Year 1, Week 12, Day 1 Bible Reading Observations

Year 1, Week 12, Day 1

I have a brief observation for today’s reading of Exodus 36-37.

Today’s reading records the actual start of the building of the Tabernacle and its furnishings. The Tabernacle plans, as recorded in Exodus 26-31, carefully correspond with the Tabernacle construction recorded in this section. After noting the generous response of giving to provide the materials, Exodus 36 then describes the construction of the Tabernacle structure, while Exodus 37 describes the construction of the Ark, the Table of Bread, the Lamp stand, and the Altar of Incense.

What struck me in today’s reading was the enablement of the LORD working through the activity of the Israelites to provide them the Tabernacle. The LORD wanted to bless His people with the provision of the Tabernacle, even as He would receive the praises of His people from the Tabernacle: “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD! We bless you from the house of the LORD. The LORD is God, and he has made his light to shine upon us.” (Psalm 118:26-27). In order to bless as well as receive blessing, the LORD builds the Tabernacle.

The first demonstration of the LORD’s provision to complete the Tabernacle was the material resources that were supplied by the Israelites. While it was the Israelites who gave, their giving was prompted by the LORD: “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…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.” (Exodus 35:20-21,29). The result of the LORD’s moving upon the hearts of the Israelites was powerful: “The people bring much more than enough for doing the work that the LORD has commanded us to do.” (Exodus 36:5). But not only did the LORD move on the hearts of the people, He was also the one who had provided Israel with the wealth in the first place. The Israelites did not obtain wealth while in captivity, but the LORD moved on the hearts of the Egyptians to give wealth to the Israelites as they left: “And the LORD had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they let them have what they asked. Thus they plundered the Egyptians.” (Exodus 12:36). The Israelites did not leave Egypt empty handed. The LORD saw to it. The Israelites gave only out of what the LORD had given to them.

The second demonstration of the LORD’s provision to complete the Tabernacle was the skillful wisdom that He provided the builders: “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.” 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.” (Exodus 36:1-2). Everything that was built was built with the same skill and wisdom that the LORD created the heavens and the earth: “The LORD possessed me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of old. Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth…when he marked out the foundations of the earth, then I was beside him, like a master workman, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the children of man.” (Proverbs 8:22-31). The Tabernacle was built exactly as the LORD wanted it built, for it was built by the LORD through the men that He has provided skill and wisdom. 

As the LORD had built Eden for mankind to dwell in, so now the Tabernacle was built as something like a New Eden. The LORD was providing His people with a place in which He would dwell with them. Of course, in the aftermath of sin and guilt, the Eden-like experience of the Tabernacle would require sacrifice to approach God’s presence. But once safely in the presence of the LORD by the mediation of the priest and through sacrifice, there we find all that we need for our souls: “The righteous flourish like the palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon. They are planted in the house of the LORD; they flourish in the courts of our God.” (Psalm 92:12-13). We need the presence of the LORD in our lives. The LORD knows this better than we do, and so He provides us His presence: “But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord GOD my refuge, that I may tell of all your works.” (Psalm 73:28).

Today, the LORD has provided an even better arrangement of His presence. By grace through faith in Christ, the presence of the LORD dwells within us: "that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith” (Ephesians 3:16-17a). And there’s more of His presence that awaits us!

What struck you in today’s reading? What questions were prompted from today’s reading?

Pastor Joe