Burunche’s Blog

Exodus 36:20 – 38 THE FRAME: upright frames of acacia wood for the tabernacle… twenty frames for the south side of the tabernacle, with forty silver bases to put under the twenty frames—two bases for each frame, one under each tenon. (construction on the north side identical) … six frames for the rear of the tabernacle, the west side, and two frames for the two back corners of the tabernacle, coupled together from bottom to top and fitted into a single ring. He made both corners in this way. So there were eight frames and sixteen silver bases—two under each frame.

Five crossbars of acacia wood for the frames on one side of the tabernacle, five for those on the other side, and five for those on the rear side of the tabernacle, to the west..the central crossbar to run through the center of the frames, from one end to the other. And he overlaid the frames with gold and made gold rings to hold the crossbars. He also overlaid the crossbars with gold.

 THE VEIL: veil of blue, purple, and scarlet yarn, and finely spun linen, with cherubim skillfully worked into it… four posts of acacia wood for it and overlaid them with gold, along with gold hooks… four silver bases for the posts. For the entrance to the tent, he made a curtain embroidered with blue, purple, and scarlet yarn, and finely spun linen, together with five posts and their hooks. He overlaid the tops of the posts and their bands with gold, and their five bases were bronze.”

APPLICATION: At first, your reaction might be “Ho hum!” More statistics about the Tabernacle. Didn’t we already go through this stuff several chapters ago? Yes. We did. So why go through this again, even in an abbreviated form?

How well do people follow instructions? One of the bitter jokes about the Ten Commandments is that some people think they are actually the Ten Suggestions, something to be ignored or complied with at will. Ask any teacher how difficult it is to get students at any level to follow instructions and you will get an earful! Many people have selective hearing; they hear what they want to and ignore everything else. But instructions from God are no joke! And after weeks during which Moses was up on Mount Sinai being given divine instructions, it’s time to build the tabernacle.

If you are a carpenter or even a camper, you may be fascinated by the means God has given the Israelites to support this enormous tent and to carry it throughout 40 years of traveling in the wilderness. The frames are constructed very carefully and are supported securely through the used of the tenons, the cross bars that slide through the uprights to stiffen them. All of these supports have to be portable enough to be carried readily from place to place. If the architects had decided to ignore God’s instructions, things might have been a disaster!

How can you know what God wants for your life? God has given us His Word, the Bible. If we want to know God’s will, we need to study that Word and ask God to show you what He wants to teach you. Psalm 119:18 says, “Open my eyes, that I may behold wonderful things from your law.” As we study the Bible, this should be our constant prayer.

PRAYER: Father God, thank You for Your Word! Thank You that You want us to understand Your Will and that You have given us so many ways to study that Word. Please open our eyes so that we might see wonderful things from Your Law! In the matchless Name of King Jesus. Amen.

The Ten Curtains for the Tabernacle

Exodus 36:8 – 13 “All the skilled craftsmen among the workmen made the ten curtains for the tabernacle. They were made of finely spun linen, as well as blue, purple, and scarlet yarn, with cherubim skillfully worked into them. Each curtain was twenty-eight cubits long and four cubits wide; all the curtains were the same size. And he joined five of the curtains together, and the other five he joined as well. (Each of the ten curtains was approximately 42 feet long and 6 feet wide (12.8 meters long and 1.8 meters wide) He made loops of blue material on the edge of the end curtain in the first set, and also on the end curtain in the second set. He made fifty loops on one curtain and fifty loops on the end curtain of the second set, so that the loops lined up opposite one another. He also made fifty gold clasps to join the curtains together, so that the tabernacle was a unit.

The Eleven Curtains of Goat Hair

v.14 – 19 “He then made curtains of goat hair for the tent over the tabernacle—eleven curtains in all. Each of the eleven curtains was the same size—thirty cubits long and four cubits wide. (Each of the eleven curtains was approximately 45 feet long and 6 feet wide (13.7 meters long and 1.8 meters wide). He joined five of the curtains into one set and the other six into another. He made fifty loops along the edge of the end curtain in the first set, and fifty loops along the edge of the corresponding curtain in the second set. He also made fifty bronze clasps to join the tent together as a unit. Additionally, he made for the tent a covering of ram skins dyed red, and over that a covering of fine leather.”

Reading this list of materials can get pretty tedious! But stop and think for a moment! Here in Ghana, traditional weavers generally weave cloth in 4 inch wide strips. There are some looms that will allow the weaver to weave strips up to 15 inches wide, but that’s generally the upper limit. Now we have a description of curtains that are 6 feet wide and 42 feet long! There is no indication that these curtains were woven in strips, so someone must have set up a large loom that would create a six foot wide strip. That would mean that there would be assistants on each side of the loom passing shuttles while the master weaver would have to make sure that the material was tightly woven and that the patterns of cherubim were incorporated into the inner curtains. Other assistants would have to help collect the cloth once it had been woven. Just creating these curtains would have been a gargantuan task! The tents that the Israelites were using were probably a great deal smaller than the tabernacle. My guess is once that Bezalel looked at Oholiab and Oholiab looked at Bezalel, and the two of them shrugged their shoulders and said, “Okay! All we can do is to try!”

