my life and my doctrine

I’m trying to read through the Bible chronologically in a year. While I’ve still got the enthusiasm, I’ll read even bigger portoins, to stay ahead of my schedule. This morning I read Exodus 35-40.

So many random and generally inconsequential questions arose.

• Where did all this gold come from if Aaron had already asked for gold to make the golden calf (Ex 32)? Did people withhold gold from Aaron? Given the conversions, they offered 994kg of gold!
• Where did all the acacia wood come from? I’m guessing it wasn’t as much of a desert as it is today. But still, each frame of the tabernacle required two vertical bars 4.5m long and three horizontal bars 67.5cms long. With  52 frames, that’s 269m worth of acacia poles. This just for the frames, not the table, the altar or the ark of the covenant.
• Did the people lug around trees as they left Egypt?
• Compared to our tent, erecting this tabernacle would have been a massive job.

However, that’s not the point of these chapters. Two things  struck me  as I read it.

1. It can seem a bit boring to read, since it is so repetitive with many identical details to Ex 25-28. Yet this repetition highlights that what God commanded Moses on the mountain is exactly what the people do. They are obedient to the Lord’s word and his designs. This is explicitly made clear in the description of the priestly garments (Ex 39). There is a description of what is made and the repeated refrain ‘as the Lord had commanded Moses’ (v1, 5, 7, 21, 26, 29, 31). The summary of the construction starts in v32 ‘Thus all the work of the tabernacle of the tent of meeting was finished, and the people of Israel did according to all that the Lord had commanded Moses; so they did.’ The conclusion of the summary, the end of the chapter is, ‘According to all that the Lord had commanded Moses, so the people of Israel had done all the work. And Moses saw all the work, and behold, they had done it; as the Lord had commanded, so had they done it.’ The people thoroughly obey God in making a tabernacle just the way God wanted it.
2. The second thing is the holiness of God. What an intricate building they establish for him, let alone the regulations on how to use it. We might think it’s a little over the top, but it should serve as a reminder to us that God is holy. He is so totally different to us. We can so easily domesticate God in our minds, because of the truth that Jesus has opened the way into the most holy place (Heb 10:19). Yet this truth should make us marvel at the grace of God, who allows us to approach him. We must remember the privilege it is to be made holy, suitable and appropriate to be in God’s presence. Not that Jesus’ incarnation, his total humanity, means God can now be considered a big brother. A father, yes, but our heavenly Father.

Have a read, let the details wash over you and let me know what you think.