, “Moses said to all the congregation of the people of Israel, "This is the thing that the LORD has commanded.  (5)  Take from among you a contribution to the LORD. Whoever is of a generous heart, let him bring the LORD's contribution: gold, silver, and bronze;  (6)  blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen; goats' hair,  (7)  tanned rams' skins, and goatskins; acacia wood,  (8)  oil for the light, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense,  (9)  and onyx stones and stones for setting, for the ephod and for the breastpiece… (21) And they came, everyone whose heart stirred him, and everyone whose spirit moved him, and brought the LORD's contribution to be used for the tent of meeting, and for all its service, and for the holy garments.  (22)  So they came, both men and women. All who were of a willing heart brought brooches and earrings and signet rings and armlets, all sorts of gold objects, every man dedicating an offering of gold to the LORD.  (23)  And every one who possessed blue or purple or scarlet yarns or fine linen or goats' hair or tanned rams' skins or goatskins brought them.  (24)  Everyone who could make a contribution of silver or bronze brought it as the LORD's contribution. And every one who possessed acacia wood of any use in the work brought it.  (25)  And every skillful woman spun with her hands, and they all brought what they had spun in blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen.  (26)  All the women whose hearts stirred them to use their skill spun the goats' hair.  (27)  And the leaders brought onyx stones and stones to be set, for the ephod and for the breastpiece, (28)  and spices and oil for the light, and for the anointing oil, and for the fragrant incense.  (29)  All the men and women, the people of Israel, whose heart moved them to bring anything for the work that the LORD had commanded by Moses to be done brought it as a freewill offering to the LORD.”

The time has come for the construction of the tabernacle and all its articles, as well as all the priestly garments. Moses instructs the people to give of their own resources so that the tabernacle might be built. It is encouraging for us to read of how generous the people of Israel were, giving freely of what they had.

For people who had been slaves, what they gave would have been of great value to them, thus their giving would have been sacrificial. But it would not have been without blessing, encouragement, joy and reward. What they gave was then used to construct the tabernacle, with all its articles and priestly garments. When completed they could look upon it all and know that they played their part in the making of it. Not all of them were skilled enough to be involved in the actual building and fabricating work, not all of them would be able to enter into or serve in the tabernacle. Yet by giving of their material resources, they could be a part of this tabernacle. We could say the tabernacle belonged to all the people, for all contributed towards the building of it, and all could gather around it to worship God. Thus as the work was completed and the work of the tabernacle commenced they would have been encouraged, blessed and rewarded by not just seeing the completed tabernacle, but also by being able to worship God and offer up sacrifices. They would have rejoiced as God’s presence came and filled the tabernacle, God was amongst them.

Generally speaking people are only willing to give when they know that they will get something in return, something of the same or greater value. Very few will give and give sacrificially when they are not going to get it back or receive any thing of similar value back. Sadly, many apply that same thinking to their relationship with God. We give to God, to the work of the church, with the hope that God will then give to us in return. Too many Christians talk about receiving from God ten-fold what we have given Him. Such a motivation for giving demonstrates that we are not giving because we want to give to God out of the generosity of our heart, love for God and thankfulness towards Him. We are in fact giving to ourselves, we are giving in the expectation of receiving more than what we gave.

Our desire for giving should be motivated by our thankfulness to God for all that He has given to us and for the salvation that we have in Christ. We should give as an expression of our love for God and as a demonstration of our trust in Him to provide for all our needs. We should give to God and not be concerned about getting anything material in return. We should give and give with joy, because in giving we receive the blessing, joy and encouragement of knowing that what we give, God uses to support the work of the church and its local ministries. What we give helps to advance the cause and work of the Gospel in our community and it helps to advance the cause and work of the Gospel out in the mission field. God takes our resources and uses them for the increase of His glory, for the good of the Church and for the conversion of sinners. This reality alone gives us more than sufficient reason to want to be generous, willing and sacrificial givers.

Generous Father, You have given to us beyond what we deserve, and You still give to us. You have been so generous, to the point that You gave us Your very own Son. We thank You today for the riches that are now ours through Jesus Christ. We pray that You would help us to tear the love of money and materialism from our hearts and to love You more. Help us to be willing, joyful and generous givers, so that Your Word by go forward at home and abroad, bringing increasing glory to Your great Name. Amen.