APPLICATION: Have you ever found yourself in a position in which it was either sink or swim and you felt that you still needed flotation devices? That’s how we felt in January 1993. I am a general and pediatric surgeon. Prior to coming to Saboba, Northern Region, I had always worked in well – equipped American hospitals where somebody else worried about ordering supplies, instruments, etc. All I had to do was to be a doctor. Hah!

Once we landed in Saboba, I suddenly found myself having to be a doctor, a store keeper, an administrator, a laboratory technician, and all kinds of other stuff in between. Fortunately, I had worked in hospital labs in the past; however, nothing had prepared me for working in a small clinic with no electricity, no running water, and no anesthetist. I had to learn to do operations under local anesthesia with ketamine for general anesthesia. I had to learn to do grouping and cross matching using reagents and bathroom tiles. Our only means of sterilizing instruments and theater packs was a large pressure cooker heated by a coal pot on the verandah. In the beginning, we didn’t even have IV cannulas, making do with hypodermic needles instead. Our first NG tubes were lengths of IV tubing cut appropriately. And there were some times when we had to use high test nylon fish line and reusable free needles to do suturing.

When our one hospital driver was sick and my husband nearly fractured his leg, I was the one who had to drive the hospital vehicle to Yendi 35 miles away to get an x – ray. I had to learn to dress wounds using hydrogen peroxide and sugar. And I had to learn to take free hand skin grafts using razor blades.

We stuffed 37 beds into a small health center size building. Blessedly, God allowed us to save many lives. Subsequently, the hospital got several other buildings to help accommodate patients. These days we have qualified laboratory technicians and anesthetists and I can concentrate on operating.

Do you feel like a little kid who has been sent to do a job requiring a Navy Seal? The only real question is this: Has God called you? If God has called you, then make a start and see what God will do with your willingness.

PRAYER: Father God, thank You that You are sufficient, no matter how insufficient we are! Thank You that when You call us to do great works, You are already in the future, leading the way and providing the energy and the resources. Help us to trust You every day of our lives. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.

Exodus 36:1 – 7 “So Bezalel, Oholiab, and every skilled person are to carry out everything commanded by the LORD, who has given them skill and ability to know how to perform all the work of constructing the sanctuary.” Then Moses summoned Bezalel, Oholiab, and every skilled person whom the LORD had gifted—everyone whose heart stirred him to come and do the work. They received from Moses all the contributions that the Israelites had brought to carry out the service of constructing the sanctuary.

Meanwhile, the people continued to bring freewill offerings morning after morning, so that all the skilled craftsmen who were doing all the work on the sanctuary left their work and said to Moses, “The people are bringing more than enough for doing the work the LORD has commanded us to do.”

After Moses had given an order, they sent a proclamation throughout the camp: “No man or woman should make anything else as an offering for the sanctuary.” So the people were restrained from bringing more, since what they already had was more than enough to perform all the work.”

It was the greatest offering of all time! Moses called for people to give up the treasures their Egyptian neighbors had forced upon them as they were leaving Egypt. The results were staggering. Once people started giving, the gold and silver and precious stones and precious wood and yarn of various kinds just kept on coming. In the beginning, Moses might have wondered if this project was really going to work. Remember that the Israelites are in the wilderness without the resources that were available in Egypt. But when the call came for donations, the floodgates opened and donations poured in. What happened?

Perhaps in the beginning, there were a few people who were naturally generous. And there may have been people who had been horrified by the golden calf incident and who honestly wanted to worship God properly. As these people began to give, others watched and wondered and then went home to see what they had. But why did so many people give so much? This flood tide of generosity showed that God’s Holy Spirit was moving in the hearts of the people. The more some people gave, the more others also were moved to give. Finally, even the workmen who were creating the Tabernacle with its furnishings had to go to Moses and inform him that they were being covered up with donations. Moses actually had to restrain people from giving.

APPLICATION: It’s a problem that everyone working with an organization depending on contributions would love to face: having donors flood them with so many donations that they finally have to ask the donors to stop giving. The last twenty years since September 11, 2001 have been brutal for organizations depending on donations. The attacks on September 11 threw many people into a survival mentality, resulting in drastic drop – offs in charitable giving throughout the world.

Sometimes churches and other groups here in Ghana resort to a type of fund raising that feels like manipulation. The Master of Ceremonies will select a large number and then call for all willing to donate that amount of money to come forward. The amounts called for will gradually decrease until there is a call for any amount. But this practice is totally contrary to the teachings of Jesus. In Matthew 6:1- 4 , Jesus told His disciples, “Be careful not to perform your righteous acts before men to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. So when you give to the needy, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. Truly I tell you, they already have their full reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”

Our solution to this problem is to wait until the general offering is called for and then make our donation. We also refuse to allow people to record our names or the amount of our donations. If we are not certain where the donation will actually go, we wait and donate privately to a bereaved family or to a needy situation.

Sometimes preachers who teach on faith will make fantastic promises about what God will do for you if you will only give to their ministries. Sadly, many times these donations do not accomplish the stated purposes but are diverted. Several years ago, we were involved in a project in which a church member had built a building to be used as a mission hospital. But this “generous” individual was now demanding compensation. We had to confront the hospital advisory board and point out that our funding was raised to support us working at a charitable institution. If that funding was now to be diverted, we had to seek written approval from every single donor; otherwise, we were in breach of contract with our donors.

Should you give? Absolutely! In Luke 6:38, Jesus told His disciples, “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.” It’s very important to make sure that when God gives you something, it doesn’t stick to your hands. Most of the time, we serve as a conduit for donations, directing them to areas of need. As long as we continue to be faithful to pass things and money along, God will be faithful to provide what we need. The day we panic and get grabby is the day we will lose out!

Hudson Taylor, the founder of the China Inland Mission, was fond of saying that “God’s work, done God’s way, will never lack God’s supply.” At one point, CIM had more than 1500 missionaries on the field, all supported by faith donations.

Today, what is God asking you to give? Is it your money, or your talent, or is it your time? Whatever God is asking from you, give it readily and watch while God blesses you in ways you could never imagine.

PRAYER: Father God, help everyone who reads this devotional to trust You and to give generously to those in need around them. Help them to learn that You are a God of infinite provision. In the mighty Name of King Jesus. Amen.

Exodus 35:30 – 35 “Then Moses said to the Israelites, “See, the LORD has called by name Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah. And He has filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, ability, and knowledge in all kinds of craftsmanship, to design artistic works in gold, silver, and bronze, to cut gemstones for settings, and to carve wood, so that he may be a master of every artistic craft.

And the LORD has given both him and Oholiab son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, the ability to teach others. He has filled them with skill to do all kinds of work as engravers, designers, embroiderers in blue, purple, and scarlet yarn and fine linen, and as weavers—as artistic designers of every kind of craft.”

Bezalel means “in the shadow/protection of God.” Oholiab means “the tent of the Father.” Putting the names of these two men together, God has called two men who are under His protection to create the Tent/Tabernacle of the Father. Wow! When the parents of those men first named those boy babies, they never anticipated the significance those names were going to assume. But God already knew these men from the womb and God was already gifting those boy babies with incredible hand – eye coordination and skills beyond their parents’ wildest expectations.

Look at all the crafts these men have mastered: Bezalel can “design artistic works in gold, silver, and bronze, to cut gemstones for settings, and to carve wood, so that he may be a master of every artistic craft.” Both men are experts in “all kinds of work as engravers, designers, embroiderers in blue, purple, and scarlet yarn and fine linen, and as weavers—as artistic designers of every kind of craft.” And as if this weren’t enough, both men have also been gifted with the ability to teach others.

APPLICATION: Not only are these guys skilled craftsmen, but they are also gifted teachers. What a combination!

I have been a teacher for most of my life. As a professional teacher, I taught Junior High General Science for one year. Once I entered medical school and surgery residency, there were always presentations and rounds. These days, I teach nurses, medical students, and physician assistants as I work in our mission hospital. But anybody who thinks teaching is easy should think again! Teaching forces you to learn your subject matter very thoroughly, to think about the “why” and the “how.” If you are demonstrating a hand skill, you must make certain that you go through the steps very carefully, giving clear explanations for each step. I frequently draw little diagrams on the backs of prescription blanks to illustrate complicated problems for students and for patients and their families. I love to teach for the “AHA!” moments – those moments when the person whom you are teaching suddenly understands the point you are trying to make and then asks intelligent questions.

As a teacher, I also struggle with an additional problem: my American accent. The English those around me have learned is British English; my accent can make what I say incomprehensible. The good side of this is that I have been forced to learn to communicate in tribal languages to make my points clear.

What do you think Bezalel and Oholiab thought when God singled them out? I’m afraid that my first response would have been “HUH? Who? Me?” But God knew these men intimately; He knew the skills He had given them. It’s possible that Bezalel and Oholiab didn’t even realize how much they could accomplish until they began to work on the Tabernacle and to supervise others.

Do you realize that God not only knows your name, but He also knows all the skills and abilities that He has given you? God knows more about you than you know about yourself. True story: F. M. was a missionary in Ghana for nearly thirty years, coming to Ghana in 1947. F. M. asked to be sent to an English – speaking country because he was certain that he could never learn tribal languages. Little did our friend realize that God had gifted him with the ability to learn languages and to identify with the local people. Before our friend left the mission field, he was FLUENT in seven of the major languages spoken in Northern Ghana. Our friend had even learned to play some of the local instruments.

God has a wonderful work for each of us to do. Many times, we have no idea what that work is, or we feel unqualified and argue ourselves out of even trying. But if God is leading you to do something, take the first step! Like Bezalel and Oholiab, like our friend F. M., you might find that as you go along, God gifts you with remarkable abilities far beyond your expectations.

PRAYER: Father God, there are those reading this who are limiting themselves. They feel that they are not good enough, not bright enough, not smart enough, or not skilled enough to accomplish great things. But You are the One who calls. You are the One who gives men and women skills. Lord, speak to their hearts and open their eyes so that they will see how much You love them and how much You want for them. In the matchless Name of King Jesus. Amen.

Exodus 35:20 — 29 “Then the whole congregation of Israel withdrew from the presence of Moses. And everyone whose heart stirred him and whose spirit prompted him came and brought an offering to the LORD for the work on the Tent of Meeting, for all its services, and for the sacred garments.

So all who had willing hearts, both men and women, came and brought brooches and earrings, rings and necklaces, and all kinds of gold jewelry. And they all presented their gold as a wave offering to the LORD.

Everyone who had blue, purple, or scarlet yarn, or fine linen, goat hair, ram skins dyed red, or articles of fine leather brought them. And all who could present an offering of silver or bronze brought it as a contribution to the LORD. Also, everyone who had acacia wood for any part of the service brought it.

Every skilled woman spun with her hands and brought what she had spun: blue, purple, or scarlet yarn, or fine linen. And all the skilled women whose hearts were stirred spun the goat hair.

The leaders brought onyx stones and gemstones to mount on the ephod and breastpiece, as well as spices and olive oil for the light, for the anointing oil, and for the fragrant incense.

So all the men and women of the Israelites whose hearts prompted them brought a freewill offering to the LORD for all the work that the LORD through Moses had commanded them to do.

WAIT A MINUTE!!! Isn’t this the same bunch of people who approved of Aaron creating a golden calf only a few weeks ago? Now they are enthusiastically giving their most precious treasures and the results of their skills for the completion of the Tabernacle. What has changed?

There are several explanations here:

1. The authority of Moses: Moses has come down off the mountain with his face shining with divine radiance from being in the presence of God. Moses’s face is so that he must tie a veil over it so that people can stand to look at him. God has given Moses an authority that is impossible to ignore.

2. These people are not the ringleaders of the golden calf incident. The men and women who incited Aaron to create the golden calf and who then entered into an orgy were slaughtered by the Levites. In any group of people, you have those who are very vocal and agitate and those who do not agree with the loudmouths but who are waiting to see what will happen. Did these people have the potential to join in the worship of the golden calf? Yes, certainly. But that’s why God had Moses instruct the Levites to kill the ringleaders of the rebellion outright, shocking everyone else out of a mob mentality and back into sanity.

3. Many of the people may not even have approved of the golden calf incident in the first place but were afraid to speak up. These people want to worship, and given the opportunity to do something legitimately, they respond whole – heartedly.

APPLICATION: In 1875, William Ernest Henley, a British poet, wrote a poem entitled “Invictus.” In this poem, Henley celebrated his independence from fate and circumstances, stating, “I thank whatever gods may be for my unconquerable soul.” Henley ended his poem by claiming, “I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.” Henley died at the age of 53, from tuberculosis, a disease that had forced him to have one leg amputated below the knee at age 27.

Although Henley was famous in his day, his story is a very sad one. Rather than dedicating his life and his talents to the God who had preserved his life from an early death, Henley, an avowed atheist, firmly believed that he himself was responsible for his survival. (Henley was born in 1849 and died in 1903.  According to Wikipedia, between 1851 and 1910, around four million died from TB in England and Wales – more than one third of those aged 15 to 34 and half of those aged 20 to 24 died from TB.)

What does an atheistic nineteenth century British poet have to do with the ancient Israelites? The answer lies in the wide gulf between the spirits motivating the ancient Israelites and the spirits motivating Henley. God had delivered Moses and the Israelites from the most powerful army in the world, smashing that army to bits in the process. God was leading the Israelites through the wilderness, providing food and water and guidance. God was giving the Israelites a new religion, one based on life rather than the death cults of the Egyptians. God had brought the Israelites out of darkness and into His marvelous light.

John Piper, in an article entitled “Invictus Redeemed,” points out the fact that Henley could write as he did because he was in Great Britain during the height of the British Empire and at a time when Darwinian philosophies were undermining people’s belief in God as the Creator. “And yet such verses could be written in the safety and prosperity of a Europe still governed by the courtly ethics of Western Christendom.” Was Henley an original thinker? Not particularly! Henley was responding to spirits that were abroad in his time. Piper goes on to say, “One wonders, if Henley had been given another century to live, would he have still written this in 1975, after men of Darwinian world view and nihilistic, Nietzschean and Marxian philosophies had willed to power and ruthlessly wielded their invictus resolve, resulting in the slaughter of tens of millions?”

The ancient Israelites opened their chests and their other storage places to give the best of their treasures to God. Those with skills in any craft freely and joyfully donated those skills and were blessed in the giving.

Henley’s poem has inspired many people. But those of us who are living through the ongoing pandemic realize that we actually have very little control over our bodies. The main control we have over our souls is the choice of the spirits that move us. Will we be moved by God’s Holy Spirit and draw closer and closer to God, or will we choose, as Henley did, to attempt to be our own gods and in doing so, offer the One True Living God a very rude hand gesture? The choice is ours. We should choose wisely!

PRAYER: Father God, thank You for Your Holy Spirit! Lord, help us to be moved by You and by no other spirits of any kind. Help us to grow closer to You each day. In the matchless Name of King Jesus. Amen.

Exodus 35:3 “Do not light a fire in any of your dwellings on the Sabbath day.”

Two days ago, we touched on the prohibition regarding the lighting of fires on the Sabbath; however, there is far more that should be pointed out. In The Rational Bible: Exodus, Dennis Prager explains that the Sabbath is to honor God as the Creator, who brought something out of nothing. Lighting a fire is prohibited because lighting a fire is the closest human act to creating something out of nothing. But there is more to the explanation.

Prager explains, “Not only does fire seem to come from nothing; it also has the unique power to transform everything it touches. Everett Fox alludes to this: “Since the Shabbat was apparently to be static in nature, or at least transformative of time alone, fire (which by its nature causes chemical changes) could not be employed. : The Sabbath is a time to enjoy the world as it is. The uniquely transformative entity – fire – thus becomes the archetypal Sabbath prohibition.”

APPLICATION: How many of us really enjoy the world as it is? Video games that allow us to create our own farms, towns, cities, etc., leave us with the notion that we are really in control of things, that we can become our own little gods creating things. But at the end of these games, we still must deal with circumstances that force us to realize that we are NOT in control! If the recent pandemic has taught us little else, it should have taught us that our circumstances can be thrown out of kilter without warning.

For many of us, our regular jobs involve transformations of one sort or another. Health workers are concerned with helping people get well. Teachers want to impart knowledge and skills and see their students develop. The examples are endless. Many of us measure our successes by the transformations we can bring to our areas of expertise. We are like old fashioned children’s tops – spinning, spinning, spinning! But for each one of us there comes a point at which we must stop or the centrifugal force of our lives will pull us apart, causing pieces of our emotions to fly off in all directions.

I am unfortunately very familiar with the phenomenon of burn – out; I have burned out on at least two occasions. The World Health Organization says this about burn – out: Burn-out is defined in ICD-11 as follows:

“Burn – out is a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. It is characterized by three dimensions:

• feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion;
• increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one’s job; and
• reduced professional efficacy.

One of the key signs of burn – out is a feeling of desperation that things are getting out of control. The natural response to this feeling is an attempt to increasingly control everything possible – events, family, jobs, etc. Those in burn – out are trying to transform their environment to suit themselves. Since control of this type is an impossibility, the next response is to become angry and to try even harder to control things. As the person in burn – out becomes increasingly angry, everybody around that person backs off, fearing for their emotional safety. Burn – out causes a person to frighten away the very people who might be able to help him/her. And for many burn – out victims, denial also plays a major role in the process. Acknowledgement of a problem would indicate that the burn – out victim is a failure, an idea too horrible to contemplate. Irresponsible people don’t burn out because they don’t have high expectations of themselves, nor are they concerned with transforming anything or anybody.

Psalm 46:10 says, “10“Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted over the earth.”One of our pastor friends used to say that “God is in management; we are only in advertising.” Sabbaths are designed to help us remember this fact. When we fail to honor God as Creator, we are setting ourselves up as little gods, something for which we are not designed and which will only lead to despair. What is the answer? The answer is to honor God and let Him be the ultimate authority in our lives, to stop striving to change or to control everything around us, to rest.

PRAYER: Father God, HELP! We are stuck! trapped by our own circumstances that we have tried to control! We don’t see any way out. But YOU know us better than we know ourselves, and You can deliver us. Your Name is Redeemer; please redeem us from our sins, our failures, our mistakes. Help us to recognize YOU as Creator. Help us to rest in the knowledge that YOU know all of our circumstances. And help us to truly love You and serve You all the days of our lives. In the matchless Name of King Jesus. Amen.

Exodus 35:4 – 9 “Moses also told the whole congregation of Israel, “This is what the LORD has commanded: Take from among you an offering to the LORD. Let everyone whose heart is willing bring an offering to the LORD: gold, silver, and bronze; blue, purple, and scarlet yarn; fine linen and goat hair; ram skins dyed red and fine leather; acacia wood; olive oil for the light; spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense; and onyx stones and gemstones to be mounted on the ephod and breastpiece.

v.10 – 19 “Let every skilled craftsman among you come and make everything that the LORD has commanded: the tabernacle with its tent and covering, its clasps and frames, its crossbars, posts, and bases; the ark with its poles and mercy seat, and the veil to shield it; the table with its poles, all its utensils, and the Bread of the Presence; the lampstand for light with its accessories and lamps and oil for the light; the altar of incense with its poles; the anointing oil and fragrant incense; the curtain for the doorway at the entrance to the tabernacle; the altar of burnt offering with its bronze grate, its poles, and all its utensils; the basin with its stand; the curtains of the courtyard with its posts and bases, and the curtain for the gate of the courtyard; the tent pegs for the tabernacle and for the courtyard, along with their ropes; and the woven garments for ministering in the holy place—both the sacred garments for Aaron the priest and the garments for his sons to serve as priests.”

Four hundred years! For four hundred years the Israelites lived in Egypt and for much of that time, they were slaves. While our imaginations naturally turn to the building of the pyramids and Egyptian cities that took place during that time period, we forget that in every culture, slaves have also served as craftsmen, producing goods of a high order. Generation after generation, some of these families have been weaving material, creating lovely jewelry, making tents, working in bronze, and carving wood and stones. And on the night that the Israelites left Egypt, their terrified Egyptian neighbors loaded them with luxury goods of all kinds – anything to get rid of these troublesome people!

Now God is about to use every bit of those skills and every bit of those materials to create the Tabernacle as a magnificent portable temple in the wilderness. The list of materials required is truly mind – boggling when you realize that these people have already been traveling for several months; however, God knows the resources available and is calling people to freely give those resources to honor Him. Not only is God giving people the opportunity to share their most precious possessions, but He is also calling for all those with skills of any kind to share in the work of creating the temple. As we will learn later, the people respond enthusiastically to these requests and everything is done beautifully.

APPLICATION: What would cause people to give up their most precious possessions and their skills without any idea of recompense? On several occasions, we have found ourselves helping maintain or even build church buildings. On one such occasion, we helped nail down flooring materials in the sanctuary of a church in rural Upstate New York. On several other occasions, we have done smaller tasks around the churches we have attended, all as a concrete act of worship. There was no question of demanding any payment for our work; we were thrilled to have a small part in helping those who had helped us so much while we were on the mission field.

There is an old saying, “Only one life – twill soon be past. Only what’s done for God will last.” The people offering up their most precious possessions were thrilled to have a part in the Tabernacle. In a society in which oral traditions kept memories alive, these people knew that generation after generation, their names would be blessed for having freely offered their best to God. And the craftsmen knew that they too would be blessed. Generations later, someone could still point to something in the Tabernacle and say, “Shmuel Bar Isaac created that basin. David Ben Solomon helped make the altar of incense.”

What will you offer to God today? What can we possibly give to the One who has given us life and light and breath, who holds our lives and those of all the peoples of the earth in His hands? What God wants from each one of us more than anything else is that we should love Him and serve Him. At one point, God told his servants that “Obedience is better than sacrifice.” (1 Samuel 15:22) And Jesus told His disciples, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” (John 14:15)

How do we learn what God wants? We study God’s Word, the Bible, and we pray and ask God to help us learn what His perfect will is. Psalm 119:18 tells us, “Open my eyes, Lord, that I may see the wonderful things in your law.” Why not pray that prayer now and see what God will do in your life?

PRAYER: Father God, please do open our eyes and help us to see the wonderful things in your law. Help us to learn to love you and to follow hard after you all the days of our lives. In the matchless Name of King Jesus. Amen.

Exodus 35:1 – 3 “Then Moses assembled the whole congregation of Israel and said to them, “These are the things that the LORD has commanded you to do: For six days work shall be done, but on the seventh day you are to have a holy Sabbath of complete rest to the LORD. Anyone who does work on that day must be put to death. Do not light a fire in any of your dwellings on the Sabbath day.”

Picture this: Here is Moses, who has just come down off Mount Sinai with the glory of the Lord shining from his face so brightly that people have to shade their eyes to look at him. God has laid out for Moses exactly what He wants the Israelites to do. Moses is speaking with all the authority granted to him by the Ruler of the Universe. And the very first command that Moses gives is that everyone must observe the Sabbath and that anyone refusing to do so must die! I don’t know about you, but I would be shaking in my sandals and nodding my head, “Sure, Moses! Whatever you say, Moses!”

Authority! How do you recognize it when you see it? An ad from several years ago pictured a huge crowd of people making all kinds of noise and then suddenly, wham! dead silence! The caption would always read “When E. F. Hutton speaks, everyone else is silent!” E. F. Hutton was a financial trading company, and the ad was designed to hopefully make viewers believe that E. F. Hutton was the ultimate authority in financial information. Sadly, in the early 1980’s a combination of several different kinds of fiscal wrong – doing led to the demise of E. F. Hutton. It has since been revived several times but has never regained its position as a leader in the stock industry. At that point, the ad might better have said, “When E. F. Hutton speaks, everybody snickers!” But nobody is snickering at Moses!

Moses is moving in the authority of God. The first thing out of Moses’s mouth is another warning to keep the Sabbath. Why does God keep harping on this one command, reminding the Israelites repeatedly about it?

Dennis Prager offers the following suggestion: “The remainder of Exodus is concerned with the building of the Tabernacle. First, however, the laws of the Sabbath are reiterated to provide the Israelites with an important stipulation: Even though the building of the sanctuary is the holiest work they will engage in, they are not allowed to do it on the Sabbath. In the Torah and later Judaism, time is holier than place, and thus the observance of the holiest day of the week takes precedence over the building of the holiest place.

Abraham Joshua Heschel notes that in the Hebrew Bible, “not even the Promised Land is called holy. While the holiness of the land and the holiness of the festivals depends on the actions of the Jewish people, the holiness of the Shabbat preceded Israel’s existence. Even if people fail to observe the Shabbat, it remains holy.”

“Anyone who does work on that day must be put to death.” Prager continues: The Torah prescribes such a severe punishment for violating the Sabbath to emphasize the severity of the infraction. The Sabbath affirms God created the world – the foundational belief of ethical monotheism, of the new Israelite nation, and the new and better world that should emanated from them. Without the Sabbath, there will ultimately be no Jewish religion, and no Jewish people. Hence, the aphorism of the Jewish philosopher Ahad Ha; am, “More than Israel has kept the Sabbath, the Sabbath has kept the Jews.” Such an observation has not been made about any other ritual law in the Torah, including kashrut and Yom Kippur.”

Why the proscription against lighting a fire on Shabbat but on no other holy days, except Yom Kippur? Again, Prager tells us: “The answer must lie in the meaning of the Sabbath: to affirm that God is the Creator (by not working or creating on the day God ceased working and creating). Aside from making new life (conceiving a child..), making a fire is the ultimate symbolic act of human creation. (Animals, too, make new life but they do not make fire.)

As only God creates ex nihilo (out of nothing), the kindling of fire is the closest humans come to creating. By kindling fire, humans are engaging in an act uniquely close to creating, whereas the purpose of the Sabbath is to refrain from such acts in order to affirm the one Creator is God… (Fire) has the unique power to transform everything it touches….The uniquely transformative entity – fire – thus becomes the archetypal Sabbath prohibition…The fires in the Temple affirmed the Creator, whereas all other fires had other purposes.” (Dennis Prager The Rational Bible: Exodus)

APPLICATION: God commanded the Israelites to observe the Sabbath both to rest and to honor Him as Creator. What practices do you follow on a regular basis to honor God in your life?

When my husband and I were first married, we chose to honor God by not shopping on Sunday unless it was a matter of dire necessity. To this day, we maintain that practice. This sounds ridiculously easy; but at the time, both of us were in demanding professions where we might work the rest of the week and Sunday afternoons would be our only free time. We at least try to wait to shop until after sundown on Sunday afternoon, and we continue to avoid shopping on that day as much as possible.

Whenever possible, we attend worship services. Now that many churches are live – streaming and posting their services on – line, it is far simpler to catch a worship service than it used to be. As much as possible, we reserve Sunday as a rest day. (On the other hand, as a surgeon in a district hospital, I have spent many Sundays in the operating theater. God has called me to save lives and I feel that I honor Him when I fulfill that calling.)

Ask God how He would like you to honor Him in your life and in the lives of your family members. The answers might surprise you.

PRAYER: Father God, we want to honor you but don’t know how. Please guide everyone who reads this devotional into special practices that will be meaningful to them and to you. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.

Exodus 34: 27 – 35 “The LORD also said to Moses, “Write down these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.” So Moses was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water. He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant—the Ten Commandments.

And when Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands, he was unaware that his face had become radiant from speaking with the LORD. Aaron and all the Israelites looked at Moses, and behold, his face was radiant. And they were afraid to approach him. But Moses called out to them; so Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation returned to him, and Moses spoke to them. And after this all the Israelites came near, and Moses commanded them to do everything that the LORD had told him on Mount Sinai. When Moses had finished speaking to them, he put a veil over his face. But whenever Moses went in before the LORD to speak with Him, he would remove the veil until he came out. And when he came out, he would tell the Israelites what he had been commanded, and the Israelites would see that the face of Moses was radiant. So Moses would put the veil back over his face until he went in to speak with the LORD.”

You will always be known by the company you keep. If you consort with evil people, you will become evil and you will radiate evil. But here Moses has spent forty days and nights with God. Why didn’t Moses have to eat or drink? Well, Moses was in the company of the One who had created him; why couldn’t God keep him going supernaturally? If God is the God of time and space and exists outside both of those, then God has control over space and time and can multiply or contract things at will. Now Moses is coming off the mountain, but this is a Moses whom nobody has ever seen before!

After spending all that time with God, Moses has absorbed God’s glory to such an extent that his face is radiant, shining so much that even his closest associates fear to be near him. Moses removes a veil from his face just long enough to communicate God’s words to the Israelites and then replaces the veil so that he can move among his friends and family easily.

APPLICATION: “Did I really just see what I think I did?” The year was 1988, and we had just come to Ghana. One of the key people in our situation at that point was allegedly a church member; however, once we got into the country and became better acquainted, we soon realized this man was demon – possessed. At times, this man would appear to be a sweet – natured, helpful and generous individual. At those times the demons were hiding. But when the demons decided to manifest themselves, the looks that came from this man’s eyes were purely evil. We later learned that this man’s mother had wanted a second son so badly that she had promised a fetish priest that if the fetish would give her a son, she would dedicate the son to the fetish from the womb. This poor fellow really didn’t stand much of a chance because nobody in his situation was brave enough to confront him and help him get delivered from his demons. Church members took advantage of this man’s wealth without caring for his soul.

Moses radiated God’s holiness and purity because he spent so much time with God. Each of us needs to ask ourselves what spirit do we radiate? One of our friends who was a vibrant Christian used to pray that God would help her to draw closer to Him each day than she had the day before. That’s a good prayer for all of us!

PRAYER: Father God, thank You for Your holiness, Your purity, Your glory, and Your grace. Please draw each of us closer and closer to you, so that when people are with us, they will see you and not just us. In the matchless Name of King Jesus. Amen.

Exodus 34:26 “Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the LORD your God. You must not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.”

God has already ordered the Israelites to bring the best of their first fruits to Him several times. At my childhood home, we had all kinds of fruit trees – two kinds of cherry trees, two kinds of pear trees, two kinds of apple trees, grapes, and other fruits. And we also planted a big garden every year. But some years, the insects or caterpillars moved in. Some years, the birds got to the cherries before we could pick them. And some years, a hail storm would hit just when the fruit trees were blossoming, tearing all the blossoms off the trees and eliminating the possibility of fruit. The raccoons LOVED our sweet corn, and we had to plant enough for the raccoons and for us. The point is this: when your garden or your fruit trees begin to bear, you are never certain how much you will harvest, if anything. Bringing the best of the first fruits is an act of faith; you are telling God that you trust Him to provide for you. You are willing to give God the best at the beginning, rather than enjoy it yourself.

This command regarding the cooking of a young goat in its mother’s milk has led to all kinds of controversies over the years. For Orthodox Jews, this command is the basis for many of their dietary regulations regarding the separation of meat dishes from dairy, with different sets of cookware for each, etc.

The best reason I have found for this prohibition is described by Dennis Prager. “According to the Torah, one is not permitted to boil a kid in the same substance (milk) with which the animal’s mother gave it life. This law exists not for the sake of the animal, which is already dead, but to elevate the Israelites. There is something perverse – even mocking and cruel – in cooking a baby animal in its mother’s milk. This injunction was considered so important that the Torah states it three times (in this verse, Exodus 23:19, and Deuteronomy 14:21..)

The Torah is rooted in distinctions: God – man; male – female ; human- animal; and life – death. This law likely concerns the last. God does not want us to symbolically combine death (the dead animal) with life (milk – especially that of its mother, which sustained it). Judaism expanded this law into a general ban on consuming milk and meat at the same time.” (Dennis Prager The Rational Bible: Exodus)

Why is God so particular? As God continues to give commands, He gives all kinds of orders regarding the handling of dead bodies of humans and animals, handling of infected materials and even buildings, and assessment of medical conditions.

When I was growing up, there were many times when my mother refused to let me do “what everybody else is doing.” Mom’s rejoinder: you are MY child and I don’t want you to behave badly.” God is doing the same thing with the Israelites. The tribes throughout the area had all kinds of barbaric practices. God has chosen Israel to be a light to the nations and He wants His children to behave properly. God wants Israel to become a graphic demonstration of everything that is right and true and pure and holy.

APPLICATION: What kinds of standards do you have for your life? Are there things that you absolutely refuse to do because you know they are wrong? There are people who try to argue that there are no moral absolutes; however, you will notice that they want others to treat them in a moral fashion. Those destroying the property of others in demonstrations become incensed if someone messes with THEIR possessions. Some people try to argue that every situation must be judged on its own merits, but how do you judge anything when there are no fixed principles of right and wrong?

Throughout the Torah, the first five books of the Bible, God continually turns the attention of the Israelites to those things that will promote life. Egyptian religion made a big thing about death; God wants the Israelites to turn away from a death – focused religion to focusing on life instead -turning away from darkness and into the light.

1 John 1:5 says, “And this is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you: God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.” Today, God wants you to move toward the light. Come to Him in prayer, and He can take away the darkness that torments you.

PRAYER: Father God, today many of your children are struggling in darkness and are afraid. Please send your light into their lives and help them to see how much you love them and care for them. In the matchless Name of King Jesus. Amen.